God to give us great spiritual blessings; but in temporal things let Him choose for us. He knows what is best.

The sweetest lesson I ever learnt was five years ago, after I had been fifteen years a Christian. The lesson was, to let God choose for me in temporal matters; and I have been happier ever since. There is nothing God's people make so many mistakes about as in praying for temporal things. God's greatest saints have failed in this.

There was Moses, a mighty man of prayer, and yet he did not know how to pray for some things. He wanted God to let him go over the Jordan; he wanted very much to do so, and at last God had to say, "Don't speak about that any more; I won't let you go." He might think that God didn't love him, but He did, and paid him the highest honour He ever paid any man, for God Himself buried Moses. And he did see the land, for God took him to Mount Pisgah, where he had a view of the whole land. Wasn't it a great deal easier to see the land from Pisgah, than, like Joshua, to have a fight for it?

And fourteen hundred years afterwards, Moses was back in the land; not, indeed, as he expected to enter it, but far better, for he was talking with Christ on the Mount. There were the representatives of the two dispensations; Moses, the representative of the old, was sent down to talk with Christ, the founder of the new. Moses didn't get an answer as he expected, his prayer, at least, was not forgotten.

If

Paul was another example of a mighty man in prayer, who yet failed when he sought something for himself, God gave him a thorn in the flesh. I don't know what that thorn was, but, of course, he wanted it removed; but God didn't fulfil his prayer. God told him that His grace was sufficient for him. Now, we have all got thorns in our flesh, of some kind or another; some trial we would like to get rid of, and when we pray, God don't see fit to remove it. Does that show God don't love us? No; if God gives more grace, we will be able to thank Him for the thorn. I can imagine old Paul hugging his thorn, and thanking God for it. We find him glorying in his thorn, because he had got grace to bear it. We are always crying to have our thorns removed, but God has not got a throne of grace for pulling thorns out, but to give us grace-more grace.

It is a good thing for us that the thorns are not taken out, because they drive us nearer to God. That is another reason why our prayers are not answered. Let us, then, learn in things temporal to let God choose for us.

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There was a mother in our country, whose child lay dying of the scarlet fever. Oh, how that mother loved her beautiful little girl; and she could not submit to God's will; she felt she could not say, Thy will be done." So she prayed that God would spare her child, and God seemed to answer it, for He saved its life. But He took its reason away, and many a time since, the mother has almost wished that God had not answered her prayer. Now, there are two

I

reasons why our prayers are not answered; because we don't expect, and because we don't ask for God's glory, but are seeking to satisfy our own desires. But we find the third reason in Mark xi. 25. It is about forgiveness. God does not hear us because we are not willing to forgive others. This is also taught in one of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer; and again in Matt, v. 23–25. Remember that if you are praying, and have bitter feelings in your heart to any one, God will not hear you. As long as you have such feelings, your prayers are no good. How can we expect Him to forgive us if we won't forgive our brother?

I believe that is what is keeping back the blessing from the Church of God. These bitter feelings between the different denominations just shut up heaven. Mark in the 23rd verse the word "remember;" and, if any of you should be praying, and remember that you have anything against any one, I would advise you to get up from your knees, and write a letter to that person, forgiving him. Send it off by the first post, and then see how much

better you'll pray.

Read Matt. xviii. 19, to the end. Immediately after Jesus has been speaking about prayer, Peter comes to ask Him about forgiveness, and his Master tells him to " forgive seventy times seven,' And then Jesus speaks the parable of the unforgiving servant. Now it seems to me that the lesson Christ would have us learn here is, that He has forgiven us a thousand talents, and we certainly ought to be ready to forgive our brother, who has sinned against us.

How small is the offence against us, as compared with our sins against the Lord. If there is one in the world against whom we have hard feelings, in the name of God let us forgive him.

I believe I have got the secret of the deadly coldness in our Churches; it is the feeling of jealousy and bitterness between the Churches. That is what is keeping back the blessing to-day. Let us come like one man to God, to ask Him to pull up these terrible feelings by the root. Remember, it is human to err, but it is divine to forgive.

I remember I was speaking to a young lady in the inquiry room some time ago, and she was in great distress of mind. She seemed

really anxious to be saved, and I could not find out what was the trouble between God and her. saw there was something that was keeping her back. I quoted promise after promise, but she didn't seem to lay hold on any of thein. Then we got down on our knees and prayed, but still there was no light.

Finally I said, "Is there any one against whom you have bitter feelings? "Yes; there's a young lady on the other side of the room, talking to your wife, whom I can't forgive." "Ah, I've got it now; that's why the blessing won't come to you." mean to tell me," said the young lady, looking up in my face, "that can't be saved until I forgive her?" "No, you can t nd, if

Do you

there are any others whom you hate, you must forgive them also." She paused a moment, and then she said, "I will go." It seems that my wife and the other young lady had been going over the same ground, and just at that time the other young lady had resolved to come to ask this one's forgiveness. So there they met in the middle of the room, both saying at once, "Will you forgive me?" Oh, what a meeting it was! They knelt together, and joy beamed on their souls, and their difficulties vanished. In a little while they went out of the room with their arms round each other, and their faces lit up with a heavenly glow.

If we are Christians let us love the whole household of faith. I have got tired and sick of these miserable party feelings. One says, "I am Church of England;" another, I am a Dissenter, and can have no dealings with the Church of England men." Some others are still narrower, and think of nothing but their own little sect: "I belong to the Baptists," and you have hard feelings against the Methodists and Presbyterians, and this and that sect. Away with all such feelings! Would to God He would bring us all together in spirit, then would Christianity be like a red-hot ball, rolling over the face of the earth. There's power in the Church of God for mighty things, if it could only get rid of these animosities.

A man came to me two or three years ago who said, "I wish you would talk to my wife; I have done all I could, but she can't get peace." I went to see the lady, and I talked and talked to her till I got tired; but it was no good. Somehow her heart seemed as hard as the nether millstone.

I then left her, but went again, with the same result. Some time after, I went a third time, and I was quite puzzled what could be the matter. Finally I said, "Let us say the Lord's prayer together, and don't you repeat the words unless you can do so from the heart." We began, and she said the first clauses well enough; but when it came to " Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us," she stopped and said, "I can't say that there's one woman I can never forgive." Ah, I had got at the trouble now. "Well, you must forgive her."

"No, you

"What! can't I be saved without forgiving her?" can't; you might pray on for ever, but God won't hear you." "Well," she said, deliberately, "I will never be saved, for I'll never forgive her." What a terrible decision! I did all I could to bring her to reason, but it was no good, and I had to leave her with a sad heart. She was the wife of one of my warmest friends, but I could do nothing with her.

Since then she has gone mad. The world said she was mad with religion, but the world was wrong; it was the want of religion that drove her mad. She could not forgive, and therefore she could not be forgiven. But some say they don't want our forgiveness. That doesn't matter. We can forgive them; they can't stop that. There will be no trouble about it, if God's grace is in us. To for

give a man who loves me is easy; but to forgive a man who abuses and slanders me, that needs grace; the natural heart can't do it. And God will give us the needed grace, if we are willing to do it.

Now there are three reasons why our prayers are unanswered— want of faith, seeking our own ends, and an unforgiving spirit. But there is another reason mentioned in Psalms lxvi. at the 18th verse, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." We must ask Him to put away the love of sin from us.

When we don't have answers, do not let us blame God for being untrue to His word; but rather believe that it is our own fault, and let us see where the fault lies. When we find ourselves restrained in prayer, let us see what the trouble is, and cast it upon God, with an honest desire to have it removed, and we shall be enabled to come before Him with prayer and thanksgiving. Remember, if we ask, we shall receive; if we seek, we shall find; and if we knock it shall be opened! and when we find something between us and God, let us have it removed. He will take away this unbelief, this hardheartedness towards others, this secret longing after sin, all these miserable hindrances to communion with God.

Unless we can forgive, we cannot be sound in love. If we find a man unsound in faith, we are apt to draw the sword, and cut his head right off. If he isn't sound in faith, we won't let him preach in any place where we have any influence; yet the same text which teaches us to be sound in faith (Titus ii. 2), teaches us also to be sound in charity, which is love.

A man may be so strong in faith as to remove mountains, but if he isn't sound in love, he is nothing. "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Now I want you to get into a praying spirit; and if you find there is anything now between you and God, let us all try to find out what is the trouble, and have it out of the way. We have all burdens of some kind. You, father, are burdened for your boy. Mother, you are mourning over your son or daughter. Sisters are burdened for their brothers. Every one of us has some dear one, whose salvation we are anxious about. Can we not, then, for the next thirty days, rise to new power in prayer. Casting away all these impediments, let us send up one united cry for the conversion of our loved ones. Remember, there's power in prayer; and while the world is laughing, and mocking, and making light of these meetings, let us call upon our God to vindicate His own name.

The other night I was talking in the inquiry room to a noblelooking young man, who was in great agony about his soul. I asked him what had made him anxious; was it the address? or any of the hymns? He looked up in my face and said, "It was my mother's letter." She had written him, asking him to attend that meeting, and had said she would be praying for him when he was at the meeting. The thought of his mother's prayers and agony had gone home to his heart, and that night he found the Saviour.

I remember when I was at Nashville, towards the close of the American war, we were holding a soldiers' prayer meeting, and at the end of the meeting a young officer came forward, and showed me a letter he had received from his sister, in which she pleaded with him about his soul, and told him that every night when the sun went down, she was on her knees before God praying for him. "Mr. Moody," said he, "I have faced death in many ways, and I have walked up to the cannon's mouth, but I can't stand the thought of my sister's prayer. It has broken my heart." We knelt down together, but he burst out into prayer. "Oh, God, hear my sister's prayer this night, and save my soul." He found Jesus that night; and I believe it was the prayer of his sister, six hundred miles away, that did it.

Oh, my friends, you may have more power with God by your prayers, than these ministers in the pulpit. It is not great sermons we want, it is prayer; and if we are to have a mighty harvest, let us be wrestling with God. You have plenty of good preaching in London what you want is more prayer; and if we have that, there will be a mighty ingathering of souls, even if the preaching here be poor.

The very day after the prayer-meeting at Nashville, that I have been speaking about; I was away at another soldiers' prayer-meeting, forty miles off. When I was talking, I told the story of the soldier who on the previous night had received a letter from his sister. When I had done, a young lieutenant got up and said, "What you have told us, Mr. Moody, reminds me of the last letter I received from my mother, before she was taken home, in which she said, "This may be the last letter you may ever receive from me; even ere you read it, I may be taken away from the earth. Oh, my dear son, don't delay seeking the salvation of your soul. Remember that morning, noon, and night I shall be praying for you. Won't you yield yourself to Christ?" The tears trickled over the officer's cheeks as he said, "Little did my mother think that would be her last letter. A few days after this, I received the news that she was gone. But I was determined to seek the Lord, and did not rest until my mother's God was also mine and now I am on my way to Heaven to meet her there." My friends, God answered that mother's prayer, and He will answer yours, if you'll only learn how to pray.

WHAT IS FAITH?

I Do not know of any more important truth to bring out than the answer to this question, because that is the beginning of everything with regard to the divine life. A man must know he is saved before there is any peace, or joy, or comfort. The answer to