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digal, became impoverished, became ruined, became a corpse! O the happiness of drink!

"DRINK, AND BE HAPPY!"-the happiness of unmitigated domestic misery. "When poverty comes in at the doors, love flies out at the windows;" and upon this just principle it may well be inquired, when was there ever a family which was not wretched, when its pecuniary supplies were squandered away in the ginshop or the tap-room? Only let the demon of drink enter into any household whatever-only let it reduce the husband, or the wife, or the children to its slavery -and happiness withers; hope expires; affection disappears; infuriated passions, like those of infernal beings, are let loose; curses, blasphemies, crimes (sometimes suicides and murders), haunt the dismal scene-the resemblance and the prelude of everlasting woe. Take a domestic scene in connexion with drink. A year since last January, in the town of Hull, a widow, once respectable, had three children; one six, another five, and another three years old. She had become addicted to the "happiness" of intemperance. One morning her shutters were closed; smoke was seen to issue from the chamber-window; no answer was returned to the applications of her neighbours; the door was broken open: the mother and the children were dead. In a state of intoxication, she had set her bed on fire; she was incapable of assisting herself; and she and her offspring were suffocated by the smouldering conflagration.

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"DRINK, AND BE HAPPY!"—the happiness of a ruined mind. Even "moderate" drinking, 66 very moderate" drinking, always enfeebles the faculties and debases the intellect. But only let the habit of intemperance once be contracted; only let a taste for its happiness" once be established, and the mind will speedily be blighted; the clear light of the understanding will be exchanged for the momentary flashes of a frenzied excitement; the voice of reason will be overwhelmed amidst the clamour of the passions; the power of useful mental exertion will speedily be annihilated; the catastrophe of intellectual wreek will ultimately be accomplished; and folly, or paralysis, or delirium, or idiocy, or madness! will terminate the scene. O, the happiness of drink!

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DRINK, AND BE HAPPY!"-the happiness of a dishonoured name. Infamy and intemperance are inseparable companions. The drunkard has no friend. He is alone in the world. When the habit is formed, the reputation is tarnished for ever, and the miserable victim is shunned with alarm and disgust, or is regarded with the look of unbounded loathing, or is pointed at by the finger of universal scorn. O, the happiness of drink!

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DRINK, AND BE HAPPY!"-the happiness of everlasting ruin. It is computed that by the agency of intemperance, sixty thousand accountable and immortal beings are annually hurried into the eternal world. And what are the feelings which must thrill through the mind in adverting to so tremendous a fact as this, when it is known that "no drunkard can inherit the kingdom of God?" If this drinking had been the means of accomplishing the perdition of but ONE soul, it would have accomplished an infinitely greater amount of ruin, than though an empire had been torn up by the ploughshare of desolation, than though a world had been destroyed, or a sun had been extinguished, or a system had been erased from the universe of being. For when all material existence shall have passed away, the soul, with all its sensibilities and faculties as acute and as powerful as ever, will be rapidly advancing along its indefinite career of torment or happiness, of blasphemy or praise. BUT

THOUSANDS-MILLIONS OF SOULS LOST, AS THE CON

SEQUENCE OF DRINKING! It is impossible to proceed; the very spirit is overwhelmed with dismay.

What, then, is the result of the whole? Is the senseless and pestiferous maxim, so often alluded to in the

preceding observations, any longer to be endured in any department, or among any class of society? No! let it be scouted with the contempt and abhorrence it deserves; and in the place of its odious and delusive falsehood, let another motto be espoused by every reader throughout all the population of the country:— 66 DRINK NO MORE, AND BE HAPPY!"

THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER:
A Sermon,

BY THE REV. THOMAS GRIFFITH, M.A.
Minister of Ram's Chapel, Hackney.

1 THESS. V. 17. Pray without ceasing."

If there be one spirit above all others, with which minister and people should meet together in the house of God, and which should sanctify all their intercourse with each other, it is the spirit of prayer; for the very life of religion consists in dependence upon God; and prayer is the breathing forth, the exercise and energising of this life. All that ministers can teach will profit nothing, if it be not quickened by the Spirit of God. All that hearers can receive will be but barren and unfruitful, if it be not mixed up in their hearts with prayer.

To this topic, therefore, let us consecrate our present meditations; and may the Spirit of the living God breathe over us his most genial influences, that with a prayerful mind we may consider it!

The injunction in our text, concise as it is, requires some consideration of its terms; and I shall therefore, first, explain it. It presses home a duty of the highest moment to our souls; and therefore I shall, secondly, enforce it.

I. Let us first EXPLAIN the injunction in

our text.

It is the practice of the Scripture-writers to use broad and forcible terms to express the extent or the intensity of their ideas. These terms are thus sufficiently comprehensive to include every particular of the duty which they wish to inculcate, and sufficiently strong to require, in their application to particular instances, the fullest interpretation that the case will admit of. Of this description is the injunction which we are now to consider it is expressed in the most unlimited terms, which require some explanation with respect to their practical application, but which, at the same time, evidently demand a very intense fulfilment of the duty which they enjoin.

When, therefore, we are told to "pray without ceasing," although we must immediately perceive that the phrase "without ceasing" cannot be taken in the full extent which the words literally bear, since it would then

enjoin an impracticable duty; yet we cannot but allow, that, to do justice to its force, we must include within it all the meaning which its use in other similar passages will justify. Now, if we collate such passages, we shall find that such a phrase demands, first, the frequent act of prayer. Thus, when St. Paul declares to the Romans (i. 9), that "without ceasing he made mention of them always in his prayers," he seems to refer to his intercessions for them at his stated approaches to the throne of grace: for when he tells the Ephesians (i. 16), in a similar phrase, that he "ceased not to give thanks for them," we find this to be his meaning, from the sentence that he immediately adds, " making mention of you in my prayers." Just as he writes to the Philippians (i. 3, 4), "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always" (that is) "in every prayer of mine making request with joy." Nor is that habit of devotedness, which forms one marked characteristic of a Christian man, attainable but by the exercise of frequent acts of devotion. In all cases, habits are formed only by the repetition of acts; and therefore devotion is essential to devoutness. The inward feeling is, indeed, that to which God specially looks; but this feeling can neither be formed, nor cherished, nor expressed, but by the outward act. It is on this principle, then, that stated exercises of devotion-stated seasons of retirement-stated days and hours of public, family, social, and private prayer-seem absolutely necessary: not that there is any thing meritorious in these acts themselves, or as if the mere performance of them, without looking farther, were itself a positive duty; but that they are the indispensable means to the attainment of that great end-the gradual subduing of the soul into a devout and holy frame-the training it into a perpetual sense of His presence, in whom we live, and move, and have our being-the setting the Lord always before us, that we may walk as in his sight. And hence, though we do not find in Scripture (which usually contents itself with laying down the general principles of the Christian life, leaving it to ourselves to discover and employ the most effectual methods for the working out those principles,) any absolute injunction of set times of prayer, yet these are virtually bound on us by its authority, inasmuch as they are included in the general command to pray without ceasing.

The frequent act of prayer, therefore, is enjoined upon us by our text; and he who desires to cultivate the general spirit of devoutness will assuredly multiply the occasions of approaching God in solemn exercises of devotion. This we find to have been the

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practice with the Scripture saints, who thus kept up their constant feeling of dependence upon God, and union with their Lord. David, for instance," evening, and morning, and at noon, prayed and cried aloud" (Ps. lv. 17). Daniel " kneeled upon his knees three times a-day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God" (Dan. vi. 10). And St. Paul, as we have seen, refers, as matter of course, to those regular exercises of devotion, which not all his manifold labours were suffered to interrupt, yea, by which those labours were sustained and sanctified. O that we were as precise in our appointments with God as in our hours for business, for refreshment, and for repose! that we so felt the value of prayer, as even to anticipate, like David, the night-watches, to engage in it; and to esteem it more to us than our necessary food!

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But the expression of our text demands, in the second place, the persevering habit of prayer-the patient waiting upon God in the face of difficulties and discouragement. For when the Apostle exhorts the Thessalonians, in our text, to pray without ceasing," his object is, as may be gathered from the context, to animate them to persevere in supplication, notwithstanding their disappointment with respect to the immediate coming of the Lord, their sorrow for the loss of Christian friends, and their experience of unruly and unstable brethren. The injunction therefore bears a meaning exactly similar to that which our blessed Lord gives us in the parable of the importunate widow (Luke, xviii. 1), which, we are told by St. Luke," he spake to this end, that men ought always to pray;" that is, to persevere in supplication under every discouragement, and never to throw up their dependence upon God, though he may seem to "bear long with them." For that this is the meaning of "always" in that passage, we see from the addition of our Lord," and not to faint."

This, then, is an important direction to those especially, who, seeking God with some degree of earnestness, yet find themselves too often baffled in their efforts to realise his presence, and are tempted to give up a prac tice which they find so fruitless; or at least feel their spirits cast down by ill success into a formal heartlessness. When the sorely tempted Christian finds the sins that he had mourned over, continually recurring, and the habits he had resolved against, still holding out against his efforts, how difficult is it to maintain a steady, hopeful course of supplication against them-how ready is the sinking mind to fall into a sceptical despair of ever being heard and helped! But, O let him never yield a moment to the insinuations of the tempter-let him not, for an instant, undervalue prayer, or doubt its efficacy-let

him not imagine, in the darkest hour, that his time, his tears, and his entreaties, have been thrown away; that no prayer has pierced the heaven above him, and no dews of grace will fall upon his soul! He is to "" pray without ceasing!" without permitting any obstacle to turn him aside, any delay to discourage him, any seeming indifference to shake his childlike faith in Him who heareth prayer. "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” He has never, indeed, promised to answer prayer according to our notions, or our will, and at the time, and in the manner, that our poor ignorant minds would dictate; but that he will answer at some time, and in some manner, according to the wisdom of his own far-seeing goodness, this we know, for He has said it this we are sure of, for it has been promised us by God, that cannot lie. We have the word of God, the promise of the faithful One, for our support; and therefore we are to go on wrestling even against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness, and withstanding in the evil day, "praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance." Eph. v. 18.

Yet our text seems chiefly to enjoin, in the third place, the perrading spirit of prayer. For, without this, all stated acts, and persevering diligence of outward supplication, will be vain. Prayer consists not in those acts, but in the spirit and temper of decoutness, generated, exercised, kept up under difficulty by those acts. And yet, perhaps, in no case has the corruption of our nature so perverted the best things to the worst results, as in the case of prayer. The converting of means into ends has been the fruitful source of all superstition. And so it has been found in the exercises of devotion. The Romanist has come to reckon his devoutness by the number of his beads, and to crush the very life of piety by the weight of the meretricious ornaments that he has flung upon it. And the Formalist of every communion has substituted scrupulosity for earnestness, and mechanical regularity for vital action. While

the public service has been duly attendedwhile the chapter of the Bible has been regularly read down-while the closet form has been statedly repeated, and the knees have been duly bent, and the appointed lesson has been duly waded through, and the allotted time has been duly measured out, the heart, the life, the spirit of devotion, have been unthought of, and the satisfaction of a work performed has been substituted for the blessedness of a feeling enjoyed.

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Seek, then, I entreat you, brethren, to realise that spirit of prayer, which is the consummation of devotion, and which our text especially enjoins. Let that pervade your minds as an habitual feeling. Let it breathe within you, as the very element of spiritual life. Cherish its gentle aspirations, till they become to you as a second nature, and your soul ascend towards heaven, 66 even as the sparks fly upward." He who in this sense follows out the apostle's injunction, does in| deed pray without ceasing"-not in the outward act, nor in the unvarying consciousness of supplication; but in the holy, subdued, devout, dependent spirit of his mind-in that habit of reference to God's will, zeal for God's interests, and recollection of God's presence, which operates unseen, and spends itself unspent. To hold habitual communion with our heavenly Father, and to find this secret spirit breaking out into expression and act on every suitable occasion; when we are in trouble, crying out to God--when we are in prosperity, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord-in the evening, commending our spirits into his hands-in the morning, waking into some holy thoughtamidst the cares and labour of the day, being still fervent in spirit, serving the Lord-and amidst the calmness of the night, "with our soul desiring God"-nay, whatsoever we do in word or deed, doing all things heartily unto the Lord, and not to man: this is the spirit that St. Paul enjoins upon us-this is praying without ceasing. Then, what, brethren, are we? Are we disciples of Paul? Have we the Spirit of Christ? Are we not carnal, and walk as men?

II. And is it not then needful that we now proceed, from having explained the injunction of our text, to endeavour to ENFORCE it on your consciences? which was the second point that we proposed.

It might, indeed, appear at first sight strange that such a duty as that of prayer should need enforcement. When poor, weak, sinful creatures, who deserve to be excluded from God's presence, are invited, notwithstanding all their guilt and imperfection, to enter into the presence-chamber, and approach the very throne of the King of kings, we might imagine that no very pressing argument would be necessary to persuade to such a privilege; we might suppose, that even as water by the thirsty, and medicine by the dying, it would be seized with quick avidity, and drunk in with admiring gratitude. But, alas! we are corrupt and fallen ! and our very corruption makes unpalatable to us the means of its removal-our very fall has made it irksome for us to attempt to rise! We must be enjoined to seek our own peace.

We must be pressed to minister to our own health.

Let me, then, dear brethren, press this duty of prayer upon you, first, as a remedy for perplexity. Man is ignorant and foolish; and he has daily proofs that it is not in himself to direct his steps. Short-sighted in his views, misled by his prejudices, cheated by his passions, and often left in darkness even by his conscience, he frequently knows not what course he ought to take, to thread the mazes of perplexity, to bring into harmony the various emotions that agitate his mind, and even to pursue the call of duty. His blindness bewilders him. His sins and temptations agitate him. His very conscientiousness confounds him. Such seems to have been the condition of the Thessalonians. They had been perplexed by the most painful uncertainty concerning the expected coming of their Lord. They had seen their friends cut off by death, when they had fondly hoped to wait together for the speedy manifestation of the Prince of life. Their hopes and their experience, the promises of God and the ways of God, had seemed to them contradictory. And what were they to do? How were they to maintain their faith and patience? By what means were they to accomplish the apostle's injunction, to sorrow not as those who have no hope? By prayer. "Pray without ceasing."

And what a blessing is prayer for us, dear brethren, in similar exercises of mind! Are we anxiously seeking the truth of God, and yet do we find many a topic "dark with excessive bright," and turn with dazzled eye | from contemplations which reveal to us our own humiliation, but not God's purposes? Are we perplexed by various conjectures, and distracted by the conflicting tenets of different religionists? and do we long for simple, practical truth-just truth enough to shew to us the method of salvation, and guide our feet into the paths of peace? Then go to prayer-submissive, teachable, and patient prayer as your great remedy. Cry out with David, "O send forth thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: let them bring me to thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles." Pray with Paul, that God would give to you "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." And calm and settle down your mind into the attitude of meek dependence upon God (that best posture for the search and the discovery of all true wisdom), by resting on the solid promises of his holy word. "Good and upright is the Lord,

therefore shall he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way."

Or are we, again, perplexed with reference to the path of duty? Are we torn by various conflicting demands upon our conscience, or unable to discern between good and evil, and detect the tempter even under his form of an angel of light? Are we invited to self-indulgence by the plea of moderation; or to injurious approximation to the world by a desire to conciliate or do good? Let us seek for full discrimination, decision, and stability, in prayer. Trust not too much to the representations of other men-listen not to the pleadings of your own deceitful heart-linger not upon the reasonings which would tempt you to surrender to the adversary; but get you up, at once, like Hezekiah, to the sanctuary of God-there spread out the arguments that are urged upon you-thence derive a wisdom and determination not your own-and there plead for God's interposition in your behalf. O what a privilege is it to have a heavenly Father, into whose gracious ear we can tell out our feelings, and who can guide us with his counsel! "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding: in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Secondly; let me press this duty of prayer upon you, as a consolation under trouble. The Thessalonians were in trouble, and yet the Apostle calls upon them, in the verse before our text, to rejoice evermore. How was this contradiction to be realised? How were they, though troubled, yet not to be distressed; though sorrowful, yet to be rejoicing? Our text affords the answer-solves the paradox: "Pray without ceasing;" and so would they go on to the reiterated duty, "in every thing give thanks." And similarly, brethren, let me commend to you the exercises of devotion, as your all-sufficient consolation under the various trials of this troublesome world. Who is not, at some time or other, in himself, or in his family, or in his friends, assailed by trouble? And whither shall he go for consolation but to Him who is "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort?" "Is any afflicted? let him pray." "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." That is the way to turn sorrow into joy, and murmuring against God into glorifying his holy name! Yea, "in every thing," says St. Paul, "by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which pass

eth understanding, shall keep your hearts | and minds in Jesus Christ." Alas! how those who neglect their Saviour-who undervalue spiritual religion-who live without God in the world,-how such can bear up under any trouble, I know not. They may go on smoothly enough, while all things smile and flatter with dangerous calm; but when the tempest rises, and the winds blow, and the waters toss their angry heads on high, to what haven shall they run, and where shall their shattered bark find rest? Brethren, ask yourselves this single question, amidst all the ease and the indifference of a worldly prosperity, "What will ye do in the end thereof?" What, when your earthly comforts are swept away? what, in the hour of sickness? what, on the bed of death? O pray now for repentance and conversion, if then you would effectually pray for peace. Turn ye to the stronghold, while the way is open to you. Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Submit yourselves to Christ as your Redeemer, and seek the Spirit of Christ as your restorer; and then may you "come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace in time of need." Prayer shall lay your griefs to rest upon the bosom of your Lord; shall realise to you things not seen and eternal; and thus shall make your light affliction, which is but for a moment, work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Lastly; let me press upon you prayer as your strength against temptation. No sin No sin can be successfully resisted without fervent prayer. Nor can we escape the influence of those hourly temptations which crowd round our daily path (and which, too generally, we overlook as trifling, and therefore fall by them), but by the permanent and wakeful spirit of prayer. The devout mind acquires a quick and lively sense, a ready tact, by which it discerns and starts back from the very occasion of temptation. It is endued with the delicate feeling of the sensitive plant, and shrinks from the very touch of whatsoever defileth. And even when the trial has commenced-when we have been seduced or forced into the struggle with our evil nature and our awakened passions - even then prayer is the grand resource by which our spirits may be nerved to conflict, our integrity of heart be maintained, our enemy be overcome by us, because prayer calls down upon us a superinduced strength, puts into action for us an Almighty arm! What was strengthen the Thessalonians under the things which they suffered of their countrymen, and to enable them to stand fast in the Lord? Pray without ceasing." And what was to

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animate the Ephesians against not only flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places? "Praying always with all prayer and supplication, and watching thereunto with all perseverance." And what is to preserve us, brethren, from the sin, and shame, and misery, of spiritual defeat, nay, make us strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, but just this spirit of prayer? "Beseech the Lord thrice," with all the energy that Paul did, and you, too, shall find, like him, Christ's strength perfected in your weakness. Bow your knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; and then Christ shall dwell in your hearts by faith-you shall be rooted and grounded in love, and you shall be filled with all the fulness of God.

Reviews and Notices.

Lectures on the Life of Samuel, preached in the Parish of Warminster, Wilts, during Lent, A.D. 1834. By William Dalby, M.A., Vicar of Warminster, and Prebendary of Sarum. London, Rivingtons.

THE practice of preaching Lent lectures has now become very common; and we trust and believe that great benefits have arisen, and may be expected, from it. It was revived, we believe, by Mr. Blunt, of Chelsea, a few years ago, by preaching a course of sermons, during that season, on the history of Abraham; a habit which he has kept up each succeeding Lent: with how much interest to his hearers and the

public, the large congregations that attended them, and the great demand for them when published, sufficiently testify. This laudable example has been so generally followed, that there is scarcely any clergyman of known excellence and zeal, who has not adopted some form of Lent instruction. The lectures of

"the

Mr. Dalby, delivered two years since, have fallen in our way: they bespeak our interest (even before examining their contents), by the object the author had in view in publishing them-which was to extend the means of pastoral usefulness in his parish, by "discharging the outstanding expenses of the erection of a free church in his parish," and promoting erection of the new church school-rooms." The subject of these sermons is that of "Samuel, the prophet of the Lord." The first lecture treats of the different modes in which scriptural truth may be advantageously brought before the mind, among which one of the most useful is, dwelling on some Scripture character. The advantages to be derived from this study are then pointed out; as arising from our natural fondness for facts, and the ease with which personal adventure is retained in the memory; as well as from the circumstance of their being human agents whose history we contemplate. The cautions to be observed in the study of every Scripture character (with one, and that a divine, exception) are then stated. The danger here is that of "admiring injudiciously, commending erroneously, and justifying falsely." These lectures take the principal passages in the life of Samuel, and draw from them the sacred lessons they were intended to convey to the various relations of life. In the circumstances of Elkanalı and Hannah,

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