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of the solar system. Nothing short of this can displace the clear testimony of our moral consciousness, that in every conflict of temptation two ways are open to our will, and that in our pressure towards the better we are supported by a Divine ally.

The principle of the foregoing defence will perhaps appear inadequate, because, by resolving all devotion into communion between spirit and spirit, and surrendering the field of nature to necessary law, it relinquishes supplication for temporal things, and limits the object of prayer to inward conditions of the soul. To a certain extent the inference is just yet it is subject to qualifications so important as to relieve it of its unwelcome aspect. Undoubtedly, God's rule of action in nature we have every reason to regard as unalterable; established as an inflexible and faithful basis of expectation; and so far embodying the essential conditions of intellectual and moral life; and, for that reason, not open to perpetual variation on the suggestion of occasional moral contingencies. Petitions therefore for purely physical events other than those which are already on their way,-e.g. for the arrest of a heavenly body, the diverting of a storm, the omission of a tide, must be condemned, as at variance with the known method of Providential rule. But a large proportion of temporal events are not like these, dealt out to us from the mere physical elements; they come to us with a mixed origin, from the natural world indeed,

yet through the lines of human life, and as affected by the human will. The diseases from which we suffer visit us in conformity with the order of nature, yet are often self-incurred. The shipwreck that makes desolate five hundred homes is due to forces which may be named and reckoned; yet also, it may be, to the negligence which failed to take account of them in time. Wherever these elements of character enter the result, so that it will differ according to the moral agent's attitude of mind, it is plainly not beyond the reach of a purely spiritual influence to modify a temporal event. The cry of entreaty from the bedside of fever will not reduce the patient's temperature or banish his delirium ; but if there be human treatment on which the crisis hangs, may so illuminate the mind and temper the heart and sweeten the whole scene around, as to alight upon the healing change, and turn the shadow of death aside. The prayer of Cromwell's troopers kneeling on the field could not lessen the numbers or blunt the weapons of the cavaliers; but might give such fire of zeal and coolness of thought as to turn each man into an organ of almighty justice, and carry the victory which he implored. Wherever the living contact between the human spirit and the Divine can set in operation our very considerable control over the combinations and processes of the natural world, there is still left a scope, practically indefinite, for prayer that the bitter cup of outward suffering may pass away; only never without

the trustful relapse,"Not my will, but thine, be done."

For the rest, he that has once found "the secret place of the Most High," soon ceases to press, or indeed to trust, his own desires; and the more he is lifted into the freedom of the spirit, so much the less resists the necessity of the divine natural order. He is at home in both spheres; and is reconciled to each by the presence of the other. The fixed administration of God supplies to life its subduing and chastening element, its occasions of speechless submission and quiet awe. His free relation to the responsible soul opens the true field for devotion, the place of lonely audience, the living interchange, mind with mind, where the Infinite Father individualizes himself for us, takes up our sighs, and breathes himself into our affectionate will. Of such relation there can be no other and higher evidence than that of conscious experience; and this appropriate and only possible proof is so amply furnished in the records and literature of the religious life of every age, that even from those to whom it may be personally foreign it is not without reasonable claims to respect. What indeed can be less rational than to say, that God is always with us, yet we must never speak to him? How then are we to spend the silent years with him? Strike out from the life of Christ the communings of the desert, of the mountaintop, of the parting meal, of Gethsemane, and the

passing outbursts of thanks and supplication as he pursued his healing way from the baptism to the cross, and what charm or meaning would there be in the flat and vapid residue? Religion is no more possible without prayer, than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere. In the dumb heart it invariably dies; and wherever it lives, it is in the habitual faith that as we "give good gifts unto our children, much more will the heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him."

XVII.

Thou art my hiding-place.

PSALM XXXii. 7.

"Thou art my hiding-place."

WHEN the ministry of Jesus was approaching its crisis, and its work was prosecuted with earnestness the most divine, we find him habitually teaching in the temple, and dwelling all day in the public courts which were the very focus of the nation's life. At sunrise were the people there, and he poured on their fresh and rested hearts a sweet cool morning light; and the last of the evening worshippers bare upon his memory the tones of that dear and sacred voice. As the shadows rose and thrust the parting glow from the topmost pinnacle, he withdrew into a narrower circle; and may be seen, by the first light of the rising moon, retiring from the city with the twelve and ascending the slope of the Mount of Olives. Many thoughts which shrank from the presence of the temple crowd, came out in these evening walks, feeling the shelter of a softer light and nearer souls. But as the story deepened to its end,

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