particular day of the week; so that every day might have its own topic of reflection, and every topic its due share of attention. Others may find this a useful suggestion.

A renewal of your resolutions is to follow this inquiry. Knowing where you are and what you need, you are to arrange your purposes accordingly. It is a sad error of some to fancy that seeing and acknowledging their faults is all which is required of them. They sit down and bewail them, and in weeping and sorrow waste that energy of mind which should have been exerted in amendment. But it is surely far better, with manly readiness, to rise and act without a tear, than to shed torrents of bitter water, and still go on as before. Regret and remorse naturally express themselves in weeping; but repentance shows itself in action. It may begin in sorrow, but it ends in reformation. And you have little reason to be satisfied with your reflections and your penitence, if they do not issue in prompt and resolute action.

As there is no duty more frequently enjoined in the New Testament by our Saviour

and the Apostles, so there is none which is a more indispensable and efficacious means of religious improvement, than Prayer; for which reasons it demands particular attention.

The practice of devotion is a sign of spiritual life, and a means of preserving it. No one prays heartily without some deep religious sentiment to actuate him. This sentiment may be but occasionally felt; it may be transient in duration; but the exercise of it in acts of devotion tends to render it habitual and permanent, and its frequent exercise causes the mind at length to exist always in a devout posture. He who truly prays, feels, during the act, a sense of God's presence, authority, and love; of his own obligations and unworthiness; of his need of being better. He feels grateful, humble, resigned, anxious for improvement. He who prays often, often has these feelings, and by frequent repetition they become customary and constant. And thus prayer operates as an active, steady, powerful means of Christian progress.

Indeed nothing effectual is to be done without it That it is a chief duty, even natural

That it is a con

reason would persuade us. dition on which divine blessings are bestowed, Christianity assures us. That it is a high gratification and enjoyment, every one knows who has rightly engaged in it. And that it is of all means of moral restraint and spiritual advancement the most effective, no one can doubt, who understands how powerfully it stirs and agitates the strongest and most active principles of man, and how complete is the dominion which those principles have over his character and conduct. All this is clear and sufficient, without adding the assurance of the Saviour, that it is effectual to draw down spiritual aid from heaven. Add this, and the subject is complete. It is, both naturally and by appointment, a chief duty of man; from the nature of the soul and the intercourse it opens with God, it is the first enjoyment; and through its own intrinsic power and the promise of Jesus, it is the most effectual instrument of moral and spiritual culture.

Perhaps you have been accustomed to the performance of this duty from your childhood. You were early taught to repeat your prayers, morning and evening. Pains were taken to

make you understand the nature of the duty, and to give you right impressions in performing it. Perhaps you have retained these impressions, and have continued to this time the practice of sincere devotion. On the other hand, you may have lost those impressions, and become neglectful of the duty. Or perhaps you are so unhappy as never to have received instruction on this head. You have passed through childhood without the practice, and without the sentiment which should inspire it; and now, when awakened to a sense of your responsibility, you find yourself a stranger to the mercy-seat. But, however the case may be, the sense of your religious wants now urges you to devotion; and you are anxious to make that acquaintance with God, which alone can secure you peace. How to perform the duty, how to gain the satisfaction, how to reap the advantage, are points upon which you are anxious to obtain direction.

First of all, let me urge upon you the importance of a plan and of customary seasons for your devotions. Have your settled appointments of time and place, and let nothing in

terfere with them. Many would persuade you that this is too formal; that you should be left more at liberty; that, as you are to pray always, it is quite needless to assign any special season for the duty. And one may conceive of a person having arrived at so high a measure of spiritual attainment, that his thoughts should be a perpetual worship, and retirement to his closet would bring his mind no nearer to God. But such is at best an infrequent case; at any rate it is not yours,— you are a beginner; it never can be yours, except you use the requisite means of arriving at it; and certainly among the surest means is the custom of setting apart stated seasons for devotion. So that the very reason assigned for neglecting, becomes a strong reason for observing them. You must feed the soul as you do the body, furnishing it with suitable nourishment at suitable intervals. You must keep its armor bright and serviceable, as does the soldier in human warfare, who examines and restores it at a certain hour daily. If it were left to be done at any convenient season, a thousand trifling engagements might cause the work to be deferred again and again, till