Prayer.

Blessed Jesus! it is Thou who hast unlocked to Thy people the gates of
prayer. Without Thee they must have been shut forever. It was Thy
atoning merit on earth that first opened them; it is Thy intercessory
work in heaven that keeps them open still.

How unlimited the promise--"_Whatsoever ye shall ask!_" It is the pledge
of all that the needy sinner requires--all that an Omnipotent Saviour
can bestow! As the great Steward of the mysteries of grace, He seems to
say to His faithful servants, "Take thy bill, and under this, my
superscription, write what you please." And then, when the blank is
filled up, he further endorses each petition with the words, "_I WILL
do it!_"

He farther encourages us to ask "_in His name_." In the case of an
earthly petitioner there are some pleas more influential in obtaining a
boon than others. Jesus speaks of _this_ as forming the key to the heart
of God. As David loved the helpless cripple of Saul's house "_for
Jonathan's sake_," so will the Father, by virtue of our covenant
relationship to the true JONATHAN (_lit._, "the gift of God"), delight
in giving us even "exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or
think."

Reader, do you know the blessedness of confiding your every want and
every care--your every sorrow and every cross--into the ear of the
Saviour? He is the "Wonderful Counsellor." With an exquisitely tender
sympathy He can enter into the innermost depths of your need. That need
may be great, but the everlasting arms are underneath it all. Think of
Him now, at this moment--the great Angel of the Covenant, with the
censer full of much incense, in which are placed your feeblest
aspirations, your most burdened sighs--the odour-breathing cloud
ascending with acceptance before the Father's throne. The answer may
tarry;--these your supplications may seem to be kept long on the wing,
hovering around the mercy-seat. A gracious God sometimes sees it meet
thus to test the faith and patience of His people. He delights to hear
the music of their importunate pleadings--to see them undeterred by
difficulties--unrepelled by apparent forgetfulness and neglect. But He
_will_ come at last; the pent-up fountain of love and mercy will at
length burst out;--the soothing accents will in His own good time be
heard, "Be it unto thee according to thy word!"

Soldier of Christ! with all thine other panoply, forget not the
"_All-prayer_." It is that which keeps bright and shining "t