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man come into immediate converse with God Himself. It is offered to Him
personally, as to the invisible but ever-present "Searcher of hearts,"
who "hears the _desire_ of the humble," and whose "ear is attentive to
the voice of their supplications." This implies the recognition of His
omnipresence and omniscience, but these perfections of His nature do not
supersede the expression of our desires in prayer, just because prayer
is designed, not to increase His knowledge, but to declare our sense of
dependence on His will, and to procure His grace to help us in every
time of need. Our petitions, too, are always bounded within certain
limits, and subject to at least one indispensable condition; they are
offered only "for things agreeable to His will;" and when our own will
is thus, in the very act of prayer, expressly subordinated to that which
is alone unerring and supreme, we acknowledge at once His rightful
sovereignty and our dutiful subjection, and we are not justly chargeable
with the presumption of dictating to God the course of procedure which
He should pursue towards us. We are protected, too, against the evils
which our own _errors in prayer_ might otherwise entail on us, for "we
know not what things to pray for as we ought;" and we have an infallible
security that, in the best and highest sense,--that which is most in
accordance with our real welfare,--our prayers _must_ be answered,
since our wills are resolved into His will; and His will, being
omnipotent, cannot be resisted or frustrated in any of its designs. Our
assurance of the certain efficacy of our prayers is so much the greater,
in proportion as we have reason to believe that the things for which we
pray are agreeable to His will; and hence we are more confident in
asking spiritual than temporal gifts; for the former we know to be
always agreeable to His will and conducive to our own welfare, while the
latter may, or may not, be good for us in our present circumstances, and
must be left at the sovereign disposal of Him who knows what is in man,
and what is best for each of His children.

2. Considering the relation in which we stand to God as His creatures
and subjects, it is natural, fit, and proper that _we_ should make known
our requests to Him, and supplicate the aids both of His providence and
grace; and if it be _our duty_ to pray, it is reasonable to believe that
God will have some respect to our prayers in His methods of dealing with
us; in