taining from Him, in a way the most beneficial to ourselves,
the blessings, whether temporal or spiritual, of which we stand in need.
For if we really be the creatures of God, and, as such, dependent on His
providential bounty, and subject to His righteous government, it is
self-evidently natural and right that we should, as intelligent and
responsible beings, acknowledge His supreme dominion and our absolute
dependence by supplicating the aids both of His providence and grace.
This is _our duty_, considering the relations which He sustains towards
us; and if it be fit and proper that we should pray to God, if it be,
in our circumstances, a duty which we owe to Him, then it is most
reasonable to believe that it is equally fit and proper in God to have
some respect to our prayers, and to deal with us differently according
as we either observe or neglect this religious duty.

Prayer may be regarded in one or other of two distinct aspects: either
as _a duty_, the observance or neglect of which must be followed, under
a system of moral government, with different results; or simply as _a
means_, the use of which is productive of certain effects which are made
to depend on this special instrumentality. And in either view, its
"efficacy" may be affirmed on the same grounds on which we are wont to
vindicate the use of _all other means_, and to enforce the observance of
_all other duties_, in connection with the system of the Divine
government.

3. The efficacy of prayer, so far from being inconsistent with, is
founded on, the immutability of the Divine purposes and the faithfulness
of the Divine promises. God's purposes are justly held, in all other
cases, to include the _means_ as well as the _ends_; and they are often
fulfilled through the instrumentality of "second causes." His purpose to
provide for the wants of man and beast has reference not merely to the
harvest which is the result, but also to the agricultural labor by
which, instrumentally, the harvest is prepared. May not "prayer" be also
_a means_ ordained by God in the original constitution of the world, a
means towards certain ends which are made dependent on its use? If it be
such a means, then its "efficacy" is established, in the only sense in
which we are concerned to contend for it; while it is shown to be _no
more inconsistent_ with the immutability of the Divine purposes, than
any other system of _means or instruments_ that may be employed as
subordinate ag