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Prayers

FOR

PERSONS IN PRIVATE.

I.

PRAYER is a serious lifting up of the heart to God for such things as we need, in the name of Jesus Christ, whom God has appointed to be our only Intercessor at the throne of his mercy.

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Ps. xxv. 1, 2.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Ps. xxiii. 1.

B

I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. Ezek. xxxvi. 37.

Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matt. vii. 7.

There is one MEDIATOR between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; Who gave himself a ransom for all. 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. Rom. xi. 36.

II.

As God giveth a virtue to medicine to heal our sicknesses, so does He make prayer a means of comforting and sanctifying us in our repentance, through Jesus Christ, the good Physician of our souls.

He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Luke iv. 18.

I am he that comforteth you. Isa. li. 12.

I am the Lord which sanctify you. Lev. xx. 8.

For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth. John xvii. 19. Sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. 1 Tim. iv. 5.

III.

In answering our prayers, God teaches us that there is another world in which we have a part, since our help cometh from thence. Our prayers would never comfort us, or make us holy, if there was not any to hear: God makes Himself known to us in the mercies which follow our prayers.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights. James i. 17.

They shall not labour in vain : before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Isa. lxv. 23, 24.

I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Ps. cxvi. 1.

Let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication, be nigh unto the Lord, that he maintain the cause of his servant at all times, as the matter shall require that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else. 1 Kings viii. 59, 60.

IV.

We are encouraged to pray by the many recollections we have of God

having answered our own prayers; and also by the instances of prayer answered, which are recorded in the Holy Scriptures.

Then said Elijah unto the people, The God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah said, Hear me, O Lord, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God; then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice: and the people said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. 1 Kings xviii. 24. 36—39.

Tell Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears behold, I will heal thee. And he recovered. 2 Kings xx. 5. 7.

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