"That he see no unclean thing in thee," Deut. xxiii. 14. Sin is the most loathsome thing in the sight of Jehovah. By this command he would teach his people the necessity of abstaining from all filthiness.

Jehovah looks at the heart and requires a right motive as well as a right action, therefore he has expressly forbidden us to do evil that good may come.

"And it shall be righteousness unto thee," Deut. xxiv. 13. Not make thee righteous, that Christ alone can do, but prove thee to be arighteous man.

(To be concluded in our next.)

POETRY.

"All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children."-Isa. liv. 13.

COME, heavenly Teacher, now thy grace impart,

Let humble sinners on their bended knee

Approach thy footstool with a willing heart,
For all thy children shall be taught of thee.

Let human teaching all be laid aside,

For with thy word it never can agree;
Thy word is truth-we in that word confide,
That all thy children shall be taught of thee.

The moral teaching, taught within our schools
By moral men, however wise they be,
Will prove at best they are but learned fools,
If uninstructed, and untaught by thee.

Let nature's children wander for to learn,
What in the dying hour will useless be;
"Tis then, perhaps, tho' late they will discern,
That all is nought but what is taught by thee.
This world, with all its learning, soon will pass,
Then where will all its boasted learning be?
'Tis doom'd to perish, like the withered grass;
But all thy children shall be taught of thee."

But heavenly teaching, Oh the cheering thought!
It tells us now what we shall shortly be,
Of joys beyond the utmost stretch of thought,

Laid up for them who shall be taught of thee.
What's all learning then the world can boast,
Or all the treasures in the earth or sea,
Compar'd with thine, Jehovah, Lord of hosts,
And all thy children shall be taught of thee.

1. E. C.

THE

Spiritual Magazine;

OR,

SAINTS' TREASURY.

"There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST; and these Three are One." 1 John v. 7.

"Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."-Jude 3.

JUNE, 1837.

THE FREENESS OF BELIEVERS IN JESUS, AT THE THRONE OF GRACE;

AND THE FREE ACCESS OF THE LORD GOD UNTO THEM:

BY SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE.

"Here I am."-Isaiah lviii. 2.

WHILST there is a glory in every part of the Lord's most holy word, in all its glorious truths and doctrines, in all its precious promises and declarations of grace, and in and throughout the whole of it; a very great excellency shines forth, in the true and proper connection of it: yet there is, at times, such a suitability in a few words of the same to the personal case of a believer, as carries great evidence with it, that the Lord speaks hereby to the frames, feelings, wants, and cases of his beloved people, as is present life and salvation unto them.

The passage which I have selected for the foundation of my present discourse unto you, as separated from its connection, is all-sufficient to support and encourage our minds, in our hope and expectation of our communion with God, and that he will have and hold communion with us; nor will the connection of it, by any means, weaken our faith and expectation of the same. The prophet of the Lord, in the former part of the chapter, hath been speaking to the nation of the Jews, of the national glory which would be reflected on them, in consequence of their national reform, (see ver. 8, 9.) "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am."Allowing all this, in the first place, to belong to national blessings and prosperity, yet that under it spiritual blessings and VOL. XIII.-No. 162.]

Y

benefits are included, cannot be denied; therefore, to apply it agreeable with my design at the present period, will by no means be to break in and upon the genuine meaning of the same. It is my intention to make use of my text, " Here I am,” as expressive of the Lord's presence with his people; of his attention unto them; of his readiness to hear and answer their prayers. I conceive such as may be truly styled the people of God, even the people of the Most High, need great encouragement in their addresses to the divine Majesty. That the formality and legality which besets them, and which is their burthen and plague, it may be, at all times more or less, keeps them from having that free access to God, Father, Son, and Spirit, which would be for their very great and spiritual advantage. That if a discourse on such a subject is proposed unto them, it may be of singular use; it may be they may receive some real advantage from the

same.

The words of my text are the Lord's; they are spoken by him. They are spoken to his people. They are exhilirating. They are heart warming. They are encouraging: "Here I am.' What do you want? What is your request? What would you that I should do for you? Ask, and say, What would you that I should do for you? This is unspeakable grace!

In speaking with a view to a right opening and explaining of them, I will propose the following particulars. First. I will endeavour to set before you is. This I will endeavour to do from the context, "Then shalt thou call; thou shalt cry.”

what prayer

Secondly. I will speak of the object of prayer; and the ground of our encouragement in prayer.

Thirdly. Of those discouragements which naturally arise in us, and which we, who are the Lord's, are all, more or less, the subjects of.

Then, lastly. Of the words before us, "Here I am," as allsufficient to encourage, and to carry the spiritual mind above all discouragements. May the Lord enable me to fill up these particulars, to your real benefit and satisfaction.

My first particular is to set before you what prayer is; and in what it consists. This I am to do from the context: " then shalt thou call; thou shalt cry.”

As I could never

Το pray is to fight the good fight of faith. yet overcome myself, and so perfectly renounce it, as to have no uneasiness arising from what I am, constitutionally, and from my own personal and constitutional sin; so could I never get above my own legality, formality, and deadness in prayer. Nor should I have ever known, neither do I to the present moment know what prayer is, although I am a praying man, and have been so for sixty years, but from the Lord's written word: in the which it is seen, fulfilled, and expressed, by crying unto the Lord; by

calling on the Lord; by pouring out the heart before the Lord; by praying in the heart. The words going before my text are these:"Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and the Lord shall say, Here I am." Prayer is a calling upon the Lord; it is a crying unto God. How easy it is so to do, when the mind is simply and spiritually enlightened. The want of simplicity in prayer, is the greatest remora in prayer to our right praying in prayer; and true spirituality and simplicity is the best evidence in prayer. Praying by gifts and memory, is no prayer in God's sight and account; the same may be very acceptable to us, because it is very expressive of the mind of the person who thus exercises himself; yet, depend upon it, praying by gifts and memory, is not praying in faith, and in the Holy Ghost. A poor sinner being taught by the Holy Spirit to know his own sinfulness, to feel his wounds, to apprehend his wants, is led by the Lord to speak out before him what he feels and experiences in himself: this is prayer. His feelings puts him on prayer: he hath no other way of expressing himself to the Lord Jesus Christ, who only can relieve him; and this he sometimes does with such words as these:-"Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Lord, remember me. Lord, be with me. Lord, look thou upon me. Think upon me, O my God! for good. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me." The person who is thus taught of God to express himself before the throne, before the Lord Jesus Christ, is the very identical one who prays acceptably before him. Prayer is the inward breathings of the new-born soul under the breathings of the Holy Ghost within him; and he praying according to the sense and knowledge he hath of his own sins, wants, cases, circumstances, and miseries; this is that which makes it prayer; the most of which is expressed in sighs, desires, and aspirations, which are secretly conceived in the heart; and sometimes by words, suited to the case; and generally in a brief manner, and a very comprehensive way. I will here give you some instances and examples of this from scripture. Hannah, it is said, " prayed unto the Lord." She was in bitterness of soul, and wept sore. She poured out her soul before the Lord. She spake in her heart, only her lips moved; yet the Lord paid such particular attention to her request, that he most graciously granted it. You will read the truth of all this, in the first chapter of the first book of Samuel. Prayer consists in speaking to God. Hence the Psalmist says: "Trust in him at all times: ye people, pour out your hearts before him," Ps. lxii. 8. The title of the 102d Psalm contributes its evidence to this, it being entitled, "A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord." Of Moses it is again and again said, "He spake unto the Lord; he entreated the Lord; he called upon the Lord; he cried unto the Lord :" all of which gives full evidence of the simplicity of

prayer. To this may be added his prayer to the Lord, when his sister Miriam was smitten with the leprosy : "And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee," Num. xii. 13. So David, when he was informed that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom, put up the following short request: O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness," which was most expressly answered. As it respects prayer being expressed according to the very case, we have an example of this in the following one, which was offered up by Jacob, when he was in a case of extreme difficulty and danger. It was as follows:-" O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said to me, return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude," Genesis xxxii. 9-12. There is nothing in the whole of this but the most perfect simplicity; nor any thing mentioned, but what is absolutely necessary; and why this should not be looked upon as a model of true prayer, I cannot say; surely we have in it the very essence of prayer! And from what hath been said, and also proved from what hath been quoted, prayer is, and consists in, calling upon the Lord; in crying unto him; in pouring out the heart before the Lord: in speaking unto him. I would, therefore, here make mention of the words which go before our present text: "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry;" to the which he will reply, "Here I am."

The simplicity of prayer, and the grace of him who heareth and answereth prayer, is wonderful. It becomes us to look at it, and admire it. There is no one act in which the spirituality of the mind is more discovered, than in the act of prayer. I would here be understood; I do, in an especial manner, refer to private prayer. In public prayer, as the Lord will put honor on his instituted worship, as outwardly and publicly performed; so he will bestow gifts on such as are to be exercised, that it may be performed in a devout, reverential, and becoming manner; yet this does not always prove that such thus engaged are really spiritual persons; nor do I conceive we can form a right estimation thereby of what they are before the Lord. It is in what we style family worship, and closet, or private prayer, that we only know what prayer is; and then it is not known by the multitude of words, nor by the greatness of the expressions uttered. No;