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permission to ask, and a promise to answer. In John xvi. 23, this command of our Saviour is given, his purpose being the increase of our present happiness, by seeing those evidences of his power and love, which will be sure to delight the soul. He presses them to it in these words: "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." The system of argument I have made use of in this paper, of taking the known proper dealing of a father to his child as a guide to what God will do, our Saviour himself uses in Matt. vii. 9—11, ridiculing the idea of God not being willing to grant the request of his children, when they ask for what they really require. Principles do not change; and if we are to look on God as our Father in love, of course his dealings towards us will be in consistency with that relative position carried out according to the most profound wisdom. And what fills the soul of a child with joy, but the assurance he can have all he desires? the only check being his liability to ask, in ignorance or childishness, for something not really good. But this, in a sincere Christian, only tends to increase his joy, because he knows his own liability to false wishes; and however hard, according to the flesh, yet in his considerate moments the renewed spirit can be felt rejoicing in the preventive care as well as the providing love of his Father, without the fear of the one destroying the reality of the other; and the simple fact, that one blessing had been so granted, as to be an obvious answer to prayer, would be a source of joy and strength, increase his love to God, faith in His love, presence, and power, with a desire tò please and obey Him, and learn what His mind in us is, so as to regulate our prayer and desires in future, &c. We see, therefore, in this exercise of prayer, and its adaptation to the soul, what a mighty power it is, and how surely God must desire to establish such a system of communion and manifestation of himself. (John xiv. 21.)

The good and wise man says, "You know I am always ready to give you anything good, if you will only ask for it." He pants to establish this confidence of his love in the soul of the child, though he never means it to interfere with his own exertions to attain useful ends, but as an assurance of his help when it is required; and the pure law of love is established in man, after an image in the mind, in the great Father of all. But if the child, after all, doubt it to be a gift in answer to his prayer, whether from the manner of the gift, or any other cause, its force to strengthen his faith in the promises is lost.

The next objection I shall endeavour to meet is, that God's laws are so fixed, and all his ways so predetermined, that it is useless to expect a change in them, or that he will so order them as to meet our wishes.

But the actual change of any established natural law cannot be requisite for our wants, because God has so created and adapted all things for the purpose of supplying them : and the order of events is in no respect so fixed, as not to be in subservience to those principles which God has given man for his rule of life in the word, and the reasonable gratification of those desires which arise from the mind and body; for it is the excess which is evil. In fact, the whole three-the creation, the Word, and man-are adapted by the same hand to work in harmony with each other; and the first is promised to be ordered by the last, and the last to be guided by him to meet the first, when man seeks, through knowledge, and faith in the second, to be ruled by God. It simply, therefore, requires faith in those promises given by Christ, to see the impossibility of God having bound himself in the natural laws, so as not to be able to keep them, as well as by

his declared purposes in man, to be unwilling to answer the reasonable requests made to him, and thus make his doing so a requisite to their attainment, as a source of increase in faith, peace, and joy, by the answer. But, perhaps, some one will say, "All this is true; but we do not know how to ask, and therefore had better leave it all to God." True, my friend, naturally we do not, because we have no standard by which to regulate our desires. But surely no Christian will say, that because a child is liable to err in asking for foolish sweets, that his father forbids him asking at all? No; he teaches him what he ought to seek. And has God been negligent in this? Have we not Scripture to teach us what God acknowledges as good requests and real wants?-what he has sanctioned in the prayers of his people aforetime? and the fact of our being commanded to ask, though in submission to God's will for an answer, and having instruction given to regulate our requests, implies the fact, that to learn what God will grant, is within our reach; while the force of conscience will, if listened to, ever detect a prayer in the lusts of the flesh from the real wants of the body and soul. It would be as reasonable to argue, a man must not work, for, if he does, it is to satisfy a want; and he never dreams idleness a virtue, or an evidence of content, or the liability to err in the desire he has existing an excuse for it. But surely a man is far more likely to be injured by this method of satisfying himself, when he has it within the reach of his own powers, because, if it depended on the immediate help of God, and the desire was evil, then it would not be granted, and the evil consequences would not follow.

It is obvious, then, that the Christian may ask; nay, more, that God beseeches him to ask; that God has established this means of communication with him, as a way of manifesting himself to his people; and that God would not either desire or command it, if it were impossible the request would be so regulated that he could grant them; because an evil prayer is sin, and God is not a tempter; and the use of prayer is no evidence of discontent, because God has made it an act of obedience; and, of course, so regulates all things, that Christians cannot obtain many real blessings without this proof of their faith. So, let every Christian know, that he is without many blessings, if he does not recognise this. Humility is often the excuse for not asking; but although conscious liability to err may sometimes prevent us, yet it should rather cause a search into the real motives, and whether conscience, and God's truth, its instructer, does not say the desire is not good, while it is often a cloak for unbelief. Men are in no such hurry to give up their pursuits, when they hope to attain them by their own exertions, but stretch every nerve. How is it they become so modest and watchful, when the only way of obtaining their wishes is a simple act, showing faith in God's power of arrangement and combination to help and direct them? and no man but at times is in circumstances when he is conscious of a reasonable and useful wish, and yet sees no way of gratifying it, although the obstacles are only such as a little help from God's overruling power would either direct his mind as to the means, or bring it within his reach. Neither is it altogether the case, that a prayer for a thing which God cannot sanction, if uttered in ignorance, is displeasing to him. The ignorance he will forgive, and be pleased with the faith from which it proceeds; while his refusal to grant it proves the error existing. The thing may be even good in the abstract; but perhaps some favourite passion to which we are already too much inclined, will be thereby strengthened; or the suppliant may, perhaps, through doubt, after the request is made, lose it

by not being prepared to take advantage of the opportunity when offered, or go in search of it in some way which God cannot sanction, such as the neglect of a positive duty or the proper time. All these are plain principles between father and child. How surely, then, will He attend to his share, who is the great Father of all, and the teacher of them!

But one thing the Christian must acknowledge, ere he can attain this faith in the overruling providence of God in all things. Philosophers and men of science scout the idea of chance, luck, and such nonsense; and surely the believer should not dishonour God, by supposing that He does not order all things, and has a purpose in all, the good effect on the minds of his redeemed children being a prime one, although we may not be always able to trace his object. How often do we hear Christians say, "Well, I was wishing but yesterday for so and so, and to-day I got it, or might have had it, if I had been aware of it :" but, so far from seeing God acting in it to show them his power and love, or produce some other good effect in their minds,—perhaps to show them he does hear and answer prayer, even when it is scarcely offered to him,-they say, "How strange!" "How odd!" "What a strange coincidence!" "How fortunate!" &c.; as though the whole that takes place was but a chapter of accidents, and there was no overlooking, overruling, omnipotent God at all. God carries on, by his own immediate power, all the results which take place in the creation; and, if it be requisite, can either so direct our minds, as to throw us in the way of what we require, or bring it to us; and as our wants are but simple, so he can grant or refuse them at pleasure; while, as men are ruled in a great measure by the impressions existing in their minds, he who believes in this power and will of God to answer his request, will be in a very different position from what he would if not believing it, so that his faith may become a means of bringing its own reward.

I shall now draw your attention to one example of Scripture, where there existed in a simple-minded servant, and man of God, this faith in God's power and love, and where God answered the prayer by a simple combination of events. I mean the account given in Gen. xxiv. of Abraham's servant, who is answered by what might appear a natural circumstance to others. And so it was; but to him it was also an evidence of the directing hand of God, because it occurred in the way and time he required it for direction. The simplicity of the request shows the faith of the man. His patient waiting at the well until all was fulfilled which he required, shows that the hope of an answer was in him; and his after-conduct proves how readily he honoured God by acting upon it. Had he not really believed God could, and hoped he would, have answered his prayer, his duty would have been to proceed at once on his journey; and with what little confidence could he have acted, even if, after all, he had stumbled on his master's relatives!

Now, surely we have here an example all can apply in its principles, according to our various circumstances. How often would such an evidence of God's direction release our minds from anxiety, help us in the attainment of truth, or some temporal requisite ! and how consoling under difficulties to believe such aid attainable! How delightful to the soul, not so much in the thing attained, as in the direct evidence of God being our Father, full of love and compassion, ready to help in every time of need! And what a check it would also be to sin and folly, even in our thoughts, to realize the consciousness of God's acquaintance with them!

How often do we want His help to comprehend apparently conflicting

passages in his word; and how easy for Him to supply a teacher in a work which explains that which He so much desires we should seek,—true wisdom! Not that we should neglect the use of our own powers; on the contrary, quicken them; but still, in the consciousness of their weakness, seek help from that Saviour who has proved Himself all-sufficient for all things, and who, having given Himself for us, is also willing to give them to us. (Rom. viii. 32.) But each one must apply these principles to his own circumstances. Experience, too, is requisite, and will increase by the study and trial of God's ways. The answer must be always left to God, and submission to His will keep down all murmuring. We may not always see the answer when given, through the mind being clouded by some unknown error, or not able to see the depth of that wisdom which refuses the request; but still be instant in prayer, and it will not go unrewarded.

If any Christian still doubt the extent of his privileges, let him study the word, and consider whether he is not charging God in his heart with saying one thing and meaning another, and ask himself, " Do I doubt that God is as good as I should be to my children?" For no man would consider it requisite to do that for them they could do for themselves, but only give them those general instructions requisite. It is when their weakness is the obstacle, he steps in, and shows his love and power, and that he is always at hand to help in every time of need, either to check or to encourage. I have said but little on this vast and important means of Christian happiness and perfection, in comparison with what might be; but I trust it may awaken some to a further consideration of it, and how dishonouring to the love of God any argument which would reduce the force and fulness of His promises must be; while the honour of this permission would be strongly felt, and the most made of it, if some earthly Prince had said, “I will call you friends ;" and, to show that it was not in name only, gave permission to ask for what we would, and it should be granted. But this same language from the omnipotent Creator and heavenly Saviour and King (John xv. 13, 16-24) is too often explained and tortured to mean nothing at all; for surely a principle and a promise which cannot be reduced to practice, and bear their trial, can be of no real value. I shall now conclude this paper, in hopes it may be blessed by the great Giver of all increase to the souls of those of his family who may peruse it; and to Him be all the glory.

A SUPPLIANT AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.

REMINISCENCES OF DR. CHALMERS.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

SHORTLY after my appointment to Edinburgh, in the year 1836, I called on the gentle, the generous, the eloquent Chalmers. He cordially received me as a Wesleyan Minister, and kindly gave me permission to attend his theological lectures at the University. I frequently noted down many of his wise and characteristic sayings, at the time, or immediately after I had left his company; and others I still well remember.

On one occasion he addressed me thus:-" Mr. Dunn, your Mr. Wesley was a most extraordinary man; all the churches of Christendom are under lasting obligations to him; his plan of penny-a-week subscriptions was a great practical achievement, and deserves the attention of all denomina

tions. But I do not like some parts of his theology: he denies the righteousness of Christ." I said, "Doctor, you are certainly mistaken; for he has a sermon on the very subject, from Jer. xxiii. 6,— This is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.' Have you ever read it, Doctor?" He replied, he did not remember that he had; and then asked several other questions respecting Methodism.

His views of the deeply-interesting and important subject of redemption will interest your readers. I have heard him speak thus: "Particular redemption presents the Gospel unfavourably: it is a drag and deduction to the offers of the Gospel. Those Ministers must feel the difficulty of preaching, who think that Christ died only for the elect. Thus the message of Heaven's good-will has been laid under embarrassment; reasons have been taken from the upper counsels to retard the Gospel. The annunciation from heaven's vault is, 'Peace, good-will,' as boundless as the universe. Christianity will soon break forth from the prisonment in which, by many, it has long been held. They have made it to pass through a strainer, instead of falling as a universal shower upon the world. It is not sufficient that we believe, Christ gave himself for his sheep;' but that 'He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.' A man is not first to believe that he is one of Christ's sheep, but that he is one of the 'world' for it is not said, 'Look unto me, ye few favourites ;' but, ‘all the ends of the earth.' In no place in the Bible is pardon offered to the elect, but to every person as one of the species. If the Gospel were offered only to the elect, it would not be glad tidings to a single soul; for no one knows, when he first hears the Gospel, that he is one of the elect. There never was a more direct way to darken the message of the Gospel than to mix up the doctrine of election with it: such preaching gives a world of perplexity and alarm to hearers. There is nothing in the dogma of predestination that should in the least trammel us in our offers of salvation. It is a distorted Gospel that does not offer salvation to all. It is not a limited, but a universal, offer of the Gospel, that is the instrument of salvation in every particular case. The Sun of Righteousness has arisen as generally upon human spirits, as the natural sun has arisen upon human eyes. That Minister is not true to his commission, who does not indiscriminately offer the Gospel. That theologian darkens and bewilders himself, who goes to the decrees. But we are told it is God's work to enlighten and renew men. Yes; but God's grace is given with great liberality, and it is lamentable that any Clergyman should shroud this doctrine by any speculations on predestination, which is too deep and mysterious for our optics.

"The offer of the Gospel is not only to men of all nations, but to all men of all nations. And all men may accept of it. All men ought to accept of it: they have a warrant to do it. It is their own fault if they do not. It is their condemnation if they do not. The only sense in which redemption is particular and limited is, that some will refuse the offer; but this is their own fault. Redemption is not universal in point of effect. The Arminians neither believe this nor the non-eternity of hell-torments, though they are often called universalists. But their meaning is, not the actual salvation, but the possible salvation, of all. I would renounce predestination if I could not offer salvation to any congregation; tell them that there is no exclusion; that every one may wash away his sins in the blood of Christ. I would give up my views of the decrees of God, if they trammelled me in offering salvation to one and all of the human family. A

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