table, at times. Now, if this haunting and harrassing influence of the world should go farther, and get a firmer hold upon you, it may end fatally. It has placed you already upon what you feel to be the brink of a precipice which makes you almost totter. The same influence when given way to, has drowned many in perdition, or pierced them through with many sorrows. Now if you would stand, you must "take heed lest you fall." But it is not taking sufficient "heed," merely to maintain your attendance upon the sanctuary. That is, indeed, essential to your safety; for God will forsake the man who forsakes his word and worship. That man will sink as surely as if he were to quit a ship, in the midst of the ocean. More, however, is requisite than not "forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" with them who love Zion. You must strive to be" in the Spirit on the Lord's day," if you would pass unspotted or safely through the world during the week. For, if you find it to be hard work to possess your soul in patience," or to maintain the power of godliness, amidst the pressure of your engagements, even in those

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weeks which are ushered in by refreshing sabbaths and enjoyed sacraments, it must be impossible to do so when sabbaths and sacraments are not "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."

Men of business! suffer the word of exhortation. You know that the influence of the world is baneful. But, do acquaint yourselves fully with the Saviour's opinion of it. Christ never spoke of the world to his disciples, but with the most tremendous emphasis. There is nothing in all that he said of danger from Satan, more solemn than what he said of the evil of the world. The prayer he offered on Peter's behalf, when Satan desired to sift him as wheat, has not been left on record; whereas the prayer against the evil influence of the world is recorded at full length. No prayer of Christ is so long, or more fervent. He repeats the petition again and again, that his disciples may be kept from " the evil."

This is not by accident. John, who heard and recorded this prayer, evidently regarded the fact as full of special design. And, that he remembered it through life, is certain from

the frequency and force of his protests against the love of the world. His epistles are a solemn commentary on the Saviour's intercessory prayer. And, in the same spirit, Paul's chief practical reason for glorying only in the cross of Christ is assigned thus: " by which I am crucified unto the world, and the world unto me."

Now, you are emphatically "in the world," and can only be effectually "kept from the evil of it," by making your sabbaths a cloud of glory, which shall encircle and enshrine the whole week with the light and warmth of devotion.

No. IX.

THE INFLUENCE OF PRAYER UPON PEACE OF MIND UNDER THE TRIALS OF LIFE.

WHAT an idea Paul must have had of prayer, as an antidote to the cares of life and godliness, when he said to the Philippians, "be careful for nothing; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus!" This way of disposing of our cares and anxieties is so little understood, or so much disliked, that we are inclined to doubt its efficacy in our own case; or to ask,--how is it possible, in a world like this, to "be careful for nothing?" Our temporal cares are as we think, our chief hindrances in prayer. We even turn them, at times, into excuses for

the neglect of prayer; and imagine, when our cares are many and pressing, that much prayer cannot be expected from us. For, whatever influence the calamities of life may have in sending us often to our knees, the cares of life have a direct tendency to set aside, or shorten secret prayer. Indeed, at first sight, our ordinary cares do not seem, to us, to be things which prayer can remedy; but things which only time and toil can remove. Accordingly, when our temporal affairs go wrong, or our prospects darken, without exactly overwhelming us, we naturally devote to them, not a larger measure of secret prayer, but a larger portion of time and thought. It is thinking, not praying, that seems called for, under embarrassment and anxiety. Under heavy calamity, whether personal or domestic, we see, at once, that prayer is our only resource, because God alone can deliver us; but when we are merely vexed or plagued, we feel as if deliverance depended more upon our own good management, or upon the conduct of others, than upon the providence of God. Thus we are tempted to lessen prayer, and to increase