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OUR RELATION TO THE DEITY.

[ Part I.

The reasonableness of Divine worship might be inferred fromthe mere fact of its being natural, as we have seen ; but it maybe well to give it some further illustration. Prayer is expressiveof our dependence upon God ; and, as all our privileges and en-joyments are the effects of his unmerited goodness, it becomesus to ask, if we would receive them. Man is created in God’sown image ; * there must, then, be such a resemblance betweenthe image and the high Original , as to justify us in reasoninganalogically, provided we do it with sufficient caution, from theimage to the Original. We all know how much men are influ-enced by a request made in a suitable temper and spirit. And,if this is reasonable in men, made after the image of God, is itnot reasonable, that the Great Original should be influenced byprayer proffered before his throne in the spirit of dependence,and in acknowledgment that every good and perfect gift comesfrom him ?

It is reasonable, moreover, that we should not only offer upprayer and thanksgiving privately, but also in public. For Godis to be regarded as the universal benefactor of mankind, fromwhom we all have received public blessings, and to whom, there-fore, we owe public acknowledgments. Private prayer andthanksgiving are, by no means, adequate returns for public' blessings. ’

Convinced, then, that prayer and thanksgiving are both naturaland reasonable, and knowing that they are enjoined as an imper-ative Christian duty, we shall not be moved by the skepticalsophism, “ If it be most agreeable to perfect wisdom and justicethat we should receive what we desire, God, as perfectly wiseand just, will give it to us without asking ; if it be not agreeableto these attributes of his nature, our entreaties cannot move himto give it us, and it were impious to expect that they should.”More briefly thus ; “If what we request be fit for us, we shallhave it without praying ; if it be not fit for us, we cannot ob-tain it by praying. ”f

This is the substance of all that can be said against prayer, —and Lt admits of an answer entirely satisfactory. It is very true,

Gen. i. 27; Col. iii. 10.

t Paley’s Moral and Polit. Phil., p. 231.