No. VI.

PARTICULAR PRAYER-DAVID.

Two considerations unite to exalt the Christian's privilege in prayer above that enjoyed by the Old Testament saints. He to whom, through whom, and by whom, our supplications ascend, seeking the throne of grace, is known to us as a man, a brother of our nature, a being formed like us; one who is experimentally acquainted both with the temptations that assail us, and with the infirmity of the frame that must sustain the conflict. No longer clad in terrible mystery, speaking from the midst of the fire and the thick darkness, and causing our hearts to quake,-He whom we worship has revealed Himself to us in a character to engage our confidence, and to assure us of his tender sympathy in all our wants and woes.

The other consideration is, that to Him all

power is given, both in heaven and earth. Those of old made no question of God's infinite might; but they beheld it, as it were dimly; obscured by its own terribleness; not as we do, shining forth in the bright glory of his infinite love. We may trace this feeling of deep and distant awe in most of their addresses, contrasted with the language of Paul, Peter, John, enabled by the Holy Ghost to draw nigh, not indeed with less reverence, but with far greater boldness, more filial freedom, and perfect assurance of having One to plead for them who could not fail.

But David enjoyed wonderful freedom of access to God in prayer. Not only do his beautiful Psalms breathe the happiest spirit of loving, trusting dependence; but, in various passages of his life, we find him carrying present troubles and anxieties to the Lord, as to a friend who could sympathize as well as relieve. During the periods of those two heavy trials to which he was subjected, the violent persecution of Saul, and the rebellion of Absalom,-we trace a habit of prayer that loved to go into particulars, to lay the minutiae of his case before God, to appeal to Him as to one

who knew not only the fact of his being under afflictions, but the precise character also of those afflictions, the number, names, dispositions, acts and designs of his enemies. David seems to have derived comfort even from the assurance that the Lord knew all the evil of his heart; whether displayed by actions, uttered in words, or secretly working in its deepest recesses; in thoughts known to no man but himself, and motives concealed perhaps from him through the deceitfulness of sin. He appears like a patient who, in some desperate case, comes to the physician, anxiously desirous that he should search it out thoroughly, and building his chief hope on the worst being known.

It is hence that the beauty springs, which commends itself to the feeling of every believer who takes up the Psalmist's strain. It is the peculiar drawing nigh unto God, the confiding tone of those humble aspirations, the desire to lie, as it were, continually under the dissecting-knife of Him from whose piercing eye our depravity naturally shrinks, and would hide itself. David must have had very clear views of Christ, or he could not have

thus felt and acted. But, prophet as he was, and type also, both of the suffering Jesus and his church, the conquering Messiah and his kingdom, he could not have that close knowledge which is vouchsafed to us, of Him whose actual history lies spread before us, as though we had seen all his wondrous doings, and heard all the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth; had wept before his cross, and wondered at his sepulchre, and gazed up into heaven ere yet the cloud that received his ascending form had vanished in the distance. Surely, then, we ought not to be less bold in coming to the throne of grace, with whose divine Occupant we are thus personally acquainted, than David was who, compared with us, beheld him afar off.

There is a beautiful point in this praying king's history, that may yield a very valuable lesson. When Absalom revolted, he had, among the abettors of his paricidal treason, one really wise counsellor,-Ahithophel, who had filled that office to David: and the king well knew the value of his aid, and how greatly the evil cause that he had espoused might be promoted by his sagacious advice.

In this state of feeling, when apprised of the traitor's defection from him, he put up this short, plain, distinct petition, "O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!" Here was the individual named, whose working he feared; the means by which he would probably work; his counsel pointed out, and the exact remedy, in a purely defensive spirit, suggested. He did not ask for Ahithophel's destruction, nor even chastisement; but simply that his wisdom, employed in an unrighteous cause against his lawful king, might become foolishness. Having so prayed, he took the best means presented to him for the furtherance of that object, by detaching a most faithful friend from his party, and seemingly from this cause, that he might be on the spot to become instrumental in defeating the counsel of Ahithophel. The Lord accepted the prayer, and used the very means chosen by David. Ahithophel's very sensible and very wicked counsel was turned into foolishness, by the vain and shallow Absalom preferring before it the feigned opinion of Hushai. The rebels, then misled, were defeated, Absalom slain, David restored; and