UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION, &C. 807 pending on the difference of talents, wealth, leisure, learning, station, and opportunities ; but the duty of prayer is of imperative obligation ; it is uni- versal, because it demands none of any of the above requisites ; it demands only a willing heart, a consciousness of sin, a sense of dependence, a feeling of helplessness. Those who voluntarily neglect it, shut themselves out from the presence of their Maker. " I know you not," must assuredly be the sentence of exclusion on those who thus " know not God." Nothing, it is true, can exclude them from His inspection, but they exclude themselves from His favour. Many nearly renounce prayer, by af- fecting to make it so indefinite a thing, as not to require regular exercise. Just as many, also, unhallow the Sabbath, who pretend they do nothing on week- days, which they should fear to do on Sundays. The truth is, instead of sane- tifying the week-days by raising them
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