340 ERRORS IN PRAYER: a short separation. Vain, covetous, malignant, impure thoughts, habitually fostered by the imagination, are more likely to start out into action, are a more probable, preparation for a bolder sin, than many who indulge them believe or intend. It was, perhaps, this acute experimental feeling which led David to pray to be de- livered from " secret sins ;" these, he was probablyconscious, had led to those " pre- sumptuous sins," which had entangled his soul and embittered his life; and whose dominion he so frequently and fervently deprecates. This, it is to be feared, may be the case with some, whose language and exterior cause them to be ranked with the religious ; these are, at least, the dangers to which they are most exposed. It is therefore, that our Lord connects, in indissoluble union,, watching with prayer. Perhaps, when the conscience is more than usually awakened, you pray with some degree of fervour to be delivered
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