CONSOLATIONS. OF PRAYER. 429 not some danger, that not only the mere formalist, but even the immoral manmay apply to himself sentiments, declarations, assurances, and comforts, which can only belong to the real Christian ? For in- stance ; the arrogant man, as if, like the dervise in the Persian fable, he had shot his soul into the character he assumes, repeats with complete self-application, " Lord, I am not high-minded ;" the trifler says, " I hate vain thoughts ;!' the irreligious, " Lord, how I love thy law." He who seldom prays at all, confidently repeats, " All the day long I am occupied in thy statutes." The covetous, in the words of Paul or David, with as much self-complacencydeprecates avarice, as if the anathema against it had ever opened either his heart or his purse.. On the other hand, as the hardest substances, by continual attrition, are at length penetrated, it is the pleasing task of charity to hope, that the habitual repe- tition of such feelings, sentiments, and principles may sink into the hard heart. 7
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