More - PR3605 .M6 M5 1820

INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 44g Vindicate Providence, yet to benefit your- selves. Not, indeed, to revive the old pious fraud of depending for salvation on the prayers of others ; yet still you may hope to be repaid, with usurious interest, from the pious poor, by the very tender charity of their prayers for you. Their supplications may possibly be so heard, that you may, at length, be brought to the indispensable necessity, and the bounden duty ofpraying for yourselves. As to the commanded duty of praying for our enemies, the most powerful ex- ample bequeathed to us in Scripture, next to that of his Divine Master on the cross, is that of St. Stephen. Even after the expiring martyrhad ejaculated "Lord Jesus, receive myspirit," he kneeleddown and cried with a loud voice, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Let every instance of Roman greatness of mind, let every story of Grecian magnanimity be ransacked, and produce, who can, such another example. Theirs is tu- mour, this is grandeur ; theirs is heroism,

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