PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN. 367 Remember also, that though your sins were pardoned, yet you have a sinful nature in you, ready to offend God again con- tinually. Do you not find yourselves too ready to commit new sins ? Are you not soon ready to be angry, without a cause, or to strike others presently, or call them ill names, if they do not act just as you would have them? Are you never ready to be envious, that is to grow uneasy, and fret, if other children have better things than you ? Are you not ready to disobey your pa- rents or your governors, or to spend your time in play, when you, should be at work, or learning your book ? Are you not some- times inclined to hide your faults, by telling a lie ? Do not you find yourselves too ready to learn evil words, or to wish evil to others, or take something privately by stealth, that is not allowed you, or to do something that is forbidden ? And do you not See then, how much you want to pray for the grace of God, to' keep you from sin daily ? And are not your minds too ignorant of God, and religion, and heavenly things, as well as you find your spirits too ready to yield to sin ? is it not a pleasure to you to think, that God has promised his own holy Spirit, to instruct you in the under- standingof holy things, as well as to help you, in doing your duty both to God and man ? This is a blessed promise, indeed, to poor ignorant and sinful creatures, such as we are : But can you think, God will give his grace, or his holy Spirit, to them who never pray to him, or ask him for it ? and are not encou- ragements given, by our Saviour himself, to such requests? Do you not read, in your bible ; Luke xi. 13. " If fathers give good gifts to their children, how much more shall your heavenly Fa- ther give the holy Spirit to them that ask hito ?" But besides your temporal and spiritual wants, is there not another sort of blessings that you stand in need of, which are calledeternal bles- sings? ,Do not you know, thatyou cannot live here always ? Have you not been taught that your body must die, and be buried and turn to dust; in the grave ; and that your soul, or spirit, which cannot die, must then go into another world ? Have you not been told, that Jesus Christ the Son of God, who died for .sinners once on earth, is now gone to heaven, to take care of the souls of his people, when they leave this world ? And do you think, Jesus Christ will take care of your soul, when it comes like a stranger into that other world, if you have not been acquainted with him, by believing his word, and if 'you have not committed and entrusted your soul into his hands byprayer ? You must go to stand before God, the Judge of all, when you die ; and are you prepared and fit to stand before God, if you have not obtained a good hope, that God loves you, and is reconciled to you ? There-are but two places in the other world, and these are heaven andhell : Heaven for the righteous, who
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