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THE

Quarterly

CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR,

CONDUCTED

BY AN ASSOCIATION OF GENTLEMEN.

FOR THE YEAR

1820.

VOLUME II.

NEW-HAVEN:

PUBLISHED BY HOWE & SPALDING.

S. CONVERSE, PRINTER.

Williams 12-17.30 22714

THE

CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR.

No. I.]

JANUARY, 1820.

Heligious Communications.

For the Christian Spectator.
On wandering thoughts in Prayer.

It is a characteristic of hypocrites, that they draw nigh to God with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, while their heart is far from him. Their religious services are all formal. In these they may perhaps be abundant. This was the fact with respect to the hypocritical Jews in the days of Isaiah, and with respect to the Pharisees in the days of our Saviour. The former were not deficient in the multitude of their sacrifices, in the celebration of their sabbaths and appointed feasts, nor in any of the forms of worship prescribed in their ritual: and the latter were scrupulously exact in the external performance of religious duties. They fasted much, prayed often and made long prayers, paid tithes of all that they possessed, and were very strict in their observance of the Sabbath. But all their religion was hypocritical. It consisted in a routine of mere external services, which being perform ed without any love to God, resemble a body without the soul, and are with great propriety denominated dead works. But "God is a Spirit, and he seeketh such to worship him, as worship him in spirit and in truth." "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Those who draw nigh to him with their mouth while their heart is on other objects, not only fail to secure his approbation, but are guilty of great provocation; and where this is so uniformly the case, as to form the habitual character of

[VOL. II.

those who profess to be the worshippers of God, it is an indubitable mark of hypocrisy.

But there is a degree of this evil, to which real christians are subject. They often complain of wandering thoughts in prayer. Owing to their sinful imperfection, when they would do good, evil is present with them; and probably in no case, do they find this declaration more frequently verified, than in their addresses to the throne of grace. Often in their closets, vain thoughts intrude upon their devotions; and oftener, in the sanctuary and in the social circle, when they join in the prayers of others, they find their heart wandering from its object. This to the christian is a. source of grief and lamentation, while by the hypocrite it is disregarded, and rarely, if ever, made the subject of complaint.

It is to be feared, however, that even the christian, has but a faint sense of the nature and magnitude of the evil, and should the following remarks serve to stimulate any one to greater diligence in keeping his own heart, they will not utterly fail of their object. It may be useful to contemplate, the sinfulness; the causes, and the remedies of the evil in question. That it is highly sinful to suffer our thoughts to wander upon the world while engaged in the duty of prayer, is apparent from many considerations.

It is utterly inconsistent with the divine requirements. "My son give me thine heart," is a command which runs through all the preceptive part of the Bible, and is implied in every

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