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I. GOD HAS IN ALL AGES REVEALED HIMSELF AS THE HEARER AND ANSWERER OF PRAYER. The Lord has not only heard the petitions of His people, and amply rewarded their faith in Him, but He has shown that "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Just as the clouds of the skies which ascend from the earth in impalpable vapours, revisit the ground in rich and abundant showers, so prayer, which goes forth in weak and imperfect approaches to heaven, returns in full and enlarged answers. "No human creature can believe," said Luther, "how powerful is prayer, and what it is able to effect, except those who have learned by experience." Perhaps there is no one direction in which the fruit of successful prayer is so distinctly discernible as in the great sacred peace which it produces in the heart of the suppliant.

II. THE WISDOM AND MERCY OF GOD ARE AS REAL IN THE DELAYS AND EVEN THE DENIALS OF PRAYER AS IN THE ANSWERS HE GRACIOUSLY VOUCHSAFES. Moses earnestly entreated that He might go into the good land, but it was denied him; yet the Lord showed him the earthly country, and then took him to the better land. David prayed for the life of Bathsheba's child, but he prevailed not; yet his God heard his prayer, and gave him a son honourably born, and rarely endowed. As in the Saviour's dealings with the Syrophoenician woman; beneath the Lord's seeming, "No," so to us often there is hidden a better "Yes" than we have dared to hope or to think. Paul prayed that "the thorn in the flesh" might be removed; but he had to learn that the all-sustaining support of God's grace is better than exemption from suffering and trial. When our petitions seem changed in the answers we receive to them, it is for our good always. Leighton says, "God regards our well more than our will."

III. WE MAY WELL EXPEND OUR CHIEF IMPORTUNITY ON THE BEST GIFTS, SINCE WE HAVE THE PROMISE THAT "ALL OTHER THINGS SHALL BE ADDED THEREUNTO." "Covet earnestly the best gifts." These are enjoyments which are congenial to our spiritual nature: they afford real solid satisfaction, their possession is perpetual, they ennoble and dignify us, they make their subject a blessing to men and glorious to God. In their pursuit we cannot be too earnest, ambitious, or covetous.

IV. WORLDLY GOOD IS DEARLY PURCHASED AT THE COST OF SPIRITUAL GAIN. "He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls." Many a well-spread table has proved a snare, a trap, and a stumbling-block — often injury to health is the price paid for the poor gratification, or else satisfaction and delight in the enjoyment are removed. Worse still is the case of the unhappy victim who finds worldly enjoyments to be an oil feeding the fires of corruption, which might otherwise have been extinguished. It is natural to us to desire a large measure of worldly prosperity, the gratification of our wishes, and the increase of our possessions. It is gracious to be willing to defer all to the Divine disposal, in the conviction that nothing can be a blessing which is injurious to the soul.

(W. G. Lewis.)

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KJV: They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:

WEB: They soon forgot his works. They didn't wait for his counsel,