303

SERMON XXIII.

MATT. vii. 7.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

THIS is one of those very instructive passages with which the holy Scripture abounds. It contains an exhortation to a most important dutyviz. secret prayer-and as the best inducement to the practice of it, it contains also a promise of success. We are exhorted to ask, to seek, and to knock and that we may not fail to do so, we are told that what we ask shall be given to us; what we seek, we shall find; and that the door shall be opened to those who knock for an entrance. This is the natural and obvious meaning of this passage; and this is the impression it is directly calculated to produce on the mind.

But this is not all: à considerate person will

discover something further in this matter. Besides the direct exhortation and the obvious encouragement in the words, he will perceive that there is couched in them, though indirectly, a piece of most material information, a truth of immense consequence, in which we are every one of us deeply concerned. This truth, this piece of information, is, that there is something for which we ought to ask; something that is worth seeking; and also, something which is not to be known or obtained by remaining on the outside of the door at which we are to knock. He who bids us ask, and promises that it shall be given; who bids us seek, and promises that we shall find; most manifestly implies, both that there is something worth asking for, and also something to be obtained by asking and seeking, which will not be obtained in a state of indolence and indifference.

Such passages as these, therefore, (and there are many of similar import), should lead all persons, who would read the Scriptures for profit, to reflect what it is in which our natural faculties so evidently fail us; what it is that our wisest and greatest benefactor, the Lord Jesus Christ, so earnestly exhorts us to aim at obtaining as a gift;

as a thing undoubtedly necessary for us; but which we cannot give ourselves, either at once by any sudden and bold exertion, or by the continuance of any patient labour and management. We may knock, but we cannot open the door of ourselves: there is, therefore, something to which our Heavenly Father is ready to introduce us; and it is in the way of seeking, that we are to expect success: at the same time we are distinctly to remember, that it is still of his unmerited grace and favour and mercy, that he listens to our supplications and answers our petitions.

It is certainly with great propriety that such declarations as those of my text, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you;" are always considered by pious divines as affording great encouragement to the prayers of godly men. But the peculiar impression which I would at present wish to make is, that these very satisfactory encouragements to prayer ought also to put us upon thinking what there is in the present condition of human nature that should make it not only expedient, but even necessary, that we should ask, seek, and knock for instruction. It is my earnest desire that every

one here present should remember, that the thing now inculcated is, not a mere general notion respecting prayer--as, that God is ready to hear any prayer that is sincerely offered up to him, as often as our necessities require-but, that there is in us a darkness, an ignorance, a blindness respecting our dearest concerns; and that the blessed promises of "Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and ye shall find," point out to us the true way of obtaining light and understanding, and an entrance into Christ's sheep-fold by the true and living way.

This single consideration gives us a new view of all scriptural admonitions of this sort. We are very apt to be content with the bare information of there being a God to whom we may make known our wants, and on whom we may call as occasions occur where we think we stand in need of his assistance: but if you weigh well the admonitions in question, and be disposed to apply them to your own case, you will not wait till some occasion particularly distressing, or extraordinarily embarrassing, shall happen; but will instantly, and without delay, beg of God to open your understandings, and incline your hearts, so that you may both see the road to life, and delight to walk in it.

Under a deep conviction that it is your duty to cultivate a spirit of prayer, and that such passages as those of my text point out this duty and enforce it, you will lose no time in making application to the Throne of Grace, even though you may not as yet have acquired very clear views of the several branches of the Christian life, or of the appropriate wants which severally belong to them.

This same consideration, which adds so much weight to the meaning of the scriptural inducements to prayer, is also in direct opposition to all those false glosses and misinterpretations of the word of God, which would represent men, who in a Christian country profess themselves to be believers of revelation, as having, in our times, nothing to do but to read the Scriptures, and exercise their natural faculties in comprehending their meaning, and, lastly, to practise the precepts contained in them. It is very true we are to exercise our natural faculties in reading the Scriptures, but there is this important distinction between the Bible and any other book: in the studying of any other book, there is no where any well-grounded promise of Divine assistance to open its meaning; whereas in the case of the holy Scriptures