"I will:"... of the Psalms...

Front matter

"I WILL:"

BEING- THE gettrmiiwtimts at t\t fpan at &aa t m firmfo in some at % "i Mills" of % fjsalms.

BY

Contents

tost i.

THE "I WILL" OF TRUST.

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II. The "i Will" Of Converse

Low converse of the world; and often of God's people — Evil of labored religious conversation — Visiting — The world's ideas of ministerial visits — Hervey's experience— Converse in domestic relationship — The blessed effects of holy converse. „ 107

III. The "i Will" Of Converse

Continued.

Holy converse must come from a holy heart — Subjects of the Christian's converse — This converse not upon vague generalities — Blessed results 115

CONTENTS. XI

IV. The " I Will " Of Teaching

PAGS

God a Teacher — The dignity of the Teacher's office — Teaching out of personal experience — Dark experiences capable of supplying useful teaching — Instances of this — Blessed experiences to be turned to account in teaching 121

V. The "i Will 5 ' Of Teaching

Continued.

Painstaking should be found in all teaching for God— Endurance in Teaching — The endurance of Christ — Endurance and Talent — Great encouragement to this — Milne the missionary — Condescension in Teaching — Jesus an example of Condescension — Elliot the missionary to the Indians — Patience in Teaching — Wesley's mother — The necessity of not over-driving in religious knowledge — The necessity of doing God's work fully — Rowland Hill — Whitfield — Faithful before the jury at Vanity Fair — Christ's ministry to sinners — The unreasonableness of expecting all smooth work 128

Draaer, i.

THE "I WILL" OF PRAYER.

Little known or heard of the mighty powers '" Prayer " and " Faith " — Scripture statements of the power of Prayer — How man comes to pray at all — Children's prayers — Impediments to Prayer — Natural Inaptitude — -The difficulty to some of putting thoughts

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into words — The Chippewa Indian — Inherent unbelief— The natural tendency to do the most for ourselves, independently of God — The natural tendency to keep from alone and immediate connection with God — Letters to he spread before the Lord — Backwardness from known and felt imperfection in Prayer — Man to go to God just as he is 143

II.

THE OBJECT OF THE " I WILL " IN PRAYER.

God the great object of Prayer in the troublous time — The impotence of human sympathy — The sympathy of silence — Yalue of a personal definite view of God — The heart's desire that God would speak — Rutherford's remark on the Syrophenician woman — The silence of God — The desire for assurance of being heard — The great value of mental realization in prayer — Bodily acts in prayer — The desire that God would speak to us — The sustaining influence ' of the consciousness of being heard — The heart's dependence on God — The heart's hopelessness apart from God — Spiritual acquisition sometimes quickly made 162

III.

THE "I WILL" OF PRAYER IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE.

Prayer made in time of trouble by Christ — The Psalmist's position of distinctiveness — Malice not to be disarmed by compromise — Polycarp — The isolated position — The sympathy of Christ in man's isolation — Luther before the council — His prayer — The recognition of God as a Friend in trouble — The closeness of suffering must not be allowed to obscure the vision of God — The discovered hollowness of human friendship not to be allowed to throw a shadow on the divine. Continuous prayer under continual pressure — Wearing out temptations — Robert Glover — St. Augustine — Parent's prayers — Dr. Leland's testimony about them — The child prayed home — The door kept on the latch — The wonder of prayer being heard 1T9

CONTENTS. XU1

IV.

THE "I WILL" OF PRAYER IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE. Continued.

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Various kinds of troubles — Overwhelming troubles — Crying from the ends of the earth — Overwhelmings of heart — Loss of natural power of resistance — The overwhelmings of Christ — Yisions of Sin — Doubts of divine love — Remarkable case of long sorrow and sudden deliverance — The sense of weakness — Temporal overwhelmings — Recognition of a place of safety — the place of safety sufficient, when personal weakness has been realized — Christ as the Rock — The helping hand 211

V.

THE "I WILL" OF PRAYER IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE.

Concluded.

Prayer an unfailing resource — Dark valleys — Looking to the hills — Christ's upward lookings — Elevation above surrounding circumstances — The power of spiritual sight in prayer — Spiritual sight to be exercised in distinct action — Little troubles .* 231

VI. The "i Will" Of Continuance In Prayer

Excellence in different departments of the Christian life — Continuance in prayer as a habit— St. Augustine's wish — The servant who continued always in prayer — Prayer in special places — Prayer in a strange place — Prayer on the chimney top — Prayer in common places — Prayer without pressing need — Thoughts and interests which excite prayer , 242

VII. The "i Will" Of Continuance In Prayer

Continued.

Realization of Privilege in Prayer an incitement to continuance in Prayer — Communion, higher intercourse with God than worship —

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The common things of daily life to be committed to God in prayer— The crying child — The railway travellers — The lost paper — The lost purse — The rejected medicine — Travelling expenses — The operation of the Holy Ghost upon the habit of the mind — Results of continuance in prayer as a habit 252

VIII. The "i Will" Of Expectation In Prayer

What it is to expect in Prayer — Example from Miiller's narrative of the Orphan Houses at Bristol — One prayer operating upon several people — An answer by coincidence — The Cree Indian — The servant girl's missionary box — The Marquis of Argyll — Ten minutes' sleep — Simeon at Cambridge — Money found to buy a pair of shoes — The converted Jew — An answer to prayer sent by a singing bird — Scripture warrants for expectation in prayer — Power of sanctified reasoning upon the character of God — Prayer for £10 — The results of Expectation in prayer — Precision in prayer — Greater readiness in prayer — Less leaning on man — More cheerfulness of heart — The traveller's pack — The man with eight children — Energy in the use of means — Alexander's answer to Perdiccas — Looking out for answers to prjayer — Alleine's advice — The expecting Sunday school teacher — Patient expectation in prayer — The praying mother and her nine children — Mrs. Winslow 262