_The same subject, concluded._
1. "Do you ever pray to God? I hope and trust you do. God commands and
encourages us to pray to him. But he does not always answer our prayers
at the time, or in the way, we expect.
2. "What then? We know that he hears them. We know that he is a gracious
God, a reconciled Father in Christ. Let us _knock again_. Let us ask in
faith, and, if what we ask be pleasing in his sight, he will grant it in
his own good time.
3. "You know who it was that said, 'Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; _knock_, and it shall be opened unto you: for
every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to
him that _knocketh_, it shall be opened.'
4. "Once more: our progress in the Divine life, even after we have
wholly given ourselves to the Lord, does not always equal our wishes or
expectations. We find much indwelling sin, much remaining corruption, to
struggle with.
5. "But let us not despond. The grace of our Lord is sufficient for us,
and his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Let us _knock again_.
6. "Let us continue, with humble confidence, to do what we know to be
pleasing in our Master's sight. Let us work out our own salvation, with
fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to
do of his good pleasure."
7. We had now reached the gate of my father's garden; and the good old
gentleman, taking me kindly by the hand, bid me try to remember what he
had said. He then went his way, and I saw him no more.
8. I afterward endeavored to find out who he was; but I did not succeed.
His advice, however, sunk deep into my mind, and has often been of
singular value to me since.
9. My disposition is naturally sanguine, and my disappointments
proportionably acute. But, upon calling to mind the old mansion, the
brass knocker, and my venerable counselor, I have frequently been led to
_knock again_, when I might otherwise have sat down in despondency.
10. I hope that many of my readers will derive similar benefit from the
perusal of this little history; for the sole end of its publication will
be answered, if the young persons under whose eyes it may come be
induced, at every season of doubt and perplexity, in the exercise of
simple confidence in God, to _knock again_.