+I. The time.+--"Always." 1. _The frequent practice of prayer._
2. _The constant cultivation of the spirit of prayer._
+II. The manner.+--"With all prayer and supplication." 1. _The prayer
of the closet._ Secret. 2. _The prayer of the family._ Domestic.
3. _The prayer of the social circle._ United. 4. _The prayer of the
sanctuary._ Public.
+III. The manner.+--"With all prayer and supplication." 1. _There are
thanksgivings to be rendered._ 2. _There are confessions to be made._
3. _There are petitions to be offered._ 4. _There are intercessions
to be presented._
+IV. Spirituality.+--"In the Spirit." 1. _With our own heart._ Not
formal or mechanical. 2. _In dependence on the aid of the Holy Ghost._
+V. The continuance.+--"With all perseverance." 1. _In the general
habit._ Prayer never to be given up. 2. _In special objects._ No
fainting in prayer.
+VI. The intercession.+--"And supplication for all saints." 1. _For
the whole Church._ 2. _For any part of the Church that is in danger
of distress._ 3. _For our own section of the Church._ 4. _For our
Christian friends.--G. Brooks._
_The Duty of Prayer._--Prayer is the communion of the soul with God,
and the casting of itself upon Him for help and guidance.
+I. God has implanted prayer as an instinct in the hearts of
men.+--In times of danger the soul instinctively cries out for God or
some unseen power to interpose and save.
+II. God desires that men should pray regularly and
constantly.+--Blessings are promised in answer to prayer which the
soul can obtain in no other way.
+III. God commands men to pray.+--To abound in prayer and to pray
without weariness and fainting.
+IV. God teaches how to pray and what to pray for.+--The Spirit helps
our infirmities.
+V. There is no religious life apart from prayer.+--The Bible saints
were men of prayer. At the very beginning of human history men began
to call upon God. And in the visions of heaven which St. John has
recorded, when the Lamb had taken the book to open its seals, the
twenty-four elders fell down before Him, "having every one of them
harps and golden phials full of odours, which are the prayers of the
saints, and they sang a new song" (Rev. v. 8, 9). Prayer leads to
praise.
+VI. How can we make the duty a privilege and the privilege a
pleasure?+--If Christ was comforted and strengthened by prayer, can
we as Christians live without it? Is not a prayerless Christian in
danger of being no Christian at all?--_Homiletic Monthly._