thout my asking it.

_Worthy._ God, indeed, who knows all things, knows what we want
before we ask him; but still has he not said that, "with prayer and
supplication we must make known our requests unto him?" Prayer is
the way in which God has said that his favor must be sought. It is
the channel through which he has declared it his sovereign will and
pleasure that his blessings should be conveyed to us. What ascends
up in prayer, descends to us again in blessings. It is like the rain
which just now fell, and which had been drawn up from the ground in
vapors to the clouds before it descended from them to the earth in
that refreshing shower. Besides prayer has a good effect on our
minds; it tends to excite a right disposition toward God in us, and
to keep up a constant sense of our dependence. But above all, it is
the way to get the good things we want. "Ask," says the Scripture,
"and ye shall receive."

_Bragwell._ Now, that is the very thing which I was going to deny:
for the truth is, men do not always get what they ask; I believe if
I could get a good crop for asking it, I would pray oftener than I
do.

_Worthy._ Sometimes, Mr. Bragwell, men "ask and receive not, because
they ask amiss;" "they ask that they may consume it on their lusts."
They ask worldly blessings, perhaps, when they should ask spiritual
ones. Now, the latter, which are the good things I spoke of, are
always granted to those who pray to God for them, though the former
are not. I have observed in the case of some worldly things I have
sought for, that the grant of my prayer would have caused the misery
of my life; so that God equally consults our good in what he
withholds, and in what he bestows.

_Bragwell._ And yet you continue to pray on, I suppose?

_Worthy._ Certainly; but then I try to mend as to the object of my
prayers. I pray for God's blessing and favor, which is better than
riches.

_Bragwell._ You seem very earnest on this subject.

_Worthy._ To cut the matter short; I ask then, whether prayer is not
positively commanded in the gospel? When this is the case, we can
never dispute about the necessity or the duty of a thing, as we may
when there is no such command. Here, however, let me just add also,
that a man's prayers may be turned into no small use in the way of
discovering to him whatever is amiss in his life.

_Bragwell._ How so, Mr. Worthy?

_Worthy._ Why, suppose now, you were to try yourself by turning into
the shape o