alve for wrong-doing.

Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before He cast it out. Of a sick woman
He said that Satan had bound her; and to Peter He said, "Thou art an
offense unto me." He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin,
sickness, and death. He said of the fruitless tree, "It is hewn down."

It is believed by many that a certain magistrate, who lived in the time
of Jesus, left this record: "His rebuke is fearful." The strong language
of our Master confirms this description.

The only civil sentence which He had for error was, "Get thee behind
Me, Satan." Still stronger evidence that Jesus' reproof was pointed and
pungent is in His own words--showing the necessity for such forcible
utterance, when He cast out devils and healed the sick and sinful. The
relinquishment of error deprives material sense of its false claims.

Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation
to thought; but does it produce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply into
these things, we find that "a zeal... not according to knowledge," gives
occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve,
and wholesome perception of God's requirements. The motives for verbal
prayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or encourage
Christian sentiment.

Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ecstasy, and emotions.
If spiritual sense always guided men at such times, there would grow out
of those ecstatic moments a higher experience and a better life, with
more devout self-abnegation, and purity. A self-satisfied ventilation
of fervent sentiments never makes a Christian. God is not influenced by
man. The "divine ear" is not an auditorial nerve. It is the all-hearing
and all-knowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, and by
whom it will be supplied.

The danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation.
By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, uttering desires which
are not real, and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin, with the
recollection that we have prayed over it--or mean to ask forgiveness at
some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.

A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-justification, though it
makes the sinner a hypocrite. We never need despair of an honest heart,
but there is little hope for those who only come spasmodically face to
face with their wickedness, and then seek to hide it. Their prayers are
indexes which do not