l, dealing with the fundamental realities of the
Christian religion, they are also intensely personal, and express very
much of the Apostle's own experience. They depict in a marked degree the
sources and characteristics of the spiritual life. This is especially seen
when the various prayers, thanksgivings, doxologies, and personal
testimonies are considered.

I.

GRACE AND HOLINESS.

I.

GRACE AND HOLINESS.

"Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our
way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one
toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the
end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God,
even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His
saints."--1 THESS. iii. 11-13.

There are few more precious subjects for meditation and imitation than the
prayers and intercessions of the great Apostle. He was a man of action
because he was first and foremost a man of prayer. To him both aspects of
the well-known motto were true: "To pray is to labour," and "To labour is
to pray."

There is no argument for or justification of prayer; nor even an
explanation. It is assumed to be the natural and inevitable expression of
spiritual life. Most of the Apostle's prayers of which we have a record
are concerned with other people rather than with himself, and they thus
reveal to us indirectly but very really what St. Paul felt to be the
predominant needs of the spiritual life.

In this series of studies we propose to look at some of these prayers, and
to consider their direct bearing upon our own lives. Taking the Epistles
in what is generally regarded to be their chronological order, we
naturally commence with the prayer found in 1 Thess. iii. 11-13. In this
passage we have what is not often found, a prayer for himself associated
with prayer for others.

1. HIS PRAYER FOR HIMSELF (ver. 11).

Let us notice _Who it is to Whom he prays_--"God Himself and our Father,
and our Lord Jesus Christ." The association of Christ with God as One to
Whom prayer is addressed is of course very familiar to us, but it ought
never to be forgotten that when the Apostle penned these words the
association was both striking and significant. For consider: these words
were written within twenty-five years of our Lord's earthly life and
ascension, and yet here is this quiet but clear association of Him wit