people that are listening to me, if
life is scant in your veins, if your faith is, as it is with many of
you, all but dead, if your Christian character is very little better
than the character of the people round you, if your religion does not
give you any happiness, nor do other people much good, if your love is
so cold that it has almost expired, and your hopes dim, there is no
creature in heaven or earth or hell that is to blame for it but
yourselves. 'Ye have not because ye ask not; ye ask and have not because
ye ask amiss.'

III. And that brings me to the last question, namely, on what conditions
these promises depend.

'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened.' I said at the beginning of these remarks that I traced
a difference between these three commands, and I take that difference
for granted now as the basis of the few words I have to say. The first
condition is--desires presented to Him who can grant them. To ask
implies the will of a person that will hear and respond and has the
power to bestow. That Person is God in Christ. Go and ask Him. We all
know that prayer is essential, and so I do not need to dwell upon it; go
and ask Him, and you will get what you need.

Do you ever pray, you professing Christian people? I do not mean with
your mouths, but with your hearts; do you ever pray to be made less
worldly? Do you ever wish to be so? Do you ever really desire that your
love of this present should be diminished? Have you any appetite for
righteousness? Does it seem to you to be a good thing that you should
have less pleasure in the present and more joys in the future? Would you
like to be a devouter Christian than you are? I very much question it
about many of you. I am not hitting at individuals, but I am speaking
about the average type of professing Christians in this generation.

If you desire it you will ask it. Is there any place in any of your
rooms where there is a little bit of carpet worn white by your knees? Or
do you pray when you are half asleep at night, and before you are well
awake in the morning, and scramble through a prayer as the necessary
preliminary to going to the work that really interests you, the work of
your trade or business? 'Ask, and ye shall receive.'

The second condition is effort. 'Seek, and ye shall find.' There are a
great many things in this world that cannot be given to a wish. There
are a great many things in the Kingdo