or my friends, and for those who wish me ill; for my
fellow Christians, and for those who are walking still in darkness and
sin;--I will pray for mercy on all mankind. And I will, as occasion
offers, desire others among the faithful on earth to pray for me; and
will take comfort and encouragement and holy hope from the reflection
that their prayers are presented to God in my behalf, and that they will
continue to pray for me when my own strength shall fail and the hour of
my departure shall draw nigh. But for the acceptance of my own prayers
and of theirs I can depend on no other Mediator in the world of spirits,
than on HIM, whom his own Word declares to be the one Mediator between
God and men, who prayed for me when He was on earth, who is ever making
intercession for me in heaven. I know of no other in the unseen world,
by whom I can have access to the Father; I find no other offered to me,
I seek no {250} other, I want no other. I trust my cause,--the cause of
my present life, the cause of my soul's eternal happiness,--to HIM and
to his intercession. I thank God for the blessing. I am satisfied; and
in the assurance of the omnipotence of his intercession, and the perfect
fulness of his mediation, I am happy.

On this point it were well to compare two prayers both offered to God;
the one pleading with Him the intercession of the passion of his only
Son, the other pleading the prayers of a mortal man. The first prayer is
a collect in Holy Week, the second is a collect on St. Gregory's Day.

We beseech thee, Almighty God, that we who among so many
adversities from our own infirmity fail, the passion of thy only
begotten Son interceding for us, may revive. V. 243.

O God, who hast granted the rewards of eternal blessedness[96]
to the soul of thy servant Gregory, mercifully grant that we who
are pressed down by the weight of our sins, may, by his prayers
with Thee, be raised up. V. 480.

[Footnote 96: I can never read this, and such passages as this,
without asking myself, can such an assertion be in accordance
with the inspired teaching?--"Judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." I Cor. iv.
5.]

IV. The next form of prayer to which I would invite your serious
attention, is one from which my judgm