Pour Out Your Heart Before Him.
IN approaching the Lord in prayer, he desires not the flippancy of lip service, the stateliness of oratory, or the precision of prescribed forms and memorized sentences; but he asks that they who worship him shall worship him in spirit and in truth; that they shall disclose the inmost secrets of their nature in his sight; that they shall reveal to him the real emotions of their hearts, their sorrows, their burdens, their trials, their afflictions, their temptations, and all the deep emotions that possess their souls. All these are to be, not suppressed, disguised, concealed, hinted, or intimated; but they are to be poured out before the Lord, into the ear of him who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, who was tempted in all points like as we are; who was afflicted in all our afflictions; and who shall say to those who have helped or harmed his weakest, feeblest child, "Ye did it unto me." Why need we shut up in our own bosoms our most sacred thoughts? Why need we seek to hide from our heavenly Father those feelings which his own Spirit hath begotten within us? Why should we be ashamed of the "broken and contrite heart" which he "will not despise," or the tear of penitence which is so precious in his sight? Let us take courage at his gracious invitation; let us come boldly to the throne of grace; let us pour out our heart before him, assured that "the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers."—Sel.