That your Prayers Be not Hindered.
By Jos. Clarke
It appears from this passage, disjointed as I have quoted it, that our prayers may be hindered. Any wrong course of life, any neglect of duty, any open or secret sin, may hinder, not only answer to prayer, but even cause us to cease to pray; for who will continue to pray when God is not in our prayer, and faith is frozen out? It is an old and true saying, that praying will make us leave off sinning, and sinning will make us leave off praying. This being so, how careful we should be to both cease from sin and continue in prayer. Such a course persevered in, will solve the most difficult problems in life, and untie its hardest knots, and overcome its greatest difficulties, and will finally conduct us to the mansions on high. Who has not felt that his prayer was hindered when he left for even a moment the path of rectitude to wander in the paths of sin? and who has not felt that his prayer was hindered when duty was neglected, or when the world came in with its cares or its charms? Of all sin, no one is more disgusting to the Spirit of God than discord, whether it is social, domestic, ecclesiastical, or civil. It is a heinous sin, and is potent to banish good angels and all good from the scene. Oh! let us cherish the spirit of peace and love. Jos. CLARKE.