But how are these two statements, both scriptural; both—­as I hold from practical experience, true to the uttermost, and not to be compromised or explained away—­how are they to be reconciled, I say?  By these two texts.  By taking them both together, and never one without the other; and by taking them, also, in the order in which you find them, and never—­as too many do—­the second before the first.  At least this was the opinion of the Psalmist.  He first seeks God’s commandments and statutes, and prays—­Give me understanding and I shall keep Thy law, yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart.  Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments; for therein is my desire.  And then, only then, finding himself in trouble, anxiety, even in danger of death, he feels he has a sort of right to cry to God to help him out of his trouble, and prays—­I am Thine, oh save me!

And why?  What reason can he give why God should save him?  Because, he says, I have sought Thy commandments.

Now let all rational persons lay this to heart; and consider it well.  There are very few, heathens and savages, as well as Christians, who will not cry, when they find themselves in trouble—­Oh save me.  The instinct of every man is, to cry to some unseen persons or powers to help him.  If he does not cry to the true and good God, he will cry to some false or bad God; or to some idol, material or intellectual, of his own invention.  But that is no reason why his prayers should be heard.  We read of old heathens at Rome, who prayed to Mercury, the god of money-making—­“Da mihi fallere,”—­Help me to cheat my neighbours:  while the philosophers, heathen though they were, laughed, with just contempt, at such men and their prayers, and asked—­Do you suppose that any God, if he be worth calling a God, will answer such a request as that?  Nay, in our own times, have not the brigands of Naples been in the habit of carrying a leaden image of St Januarius in their hats, and praying to it to protect them in their trade of robbery and murder?  I leave you to guess what answer good St Januarius, and much more He who made St Januarius, and all heaven and earth, was likely to give to such a prayer as that.

So it is not all prayers for help that are heard, or deserve to be heard.  And indeed—­I do not wish to be hard, but the truth must be spoken—­there are too many people in the world who pray to God to help them, when they are in difficulties or in danger, or in fear of death and of hell, but never pray at any other time, or for any other thing.  They pray to be helped out of what is disagreeable.  But they never pray to be made good.  They are not good, and they do not care to become good.  All they care for, is to escape death, or pain, or poverty, or shame, when they see it staring them in the face:  and God knows I do not blame them.  We are all children, and, like children, we cry out when we are hurt; and that is no sin to us.  But that is no part of godliness, not even of mere religion.