This is the spirit of the spirit of true religion. Without communion with God there is nothing gained by faith or hope, by promises or commands, by professions, confessions, or institutions. This is the sanctum sanctorum, the holy of holies, the inmost temple of religion. This was lost by Adam, and if we do not gain this by Messiah, we have gained nothing but a name. But what is communion with God? Let us ask, for illustration, what is communion with man? The reciprocation of common sentiment and common feeling. Language fails to define its intimacies. Two sentimental spirits in conversation with each other is its best illustration--two spirits of kindred thought pouring into each other the overflowings of congenial feelings.

      Speech with us is the channel of thought. In this channel betwixt man and man flows every sentiment, feeling, and desire. And it is not only the circulating medium of spirits on earth, dwelling in houses of clay; but it is the medium of converse 'twixt God and man. Arrayed in words of human language, the Eternal Spirit appears to man not now only; for in Eden, blooming in primeval beauty and innocence, the voice of God, in harmonies sweeter than nature knows [58] fell upon that ear not yet polluted with the serpent's poisonous breath. Since then God has spoken to man through the mediation of angels, celestial and terrestrial; by prophets in times of old; and in later ages by his Son. The stipulated signs of human thought are the stipulated signs of all divine ideas suggested to man. God now speaks to us in his written word, and we speak to him in our prayers. Thus we have communion with God through his Holy Spirit which is imparted to us. If we listen to God when he speaks (for he speaks first as it becomes him) he promises to listen to us. But if we hear not him, he hears not us. What an honor to be admitted into the audience of the Almighty Father upon such gracious terms! We hear the recorded words of God spoken by him through angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, his own Son; and thus having given our ears for awhile to the voice of God, we lift up our voice to him. We utter our adorations, confessions, thanksgivings, petitions, and our unconditional submission to the will, authority, wisdom and goodness, mercy and love of him "who is, and was, and evermore shall be!" Thus our spirits ascend to the heavens and commune with God. This is the delightful fellowship which the Christian indeed has with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; "praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit;" in the closet, by the way, in the field, morning, noon, evening, he prays "without ceasing." "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord! In the morning will I direct my prayer to thee, and will look up." "In the morning shall my prayer anticipate thee." "As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice." "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments." "His praise shall be continually in my mouth." "By Jesus let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually." Thus speak the saints of both Testaments.

      Men may talk about religion, about sound doctrine, about ordinances, about institutions, about every thing present and future; but without this communion with God, this habitual devotion of mind, these constant aspirations, ejaculations, and soarings to the throne of mercy and favor, man is unfit for heaven, and unworthy of the Christian profession. A zealot he may be, orthodox in doctrine, moral in demeanor; but he wants the life and power of Christianity. Meditation on what God has spoken to us, and the outpourings of our spirit to him, is to the moral man what free respiration in a pure atmosphere is to the physical man--life, health, vigor, beauty.

[A. C.]      

      In 1839 Mr. Campbell wrote on the same subject:

      Prayer, like faith and repentance, belongs to no age or dispensation; but has always been an institution of grace--a part of a remedial system; and is alike the privilege of all the miserable and [59] distressed of human kind who acknowledge a Mediator. Hence, while they who want nothing need not pray, the right of petition is the inalienable, equal, and universal right of all the miserable and distressed under a just and merciful administration.

      But in order to our being acceptably heard in our deprecations, supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings, there are certain indispensable prerequisites; and the burthen of my present discourse shall be a definition of these prerequisites.

      The first of these in order is a Mediator. God can not listen to a rebel on his own merit or account. It would be beneath his dignity, not merely in his own esteem, but also in that of a universe of pure and exalted intelligences, to commune with, or listen to, the importunities of a guilty and polluted transgressor. Hence we say with Paul, "There is but one God, and one Mediator between God and men--the man Christ Jesus"--and with Peter we say, "There is none other name under heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved:" for Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by me."

      In the second place, faith in God and in his Son Jesus Christ is indispensable; for "without faith," says Paul, "it is impossible to please God: for he that comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." "Let him ask in faith," says James; and let not the man that is undecided, or that "wavereth think that he shall receive any thing from the Lord."

      In the third place, repentance, or a full preparation of our hearts to seek the Lord, is a prerequisite, without which no man can be accepted of God. Thus spake Peter to Simon, "Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray to God." And said the Lord to Jeremiah, "You shall pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you; and you shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer. xxix. 12, 13). A thousand testimonies speak the same things.

      In the fourth place, we must be led by the Spirit; for we know not what we should ask without its teachings. In other words, we must pray according to the suggestion of the Holy Spirit, or its promptings in us. For example, we can not pray for worldly riches and honor in faith, in repentance, or in the Holy Spirit: not because we have no promise of these things, but because such requests are not compatible with repentance, nor with the teachings of the Holy Spirit. We may, indeed, pray for competence, for influence, for wisdom, for the salvation of our families, etc., because such desires are prompted by the Holy Spirit.

      Four things are therefore indispensable to acceptable and successful prayer--a Mediator, faith, repentance, and the teachings of the Holy Spirit. Without these four, no person can expect to be answered or [60] accepted of the Lord. And no man can ask any thing from the Lord, with these prerequisites, which he will not certainly obtain from the Lord.

[A. C.]      

[MHA2 58-61]