A Meeting-House for Beggars

^’■Ifa clia7’itable ina?i should see a coinpany of beggars wanderijig in the street durijig the ti7ne of worships under p?’ete7ice that there was no room for the7?i, a7id he should build a chapel for the77i, they would the7i be without exxuse. God hath bee7i at so great a cost to provide a thro7ie of grace, that we 77iust 7iot 7iow jieglect prayer The mercy-seat under the law was overlaid with pure gold to foreshadow the costliness of its antitype. It cost the death of Christ to erect a mercy-seat for men. To neglect it is a shameful ingratitude to God, and a wanton rejection of one of his costliest blessings. If there were no throne of grace, men might die of despair because they could not approach to God; but now that God has prepared a way of access for all who desire to approach him, the refusal to draw near must rank among the grossest and most wilful of rebellions. There is no conceivable excuse for the prayerless. A man who dies of starvation with bread before him, and perishes with disease when the remedy is in his hand, deserves no pity; and he whosinks down to hell beneath the burden of his sins because he will not pray, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” deserves all that damnation means. Pardon, life, salvation, heaven, are all to be had for the asking; and if he that asketh not receiveth not, who shall blame either the justice or the mercy of God?

Reader, has this day passed without a prayer from your heart? Tremble lest it should bring wrath upon you. One said, “Perhaps the day in which the world shall perish will be the day unsanctified by a prayer.” What if the day of your death and final ruin should be a day in which you did not even turn a glance towards heaven?