Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/51

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prayer for others,—a prayer for mankind at large. Suppose that not one person only, but a thousand or ten thousand—suppose that all the members of the Lord's church in a nation or in the world, were at the same time uttering the supplication that the Lord's kingdom would come, and from a full heart were thus all "with one accord" fixing their thoughts and affections on mankind, with the ardent hope and longing to see them elevated, purified, and regenerated—would not this state of intense spiritual warmth be felt in the spiritual world, and by the spirits of men there—(for all men are as to their spirits in the spiritual world, even now)—would not the ardent sphere of those thus earnestly thinking, feeling, praying, be felt by those in whose spiritual presence they were? and might not the effect be to increase their warmth, their love of truth and good? might it not tend to elevate their spirits also in some degree towards the Lord, soften their disposition, lessen their inclination to adhere to false doctrines? and where there was a tendency to good in some hearts, would it not, by the power of spiritual sympathy, reach that good disposition, rouse it up, strengthen and elevate it? Thus, by the power of united prayer, might it not be rationally conceived that an effect would be produced in some degree on the spirits of mankind at once individually and collectively, and so tend to prepare them for the reception of truth and good from the Lord? and in this manner, might not the act of earnestly praying for the Lord's kingdom to come, have some effect in causing it to come? In this manner, perhaps, may be rationally