Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/232

 prayer! Surrounded with  so  many  opportunities  of  raising  yourself to God,  you  have  nothing  to  say  to  him  when  you  come  to  appear in his  presence? Ah! my brethren,  how  far  removed  must  God  be from  a  heart  which  finds  it  such  a  punishment  to  hold  converse with him,  and  how  little  must  that  master  and  friend  be  loved,  to whom  they  never  wish  to  speak!

And behold  the  last  and  the  principal  cause  of  our  incapacity in prayer. They know  not  how  to  pray  and  to  speak  to  their God, because  they  do  not  love  him. When the  heart  loves,  it  soon finds out  how  to  communicate  its  feelings,  and  to  affect  the  object of its  love;  it  soon  knows  what  it  ought  to  say:  alas! it cannot  express all  that  it  feels. Let us  establish  regularity  once  more  in  our hearts, my  brethren;  let  us  substitute  God  in  place  of  the  world; then shall  our  heart  be  no  longer  a  stranger  before  God. It is  the irregularity of  our  affections  which  is  the  soul  cause  of  our  incapacity in  prayer;  eternal  riches  can  never  be  fervently  asked  when they are  not  loved;  truths  can  never  be  well  meditated  upon  when they are  not  relished;  and  little  can  be  said  to  a  God  who  is  hardly known: favours  which  are  not  desired,  and  freedom  from  passions which are  not  hated,  can  never  be  very  urgently  solicited;  in  a word,  prayer  is  the  language  of  love;  and  we  know  not  how  ,to pray, because  we  know  not  how  to  love.

But, as  you  shall  say,  doth  an  inclination  for  prayer  depend  upon us? And how  is  it  possible  to  pray,  with  disgusts  and  wanderings of the  mind,  which  are  not  to  be  conquered,  and  which  render  it insupportable? Second pretext,  drawn  from  the  disgusts  and  the difficulties of  prayer.

Part II. — One of  the  greatest  excesses  of  sin  is  undoubtedly that backwardness,  and,  I  may  say,  that  natural  dislike  which  we have  to  prayer. Man, innocent,  would  have  founded  his  whole delight in  holding  converse  with  God. All creatures  would  have been as  an  open  book,  where  he  would  have  incessantly  meditated upon his  works  and  his  wonders;  the  impressions  of  the  senses, under the  command  of  reason,  would  never  have  been  able  to  turn him aside,  in  spite  of  himself,  from  the  delight  and  the  familiarity  of his  presence;  his  whole  life  would  have  been  one  continued  contemplation of  the  truth,  and  his  whole  happiness  in  his  innocence would have  been  founded  on  his  continual  communications  with the Lord,  and  the  certainty  that  he  would  never  forsake  him.

Man must  therefore  be  highly  corrupted,  and  sin  must  have  made strange alterations  in  us,  to  turn  into  a  punishment  what  ought  to be  our  happiness. It is,  however,  only  too  true,  that  we  almost all bear  in  our  nature  this  backwardness  and  this  dislike  to  prayer: and upon  these  is  founded  the  most  universal  pretext  which  is  opposed to  the  discharge  of  this  duty,  so  essential  to  Christian  piety. Even persons,  to  whom  the  habit  of  prayer  ought  to  be  rendered more pleasing  and  more  familiar,  by  the  practice  of  virtue,  continually complain  of  the  disgusts  and  of  the  constant  wanderings which they  experience  in  this  holy  exercise;  insomuch,  that,  look-