Watch Unto Prayer, friends...

"The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." —I Peter 4:7 [KJV]

Yesterday we were born. To-day we live. To-morrow we die. The sum total of human life is justly calculated by the hoaryheaded patriarch, Jacob, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been."—Gen. 47:9. A truth this that lies level with the common observation and judgment of all men; but is admitted into the regenerate heart and conscience only with that importance it demands, so as suitably to affect the mind and influence the conduct. Hence, the absolute necessity of divine faith; the continual need of the believing soul exercising his meditations upon the sure and certain approaching dissolution of all things. So he learns to die daily to the perishing objects of time and sense; and to live like himself, as an immortal inhabitant of a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. To live and lean upon our beloved Jesus as the stay of one's soul and the strength of one's hope this is true happiness. While all things below perish in the using; invisible realities ripen in prospect, and most powerfully engage our affections; because they are durable and eternal. Hence, the soul is excited to watchfulness, that he may stand—to prayer, that he may be kept—and to sobriety, that he may persevere. O, believer, thou canst not but count drunkenness and whoredom great sins; but know also, the cares, riches, pleasures, and honors of this world, as really intoxicate the mind and cause the heart to be guilty of spiritual adultery against thy loving, lawful bridegroom, Jesus, as outward, gross sins do the body. What need, what daily need hast thou to watch constantly, to be sober continually, and to pray always? Pride is contrary to sobriety of judgment of thyself. Lust and intemperance are inconsistent with the soundness of thy faith, the stability of thy hope, and the exercise of thy love. These are ever at hand to beset thee. Say, therefore, when canst thou dispense with a watchful frame of spirit? when intermit in prayer to, and dependence on thy God? O, the sweet exercise of watching unto prayer, for divine power: in prayer, for sweet enlargements: after prayer, for a comfortable answer from our Lord! Ever may this just reflection be on thy mind, when tempted or inclined to cast in thy lot with the carnal, and to indulge thyself in attending the bewitching scenes of sin, folly and vanity: am I now acting like one who knows the end of all things is at hand? do I behave as one in his right mind? am I watching unto prayer? can I desire, pray for, and expect the sense of Jesus's love and presence to be with me? Remember thy calling; it is to love and live upon an unseen Jesus, and to act as daily expecting to "receive the end of thy faith, the salvation of thy soul."—1 Pet. 1:9.

William Mason (1724-1797)

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