43. Christian Directions
43
Christian Directions1
1. That during the hours of the day, shorter and longer periods of time for the Word and prayer should be given to God, not sparing the twelfth hour, or midday; howbeit it should then be the shorter time.
2. In the midst of worldly employments, there should be some thoughts of sin, death, judgment, and eternity, with at least a word or two of ejaculatory prayer to God.2
3. To beware of wandering of heart in private prayer.
4. Not to grudge if you come from prayer without sense of joy. Downcasting,3 a sense of guiltiness, and hunger are often best for us.
5. That the Lord’s Day, from morning to night, be spent always either in private or public worship.
6. That words be observed, wandering and idle thoughts be avoided, sudden anger and desire of revenge, even of such as persecute the truth, be guarded against; for we often mix our zeal with our wildfire.
7. That known, discovered, and revealed sins that are against the conscience be avoided, as most dangerous preparatives to hardness of heart.
8. That in dealing with men, faith and truth in covenants and trafficking4 be regarded, that we deal with all men in sincerity; that conscience be made of idle and lying words; and that our carriage be such, as that they who see it may speak honorably of our sweet Master and profession.
1. Letters, no. 159, 293.
2. The eighteenth-century Scottish divine James Fisher gives us one of the best definitions of ejaculatory prayer: “It is a secret and sudden lifting up of the soul’s desires to God, upon any emergency that may occur in providence” (The Westminster Assembly’s Shorter Catechism Explained [1753; repr., Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, n.d.], 217).
3. downcasting: depression
4. trafficking: dealings, transactions