Mr. Ward, one of the Baptist missionaries in India, in a missionary discourse at Bristol, said,—“Brethren, we need your money,—we need your prayers more.” Oh, what encouragement we have to pray for our missionaries! Thus saith the Lord: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” Let us plead with God for the accomplishment of the promise, “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He make Jerusalem a praise in the whole earth.” Brethren in the ministry! let us remember that all our success depends upon the aid of the Holy Spirit, and let us pray constantly for His blessing upon the world! Brethren in the Church! forget not the connection between the work of the Holy Spirit and the glory of your Best Friend, and earnestly entreat Him to mingle His sanctifying unction with the treasures of Divine Truth contained in these earthern vessels! “Finally, Brethren, pray for us; that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified; and all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God!” SERMON V. THE CEDAR OF GOD. “_Thus saith the Lord God_: _I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar_, _and will set it_; _I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one_, _and plant it upon a high mountain and eminent_; _in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it_: _and it shall bring forth boughs_, _and bear fruit_, _and be a goodly cedar_; _and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing_; _in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell_; _and all the trees of the field shall know that I_, _the Lord_, _have brought down the high tree_, _and have exalted the low tree—have dried up the green tree_, _and have made the dry tree to flourish_. _I_, _the Lord_, _have spoken_, _and I have done it_.”—EZEKIEL xvii. 22–24. You perceive that our text abounds in the beautiful language of allegory. In the context is portrayed the captivity of the children of Israel, and especially the carrying away of the royal family by the king of Babylon. Here God promises to restore them to their own land, in greater prosperity than ever; and to raise up Messiah, the Branch, out of the house of David, to be their king. All this is presented in a glowing figurative style, dressed out in all the wealth of poetic imagery so peculiar to the Orientals. Nebuchadnezzar, the great eagle—the long-winged, full-feathered, embroidered eagle—is represented as coming to Lebanon, and taking the highest branch of the tallest cedar, bearing it off as the crow bears the acorn in its beak, and planting it in the land of traffic. The Lord God, in His turn, takes the highest branch of the same cedar, and plants it on the high mountain of Israel, where it flourishes and bears fruit, and the fowls of the air dwell under the shadow of its branches.