It is thus that prayer is generally answered: what we ask for, that we obtain. _Generally_, I say, yet not always; for our wise and good LORD, when, in our ignorance, we prefer a wrong or a foolish request, sends us rather what He knows us to need, than what we ask. A father does not give his beloved son stone for bread, nor a scorpion instead of a fish. And it may be, yea, it often is the case, that we ask GOD for what we think would support us, or be of some other benefit to us, when its bestowal would cause us to stumble, or, perhaps, crush our spiritual strength, or poison our spiritual life. And then, I say, of His wisdom and goodness, He sends us away _not empty_—oh, no! none ask of GOD and obtain not, if they ask with right feeling—but blessed in a different way from that we ventured to prescribe. This truth is worth a little more thought. There are many of you, brethren, I doubt not, who have again and again prayed to GOD (and very earnestly) to continue to you some blessing which you were in danger of losing, or to confer upon you something which you felt you wanted, and who yet were not answered according to the prayer. Perhaps, you were failing in business, or your influence was being diminished, or your health breaking down, or your child dying. Well, you earnestly, humbly, with faith and strong tears deprecated the calamity again and again; but still it came upon you as though you had never prayed; or you asked to be lifted out of your poverty or your misery, to be endowed with wisdom, to be made influential; you loved, and prayed GOD to make you loved again; you struggled to get a situation which was just what you needed, you prayed continually that you might succeed. It was all without avail. “No answer came.”