SQLite format 3@  ii!%%atableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE Topics (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT) fmq00 Family Prayers (1885){\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FAMILY PRAY    ZY85\par \par 01 CHOICE EXCERPTS\par 02 First week\par 03 Second week\par 04 Third week\par 05 Fourth week\par 06 Communion Morning\par 07 Communion Evening\par 08 For a Day of Humiliation\par 09 For a National Calamity\par 10 Christmas Day\par 11 Last Night of the Year\par 12 First Morning of a New Year\par 13 For a Time of Bereavement\par 14 Detention from Public Worship\par 15 For one in Dangerous Illness\par 16 For the Bedside of a Dying Believer\par \par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } have no contrariety of mind to You, when we shall be with You, and like You; serving You without distraction; and where sin and sorrow will be no more felt or dreaded.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par The shadows of night have again fallen around us in peace. We thank You for the continuance of health and strength, and many outward blessings. We thank You for the crowning mercy of all--Jesus, Your unspeakable gift! Thousands of needy, outcast sinners have repaired to Him, yet still the Fountain of His grace is as free as ever. This is still His name and memorial, "Mighty to save!" Lord, we come to You, with all our sins, casting ourselves on His infinite and all-sufficient righteousness. Wash every guilty stain away.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par There is not a corruption we have within us, which Your grace is unable to subdue. There is not a cross or trial, or care, but Your grace will enable us to endure. It is Your all-powerful grace alone which, from hour to hour, averts from us temptations we could have no strength in ourselves to resist. Hold us up--and then alone we shall be safe. To You we look for everything.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May we view every dark providence as an errand of love in disguise--a messenger sent from the Eternal Throne, to minister to us, who are heirs of salvation. May we live as pilgrims on the earth.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Whatever Your leadings may be, let us cheerfully confide in their wisdom and faithfulness. We are poor judges of what is good for us, but we can trust You in all things--in what is great and what is small; what is dark and what is bright; what is joyous and what is grievous. We rejoice that all is in Your hands, and all is for the best!\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May we ever regard sin as our greatest trial. When temptation assails us, grant us power to resist it. May our lives, our tempers, our affectio ns, our desires--be regulated by the example of our divine Lord and Master. Give us His meekness of spirit--which no provocation could ruffle. Give us His forgiveness of injuries--amid ingratitude and scorn. Give us His calm, unmurmuring submission to Your holy will.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We bless You especially for the tokens of Your mercy in Jesus. We bless You for His full, free, everlasting Redemption. Oh set us in the Clefts of the Rock\emdash and hide us there! Le t us feel the all-sufficiency and security of His covenant love. For our infinite need--there is Your infinite fullness! For our infinite danger--there is Your infinite salvation! Lord, give us grace to live worthy of our high calling. Enable us to adorn the doctrine of our God and Savior. Let His love be the animating principle in our actions. Let our chief delight be to serve Him. May our greatest pain be to vex and grieve Him. May our affections be more elevated--our eye more single--our lives more con sistent--true religion more the one thing needful.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May we rest in the confident persuasion that You do all things well--and nothing but what is well. Enable us to exercise a child-like acquiescence in all Your dealings. These may at times be mysterious; but when Your purposes of love are at last unfolded, we shall dwell with adoring gratitude on all the way by which You have led us. Give us grace, meanwhile, to be living as dying creatures. Let us never forget our pilgrim character, nor dream away, in guilty unconcern, our fleeting moments. Enable us to take You as the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. Keep us from the absorbing power of earthly things. May . . .\par Your Spirit be our teacher;\par Your Word be our guide;\par Your sovereign will be our motive;\par Your glory be our ultimate end.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Enable us to rely on Your guidi ng arm, and to merge our wills in Yours. Hold us up--and we shall be safe. O God, forbid that, in the midst of earth's cares and pursuits, we should ever lose sight of our immortal destinies. Let us imbibe more of the pilgrim spirit; having our eye upwards, and our footsteps onwards. Give us grace to manifest the power of a holy life.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We desire to make acknowledgment of our unworthiness and guilt. We will not cloak nor disguise our manifold and multiplied transgressions. Discover to us the depths of our depravity; unveil to us the secret pride and selfishness and worldliness of our hearts. Deliver us from our besetting sins. Let us see our vileness\emdash in the cross of Your dear Son.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We renounce all dependence on ourselves. Wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked\emdash we take Jesus as all our salvation and all our desire.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par  May we seek in every providence to hear Your voice; and in every event to read Your will. May we live conscious of the predominating motive of love to You. May we feel Your favor lightening every cross and lessening every care.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May all our duties be gladdened with a sense of Your presence and love. May we have a single eye in all we think, and say, and do\emdash to the glory of our adorable Redeemer. As pilgrims and strangers on the earth, may we declare plainly that we seek a better country.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We rejoice to believe that we are entirely in Your keeping. If You send us prosperity, Lord, hallow it. If You send us adversity, Lord, sanctify it. May all things work together for our good. We put ourselves, blessed God, into Your hands.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Sanctify affliction to all in sorrow. Let Your suffering people rejoice in the assurance that Your chastisements are the dealings of a Father; that the furnace is lighted to purge away the dross, and refine and purify for glory. Direct, control, suggest, this day, all our thoughts, purposes, designs, and actions\emdash that we may consecrate soul and body, with all their powers, to the glory of Your holy name. And all that we ask or hope for, is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We come, acknowledging, that it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. We are nothing and we have nothing. By nature and by wicked works, we could expect nothing but indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. Each day is a witness against us. We confess our proneness to depart from You, the living God. We confess our reluctance to render to You the tribute of our undivided homage and love. Lord, we bring our sins and lay them on Him, who, as our Surety-Substitute, was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. We bring our weakness to His Almighty strength. We bring our insufficiency, that we may receive from Him, the promised "all sufficiency in all things." We rejoice, blessed Savior, to think of You, as sympathizing with us in all our trials and perplexities and temptations; keeping us as the apple of Your eye, and feeling what is done to Your people as if it were done to Yourself.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Enable us to repose in the infinite fullness of Your grace and mercy; to experience the blessedness of an unreserved, unwavering trust and confidence in Your dealings. Let us confide to You the allotment of all that befalls us. Let us harbor no suspicions of Your faithfulness or love. Let us commit the unknown future to Your better wisdom, saying, "Teach us the way wherein we shall walk, for we lift our souls unto You."\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May we walk in the light of Your countenance. Your favor is life. Nothing but the possession of Your infinite love can satisfy the longings of our souls. Whom have we in heaven, O God, but You? and there is none upon earth we would desire besides You.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par The Lord reigns! Nothing befalls us but what is the dictate of infinite wisdom and everlasting love! Let every heavy-laden one know that it is Your gracious hand that appoints every burden. Often would we choose what would be detrimental to our best interests. You choose for us. Let us rejoice in You as a rich Provider, and an all-wise Provider; who will give us nothing, and deny us nothing, but what is for our good. May all Your poor afflicted ones take refuge in the assurance that You are the God of Providence; that whatever befalls them is Your doing; and that the sunshine of Your countenance can make up for every loss. O Source of all consolation, draw near to the afflicted. Abundantly sanctify Your dealings.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We desire anew this night to repair to His cross. We disown all trust in ourselves. Other refuge, other righteousness, we have none, and we need none. We cleave, in simple dependence, to the work of Jesus. We are safe only when clinging to the horns of the blood-besprinkled altar.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, we desire to connect with Your favor. Every rivulet of providential or gracious mercy--we would trace to Yourself\emdash its great fountain-head. Every cross and loss we would submit to\emdash as the appointment of Your wisdom. We would tread the roughest path--if You lead us there! May all Your dealings toward us issue in our sanctification. May our hearts be becoming holier and purer. Transform us more from day to day, and from week to week\emdash into the image of Your Son.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Through another night, be pleased to grant us Your guardian care. Shepherd of Israel, may Your wakeful, sleepless eye be upon us. May the shadows of this night's darkness be to us only as the shadow of Your wings. Shield soul and body by Your mighty power. Lying down in Your fear, may we awake in Your favor, fitted for the duties of a new day. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Amen.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Preserve us from the snares of a wicked world.\par Strengthen us in seasons of weakness.\par Protect us in the hour of temptation.\par \par * * * * * *\par  \par Never for a solitary moment, have You withdrawn Your hand of love from us. Take these hearts of ours and make them Yours. May our inmost thoughts, and desires, and purposes\emdash be dedicated to Your glory. Pour Your rich grace into our hearts. Let us not fall a prey to the allurements and enticements of this present evil world; but may we walk as seeing You, who is invisible.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par God of all consolation, bind up their wounds. Keep them from a murmuring spirit, under dark dispensations. Let them know and believe\emdash that infinite love is in all Your arrangements\emdash that finite wisdom has no place in Your chastisements\emdash that He with whom they have to do, cannot do wrong. Lord, give us all this lowly spirit of submission to Your will. Whether You chasten us, or gladden us; whether prosperity or adversity be our portion--oh bring us nearer Yourself! May Your dealings serve to trim the lamp of faith and keep it brightly burning.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par O Lord our God, we desire to bow this night at the footstool of Your Throne, adoring You for all Your great goodness. What are we--that we should be permitted to come into Your presence, or take Your thrice blessed name into our sinful and polluted lips? You have not dealt with us after our sins\emdash but according to Your rich and undeserved mercy. What mercy it is in You\emdash to bend Your ear to our feeble lispings of praise, and to listen to the pleadings of such unthankful and unholy hearts. We could not have ventured to approach Your footstool--but for Your great love to us in Christ Jesus. Through Him alone it is, that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts are rendered acceptable in Your sight! In Him we are pardoned, justified, adopted, saved! In Him we are kept, sanctified, sealed. In Him we shall at last be presented without fault before Your throne. Blessed Savior, we may well entrust our eternal all to Your keeping. Our needs are numberless, but Your help is infinite! You are waiting to dispense needed grace, for every time of need. Lord, we feel that we require grace for everything! There is not the hour or moment we can live independent of You. Carry on Your own work within us. Hold us up--and then alone we shall be safe.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Most Blessed God, You have again permitted us to see the beginning of another day. We desire to accept every new morning as a fresh gift of Your love. We are the constant beggars on Your bounty. If Your sustaining arm be withdrawn--we instantly perish. We rejoice to look back on the way by which You have hitherto led us; protecting us from danger, supporting us in trouble, disappointing our fears, and realizing our hopes.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par It is our desire, blessed God, to lie passive in Your hands. Whether prosperity or adversity be ours, whether You chasten us or gladden us--oh bring us neare r Yourself. When we cannot understand Your dealings\emdash may faith repose in Your unchanging faithfulness. May we feel assured that all things are working together for our good; and that what is mystery here--will be unfolded and unraveled hereafter. Now, we see through a glass darkly\emdash but then face to face. Meanwhile, may we walk less by sight and more by faith. May we bow to Your will. Let us see no hand in our trials but Yours; while we say, in lowly submissiveness, "The Lord gave, and the Lord! has a sovereign right to take away." May we cheerfully submit to whatever You see fit to appoint. May we murmur at nothing that brings us nearer to You. Loving You supremely, take what You will away--we must be happy.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Make us like Jesus--patient and meek, thankful and forgiving. Take away all pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy--all absorbing love of the world. Set our affections on things above.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par " O Lord, we desire to draw near into Your gracious presence, in the name of Him whom You hear always, and in whom You are ever well pleased. Give us grace to approach You, under a deep sense of our unworthiness. We have nothing to plead in extenuation of our guilt. We have sinned against light and privilege, warning and mercy. We mourn our deep-rooted depravity, our constant proneness to depart from You, the feebleness of our faith, the coldness of our love, the imperfection of our best services, the mi#ngled motives in our holiest duties. We come anew, casting ourselves on the infinite fullness of our adorable Redeemer. In Him is all our hope. Give us, out of His inexhaustible treasury, grace upon grace. Transform us into His image. May we seek to walk in His footsteps, and to copy His example.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par All that we are, and all that we have, is derived from You. There is nothing we possess that we have not received from You. Oh give us grateful hearts; fe$eling that the least blessing we enjoy\emdash is unmerited on our part, and a gift of free grace on Yours.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Enable us to feel our sins\emdash to have a deep and heartfelt consciousness of their heinousness in Your sight. We are apt to cloak and mask them; we are reluctant to make a frank and unreserved confession of them all. Lord, give us grace, in true penitence and contrition of heart, to cast ourselves\emdash all unworthy\emdash on the infinite %worthiness of Him who is all-worthy. For His sake, receive us graciously--love us freely. We rejoice to meditate on the love which He had for us from all eternity. We rejoice to think that it is the same at this hour that it was then\emdash unchanging, everlasting.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Lord, subdue within us whatever is inconsistent with Your mind and will. Put a sanctified restraint on our thoughts. Repress all vain imaginations. Crucify every remaining sin. May our h&earts become holy temples, and our lives living sacrifices.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We commend all belonging to us to Your sovereign care. May Your love reign paramount within us--may there be no competing affection. May we seek to show by our pure lives and consistent walk\emdash that we have been imbibing the Savior's spirit. Take these unworthy, erring hearts\emdash sanctify and seal them for Yourself. Make them Yours\emdash Yours only, and Yours wholly, and Yours fore'ver!\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Let us live as the expectants of a glorious immortality. Lord, may we habitually remember, that here we are pilgrims and strangers. Oh be our constant Guide in all our journeyings. Let us never go but where You direct. Let us never hesitate when and where You call us. Let us not arraign the allotments of Your infinite love. May we feel that all the circumstances of life---its joys and its sorrows--its comforts and crosses--are ordained by You (in adorable wisdom. Our way might have been hedged up with thorns, but it has been full of mercy.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Lord, we mourn over our dullness, and coldness, and lukewarmness. We look forward to that day, when there shall be nothing to mar the joy of entire and undivided devotion to you, and consecration to Your service.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par O God, we come into Your blessed presence this evening, anew to thank You for the u)nmerited tokens of Your love and mercy. On You we are dependent for all the temporal bounties of our lot, and for all our higher and more enduring spiritual privileges. If we have been enabled this day to resist temptation, and to fight against sin, it is Your grace which has enabled us to do so. We are weak and helpless. Our hearts are ever dealing treacherously both with ourselves and You. The good that we would do--that we don't do. And the evil that we would not do--that we do. Nothing else but the me*rits of our blessed Redeemer can save us. We take refuge in the fullness of His grace\emdash in the completeness of His finished work. Our souls would magnify the Lord, our spirits would rejoice in God our Savior; for He who is mighty has done great things for us--holy is His name.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We take refuge anew at the foot of Your cross, bringing our infinite unworthiness to Your infinite merit and all-sufficiency. Wash us, blessed Savior, in the fountain op+ened for sin and for uncleanness. Receive us graciously. Love us freely. Preserve against the world's snares, and dangers, and temptations.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May all worldly thoughts, and cares, and disquietudes, be laid aside, that we may enjoy a foretaste of the everlasting blessedness which is at Your right hand. We come, gracious Lord, relying on Your mercy and love in Jesus. We would direct the undivided eye of faith to His finished salvation; rejoicing that it, is as free as ever, and as efficacious as ever.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Fill us with a deep and humbling sense of our guilt. May we mourn an erring past, and receive grace for an unknown future. We would seek this day anew to enkindle our love at Your holy altar. Inspire us with resolutions of new obedience. May we no longer live unto ourselves\emdash to the world\emdash to the creature\emdash to sin. May the great Creator and the adorable Redeemer occupy, without a riva-l, the throne of our affections!\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We approach You, acknowledging our great unworthiness. Fill us with a deep sense of our guilt. We have not the humbling consciousness we ought to have of our exceeding vileness. We are apt to plead vain excuses for our sins. Forgive us, O Lord\emdash forgive us all, for Your dear Son's sake. Wash these crimson and scarlet stains away, in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Blessed Lord, make these unwor.thy hearts of ours Your temple\emdash holy altars of gratitude and love. May our lives form a continued thank-offering for Your manifold mercies. May we count it our highest privilege, as well as our sacred duty, to walk so as to please You.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Almighty God, we desire, on this the morning of a new day, to approach the footstool of Your Throne of grace. You are glorious in Your holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders. Your eternity, no /finite mind can fathom. Your purposes no accident can alter. Your love no time can impair. We adore You as the God of our life; moment by moment we are dependent on Your goodness; if You withdraw Your hand, we perish. And yet, O Lord, we have not been living habitually mindful of You. We have too often taken our blessings as matters of course. We have had unthankful hearts in the midst of Your daily tokens of unmerited mercy. Above all, we have been living in guilty forgetfulness of Your dear Son. We have0 not been remembering as we ought, that but for Him and His wondrous grace, we must have perished everlastingly! We have not felt, as we ought, the attractive power of His cross. Other lords have had dominion over us. Your love, which ought to have reigned paramount, has been displaced by other affections. We have been "minding earthly things;" too often anxious, and troubled, and concerned\emdash about things that will perish with the very using. Lord, have mercy upon us. Melt our hard and obdurate heart1s; renew them by the indwelling of Your gracious Spirit.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par All our hope is in Jesus. Help us, blessed Savior, else we die! Give us to see the adaptation of Your character and work to all the wants and weaknesses the trials and difficulties\emdash the sorrows and sins of our fallen and suffering and tempted natures. There is infinite merit in You to meet all the magnitude of our infinite guilt. May we exhibit more willingness to renounce all dependenc2e on ourselves, that You may be enthroned in our hearts, as Lord of all. Make us more heavenly minded\emdash more pilgrim-like. Our graces are feeble\emdash -Lord, sustain them. Our affections are lukewarm\emdash Lord, revive them. Search us\emdash try us\emdash lead us. Use whatever discipline You see best: may it all result in our growing sanctification, in endearing to us Your favor, and bringing us to live under a more constant and realizing sense of the things which cannot be shaken.\par \par 3 * * * * * *\par \par O Lord, our Heavenly Father, by whose good providence we are spared from day to day\emdash enable us to come this night into Your presence, with hearts filled with gratitude and thankfulness for all Your mercies. We would be deeply humbled on account of our unworthiness. What are we\emdash that we should be permitted to take Your name into our polluted lips? We have sinned\emdash what shall we say unto You, O preserver and Redeemer of men? We have erred and straye4d from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and the desires of our own hearts unto evil. We have been rebellious, and wayward, and selfish, and unthankful. We have been living in the enjoyment of countless blessings without any due acknowledgment of Your giving hand. Your kindness has too often been abused, Your grace resisted. We have been worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed forevermore. Lord, we flee anew to the clefts of th5e Smitten Rock\emdash hide us there, from that wrath and everlasting condemnation which these our manifold sins have justly merited.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par What encouragement we have to trust Your love and mercy! We can fear no evil when You are with us. We rejoice that we are in Your hands; that all that our concerns are at Your disposal. Enable us to rest, in calm composure, in Your infinite wisdom. Give us lowliness and gentleness; kindness and unselfishness. May our 6own wills be merged in the higher will of our Father in Heaven. Whatever be the discipline You employ, may we meekly submit to it. May we watch all Your varied teachings, and get profit and sanctification out of them all. May they bring us nearer Heaven and nearer You.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par O Lord, we desire to draw near into Your blessed presence on this the beginning of a new day. Accept of our morning sacrifice. Enkindle our souls with a live coal from the inner sanc7tuary. Throughout the day may our minds be stayed on You. May a sense of Your favor and love be intermingled with all its duties\emdash hallowing all its pleasures, and softening all its trials. Lord, we have received our being from Your hands; may the lives imparted by You, and sustained by You, be consecrated to Your praise. May we feel the happiness of Your service, and regard nothing that this world can give, as comparable to the enjoyment of Your friendship and love. We thank You, above all, for the 8provisions of the everlasting covenant. Gracious Savior, Shepherd, Guide, and Portion of Your people\emdash give us the assured sense of pardon and forgiveness through the blood of the Cross. May we have no trust in anything but in Your matchless work. May simple faith be followed by holy obedience. May we know the blessedness of a holy life; of affections once alienated from God, now alienated from the world. May no spiritual foe be permitted to obtain the victory over us. May no idol to usurp Your place9 in our souls.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We adore You, gracious God, as the source of all our happiness\emdash the Author of all our blessings. Forbid that we should allow any created good to dispossess Yourself from the supreme place in our affections. May our one animating wish and longing be\emdash to live, and walk, and act, so as to please You.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par What are our lives\emdash but testimonies to Divine faithfulness? We: look back with gratitude and thankfulness on a wondrous past\emdash the innumerable mercies which have been showered upon us, and that, too, in the midst of our ingratitude and sin. Bless the Lord, O our souls, and forget not all His benefits! Where would we now have been, but for Your great love to us in Christ! On Him our every hope of pardon and acceptance is built.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Lord, enable us to manifest our love to You, by a holy walk and life, adorning ;the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Give us a tender conscience, a broken spirit, filial nearness, purity of heart, consistency of conduct, uprightness of life. Bring us under the power of renewed natures and purified affections. May all that is earthly and carnal, all that is unamiable and selfish, all that is unkind and unholy\emdash be displaced by what is pure, elevated, lovely, and holy. Above all, may we live under the influence of unseen realities. With our faces Zionwards, may we feel thess before the face of You, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. We would confess them with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart. May Your love exercise a paramount influence over us.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We come, poor and needy, pleading Your own gracious promise, to give "all sufficiency in all things" to those who seek You. We have no offering of our own to present at Your footstool\emdash we have everything to receive. There is nothing between us and everlas?ting destruction\emdash but Your mercy in Jesus. Wandering in the wilderness, in a solitary way, hungry and thirsty, our souls fainting within us\emdash we would drink of the streams of abundant grace which flow from the Smitten Rock. Bring us to live, more and more every day, under the constraining influence of Your love.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Give us fresh victories over our secret corruptions. May the power of evil wax weaker and weaker; and the power of Your grace w@ax stronger and stronger. May we know, by joyful experience, the happiness of true holiness.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Give us reverential and child-like submission to Your will. The lot may be cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Finite wisdom has no place in Your dealings. Not only are all things ordained by You, but ordained in ineffable wisdom and love. May the end of Your dispensations be our growing sanctification.\par \par A* * * * * *\par \par O God, You are great\emdash and greatly to be feared. Your greatness is unsearchable. Heaven is Your throne\emdash the earth is Your footstool. Before You, cherubim and seraphim continually cry\emdash 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty!' Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory. You are the sovereign controller of all events. You do according to Your will in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. The Lord reigns. Man proposes\Bemdash but You dispose! And You dispose wisely and well.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Whatever be the sphere in which Your good providence has placed us, may it be our earnest endeavor to use our time, and talents, and opportunities for You. May it be our highest desire\emdash to walk so as to please You. May it be our heaviest cross and trial\emdash to incur Your displeasure. In the performance of every-day duties, let us seek to make this the directory of our conduct, "How wCould Jesus have acted here?"\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We come anew to You this night, weary and heavy-laden, beseeching You to grant us the blessed sense of Your forgiving mercy. We lament that we do not feel, as we ought to do\emdash the burden of sin. Bring us in poverty of soul\emdash in self-denying, self-renouncing lowliness, to cry out, "God be merciful to us, sinners." Show us the infinite adaptation of the Redeemer, in His Person and work, to meet all the necessitiDes of our tried and tempted natures. May His name be as ointment poured forth. May His blood be our only plea\emdash His love our animating principle\emdash His glory our chief end.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par In Christ we are as secure as everlasting power and wisdom and love can make us!\par \par * * * * * *\par \par How, Lord, shall we come into Your presence? Our very prayers are enough to condemn us. Our purest services, if weighed in the balaEnces, would rise up in judgment against us. We come anew in the name of Your dear Son, confessing, and desiring deeply to feel as we confess\emdash that we are sinners and the chief of sinners. We look to Your grace abounding over all our sin\emdash to Your infinite merit abounding over our infinite demerit\emdash to the everlasting righteousness and faithfulness of a tried Redeemer, coming in the room of our imperfections. We would place all our sins on the head of the immaculate Substitute. He alone canF bear them away into a land of oblivion, so that they can rise up to condemn us no more. We bless You that He ever lives and reigns for our justification. We rejoice to think of Him as our Great High Priest, with the names of His covenant people engraved on His heart, bearing them along with Him in His every approach to the throne. All power in Heaven and in earth is entrusted to His hands!\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We desire anew to bless and praise You for Your unspeakablGe gift\emdash Jesus, the Son of Your love. There is not a ray of hope which visits our souls\emdash but emanates from His cross. He is the channel of every blessing. We rejoice to think that at this moment He is bending upon us a gracious eye from the Throne, and, with undying and undiminished love, pleading our cause. Lord, we come, casting ourselves on the fullness of Your grace in Him.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May even trials and crosses become easy to us, when borne inH a spirit of tranquil submission. Let us be living as pilgrims on the earth\emdash weaned from what is uncertain and transitory here\emdash and having our affections fixed on the things which cannot be shaken, but remain forever. Oh that Your love might be enthroned more than it is, as the ruling passion of our souls\emdash and Your glory more the end and aim of our being. We adore you for Your free, sovereign, unmerited love in Jesus!\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We often conIfess with the lip\emdash what the heart does not feel. We often appear to be humble, when we are not humble\emdash when our hearts are full of self, and pride, and vainglory. We desire to come anew into Your presence, casting ourselves on the free grace, and love, and mercy of Jesus. We rejoice that in His cross all Your attributes have been magnified.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Known unto You are all our varied circumstances, our peculiar trials, and temptations, and perpleJxities. Our every burden we cast on a faithful God. Our souls, our lives, our cares\emdash we leave entirely in Your hands, saying, "Undertake for us."\par \par * * * * * *\par \par It is in the name, and trusting in the merits of Your dear Son alone, that we can have any confidence in approaching You. We rejoice that we have always a safe shelter at the foot of His cross. We rejoice that there, every attribute of Your nature, and every requirement of Your law, have been vindicKated and magnified. Myriads are now in glory to bear witness to the power and love of an all-gracious Savior. Save us, else we perish! There is not a sin but You can cancel\emdash there is not the unsanctified heart which Your promised Spirit is unable to convert into a Temple of the living God. Keep us from evil; preserve us from temptation.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May our weakness drive us to Almighty strength. Keep us, by Your grace, from an uneven walk, from inconsistLency of conduct. May we be gentle, and lowly, meek, and forgiving. May we overcome evil with good.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We pray for all in sorrow\emdash may they look to the hand which was pierced for them, to bind up their bleeding wounds. May He who graciously said of old, "I know their sorrows," be near, with His own exalted sympathy, to minister to their varied experiences of trial.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Give us grace to look awaMy from our guilty selves and our guilty doings\emdash to Him who has done all and suffered all, and procured all for us! Give us a deep and abiding sense of our vileness and unworthiness. May every sin which has usurped the throne of our affections be cast down, that God Himself may be our all in all. May we seek to imbibe more of the spirit, and to copy more of the example, of our Divine Redeemer. May we feel it to be our joy to serve Him, our privilege to follow Him, our sorrow to vex and grieve Him.\paNr \par * * * * * *\par \par O Lord, we desire to approach the footstool of Your Throne, adoring You as the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who neither faints, nor is weary. Your wisdom never fails. Your resources never exhaust. The kindness of the kindest knows a limit, but Your kindness knows no limit. With Your friendship, and favor, and blessing\emdash we are rich\emdash whatever else You may take away.\par \par * * * * * *\par O \par We come unto You this morning in the name of Your dear Son. Our sins reach unto the clouds. Blessed Savior, we would bury all our transgressions in the depths of Your forgiving mercy. We seek no other refuge, and need no other refuge\emdash but You. Relying on Your finished work, we can look calm and undismayed on the unknown future. We can cast all our cares, as they arise, upon You, feeling not only that You care for us\emdash but that You make these cares Your own.\par \par P * * * * * *\par \par During the past day, You have been compassing our path\emdash shielding us from danger, and guarding us from temptation. None is so able, none is so willing, as You are\emdash to befriend and guide us in every perplexity. We can experience no real deprivation, and mourn no real loss\emdash if we have You. May we ever be near the atoning fountain; continually hidden in the clefts of the Rock.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We have nothing oQf our own but our sins; all that is good in us comes from Jesus. Have mercy upon us, for His sake, in whom You see no iniquity.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par We desire to take Jesus as our pattern in all things. When in need of direction or guidance in any duty, or under any perplexity\emdash may this be ever our inquiry, "How would the Savior have acted here?" May we imbibe His unselfish spirit. May life be a more constant effort than it has been, to crucify self and to pleaseR God.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Sanctify sorrow to the sons and daughters of affliction. Let them not murmur under Your Fatherly chastisements. Let them own Your Sovereignty, and take comfort in the thought that You do all things well; seeing no hand but Yours in the bestowing and removing the gifts of Your bounty. "The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad!"\par \par * * * * * *\par \par How unworthy are we to come to Your footstool. There is enougSh of coldness in our prayers, of insincerity in our repentance, of imperfection in our best attempts to serve You\emdash that were we tried by these, we must have perished forever! Our prayers themselves require forgiveness. In You alone are our persons and our services rendered acceptable. We flee to the foot of Your cross. Here we are safe, though everywhere else we be in danger. Let us exercise a simple confidence and trust in Your completed work. We bring every sin to Your atoning blood. May we have YTou in all, and for all the duties and difficulties and trials of life.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Your thoughts are not as man's thoughts. Had they been so, the sinner, with all his deep depravity, and unutterable vileness, and base ingratitude, would not have been thus welcomed, pardoned, accepted, loved. Bring us to live more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of Your Redeeming love. May these souls of ours, ransomed at such a price\emdash be dedicaUted to Your service.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Keep us from pride\emdash the master passion of our fallen and corrupted natures.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Our wishes, our desires, our interests, our joys, our sorrows, our friends\emdash we leave entirely to Your sovereign care and disposal.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par May we be melted under a sense of our own great unworthiness, and of His amazing love.\par \parV * * * * * *\par \par May sin be more dreaded, and holiness more loved.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par Lord, break the world's alluring spell; strip it of its vain fascinations! May we give evidence to all, that we are living under the power and influence of gospel principles and renewed affections. And even though trial and sorrow should at times be our allotted portion, may we seek to show that the grace of God can impart an inner sunshine which no oWutward darkness can obscure. May we increasingly experience\emdash that the way of holiness is the way of happiness.\par \par * * * * * *\par \par O Eternal, Everlasting God, Fountain of all happiness, God of all grace--we desire to acknowledge anew with grateful hearts, Your undeserved mercies. You have made our cup to overflow with blessings. From the very threshold of our being, You have been our Protector and Guardian. You have shielded us from unknown dangers. You have warXded off unseen calamities. No earthly friend could have loved us and cared for us, like You! Helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless by nature, we cast ourselves on Him who is help and hope and friend and portion--to all who seek Him. We have no trust but in His work. Sprinkle these polluted hearts with His pardoning, peace-speaking blood. Hide us in the clefts of the smitten Rock. Safely sheltered there, we can make the triumphant challenge, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" We mourn our distance and estrangement from You, our guilty departures, our coldness and insensibility. Let Your wondrous patience and kindness lead us to repentance. Turn us, Lord, and we shall be turned! Draw us and we shall run after You! May every thought, and affection, and feeling, and temper--be brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. May we love what He loves, and hate what He hates. May we know the happiness of true holiness; and rejoice in doing Your holy will.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } fmq00 Family Prayers (1885){\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FAMILY PRAYERS\par by John MacDuff, 18 W-A)02 First week{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\[MUU01 CHOICE EXCERPTS{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 CHOICE EXCERPTS\par \par \par \par We look forward with joyful hearts to that better world, where we shall \fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 SUNDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty God, we desire to approach Your sacred presence, thanking You that You have permitted us to see the light of another day. This is the day which You have made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Draw near to us, as we draw near to You. Inspirer of all good thoughts, pre-occupy our hearts with Yourself. May we walk in the l]ight of Your countenance. Your favor is life. Nothing but the possession of Your infinite love can satisfy the longings of our souls. Whom have we in heaven, O God, but You? and there is none upon earth we would desire besides You.\par \par We acknowledge our unworthiness; the depravity and corruption of our nature; the sins and shortcomings of our practice. We have to mourn over unrequited kindness, resisted warnings, unimproved providences, neglected privileges. For the sake of Jesus Christ, t^he Son of Your love\emdash have mercy upon us miserable offenders! We bring our guilt to the Great Atoning sacrifice. We bring the burden of daily transgression to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. In Him, receive us graciously and love us freely. Hidden in the clefts of the smitten Rock, may it be ours to take up the song of the pardoned, "O Lord, we will praise You; though You were angry with us, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort us! Behold, God is our salvation\emdash we wi_ll trust, and not be afraid\emdash for the Lord Jehovah is our strength and our song, He also is become our salvation."\par \par Lord, subdue within us whatever is inconsistent with Your mind and will. Put a sanctified restraint on our thoughts; repress all vain imaginations; crucify every remaining sin. May our hearts become holy temples, and our lives living sacrifices. Let eternity exercise a more commanding influence over us, and true religion become more "the one thing needful." May we grow` in meek and childlike submission to our Heavenly Father's will. Breathing a perpetual heavenly-spirit on earth, may we be fitted for that rest which shall never be broken, which awaits Your people in the Kingdom of the Redeemed.\par \par We pray for those who are this day to minister to us in the sanctuary. Give them an unction from the Holy Spirit. May every impression of Your Holy Word be rendered permanent and saving. May we be in the Spirit on Your day, and enabled to pitch our tents near tahe gate of Heaven. Bless any who may be prevented waiting along with us in the courts of Zion. May those who tarry at home divide the spoil; and know that You are not confined to temples made with hands. Bless us as a family and household. As we are knit together in earthly ties; unite us in the better bonds of the everlasting covenant. Make us partakers of the resurrection-life of Your people; that, though death may sooner or later separate us here, we may meet at last where separation is unknown. We combmend all belonging to us to Your sovereign care. May the pillar of Your presence go continually before us.\par \par We pray for the poor, the afflicted, the bereaved, and the dying. O Comforter of all who are cast down\emdash heal their sorrows, bind up their wounds. To the friendless\emdash prove a Friend. In the multitude of their thoughts within them, may Your comforts delight their souls. Hear us, gracious God, for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and in whose most precious name and worcds we pray.\par \par \par \par SUNDAY EVENING\par \par Heavenly Father, we desire to close Your holy Sabbath, looking up to You for a blessing. You have been as a pillar of cloud before us this day. You have again spread for us a table in the wilderness. We have again seen Your glory, as we have seen You hitherto in Your Temple. As the shadows of night are falling around us, do the "Sun of our Souls," be near us\emdash dispersing the darkness of sin, and giving us the inner dsunshine of Your presence and love. We entreat You graciously to forgive the many sins that have mingled in our efforts to serve You. If we were to be judged by our holiest seasons, how would we stand condemned! Look not on us as we are in ourselves; but behold our shield\emdash look on the face of Your Anointed. We would cleave to Him as our only Savior.\par \par Enable us to testify the reality of our faith, by bringing forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. May Your love reign paramounte within us\emdash may there be no competing affection. May we seek to show by our pure lives and consistent walk, that we have been imbibing the Savior's spirit. Take these unworthy, erring hearts; sanctify and seal them for Yourself; make them Yours\emdash Yours only, and Yours wholly, and Yours forever. Clothe us with the armor of righteousness; enable us to exercise a holy jealousy over ourselves, lest things temporal should tend to exclude things eternal. May it be our great aim to be progressing in tfhe Divine life. Let us ever hear Your voice saying, "Arise, and depart\emdash for this is not your rest\emdash it is polluted!" May our habitual response be, "We desire a better country\emdash that is a Heavenly one."\par \par We pray for a world lying in wickedness. How long shall the wicked\emdash how long shall the wicked triumph? Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance, feed them also, and lift them up forever. Bless abundantly the preaching of Your holy word. Glorify Yourself in the saglvation of sinners. May the hands of Your ministering servants be made strong by the arms of the mighty God of Jacob. May bows, this day, drawn at a venture, have carried the arrow of conviction or of comfort to many hearts.\par \par We entreat You to take under Your protection all our beloved friends. It is our privilege to bring them in prayer to the mercy-seat. Though unable to meet within the same sanctuary, it is our comfort to know that no distance can estrange from You\emdash that You canh, at one and the same moment, be present within every gate of Zion and every dwelling of Jacob. We commend both present and absent ones to the gracious Shepherd of Israel. Be to them as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Draw near to the sons and daughters of sorrow. Give them everlasting consolation and good hope, through grace. Let them bow to Your will. Let them see no hand in their trials but Yours; saying, in lowly submissiveness\emdash The Lord gave, and the Lord has a sovereign right to taike away.\par \par We thank You for Your many mercies still vouchsafed to us. Watch over us during this night. Grant us the sleep of Your beloved; and when we awake, may we still be with You. And all that we ask is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior; to whom, with You, the Father, and You, O Eternal Spirit, one God, be ascribed all blessing, and honor, and glory, and praise, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY MORNING\par \pjar O Lord, we desire to draw near into Your gracious presence, in the name of Him whom You hear always, and in whom You are ever well pleased. Give us grace to approach You, under a deep sense of our unworthiness. We have nothing to plead in extenuation of our guilt. We have sinned against light and privilege, warning and mercy. We mourn our deep-rooted depravity, our constant proneness to depart from You, the feebleness of our faith, the coldness of our love, the imperfection of our best serviceks, the mingled motives in our holiest duties. We come anew, casting ourselves on the infinite fullness of our adorable Redeemer. In Him is all our hope. Give us, out of His inexhaustible treasury, grace upon grace. Transform us into His image. May we seek to walk in His footsteps, and to copy His example; bearing continually about with us the dying of the Lord Jesus, may the life also of Jesus be made manifest in our mortal flesh.\par \par O God, let it be our constant aim and endeavor to know wlhat Your will is; and may we have strength given us to obey it. May we cheerfully submit to whatever You see fit to appoint. May we murmur at nothing that brings us nearer You. Conscious of the supreme enthronement of Your love in our hearts, may we be enabled to avow, "Lord, You know all things, You know that we love You." Loving You supremely, take what You will away\emdash we must be happy.\par \par God of Bethel, dwell in this household; make every member of it a member of the household of fmaith. Bless all our friends. Those who are absent\emdash Lord be near them. Those that are in distress\emdash Lord comfort them. Those that know You not\emdash Lord reveal Yourself unto them. Those that are Your children\emdash increase their devotedness.\par \par Prosper Your cause and kingdom everywhere. Let Satan's kingdom be destroyed, and the kingdom of grace advanced\emdash the kingdom of glory hastened. Give to each of us this day Your gracious benediction; and when our days on earth are nfinished, may it be ours to spend the years of Eternity in the full vision and fruition of You, our God, through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY EVENING\par \par O God Almighty, who has mercifully shielded us during another day, we desire, before we retire to rest, to commit ourselves, soul and body\emdash to You in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. Glory be to our God for all the blessings of the light; and now that the curtain oof evening is again drawn around us\emdash keep us beneath the shadow of Your wings. It is You, Lord, alone\emdash who makes us to dwell in safety. We acknowledge You as our daily Benefactor and Guardian. Yours is the air we breathe, the food we eat, the raiment with which we are clothed. But far above all Your other gifts, we bless You for Jesus, the Son of Your love. He is our only Savior. We would exult anew, in the assurance, that His blood cleanses from all sin; and that He is able to save to the utteprmost. We rejoice to think that He is at this moment pleading in behalf of His people\emdash the wonderful Counselor, the Prince who has power with God, and must at all times prevail.\par \par May we be clothed with His spirit, as well as with His righteousness. Make us like Him, patient and meek, thankful and forgiving. Take away all pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy\emdash all absorbing love of the world. Set our affections on things above; and enable us to pass through temporal things, so that qfinally we lose not the things that are eternal. May we seek to be zealous in the performance of our relative duties. Let us feel that whatever talents You have given us, are trusts to be laid out for Your glory, and to promote the well-being of those around us. Whatever our hand finds to do, may we do it with our might. Visit Your church\emdash the vineyard which Your own right hand has planted. May grace, and mercy, and peace be upon the Israel of God. Bless our own household; may every heart within it rbe given unto You. Let none of us leave for a dying hour, what may be best done, and it may be, only done\emdash now. May all our friends at a distance enjoy the friendship of an ever-present God. Guard them, guide them, provide for them. May we walk together the same Zionward path; and at last have an abundant entrance ministered into that better land, where You shall rest in Your love, and rejoice over Your people with singing. Hear us, for the sake of Your dear Son, our only Lord and Savior\par \par s \par \par TUESDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, You are from everlasting to everlasting, God. You inhabit the praises of eternity. Your glories no time can impair. Your mercy endures forever. Who shall not fear You and glorify Your name\emdash for You only are holy! We bless You for the Son of Your love. We rejoice that for every sinner casting himself on His fullness and sufficiency there is a gracious welcome. Reposing on His completed work, we can triumphantly say, 'Return unto tYour rest, O our souls, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with us.' O God, enable us to enter into this rest. Forbid that we should delay availing ourselves of Your offered mercy. May every other question be subordinated to this, "What must we do to be saved?" May we know that Jesus is in every respect, the Savior we need. Let us experience the blessedness of living with Him in holy fellowship, upon Him with unfaltering dependence, and to Him in undivided consecration of soul and body. Enable us to searcuh out the plague of our own hearts. Laying aside every weight, and the sin which most easily besets us, may we run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. May whatever pleases Him please us. May we find all our happiness in inquiring what the will of the Lord is. And knowing it, let us joyfully pursue our heavenward way.\par \par While thankfully employing the manifold gifts of Your bounty, O God, keep us from the abuse of any, by allowing them to supplant the Giver. Mavy they be hallowed and sanctified to us by connecting them with Yourself\emdash the Source and Bestower of all!\par \par Bless all in sorrow. Descend, Lord, to heal their wounds. May they bow with unrepining submission to Your will, and say, 'It is good for us that we have been so afflicted!' May those laid on beds of languishing, manifest patience under bodily pain and infirmity, glorifying You in the furnace-fires. May useful lives be spared, and the dying be prepared for death. Hasten the prowmised times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. May Jesus take to Himself His great power and reign. Let the day soon come, when He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth, when all kings shall fall down before Him, and all nations shall serve Him. Restrain human passion. Scatter the people who delight in war. Give peace in our time, O God, for there is none other that fights for us, but You alone, O God.\par \par Bless this family and householxd: may we all know the happiness of the Shepherd's fold. May the lambs of the flock be gathered in His arms and carried in His bosom. Take us this day under your peculiar care. May the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord cause His face to shine on us. May the Lord be gracious unto us and give us peace, for Jesus' sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par TUESDAY EVENING\par \par O God, we come into Your blessed presence this evening, anew to thank You for the unmerited tokens of Yoyur love and mercy. On You we are dependent for all the temporal bounties of our lot, and for all our higher and more enduring spiritual privileges. If we have been enabled this day to resist temptation, and to fight against sin, it is Your grace which has enabled us to do so. We are weak and helpless. Our hearts are ever dealing treacherously both with ourselves and You. The good that we would do\emdash that we don't do. And the evil that we would not do\emdash that we do. Nothing else but the merits of ozur blessed Redeemer can save us. We take refuge in the fullness of His grace\emdash in the completeness of His finished work. Our souls would magnify the Lord, our spirits would rejoice in God our Savior; for He who is mighty has done great things for us\emdash holy is His name.\par \par And while we look by simple faith to His atonement, as the alone ground of our justification, we would look to The Holy Spirit to work in us all the good pleasure of His goodness. May He mold us after the Savior{'s image, and conform us to His will\emdash enabling us to live under the sovereignty of that lofty motive, to walk and act so as to please Jesus. Lord, give us supreme love to You; fervent charity to all men; faithfulness to whatever trust Your Providence has confided to us. May we seek to live, as we would wish we had been living, when we come to a dying hour.\par \par Have mercy on the sons and daughters of sorrow. Let them own Your hand in all their troubles; let them rest in Your love. Let |them rejoice in Him who is the Brother born for adversity; and if they see not the bright light in the cloud, may they trust Your own promise, "At evening time, it shall be light."\par \par Promote Your cause and kingdom in the world. Pour out upon Your ministers, and missionaries, and churches, Your health-giving grace. May the time soon come when all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. Bless our own immediate dwelling, and the circle who are nearest and dearest to us. May the} peace of God, which passes understanding, keep their hearts. Number them with Your saints in everlasting glory. Be with us throughout this night. May our bodies be refreshed with sleep; and may we awake to the duties of a new day with our minds stayed on You. And unto Your great name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we ascribe blessing, and honor, and glory, and praise, now and forever. Amen.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY MORNING\par \par O God, You are great, and greatly to b~e praised. Your greatness is unsearchable. You are the God of our life, and the length of of our days. You appoint all our lot\emdash and settle the bounds of our habitation. The Lord reigns! Nothing befalls us but what is the dictate of infinite wisdom and everlasting love! How unvarying has been Your kindness. We have to tell of mercy upon mercy; and there are no small mercies with You. All Your mercies are great, for the least of them are undeserved.\par \par We thank You especially for that mercy which transcends all others in magnitude\emdash we bless You for a full and everlasting salvation in Jesus. May we be justified freely by His grace. May He be formed within each of us, as the hope of glory. May we be enabled, with some good measure of triumphant confidence, to say\emdash We know whom we have trusted, and we are persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed to Him against the Great Day.\par \par Anew this morning, as your Redeemed children, we would present our souls and bodies as living sacrifices to You. May we feel this to be a reasonable service. May all that is displeasing to You be disowned. May new-born spiritual principles ripen into holy tastes and permanent habits. May we add to our faith, virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and charity. May all anger, and wrath, and malice, and evil speaking be put away from us\emdash as we remember Him who was meek and lowly in heart\emdash who when He suffered He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.\par \par Lord, be our covenant God. Your presence hallows all joy, sweetens all sorrow, and takes the sting from every thorn and every cross. If we have Your favor and blessing, we are independent of every other. Our heart and flesh may fail, but You are the strength of our heart and our portion forever. We pray for the afflicted. Be a father to the fatherless\emdash a husband to the widow\emdash the stranger's shield\emdash and the orphan's stay. Let every heavy-laden one know that it is Your gracious hand that appoints every burden. Give us all grace to be resigned to Your will. May this be the only breathing of our hearts, "Father, glorify Your name!"\par \par Sanctify our home. May our children rise up and call You blessed! Pour Your rich grace early into their hearts; may they be led to remember their Creator in the days of their youth. May this be esteemed their highest privilege\emdash that they are the children of their Father in Heaven. Hasten, Lord, Your kingdom. Bring in Your ancient people with the fullness of the Gentile nations. Prosper the labors of Your missionary servants; may the Lord stand by them and strengthen them. May they not be afraid of evil tidings; may their hearts be fixed, trusting in You. May each of us feel that in our several spheres, we have some work to perform for You. Let the solemn word of warning be ever sounding in our ears, "The night comes when none of us can work." Oh, may we be diligent, that we may at last be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and all that we ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY EVENING\par \par O God, we desire to come into Your presence on this the close of another day. We beseech You to fill our souls with some befitting conceptions of Your greatness\emdash Your divine majesty and glory. What mercy it is in You to bend Your ear to our feeble lispings of praise, and to listen to the pleadings of such unthankful and unholy hearts. We could not have ventured to approach Your footstool, but for Your great love to us in Christ Jesus. Through Him alone it is, that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts are rendered acceptable in Your sight! In Him we are pardoned, justified, adopted, saved! In Him we are kept, sanctified, sealed. In Him we shall at last be presented without fault before Your throne. Blessed Savior, we may well entrust our eternal all to Your keeping. Our needs are numberless, but Your help is infinite! You are waiting to dispense needed grace, and for every time of need. Lord, we feel that we require grace for everything; there is not the hour or moment we can live independent of You. Carry on Your own work within us. Hold us up\emdash and then alone we shall be safe.\par \par May the fruits of righteousness abound in us. Purge us, that we may bring forth more fruit. Forbid that we should be content to remain sapless, unproductive cumberers, occupying ground in Your vineyard, but yielding no revenue of glory to You. This is Your will concerning each of us\emdash even our sanctification. Oh! You who search Jerusalem with candles\emdash search our hearts; see if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the everlasting way. Lead us not in our own way. Often would we choose what would be detrimental to our best interests. You choose for us. Let us rejoice in You as a rich Provider, and an all-wise Provider; who will give us nothing, and deny us nothing, but what is for our good.\par \par We commend to Your protection all near and dear to us this night. Keep them, gracious Father, under the shadow of Your wings; bless them and make them blessings. May they never lose sight of the chief end of their being\emdash to glorify You on earth, and to enjoy You forever in Heaven. Bless our own family. We thank You for all Your great goodness in the past. The Lord has been mindful of us, and He will bless us. Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. May every branch of Your Church be blessed with tokens of Your favor. Revive Your work, O God, in the midst of the years.\par \par Take the charge of all of us this night. It is You who give Your beloved sleep. It is You, Lord, who alone makes us to dwell in safety. Spare us, if it be Your will, to see the light, and to enjoy the comforts of another day. And all this, we ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par THURSDAY MORNING\par \par Most Blessed God, You have again permitted us to see the beginning of another day. We desire to accept every new morning as a fresh gift of Your love. We are the constant beggars on Your bounty. If Your sustaining arm be withdrawn\emdash we instantly perish.\par \par We are unworthy to come into Your presence. There is nothing so amazing as Your condescension towards us. You might righteously leave us to perish in our sins, and make us the monuments of Your wrath. But in the midst of 'deserved wrath' we have received Your 'unmerited mercy'. We come to You through the new and living way of access. We cast ourselves on the full, free, and everlasting salvation of our adorable Redeemer. Our souls would magnify the Lord. Our spirits would rejoice in God our Savior, for He who is mighty has done great things for us. Holy is His name. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up for us an horn of salvation in the house of His servant David.\par \par May each of us have a personal and a saving interest in all those covenant blessings which He died to purchase, and which He lives to bestow. May we take Jesus as ours alone\emdash ours wholly\emdash ours for every step Zionwards\emdash ours until we reach the gates of glory\emdash yes, ours forever and ever!\par \par We are grateful to You, O God, for all Your goodness to us in the past, we desire to commit ourselves to Your guidance for the future. It is our blessed consolation that no good thing will You withhold from those who walk uprightly. We will hear Your voice behind us saying, "Fear not, for I am with you! Be still; and know that I am God."\par \par Lord, impress us with a sense of the value of time. May we seek to make the most of the present fleeting hours. Let us live under the power of holy principles; that so, when called to give an account of our stewardship, we may do so with joy and not with grief.\par \par Bless all near and dear to us. Our friends we commend to Your friendship. Let not one of them be found lacking on the Great Day. May the Eternal God be their refuge, and underneath them the Everlasting Arms. Sympathize with those in sorrow. May all Your poor afflicted ones take refuge in the assurance that You are the God of Providence; that whatever befalls them is Your doing; and that the sunshine of Your countenance can make up for every loss.\par \par Spare useful and valued lives. Unto the Lord our God belong the life and death. Sanctify us now before You, in body, soul, and spirit: seal us unto the day of eternal redemption. We ask these, and all other blessings, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Savior, to whom, with You the Father, and You, ever blessed Spirit\emdash be ascribed all praise and honor and glory, now and ever. Amen.\par \par \par \par THURSDAY EVENING\par \par O God, we desire to come into Your blessed presence, thanking and praising You for the renewed experiences we have enjoyed of Your faithfulness and love. Another day of mercy and grace has been added to those which have preceded it. We rejoice to look back on the way by which You have hitherto led us; protecting us from danger, supporting us in trouble, disappointing our fears, and realizing our hopes. We bless You for our place in life, for our preservation, for all the blessings of this life. But above all, for Your inestimable gift\emdash Jesus, the Son of Your love. Enable us this evening, like the believing suppliant of old, to touch by faith the hem of His garment, and to receive the benediction, "Your sins are forgiven\emdash go in peace."\par \par We would seek to draw fresh supplies from the fountain of His grace; knowing that He is equal for all exigencies; and that there is a fullness in Him to meet all our needs, and minister to all necessities. It is our desire, blessed God, to lie passive in Your hands. Whether prosperity or adversity be ours, whether You chasten us or gladden us\emdash oh bring us nearer Yourself.\par \par Save us from the bitterest of all trials\emdash the removal of Your love\emdash the loss of Your favor. Strengthen us for duty; guard us from temptation; and enable us so to pass through things temporal\emdash that finally we lose not the things that are eternal. When we cannot understand Your dealings, may faith repose in Your unchanging faithfulness. May we feel assured that all things are working together for our good; and that what is mystery here\emdash will be unfolded and unraveled hereafter. Now, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Meanwhile, may we walk less by sight and more by faith. May we live under the powers of a world to come\emdash and be looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the Great God our Savior.\par \par Take each and all of our family under Your special guardianship. You are better than the best of earthly parents\emdash be the guide and protector of our children. May they be the children of the living God. May their hearts be early given to You; and by holy and obedient lives, may they glorify their Father in Heaven. We pray for Your cause and kingdom everywhere. Give Your Son the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. May He take to Himself His great power, and reign. May there soon be voices heard saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the one Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.\par \par Lord, all our desires are before You; all our hope is in Your mercy; all our happiness is in Your favor. Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent; and when our evenings and mornings shall merge into everlasting day\emdash be still our All in all; for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Savior. Amen.\par \par \par FRIDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, we adore You as God over all, blessed for evermore. You are the former of our bodies and the Father of our spirits\emdash the God in whom we live, and move, and have our being. All that we are, and all that we have, is derived from You. There is nothing we possess that we have not received from You. Oh give us grateful hearts; feeling that the least blessing we enjoy, is unmerited on our part, and a gift of free grace on Yours.\par \par We come anew, glorying in the work and merits of our adorable Surety. In Him, You are waiting to be gracious, not willing that any should perish. May the unwavering eye of faith be kept, Blessed Savior, on You, and on Your completed salvation. We have nothing to pay, You have paid all. We have nothing to procure, You have procured all; everlasting forgiveness, everlasting righteousness, union and communion with You now and evermore. To You we look for everything. Save us from every false confidence. Elevate our affections: purify our desires: make us more heavenly minded. Let us, while living in the world, live above it. Let Your Spirit be our teacher; let Your Word be our guide; let Your Will be our sovereign motive; let Your glory be our ultimate end. May we make true religion more the one thing needful. Let us not remain content with an indefinite hope of final safety.\par \par As pilgrims and strangers on the earth, may we declare plainly that we seek a better country. Give us a beneficial sense of the uncertainty of life. May we feel that the great secret of existence is to be in habitual preparedness for a dying hour. We know not what may be before us. Oh to be living so, that the step between us and death\emdash may be a step between us and glory. Bless all connected with us by whatever tie. May we be able to love all our friends in You. May there be bonds uniting us together which will survive the uncertain ones of earth. We commend to Your special care those who are absent. May an ever-present God be with them. Guide them by Your grace; defend them from temptation; fit them, by the beneficial dealings of Your providence, for the varied duties of the present life, and for the joys of Your Heavenly Kingdom.\par \par Bless the lambs of Your flock. We commend them to the Great Shepherd of the sheep, beseeching Him to bring them early to His fold, and to make them perfect to do His will. We put ourselves, blessed God, into Your hands. May all our doings this day, begun, carried on, and ended in You, redound, through Jesus, to Your praise and glory. And all we ask is for His sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par FRIDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord our God, we desire to bow this night at the footstool of Your Throne, adoring You for all Your great goodness. What are we\emdash that we should be permitted to come into Your presence, or take Your thrice blessed name into our sinful and polluted lips? You have not dealt with us after our sins, but according to Your rich and undeserved mercy. You are the Author of our being, and the source of all that makes existence joyous and happy; Your favor alone is life. Bereft of You, we are bereft indeed.\par \par Enable us to feel our sins\emdash to have a deep and heartfelt consciousness of their heinousness in Your sight. We are apt to cloak and mask them; we are reluctant to make a frank and unreserved confession of them all. Lord, give us grace, in true penitence and contrition of heart, to cast ourselves, unworthy, on the infinite worthiness of Him who is all-worthy. For His sake, receive us graciously\emdash love us freely. We rejoice to meditate on the love which He had for us from all eternity. We rejoice to think that it is the same at this hour that it was then\emdash unchanging, everlasting.\par \par O great Angel of the covenant, accept of these our unworthy petitions: perfume them with the incense cloud which ascends continually from Your hand. Sanctify us, body, soul, and spirit. Make us altogether what You would have us to be. Let us be willing, if need be, to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow You. May we be among the number of those who follow the Great Captain of their Salvation wherever He sees fit to guide them. Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, may we go on our way rejoicing. Bless Your own cause and kingdom everywhere. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.\par \par We would look forward to that time when earth shall become one consecrated temple\emdash when every day shall be a Sabbath\emdash every heart an altar\emdash every tongue praise\emdash and Jesus Christ owned as Lord, to the Glory of God the Father. God of Bethel, God of all the families of the earth, who has promised to show mercy to thousands of those who love You\emdash do bless our household, and give to us the heritage of those that fear Your name. Bless our children; may they early know those ways which are pleasantness, and those paths which are peace. May they be enabled, by Your grace, to resist temptation, and to beat down Satan under their feet. Bless young and old, master and servants. Let none of us be left to seek for the first time a living Savior at a dying hour. But laying hold of Him now, may we be found at last unto praise and honor and glory at His appearing and Kingdom.\par \par We would retire to rest this night, reposing in Your gracious providence; beseeching You, if it be Your will, to spare us to see the light and to enjoy the comforts of a new day; and all we ask is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our only Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY MORNING\par \par Most blessed God, whose nature and whose name is Love; we, Your dependent creatures, desire to draw near this morning to the footstool of Your throne. Vouchsafe us, we beg, Your presence and blessing. We would begin the day with You. We would enter on all its duties supplicating Your favor; feeling that Your favor is life, and that all the happiness the world can give, cannot compensate for its loss. We approach with deep humility. Lord, we are vile, what shall we answer You? Ours is not only the 'guilt of rebels', but the 'ingratitude of children'. We have abused the care and the kindness of the best and most beneficent of Parents. We have too often known our doings to be sinful, and yet we have persevered in them. We have too often known what was in accordance with Your will, and yet we have not followed it. We have reason to marvel that You have borne with us; that You have not, long before now, consigned us to the doom of the cumberer. We would look away from ourselves, to Your dear Son, our Redeemer; feeling that if we are saved it must be by Him alone. May He be formed within us the Hope of Glory. By His grace and Spirit, may we be brought under the power and influence of renewed affections.\par \par Let us seek to manifest the reality of our union with Him, by bringing forth all the peaceable fruits of righteousness\emdash adorning the doctrine of God our Savior. May ours be an active and devoted obedience. Expel from us whatever is unholy. Let us live as the expectants of a glorious immortality. Lord, may we habitually remember, that here we are pilgrims and strangers. Oh be our constant Guide in all our journeyings. Let us never go but where You direct: let us never hesitate when and where You call us. Let us not arraign the allotments of Your infinite love. May we feel that all the circumstances of life\emdash -its joys and its sorrows\emdash its comforts and crosses\emdash are ordained by You in adorable wisdom. Our way might have been hedged up with thorns, but it has been full of mercy.\par \par You have been our help, leave us not, neither forsake us, O God of our salvation. Give us to see written over every hour of the future, "So shall your strength be." Bless all near and dear to us. Defend our friends by Your mighty power. Surround them with Your favor as with a shield, and bring them at last to the enjoyment of Your immediate presence. Bless especially those now before You. May our children be the objects of Your love, and the subjects of Your grace; may they be enabled to say, 'Our Father, You shall be the guide of our youth.' We commend each and all of us this day, to Your keeping. Let us enter upon its duties with our souls stayed on You. And all that we ask is in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus, in whose name and words we would further call You Our Father.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY EVENING\par \par O God almighty, Sovereign Proprietor of the Universe, bow Your ear to the voice of our supplications, as on this the close of another day\emdash when another week of mercy is receding\emdash we venture to approach the Throne of the heavenly grace. Father, we have sinned against Heaven and in Your sight, we are no more worthy to be called Your children. Long before now might You have turned away Your face from us, and our prayer from You. We are wonders to ourselves, that we are still spared. What guilt on our part\emdash yet what forbearance on Yours! What aggravated ingratitude on our part\emdash yet You are waiting to be gracious and willing to pardon! What sins against privilege, slighting Your warnings, grieving Your Spirit; and yet for all this, Your hand of mercy is stretched out still. We desire to remember how it is we are still permitted to approach Your footstool. It is through the Son of Your love; for His work's sake\emdash for His obedience and righteousness' sake. But for Him, we must have been forever without God and without hope.\par \par We plead anew His finished atonement. We would glory in nothing but His cross. Give each of us to enjoy the blessedness of the assurance that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Let us not rest, until, with personal, appropriating faith, we can say, "We know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him." May Your Holy Spirit take of the things that are Christ's, and show them unto our souls. May He touch us as with a live coal from off the altar: purifying our affections, elevating our desires; making our hearts living temples, with this as their superscription, "Holiness unto the Lord."\par \par If led often to mourn over our dullness, and coldness, and lukewarmness here, may it be ours, O God, to look forward to that day, when there shall be nothing to mar the joy of entire and undivided consecration to Your service.\par \par Bless our beloved friends both near and at a distance; may they all be near to You. May there be no separation between them and Your favor. Any who are in sickness, Lord, support them. Any who are in bereavement, Lord, comfort them. Pity a careless, ungodly world\emdash arrest the spread of impiety\emdash establish the reign of purity and righteousness. Give us grace to be faithful among the faithless; resolving that, whatever others do, as for us, we will serve the Lord.\par \par Be with us this night. Watch over us as we sleep. May night after night of refreshing slumber, be to us the emblem of that better rest above, when, in perfect security, we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Prepare us for the services of Your day. Attune our minds for its sacred duties. May each recurring Sabbath, as it brings us nearer Eternity, find us better prepared for it; and all that we ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } AY MORNING\par \par Most Gracious God, who has in Your good providence again permitted us to see the light of Your holy day\emdash draw near to us in Your great mercy. You have dispersed the darkness of another night; may the Sun of Righteousness arise upon us with healing in His beams. May our fellowship be with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. We thank You for the stated return of this season of sacred rest, when, away from the feverish anxieties of earth, we may give heed to the things which concern our everlasting peace. We bless You for the great truth which this day more especially commemorates.\par \par We bless You that Jesus has burst the bands of the grave, and triumphed over principalities and powers. The Lord is risen! He has satisfied all the demands of Your holy law; He has finished transgression, made an end of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. The Lord is risen! He has fully vanquished our foes; Satan's power is overthrown, and the kingdom of heaven is opened to all believers. We take refuge anew at the foot of Your cross, bringing our infinite unworthiness to Your infinite merit and all-sufficiency. Wash us, blessed Savior, in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Receive us graciously. Love us freely. Being made free from sin, and having become the servants of God, may we have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.\par \par Lord, give us grace ever to walk as the heirs of immortality. Let us bear about with us the recollection that time is short. Let us live as if each Sabbath possibly be our last. May a sacred spirit pervade this day's services. May we glean from these, for the week on which we have just entered, what will form a preservative against the world's snares, and dangers, and temptations.\par \par We pray for those who profane Your holy name; who reject the offers of Your grace, and continue in alienation and sin. Before the door of mercy is forever shut\emdash turn them from their wickedness; point them to Jesus, and show them that "neither is there salvation in any other." Unfold to them the fearfulness of meeting You as they are, unpardoned and unreconciled. Let them know the preciousness of that precious assurance, "He is able to save unto the uttermost."\par \par O Source of all consolation, draw near to the afflicted. Abundantly sanctify Your dealings. Stay Your rough wind in the day of Your east wind. May this thought silence every murmur, "He who spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things." God of Bethel\emdash bless all related to us by the bonds of earthly affection. May they evermore have affiance in You. Shepherd of Israel\emdash You who lead Joseph like a flock\emdash may they be safe under Your gracious guidance, and repose in Your love. Bless our children. Pour Your rich grace into their hearts. Let them not fall a prey to the allurements and enticements of a present evil world, but may they walk as seeing You, who is invisible.\par \par Bless Your holy Church throughout all the world. Clothe Your priests with salvation: let Your saints shout aloud for joy. Own, this day, Your own appointed instrumentality in the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. May Your word prove quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. It is not by might, nor by power, but by Your Spirit, O Lord Almighty. Let Your mercy, O God, be upon us, according as we hope in You. And when our Sabbaths on earth are ended, may ours, at last, be an unending Sabbath in Your presence and favor. And all that we ask is in the name and for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and to whom with You, the Father, and You, O Eternal Spirit, one God, be ascribed, all blessing and honor, and glory and praise, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par SUNDAY EVENING\par \par Almighty and Everlasting God, we desire to draw near to the footstool of Your throne of grace, thanking You for all the mercies of the past day. We will set up our Ebenezer of gratitude, and say, "The Lord has helped us!" We bless You that You have permitted us once more, on earth, to enjoy the rest and quiet of Your holy Sabbath; that again we have been invited to hush worldly disquietudes and cares, and have our minds stayed on You. Pardon whatever You have seen amiss in our attempts to serve You. May our persons and our services be accepted in the Beloved. May they be perfumed with the fragrance of His adorable merits. We desire anew this night to repair to His cross. We disown all trust in ourselves. Other refuge, other righteousness, we have none, and we need none. We cleave, in simple dependence, to the work of Jesus. We are safe only when clinging to the horns of the blood-besprinkled altar.\par \par Lord, give us to know the happiness of being at peace with You through Him. Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, we desire to connect with Your favor. Every rivulet of creative, providential, and redeeming mercy\emdash we would trace to Yourself, its great fountain-head. Every cross and loss we would submit to, as the appointment of Your wisdom. The roughest path we would tread\emdash if You lead us there! May all Your dealings toward us issue in our sanctification. May our hearts be becoming holier and purer. Transform us more from day to day, and from week to week, into the image of Your Son; that we may at last be presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.\par \par We pray for all who may have worshiped with us this day. May grace, mercy, and peace be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. Bless Your ministering servants, more especially those who have spoken unto us Your word. Out of the abundance of their hearts, may their lips speak; may they ever hear the sound of their Master's footsteps behind them. Extend Your cause and kingdom everywhere. May the glorious Gospel of the grace of God speedily triumph over all the pride, and reason, and will-worship, and delusion of man. Arise, O God, and plead Your own cause. May it long be our privilege to repair without hindrance to the living waters of Salvation. Continue to us the bliss of unbroken Sabbaths, and quiet sanctuaries, and peaceful communions.\par \par Bless our family. O You who have brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep\emdash through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, make us all perfect to do Your will, working in us that which is well pleasing in Your sight. May we be found at last among Your sealed ones\emdash members of the white-robed multitude who shall dwell with You forever. May our friends who are at a distance from us, be protected and guarded by Your gracious providence. The Lord watch between them and us when we are absent one from another\emdash may their names also be written among the living in Jerusalem. Teach us all to be walking as pilgrims and strangers on the earth\emdash sojourners as all our fathers were\emdash looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God our Savior. May we pass the time of our sojourning here in fear\emdash prepared for whatever may be Your will concerning us\emdash for health or for sickness\emdash for joy or for sorrow\emdash for life or for death. Have mercy on the afflicted. Let the prayer of faith save the sick. Spare useful and valued lives. Let not the sun of life go down while it is yet day; but turn the shadow of death into the morning. Comfort the bereaved. Sustain the dying. Prepare them for their great change.\par \par Through another night, be pleased to grant us Your guardian care. Shepherd of Israel, may Your wakeful, sleepless eye be upon us. May the shadows of this night's darkness be to us only as the shadow of Your wings. Shield soul and body by Your mighty power. Lying down in Your fear, may we awake in Your favor, fitted for the duties of a new day. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Amen.\par \par \par MONDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, You are glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders! Blessed be Your name, that though You are the Greatest of all Beings, You stoop to hear our prayers, and listen to our needs. It is because You are God and not man, that we are still in the land of the living, and in the place of hope. Day by day have our sins incurred Your righteous displeasure. We have left Your bounty unacknowledged, and Your love unrequited. We have to tell of our unthankful hearts, ungodly lives, deep corruptions. Lord, impress us with a sense of our guilt. Let us feel it is no light matter to sin against You, and to be living in unconcern of Your manifold mercies. Sinners\emdash the chief of sinners, we would look away from ourselves\emdash to the work and merits of our Great Redeemer. Blessed Savior, You are waiting to be gracious. All the mighty load of our guilt we would transfer to You, our adorable Surety and Redeemer. You have already satisfied the requirements of a righteous law. As our Kinsman and Elder Brother, You are now within the veil; as willing as You ever were\emdash to save unto the uttermost.\par \par While we look to You as the Lord our Righteousness, may we know You also as the Lord our Strength. May we imbibe more of Your blessed spirit. May we be learners at Your feet\emdash learning to deny ourselves, and to bear all that You chose to appoint, without a murmur: knowing that it must be for the best. May we be enabled to follow Your footsteps and to reflect Your purity. May Your love animate us in the discharge of every daily duty. May we act under the feeling that "we are not our own\emdash but are bought with a price." Consecrated soul and body to the Lord who died for us, may life become a tribute offering to Your praise.\par \par Preserve us from the snares of a wicked world. Strengthen us in seasons of weakness. Protect us in the hour of temptation. To us to live may it be Christ; so that when called to leave this scene of probation, we may die in peace, and have our souls filled with hopes of heaven.\par \par Lord, bless our friends\emdash reward our benefactors\emdash forgive our enemies. May our household ever have Your gracious benediction resting upon it. May every member of our family, near and at a distance, have the seal of God on their foreheads, and be numbered with Your saints in glory everlasting. Pour Your rich grace into the hearts of the young. Let them not allow golden moments to pass by misimproved. Let them know the happiness of living under Your continual favor.\par \par Look in kindness on the sick, the sorrowful, the aged, the bereaved, and the dying. Accommodate Your grace to their varied needs and trials. Let them take refuge in the mercy of Him who is chastising them; rejoicing that all which concerns them and theirs, is in Your hands and at Your disposal. Hear these our humble prayers; when You hear, forgive; and grant us an answer in peace, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY EVENING\par \par Most gracious God, Father of all mercies, God of our salvation\emdash we desire, this evening, to approach the footstool of Your Throne of Grace. We would end another day of mercy with the offering of grateful hearts. What shall we render unto You, for all Your benefits to us? Never for a solitary moment have You withdrawn from us Your hand of love. We rejoice that we have such a God on whom to cast our cares; and who has given us, in the past, so many wondrous proofs, that You continually care for us. We desire anew to look to the merits and righteousness of Your dear Son. His blood has washed guilty thousands; and it is still free to us. We take refuge in the assurance, that coming unto You through Him, confessing our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.\par \par Take these hearts of ours and make them Yours. May our inmost thoughts, and desires, and purposes, be dedicated to Your glory. May we be living as the expectants of immortality; walking worthy of You unto all well pleasing, being fruitful in every good word and work. Feeling our responsibilities as the servants and stewards of Your household, may our time and talents be more laid out for You, that when Jesus comes, He may receive His own\emdash with interest.\par \par Bless all the family of the afflicted. God of all consolation, bind up their wounds. Keep them from a murmuring spirit, under dark dispensations. Let them know and believe that infinite love is in all Your arrangements; that finite wisdom has no place in Your chastisements; that He with whom they have to do, cannot do wrong. Lord, give us all this lowly spirit of submission to Your will. Whether You chasten us, or gladden us; whether prosperity or adversity be our portion\emdash oh bring us nearer Yourself! May Your dealings serve to trim the lamp of faith and keep it brightly burning.\par \par Extend Your covering wings over all whom we love. May none of our friends be unbefriended by You. Bless our own immediate household; sprinkle its lintels with the covenant token. Write the names of our children in the Lamb's book of life. May each of us at last be included in the invitation, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!" May our lives now be hid with Christ in God, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we may also appear with Him in glory!\par \par Regard with favor Your Church everywhere. You have promised abundantly to bless Your Zion and to satisfy her poor with bread. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love You shall prosper. Scatter the darkness that is now brooding over the nations. Arise, O God, and plead Your own cause.\par \par Watch over us during the unconscious hours of sleep. May we close our eyes at peace with You, and awake refreshed and invigorated for the duties of a new day. Hear these our unworthy petitions; and when You hear, forgive, and grant us an answer in peace, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par TUESDAY MORNING\par \par O God, You are the KING of Kings, and Lord of Lords. We draw near unto You, this morning, rejoicing that we have a Throne of Grace, to which, through the merits of Your dear Son, our only Savior, we can ever repair. Before we enter on the day's duties, may a shower of heavenly blessing descend to refresh our souls. If we are blessed by You, we must be blessed indeed. We confess our great unworthiness; our sins of thought, word, and action; our sins of omission and commission; our sins against light and privilege, warning and mercy. We repose every burden upon Him who has "borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." Blessed Jesus, we would dismiss all our own misgivings, and cast ourselves on Your promised grace and strength. We rejoice in You as "God only wise;" mighty to save; to whom all power has been committed in Heaven and in Earth. You do all things well, and nothing but what is well. Enable us to rely on Your guiding arm, and to merge our wills in Yours. Hold us up\emdash and we shall be safe. O God, forbid that, in the midst of earth's cares and pursuits, we should ever lose sight of our immortal destinies. Let us imbibe more of the pilgrim spirit; having our eye upwards, and our footsteps onwards.\par \par Let us not forfeit fleeting opportunities. In every providence may we hear, as it were, an angel's voice saying, 'Why are you sleeping? arise! let us be going\emdash the night is far spent, the day is at hand.' May each of us in our varied spheres be led to ask, 'Lord, what would You have me to do?' Let us all seek to do something for You. If we are forbidden to do much in the way of active service, may we endeavor to manifest the power of a holy life, and to leaven our daily duties with Your fear.\par \par Bless the members of this household. May they walk before You with a perfect heart. May the young be enabled to adorn the doctrine of God their Savior in all things. Bless our native land. Bless all in authority. May the time soon come, when the crowns and scepters of the earth shall be cast at the feet of Him who is KING of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hasten the day, when the wilderness and the solitary place shall be made glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. We commend ourselves, O God, to You. Guide us\emdash provide for us\emdash go before us. Let us have the conscious assurance that You are for us\emdash and then none can be against us. We have no care of our own, we cast our cares upon Him who cares for us. Prepare us for whatever You have in store for us. For joy or for sorrow; for health or for sickness; for living or for dying. And all we ask is for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par TUESDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord, we desire to draw near to the footstool of Your Eternal Throne. We bless You for all the renewed proofs we have had, during another day, of Your care and kindness. While others have been pining in sickness, laid on beds of languishing and death\emdash we are still among the living to praise You. Oh may the lives preserved by Your bounty, and dedicated to Your praise. Far above all Your other gifts, we bless You for Your inestimable love in the redemption of Your people by the Lord Jesus, for the means of grace and for the hopes of glory. We bless You that Your well-beloved Son has brought in an everlasting righteousness; that He has magnified Your law and made it honorable; that He has dispelled the darkness of the Valley of Death; and opened the gate of Heaven to all believers.\par \par We desire to make acknowledgment of our unworthiness and guilt. We will not cloak nor disguise our manifold and multiplied transgressions. Discover to us the depths of our depravity; unveil to us the secret pride and selfishness and worldliness of our hearts. Deliver us from our besetting sins. Let us see our vileness, in the cross of Your dear Son. May the power of sin wax weaker and weaker: may the power of Your grace within us wax stronger and stronger. May our souls become living altars, and our lives living sacrifices. Yielding our members as instruments of righteousness unto holiness, may we serve You in newness of spirit.\par \par Lord, we know the proneness of the heart to put off the solemn consideration of the one thing needful. Many have lived with good intentions, and yet have perished. Let it not be so with us. Let us not be slumbering and sleeping. Let us not be among the number of presumptuous ones, who are saying, "The Lord delays His coming." May we be ever ready, ever watching; having our loins girded and our lamp burning, so that when the summons shall be heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes," we may be ready with the response, "Lo! this is our God, we have waited for Him!"\par \par May the seal of Your covenant mercy be on all now before You\emdash parents and children, young and old. May every night, as it gathers around us, remind of the approach of the long night of death; and may it lead us to think of the awaking time in that glorious morning, when, in the full vision and fruition of You, our God; earth's shadows and darkness shall forever flee away. Bless the aged; may Your favor and love rest on the hoary head as a crown of glory. Bless the young; may they early know what are alone the ways of pleasantness and the paths of peace. Bless the afflicted\emdash the bereaved\emdash the solitary\emdash the forsaken\emdash the dying. May they know Him who has said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."\par \par Give us all grace to trust You implicitly, even when Your dealings cross our own purposes and frustrate our wills. Let us obey no will but Yours. Following Your guiding footsteps, may we say, "The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall lack nothing." Watch over us, blessed Lord, this night. May Your good angels encamp round about us. Give us refreshing sleep, even the sleep of Your beloved. May we lie down to rest in Your fear, and awake in Your favor. All that we ask, is in the name of adorable Redeemer.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY MORNING\par \par O God Almighty\emdash KING of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are the Maker, Proprietor, and Judge of all. We approach You as our Covenant God and Father; trusting in the name and merits of our adorable Redeemer. What mercy it is that we have such a refuge to repair to! that amid our own faithlessness we can ever repose in the faithful saying, "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." We renounce all dependence on ourselves. Wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked\emdash we take Him as all our salvation and all our desire.\par \par We are no judges of what is good for us; what blessings are best to receive what mercies are best withheld. We often seek what is not for our well-being; but we rejoice in the infinite wisdom and tenderness manifested in Your allotments. Let us ever feel, regarding each and all, "This also comes from the Lord Almighty." May we seek in every providence to hear Your voice; and in every event to read Your will. May we live conscious of the predominating motive of love to You. May we feel Your favor lightening every cross and lessening every care. Lord, give us more of the simplicity of children. Keep us watchful, and humble, and thankful. Keep us from pride and vainglory; from envy and uncharitableness; from evil surmisings and unkind insinuations; from all that would exalt us\emdash at the expense of others. May we learn to esteem others better than ourselves.\par \par Look in great mercy on the family of sorrow; be their support and consolation. Teach us all, in the midst of health and strength, to prepare for the hour of adversity. There is nothing permanent here on earth. May we know what it is to look to a strong tower which cannot be shaken. We are in our true rest\emdash if we are in You. You gladden our pathway through life. May we be lighted through the dark Valley, with the lamp of Your love; and enjoy through eternity Your beatific presence.\par \par God of Bethel, we commend our family, and all related to us by whatever tie, to Your care. Seal to them a saving interest in the everlasting covenant. Bless the young. May they know the happiness of those who fear You. Great Shepherd of the sheep, preserve them from the snares of a world lying in wickedness. May they be early taught of God, and so inherit Your own promise to such\emdash "Great shall be the peace of Your children." Take us under Your care this day. May all our duties be gladdened with a sense of Your presence and love. May we have a single eye in all we think, and say, and do, to the glory of our adorable Redeemer.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY EVENING\par \par O Eternal, Everlasting God, Fountain of all happiness, God of all grace, we desire this evening to acknowledge anew with grateful hearts, Your undeserved mercies. You have made our cup to overflow with blessings. From the very threshold of our being, You have been our Protector and Guardian. You have shielded us from unknown dangers; You have warded off unseen calamities. No earthly friend could have loved us and cared for us like You. We bless You for the liberty of access we enjoy at all times into Your sacred presence; to make known our varied needs, and to ask for mercy to pardon and for grace to help in every time of need. We need everything; but You have promised in Jesus, Your own dear Son, to make us perfect and entire, lacking nothing. Helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless by nature, we cast ourselves on Him who is help and hope and friend and portion to all who seek Him. We have no trust but in His work. Sprinkle these polluted hearts with His pardoning, peace-speaking blood. Hide us in the clefts of the smitten Rock. Safely sheltered there, we can make the triumphant challenge, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"\par \par We mourn our distance and estrangement from You; our guilty departures; our coldness and insensibility. Let Your wondrous patience and kindness lead us to repentance. Turn us, Lord, and we shall be turned; draw us and we shall run after You. May every thought, and affection, and feeling, and temper, be brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. May we love what He loves, and hate what He hates. May we know the happiness of true holiness; and experience somewhat of the joy of angels\emdash in doing Your holy will on earth as they do it in Heaven. Fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.\par \par Bless our family and friends; may our household be one of the dwellings of the righteous. May every member of it be zealous in the promotion of Your glory, remembering that the day is coming when we shall be called to give an account of our stewardship. Our moments are gliding swiftly by. Forbid that any among us should be found seeking oil when the lamp of life is going out. Do, even now, Lord, from Your own mercy-seat, replenish our empty vessels. Let us be living with a dying hour in view. Let us die daily to sin, and live daily to You; that when the hour of our earthly departure arrives, it may be to us the birthday of a new life, in everlasting glory. We ask all these manifold blessings, for ourselves and for others, in the name and for the sake of our adorable Lord and Savior, who is now within the veil; and where, with You, O Eternal Father, and You, O ever-blessed Comforter, Three in One in covenant for our redemption, He ever lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par THURSDAY MORNING\par \par O God, You are great, and greatly to be feared. Your greatness is unsearchable! Another day has in mercy dawned upon us. We desire to enter on its every duty with our minds stayed on You. May all our doings be ordered by Your governance; that we may be enabled to perform those things that are pleasing in Your sight, and to promote the glory of Your holy name. We bless You for all the loving-kindness You have hitherto made to pass before us. From our earliest infancy Your protecting hand has been around us\emdash shielding us from unseen dangers, and showering us with the blessings of Your goodness. And we are, this morning, once more gathered around the footstool of Your throne, the monuments of Your patience, and forbearance, and mercy. We bless You especially for Jesus, and His great salvation. We rejoice that He is both willing and able\emdash and as willing as He is able\emdash to save unto the uttermost: that all are alike warranted and welcome to repair to the fountain He has opened for sin and for uncleanness.\par \par Lord, give us grace to improve our manifold privileges while we have them. Let us not remain asleep in sin\emdash enjoying the means of grace, yet trifling with convictions. May we "occupy" until Jesus comes, seeking to witness for Him by the testimony of a consistent life. May this be our habitual feeling\emdash "what kind of people ought we to be, in all holy conduct and godliness?"\par \par We commend to You all the family of affliction. Take them under Your special protection. It is behind the cloud You often speak most tenderly, teaching precious lessons, which in no way else could be learned. Let Your suffering people wait until they hear the "still small voice." Calling upon You in the day of trouble, and experiencing Your delivering hand, may they be led to "glorify You." Teach us all, in the season of health and strength, so to live, that when the night comes, we may be enabled to resign the trust of existence to its great Proprietor\emdash and to say, "Now, Lord, let You Your servant depart in peace."\par \par Bless our beloved friends; forbid that any one of them should be found missing on the day when You make up Your jewels. May they all be set as gems in Immanuel's crown, and be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at His second appearing. Bless Your Church. Imbue her ministers and people with the healthful spirit of Your grace. Extend everywhere the boundaries of the Redeemer's kingdom. The harvest truly is plenteous, and the laborers are few. We ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers to His harvest. Be with us, O God, this day; may the everlasting arms be underneath and round about us; may we be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. We look forward with joyful hearts to that better world, where we shall have no contrariety of mind to You, when we shall be with You, and like You; serving You without distraction; and where sin and sorrow will be no more felt or dreaded. And all that we ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par THURSDAY EVENING\par \par O God, we bless You for Your great mercy; that we are again permitted to approach the throne of Heavenly grace. Many have been summoned this day into eternity. We have been spared. The shadows of night have again fallen around us in peace. We thank You for the continuance of health and strength, and many outward blessings. We thank You for the crowning mercy of all\emdash Jesus, Your unspeakable gift. We rejoice that You are in Him reconciling the world unto Yourself. Thousands of needy, outcast sinners have repaired to Him, yet still the Fountain of His grace is free as ever. This is still His name and memorial "Mighty to save." Lord, we come to You, with all our demerits, casting ourselves on His infinite and all-sufficient righteousness. Wash every guilty stain away. Forgive our sins of omission, and our sins of commission. May the Angel be caused to fly swiftly and touch us in this the time of our evening oblation. One day's transgressions are enough to condemn us. There is nothing but Your sacrifice and continual intercession, O Great High Priest, between us and everlasting destruction. It is Your all-powerful grace alone which, from hour to hour, averts from us temptations we could have no strength in ourselves to resist. Hold us up\emdash and then alone we shall be safe.\par \par In all time of our tribulation\emdash in all time of our wealth\emdash in the hour of death\emdash and at the day of Judgment, good Lord, deliver us. Come forth out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Instruct the ignorant\emdash reclaim the wanderer\emdash save the obdurate and impenitent. Convince them, before it be too late, that there is no loss comparable to the loss of the soul\emdash to be left hopeless and portionless forever. I Point them to the Lamb of God\emdash cleanse them in His atoning blood\emdash and make them the monuments of Your mercy.\par \par Look down in kindness on all who are in affliction. Draw near to those who may be bereaved of near and dear friends; be to them better than a son or daughter, or any earthly relative. May they know that He is faithful who promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Bless all our beloved friends; write their names in the Lamb's Book of life; may the pillar of Your presence go before them night and day continually. Bless our own family; may every name be set in the breast-plate of the Great High Priest. Bless our children; may they all be taught of the Lord, and great shall be their peace. May we walk before You with a perfect heart, and as seeing Him who is invisible. Take the charge of us during the silent watches of the night; when we awake, may we awake to praise You, and to use the powers and the talents committed to us, to Your glory. And all that we ask is for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior, Amen.\par \par \par \par FRIDAY MORNING\par \par Our Father in Heaven, what are we, sinful dust and ashes, that we should be permitted, morning after morning, to take Your name into our lips? We bless You for all the unmerited proofs of Your kindness. From our earliest years we have been the recipients of Your bounty. With all a Father's tenderness You have watched over us. We have received, and we are still receiving, of the Lord's hand "double for all our sins." We draw near in the name of Him whom You hear always. "Nothing in our hands we bring"\emdash we would cling simply to His cross. Empty us of all self-righteousness; let us feel our deep creature-destitution; let us stand alone in the finished righteousness of the All righteous One. We have forfeited all claim to Your favor. We have turned aside like a deceitful bow; and if we had been left to our own treacherous hearts and wayward wills, we must long ago have perished!\par \par We desire to look to Your grace in the future. There is not a corruption we have within us, which Your grace is unable to subdue; there is not a cross or trial, or care, but Your grace will enable us to endure. Whatever Your leadings may be, let us cheerfully confide in their wisdom and faithfulness. We are poor judges of what is good for us, but we can trust You in all things\emdash in what is great and what is small, what is dark and what is bright, what is joyous and what is grievous. We rejoice that all is in Your hands, and all is for the best.\par \par May we ever regard sin as our greatest trial. When temptation assails us, grant us power to resist it. May our lives, our tempers, our affections, our desires\emdash be regulated by the example of our divine Lord and Master. Give us His meekness of spirit\emdash which no provocation could ruffle; His forgiveness of injuries\emdash amid ingratitude and scorn; His calm, unmurmuring submission to your holy will.\par \par Bless all the sons and daughters of affliction. Let them view every dark providence as an errand of love in disguise\emdash a messenger sent from the Eternal Throne, to minister to them who are heirs of salvation. May we all live as pilgrims on the earth. Make us fit for the time when our earthly work and warfare shall cease, and when, in unspotted sanctity, we shall stand without fault before the Throne. Lord, take the charge of each and all of us. Vouchsafe to keep us this day without sin. May all our doings be ordered by Your governance, to do that which is well-pleasing in Your sight, through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par FRIDAY EVENING\par \par O God, we desire to draw near into Your sacred presence, thanking You for the mercies vouchsafed to us during another day. Many of our fellow-men have, since its commencement, passed into eternity, their season of grace fled forever. We are still spared. The living\emdash the living\emdash we shall praise You, as we do together this night. We bless You especially for the tokens of Your mercy in Jesus. We bless You for His full, free, everlasting Redemption. Oh set us in the Clefts of the Rock, and hide us there. Let us feel the all-sufficiency and security of His covenant love. For our infinite need\emdash there is Your infinite fullness! For our infinite danger\emdash there is Your infinite salvation! Lord, give us grace to live worthy of our high calling. Enable us to adorn the doctrine of our God and Savior. Let His love be the animating principle in our actions. Let our chief delight be to serve Him. May our greatest pain be to vex and grieve Him. May our affections be more elevated\emdash our eye more single\emdash our lives more consistent\emdash true religion more the one thing needful.\par \par May we rest in the confident persuasion that You do all things well\emdash and nothing but what is well. Enable us to exercise a child-like acquiescence in Your dealings. These may at times be mysterious; but when Your purposes of love are at last unfolded, we shall dwell with adoring gratitude on all the way by which You have led us. Give us grace, meanwhile, to be living as dying creatures. Let us never forget our pilgrim character, nor dream away, in guilty unconcern, our fleeting moments.\par \par Look in kindness on this household; may they all have the rich and enduring heritage of those who fear Your name. Bless the children; may they be taught of God. May we all serve the Lord Christ, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with You their God. Bless all our absent friends. Be ever present with them. If there be any still at a distance from You, Lord, bring them near, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Let not one be found missing at the Great Day.\par \par We pray for the Church universal. O Great High Priest, do feed every golden candlestick with the oil of Your grace. Be the "all in all" of every church, as of every believer. Promote union among Your true people. Let them not live apart, looking coldly and distantly on one another. Feeling that they are all one in Christ Jesus, may they love one another with a pure heart fervently; and thus the Church on earth may be a dim reflection of the glorious Church of Your redeemed in Heaven. Watch over us during the silence and darkness of another night; and spare us, if it be Your will, to see Your light, and to enjoy the comforts of another day.\par \par Hear these our humble supplications. And all that we ask is for Jesus' sake Amen.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty God, we desire to come anew this morning into Your sacred presence. Glory be to Your holy name, that we are again permitted to draw near to the footstool of Your Throne, and to call You "Our Father." Our pillow last night might have been a pillow of death. We might have found ourselves this morning righteously exiled from Your presence\emdash knowing You only as "the consuming fire." But You have lengthened out our day of grace. We are still among the living to praise You. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Anew we draw near to the opened fountain\emdash anew, gracious Savior, we plead Your spotless merits. It was Your own errand of wondrous love\emdash that which brought You from Your Throne in Heaven\emdash to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Do usher us into the glorious liberty of Your people. May we feel that there is no real happiness independent of You\emdash that all else are walking in a vain show\emdash seeking rest but finding none. But if You make us free, we shall be free indeed.\par \par Enable us to take You as the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. Keep us from the absorbing power of earthly things. Let us not be dead to You, and alive only to a dead and dying world. Let not the seen and the temporal, eclipse the higher and nobler objects of faith. May we live under the powers of a world to come\emdash loving You now with some feeble and imperfect foretaste of that love with which we trust we shall love You forever. We rejoice to believe that we are entirely in Your keeping. If You send us prosperity, Lord, hallow it. If You send us adversity, Lord, sanctify it. May all things work together for our good.\par \par We commend to Your gracious providence those in whom we are more specially interested. Take our friends under Your special care. Sanctify them by the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit; prosper them outwardly and inwardly; may all their duties and occupations be leavened with godliness. Bless our own immediate circle\emdash may God be our Father, and Jesus our elder Brother, and Heaven our everlasting home. Bless our children\emdash defend them from a present evil world. Let them early know the happiness of seeking and finding the one thing needful. May we all fulfill the duties of our calling, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but doing the will of God from the heart.\par \par May Your kingdom come. Support and strengthen all devoted laborers in heathen lands. May Your Spirit come down as rain upon the mown grass\emdash as showers that water the earth. Sanctify affliction to all in sorrow. Let Your suffering people rejoice in the assurance that Your chastisements are the dealings of a Father; that the furnace is lighted to purge away the dross, and refine and purify for glory. Direct, control, suggest, this day, all our thoughts, purposes, designs, and actions, that we may consecrate soul and body, with all their powers, to the glory of Your holy name. And all that we ask or hope for, is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord, we desire to approach Your Throne of Grace this evening, adoring You as God over all, blessed for evermore. Draw near to us as we draw near to You. We bless You that You have spared us during another day, and another week. Let us end every day and every week as if these might possibly be our last; as if the midnight cry might break upon our ears, before we see another rising sun, or a returning Sabbath.\par \par We come, acknowledging, that it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. We are nothing and we have nothing. By nature and by wicked works, we could expect nothing but indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. Each day is a witness against us. We confess our proneness to depart from You the living God\emdash our reluctance to render to You the tribute of our undivided homage and love. Lord, we bring our sins and lay them on Him, who, as our Surety-Substitute, was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. We bring our weakness to His Almighty strength; we bring our insufficiency, that we may receive from Him, the promised "all sufficiency in all things." We rejoice, blessed Savior, to think of You, as sympathizing with us in all our trials and perplexities and temptations; keeping us as the apple of Your eye, and feeling what is done to Your people as if it were done to Yourself. Enable us to repose in the infinite fullness of Your grace and mercy; to experience the blessedness of an unreserved, unwavering trust and confidence in Your dealings. Let us confide to You the allotment of all that befalls us. Let us harbor no suspicions of Your faithfulness or love. Let us commit the unknown future to Your better wisdom, saying, "Teach us the way wherein we shall walk, for we lift our souls unto You."\par \par O God, while we pray for ourselves, we would remember before You, all whom we ought to bear on our hearts, to the Throne of Grace. Prosper Your cause and kingdom in the world. Bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end: may the Prince of Peace take to Himself His great power and reign. Bless the young; may they spring up as willows by by flowing streams. May they be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Bless the aged; may they be gathered into the garner of the Great Farmer, as the shock of corn in its season\emdash full of years and ripe for glory. Bless all Your faithful ministers\emdash especially those who, tomorrow, are to proclaim Your holy word. Strengthen them outwardly and inwardly, as they go forth, bearing the precious seed; and on the great reaping-day of judgment, may they come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them. Bless us as a family; parents and children. Let us all own one common Master\emdash one Father in Heaven. Be with us throughout the silent watches of the night. Whether we wake or sleep, may we live together with You. There is no darkness to us if You are with us. Defend us during the unconscious hours of slumber\emdash that we may rise on Your Holy Sabbath fitted for duty, happy in the assured continuance of Your favor and love. And all we ask is for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } gA04 Third week{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lan5E503 Second week{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 SUNDg2058\f0\fs22 SUNDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty and Everlasting God, we bless You for the return of another day. We thank You that we have been spared during another week, while many of our fellow-men have been called to render in their final account. Give us filial nearness to You our Father in Heaven. Let us hear Your gracious benediction, "Peace be unto you." May Your own Day be begun, carried on, and ended, under a sense of Your presence and favor. May all worldly thoughts, and cares, and disquietudes, be laid aside, that we may enjoy a foretaste of the everlasting blessedness which is at Your right hand. We come, gracious Lord, relying on Your mercy and love in Jesus. We would direct the undivided eye of faith to His finished salvation; rejoicing that it is as free as ever, and as efficacious as ever.\par \par Fill us with a deep and humbling sense of our guilt. May we mourn an erring past, and receive grace for an unknown future. We would seek this day anew to enkindle our love at Your holy altar. Inspire us with resolutions of new obedience. May we no longer live unto ourselves\emdash to the world\emdash to the creature\emdash to sin. May the great Creator and the adorable Redeemer occupy, without a rival, the throne of our affections. Let us cultivate a holy fear of offending You. Let us no longer continue in guilty estrangement, forfeiting Your favor and our own true happiness. May the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, given unto us.\par \par  We desire to remember in Your presence, all in whom we are interested. Bless Your people, this day, throughout the Christian world; may multitudes be added to the Church, of such as shall be saved. Strengthen Your ministering servants; may they have singleness of eye, and singleness of aim, in the proclamation of Your holy word. May many careless souls be arrested; may weak ones be strengthened; may sorrowing ones be comforted; may the weary and heavy-laden obtain rest. May a Sabbath-spirit follow us a ll throughout the week; and may this day\emdash the memorial of the Savior's Resurrection\emdash be to us also a pledge of the everlasting rest which remains for Your people in glory.\par \par We commend our dear friends especially to Your protection. May they, too, be in the Spirit on the Lord's day; may they call and find the Sabbath a delight. Keep them, good Lord, by Your mighty power. May they live soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, ev en tile glorious appearing of the great God our Savior. Bless the members of our family circle; keep them ever near to You. May our children be the peculiar care of the great and good Shepherd. May they know early the safety and happiness of His fold; make them to lie down in the green pastures; lead them by the still waters. Sanctify trial to the sons and daughters of affliction. May they bow in submission to Your sovereign appointments, saying, "Even so, Father! for so it seems good in Your sight." Lord , take the charge of us; and when Your will concerning us on earth is completed, take us to dwell with Yourself in everlasting glory; and all we ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par SUNDAY EVENING\par \par Praise waits for You, O God, in Zion, and unto You shall the vow be performed. O You who hears prayer, unto You shall all flesh come. You never have said unto any of the seed of Jacob, 'Seek my face in vain'. Your thoughts to us are unchanging thoughts  of love. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. We approach You on this the evening of Your holy Day, acknowledging our great unworthiness. Fill us with a deep sense of our guilt. We have not the humbling consciousness we ought to have of our exceeding vileness. We are apt to ourselves, if not to You, to plead vain excuses for our sins. Forgive us, O Lord\emdash forgive us all, for Your dear Son's sake. Wash these crimson and scarlet stains away, in the fountain opened for sin and for uncle anness. Let us know more and more the preciousness of the faithful saying, that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." Enable us to live as Your redeemed children. As He who has called us is holy, so may we be holy in all our lives. Put Your fear in our hearts\emdash not the fear of torment, but the child-like fear of offending so kind a Father\emdash so gracious and forgiving a Savior.\par \par Blessed Lord, make these unworthy hearts of ours Your temple\emdash holy altars of gratitude and love. May our lives form a continued thank-offering for Your manifold mercies. May we count it our highest privilege, as well as our sacred duty, to walk so as to please You; ever maintaining the attitude of waiting and expectant servants, who are seeking to "occupy" until their Lord comes. Keep us from inactivity and sloth. Let our loins be girded and our lamps burning. Let us be growing in faith and love\emdash in charity and meekness, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.\par \par Father, glorify Your name. Darkness is still covering the lands, and gross darkness the people. May the time to favor Zion, yes, the set time, speedily come. Revive Your work in the midst of the years; in wrath, remember mercy. We pray for all in affliction. O You who are the healer of the broken-hearted, the comforter of all who are cast down\emdash impart to every sorrowing, bereaved spirit, Your own everlasting consolations. You are seated by every furnace. May all Your suffering people come forth as gold tried in the fire; and so be found at last unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.\par \par We commend our family and household to Your care. God of Bethel, God of our Fathers, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, be the covenant God of all near and dear to us. Whether they be now present or absent, may they all be near and dear to You. Keeper of Israel, be their Keeper; guide them, guard them, sanctify them; use them for Your service here, and bring them to the enjoyment of Yourself hereafter. Take us under Your providential care this night. May no unquiet dreams disturb our repose. When the gates of the morning are again opened, may it be to hear Your benediction and blessing, "Fear not, for I am with you." And all that we ask is for the sake of Him whom You hear always; and to whom, with You, the Father, and You, O blessed Spirit, one God, be everlasting praise, honor, and glory, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty God, we desire, on this the morning of a new day, to approach the footstool of Your Throne of grace. You are glorious in Your holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders. Your eternity no finite mind can fathom. Your purposes no accident can alter. Your love no time can impair. We adore You as the God of our life; moment by moment we are dependent on Your goodness; if You withdraw Your hand, we perish. And yet, O Lord, we have not been living habitually mindful of You. We have too often taken our blessings as matters of course. We have had unthankful spirits in the midst of daily tokens of unmerited mercy. Above all, we have been living in guilty forgetfulness of Your dear Son. We have not been remembering as we ought, that but for Him and His wondrous grace, we must have perished everlastingly. We have not felt, as we ought, the attractive power of His cross. Other lords have had dominion over us. The love which ought to have reigned paramount, has been displaced by other affections. We have been "minding earthly things;" too often careful, and troubled, and concerned, about what will perish with the very using. Lord, have mercy upon us. Melt our hard and obdurate hearts; renew them by the indwelling of Your gracious Spirit.\par \par Give us henceforth a more ardent ambition to serve You. May we seek to exhibit now the evidences of that spiritual life begun, which will issue in the joys of eternity. All our hope is in Jesus. Help us, blessed Savior, else we die! Give us to see the adaptation of Your character and work to all the wants and weaknesses the trials and difficulties\emdash the sorrows and sins of our fallen and suffering and tempted natures. There is infinite merit in You to meet all the magnitude of our infinite guilt. May we exhibit more willingness to renounce all dependence on ourselves, that You may be enthroned in our hearts, as Lord of all. Make us more heavenly minded\emdash more pilgrim-like. Our graces are feeble\emdash -Lord, sustain them. Our affections are lukewarm\emdash Lord, revive them. Search us\emdash try us\emdash lead us. Use what discipline You see best: may it all result in our growing sanctification, in endearing to us Your favor, and bringing us to live under a more constant and realizing sense of the things which cannot be shaken, but remain.\par \par We commend to You all near and dear to us. May they be shielded by Your providence, and sanctified by Your grace. Let them repose in the plenitude of Your promises, and feel that to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Bless our own family\emdash preserve us by Your mighty power. May we all feel that it is You, Lord, only, who make us to dwell in safety. We put ourselves, this day, and ever, at Your disposal. May the everlasting arms be around us for good; guiding through life\emdash through death\emdash until we are safe in glory; through Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY EVENING\par \par  O Lord, our Heavenly Father, by whose good providence we are spared from day to day\emdash enable us to come this night into Your presence, with hearts filled with gratitude and thankfulness for all Your mercies. We would be deeply humbled on account of our unworthiness. What are we\emdash that we should be permitted to take Your name into our polluted lips? We have sinned, what shall we say unto You, O preserver and Redeemer of men? We have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep; we have followed too much the devices and the desires of our own hearts unto evil. We have been rebellious, and wayward, and selfish, and unthankful. We have been living in the enjoyment of countless blessings without any due acknowledgment of Your giving hand. Your kindness has too often been abused, Your grace resisted. We have been worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for evermore. Lord, we flee anew to the clefts of the Smitten Rock\emdash hide us there, from that wrath and everlasting condemnation which these our manifold sins have justly merited.\par \par What encouragement we have to trust Your love and mercy! We can fear no evil when You are with us. We rejoice that we are in Your hands; that all that concerns us and ours, is at Your disposal. Enable us to rest, in calm composure, in Your infinite wisdom. Give us lowliness and gentleness; kindness and unselfishness. May our own wills be merged in the higher will of our Father in Heaven. Whatever be the discipline You employ, may we meekly submit to it. May we watch all Your varied teachings, and get profit and sanctification out of them all. May they bring us nearer Heaven and nearer You.\par \par Bless our household\emdash unite us, as a family, in the bonds of peace. May the Blood of the everlasting covenant be sprinkled on the portals of every heart. We commend our children to Your care; beseeching You early to instill the dew of Your grace into their souls, and to preserve them from all danger and sin. We pray for our native land. Bless all rulers, and judges, and senators; may they be a terror to evildoers, and a praise to them that do well. Bless the ministers of the everlasting Gospel; may they be workmen needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Whatever, O God, our station in life may be, may we seek to do something for the glory of Your Holy Name; and may we feel that Your service is self-rewarding and self-recompensing. Give us grace to work while it is called today. May our loins be girded and our lights burning; may we be like those who are waiting for their Lord when He returns from the wedding, that when He comes and knocks, we may be ready to open to Him immediately. Watch over us during this night. Grant us refreshing rest; and spare us, if it be Your will, to see the light of a new day. And all this we ask is for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and to whom, with You, the Father, and You, ever blessed Spirit, one God, be ascribed everlasting praise, honor, and glory, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par TUESDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, we desire to draw near into Your blessed presence on this the beginning of a new day. Accept of our morning sacrifice. Enkindle our souls with a live coal from the inner sanctuary. Throughout the day may our minds be stayed on You. May a sense of Your favor and love be intermingled with all its duties\emdash hallowing all its pleasures, and softening all its trials. Lord, we have received our being from Your hands; may the lives imparted by You, and sustained by You, be consecrated to Your praise. May we feel the happiness of Your service, and regard nothing that this world can give, as comparable to the enjoyment of Your friendship and love. We thank You, above all, for the provisions of the everlasting covenant. Gracious Savior, Shepherd, Guide, and Portion of Your people\emdash give us the assured sense of pardon and forgiveness through the blood of the Cross. May we have n o trust in anything but in Your matchless work. May simple faith be followed by holy obedience. May we know the blessedness of a holy life; of affections once alienated from God, now alienated from the world. May no spiritual foe be permitted to obtain the victory over us; no idol to usurp Your place in our souls. May we have strength given us either to perform or to endure Your will, and to cleave unto You with full purpose of heart.\par \par We pray for all mankind; visit, in mercy, the dark p!laces of the earth, which are still the habitations of cruelty. Strengthen Your missionary servants. Arouse Your churches to greater zeal in the promotion of Your cause. We ask the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers to His harvest. God of our Fathers, be our covenant God. Dwell in this family and household: hallow every heart as an altar to Your praise. Impress upon us all a family resemblance to the Great Elder Brother, our living Head in glory. Pour Your grace on the young. Each of u"s is advancing nearer eternity; may we seek to be becoming more and more fit for our everlasting home. Prepare us for the blessedness of uninterrupted fellowship with Yourself hereafter. Have compassion on all who are afflicted. Pity the houseless poor, the orphaned children, the widowed heart. O You, who turn the shadow of death into the morning\emdash console and comfort them. May they adore You, alike in giving and in taking away; in the dispensing of Your gifts, and in removing them; saying, in devout# submission, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."\par \par We commit ourselves to Your care. May the Lord God this day be to us a sun and shield. May the Lord give grace and glory, and withhold from us nothing that He sees to be truly good. And all that we ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par TUESDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord our God, we thank You that we are again permitted, in the multitude of Your mercies, to see the close of another day. We desire to en$d it with You. Before we retire to rest, we would supplicate Your blessing and guardian care. Make not our pillow this night, a pillow of death. Give Your angels charge over us during the unconscious hours of sleep; and when we awake, may we be still with You. We adore You, gracious God, as the source of all our happiness\emdash the Author of all our blessings. Forbid that we should allow any created good to dispossess Yourself from the supreme place in our affections. We desire to take You as our chief j%oy: to subordinate to You all else besides. Guide us by Your counsel. You have been gracious to us in the past; we will trust You in the future. Let our one animating wish and longing be\emdash to live, and walk, and act, so as to please You. And thus may each returning night, as it finds us nearer eternity, find us better prepared for the enjoyment of Your presence forever.\par \par Wash out all the defilements of the day; all our sins of omission and commission. Accept of us in the Beloved. Ad&ored be Your name, we have in Jesus the Physician who heals all our diseases. We stand now, as we desire to stand on a Judgment-day, clothed in His spotless righteousness.\par \par We commend, Holy Father, to Your gracious care and providence, our family and household. May each be a member of the household of faith. If it is Your will, long continue unbroken our home-circle on earth; but let our true home be above. Let the watchword of each near and dear to us be this\emdash "We are journeying u'nto the place of which the Lord has said, I will give it to you." Bless the young; train them early for glory. Preserve them from the countless temptations of a world lying in wickedness.\par \par We pray for the afflicted; we commend them to Him who knows their frame; who Himself having suffered being tempted, is able to support those who are tempted.\par \par Let Your kingdom come. Stand by Your missionary servants; may they have many heathen souls for their hire; many, who shall be (to them as a crown of joy and rejoicing on the Great Day. Known unto You are all our needs; we leave our petitions at the footstool of Your throne, assured that in You we have a rich Provider. And when the provisions of the earthly journey are needed no more, may it be ours to feed on the Bread which endures to everlasting life. And all that we ask is in the name and for the sake of Him whom You hear always; and to whom, with You the Father, and You, O Eternal Spirit, one God, be ascribed all blessing, an)d honor, and glory, and praise, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, You are great, and greatly to be feared. Your greatness is unsearchable. Who shall not fear You, and glorify Your name? for You only are holy. Eternal Father, who has loved us with an everlasting love; Eternal Son, who did so freely shed Your precious blood for us; Eternal Spirit, who is waiting and willing to renew and sanctify\emdash yes, to make these worthless s*ouls of ours Temples to Your praise\emdash come to us in the plenitude of Your love this morning, that we may feel it to be good for us to draw near unto God.\par \par What are our lives, but testimonies to Divine faithfulness? We look back with gratitude and thankfulness on a wondrous past\emdash the innumerable mercies which have been showered upon us, and that, too, in the midst of ingratitude and sin. Bless the Lord, O our souls, and forget not all His benefits! Where would we now have been,+ but for Your great love to us in Christ! On Him our every hope of pardon and acceptance is built. On His work we desire every hour to live. We rejoice that we have such a Mediator between us, who has laid His hand upon us both; that He is now pleading for us within the veil; answering for those who cannot answer for themselves. Lord, enable us to manifest our love to Him, by a holy walk and life, adorning the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Give us a tender conscience, a broken spirit, filial n,earness, purity of heart, consistency of conduct, uprightness of life. Loving You, our God, may we love also our fellow-men. Bring us under the power of renewed natures and purified affections. May all that is earthly and carnal, all that is unamiable and selfish, all that is unkind and unholy, be displaced by what is pure, elevated, lovely, and of good report. Above all, may we live under the influence of unseen realities. With our faces Zionwards, may we feel that our true home is above. Establish our h-earts with the blessed truth, that the coming of the Lord draws near; that so, when the hour of death shall overtake us, it may be to us an angel whispering, "The Master has come, and is calling for you!"\par \par Compassionate those who are in affliction. May Your sorrowing people be enabled to trust You in the dark. May they look forward to that joyous period when they shall come to stand in Your presence, and trace for themselves all the wisdom of Your now inscrutable dealings.\par \par . Have pity on the careless; reclaim the backslider; arouse the lukewarm; bring back all wanderers who may have strayed from the fold. Bless us as a family\emdash give us the heritage of those who fear Your name; may the absent know You as ever present\emdash and when earth's separations are at an end, may there be a common meeting-place for us all at last, before Your Throne. Be our God and guide this day; protect our bodies from danger, preserve our souls from sin; never leave and never forsake us. A/nd all that we ask is in the name, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY EVENING\par \par Most Blessed God, we desire to approach Your sacred presence on this the close of another day. Let our prayer come before You as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Enable us to have a realizing view of Your Divine Majesty. Glory be to Your Holy Name, that though Heaven is Your dwelling-place, You0 condescend also to make every lowly heart Your habitation. Though You are the greatest of all Beings, You are the kindest of all, and the best of all. We come, weak and helpless and burdened, to that cross where alone there is shelter and peace for the guilty. We will not cloak nor mask our manifold sins and wickedness before the face of You, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. We would confess them with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart.\par \par Blessed Jesus, it is our comfort to 1know that there is in You, all that is required to meet our needs. We rejoice to think of You as You now are\emdash the unchanging Intercessor within the Veil, with all the might of infinite Godhead, and all the tenderness and pity of compassionate man. May it be ours to cleave to You now, and to serve You now, that we may not be ashamed before You at Your coming. May Your love exercise a paramount influence over us. Let it be our endeavor to show that we are Christians indeed\emdash living Epistles, know2n and read by all men. Let us be gentle, and kind, and forgiving. Let us not be betrayed into anger or uncharitableness. Let there be no hard construction of the Divine dealings. Let patience have its perfect work. May we be willing to do all, and to bear all\emdash for the sake of Him who has done so much and borne so much for us.\par \par Give us a solemn sense of responsibility for every talent committed to our keeping. Let us feel that they are not given merely to be enjoyed by us, but to be3 employed for You. Alive to our stewardship, may we lay them out for Your glory and for our own and our neighbors' good. Bless all our beloved friends; remember them with Your special favor: wherever they are, may they know the true blessedness of life, when spent in Your service. We pray for all poor afflicted ones. Ease their burdens; soothe their sorrows; dry their tears; enable them meekly to repose in Your covenant faithfulness and love.\par \par And now, Lord, what wait we for? our hope is4 in You. Most graciously answer us, not according to our own wishes, (which are often erring, and often sinful,) but according to what You know would be best. We are poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon us. Make no tarrying, O our God. Guard us through the night. Give Your Angels charge concerning us, that they may encamp round about us. Whether we wake or sleep, may we live together with You. And all that we ask is for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and in whose most precious name and words we5 would sum up our petitions at the Throne of the Heavenly grace.\par \par \par \par THURSDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty Father, You are from everlasting to everlasting, God. We adore You as the Author of our existence, and the source of all our happiness. We desire to connect every blessing we possess with You; to trace every stream of providential bounty up to Yourself\emdash the great Fountain-head. You alone, amid all changes, are the unchanging One. Heaven and earth shall6 pass away, but You are the same, and Your years shall not fail. We come, poor and needy, pleading Your own gracious promise, to give "all sufficiency in all things" to those who seek You. We have no offering of our own to present at Your footstool\emdash we have everything to receive. There is nothing between us and everlasting destruction, but Your mercy in Jesus. Wandering in the wilderness, in a solitary way, hungry and thirsty, our souls fainting within us\emdash we would drink of the streams of abun7dant grace which flow from the Smitten Rock. These have been flowing for ages past, and yet still the warrant and welcome are free as ever. "Ho! everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!"\par \par Blessed Savior, say unto each of us, "Your sins are forgiven." Bring us to live, more and more every day, under the constraining influence of Your love. Being made free from sin, and having become Your covenant servants, may we have our fruit unto holiness. May we be gaining fresh victories over our se8cret corruptions. May the power of evil wax weaker and weaker; and the power of Your grace wax stronger and stronger. May we know, by joyful experience, the happiness of true holiness.\par \par Give us reverential and child-like submission to Your will. The lot may be cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Finite wisdom has no place in Your dealings; not only are all things ordained by You, but ordained in ineffable wisdom and love. May the end of Your dispensations b9e our growing sanctification. Mercifully accommodate the supplies of Your grace to the sons and daughters of sorrow. May they call upon You in the day of trouble\emdash deliver them. And though it may not be the deliverance they would have desired, may it lead them to "glorify You."\par \par Look in kindness on our family circle; may Your name be ever hallowed here; may we know the happiness of that household whose God is the Lord. Bless our beloved friends who may be absent from us. If separate:d from one another now, may we meet at last in the better country, and together enter into the joy of our Lord. Be with us throughout this day. May Your peace be upon us and upon all the Israel of God. Guide us by Your counsel; strengthen us for duty; and prepare us for trial. In all our ways we would acknowledge You, and You will direct our paths. And all we ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par THURSDAY EVENING\par \par O God, You are great\emdash and gr;eatly to be feared. Your greatness is unsearchable. Heaven is Your throne\emdash the earth is Your footstool. Before You, cherubim and seraphim continually do cry\emdash 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty!' Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory. You are the sovereign controller of all events. You do according to Your will in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. The Lord reigns. Man proposes, but You dispose! And You dispose wisely and well.\par \par < We bless You, that as sinners we are permitted to come, with all the load of our guilt, to a great Savior. We will arise and go to our Father; we will say, Father, we have sinned against Heaven and in Your sight\emdash we are no more worthy to be called Your children! For Jesus' sake, Your own dear Son\emdash have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Behold, O God\emdash our shield! Look upon us in the face of Your Anointed. Wash us in His blood; clothe us with His righteousness; sanctify us by the indw=elling of Your Holy Spirit; and present us at last, faultless before the presence of Your glory with exceeding joy.\par \par May the life of Jesus be made manifest in our mortal flesh. May our hearts be more in Heaven; may we bear upon us the lofty impress of those who are born from above, and for above\emdash and who declare plainly that they seek a better country. Whatever be the sphere in which Your good providence has placed us, may it be our earnest endeavor to use our time, and talents, an>d opportunities for You. Our season of probation must soon be finished: may we work while it is called today, remembering that the night comes.\par \par Look in kindness on Your Church universal. Revive Your work in the midst of the years. Return, O Lord, and visit this vineyard which Your own right hand has planted. May every branch be laden with fruit; found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.\par \par Pity the afflicted: comfort all who are cast down?. Be the helper of the helpless; the refuge of the distressed; the Father of the Fatherless. May all mourning the loss of beloved friends be led to bow submissively to Your sovereign will, and look forward with joyful hearts to that better time and that better world, where the fountain of these tears shall be forever dried. Bless each one of us now bending at Your footstool. May our children have Your grace poured into their hearts. May they be defended from the snares of a world lying in wickedness. Give@ them to know that, if they seek You early, You will be found of them, but if they forsake You, You will cast them off forever. Give us all the heritage of Your grace and love, and then we shall be rich indeed.\par \par Many are saying, "Who will show us any good?" May we have but one wish, "Lift upon us and ours, the light of Your countenance." Be with us this night. It is You, Lord, who alone makes us to dwell in safety. When we lie down to rest, let the curtain of Your protecting providence bAe drawn around us, and when we awake may we still be with You. And all that we ask is in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus.\par \par \par \par FRIDAY MORNING\par \par O God, our Heavenly Father, we desire, on this the morning of a new day, to encompass the footstool of Your Throne of Grace. We thank You for the guardianship and care vouchsafed during the unconscious hours of sleep. You have dispersed the darkness of another night, and permitted the sun once more toB arise upon us. O You better Sun of Righteousness, do disperse the deeper darkness of sin; shine on us with the brightness of Your rising; let us enjoy this day the blessedness of peace with God. Lord Jesus, we commit our temporal and eternal interests anew to Your keeping. Soul and body are Yours by Your redemption-purchase. May they become Temples of the Holy Spirit, with this as their superscription, "Holiness to the Lord." May nothing that is unclean or that defiles enter therein.\par \par MCay it be our highest desire\emdash to walk so as to please You. May it be our heaviest cross and trial, to incur Your displeasure. Let us not be content with a name to live. Give us grace, that we may be enabled to do Your will and promote Your glory; diffusing around us, as far as we can, the influence of a holy, consistent life. In the performance of every-day duties, let us seek to make this, the directory of our conduct, "How would Jesus have acted here?" May we deal tenderly with others, remembering Dthe tenderness of Him who would not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. May we put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, affections of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any has a quarrel against any\emdash even as Christ has forgiven us, so may we do also.\par \par We pray for all in sorrow. O God of all consolation, be a Father to the Fatherless, a Husband to the widow, the stranger's shieEld, and the orphan's stay. Enable Your suffering people to rest in Your love-saying, 'The Lord's will be done.' Bless our beloved friends; if there be any among them who are still strangers to You, Lord, reveal to them Your dear Son in all His ability to save. Preserve us as a household from danger and sin; keep us in the hollow of Your hand; and may death, when it comes, be to all of us the entrance to glory.\par \par May Your Church universal live in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bond ofF peace. Revive Your work in the midst of the years; may the day soon arrive, when all ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. We again supplicate Your presence and blessing throughout the day. May we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but may all our doings be ordered by Your governance, to do that which is well pleasing in Your sight. Listen, gracious Father, to these our supplications; when You hear, forgive; and grant us an answer in peace, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\pGar \par \par \par FRIDAY EVENING\par \par Gracious Father, we approach the footstool of Your throne this evening, adoring You as the God of our life, and the length of our days. We bless You for the many tokens of Your love daily bestowed upon us: for food and clothing\emdash for health and strength\emdash for friends and home\emdash for all that brightens our pathway in life\emdash for all that cheers and irradiates our prospects beyond the grave. Lord, how often have You dHisappointed our fears, answered our prayers, and fulfilled our hopes; how often has Your grace made arduous duties easy, and leveled mountains of difficulty! How often, when our hearts were overwhelmed, have you led us to the Rock that is higher than us; and given us help from trouble, when vain was the help of man!\par \par We come anew to You this night, weary and heavy-laden, beseeching You to grant us the blessed sense of Your forgiving mercy. We lament that we do not feel, as we ought to doI\emdash the burden of sin. Bring us in poverty of soul\emdash in self-denying, self-renouncing lowliness, to cry out, "God be merciful to us, sinners." Show us the infinite adaptation of the Redeemer, in His Person and work, to meet all the necessities of our tried and tempted natures. May His name be as ointment poured forth; may His blood be our only plea\emdash His love our animating principle\emdash His glory our chief end.\par \par May our souls become holy altars, from which the incense ofJ obedience ascends continually. May we be enabled to do Your will and to love Your will, because it is Yours. May our eye be single that our whole body may be full of light. Oh keep us from temptation; support and deliver us when we are tempted. May we be able to say, in reply to all the seductive allurements of the Evil One, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"\par \par Accomplish the number of Your elect, and hasten the coming of Your Son's kingdom. Keep Your churches faiKthful; may they earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints\emdash holding fast that which they have, that no man take their crown.\par \par Sanctify affliction to all Your afflicted people. Let them know that Your chastisements are mercies in disguise; that You watch every sheep in the fold; and when led out to the rougher parts of the wilderness, You "go before them."\par \par We pray for those who are living without God, and therefore without hope. Let them not put Loff until it be too late; until they are forced, with unavailing tears, to mourn wasted hours and forfeited opportunities. Convince every procrastinator, that now is the accepted time\emdash that now is the day of salvation. Bless us, even us, O God, who are now bending at Your mercy-seat; rebuke our faithlessness; warm our love; quicken our graces; let us live more constantly under the powers of the world to come.\par \par Before we lie down on our nightly pillows, we would lay our sins afresh Mon the head of the Great Surety, that so we may retire to rest at peace with You; and if You see fit to spare us until tomorrow, may we rise fitted for all its duties. Hear these our humble supplications; when You hear, forgive; and all that we ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY MORNING\par \par Most Blessed God\emdash we desire to begin this new day with You. We bless You for Your sparing mercy; in having permitted us once more to lie down to Nsleep, and to awake in safety and comfort; may we be enabled, as dependents on Your bounty, to receive every returning morning as a fresh pledge of Your love. We confess, O God, our unworthiness; the utter alienation of our hearts from Yourself\emdash the source of all life and joy and blessedness. To original sin, we have added manifold transgressions. Our iniquities testify against us. But we bless You, that where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift; fOor all that Jesus died to purchase, and which He is now exalted to bestow.\par \par O Lamb of God\emdash O spotless, sinless Victim\emdash we rely on Your most precious Sacrifice. Bear away these life-long sins of ours, into a land of oblivion, that they may no more rise up in judgment against us. Lord, may our daily walk be more circumspect and holy. Let us follow Your will whatever it may be\emdash though, at times, it may be at variance with our own\emdash feeling that the Judge of all the eaPrth must do right, and cannot do wrong. In the spirit of Him who was "silent before His shearers," may we have grace to say, "Even so, Father, for so it seems good in Your sight."\par \par Above all, preserve us from the temptations of a world lying in wickedness. May we seek to walk circumspectly: remembering that our time is short; that we have much to do\emdash and a brief time for doing it. May we have our loins girded, and our lamps burning; and be like those who are waiting for their Lord'Qs coming. We entreat You to look down in special mercy on our household. Visit us all with the love which You bear to Your own. May the young be guided through the slippery paths of youth; may they be enabled early to enlist on the Lord's side\emdash early to seek You, that they may early find You. May all be actuated by Christian motives; performing the duties of their calling, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as doing the will of God from the heart. May we know that in keeping Your commandmentsR there is a great reward. Bless those that are absent from us; may they be shielded by Your good providence; make them all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus.\par \par Good Lord, be with us during this day; vouchsafe us that blessing which makes rich and adds no sorrow with it; and when all our days are finished, receive us into everlasting habitations, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior; to whom with You the Father, and You Ever Blessed Spirit\emdash be ascribed aSll blessing and honor and glory and praise, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord, we approach Your sacred presence, on this the close of another day, and the termination of another week, adoring You for Your great goodness. We desire, with united hearts, to set up our Ebenezer of thankfulness, and to say, "Hitherto has the Lord helped us!" We are utterly unworthy of the least of all Your mercies. If You had dealt with us as we deservedT, or rewarded us according to our iniquities\emdash we could not answer for one of a thousand. Blessed be Your name, You have devised means by which Your banished ones may not be expelled from You. Through the doing and dying of Jesus, the law has been disarmed of its condemning power; all its penalties have been borne; death itself has been stripped of its terrors, and the Kingdom of Heaven opened to all believers!\par \par Lord, after such a pledge of Your love, in not sparing Your own Son, weU believe You will with Him also freely give us all things. If You send us prosperity\emdash may we be enabled to give You the return of grateful hearts, and obedient, submissive lives. If You deny us earthly bliss and earthly happiness\emdash let us accept the denial as the will of Infinite Goodness. We will trust You implicitly. In You we are as secure as everlasting power and wisdom and love can make us! If there be times when we are led to exclaim, "Verily You are a God who hides Yourself," we will looVk forward with joy to that better world, where mystery shall give way to perfect knowledge.\par \par Lord, make us more holy; sanctify us through Your truth; keep us watchful; keep us humble; keep us from unchristian tempers; keep us from all pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy. Let us cultivate a habitual, realizing sense of Your Divine Presence. In our worldly work and avocations, whatever we do\emdash may we do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.\par \par We pray for others as Wwell as for ourselves. Draw near in mercy this night to any who may be in sorrow and distress, or who may be mourning the loss of beloved relatives. Sanctify their trials; may these yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Bless our beloved friends; write their names in the Lamb's book of life. Bless us who are now surrounding Your footstool; spare us long together as an unbroken circle on earth; and when we shall be called to leave behind us this lower valley, may we be conducted into those blessed regions, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard; where there shall be no more parting; and where we shall stand without fault before Your Throne!\par \par We commend ourselves to Your Fatherly protection during the silent watches of the night. Do You give us tranquil repose; may we be permitted to lie down in Your fear, and to awake in Your favor\emdash fitted and prepared for the duties and services of Your holy day. And all that we ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } Yfered our eyes to sleep the sleep of death. May it prove a holy day of rest to each of us; a rest from sin and a rest in God. May we welcome with gladness of heart the return of these peaceful hours. May all vain and worldly thoughts be set aside; and may we be enabled to worship You in the beauty of holiness.\par \par But how, Lord, shall we come into Your presence? Our very prayers are enough to condemn us. Our purest services, if weighed in the balances, would rise up in judgment against us. ZWe mourn our guilty insensibility to sin; we do not sufficiently see its vileness; we have no depressing consciousness, as we ought to have, of the plague of our own hearts. We have little realizing sense of the infinite purity of Your holy, righteous law. We come anew in the name of Your dear Son, confessing, and desiring deeply to feel as we confess, that we are sinners and the chief of sinners. We look to Your grace abounding over all our sin\emdash to Your infinite merit abounding over our infinite de[merit\emdash to the everlasting righteousness and faithfulness of a tried Redeemer, coming in the room of our imperfections. We would place all our sins on the head of the immaculate Substitute. He alone can bear them away into a land of oblivion, so that they can rise up to condemn us no more. We bless You that He ever lives and reigns for our justification. We rejoice to think of Him as our Great High Priest, with the names of His covenant people engraved on His heart, bearing them along with Him in His\ every approach to the throne; that all power in Heaven and in earth is entrusted to His hands!\par \par Nothing befalls us but by His direction; nothing is appointed us but what He sees to be for our good. Lord Jesus, we commit our temporal and our everlasting interests, to Your keeping. We rejoice that to You we can confidently entrust them. Undertake You for us. Carry on within us Your own work in Your own way. Keep us from all evil that is likely to grieve us. May we know the truth of Your o]wn gracious promise, "As your day is\emdash so shall your strength be."\par \par We pray for all in sickness and distress; for those laid on beds of languishing; for those deprived of beloved relatives, and who are mourning those who have died. May it please You to bind up their wounds, and to soothe their sorrows: direct the unwavering eye of faith to that better world, where every weight of suffering shall be exchanged for the exceeding weight of glory, and where God shall wipe away all tears ^from off all faces.\par \par Bless our own family and friends, both present and absent. May the invisible chain of Your covenant-love bind us all together. Bless our children; may they be led to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and to know that the way of holiness is the way of happiness. Strengthen this day the ministers of the everlasting gospel; may great grace be imparted to them; may they come forth fully fraught with the blessings of the gospel of peace. May all Your chur_ches, walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, everywhere be multiplied. Promote unity and concord among Your true people. May that predicted period soon arrive, when Ephraim shall not vex Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim; when all shall see eye to eye and heart to heart.\par \par Take us now under Your care, and enable us, whether waking or sleeping, to live together with You; and all that we ask, is for the sake of Him whom You hear always; and in whose most precious name `and words we pray.\par \par \par \par SUNDAY EVENING\par \par Most blessed God, whose nature and whose name is Love, we desire to draw near into Your gracious presence on this the close of another Sabbath. We thank You for all the tokens of Your mercy we have been permitted to enjoy. Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. Under the realizing sense of Your presence and nearness, we would compose ourselves to rest, with our minds stayed on You.\par a \par We desire anew to bless and praise You for Your unspeakable gift\emdash -Jesus, the Son of Your love. There is not a ray of hope which visits our souls but emanates from His cross. He is the channel of every blessing. We rejoice to think that He is as willing as He is able to save "to the uttermost," that at this moment He is bending upon us a gracious eye from the Throne, and, with undying and undiminished love, pleading our cause. Lord, we come, casting ourselves on the fullness of Your gbrace in Him. Sanctify us wholly, in body, soul, and spirit. Subdue our wills. Bring them in righteous subordination to Your own. When You call us to any duty, may we be ready with the response, "Here I am." May even trials and crosses become easy to us, when borne in a spirit of tranquil submission. Let us be living as pilgrims on the earth\emdash weaned from what is uncertain and transitory here\emdash and having our affections fixed on the things which cannot be shaken, but remain forever. Oh that Your clove might be enthroned more than it is, as the ruling passion of our souls\emdash and Your glory more the end and aim of our being.\par \par May we give no sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eyelids, until, in our hearts, we find a place for the Lord\emdash a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Fulfill in our experience Your own gracious promise "I will dwell in them and walk with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Follow with Your enriching blessing all the servdices of the sanctuary. May Your word be quick and powerful\emdash forbid that impressions be allowed to die away\emdash fasten them as a nail in a sure place. May the Sabbath duties and employments diffuse their solemnity around us throughout the week.\par \par We remember, with affectionate sympathy, the poor, the destitute, and "him that has no helper"\emdash the sick\emdash the bereaved\emdash the dying. Lord, draw near to all such; let them know that You have grace in store for their every teime of need, and that there is no lack to those who fear You. We desire for our friends Your benediction and blessing. May You watch between them and us when we are absent one from another. O omnipresent God, show that no distance can sever from You\emdash give them every token of Your love\emdash preserve them from danger\emdash guard them from temptation\emdash number them with Your saints in glory everlasting.\par \par Bless the lambs of the flock\emdash more especially those now before You. fShepherd of Israel, make them Yours. Bring them to the fold of grace on earth\emdash and to Your heaven of glory hereafter. Bless that branch of Your Church with which we are connected; bless Your holy Church universal. Have mercy on those who are still sitting in darkness and in the region and shadow of death. May a lifted-up Savior, by the attractive power of His cross, draw all men unto Him. We commend us, blessed Lord, to You, and to the word of Your grace. Watch over us during the unconscious hours ogf sleep. May we awake in the morning in Your favor; that so every new day being spent to Your glory, may find us better fitted for entering on the joys of Your everlasting Kingdom; through the merits of Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY MORNING\par \par O God, You are the Infinite, Eternal, Unchangeable Jehovah. You are exalted far above our adorations and praises. Angels and archangels veil their faces with their wings in Your presence, and cry hout, "Unclean, unclean!" We acknowledge our great unworthiness; we mourn our many sins. Your law has been set at nothing by us; Your love has been slighted; Your Spirit grieved; Your sovereignty disowned. We have been unmindful of You in prosperity. We have been prone to repine at Your righteous ordinations in adversity. We have not endeavored to hallow all life's duties with Your favor. We have not sought Your glory with singleness of eye. We have too often indulged in feelings and desires, in tempers anid affections, inconsistent with our profession as followers of the Lord Jesus. Not only do our iniquities, but our best services, testify against us.\par \par We come, casting ourselves on Your free grace and mercy in Christ. We rejoice that for the greatest sins there is a great and all-sufficient Savior. There is no load of sin which we have, but He who bore our transgression is able and willing to remove it. We will rejoice in the Lord, our souls will be joyful in our God, for He has clothed jus with the garments of salvation, He has covered us with a robe of righteousness. Enable us to walk as it befits Your children. Give us a holy fear of offending You. May we feel all sins to be grievous in Your sight\emdash and may it be our special desire to gain fresh victories over our besetting sins, and to be more and more fortified against the assaults of temptation. Strengthen us with might by Your Spirit in the inner man. Make Your grace sufficient for us, and perfect Your strength in our weaknessk.\par \par We pray not for ourselves only, but for all whom we ought to remember at the Throne of grace. If there be any in whom we are interested who are still far from You, bring them near by the same precious blood. If any are still loitering and lingering, may they hear Your voice, saying, "Escape for your life, lest you be consumed." If there be any backsliding; Lord, reclaim them. If there be any sorrowing; Lord, comfort them. Bind up their broken hearts. Give them Yourself\emdash the bettler portion which never can be taken from them. Your way is often in the sea, and Your path in the deep waters. But "the Lord reigns"\emdash may this quiet all doubts. May we wait in patience the great Day of disclosures, when "in Your light we shall see light." Look down in mercy on our family and household; let it be a garden which the Lord has blessed. May we live in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bond of peace. Vouchsafe to keep us this day without sin. Be our Shepherd, and we shall not lack any gmood thing. Keep us from, and keep from us, all that would be detrimental to our souls' interests. And, when time shall be no longer, may we meet in the unclouded sunshine of Your presence; through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par MONDAY EVENING\par \par Most Gracious God, Father of all mercies, You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords! The Heaven, even the Heaven of heavens, cannot contain You. Myriads of blessed spirits are continuanlly casting their crowns at Your feet. How shall we, dust and ashes, presume to lift up our eyes to the place where You dwell in glory? Adored be Your name, for Your free, sovereign, unmerited love in Jesus. We desire to flee to Him as our only Savior\emdash we have no other we need no other. His finished work and complete righteousness is our glorious ground of confidence. It has been tried by countless multitudes; and the blood that has cleansed their guilty souls, has an undiminished efficacy and all-soufficiency for us.\par \par To You, O God, we commit the keeping of our temporal and eternal interests. We cannot be in better hands than in Yours. Whether it be to do, or to bear Your will\emdash may it be ours meekly to say, "Even so, Father!" Whatever may most conduce to Your glory and our good\emdash appoint for us. Be ever near us\emdash not as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for only a night, but gladdening us with the continual sense of Your presence and favor.\par \par p Give us grace always to realize how transient and fleeting existence is. Let us feel the precarious tenure by which we hold earth's best blessings. We cannot tell what a day or an hour may bring forth. Whatever our hand finds to do, may we do it with our might, remembering that there is no device, nor work, nor labor, in the grave where we are going.\par \par Bless all our dear friends; let them be related to You in the better bonds of the everlasting covenant; preserve their bodies from dangeqr, and their souls from sin. May our household be a household of faith; may its lintels have sprinkled on them the blessed symbol of covenant love.\par \par Bless those in sorrow; may they feel that all are "need-be" trials. Let this be their comfort in their affliction, "If we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified together." Let them look forward to that hour, when their sorrow shall be turned into joy; when God Himself shall be with them and be their God, and when all tears shall be wiperd from off all faces. Give each of us grace to be so living, that ours at last may be an "abundant entrance" into Your everlasting Kingdom. Keep us waiting; keep us watching; that when the cry shall be heard in the midst of the heavens, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes!" we may be able joyfully to respond, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"\par \par Before we lie down to sleep this night, renew to us the gracious sense of sin forgiven; and if spared until tomorrow, let us rise refreshed fors duty, and fitted for Your service. And all that we ask, is for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and to whom with You, O Father, and You, O blessed Spirit, one God, be everlasting praise, honor, and glory, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par TUESDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty and Everlasting Jehovah, You are the heart-searching and thought-trying God. You are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; evil cannot dwell with You; fools cannot stand in Your presence. Ytou have solemnly declared that You can by no means clear the guilty. It is only because of Your mercies in Christ, that we are not consumed, and that You have not executed against us the cumberer's awful doom. We bless You for all that Jesus has done\emdash and for all that He is willing to do. We bless You that He is now exalted as a Prince and a Savior; that having purged our sins, He has forever sat down on the right hand of God; and that there He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet.u\par \par Our earnest prayer is, that each of us may be personally and everlastingly interested in His great salvation. May He be precious to us in all His offices\emdash as our Prophet, Priest, and King; ruling over us and within us; making our hearts the habitations of God through the Spirit. Spare us, good Lord, spare Your people, whom You have redeemed with Your most precious blood; and be not angry with us forever. Seeing You have loved us with an everlasting love, may we not requite You wivth coldness and unthankfulness, or give You the wrecks of a worn and withered life. May the best of our thoughts, and the best of our lives, be surrendered to Your service.\par \par We would cast all our cares, and every individual care, on You; knowing and rejoicing that You "care for us." Let us trust You in everything; let us see Your faithfulness in every event in our chequered and changing histories. How You have smoothed our way in the past! By You, our crosses have been lightened; our feawrs disappointed, our fondest hopes fulfilled. We will trust You in the future. Let us feel that the great Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep, cannot lead us wrong.\par \par Bless our dear friends; may the Lord be their keeper; may the sun not smite them by day, nor the moon by night. Preserve them from all evil, in their going out and in their coming in, from this time, henceforth, and even for evermore. Be merciful to the family of affliction; those laid on beds of pining sickness; or thxose bereaved of beloved relatives. May it please You to help, support, and relieve them. May they know Your own blessed name, "The Consolation of Israel." May they take comfort in the assurance, "the Lord will provide." Be with us throughout this day; sanctify all its duties; go with us where we go, dwell with us where we dwell. Guide us, while we live, by Your counsel, and afterwards receive us into Your glory. Hear us, gracious God, and accept of us for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \payr \par TUESDAY EVENING\par \par Heavenly Father, who has in Your good providence permitted us to meet together this night, be pleased, in Your infinite mercy\emdash to vouchsafe us Your blessing. Scatter our darkness with the beams of Your love. Dispel all harassing thoughts, and misgivings, and disquietudes. Before we retire to rest, may our souls be stayed on You. Unto us, O Lord, belong shame and confusion of face. We mourn that we feel so inadequately our guilt and unworthiness; thzat we have so little depressing sense of our alienation from You. We often confess with the lip\emdash what the heart does not feel. We often appear to be humble, when we are not humble\emdash when our hearts are full of self, and pride, and vainglory.\par \par We desire to come anew into Your presence, casting ourselves on the free grace, and love, and mercy of Jesus. We rejoice that in His cross, all Your attributes have been magnified. You are now proclaiming to the vilest and unworthiest, th{at You have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he would turn from his wickedness and live. Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be turned! Enable us to receive this blessed Physician of souls, who heals all our diseases. And having tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, enable us to live as those who are not their own, but bought with a price. May we be willing to be anything, and to do anything, and to suffer anything for that Savior, who has done and suffered so much for us! May our on|ly grief be "to give Him pain." May our "joy be to serve and follow Him." Keep us from temptation. Support and deliver us when we are tempted. Sanctify us by the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit, and bring us to live more under the influence of unseen realities.\par \par We desire to remember before You, all whom we love. Hide them under the shadow of the everlasting wings, until earth's calamities be over and past. Pour Your richest benediction on this our household. Known unto You are all our va}ried circumstances, our peculiar trials, and temptations, and perplexities. Our every burden we cast on a faithful God. Our souls, our lives, our cares, we leave entirely in Your hands, saying, "Undertake for us." Pity the afflicted. Be the Father of the Fatherless, the Husband of the widow, the stranger's shield, and the orphan's stay. Let them know that when heart and flesh faint and fail, You are the strength of their heart, and their portion forever. We now commend us all, to Your gracious keeping. Th~e darkness of night has gathered around us; but do lift upon us, O God, the light of Your countenance. It cannot be night if You are near. Watch over us during sleep, and when we awake may we be still with You. We ask these, and all other blessings, trusting in the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Savior, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY MORNING\par \par Gracious Father, Source and Giver of every good and every perfect gift\emdash draw near to us this day in Your undeserved kindness\emdash visit us with that love which You bear unto Your own. We are receiving, morning after morning, new proofs of Your care\emdash new pledges of Your mercy. You are loading us with Your benefits, though we have been ungrateful and unthankful. It is in the name, and trusting in the merits of Your dear Son alone, that we can have any confidence in approaching You. We rejoice that we have always a safe shelter at the foot of His cross. We rejoice that there, every attribute of Your nature, and every requirement of Your law, have been vindicated and magnified. Myriads are now in glory to bear witness to the power and love of an all-gracious Savior. And what grace has done, grace can still do: "the faithful saying" has lost none of its faithfulness. Lord Jesus, stretch forth Your supporting hand. Save us, else we perish! There is not a sin but You can cancel\emdash there is not the unsanctified heart which Your promised Spirit is unable to convert into a Temple of the living God. Keep us from evil; preserve us from temptation.\par \par As good soldiers, may we place ourselves under Your banners; animated by holy allegiance to Him who is the great Captain of our salvation. We would seek to repose on the Divine promises. May our weakness drive us to Almighty strength. Good Lord, keep us, by Your grace, from an uneven walk, from inconsistency of conduct. May we be gentle, and lowly, meek, and forgiving. May we overcome evil with good.\par \par Bless this family and household. May it be one of the Tabernacles of the righteous, where the voice of joy and melody is often heard. May the lambs of the flock be the special care of the great and good Shepherd. Blessed Jesus, seal to them early an interest in Your covenant\emdash write their names in Your Book of Life.\par \par We pray for all in sorrow; may they look to the hand which was pierced for them, to bind up their bleeding wounds. May He who graciously said of old, "I know their sorrows," be near, with His own exalted sympathy, to minister to their varied experiences of trial.\par \par We pray for Your cause throughout the world. Bless our nation; may it be the honored instrument, among the kingdoms of the earth, in greatly promoting the glory of God. Bless every rank and condition; may Your favor encompass all as with a shield. Be with us, blessed Lord, this day. May Your angels encamp round about us and keep us in all our ways. And when we come to die, receive us into everlasting habitations, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Amen.\par \par \par \par WEDNESDAY EVENING\par \par Most Blessed God, You have again, in the multitude of Your mercies, permitted us to meet together around Your footstool. Giver of all grace, draw near to us; enable us to end another day with You, and to retire to rest, in the conscious possession of Your friendship and love. What are we\emdash that we should be permitted to approach such a glorious and infinite God! We are dust and ashes\emdash creatures of a day\emdash who might, long before now, have been righteously spurned from Your presence! Blessed be Your great and holy name, for all the manifold proofs of Your favor. Your ways are not as our ways; had they been so\emdash we must all of us have perished without hope! It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.\par \par Do give to each of us this night, to know the blessedness of being at peace with You\emdash of taking hold on that everlasting covenant, which is well-ordered in all things and sure; looking away from our guilty selves and our guilty doings, to Him who has done all and suffered all, and procured all for us! Give us a deep and abiding sense of our vileness and unworthiness. May every sin which has usurped the throne of our affections be cast down, that God Himself may be our all in all. May we seek to imbibe more of the spirit, and to copy more of the example, of our Divine Redeemer. May we feel it to be our joy to serve Him, our privilege to follow Him, our sorrow to vex and grieve Him. Take us and use us for Your glory; sanctify our affections; elevate our desires. Keep us from being overly concerned and overly troubled about earth's many things. Enable us to be more solicitous about the one thing needful; may we be covetous only of the solid and durable riches of eternity.\par \par Bless our beloved relatives; may they all be enabled to claim a common kindred with the one Elder Brother on the Throne. Set Your own mark on each of them: though separated from one another now, may Your blessed angels gather us together, at last, in the same bundle, for the Heavenly Garner! Let none put off preparation for death until a dying hour\emdash a present hour is all that we can call our own. May we be living in that state of holy preparedness, that when the silver cord by which life is suspended is broken, we may be ushered into Your presence, and into the enjoyment of everlasting glory.\par \par Look down on Your Church everywhere throughout the world\emdash purify her more and more; may no weapon formed against her prosper; may her ministers be holy men, and may her saints and people shout aloud for joy. Do satisfy Zion's poor with bread. May every afflicted one partake of Your own consolations, and be led meekly to say, "the Lord's will be done."\par \par Graciously take the charge of us during this night. We commend us all to Your Fatherly protection and care; whether we wake or sleep may we live together with You. And all we ask is for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.\par \par \par \par THURSDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, we desire to approach the footstool of Your Throne, adoring You as the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who faints not, neither is weary. Your wisdom never fails. Your resources never exhaust. The kindness of the kindest knows a limit, but Your kindness knows no limit. With Your friendship, and favor, and blessing\emdash we are rich\emdash whatever else You may take away. Vicissitude is written on all around us\emdash time may estrange the nearest and dearest on earth, but "You are the same." Loving us at the beginning, You will love us unto the end.\par \par We come unto You this morning in the name of Your dear Son. Our sins reach unto the clouds; we cannot answer for one in a thousand. But we rejoice that we can look up to Him who has answered for us. Blessed Savior, we would bury all our transgressions in the depths of Your forgiving mercy. We seek no other refuge and need no other refuge but You. Relying on Your finished work, we can look calm and undismayed on the unknown future. We can cast all our cares, as they arise, upon You, feeling not only that You care for us, but that You make these cares Your own. We can look forward to the last enemy-to death itself, without alarm; the rays of Your love will dissipate the gloom of the dark Valley, and cause us to rejoice in the hope of immortality!\par \par Meanwhile, O God, sanctify to us\emdash the dealings of Your providence. May these prove heart-searchers, quickening our footsteps Heavenward. Let us follow the leadings of the Great Shepherd of the flock. Let us repose in the blessed assurance, that we shall not lack any good thing. You will not overburden us. We have known You in the past, we will trust You still. Guide us while we live by Your counsel, and afterwards receive us into Your glory.\par \par Bless Your Church everywhere; may all its ministers be men of God, valiant for the truth; warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom. Sustain the faith of those, who, amid manifold discouragements, are laboring in heathen lands; may the Lord send His Angel to stand by them, and to shut the mouth of every gainsayer. Hasten that glorious time, when the year of Your redeemed shall come, and the whole earth shall be filled with Your glory.\par \par Bless all of us who are here assembled in this home. Known unto You are our several needs, and temptations, and perplexities. Make Your grace sufficient for us. May a sense of Your presence hallow all the day's duties, and lighten all its trials. Go with us where we go: dwell with us where we dwell. May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts. And all we ask is for the sake of Him whom You hear always\emdash Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par  \par \par THURSDAY EVENING\par \par Most Blessed Lord, Father of all mercies, You are from everlasting to everlasting God; the same yesterday, and today, and forever. You have, in Your great goodness, brought us again around the footstool of Your Throne of Grace. During the past day, many of our fellow-beings have gone into eternity; we are spared. You have been compassing our path\emdash shielding us from danger, and guarding us from temptation. None is so able, none is so willing, as You are, to befriend and guide us in every perplexity. We can experience no real deprivation, and mourn no real loss\emdash if we have You. The Lord lives, and blessed be our Rock, and let the God of our salvation be exalted!\par \par We desire this night to retire to rest, in the assured confidence of Your favor. Forgive all the sins of the past day\emdash its sins of omission and commission\emdash of thought, and word, and deed; whatever has been inconsistent with Your pure and holy will. Make us more zealous for Your honor and glory\emdash may we maintain a constant and habitual hatred of those sins which have so long severed us from You. May we ever be near the atoning fountain; continually hidden in the clefts of the Rock; that when the last summons shall come, our end may be peace.\par \par Bless all who are in affliction. May they be led to lean confidingly on the arm of Jesus, and they shall be more than conquerors. We pray for the whole world. Pity the nations which are sunk in heathen darkness. Hasten the Pentecostal effusion of the latter day. When the enemy is coming in like a flood, may the Spirit of God lift up a standard to resist him. Bless all Your faithful missionaries. In lands where Christian sanctuaries are not\emdash be a little sanctuary to all Your true servants. May they know You, as a prayer-hearing, a prayer-answering, a covenant-keeping God. Direct their hearts into Your love, and into the patient waiting for Christ.\par \par Bless our household. May the joy of the Lord be our strength. May we feel that in keeping Your commandments there is a great reward. As the pillar of cloud goes before us by day\emdash may the pillar of fire be with us by night. May angels gather around us during the unconscious hours of sleep. May no danger befall us, and no plague come near our dwelling. If pleased to spare us until tomorrow, may we rise fitted and prepared for all the duties to which we may be called. And now unto Him who alone is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy, to the only wise God and our Savior, be ascribed all blessing and honor, dominion and praise, world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par FRIDAY MORNING\par \par Almighty and Most Merciful Father, You are great and greatly to be feared. Your greatness is unsearchable. You are infinite in wisdom, and power, and love. Your justice is as the great mountains. Your judgments are a great deep. Lord, our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We have done those things we ought not to have done\emdash and we have left undone those things which we ought to have done\emdash and there is no health in us. Have mercy upon us, for His sake, in whom You see no iniquity. We have nothing of our own but our sins; all that is good in us comes from Him; we would confidently repose our everlasting interests on His finished work. Forbid that we should presume on Your mercy\emdash that we should take encouragement to sin from Your abounding grace. May we feel that Your pure eye is upon us; that You try us, not according to man's fallible judgment, but according to the standard of unerring rectitude and holiness.\par \par May it be our lofty aim to be the servants of righteousness. May we show that the influence of Your goodness and loving-kindness is to lead us to repentance\emdash to reclaim our hearts from their wanderings, and bring them into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. We desire to take Him as our pattern in all things. When in need of direction or guidance in any duty, or under any perplexity\emdash may this be ever our inquiry, "How would the Savior have acted here?" May we imbibe His unselfish spirit. May life be a more constant effort than it has been, to crucify self and to please God. Let us be willing to accept of anything with Your approval, and to dread nothing but what incurs Your wrath and displeasure.\par \par In our varied spheres may we seek to feel that we have some work to perform\emdash some talent to trade on. Let us cast by faith our mites into Your treasury, that we may earn at last this Your own word of approbation, "They have done what they could."\par \par May Your arms be around all our beloved friends, present or absent. Inscribe their names in the Lamb's Book of Life; may they be Yours on that day when you make up Your jewels.\par \par Sanctify sorrow to the sons and daughters of affliction; let them not murmur under Your Fatherly chastisements; let them own Your Sovereignty, and take comfort in the thought that You do all things well; seeing no hand but Yours in the bestowing and removing the gifts of Your bounty. "The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad!" We commend ourselves, blessed Lord, to You, and to the word of Your grace. Hear, answer, and accept of us, for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and to whom, with You, the Father, and You ever blessed Spirit\emdash Three in One in covenant for our Redemption\emdash be ascribed all blessing, and honor, and glory, and praise\emdash world without end. Amen.\par \par \par \par FRIDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord, we desire to approach Your Throne of Grace, thanking You for the liberty of access we at all times enjoy into Your presence. We bless You that the gates of prayer are always open; that You regard the cry of the needy, and never say unto any of the seed of Jacob, "Seek my face in vain."\par \par How unworthy are we to come to Your footstool. There is enough of coldness in our prayers, of insincerity in our repentance, of imperfection in our best attempts to serve You\emdash that were we tried by these, we must have perished forever! Our prayers themselves require forgiveness. Blessed Jesus, great covenant Angel\emdash let down Your golden censer into the midst of us this night, that we may have these our petitions perfumed with the incense of Your adorable merits. In You alone are our persons and our services rendered acceptable. We flee to the foot of Your cross. Here we are safe, though everywhere else we be in danger. Let us exercise a simple confidence and trust in Your completed work. We bring every sin to Your atoning blood\emdash every wound to Your healing. May we have You in all, and for all the duties and difficulties and trials of life. Disarm all life's crosses\emdash sanctify its losses. May prosperity and adversity be alike used for Your glory.\par \par Let us hate evil. Make us feel how cherished sin ruins our peace, and unfits us for the enjoyment of You and Your service. Keep us especially from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over us. Loving You our God, may we love our fellow-men; may we be patient and unselfish, forbearing and forgiving, lowly and meek, full of pity and courteous. Let us overcome evil with good. May all we do be done in love. May we show, by our Christ-like walk and life, who we belong to. May we not be conformed to the sinful practices and base compliances of a world lying in wickedness; but seek to have our conduct molded in conformity with Your holy will.\par \par O sympathizing Savior, be the Friend of the friendless; the support and solace of the bereaved. There are nameless sorrows on earth which are beyond the reach of the tenderest human sympathy; blessed Jesus, make them Yours. This is Your sublime prerogative, "I know their sorrows." Let all Your tried people with joy anticipate that gladsome morning, when the shadow of death shall be merged in eternal glory.\par \par Bless our beloved friends; may Your loving eye rest upon them; may a sense of Your favor pervade all their doings. May none be found missing at Your right hand, on the Great Day. Let us seek to order our plans as dying creatures. Night after night, as we retire to rest, may we think of that deeper darkness, which must, sooner or later, gather around us. Shepherd of Israel, who never slumbers and never sleeps, be very near us. As we now retire to rest, may we repose in Your keeping; and in the morning, when we rise, may we rise refreshed for duty\emdash fitted for whatever may be in store for us. Hear us, blessed God, and grant us an abundant answer, for the sake of Him whom You hear always. Amen.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY MORNING\par \par O Lord, we desire to come into Your blessed presence on this, the morning of a new day, adoring You for all Your mercies. Last night we might have slept the sleep of death; we might have been startled by the midnight cry, "Prepare to meet your God!" But Your love and forbearance again permit us to meet on praying ground; the day of grace is lengthened, and the God of grace waits to be gracious. Lord, we look back with amazement at Your patience. Mercies have been abused; providences have been slighted; warnings have been neglected. Our lives contain a long retrospect of ingratitude and guilt. Justly might You have said, "Let them alone! Why should they be stricken any more?" But You are not willing to leave us in our state of estrangement and sin. You are ever opening up a way for the return of Your prodigal and wayward children. In wrath You are remembering mercy.\par \par We have still the richest encouragement to repair to the opened fountain. Jesus still waits\emdash His blood still cleanses\emdash His Spirit still pleads. The faithful saying is as faithful as ever, "Him that comes unto me I will never cast out." Your thoughts are not as man's thoughts. Had they been so, the sinner, with all his deep depravity, and unutterable vileness, and base ingratitude, would not have been thus welcomed, pardoned, accepted, loved.\par \par We desire to receive this new day as a fresh gift from You. Let Your approval form, throughout it, a holy incentive to every duty. Let us feel that we never can be happy, but when pleasing You. Let us be aiming at a conquest of self; subordinating all we do to Your will and service. Keep us from alienating existence from its great end, by living to ourselves. We look to Your grace to enable us thus to will and to do. You have wrought all for us\emdash and You alone can work all in us. Strengthen us with might by Your Spirit in the inner man.\par \par How slow we are to believe that our truest security is leaning confidingly on Your arm. You are faithful who promised. Your name is the God of all grace; You give all sufficiency in all things. The cup runs over that is filled by You. Nothing can come wrong to us, that comes from Your hand. Bless all near and dear to us: all that is truly good for them, in this life, do bestow; and, what is better, give them the heritage of glory. May our children grow up as willows by the flowing streams, and be a seed to serve You, when we are gathered to our Fathers. Take us all, young and old, this day under Your protection. God of all mercy, spread Your covering wings around us. Be our God and Guide even unto death, and finally bring us to Your everlasting kingdom, through the merits of Your dear Son\emdash our only Lord and Savior.\par \par \par \par SATURDAY EVENING\par \par O Lord, You are the King eternal, immortal, and invisible. The Heaven of heavens cannot contain You. Myriads of pure and holy spirits cease not day nor night to celebrate Your praises. All their adorations cannot add to Your glory, or augment Your blessedness. What are we, that we should be permitted to approach the presence of a God so great and so glorious\emdash and who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity? We are apt to extenuate sin\emdash but no sin is trivial with You. We are apt to forget sin, we are too willing to hide it from You, and to hide it from ourselves; but we cannot evade Your righteous scrutiny. We cannot screen our guilt from the Great Heart-searcher! All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. But blessed be Your name, though You are the Greatest and the Holiest of all Beings, You are also the kindest and most forgiving. Who is a God like unto our God\emdash who pardons iniquity and sin! Sinners\emdash and the chief of sinners\emdash we can find rest and peace in the work, and merits, and righteousness of Your dear Son. Confiding our eternal all to Him, we can rejoicingly say, "Return unto Your rest, O our souls, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with us!"\par \par Bring us to live more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of Your Redeeming love. May these souls of ours, ransomed at such a price, be dedicated to Your service. Forbid that any of us should be content with a name to live, if we are dead; and deceive ourselves with the form of godliness. Let us know, more and more, that this is Your will concerning us\emdash even our sanctification. May we grow in grace. May the struggle against corruption issue in the confirmed habit of a holy life. May Your Spirit\emdash the Spirit of grace, and peace, and love\emdash dwell in our hearts, and elevate our affections.\par \par Keep us from pride\emdash the master passion of our fallen and corrupted natures. Keep us from vain-glory and hypocrisy. Keep us from envious, uncharitable, unforgiving frames and tempers. Keep us from the secret atheism which refuses to own Your hand, and which regards as "accident" that which is the sovereign and deliberate decree of a Wisdom which cannot err. Oh, may we be preserved in body, soul, and spirit; ready to be presented at last, faultless before the presence of Your glory with exceeding joy.\par \par We would desire especially, as the week is closing, to remember before You, all our beloved friends. God of all grace, dispense to them Your richest blessings. May those ties which on earth are so precarious and liable to be dissolved, be rendered indissoluble by grace; so that, when we part on earth, it may be only to meet in everlasting glory.\par \par Have mercy on all who are in affliction. O healer of the broken-hearted, helper of the helpless\emdash may every wounded spirit be bound up by You. May the lonely and unbefriended feel, that in the loneliest solitude, they are not alone\emdash if You, their God and Father, are with them. Spare valued and valuable lives; and may those who are appointed to death, have the valley-gloom lighted with Immanuel's love.\par \par And now, Lord, what wait we for? Our hope is in Your mercy. Be with us this night. Be the Guardian of our unconscious hours. Whether we wake or sleep, may we live together with You. Our wishes, our desires, our interests, our joys, our sorrows, our friends\emdash we leave entirely to Your sovereign care and disposal. Prepare us for the solemn duties and services of another day. Give to all of us a double portion of Your Holy Spirit, that our souls may be fitted for holding nearer and more intimate fellowship with You. And all that we ask is for the sake of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, and who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } !!EI05 Fourth week{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 SUNDAY MORNING\par \par We will extol You, our God, O King, we will bless Your name forever and ever; every day will we bless You, and we will praise Your name forever and ever. We thank You for the return of another Sabbath. Again have You permitted us to awake in safety, and not sufXh fill our hearts with Your love. May all vain, and wandering, and sinful thoughts be repressed; may our communion and fellowship this day be with You, and with Your Son Jesus Christ. We thank You for the prospect we have of anew commemorating the dying love of our risen and exalted Redeemer\emdash of surrounding once more the table in the wilderness, and partaking of the bread of everlasting life. Give to each of us the "wedding garment." Let us prepare to meet our God. May we feel that the place whereon we are to stand is holy ground; and rejoice at the renewed opportunity of testifying, in the presence of angels and men, our unaltered and unalterable attachment to our blessed Lord and Master.\par \par In a strength greater than our own, may we be enabled to resolve, that He will be henceforth ours only--ours wholly--ours forever. Give us this day lively apprehensions of the great love with which He has loved us. May these dead and lukewarm souls of ours be quickened into newness of life. May our faith be invigorated, and our love deepened, and our graces strengthened. May this be the grateful aspirations of all our hearts, "What shall we render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards us? We will take the cup of Salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord; we will pay our vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people."\par \par We pray for all who are to receive along with us this day, the sacred emblems. Give to each of them some special tokens of Your covenant love. May they see the King in His beauty. May their experience be, "It was good for us to draw near unto God." Keep back all presumptuous and unworthy guests. Encourage all trembling, faint-hearted ones. While feeling their own unworthiness, may they remember they go to commemorate the infinite worthiness of Him who is All worthy. May they hear Your voice of encouragement saying, "Fear not, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified."\par \par Go forth this day everywhere with the preaching of Your holy Gospel. May wanderers be reclaimed; may mourners be comforted; may saints be edified; may Your name be glorified. Stand by Your ministering servants\emdash may they hear the sound of their Master's footsteps behind them\emdash may they hide themselves behind their Lord, pointing away from the excellency of their own speech and their own wisdom--to Him, who alone, by the attractive power of His Cross, can draw all men unto Himself.\par \par We commend to Your paternal keeping our beloved friends. May they be among the number of Your sealed ones. Sanctify them in body, soul, and spirit, that they may at last be presented faultless and unblamable before Your dear Son at His appearing.\par \par Bless this household. Let us all at last sit down, one united and undivided family, with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, at the better feast of communion in Your heavenly kingdom. And all that we ask, is for the sake of our adorable Redeemer. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par \par } (]07 Communion Evening{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0D]=06 Communion Morning{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Communion Morning\par \par Almighty and Everlasting God, we bless You for the return of another day. Pour out upon us a double portion of Your grace\emdas\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Communion Evening\par \par \par Most gracious God, who has in Your good providence brought us to the close of another Sabbath, we entreat You to accept of our sincere thanks for all the loving-kindness and tender mercy You have made this day to pass before us. We bless You for all that our eyes have seen, and our ears have heard, and our hands have handled\emdash of the Word of life. Do wash us after supper. May the benediction and blessing of the Master of the feast rest upon us. May we descend the holy mount rejoicing in the presence of Him who brought us into His own banqueting house, and caused His banner over us to be love. Give us grace to pay the vows which our lips have this day uttered; fulfill in us all the good pleasure of Your goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be magnified. As we have named His precious name anew, may we henceforth depart from all iniquity.\par \par Send us help out of Your sanctuary, and strengthen us out of Zion. May the Lord grant us the desires of our hearts, and fulfill all our petitions. May this Communion service diffuse a hallowed glow over all the duties and engagements of the week. May we show to the world that we have been with Jesus, and that it has been no vain thing for us to draw near unto God. Lord, our own strength is weakness; we cannot carry out one single resolution, depending on ourselves. We will go in the strength of the Lord God. May we be kept by Your mighty power. May we exercise a holy jealousy over our hearts. Let us hear Your monitory voice ever saying to us, "When you think you stand, take heed lest you fall." Keep us from the beginnings of sin; preserve us from venturing on debatable ground; may we ever be where we should wish to be found by our Lord when He comes.\par \par Our cry would be "More grace! more grace!" Our trust would be in that God who, as the God of all grace, can impart an all-sufficiency in all things. Sanctify our hearts by the indwelling of Your blessed Spirit. May they become temples dedicated to Your glory. May this be their motto and superscription, "Holiness to the Lord."\par \par We pray for those who may have joined with us this day in the same solemn and sacred ordinance. We commend each and all to the great Shepherd of the sheep, who, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, will make them perfect to do His will. Regard, in Your great mercy, any who may have been prevented from waiting upon You in Your house and in Your ordinances. May those who tarry at home divide the spoil. Compensate, by an increased supply of Your own promised grace\emdash for the lack of public services. Transform every sick-chamber, and every death-bed, into the house of God and the gate of heaven. May valuable lives be prolonged. May the bereaved be comforted; may they repose on Him who bore their sins\emdash and who knows their sorrows.\par \par Take the charge of us this night; watch over us during the unconscious hours of sleep; may we all come at last to the eternal blessedness of an uninterrupted Communion Sabbath in glory, around which no shadows shall fall. For "there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever!" Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } iliation\par \par \par Almighty and Most Merciful God, You are glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders. You are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity\emdash You cannot look upon sin but with abhorrence. Do pour out upon us this day the spirit of grace and of supplication\emdash the spirit of humility and deep abasement. In self-renouncing lowliness we desire to take the publican's place and cry out, "Unclean, unclean! God be merciful unto us sinners!" Father! we have sinned against heaven and in Your sight, we are no more worthy to be called Your children. Our sins have reached unto the clouds; they are highly aggravated; they have been committed against manifold privileges, solemn warnings, earnest entreaties, innumerable mercies.\par \par The kindness of the best earthly friend has been nothing to Yours. Morning and evening have had the same testimony to bear, of unmerited patience, and condescension, and love\emdash and yet our hearts have been ungrateful and unthankful. They have been mercies abused; warnings slighted; providences unsanctified. We acknowledge our sins as individuals. Our hearts have been estranged from You\emdash we have been lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Divine things have not been exercising a paramount influence over us. We have been living for earth; seeking our chief good short of Yourself, the only soul-satisfying portion. Our love has been cold\emdash our faith weak\emdash our graces languid\emdash our services polluted. Self and sin have mingled with our best attempts to glorify You. We have not been exercising a holy watchfulness over ourselves. We have been guilty of envy and jealousy; we have harbored unkind suspicions of others; we have not had that love which hopes all things, and believes all things, and endures all things. In prosperity, we have been unmindful of the Author of our mercies. In adversity we have been tempted to give way to hard thoughts and unrighteous surmises about the faithfulness and rectitude of Your dealings.\par \par We acknowledge our sins as families. We have not been exhibiting consistency of walk. Your Word has not been prized as it ought. The flame of love and devotion has not burned brightly on the domestic altar as it ought. The leaven of vital godliness has not been pervading, with its hallowed influences, our family engagements, and occupations, and duties. We have not done what we might have done for You. We have been more set on selfish and worldly schemes and objects, than on devising measures for the promotion of Your glory and the good of our fellow-men. The religion professed by the lip\emdash has not been verified and exemplified by holy and devout practice.\par \par We confess our sins as a church and as a nation. Lord, You have filled our cup with mercies. You have dealt with us as You have not dealt with any other people. But, alas! have we not abused our privileges? We mourn and blush to think of the vice and profligacy\emdash the intemperance and ungodliness, which is rising up in terrible memorial against our land. We mourn our deserted sanctuaries, and unread Bibles. We mourn the eye-service and the lip-homage which, too often among Your professing people, takes the place of heart and soul consecration. We mourn the little we have done, the much we have left undone, to promote Your cause in the world. Father, forgive us these our many and heinous offences. Humble us in the dust because of all our unworthiness. Give us grace this day, while we mourn the past, humbly, but earnestly, to resolve to live more devotedly to You in the future. Accept of our unworthy confessions, for Jesus' sake. Sprinkle these guilty hearts with His precious blood.\par \par In the prospect of sitting down at Your holy table, may we be enabled to look upon Him whom all these transgressions of ours have pierced, and to mourn. May we be melted under a sense of our own great unworthiness, and of His amazing love. When we take into our hands the memorials of His anguish and sufferings, may they read to us an affecting lesson of the evil of that accursed thing, which cost the Son of God so much. Let us not venture on that holy ground with one sin unrepented of, or uncrucified. Let us go, humbly resolving that we are to be wholly Yours\emdash that whatever others do, as for us, we will serve the Lord. Let us seek, in all time to come, to walk before You in holiness and righteousness of life, to the glory of Your holy name.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ((- yq08 For a Day of Humiliation{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer for a Day of Humtion, solemn lessons of rebuke and judgment. We acknowledge anew that our sins are the fruitful cause of national calamities. Instead of wondering at these vials of Your wrath, we have rather reason to wonder and be amazed that You have forborne so long--that You have been so slow to deal out merited retribution. Lord, listen to our fervent suppiications for Your returning favor; avert further calamity. Let us fall into the hands of God--for great are His mercies. Do say to the destroying angel, as He is even now hovering around us, "It is enough, stay now your hand." May this national chastisement lead to national repentance. May we come forth from the furnace purified as gold--vessels of glory more and more fit for the Master's use.\par \par We commend ourselves and all belonging to us to Your care and keeping--never leave and never forsake us; and all that we ask or hope for, is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 8 u 09 For a National Calamity{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer in a national calamity--such as plague, pestilence, famine, or war\par \par \par Holy father, You are now seeing fit\emdash in Your adorable providence, to read aloud to us, as a naear, in His name, to Your footstool. Our souls would magnify the Lord\emdash our spirits would rejoice in God our Savior; for He who is mighty has done great things for us, and holy is His name. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up for us a horn of salvation in the house of His servant David.\par \par We look back with gratitude and joy to that memorable night, when the angels appeared over the Plains of Bethlehem, proclaiming that the promised Child was born, the promised Savior was given; that through Him, while glory was secured to God in the highest, peace was proclaimed on earth, and good-will to the children of men. We adore the amazing condescension which brought the Lord of life and of glory from His Throne in Heaven to that manger of humiliation; "God over all," dwelling in union with an infant of days!\par \par We desire to present ourselves before the Holy Child Jesus, like the wise men of old, with the gold, and frankincense, and myrrh of our best affections and deepest love. Had it not been for this inconceivable stoop from the infinite to the finite\emdash where would we have been this day? Well may we join in the angelic song, and say, "Glory! eternal glory be to God in the highest, for His best\emdash His unspeakable gift; without which, not one ray of hope or joy could have visited our doomed world." As we gather in thought around His cradle, may our souls rise in lively gratitude to Him who spared not His only Son, but freely gave Him up unto death for us all. We will sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. Thanks be unto God who gives us the victory, through the Lord Jesus Christ.\par \par May we seek, by holy, righteous, and consistent lives\emdash by holy living and holy walking\emdash to show that we are not insensible of all His unmerited love and kindness. Blessed Jesus, make us Yours. Sanctify us wholly\emdash wean us from earth\emdash train us for glory. Forbid that it should be said, that for any of us, Bethlehem's manger was prepared in vain, and Bethlehem's angel-song sung in vain. Contemplating You this day in Your humiliation, when You were made in the likeness of man, may it be ours to look forward, with holy joy, to Your second coming in the clouds of Heaven; Your tears, and sorrows, and sufferings all past\emdash when the Babe of Bethlehem\emdash the sufferer of Gethsemane\emdash the crucified of Calvary\emdash shall be seated on the Throne of universal empire, and crowned "Lord of all."\par \par We pray that Your holy name may be everywhere magnified. Arise, O God, and plead Your own cause. May a dark world be soon cheered by the wondrous proclamation we this day love to recall. May the "Prince of Peace" take to Himself His great power and reign\emdash causing men to beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.\par \par We pray for the afflicted\emdash lead them too this day to Bethlehem's Savior. Show them all that He was willing to do for them; and may this reconcile them to bear patiently whatever trial He may see fit to appoint; may they rejoice in His tender sympathy, remembering one great end for which He descended to the lowly manger was, that in all points He might be tempted even as they are.\par \par Bless our children\emdash let them be brothers and sisters of Him who (once the lowly Child Jesus) is now an exalted Elder Brother on the Throne. Give us all that is really good for us\emdash withhold all that is evil. May Your will be our only rule and directory; may we trust You in everything; and look forward with joyful hearts to that better time, when we shall be permitted, with a multitude which no man can number, to take up the song of this day, and ascribe "glory to God in the highest," for that mercy which, through His own dear Son, is to endure forever. And all we ask, is for His sake. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } V&V! qa11 Last Night of the Year{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\re3 M)10 Christmas Day{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Christmas Day\par \par \par Almighty and Everlasting God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we desire, on this sacred anniversary, to draw nd0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer for the last night of the year\par \par \par O Lord, we adore You as the God of times and seasons, of days, and of years. You alone are without any variableness or shadow of turning. You inhabited the glories of eternity, before the birth of time or of worlds. You had no beginning of days. You can know no end of years. Amidst fleeting moments and revolving seasons, the past and present and future are, to You, one ever-present "Now." A thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. It is our comfort to know, amid so much that is transient in a fleeting world, that You are the same\emdash that Your Throne has the pillars of immutability to rest upon\emdash that though all is changing and hastening to decay and dissolution, "Your dominion endures throughout all generations."\par \par We desire, on this the last day of another year, to bow at Your footstool, and to take a solemn retrospect of all the year's mercies. We have indeed good reason this night to set up our Ebenezer, and to say, "The Lord has helped us!" It is a retrospect of love. We may well write as our motto on its waning hours, "We have received at the Lord's hands, grace upon grace." From how many unseen dangers have You delivered us! From how many temptations, which we had no strength of our own to resist, have You rescued us! How many during this last year have been wasted with sickness, or racked with pain, or stretched on beds of languishing; yet You have mercifully protected us. How many households have been darkened with the shadows of death\emdash the hallowed circle broken\emdash and yet we are all still among the living to praise You. How many thousands of our fellow-men, since the year began, have passed into eternity; but we, unworthy cumberers, are yet spared; the axe has not been laid to the root of the tree; we are preserved another year longer. Night after night we laid ourselves down and slept because the Lord sustained us, and we are still the objects of Your unceasing watchfulness and tender care.\par \par O God, when we think of Your great mercies, what shall we say of the retrospect of our past sins? Our record of the past year is now ascending to Your Throne; alas! it is the record of abused kindness, and despised warnings, and misimproved providences, and lukewarm hearts, and careless, thankless lives! Were we to be judged by the duties and doings\emdash the sins and shortcomings of any one day of the passing year\emdash we would be righteously condemned. Oh, before the record has passed upwards to Your Great Book, do wash out every stain in the blood of Immanuel! We have no hope but in Him. We desire this night to hear His own blessed words of consolation and mercy, "Son, daughter, be of good cheer, your sins are all forgiven you."\par \par We lament, O God, how little we have been affected by all that He has done for us. Lead us to repentance. Bring us more and more to realize the depth of obligation under which we are laid\emdash to You who have loved us with an everlasting love. We would mourn the past, and seek for "more grace" for the future. Come, Lord, search us and try us, and see if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the everlasting way. May the lives which You have, during another year, prolonged and preserved by Your bounty, be willingly consecrated as thank-offerings to Your praise.\par \par We desire, at this time more particularly, to commend to Your Fatherly care and goodness all in whom we are interested. May our absent friends meet us this night in spirit around the Throne of the heavenly grace\emdash each commending us, as we now desire to commend them, to Your care and love. Make them the objects of Your providential bounty, and the subjects of Your heavenly grace and kingdom. May they also be brought to bewail the sins of the past, and seek for new grace in entering on a new period of existence. Oh, when this rapid flight of years and seasons shall have come to an end, may we all be found in the regions of everlasting day, to unite together in singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.\par \par Pity all in affliction; may the bereaved be comforted\emdash may the dying be prepared for their great change\emdash may the living know that they too must die. We desire to retire to rest under the solemnizing impression that we are a year nearer eternity\emdash that a year more of our probation time is fled\emdash that a year less of grace and opportunity and privilege belongs to us. Lord, take the charge of us; and if You are pleased to spare us to see the light of a new day and a new year, may it be to us the emblem of a better morning and a nobler term of being, when earth's shadows and darkness shall have forever fled, and when we shall be satisfied, awaking in Your likeness. And all we ask is for the adorable Redeemer's sake. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer for the first morning of a new year\par \par \par Almighty and everlasting God, You are the Alpha and the Omega\emdash the First and the Last. Amid all the vicissitudes of a changing world, You change not. All things below must perish\emdash but You remain the same. You have mercifully preserved us to see the commencement of another year. We desire to begin this new period of our existence by consecrating its hours to You. Before we enter on its manifold duties, and its unknown trials\emdash we beseech You to impart to us Your gracious benediction. We would seek to connect its coming blessings with You\emdash to own Your hand and Your wisdom in its coming sorrows. We would seek to feel that it can only be to us a happy year by being a holy one\emdash spent in Your service and devoted to Your praise. It is one of the many new years we have seen; we cannot tell how few we may have yet to see.\par \par Our prayer is, that we may live this year as if it were to be our last. Lord, we desire to begin the year, where we would wish to begin and to end its every day\emdash at the opened Fountain. We desire to take as our motto and superscription throughout its course "God forbid that we should glory, save in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ." We desire to connect this new year's morning with the great atoning sacrifice, without which no years could have revolved to us. Our every temporal comfort, as well as every spiritual blessing, flow to us entirely from Jesus. Oh, do enkindle in our hearts a flame of more ardent devotedness to Him, whose amazing love it is, which crowns every year with goodness, and makes all its paths to drop fatness.\par \par Gracious Lord, we desire, this morning, to make a fresh consecration of ourselves and our household unto You. Sprinkle our lintels with the blood of the everlasting covenant. Set Your own seal and mark on our foreheads. If in past years there has been forgetfulness of You\emdash if Your kindness has been abused, and Your mercies slighted, and Your name dishonored\emdash enable each and all of us to make this year one of more undivided surrender to Your service. May it be a new year of love, and meekness, and forgiveness, and close walking with God. May sin be more dreaded, and holiness more loved. May the lessons of eternity come more powerfully and impressively home to us. Let us live as immortal beings. Let us live a dying life. Let it not be the impression of a solemn anniversary like the present, but a habitual conviction, that "The fashion of this world is passing away."\par \par O Lord, accept of this our united new year's sacrifice. We would light our flickering lamps at Your holy altar\emdash do replenish them day by day with the oil of Your grace; that should any of us be summoned in the course of the year to meet our Lord, we may not have to make the mournful confession, "Our lamps have gone out."\par \par Good Lord, bless all our dear friends; we would remember them, as we trust they are remembering us, this day, at Your footstool. Hear our mutual prayers: may the cloud of mercy descend on all our heads. Though absent from one another on earth, may faith bring us near, by having our tents pitched by the gate of heaven. Bless our native land; may it ever remain a center of holy influences, distinguished by that righteousness which exalts a nation. Bless our rulers, our senators, our magistrates. Bless the ministers of the everlasting Gospel; may they be wise to win souls; and may every religious privilege we now enjoy, be handed down unimpaired to the last posterity. God of all grace, undertake for us. Let the pillar of Your presence go before us. Direct, control, suggest throughout this year, all that we design or do\emdash so that every power of our bodies, and every faculty of our souls, may unite for the showing forth of Your praise and glory. And all that we ask is for the sake of Jesus\emdash Your only Son and our Savior. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } X 912 First Morning of a New Year{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\in the deep waters, and Your judgments unsearchable\emdash yet nothing can happen by accident or chance\emdash but all is the unerring dictate of infinite wisdom and unchanging faithfulness and love. Where would we be at this hour, but for the blessed assurance, "This also comes from the Lord Almighty," who, though "wonderful in counsel," is ever "excellent in working." Often we cannot discern, through our tears, the rectitude and love of Your varied dispensations. Often are we led to say, with trembling and misgiving hearts, "Truly, You are a God who hides Yourself." But all is well. We could not wish our concerns in better hands than in Yours.\par \par May this wondrous challenge silence and rebuke every murmur, "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him, also freely give us all things?"\par \par You cannot send one trial that is unnecessary, or light one spark in the furnace that might be spared. We will be silent, we will open not our mouths, because You are the one who has done this! Man may err, and has often erred; but, O unerring God! Your faithfulness has established in the heavens! The Judge of all the earth must do right. We would seek to lie submissive at Your feet, and say in unmurmuring resignation, "May Your will be done." We "fear to enter into the cloud,"\emdash You have afflicted us by terrible things in righteousness; the desire of our eyes has been taken away by a stroke\emdash the shadows of death have unexpectedly fallen around us! Oh forbid that we should rebel under the rod, and refuse to be comforted. Let us glorify You "in the fires!" Let us feel that if we are Your children, there is not a drop of wrath in that cup of sorrow; but all is love, infinite love! We would see no hand but Yours "the Lord gave us our blessings\emdash and the Lord has a supreme and inalienable right to take them away!" "Even so, Father, for it seems good in Your sight."\par \par Our earnest prayer, blessed God, is, that this severe trial may be sanctified to us all. We have need of such a blow\emdash to remind us that this earth is not our rest. We were leaning on the creature\emdash we were disowning and undeifying the Great Creator. You would not leave us to ourselves, to settle on our lees. You saw the need of Fatherly chastisement to bring back our alien and truant hearts to Yourself. Oh, may we listen to our Father's voice. May we feel it to be a loud voice, and yet full of gentle tenderness. May it rouse within each of us the question, "What will You have me to do?" May we "arise and call upon our God." Thus may this very affliction, which, for the present, seems not to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.\par \par Lord, abundantly sanctify this solemn dispensation to every member of our household\emdash to all friends and neighbors. May the warning voice sound loudly in our ears, "You also be ready!" It is another testimony borne to the truth, that at such a time as we think not, the Son of God may come. May it be ours ever to live in preparation for that solemn event which awaits us all. Whatever our hand finds to do, may we do it with our might, remembering that there is no work, nor device, nor labor, nor repentance in the grave, where we are going.\par \par Sprinkle us all with the blood of Jesus; give us all a saving interest in Him, as the Resurrection and the Life. Let us hear His voice of encouragement and love, sounding amid the stillness of the death-chamber, and from the depths of the sepulcher, "Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave." "Yet a little while, and He who shall come will come, and will not tarry." Soon shall these bitter tears and partings of a weeping world be over; death-divided friends shall meet, never again to know separation. Enable us to look forward to that blessed hope and that glorious appearing, when "those who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him." Lord, meanwhile descend, and to the friendless prove a Friend. O Helper of the helpless, Comforter of all who are cast down, better and dearer than the dearest and best of earthly relatives\emdash give us that grace which You have promised specially in seasons of weakness; may we realize the truth of Your own precious promise, "As your day is\emdash so shall your strength be."\par \par "I hear the tumult of the raging seas as Your waves and surging tides sweep over me." Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night His song shall be with us. However low we may be sunk under the waves, the arms of Your love and upholding grace are lower still. May it be our sweet experience, that the deeper we sink, only discovers more the infinite depths of Your love and mercy. May this thought reconcile us to bear all and suffer all\emdash we shall soon be done with this present evil world, and be with our God, and that forever and ever! Hide us meanwhile, in the clefts of the Smitten Rock, until this and all other of earth's calamities are over and past. May we trust Your heart\emdash where we cannot trace Your hand! We wait patiently for the great day of disclosures, when all shall be revealed, and all be found redounding to the praise and the glory of Your great name!\par \par Hear us, blessed God. All that we ask is for the sake of Your dear Son, our only Lord and Savior. Amen.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } }!13 For a Time of Bereavement{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer for a time of bereavement\par \par \par O Lord God almighty, we rejoice to think that "the Lord reigns!" Though Your way may sometimes seem to be in the sea, and Your path r when detained from public worship\par \par \par Almighty and everlasting God, You are glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders. Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Amid all the changes and vicissitudes of a changing world, You the Lord do not change. You are the same, and Your years shall have no end. We desire to bless and praise Your holy name for the return of another day. This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Do go forth everywhere with the preaching of the everlasting gospel. Clothe Your priests with salvation: let Your saints shout aloud for joy. May the assemblies of Your people be enabled to worship You in the beauties of holiness, and feel it to be good for them to draw near unto God.\par \par It is our comfort to know that You are not confined to temples made with hands; that wherever there is a true worshiper, there, there is a prayer-hearing God. O God of Bethel\emdash God of our Fathers, and the covenant God of all who truly fear You, do look down in kindness on us who are prevented this day, by the restraints of Your Providence, from joining with our fellow-Christians in the public services of the sanctuary. It is not to numbers You look\emdash wherever two or three are gathered together in Your name, we have Your own recorded promise, that there You will be in the midst of them to bless them and to do them good. Though You love the gates of Zion, You are not forgetful of the dwellings of Jacob. You have said that You will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, as well as upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Let the pillar of Your promised presence go before us; may we feel like Your disciples of old, when the voices of heavenly messengers on the mount were silenced\emdash that we are "alone with Jesus."\par \par Gracious Savior, abide with us; we are independent of all ordinances\emdash if we have You. It is Your presence and love which gives a blessing to all outward means of grace. Your most hallowed altar is the altar of a humble, lowly, contrite heart. Your most acceptable sacrifice is the incense of grateful love\emdash of devoted, obedient, submissive lives. O Great Angel of the everlasting covenant, sprinkle these our unworthy prayers and services with the incense of Your spotless merits, that thus, worthless and polluted in themselves, they may be made acceptable in the sight of God.\par \par Lord, may every returning Sabbath be finding us better prepared for the eternal Sabbath. May sin be dying within us. May we be progressively advancing in the divine life. May we be abounding in faith, and hope, and love; seeking by Your grace to walk in newness of life\emdash more humbly\emdash more consistently\emdash more prayerfully. May we live as dying creatures. May all the solemn events that are taking place among ourselves and around us, be so many voices proclaiming, "Arise and depart\emdash for this is not your rest."\par \par Lord, break the world's alluring spell; strip it of its vain fascinations! Let the "seen and the temporal" be more subordinated to the "unseen and the eternal." May we give evidence to all, that we are living under the power and influence of gospel principles and renewed affections. May we be meek and gentle\emdash patient and forbearing\emdash thankful and resigned. And even though trial and sorrow should at times be our allotted portion, may we seek to show that the grace of God can impart an inner sunshine which no outward darkness can obscure.\par \par Do look down in mercy on all our dear friends\emdash may they too see the good of Your chosen ones, and glory with Your inheritance. May the fragrance of this day's services follow them throughout the week; may they have the increasing experience that the way of holiness is the way of happiness. Bless all Your missionary servants. Give them a double portion of Your Spirit. May it be their privilege this day to gather in some sheaves of the great gospel harvest. May the Lord of the harvest stand by them to strengthen them; should they be now only sowing in tears, may it be theirs, at last, to reap in joy.\par \par And now, Lord, what wait we for? Our hope, for ourselves, and for all near and dear to us\emdash is in You. Hear us for the sake of Him whom You hear always, and in whose most precious name and words we pray.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } AA )14 Detention from Public Worship{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayehat it cannot hear. We thank You for Your own recorded promise, that the prayer of faith, if consistent with Your blessed will, will save the sick. We entreat You to look down in great mercy on that member of our family who is this day laid on a bed of languishing. May it please You of Your infinite goodness speedily to restore him. Rebuke his disease. Bring him back from the gates of the grave. May this sickness not be unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. Mitigate the severity of pain. Grant him patience under his sufferings, and unmurmuring submission to the will of Him who afflicts not willingly. His times are in Your hands. We commend him soul and body to You, the great Physician. If You see fit to raise him up, may restored health and strength be more than ever given unto him; but if You have otherwise determined, fit him for his eternal change. To him to live, may it be Christ\emdash to him to die may it be great gain.\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } LL% Q15 For one in Dangerous Illness{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer for one in dangerous illness\par \par \par O God, our Heavenly Father, in You we live, and move, and have our being. We rejoice to think that Your hand is never shortened, that it cannot save\emdash that Your ear is never heavy, tr\par \par \par Ever blessed God, we rejoice to know that our times are in Your hands. The Lord gives us our lives--the Lord has a sovereign right to take them away. Give us grace to say, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord!' Do look down in great mercy on Your servant, whom You are about to take to Yourself. Let him know, that, leaning on Jesus, the sting is plucked away from death, and the grave is robbed of its victory. Oh, ever-living Redeemer, great "Abolisher of Death," who has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel--smooth his dying pillow\emdash let Your voice be heard, saying, "Fear not, it is I; be not afraid!" Grant relief from suffering. Give him a peaceful entrance into glory; may Your angels even now be waiting to waft him to Your presence. May he know that You are faithful who has promised, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!"\par \par Forgive, oh, forgive all his past sins. May this be the one glorious truth to which his soul clings in a dying hour, "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin." Lord, may Your own blessed soul-sustaining peace be his. In a few more moments, he will wake up in heaven--sorrow and sighing shall have fled away forever. May he feel that to depart and to be with Christ is indeed far better. Hear us, good Lord, for Jesus' sake. Amen.\par \par "Now this is what the Lord says\emdash the One who created you, Jacob, and the One who formed you, Israel\emdash Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and [when you pass] through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you. For I the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior!" Isaiah 43:1-3\par \par "In My Father\rquote s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also." John 14:2-3\par \par "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."\par \par "Therefore we do not give up; even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1\par \par Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, "Who are these who are clothed in white? Where do they come from?" And I said to him, "Sir, you are the one who knows." Then he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. That is why they are standing in front of the throne of God, serving him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will live among them and shelter them. They will never again be hungry or thirsty, and they will be fully protected from the scorching noontime heat. For the Lamb who stands in front of the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away all their tears." Revelation 7:13-17\par \par "I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying--Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever." Revelation 21:3-4\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } j%=16 For the Bedside of a Dying Believer{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 Prayer at the bedside of a dying believe