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heart be affected with deep humility, with fervent gratitude, with ardent devotion, when I join my fellow-creatures in offering up the acknowledgments of homage and praise to thee, our benevolent Creator, to thee, our unwearied benefactor, in whom we live, move, and have our being. May I engage in the several acts of public worship with pious affections, and with such dispositions of mind as become the disciples of the blessed Jesus. May I receive the principles and sacred lessons of divine evangelical truth and wisdom, into a candid, teachable, unprejudiced heart. May thy word dwell richly and habitually in me, becoming the spring of my consolation, and the rule of my conduct.

May the opportunities of religious improvement, sacred to devotion and virtue, be my delight. May all who profess to believe in thee, O God, and in Christ Jesus, thy messenger and prophet, whom thou hast sent, improve these seasons to the sacred purposes to which they are subservient. May all worshipping assemblies be animated by the true spirit of prayer and devotion. May thy bless

ing accompany the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. May all its ministers be enlightened, faithful, and zealous; and may the truth, as it is in Jesus, display its divine energy, in the instruction of the ignorant, the conversion of the sinner, and the edification of the serious Christian, in knowledge, holiness, and comfort.

May I meet those with whom I shall worship this day, in the christian spirit of affection and charity. With hearts, united by one faith and one hope, may we, as the disciples of one master, Jesus Christ, bow before Thee, the one God and Father of all. May our hearts taste all the pleasures of religion, and of social devotion. May I, at length, be found worthy to meet my fellow-worshippers before thy eternal throne in heaven, there to adore thee in the sublimest anthems of homage and praise, and to be united to the saints of all ages, and to the angels of light, for ever to celebrate thy perfections, to enjoy thy favour, to magnify that love, which hath called us to eternal glory through Jesus Christ. Amen.

LORD'S DAY EVENING.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, the author and preserver of my life, the bountiful source of all my enjoyments! To thee, who hast added another day to my life, and crowned that day with so many blessings, would I offer my evening tribute of thanksgiving and praise.

I desire to thank thee for the common bounties of thy Providence, which accompany me every day of my life; but more especially, at this time, for the opportunities thou art pleased to afford me of strengthening the devout feelings of my own breast by the society of my brethren, in offering thee the praise and homage due to thy Divine Majesty. Before thee, my daily benefactor, and my final judge, would I also take shame to myself for the many instances, in which I have neglected to improve the important advantages with which thou hast favoured me.

If I have been inattentive to my duty this day; if my heart has remained unmoved, while recollecting the excellencies of thy nature and the bounties of thy Providence, and

unaffected with the sacred truths of the Gospel; if I have not felt that earnest desire to improve in knowledge, and grow in virtue, which became me as a disciple of thy Son, and an heir of immortality, I humbly beseech thee to extend thy mercy to me. Graciously overlook the follies and infirmities of thy servant; and accept of my penitent acknowledgments, accompanied with sincere purposes of amend ment. May grief and shame for past failings awaken future diligence, and may I become more careful to avoid the like offences for the time to come. Let me ever keep in remembrance, that, as to thee I am indebted for all the means of improvement which I enjoy, so to thee I am accountable for the use I make of them; and that thou wilt severely punish all those, who are guilty of wilful negligence. of the talents and opportunities afforded them.

If any good impressions have been made upon my mind by the religious services of this day, may they not be effaced by the cares or pleasures of life; but may I carry them with me into the business and employments of the ensuing week, and feel their happy effects as long as I live.

As religious ordinances are of no value, but as the means of advancing our progress in piety and virtue, may I not judge of my improvement in religion merely by my repeated attendance on such services, but by the happy change they produce upon my temper and character, and upon the growing conformity of my life to the precepts of the Gospel.

O thou Father of all men, extend thy mercy to the whole race of mankind. May those corruptions of the Christian religion, which have so greatly destroyed its beauty and effi cacy, be speedily removed. May the time soon come, when the unity of thy being, and the sovereign prerogatives of thy nature, shall be universally acknowledged; and when all worship, paid to inferior beings, under whatever name or form, shall entirely cease. every other addition in doctrine or discipline, which has been made to the simple religion of the New Covenant by the folly or wickedness of mankind, be done away, that the light and comfort of pure Christianity may be felt by all. For this purpose, do thou dispose all those, who have attained to the knowledge of the truth, to profess it openly and without fear.

May

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