O God, unworthy as we are, how can we truly We ask for a greater Save us from wander serve and worship thee? sincerity in all our prayers. ing thoughts; from coldness of heart. May every supplication be a deep cry of the soul for pardon and help. Give us a greater singleness of purpose every day in the work which thou givest us to do. Make it our constant aim to do thy will. Remove the selfishness from our breasts. Make our charities sincere. Let them not be the unwilling offerings of the hands, but the free outpourings of love. Guard the temple of our hearts against the entrance of impure and evil thoughts. Close our ears against every whisper of envy, of uncharitableness, of pride, and rebuke every imagination which can defile our inmost soul. O Father, we can do nothing without thy help. Fix our affections upon thee, and then we shall be raised above the temptations of worldly thoughts. Turn us with all the heart towards thy truth, and evil will flee away. Create within us the spirit of our Master and Lord, and then may we walk securely through his divine strength. Almighty God, hear our earnest prayers, and never leave nor forsake us till thou hast cleansed the deepest springs of life, and made every thought and desire acceptable to thee. We ask and offer all as disciples of thy dear Son, and through him to thee ascribe the glory and the praise. Amen. EVENING. PARENT ARENT of our soul, who hast made it innocent, modest, and pure, keep it as thou hast made it, or purify it, and make it again as thou wouldest have it kept. We are thy temple: may we not defile thy temple. May no low desires, impure passions, kill out the life of our soul. May not earthly love poison heavenly love: may not the lower love, snare of the feet, seeming joy but real anguish, clouding the generous thought, dulling the bright eye, making heavy the youthful face,may it not get possession over us. O, do thou help us to keep under the body, and bring it into subjection, that we may not be cast aways. But rather, Father, lift our thoughts to chaste and noble aims, purify our souls to the best desires; if it be necessary, try us with purifying fire, as silver is tried, till all dross pass away. Fill our minds with noble thoughts, teach us to despise luxury, self-indulgence, and sin; teach us to rise nearer to thee. May the purity of Christ's soul inspire our souls, and lead us away from disgraceful passions, which dishonor our names, and cloud our influence, and disturb our homes, and kill our hearts. Let heaven conquer earth within us, God conquer sense and sin, life triumph over all decay and death. As Christ our master walked in holiness and in all sweet, serene affections, so may we walk calm in true and good thoughts, delivered from the power of all evil, which we ask in Him. Amen. XVIII. CHRIST THE WAY. Thou art the way, and he who sighs, To find a pathway to the skies, A light from heaven's eternal glow, By thee must come, thou gate of love, Through which the saints undoubting trod; An ark, a resting-place in God. ANON. Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Go where thou wilt, seek whatsoever thou wilt, thou shalt not find a higher way above, nor a safer way below, than the way of the holy Cross. —À Kempis. - One ray of moral and religious truth is worth all the wisdom of the schools. One lesson from Christ will carry you higher than years of study under those who are too enlightened to follow this celestial guide. Channing. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. For other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus spake, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path. Jesus said, I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For it had been better not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after having known it, to turn from the holy commandment. MORNING. THOU Almighty and Eternal God, who dwellest in light inaccessible and full of glory, we thank thee that thou dost visit thy children not alone in the outward light of day which is now shining around us, but that thou dost come to us more nearly and reveal thyself to us more clearly in him who is the way of truth and life. Lord, we believe in him; help thou our unbelief. Help us to draw nigh to him and to commit ourselves entirely to his guidance. May we be ready to leave all and follow him, walking securely because we walk with him. As we commune with him, may our hearts be touched and made better, renewed and sanctified by thy spirit. May he be to us the way, the truth, and the life, and, through his influence upon us, may the day which is now begun be a blessing to every one of us, and help us faithfully to fulfil all its duties. Bind us more tenderly to our friends. Cherish within us holy affections and desires, and lead us on in the way which he hath trod, to that world on which no morning sun shall rise, for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. In his name, and by his disciples, we ask and offer all. And thine be the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. EVENING. HOLY OLY Father, now the day is done and the shadows of night are falling around us, we would bow before thee in grateful recognition of thy guidance and care. We would call home our thoughts from the duties, labors, and pleasures in which we have been engaged, and fix them in reverent contemplation of our Divine Master. We need to correct our life, our thought, our heart, daily, by that holy pattern. We would set its blessed likeness in our souls, that our daily going |