Page images
PDF
EPUB

knowledge and truth, benevolence and peace, the consolations of faith and the hope of immortality through the earth: that thy whole creation may be filled with unalloyed good; and that to the imperfect, the mixed and the interrupted happiness of the present state, may succeed the eternal day of unclouded bliss, and unceasing felicity and joy to me and to all the children of men, from the riches of thy benevolence and grace, through Jesus Christ, our exalted Prince and Saviour. Amen.

"A PRAYER FOR SATURDAY EVENING.

O ETERNAL God, who livest for ever; before the day was, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God; thy goings forth have been of old, and thy years throughout all generations, I adore thee, I worship thee, I

trust in thee, the living God, to whose years there is no end. With a humble sense of my frailty and mortality, of which the progress of time, and the rapid succession of days and weeks remind me, I bow before thee; acknowledging that I have here no continuing city; that my days are as an hand'sbreadth, and my age is nothing before thee.

Of this frail, transient and short life, thou, O God, my help, hast been the strength and support. Thou hast upheld me to this moment. Thou hast sustained me; and thou art now crowning another day and another week with thy loving kindness and mercies. In thee, through all the changes, through all the scenes, and through all the trials of this life, are my springs of comfort, felicity and hope. It is of thy mercies that I am not consumed, because thy compassions fail not. Thou hast assisted me to fulfil the duties of life; thou hast enabled me to bear its afflictions; thou hast poured its joys into my heart; and by thy help, have I continued to

this moment, the living, the living to praise thee. With all the powers of my mind, with all the best affections of my heart, I do praise thee, O my God, in whose hands my breath is, and whose are all my ways. Above all, may I sincerely and fervently praise thee, that the light of heavenly truth hath still shone around my paths; that thy throne of mercy and gracious goodness, under all my perplexities, difficulties and dangers, hath been daily open to my access; that thy patience and long-suffering, under all my forgetfulness of thee and disobedience to thee, have yet, with unfailing goodness, been exercised towards me, waiting to be gracious; that amidst all the changes of time and nature, the gospel remaineth the same, affording us the records of everlasting truth, and the provisions of everlasting mercy through Jesus Christ; and that we have received a kingdom which cannot be moved, a kingdom of everlasting righteousness and felicity; where the sun shall be no more a light by day, nor the moon by night, but thou, the everlasting God, shalt

be our light and glory. Under the conduct of thy word, spirit, and providence, may I be trained up, by the daily services, duties and discipline of my pilgimage on earth, for that glorious state.

Forgive, O merciful Father, my remissness and negligence in the great duties of life, and my unmindfulness of its end. As I am seriously reminded of its uncertainty and brevity by the progress of time, make me, Lord, to know my end and the measure of my days, that I may consider how frail I am. Teach me the number of my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom. Whatever my hands find to do for thy glory, for the cause of Christ and his truth, for the good of others and for my own salvation, may I do it with all my might, knowing that the night of death will come in which no man can work. May I look back with deep penitence and goily sorrow on my past transgressions, and neglects of duty. May I lay to heart, and diligently pursue, the things of my ever

lasting peace, before they be for ever hidden from my eyes. Henceforth, if life be lengthened out, may I live more entirely by the faith of the Son of God; may my conversation be in heaven; and may I look not at the things which are seen and temporal, but, seriously and steadily, at the things which are unseen and eternal; and when he who is our life shall appear, may I appear with him in glory.

Gracious Father, who art in heaven, take me under thy protection through the ensuing night. Dispose me to look forward, with holy desires and devout anticipations, to the day of rest and devotion; may my heart be in unison with its design and employments. May I esteem a day spent in thy house above all other days; and entertain a high regard for the institutions of thy worship, seeking from them my religious and virtuous improvement, and my high and sacred pleasures. May the day consecrated to devotion and to the cause of righteousness be held in general

« PreviousContinue »