We behold daily our friends and those whom we love called away from us, and every fresh removal reminds us of the warning, "Set thine house in order." We look into our own hearts, we see our affections divided; sometimes, O Lord, our hearts are all towards Thee, and then cometh the wicked one, and all our desires are for the gratification of self. Then comes torment and suffering; we know we have neglected our duty, we feel angry with ourselves: O help us to return unto Thee, for without Thee we can do nothing. Forgive our sins, and blot out our transgreesions, for Thy own name's sake. Amen.
Our Father, etc.
THURSDAY EVENING.
O LORD God Almighty, gracious and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, with humble gratitude we desire to approach Thee, and pour forth our prayers before Thee. Help us in this great duty, for in this as in everything else we feel, O Lord, that without Thee we can do nothing. Help us rightly to fulfil Thy divine injunction to enter into our closet, to shut the door of our minds against the world, and to pray to Thee from that inmost love of Thee and of Thy kingdom, for those blessings only which are of a durable and heavenly quality. But, Lord, Thou knowest what is best for us: our times are in Thy hand; and for those temporal benefits in which we have so largely participated, and which are still needed while we tabernacle in the flesh, we only ask Thy gracious continuance of them: feed us with food convenient for us; clothe us with raiment suitable to our condition, and O help us to receive with gratitude whatsoever Thy wisdom either bestows or withholds.
Heavenly Father, help us above all things to become spiritually minded; to go and sell all that we have: to live according to Thy holy Word of truth; to sell or relinquish our own propriety, or selfishness; surrendering all our selfish inclinations, subduing and keeping in subjection our perverse thoughts, and rejecting all pride and haughtiness, that we may become poor in spirit, and rich as inheritors of Thy heavenly kingdom. O give unto us a portion of true wisdom, the wisdom which cometh from above, that we may at all times follow Thee in the regeneration. Amen.
Our Father, etc.
FRIDAY MORNING.
(PHOU who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, wo approsch Thy
morcy-seat this morning, and with hearts humbled by a sense of oar domerits, we would confess our sine before Thee! Yet have our multiplied evils not called down the punishment due to our sins. Thy providential interferences have in Thy perfect love been made to save us from lasting misery. Often have we been prevented indulging our impure lusts and desires by some apparently sudden interposition of 'Thy, providence, which, though at the time has been mot with bitter feelings by us, has nevertheless been the means of snatching ua from misery and rnin, and has thus shown that Thy mereies are over now towards us, ' Thy Jove never aleeps."
