FAMILY PRAYERS.

FIRST WEEK.

THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS A FATHER.
Meditation.

THE PRODIGAL SON.

SUCH were we! and such is our heavenly Father! Thus is the sinner enriched by his bounty, and ungrateful for his love! and such he remains till a Father's rod brings him to himself-reaches his heart with penitential sorrow and filial love ;-then, and not till then, he says, "I will arise and go to my Father."

But, O! let us behold with wonder and pleasure the gracious reception he meets with from injured goodness, from Divine love!

He sees him afar off; he meets and embraces him; he interrupts his complaints and confessions, his sorrows and his fearsbefore he speaks he answers.

"Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my

bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord."

Thus does our heavenly Father welcome the humble penitent!-thus does he open the arms of his love to embrace him; and the treasures of his bounty to enrich him. He arrays him with the robe of a Saviour's righteousness; dresses him in the ornaments of sanctifying grace; honours him with the tokens of adopting love, and invests him with the immunities of his children: and all this he does with unutterable delight! He rejoices over him with singing, and this is the joyful language of the song, "My son that was dead is alive again: he was lost and is found!"

A HYMN.

Heavenly Father!-to this name,
May we humbly lay our claim?
Worms on earth-and thou above,
May we dare to ask thy love?

Yes, from far, thy love can see,
Our first wish to come to thee,
Ere we ask, thine ear can hear,
Bid the trembling feet draw near.

Love-can lay its anger by,
Love-can bid the tear be dry;
Love-can spread its arms around,
Love-can say, my Son is found.

While we seek the meanest place,
At the footstool of thy grace;
While we heave the humble sigh;
Bid us Abba, Father, cry.

Strangers now no more to roam,
In our Father's house at home;
Sons and daughters may we be,
One with Jesus!-one with thee!

PRAYER

For the Lord's Day Morning. Almighty and most merciful Father; we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep; we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts; we have offended against thy holy laws; we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. Thou art our Father, but where is thy fear and thy love? Thou hast said, "My son, give me thy heart," but we would not; we have given it to the world, and not to thee. Thou hast so loved us as to send thy well-beloved Son with thy messages of love:-" This is my beloved Son, hear ye him.-Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" He was lifted up upon the cross, that he might draw our hearts unto him; but we turned our eyes from this great sight, as if it were nothing to us. Lord have

mercy upon us, and save us through the blood of his cross! let these cords of love draw us to him. We know that thou dost not desire the death of a sinner, but that he turn and live. Turn us and we shall be turned, for thou art the Lord our God; give us the lowest place in our Father's house, if only the crumbs that fall from thy table. Our sins and our iniquities remember no more.

Adored be thy wonderful love, O thou merciful and gracious Father, who hast encouraged our approaches to thee, by humbling thyself to look down upon us in our own flesh; who didst not utterly cast us out of thy sight when we had turned our backs upon thee; but didst send thy only begotten Son into the world to call us again unto thee; yea, to beseech, and oblige us, by laying down his own life for us, to return unto thee and live. Thou hast found out a way to manifest thy most tender love to us, without the least suspicion of approving and loving our sins; and to preserve thy sovereign authority, without destroying those who were in rebellion against it thou hast ordered such a chastisement of our iniquities, as might save and deliver us, who deserved to be punished. O the wisdom of thy love, which hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of thee our

God in him,-healing us by his stripes, and condemning sin in the flesh by his sacrifice for sin, and making him a curse for us, that we might inherit a blessing, and to receive the promise of the Spirit through faith in him. We thank thee, with all our souls, for his bearing our sin in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness. O Lord! how infinitely we are indebted to thee, in giving him for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. There is nothing we would more desire than by doing righteousness to become righteous, even as he is righteous. Assist us, we beseech thee, to attain this end of his suffering and death, the purchase of his cross, and the promise of his love!

Preserve in us a constant sense of the great value of our souls for which he died; and a great esteem for that purity, righte ousness, and goodness, for the restoring of which he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! And especially raise us to a greater height of love and gratitude to thee, and of hope and confidence in thy infinite mercies, of which we have such strong assurances, by