Page images
PDF
EPUB

make them the stewards of thy bounty-willing instruments in sustaining and enlarging every work of faith and labour of love. Give them grace to lay up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves cannot break through and steal.

PROVIDENCE.

Great Sovereign, thou hast prepared thy throne in the heavens, and thy kingdom ruleth over all. Thou dost thy will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth; and none can stay thy hand, nor say unto thee, "What dost thou ?" Thou callest the stars by name, and numberest the hairs of our heads: thou upholdest the sparrow, and givest strength to the seraph. Lord, I would praise thee for thy most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all thy creatures. If thou shouldst withdraw the energies of thy power from the works of thy hands, they would all fall back at once into non-existence. But blessed be thy name, thy dominion is an everlasting dominion, and thy kingdom is from generation to generation.

Great God, enable me to see and acknowledge thy hand in all the movements of thy providence. Make me realize my immediate and absolute dependence on thee, and my obligations to thy preserving and governing wisdom. Suffer me not to impeach any of thy ways: for though thy dealings may often seem to the eye of feeble sense to be confused or mysterious, yet in thy sight they stand in perfect order, and are clothed with unshadowed light. Make me submissive to every token of thy will. May I praise thee in joy and in grief: because it is the Lord that giveth, and that taketh away. Thou

art indeed wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. Thou givest the mercies of every day's life to the evil, as well as to the good. But it is only for them that love thee, that thou makest thy providence and grace work together for good.Exalted Jehovah, may the solemn truth that thy kingdom ruleth over all, lead me to seek thy favour, as the chief blessing of life; and to do thy pleasure, as it is done in heaven.

PRUDENCE.

O thou who only art wise, vouchsafe to me that prudence which is the dwelling-place of wisdom. Preserve me from a heedless and an impetuous spirit. Make every purpose of my heart, and every action of my life, the result of prayerful consideration. Dispose me, I pray thee, to pursue every right object with a proper spirit. Let me not be governed by any rules of policy which are inconsistent with a good conscience; nor do evil that good may come. Instruct me in all my personal and relative duties; and give me sanctified knowledge and discreet zeal, to meet and discharge them, in the sight of God. Grant me the instruction of thy word, which is able to make me wise unto salvation; and the teachings of thy Spirit, which searchest the deep things of God, and beareth witness with my conscience, whether I walk in the way, the truth, and the life.

REGENERATION.-See Conversion.

REPENTANCE.

Heavenly Father, grant me repentance unto life, through the merits of the Saviour. Give me, I be

seech thee, a true sense of my sin. It is against thee, O Lord, I have sinned. I have broken thy holy, wise, and benevolent law, ways and times beyond number. I have sinned against the teachings of thy word, against the testimonies of conscience, against the drawings of thy love, and against the strivings of thy Spirit. My transgressions may have led others into the paths of evil, and thus have been instrumental in loading their souls with guilt. Mine iniquities have cast reproach on thy cause in the world; and they have shut out the precious light of thy countenance from my soul. O God, make me feel how hateful my sin is in thy sight, and that the perfections of thy nature are pledged for its punishment. O thou hast spread wide and deep, the lake of unquenchable fire-thou hast built, with everlasting strength, the prison-walls of hellwhere the unrepenting sinner will dwell in torment forever.

Lord, I implore thee to give me deep convictions of the atrocious guilt and soul-destroying danger of sin. Grant me feelings of strong abhorrence towards it. Incline me to mourn, with bitterness of heart, over my transgressions. Imbue me with courage, to resolve to forsake them, and with strength, to turn from them unto thee, with earnest endeavours after new obedience. Teach me, that he who turns not away from every sin, turns not aright from any sin. O let not mine be the sorrow of the world, that worketh death; but a godly sorrow, that worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Bring me to thee, crying, "Lord, save me, or I perish." And say to me in thy mercy, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."

O God, kindle a fire in the consciences of the impenitent, that shall cleanse them from the love of sin, and purify them unto thee, in holiness of heart and life. Convince them of the evil nature, and fearful consequences of their iniquity. Show them that thou art waiting to be gracious, and that thou hast no pleasure in the death of them that die, but that they turn and live. Turn them from the error of their ways, and lead them into the path of the just. Induce them to forsake their sins, and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Incline them to obey thy will from the heart, not that they may seek, by the deeds of the law, to be justified in thy sight; but that he who was delivered for their offences, may be made their justification and complete salvation.

REPROOF.

O thou Holy One, suffer me to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but may I rather reprove them. Cause my conduct to stand forth as a sentence of condemnation against them, both in my scrupulously avoiding that which is evil, and resolutely cleaving to that which is good.. Give me a holy courage to bear the testimony of my voice against transgression. But, O, let it not be done in anger, but in love and humility, and with prayer. Lord, may I be encouraged in this duty. by remembering that it is thy will that we should in any wise rebuke our neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. If any of the brethren be overtaken in a fault, make me feel that it is both my duty and privilege to restore such a one, in the spirit of meekness. Show me that the eternal interests of the ungodly require me to take up this cross; for the

want of my reproof may leave him unmolested in his sin, to spread its contagion on others, and to go down with it to the bosom of perdition; while my faithfulness may be the blessed means of redeeming him from the dominion of iniquity, and of leading him to seek the salvation of his soul.

Lord, dispose me to receive rebuke with meekness and thankfulness. Make me open to conviction, and dispose me to acknowledge and forsake my evil. O may all that are the subjects of Christian reproof, reflect, that he who is often reproved, and still hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

RESIGNATION.-See Affliction, Submission.

RESURRECTION.

God of the living, thou hast revealed the doctrine that thou wilt raise these mortal frames, at the day of judgment, from their long decay of death, and make them joint-heirs with our spirits in the retributions of eternity. All that are in the graves shall hear thy voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Lord, I thank thee that our Blessed Saviour became the first-fruits of them that slept; thus setting the seal of heaven to the truth of his gospel, and to the hope of our resurrection. If Christ be not risen, then is our faith vain. But, thanks be to thy name, he has the keys of death, and could not be holden of it and as we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. O may I rejoice in the

« PreviousContinue »