may the love of Christ constrain me to love my neighbour as myself. Make it a bond of perfectness, and the end of the commandment; springing out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. May this grace preserve me from envy, censoriousness, and ill-will, and so mould my temper and character, that I shall be meek and forbearing, disinterested and self-denying, and steadfast and kind in all my intercourse with mankind. Blessed God, let it not be bounded by narrow limits, but be as expansive as the length and breadth of the world, and take into the bosom of its sympathies the whole family of man.

O thou, Sovereign of Destinies, hasten that time when charity shall fill the hearts and control the conduct of all men; when anger, and malice, and revenge shall have fled away forever; when nations shall learn war no more, and Jesus, the Prince of Peace, shall reign over an undisturbed empire of love.

CHASTITY.

Preserve me, O Holy One, from impurity in thought, in word, and in action. Grant that a sense of thy holiness and thine omniscience may so rest upon me, that I may walk in the Spirit, and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. May I set a watch upon my lips, that no double meaning nor corrupt communication may proceed out of my mouth; and suffer me not to take pleasure in, but to abhor and turn away from, the language of indelicacy and lasciviousness on the tongues of others. Help me to make a covenant with my eyes, that they may not dwell on unlawful objects, nor pamper forbidden wishes. Throw a guard round my heart, that it may not de

vise wicked imaginations. Teach me to loathe and flee from these beginnings of evil, which debase the spirit, enfeeble the mind, and drown the soul in perdition. Enable me to put away uncleanness, and to glorify thee in my body and spirit, which are thine.

God of Justice, enter not into judgment with our land for the foul impurity which covers it. If thou wert strict to mark its iniquity, thou wouldst bring over it the besom of desolation, and make it a monument of reproach. O lead us, in thy mercy, to the use of such measures as shall subvert the dominion of licentiousness, and establish purity of heart, speech, and conduct. Lord, thou knowest whether the means which have been employed, by social and open action, for the suppression of that destroying vice, are according to thy holy will. If they are, O give them abundant success. But if they are not, cause them to be laid aside, and teach thy people what they may do that will secure thy blessing. Correct, elevate, and inform public opinion in relation to the destroying evils of lewdness. Put under the ban of universal condemnation the unchaste word, the licentious song, the impure page, the lascivious dance, and the dissolute play-house. Make the libertine a scorn and reproach in every society. O preserve those who are still pure; and let them not go down the pathways of disgrace and destruction. Convince and alarm those whose name is clean in the eyes of the world, but whose thoughts cherish unholy emotions, and whose hearts work uncleanness greedily. Recover those who have listened to the song of the syren, and who go as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life who think not that many strong men

have been slain by her, and that her house is the chambers of death, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Cleanse our land and the world from this vile leprosy which destroys health, and happiness, and virtue and bring over it a reformation that shall be total abstinence from impurity of every

name.

CHEERFULNESS.

Lord, make cheerfulness the habit of my temper. Enable me to pursue the happy mean between that mirth, the end of which is heaviness, and that sullenness, which is a canker upon personal comfort, a reproach upon social character, and a libel on divine goodness. Let not my spirit be soured by disappointment; nor be dejected by misfortune; nor be made morose by hostility. May I regard these as light afflictions, compared with a peevish and gloomy temper which will corrupt my own pleasures, shed mildew on all my associations in life, and disparage thy grace. Show me that a cheerful mind will diffuse gladness over my pathways, scatter pleasure around those who journey with me, and glorify the mercy of God.

Gracious Parent, speak to me-"Son, be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee." O how light would the crosses, and afflictions, and disasters of earth weigh on me, if I were conscious of guilt forgiven, and peace with heaven! Lord, grant that whilst I drink gladness from all the lawful sources of comfort around me, I may draw from the wells of salvation a living water, which the world can neither give nor take away.

CHILDREN.

Lord, I thank thee that thou dost suffer little children to come unto thee, and that thou dost ordain praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. I would praise thee that thy saving truth, while it is fitted to fill the minds of angels with the most exalted knowledge, can be learned, and understood, and felt by children; and that many such have known its power, and have spoken in their feeble accents of its excellence, both in their life and death, and are now enjoying the fruits of its redemption in the courts above. Lord, for the sake of the compassionate and prevailing Redeemer, increase that cloud of witnesses. May many remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and increase in wisdom and in favour with God. Be thou the guide of their youth, and satisfy them early with thy mercies, that they may rejoice and be glad all the days of their lives.

God of Grace, I would praise thee for what thou hast done and art doing, through the labours of thy people, for the rising generation. Multiply the number and increase the efficacy of these efforts. Enable parents to make an unreserved dedication of their offspring to the Lord, and train them up in the way they should go, that when they are old, they shall not depart from it. May all who have any influence over youth, devote their most zealous labours that they may be made wise unto salvation, through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. And grant, I pray thee, that thy Church may regard them as the hope of the world, and bend all her energies of faith, and love, and zeal, that the rising generation may be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Heavenly Father, incline the hearts of children to fulfil their duties to their parents. Teach them that they are bound by the laws of natural affection, and the ties of gratitude, to honour their father and mother-which is also the will of God, and the first commandment with promise. O, how often are the authority and peace of parents disregarded or violated by those for whom they have spent their property, and time, and anxieties; and to whom they have looked for comfort and support in declining age. Lord, do thou make every child feel its obligations to keep its father's commandment, and to forsake not the law of its mother; but to bind them continually upon the heart, and to obey them in reverence and love.

Gracious Parent, look in mercy, I pray thee, on the ungodly children of the church. Lord, shall it be that many shall come from the north, and from the south, and from the east, and from the west, and sit down in the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom shall be cast out? Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, until they shall all be households of faith.-But do thou regard, in special compassion, the impenitent offspring of the pious dead. Startle in their memory the echoes of long forgotten parental instructions: bring to their remembrance the images of long neglected examples of parental godliness. And, O let the prayers of these saints, which are kept by thee as odours in golden vials, be poured out before thee, until spirits redeemed shall see of the travail of their souls, and rejoice over their offspring, born again to an endless life. See EARLY PIETY, SABBATH SCHOOLS, YOUTH.]