wonders; tender in thy compassion, deep in thy love, boundless in thy mercies, we glory in all thine infinite perfections, as displayed to us in the face of Jesus Christ, and exult in the confidence that this God is our God, and shall be our guide even unto death.

O Lord, glory be to thee for all thy gracious providence in all thy dealings. We bless thee that when trials come upon us, we may see in them tokens of thy love, and proofs that we belong to the children of the living God. We bless thee that in the midst of our many wants, we can come to thee, as a Father who knows them before we ask him, and who has all wisdom and love, power and riches, to supply all our need. We do then together, at the close of this day, exalt and magnify thy holy name. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.

Divine Spirit, the Comforter, come unto us and abide with us for ever. Give us full confidence in our God. Give us the spirit of adoption, the spirit of grace and of glory. Fill us with ardent, persevering, untiring, intense love, even as the heavenly hosts who love God with a perfect love. May we have sweet assurance that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life, and that we shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

O merciful God, when we look to thee in Jesus

our Redeemer, we see thee thus great and glorious and full of goodness, even to us, thy sinful creatures. What reason then have we, when looking on ourselves, to loathe and abhor ourselves! Thou seest us rebellious and ungrateful, and alienated from thee. Thou beholdest us weak and wayward, blind and sinful, shaken by temptation, yielding to our enemy and thy enemy, and continually turning from our true interest, and welfare, to some deceitful vanity or wickedness of this evil world. Oh then visit us with thy salvation. Look in mercy upon us, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

Give us that mercy and help which we so constantly need in all our weakness, sinfulness, and necessities. Pardon the many sins we have each committed in thy sight, whatever it may have been, and restore peace to our burdened and disturbed minds, and quiet our accusing consciences, through the sprinkling afresh upon our souls of the blood of Christ.

May we be enabled, by the eye of faith, to discern and discover thy righteousness and love in every thing, and may we testify thy grace to all around us. Do thou thyself, O God, comfort the mourners, help the poor, rescue the distressed, enlighten the ignorant, and convert the unconverted. Give us ever a heart to care for others, and preserve us from the mockery of a love with dissimulation; that is content with words, and has no corresponding acts of

labour and self-sacrifice.

unfeigned and fervent.

May our love to others be

Preserve our beloved church in the faithful and full confession of Protestant truth intrusted to us in the blessed Reformation, and enable us to maintain it till the Lord come and receive us unto himself; and may we send this truth far and wide, through every land, to bless all nations.

Hear and answer us, for our Redeemer's sake.

XLI.

SATURDAY MORNING.

STRENGTH TO PERFORM DAILY DUTIES AS TO THE

LORD.

O our God, who art the God of salvation, and the Lord God to whom belong the issues from death, receive us thy sinful children, justly exposed through sin to death and eternal ruin, and save our souls. We bless thee that Jesus our Redeemer, has ascended on high, led captivity captive, and received gifts for men, yea even for the rebellious, that thou the Lord our God mightest dwell amongst us. We now come unto thee bewailing our many rebellions, and imploring thee to bestow those gifts which Jesus has received for us.

The duties of another day are now before us, and we have no strength to fulfil them with a single eye to thy glory and a single heart in thy service.

Let us not shrink

Assist us by thy mighty grace. from any duty because it is laborious, painful, or selfdenying; we are so weak and perverse, that when we know thy will we are insufficient of ourselves to do it; we are so blind, that often we cannot discern the way in which we should walk. Give us then light to see, inclination to choose, and strength to do thy will in every thing.

Assist each of us according to our peculiar need, whether parents or children, teachers or learners, masters or servants. May each of us discharge our peculiar and direct duties to thee and to each other as shall most promote thy glory and the good of all around us. May those at the head of the family remember that they have a Master in heaven; those who serve remember that they serve the Lord Christ; and the children not merely be subject to an earthly parent, but also be in subjection to the Father of our spirits. O may we obtain fresh life from thee, the life of the soul, the life of faith, hope, and love, the minding of the Spirit, and all that spiritual life which those have who are in subjection to thee, the Father of spirits.

Bless our President, the ministers of state, the houses of Congress, the judges, and all in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty. Bless the church to which we belong, and all the churches of Christ. Assist thy ministers in their private meditations and in

preparing for their public work, and assist all thy people so to prepare all things beforehand, that the Sabbath may, as much as practicable, be entirely given to its holy and heavenly occupation.

O Lord, thine enemies are full of zeal, and abound in wickedness. O God, arise, and let all thine enemies be scattered; and let those that hate thee flee before thee; but let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea let them exceedingly rejoice. Every where may thy people be stirred up by the aboundings of iniquity, the blasphemies of infidelity, and the lawlessness of unruly men; to be watchful and keep their garments unspotted from the world; to be valiant for the truth as it is in Jesus; to be pitiful and compassionate to those in error; and to seek to save men with fear, pulling them out of the fire, and hating even the garment spotted with the flesh.

O God of love and mercy, what thanks we owe to thee for thy mercies to us! Thou, Lord, art plenteous in mercy, and abundant in goodness and truth. Shed abroad more and more thy love in our hearts. Give us a believing and grateful view of all thy past dealings with us, and of all that is now present and around us, and the joyful hope of all the promised good things which are to come. O may we see that in all thy ways thou art wise and holy and good and gracious, and ever joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with thee and the