We have not recollected thine ever-gracious eye watching over us, and thy universal presence, in which we live, move, and have our being, ever surrounding us. We have disregarded thy favour and thy glory, and sought honour that comes of man.

O Lord, give us a realizing and truly humbling view of our own sinfulness; bestow upon us that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of. Enable us to see the impossibility of standing before thee in any righteousness of our own, and reveal distinctly to us that in the Lord only we have righteousness and strength. We implore of thee the gifts of a loving, purifying, working, conquering faith, and of a hope that maketh not ashamed, full of immortality; a helmet of salvation, and an anchor within the veil; and yet farther we earnestly pray that we may know the more excellent way of charity, and receive each a larger and fuller endowment of that inestimably precious grace of love, which is the very bond of perfectness.

We entreat that we may be decided and fixed in thy ways. O keep us from that false shame which is so injurious to thee, to ourselves, and to others. May God be our glory and our joy. May we ever speak good of his name, and may we never be ashamed to confess our Saviour and his gospel and his people in this sinful and evil world.

Bless all our family plans and arrangements. May they all be ordered as becomes a Christian house

hold, and let the kingdom of Christ be first in all our thoughts. O Jesus, thou must increase; fulfil thine own glorious office, and thine own gracious purposes, as the light of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. Accomplish speedily thine own promises of love and goodness to our world, and may all know thee, from the least to the great

est.

LXVII.

FRIDAY MORNING.

CONFESSION OF SIN, AND PRAYER FOR PARDON.

O Lord God Almighty, and all-sufficient, whose hand is not shortened that it cannot save, whose ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, with whom is allsufficient grace; we mourn those iniquities which have separated between us and our God, and those sins which have hid thy face from us so that thou wilt not hear. Look then upon the face of thine anointed one, the Lord Jesus, and through the rent veil of his flesh, enable us to behold thee near and reconciled to us, and to have access with confidence to the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. Give to

us the spirit of prayer.

Having this access unto thee, we would now no longer keep silence, but freely and without reserve acknowledge all our sinfulness. We were born in sin, and that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and

in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing. We have lived to ourselves and sought our own things, and have not risen to our high calling to do good and to be a blessing. Other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, even the world, the flesh, and the Devil; and we have all in innumerable instances offended against that law which is holy, spiritual, and good. And even after we have known thy love in Christ Jesus to our souls, with aggravated guilt we have not done the good we would, and we have done the evil which we would not. Our faith has been feeble, our hope dull, and our love cold.

O Lord, let thy Spirit so convince us of sin, and especially of the sin of not believing in Jesus, that we may not merely discern that we are sinful, and acknowledge our sins together unto thee; but that we may with the heart feel the burden, the baseness, the vileness, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and so from the depth of a contrite spirit confess our transgressions unto the Lord, and obtain now the free, full, and complete forgiveness of all our sins according to the riches of thy grace in Christ Jesus. Enable us by thine own Spirit to believe that through Jesus there is forgiveness of sins; enable us to rest upon His atonement, and may we find His death powerful to mortify sin and to quicken us to all grateful, holy, and devoted service unto thee.

We praise thee, we bless thee, that thou hast pro

vided such a full propitiation for our sins; that thou hast established for us the new covenant, containing all promises and graces suited to the sinfulness and wants of our perishing souls, and for our eternal welfare. O may we embrace these privileges most gratefully, receive them with gladness of heart, improve them diligently, and walk worthy of our high calling.

Assist us, by thy Spirit, in all that lies before us this day; on our daily work, on our intercourse with others, on all that we undertake and design, may there be stamped holiness to the Lord. May thy blessing so prosper all our thoughts and words, all our determinations and works, that all may promote thy glory. We are unable to do any thing of ourselves, but thou hast all strength for us, and art ready to give to us when we ask, let us not then by our own fault lose that strength, which thou art so ready to give. Strengthen us with thy might, by thy Spirit, in the inner man this day, and enable us in this strength to resist temptation and fulfil all thy holy will.

Bless every member of our family. May the law of Christ, the law of love, be the law of our house. Bless our [parish and] neighbourhood. Give seasonable and suitable grace to the sick and the dying, the young, the careless and the wicked, and especial grace to thine own children. Bless our President and all in authority over us. Build up Zion, and send thy

light and truth to every land, through Jesus our Redeemer.

LXVIII.

FRIDAY EVENING.

FOR ASSURED FAITH IN CHRIST, AND THE REVEALING

OF HIS GLORY.

O Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, without whom not a sparrow can fall to the ground, and by whom the very hairs of our head are numbered, we worship together at thy footstool. Thou knowest all things that we have need of before we ask, and yet thou invitest us to make our requests known unto thee, in every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, and so to be free from all care and full of peace: receive these our prayers through Jesus Christ.

Our faith is weak, our affections are grovelling and selfish, our souls cleave to the dust. Often we are ready to doubt if it be possible we can belong to thy people, or be numbered with thy chosen. When in the world we testify not as we should against it that its deeds are evil; we are too often conformed to this world, rather than transformed by the renewing of our mind. O Lord, make thy work in us clear and manifest to our own souls, by thine abounding grace teaching us to do righteousness and not commit sin. Look thou upon us as thou usest to do