XCIII.

THURSDAY MORNING.

PRAISE FOR ALL THAT JESUS IS AND DOES FOR US.

O Lord God, thou hast said, Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; we would glorify thee by praising thee for all the new mercies of another morning; for life, health, strength, food, clothes, shelter, more mercies than we can count, and most of all for our blessed Saviour. We thank thee that he has taken away our sins, by his death on the cross. We thank thee that he is our Prophet to teach us, that he reveals his truth to babes, and not to the wise and prudent. We thank thee that he is our Priest, and offers up these poor prayers of ours in heaven, and that he is our King, and defends us from our enemies. We thank thee, O Saviour, that thou wast once a poor man like us, and therefore knowest the wants and fears of a poor man.

O Holy Spirit, teach us to love our blessed Saviour more and more every day. May we now, in our daily work, show that we love him, by doing his will. Help us to remember that every thing we do sows seed for eternity; may we this day sow some good seed of faith, hope, and obedience, to spring up unto eternal glory. We commit ourselves to thy Fatherly care and keeping, for our Saviour's sake.

Amen.

XCIV.

THURSDAY EVENING.

CONFESSION,-PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT;— INTERCESSION FOR THE JEWS.

O Lord, another day is passed and gone, and we cannot go to rest till we have praised thee for all its mercies, and asked forgiveness for our many sins. We have done our own will, walked in our own way, and forgotten God, whose eye has been always on us. Our hearts are full of selfishness and unbelief-forgive our sins, for Jesus' sake. O may we not be content with confessing them with our lips; may we learn to be really sorry for them and strive to conquer them.

Thou hast said, if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto our children, much more wilt thou give thy Holy Spirit to them that ask thee; we ask it, O heavenly Father; give it unto us. We are often weighed down with care, we want a Comforter; we are very ignorant, we want a Teacher, to bring all these things to our remembrance. We are weak and sinful, and want to bring forth love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and all the blessed fruits of the Spirit; give us then thy Spirit.

And, O Lord, pour thy Spirit too on thine ancient people Israel; may they look on.Jesus whom they

have pierced, and mourn; bring them back to their own land, that their recovery may be as.life from the dead to the world. O give us the spirit of Jesus, to love and pray for the Jews.

Now take us under thy protection this night; may quiet sleep prepare us for to-morrow's work. We ask every blessing for Jesus' sake.

XCV.

FRIDAY MORNING.

FOR GRACE TO FULFIL EACH OUR OWN DUTY.

O Lord God, we are not of ourselves able so much as to think a good thought; we come therefore unto thee for help and strength for another day's work; for thou hast promised "As our day is so shall our strength be."

Let not our religion be a mere matter of words; may our life be like our prayers. As parents, may we bring up our children for God, and not provoke them by evil tempers, nor spoil them by indulgence; as children, may we obey our parents in the Lord, yielding ready, cheerful honour and obedience; as servants, may we obey our masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but with good-will, doing service as unto the Lord and not

unto men.

May we be diligent in our work, whatever it is, and be just and true in all our dealings. Let us re

member the command, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another;" may we rather suffer present want than break this command, and so wrong our neighbour. And seeing that our God searches the heart, may we do all from a right motive, even for the love of him who died and rose again for us, for his name's sake. Amen.

XCVI.

FRIDAY EVENING.

TO BE TAUGHT TO HATE SIN, FOR THE SUPPLY OF OUR BODILY WANTS.

O Lord God, though baptized in thy name and under solemn promises to keep thy holy will and commandments, at the close of the day, we have to confess how sadly we have broken our resolutions. As parents, we have failed in our duties to our children, and as children, we have not honoured our parents as we should. Our daily work has not been done as it ought to have been done, in the sight of God; we confess we have sinned-Lord, take away all our iniquity, and receive us graciously.

O let us never, because thou art ready to forgive look on sin as a light thing; but may we remember, those sins that we have to-day committed were part of our Saviour's heavy load on the cross; and may we hate sin as his murderer.

And now, Lord, encouraged by thy love, we would

also bring before thee the wants of our bodies, for thou hast taught us to ask for our daily bread; thou dost feed the birds of the air-heavenly Father, suffer not thy children to starve; thou dost give their bright dress to the flowers of the field-clothe us too, O Lord; we come the more boldly unto thee, for thou didst suffer hunger, thirst and nakedness for us, and thou dost know, by thine own experience, the wants of the poor of thy flock.

We leave all then, O Lord, with thee; give us to trust a Father's love, and lay us down in peace and sleep, knowing that thou, Lord, only makest us dwell in safety, for Christ's sake. Amen.

XCVII.

SATURDAY MORNING.

TO BE KEPT FROM TEMPTATION,-PRAYER FOR OUR

COUNTRY.

Almighty God, the King of kings and lord of lords, the High and Holy One, that inhabitest eternity, we thank thee that thou dost bow down thine ear to hear the poor and needy; that when the poor man cries, the Lord hears him.

To thy care we commit ourselves this day; give us all good, preserve us from all evil, especially preserve us and our dear children from the seductions of evil companions, the temptations of drunkenness and excess. Keep us, Lord, for we ourselves are