our loins be girt, and our lights burning, and our souls waiting and watching for thy appearing, O blessed Jesus, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and evermore.

CXXVII.

THE LAST LORD'S DAY OF THE YEAR.

MORNING PRAYER.

O ever-living God, which is, which was, which is to come, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. O Lord, thou shalt endure for ever, and thy remembrance unto all generations, and blessed be the Lord our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from everlasting to everlasting.

O Lord, we thy frail creatures, whose life is as a vapour, whose years pass away as a tale that is told, who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth, fly to thee the eternal God as our refuge. O support and sustain us by thine everlasting arms, and give unto us eternal life in Christ Jesus our Saviour.

We now confess unto thee the innumerable sins of the past year, all our Sabbath iniquities, and the iniquities of our whole lives. O Lord, how can we look back without being ashamed and confounded for our own ways. We desire now to remember before thee our evil ways and our doings that were

not good, and to loathe ourselves in our own sight for our iniquities and for our abominations. Enable us to look back on all the way thou hast led us these many years in this wilderness-world, to humble us, and prove us, and teach us what is in our own hearts. O Lord, we find more and more that our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and that all evil proceeds out of them, and there is no good thing in them.

Create then in us a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from us. May we learn in all our sinfulness and weakness, corruption and depravity, more of the grace and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we learn wholly to renounce all hopes in any righteousness of our own, and to boast only in thee, all the day long, and to praise thy name for ever and ever. May we see that all our righteousness and strength is in the Lord, and that his grace is all-sufficient for us.

And while earthly Sabbaths are passing away, and we lose one after another; may our souls in them, and through them, be ripened for keeping that eternal Sabbath which thou hast promised to thy people. May even our most humbling experience of our corruption, through the mighty energy of thy Spirit, in overcoming evil with good, and bringing good out of evil, produce in us poverty of spirit, contrition for sin, strong faith, ardent love and more en

tire devotedness to our divine Redeemer. Thus may our infirmities themselves magnify thy power and grace, and all things work together to make us vessels of mercy meet for the Master's use.

Nor let this last Sabbath of the year pass without a gracious revival and refreshing from thy presence, and fresh, and more fixed, and more successful purposes of heart to walk in newness of life; and to give up ourselves, and all we are and have wholly to thee.

We ask for the same blessing for all our brethren in the Lord, in our own congregation, and in all the churches of Christ through the wide world. O let thy gracious purposes of love and all thy long suffering and forbearance with the sinful sons of men, save multitudes from perishing, and bring multitudes to repentance, that countless numbers of immortal souls may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

CXXVIII.

EVENING PRAYER.

O Lord our God who hast made the Sabbath for man, and given it to be a sign between us and thee, that we might know that thou art the Lord our God who sanctifieth us, we bless thee for all the vast mercies and privileges of our Christian Sabbaths, during the past year. We thank thee for all the instruction received in them, for all thy holy ordinances, the

light of thy word, the preaching of thy ministers, and the abundant means of grace which we have enjoyed. Thou hast greatly exalted us in religious privileges and spiritual advantages. Mighty works thou hast done for us in this favoured country, and we bless together, and we magnify together thy loving-kindness.

But, Lord, we mournfully acknowledge that we have not rendered again unto thee according to thy goodness. We have as a nation greatly abused thy kindness, and misused our many advantages, and profaned thy day and thy name. We have as a family walked unworthy of our high calling, and have been too much like the unfruitful tree, barren year after year, and only cumbering the ground. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

Lord, vouchsafe unto us in the review of the past, a far more lively gratitude for all the proofs and tokens of thy goodness towards us, and a far more humble and penitent and contrite heart under the deep sense of our own inconsistency, unfruitfulness, and unworthy returns unto thee. Give us full purposes of heart to cleave more closely unto the Lord our God, hereafter; to honour and sanctify the Sabbath more, and to give it up more strictly and entirely to its sacred duties.

Impress upon our minds, O gracious God, the lessons of this day; the shortness of time, the near

ness of judgment to come, the unspeakable importance of thy favour, the inestimable value of our never-dying souls, and the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, so that we may count all but loss to win Christ and to be found in him. O let us not seek earthly treasure, but strive to gain heavenly riches. Let us not call evil good, and good evil; but do thou purge our understanding, and give us to see that thy will is altogether good, and teach us to delight in doing it.

To thee we commit all that is now before us another year. How little can we discern what is coming to pass! but help us to confide in thee, and to see that every sorrow, sickness, and trial is guided by infinite wisdom and love. O may the fruit of all thy providential dealing be abundant in righteousness and joyful conformity to thy will.

Bless every member of this household. We thank thee for the love which from eternity provided so many temporal and spiritual comforts for us: for the ties of Christian affection, and the bonds of holy love which unite us as one family here below; and for the blessed hope of being eternally united in thy kingdom of glory, near at hand and yet to come.

Bless the people of this place. Let not thy preached word return unto thee void. Bless all the secret meditations, and the social intercourse of thy people here. May the poor be rich in faith, and the