they save themselves from this generation. May they learn to hate the world. May they vanquish their last prejudices. Thou canst unscale the blindest eye. Thou canst dissolve the hardest heart. Thine must be the work. the God of our praise! Thou shalt be We pray that the word of the Lord may have free course, run, and be glorified. Maintain and increase our churches. May their pastors be stars in Thy right hand. Nor would we be unmindful of missionaries, their settlements and converts. Let Thy most manifest favour smile upon them. Drive not out the heathen before them, but draw all men, O Saviour, to Thyself. Thus shall these Thy devoted servants, Thine Elect, long enjoy the work of their hands. Impress, O God, more seriously upon our minds the hastening scenes of our mortality. Our life is a shadow, and the shadow declineth. The hand-writing of death is in us. May that event be welcome to us. May we have a desire to depart. And as to the circumstance of death, its issues being assured, may we have no apprehension. May it be but the folding back of a curtain, the overstepping of a rill! May we now rest in security and sleep in peace. May we feel as though the darkness were but the shadow of Thy wings. Direct, if ours be conscious dreams, our thoughts, no longer under our control, to what is good and holy and may the earliest awakenings of reason and feeling be altogether Thine! We make known our requests and offer our praises, in the Name and for the sake, of Jesus Christ our Lord! We would now perform our solemn act of adoration to the Great God, even our Saviour! Father! Son! and Spirit! the One in Three! the Three in One! "The grace of our Lord," &c. SATURDAY MORNING. THERE is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, the God of all his people, their God in every place! Unrestricted, boundless, is Thy love. Who in the heavens can be compared to Thee, or who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto our God! There is no searching of thine understanding, but it sets its thoughts upon Thy children. Thy power is omnipotent, but it shows itself strong upon their behalf. Thy love and pity Thou didst redeem them. Thou dost still bear and carry them as of old. In their affliction Thou art afflicted, and the angel of Thy presence saves them. Thou knowest them In who are Thine. There is none greater than Thou, and none shall pluck them out of Thy hand. Oh may we thus be taken out of the nations and be chosen may we thus be called, justified, and glorified! How can we be just with God? We own ourselves guilty before Thee. If Thy holiest servants have bewailed their transgressions of heart, how should we grovel to the very dust. How have our offences multiplied against Thee! How have iniquities prevailed against us! often have we dreadly asked ourselves, is there knowledge in the Most High? Dost thou keep a book of remembrance? Dost thou know us altogether? Dost thou set our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance ? Wilt Thou call us into judgment with Thee? Then is it, when only we can remember our vileness, that we exclaim, -Depart from us, for we are sinful men, O Lord! But to whom shall we go but unto Thee? Who can tell if Thou wilt repent and leave a blessing behind Thee? Oh we appear before Thee, assured that there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou wilt have mercy on us, that Thou wilt abundantly pardon! ness is brought in. The everlasting The everlasting righteous The Lamb is slain. The Propitiatory is established. We plead these merits as those by which we can be only jus tified. May we rest upon them. May it be given to us on the behalf of Christ to believe on His name. Be it ours to realize the sweet peace with which only He can soothe the ruffled spirit, may He take each soul before him, like the wearied dove, into His ark. write. Another page of mercy have we trouble. New claims dost Thou prefer on our gratitude. We might have been only born to Our soul might have forgotten prosperity. Tears might have been our drink day and night. Our life might have been bitter to us. Days and years might have come of which we should have said, we have no pleasure in them. We have food and raiment, shelter and home. The eye of affection turns on us, and for us wakes up the smile of love. Thy candle shineth on our tabernacle! And then too what truths and hopes revive with our memory! Thou hast given us Thine only begotten Son. Thou, who canst not lie, hast promised us eternal life. Thou dost cause to flow downward upon this earth strong consolation. We assemble as a Christian family. Our Father is in heaven. The first-born among many brethren is Lord over us. Thy statutes are with us, and there is hope concerning our end. Must we not exclaim, In this is manifest the love of God toward us! Cold and unfeeling are our hearts, if such recollections do not move them. May these our domestic offices of piety be accounted by us to be our most solemn duties, and our most distinguished comforts. Let them never find us in a state of mind indifferent to them, and averse to repeat them. Can we too often speak of Thy faithfulness, and talk of Thy wonderful works? Shall we feel it a strange thing to confess our obligations to Thee? Shall we, like the beasts around us, partake Thy bounty with unreasoning minds and thankless hearts? Give to us Thy Holy Spirit to overcome the ungodliness of our hearts. May His Fire, and the Incense of Jesus, be ever burning on our altar. Direct and sanctify us in the active business of this day. Preserve us from that selfishness, which however it takes a more flattering name, is abhorrent to Thee. Let no malevolent feeling, no pining envy, no sudden anger, violate the law of love. Suffer not a temper of sloth in us, nor let us dare to reserve to ourselves an idle moment. Let not worldlymindedness be substituted for that diligence which is commendable and necessary. Let our gain be sanctified to Thee. Let us break into pieces the idol of covetousness. Let God and His cause have our heart, may we do all to Him, may we hold every thing in dependence upon Him, may all acquired influence, all accruing advantage, be laid F |