PRAYER XXIX.

FROM THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.-Morning. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises, declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life; to the glory of thy holy name.

We

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men. bless thee for our creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world

by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end.

O God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men, that thou wouldst be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal, that it may be so guided and governed by thy good spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are any ways afflicted, or distressedin mind, body, or estate; that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their suf

ferings and an happy issue out of all their afflictions; and thiswe beg for Jesus Christ's sake.

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; defend us in the same with thy mighty power, and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise, when two or three are met together in thy name, to grant their requests; fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be expedient for them, granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

PRAYER XXX.
Morning.

The following is a combination of three prayers of the celebrated Sir William Jones.

Eternal and incomprehensible mind, who, by thy boundless power, before time began, createdst innumerable worlds for thy glory, and innumerable orders of beings for their happiness, which thy in

finite goodness prompted thee to desire, and thy infinite wisdom enabled thee to know; we, thy creatures, vanish into nothing before thy supreme majesty; we hourly feel our weakness; we daily bewail our vices; we continually acknowledge our folly; thee only we adore with awful veneration; thee we thank with the most fervent zeal; thee we praise with astonishment and rapture; to thy power we humbly submit; of thy goodness we devoutly implore protection; on thy wisdom we firmly and cheerfully rely. We do but open our eyes, and instantly we perceive thy divine existence; we do but exert our reason, and in a moment we discover thy divine attributes; but our eyes could not behold thy splendor, nor could our minds comprehend thy divine essence; we see thee only through thy stupendous and all-perfect works; we know thee only by that ray of sacred light which it has pleased thee to reveal. Nevertheless, if creatures too ignorant to conceive and too depraved to pursue the means of their own happiness, may, without presumption, express their wants to their Creator, let us humbly supplicate thee to remove from us that evil which thou hast permitted, for a time, to exist, that the ultimate good of all may be complete, and to secure us from that vice which thou sufferest to spread snares around us, that the triumph of virtue may be more conspicuous. Irra

diate our minds with all useful truth; instil into our hearts a spirit of general benevolence; give understanding to the foolish; meekness to the proud; temperance to the dissolute; fortitude to the feeble hearted; hope to the desponding; faith to the unbelieving; diligence to the slothful; patience to those who are in pain, and thy celestial aid to those who are in danger; comfort the afflicted; relieve the distressed; supply the hungry with salutary food, and the thirsty with a plentiful stream. Impute not our doubts to indifference, nor our slowness of belief to hardness of heart; but be indulgent to our imperfect nature, and supply our imperfections by thy heavenly favor. Whenever we address thee in our retirement from the vanities of the world, if our prayers are foolish, pity us; if presumptuous, pardon us; if acceptable to thee, grant them, all-powerful God, grant them; and, as with our living voice, and with our dying lips, we will express our submission to thy decrees, adore thy providence, and bless thy dispensations, so, in all future states, to which we reverently hope thy goodness will raise us, grant that we may continue praising, admiring, venerating, and worshipping thee more and more, through worlds without number, and ages without end!

Do thou graciously accept our thanks, O thou giver of all good, for having preserved us another