cause, and a great High Priest over the house of God, to introduce our persons and our services.

May we therefore draw near in full assurance of faith, believing that all things are now ready; that we are as welcome as we are needy; and that the blessings we implore are as gracious as they are needful. Yea Thou delightest in mercy, and hast not only permitted, but commanded us to ask and receive that our joy may be full. O let us not refuse to be comforted; let us not reject the counsel of God against ourselves. Suffer us not, after provoking Thee by our rebellion, to offend Thee still more by our unbelief. May we honor thy goodness by our confidence in thy veracity, and come and take of the water of life freely. May we wait for no qualifications to entitle us to those provisions which must be bought without money and without price: but we may come as we are— guilty TO BE justified, unholy TO BE renewed, blind TO BE enlightened, weak TO BE strengthened, and indigent TO BE relieved and enriched. As Thou art presenting to us, in the offers of the gospel, thy unspeakable gift, may we receive Christ Jesus the Lord. May we receive Him immediately without delay, cordially without reluctance, and impartially without exception; feeling our need of, and acquiescing in all his offices, relations, influences, and blessings.

As Thou art well pleased IN thy beloved Son, may it appear that we are well pleased WITH Him. May we love his salvation, and glory in his cross; may we admire his character, and pant after his likeness. May we judge of our union with Him, by our being new creatures; and of our freedom from all condemnation, by our walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit. May we try our principles by our practice, and our faith by our works. May the origin and certainty of our hope appear in its tendency;

may it purify us from sin, wean us from the world, and cause us to live with our conversation in heaven.

Blessed with a well founded persuasion that when He who is our life shall appear, we shall also appear with Him in glory, may we bear with patience the trials attached to this present time, and weep as if we wept not. And knowing our obligation to thy grace, which has delivered our souls from the lowest hell, and is infallibly conducting us to such a vastness of felicity, may we be principally concerned to walk before the Lord in the land of the living, and to show forth all his praise. Whether therefore we eat or drink, or whatever we do, may we do all to the glory of God.

But we cannot trust in our own hearts: we dare not rely upon our convictions and purposes-they have often betrayed us. We can only serve Thee in thy own strength. We can walk no further than Thou leadest us; we can stand no longer than Thou holdest us. We therefore renounce self-dependence; and desire to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Let thy grace be sufficient for us in the duties and events of the day into which we have entered. May we abide with God in our respective callings. Whether we are alone, or in company, may we be anxious to gain good, and to do good. May we be serious without gloom, and cheerful without levity, and use the world as not abusing it.

And now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, bet glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and Amen.

ever.

FRIDAY EVENING.

O GOD; the day is thine; the night also is thine. Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. The heavens declare thy glory; the earth is ful of thy riches, and so is the great and wide sea. Thou art the maker, and sustainer, and proprietor of all things. We are the creatures of thy power, and the beneficiaries of thy bounty. But we have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and are not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of the truth which Thou hast showed us. We are of those that rebel against the light; for we have resisted the dictates of our consciences; the demands of thy law; the admonitions of thy providence; and the calls of the gospel of peace. We have made light of those things which angels desire to look into; we have neglected thy great salvation; and we deserve that thy wrath should come upon us as the children of disobedience. Yet we are in the land of the living and under a dispensation of hope. We flee for refuge to that dear Savior

who said, Deliver from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom; and who himself bore our sin in his own body on the tree. O that we may be found in Him, and know the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. May we not only be justified by his blood and saved from wrath through Him; but may we derive from Him an influence that shall subdue our iniquities, and change us into his own image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord

Deliver us, we pray Thee, from the views and dispositions of men of the world who have their portion in this life. May we never look for that on earth, which can on ly be found in heaven. Born from above and bound for glory, may we feel the heart of a stranger and pass the

time of our sojourning here in fear. Reminded, and O how often are we reminded!—that here we have no continuing city, may we seek one to come; and in all the changing scenes of time, know in ourselves that in heaven we have a better and an enduring substance.

In our journeyings through a vale of tears, cast us not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from us. Be Thou always within sight or within callfor how often shall we have to address Thee! To thy wisdom we must repair for direction, or we shall every moment go astray. Thy power is our only safety. O Thou that savest by thy right hand them that put their trust in Thee, from those that rise up against them, keep us as the apple of thine eye, and hide us under the shadow of thy wing. Be Thou our strength in weakness and our victory in conflict. We dare not say, we never WILL deny Thee-but O grant that we never may. Establish our hearts with grace, and deliver our feet from falling; and we be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ. These are great blessings for us to ask-but we are undone forever without them-and Thou hast encouraged us to hope. We plead thy command and thy promise'Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.' No suppliant, however unworthy or guilty, was ever rejected or insulted at thy footstool. And we come in the name of Him who made intercession for the transgressors. Him Thou hearest always—and to Him, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be praises forever and ever. Amen.

may

O GOD, Thou art great and greatly to be feared. And Thou art also merciful and gracious; long-suffering and

abundant in goodness and in truth. May we so feel our sinfulness as to be humbled in the dust before Thee, and filled with self-condemnation and self-despair; but let us not shrink back from thy presence, and be afraid to place our faith and hope in the God of love. Help us to remember, that if we have no claim on the footing of desert, we can plead thy promise and invitation; and that if the blessings we want are infinitely great, they are dispensed as gifts whose freeness delights in the unworthiness of the receiver.

We therefore would neither deny nor palliate our guilt. We know there is evil enough in one sin to plunge us into perdition; but our offences are more in number than the sand; and they have been attended with every ag gravation, derivable from light and love, means and mercies. Thou hast called, and we have refused; Thou hast stretched out thy hand, and we have not regarded. How often hast Thou wooed and awed, blessed and chastised us-and yet we refused to return. O Lord, pardon our iniquity, for it is great Let the free gift be of many of fences unto justification of life; and where sin has abounded may grace much more abound.

And as we cannot serve or enjoy Thee unless our nature be changed as well as our state, O save us by the washing of regeneration, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Deliver us from the dominion as well as the curse of sin; and from the love of it as well as the dominion. May we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. May we view holiness as the beauty and the dignity of the soul, and long after greater degrees of conformity to the will and the image of God. May our hope purify us; and our religious comforts stimulate as well as relieve. May we never slumber, and like the pilgrim lose our roll; never sleep, and like Saul be robbed of our spear and our cruse.