2. Prayer and Thanksgiving for Victory. 5. For a Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. 6. For the Revival of Religion. 9. For Absent Families. 17. On Deliverance from Enemies. 18. For those Exposed to Danger. 19. During our present National Troubles. 20. To be used in Ships of War. 21. Sailor's Prayer. 22. During a Storm. 23. Thanksgiving after a Storm. 24. For a Sick Person. 25. After Sudden Visitation. 26. For Close of any Service. 27. The Creed. 28. Gloria in Excelsis. 29. The Ten Commandments. SELECTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 1. For a Day of Thanksgiving. 2. For a Day of Humiliation. 3. For Victory. 4. For Repulse. 5. For Funerals. 6. For Peace. SOCIAL PRAYERS. GENERAL. No. I. For the Sabbath Day. ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we thank thee for another Sabbath, which commemorates the finished works of creation and redemption. May we be enabled to rejoice and be glad in it, as the best of days, and the emblem and foretaste of that glorious rest which remains for the people of God. Though away from home, and far from the sanctuaries, may this Sabbath be made to each of our hearts a day of spiritual improvement, heavenly consolation, and near communion with thee, who art the Lord of the Sabbath. Separated from friends, and gathered together in this desert place, may we feel as did thy disciples when apart with thee in prayer. Be thou our Sanctuary. Make this solitary place a Bethel, none other than the house of God, and the very gate of Heaven. May our hearts be made to burn within us, and to exclaim, surely God is in this place, though we knew it not to bless us, and to do us good. Draw our hearts to thee. Draw them away from the vanities and vexations of this world. Excite within us spiritual hunger and thirst. Feed our souls with the bread of Heaven, and give us that living water, of which, if any man drink, he will never thirst any more. O satisfy us with thy mercy, so shall we rejoice, and be glad, all the days of our lives. May we find rest in thee from all sin, sorrow, and sadness. Give us, O Lord, rest from our enemies who have come up against us, and wrongfully persecute and oppress us. Let no rude alarms of raging foes disturb our peaceful rest this day. Restrain their wrath, and make it to praise thee. But if compelled to fight, gird us with strength for battle, and enable us to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to our fathers. Go up with us. Be thou the captain of our hosts, our leader, and commander. Help us and fight for us. O thou who art a God of Battles, and a man of war, with whom it is nothing to help, whether with many or with few, them that have no power, send us not up against this great multitude unless thou go up with us, for how will it be known that we are thy people unless thou go up with us. O God, who art our fathers' God, we rest on thee; and in thy name as a just God, and the avenger of the oppressed, we will go up against them. Let us not be dismayed or terrified because our enemies are lively and strong. Put them in fear, O God. Make them flee before us. Ride thou upon the whirlwind, and direct the storm of battle. May we live to praise thy great and glorious name, who hast gotten for us the victory, and triumphed gloriously. With thy law and testimony before us, we appeal for the righteousness of our cause to thee, the Lord God omnipotent, who reignest with power supreme over all kingdoms and governments. Unto thee, O Lord, who didst give to our fathers, and to us by inheritance, the Southern land, and didst bring among us the heathen to be our servants, for good to them, and to the world, and for glory to thine own great name, unto thee do we now fly for protection from cruel and unjust men, who seek to disinherit and destroy us. Arise, O Lord, in thine anger. Plead thou our cause. and awake for us to the judgment thou hast commanded. Judge us, O Lord, and plead our cause against an ungodly, merciless, and perfidious nation, and grant that, being delivered from all connection with them, and dependent on thee alone, we may become a united and happy people, whose God is the Lord. And now, O our Saviour, who didst on this day ascend far above all heavens, there to reign highly exalted above every name, until thou hast put all thine enemies under thy feet, come and reign in our hearts and minds. Set up within us thy kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Restore peace to our bleeding land. Revive thy people who are scattered abroad everywhere. Reunite congregations and households. Restore commerce and agriculture, and may the earth again yield her increase, and the abundance of the sea bring prosperity. May our colleges again become the seminaries of learning, the fountains of wisdom, and the nurseries of pious and patriotic citizens, and of faithful and zealous ministers of the everlasting gospel; and may order, harmony, and peace be effectually and permanently restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, universally prevail. Hear us, O Christ, in these our prayers, which we offer unto God in thy name, and help us by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, to call upon God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as thou hast taught, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our heavenly Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all, now, henceforth, and for evermore. Amen. No. II. ALMIGHTY, everlasting, and ever blessed God, who for thine own glory made us of dust and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and didst illumine our minds with the inspiration of understanding, that we might serve thee always; permit us now to worship thee. We confess that we are sinners, and break thy laws every day in thought, word, and action. We confess that because of these sins we deserve to be cast into hell, and to endure thine anger for ever. We confess that we are dead in sin, and cannot save ourselves from thy righteous condemnation and everlasting death, since no sorrow for sin can satisfy thy justice, and even our best works are so mixed with sin as to demand punishment. We thank thee, therefore, O most merciful God, that thou hast devised a way to save sinners, through Jesus, thine only begotten Son, the Saviour of mankind. We bless thee that Christ became a man, kept thy law, and died on the cross for us; that he rose again from the dead, and ever liveth at thy right hand, to plead for us in heaven; to give repentance and remission of sins; and to send the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, to convince, convert, and regenerate our hearts, and to help our infirmities by teaching us how to pray, to believe, and to repent, and by working in us to will and to do according to thy good pleasure. We bless thee that, when we could not obey thy law on account of sin, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. We bless thee that salvation is thy GIFT, freely offered to all men; and that thy Holy Spirit, as a Spirit of wisdom, and of power, is bestowed upon all who ask it in sincerity. Grant, O God, we beseech thee, that Holy Spirit unto us now, who are in circumstances of peculiar danger and temptation, to enable us to seek and to obtain the salvation of our souls; to accept thine offered mercy and thy gracious promises; to believe in Jesus Christ as set before us in thy glorious gospel; to come unto Him and find rest; so that we may take up our cross and follow Him, and never be ashamed to confess him before men, but may rather glory in his cross, and find his burden light, and his ways pleasantness and peace. Enable us to be frequent in prayer, and to offer up continually unto God the wishes of our hearts, casting all our cares and burdens upon thee, and ever looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for grace and mercy to help us according to our need. Give us saving faith, inspiring hope, courageous confidence, and that love of Christ which will cast out all fear. Give us that true repentance which will make us forsake sin and dread to offend thee, our most merciful Father; or to dishonor Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour; or to grieve the Holy Spirit, our guide and guardian. Bestow upon us while living grace to prepare for dying, and for that judgment which is after death, that so, dying daily unto the world, our hearts may live in heaven, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Preserve us from the fear of man and from the power of our enemies. Prevent, if it be possible, the fierce conflict of battle, by making this war to cease, and causing even our enemies to be at peace with us. But if called ever to hazard our lives in bloody strife, teach our fingers to fight and our hands to war. Enable us to put on a manly courage. Imbue our minds with pure and lofty patriotism. Clothe us in the whole armor of God. Animate us with a holy boldness and self-sacrificing devotion, that we may contend earnestly and successfully for our wives, our mothers, and our sisters; for our homes and our sanctuaries; and for the blood-bought inheritance of civil and religious liberty bequeathed to us by our fathers. And grant that, if thou so ordainest, we may willingly die; whether we live or die, may we be the Lord's, so that to us to live may be Christ, and to die gain-even an entrance among the righteous who die to live; whose departing spirits are with Christ in paradise; and whose bodies shall come forth from the grave and ascend, with Christ, into heaven, to reign with him in glory through a blessed immortality. And now, O God, our heavenly Father! as we deserve nothing of ourselves, we beseech thee to answer these our prayers for Christ's sake. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, etc.* The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.* No. III. O GOD, who art a Spirit infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; we worship and adore thee. Thou art everywhere present. Thou art able to do whatsoever thou pleasest, and thou knowest all things. Our hearts are naked and open before thee, with all their sins and sorrows. Blessed be thy name, that while enthroned in majesty thou delightest in mercy; and that while thy glory is proclaimed by the heavens, and the earth, and all things thou hast made, thy tender mercies are over all thine other works. We now approach thee as a God who is love; as the Lord God merciful and gracious; as the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; as in Christ reconciling sinners unto thyself; forgiving iniquity and blotting out transgression, and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto thee and find grace and mercy to help them. Enable us to draw nigh in faith, and with a holy boldness through Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life; the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, and who ever liveth, as our advocate with the Father, to make intercession for us. O God, we are sinners before thee. We are guilty in thy sight. We are helpless and hopeless. We are without strength to save ourselves, and we are without excuse. We plead no merits of our own, for we have nothing of our own but our unbelief, ungodliness, and ingratitude toward Thee, in whom we live and move, and have our being. O God, wert thou to enter into judgment with us we could not stand in thy sight. But, O our justly *Repeat as found in No. I. |