a strict account unto Thee for all our thoughts, words, and actions. Fit and prepare us for death, and for that awful period, when all the inhabitants of the world, of every tongue and nation under heaven shall stand before Thy dread tribunal. May the termination of another week remind us that our days and weeks are fast disappearing.-Of Thy great mercy we now humbly implore Thee, O Lord, to prevent us now sowing to the flesh. Awaken us now to a true sense of our state, that we may flee to Christ our Saviour. May we seek Thee in Him whilst Thou mayest be found, and obtain Thy pardoning mercy, and Thy sanctifying grace, that we may at last be presented faultless and blameless before Thee, at the glorious appearance of our Lord and Saviour, when He shall come the second time in the clouds of heaven, to judge both the quick and the dead. O grant that the joyful sentence may then be addressed to each of us by Him-come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, before the foundation of the world. Upon this, the last evening of another week, we desire, O Lord, to thank and praise Thee, for all Thy loving-kindness and tender mercy, which Thou hast made to pass before us during this day, and during all our past days and weeks upon the earth. Many sins, O Lord, have we committed against Thee, and against our fel low-men. Before Thee, the Searcher of our hearts, we are verily guilty. Be pleased, for Christ's sake, to have mercy upon us, and to blot out all our sins as a cloud, and our iniquities as a thick cloud. We thank Thee, O Lord, for the means of grace which we so liberally enjoy in this land. Bless to us the reading and study of Thy Holy Word. May we obey Thy commandments, which are pure, and daily grow in grace, as we grow in days and years. Till we are taken out of the world by death, O Lord, keep us from all evil, and sanctify us through Thy truth-Thy Word is truth. Prepare our hearts, O Lord, for the observance of another Sabbath-day. May we take hold of Thy covenant, and keep the Sabbath from polluting it. In Thine infinite mercy, we pray Thee, O Lord, to be merciful to our relations, friends, and neighbours, and do them good, according to their necessities. Supply the wants, both temporal and spiritual, of all Thy creatures. Visit, in Thy great compassion, all those who are in affliction, and comfort them, and be unto them a very present help. Recover the sick, ease the pained, succour the tempted, relieve the oppressed, and support the dying. And now, O Lord, we commit ourselves unto Thee, for time and eternity. Let not our hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. In the world we must have tribulation, but may we be of good cheer-knowing that our blessed Saviour has overcome the world— that he has ascended up on high to prepare a place for His people, and that He will come again to receive them unto Himself, that where he is they may be also. O Lord grant that these prospects and blessings may be ours ;and do Thou mercifully hear in heaven these, our imperfect supplications: and, when Thou hearest, forgive, and answer us, for Christ's sake.-AMEN. Our Father, &c. |