salvation; that in all my words and deeds I may seek Thy glory, and the increase of Thy Kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ON SUNDAY EVENING.

Grant, I beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the words, which I have heard this day with my outward ears, may through Thy grace be so grafted inwardly in my heart, that they may bring forth in me the fruit of good living, to the honour and praise of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On Wednesday; the day on which our Lord was betrayed.

Almighty God, I beseech Thee graciously to behold this Thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the Cross, Who now liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

On Thursday; the day of His Ascension.

Grant, I beseech Thee, Almighty God, that like as I do believe Thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the Heavens; so I may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

On Friday; the day of His death.

Almighty and everlasting God, Who, of Thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent Thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon Him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the Cross, that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility; Mercifully grant, that I may both follow the example of His patience, and also be made partaker of His Resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On Saturday; when He lay in the grave.

Grant, O Lord, that as I am baptized into the death of Thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying my corrupt affections I may be buried with Him; and that through the grave, and gate of death, I may pass to my joyful resurrection, for His merits, Who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

OF THE NEED

OF

DAILY SELF-EXAMINATION.

"I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies; I made haste and delayed not to keep Thy commandments." Ps. cxix. 59, 60. Such is the history of almost all solid conversion. The great destroyer of the souls of men, which throughout the whole world is so widely wasting, is not so much wilful, deliberate sin, as thoughtlessness. Ripened sinfulness alone is deliberate, with forethought. Most sinners are plunged into sin unawares. Even habitual sinners are 66 taken," as they say, again and again. They are walking at random, with no guard over their senses, no heed to their companions, not looking to their steps, and sin comes upon them, and, ere they know it, has the mastery over them. They flee not occasions of sin; trust themselves very near it; Satan, unseen, drives them on; the place whereon they stand is slippery; they fall in. They know not themselves, nor the strength of

over

66

temptation, nor the deceitfulness of Satan, nor their own weakness, nor the strength and help of God; and, while they think they stand, they are fallen. The last act is very seldom in a person's own power. No one, hardly, purposes to be drunken; few in their first fall, perhaps for many, mean to be wholly impure. And yet any one would say that it was a very miracle of Grace, if one, on the verge of deadly sin, were stopped and saved. And so, in His mercy, lest, with Dives, we should awake too late in torments, God breaks in upon our dream, and the first step in turning back to Him, is that He turns men back into themselves. "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies." Before this, then, he had not thought on them. 'My ways;" there are, then, divers ways, ways which are not right, ways which are "clean in a man's own eyes," but not in His who trieth the heart; ways which "seem right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death;" a broad, easy way, whereat, our Blessed Lord warns us, many go in, but it "leadeth to destruction." And so this man of God, lest he should be on some of these evil ways, took account of his ways; and well was it, and of the Grace of God, for he adds, "and I turned my feet unto Thy testimonies." Before, then, they were not so turned. He speaks not only of striking nearer and closer into the very centre of the narrow way, lest, if we remain on its edge, we slip unperceived out of it; but of being altogether out of the way. "I turned," (it is the very same word as "conversion" or 66 turning unto the