Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

PRAYER.

O Lord our God how great is thy loving-kindness! O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee! As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so art thou ever round about them that fear thee and confess thy name before the children of men! We lift up our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help! Our help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth.

Family response. For the Lord is good, blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Once more we acknowledge thy care! He who keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep! Again hast thou preserved us from all evil and redeemed our lives from destruction; how wondrous is the change that has passed over us since we last met to worship at thy throne of grace; from a state of fatigue we have passed into one of vigour; from lassitude into strength; and from feebleness into power; so tenderly and so constantly dost thou, our Father, care for us, thy feeble and dependent children.

Family response. The living, the living shall praise thee, as we do this day.

Thou hast brought us to the last day of another week of toil; we acknowledge thy hand in the different kinds of labour that belong to our lot; we bless thee for willingness and ability to labour from morning until evening; we thank thee that in all labour there

is profit, and that our labour has not been wholly in vain; we thank thee that thou hast helped us in the needful work of our hands and of our minds; we thank thee that though often amidst the trials of life we have been cast down, we have never been destroyed; and that in many seasons when all was dark and drear thou hast been our refuge and strength, and our present help in the time of trouble.

Family response. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted and thou didst deliver them.

We beseech thee to bless all those who have done us kindness in the hour of need; thou hast often raised up friends that have been as angels of God to us; our daily cares have been lightened, and our daily mercies multiplied through the tenderness and sympathy of those who have not hidden themselves from their own flesh; receive our thanksgivings for these thy instruments we beseech thee; let each place in our pilgrimage, where on our stone of help we have written Ebenezer, be remembered by us as a prophecy of the future, for thou redeemest the soul of thy servants, and none of them that trust in thee shall be desolate.

Family response. The Lord is our strength and our song, and he is become our salvation.

And now this day we again implore the help that has never failed us; assist us wisely to close the business of the week; may integrity and uprightness preserve us in all our ways; remove from us the way

E

of lying and let not the foot of pride come up against us; may the thought of the morrow's rest be a pleasant and a helping thought to our minds; save us from every thing that would unfit us to enjoy or to improve it; so that it may dawn upon us in a calm and Christian state of mind.

Family response.

O Lord.

We beseech thee to hear us,

And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all for evermore.

Amen.

For Saturday Evening.

SCRIPTURE.

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that

the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Come ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

HYMN.

Lord, teach us how to pray aright,
With reverence and with fear;
Though dust and ashes in thy sight
We may, we must draw near.

We perish if we cease from prayer.
O, grant us power to pray :
And when to meet thee we prepare,
Lord meet us by the way.

E 2

God of all grace! we come to thee,
With broken, contrite hearts.

Give, what thine eye delights to see,
Truth in the inward parts.

Faith in the only sacrifice

That can for sin atone;

To cast our hopes, to fix our eyes,
On Christ, on Christ alone ;-

Give these, and then thy will be done;
Thus strengthened with all might,

We, by thy spirit, through thy Son,
Shall pray, and pray aright.

PRAYER.

O Lord our God, thy words are good and they do good to them that are upright in heart; once more we come to thee with the memory of thy words we have just read fresh upon us: we set to our seal that God is true; the experience of thy servant David has been our experience; and at the close of another day and of another week we would magnify thy name, and exalt thee together.

« НазадПродовжити »