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 22 Prayers and Meditations.

thy holy Spirit, till at last I shall be accepted by Thee, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

��Sept. 18, 1758, hora prima matutina.

Almighty and most merciful Father, who yet sparest and yet supportest me, who supportest me in my weakness, and sparest me in my sins, and hast now granted to me to begin another year, enable me to improve the time which is yet before me, to thy glory and my own Salvation. Impress upon my Soul such repentance of the days rnispent in idleness and folly, that I may henceforward diligently attend to the business of my station in this world x, and to all the duties which thou hast commanded. Let thy Holy Spirit comfort and guide me that in my passage through the pains or pleasures of the present state, I may never be tempted to forgetfulness of Thee. Let my life be useful, and my death be happy 2 ; let me live according to thy laws, and dye with just confidence in thy mercy for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This year I hope to learn diligence 3.

39.

Jan. 23, 1759.

The day on which my dear Mother was buried. Repeated on

my fast, with the addition 4.

Almighty God, merciful Father, in whose hands are life and death, sanctify unto me the sorrow which I now feel. Forgive me whatever I have done unkindly to my Mother, and whatever I have omitted to do kindly. Make me to remember her good precepts, and good example, and to reform my life according to

1 At first he had written : ' the It is a striking illustration of the duties which thou shalt assign me, way in which different generations and to the duties by which.' overlap each other that Jeremy Ben-

2 At first he had written ' useful.' tham's mother died about a fortnight

3 This line is quoted in the Life, before Johnson's mother. Bentham's i. 331. Works, x. 26. Mrs. Johnson was

4 For the death of his mother see born nine years after the Restora- Ltfe, i. 339, and Letters, i. 75-81. tion, and Bentham died the day The fast was held on March 24, as before the first Reform Bill was the next entry shows. carried.

thy

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