Page:The Book of Family Worship.pdf/259

 THIRTY-FOURTH W2EK, 247

hardness of heart, and insensibility to spiritual things be removed, and may we be deeply impressed with @ sense of the responsibility entailed 'apon us, and remember that here we have no abiding city,

Knowing our own weakness and inability, may we feel it a privilege that our affairs aro so wisely ordered by Thy providence, as that all things may work together for good, if we fear Thea and keep Thy commandments. O Lord, bend our wills to Thy will; that at all times we may thankfully exclaim, " Not our wills, but Thine be done."

We desire to thank Thee for the gracions privileges we have thia day enjoyed, and for the supply of all our necessities. We thank Thee for the strength which has brought us throngh the labours aswell as the conflicts of the day. Itisof Thy mercy that we have been upheld. Thou hast redeemed us from the power of our ¢1 ies; Thou hast sustained us in the path of duty; Thou hast multiplied our joys, and diminished our sorrows, and in all things Thou hast shown Thyself unto us as a tender and beneficent Parent. Glory be to Thy holy name. O Lord. Amen.

Our Father, ete.

LORD our Saviour. Thou waitest to be gracious; Thou waitest to bestow upon us Thy goodness and truth. Thy flesh and blood; Thou standest at the door, waiting for admission; but we, thoughtless and apathetic, careless of that which would so richly bless us, we neglect to open the door, to open our affections and thoughts for the bread and the water of life; and as Thou hast endowed us with freedom to choose life or death. Thou canst not force Thy blessings upon us. Instead of praying, "Evermore give us this bread," help us, the rather, that we may pray for an appetite, a desire to possess it; for we are assured that where this appetite exists. Thou art ever near, ever ready to satisfy it. Thine own eternal Word of truth affirms, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." As bodily appetite stimulates us to seek after our daily bread, grant that an internal stimulus may urge us onward in the pursuit of that bread, of which, if we partake, we shall never hunger more. O fill our hungry souls with goodness. Open the interiors of our minds, that we may behold Thee in Thy beneficent act of daily supplying our spiritual wants, and grant that every blessing may bring with it a perception of Thy glorious person, that Thou mayest always be known to us in breaking of bread. Amen.

Our Father, etc.

LORD. Thy Word instructs us, that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." All these vicissitudes, and many others, are but as spiritual lessons unto us, and have a tendency to purify the soul.

The atmosphere above us, the abode of the winds, has mercifully been