Page:The Book of Family Worship.pdf/272



GRACIOUS Lord, our heavenly Father, with the returning light comes the returning duty of praise, thankegiving, and prayer. We praise Thee for Thine ever-present love: we thank Thee for the blessings daily, hourly, and momently bestowed upon us; and we now kneel before Thee and offer our supplications that we may be rightly directed through the day, and that our passions, feelings, and intellect may be subjected to the regulating power of Thy Word.

Thou art the good Shepherd, and unto Thee alone do we look for help. Aid us, by learning the true meaning of the representative symbols assumed by Thee, to keep our hearts with all diligence; to order our feet, that none of our steps may slide, and to bow down our inner man to the government of Thy love and wisdom. Thou who hast represented Thyself in the qualities of a lion and a lamb, the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," the "Lamb once slain," assist us so to blend these qualities in our souls that pure evangelical religion may be restored, and that, in imitating Thee, there may be peace established between the warring elements of strife and passion which have so long alienated our hearts from Thee, their rightful sovereign; O bring about the glorious period, when righteousness shall be the girdle of our loins, and faithfulness the girdle of our reins: when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid, the calf, the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Amen.

Our Father, etc.

WEDNESDAY EVENING. LORD Almighty, the God of the universe of worlds, how small in the scale of cxistence, how limited and imperfect a creature, is man; and yet Thou hast created him in Thine own image, after Thy likeness, and hast so endowed him that he can increase in knowledge and wisdom even to all eternity, and though Thou art high above all the heavens. Thou still condescendest to the loweat estate of Thy creatures.

O Lord, permit this family to approach Thee, and so prepare our minds for coming into Thy immediate presence, that, while acknowledging our own weakness, we may at the same time be deeply impressed with reverence for Thine infinite perfections, and may wo humbie ourselves so -ng to receiva with meckness the communications of Thy love and trath. Assist us to subdue the pride of self, and to renounce all ideas of our own righteousness. May aremembrance that without Thee we can do nothing keep us meek and lowly; but may the high destiny for which we are created, impel us constantly to raise our affections and thoughts to Thee, that our conversation may be in heaven, and that our chief desire may be to prepare for ite more perfect enjoyments. Amen.

Our Father, ete.

GOD! whose providence, ever bounteous, ever watchful, suffers nothing however trivial to escape Thy notice; assist us so to submit ourselves to Thy directing wisdom, that whatever may happen unto us, we may learn