Page:The Book of Family Worship.pdf/317

 evil. May we be temperate in the use of all Thy blessings. May unholy thoughts and unchaste ideas be checked as they successively arise: when provoked by others, O help us to overcome evil with meekness of wisdom; and grant us Thy continual aid, that we may be just and upright in all our employments; that neither deceit, injustice, nor fraud may exercise dominion over us. We ask this for Thy mercy sake. Amen. Our Father, etc.

SATURDAY EVENING.

ApMIGaTy. Lor@, our heavenly Father, another week has past, and wo humbly implore Thee to help us review the manner in which we have spent it,

'When seasons of refloction, like the present, come upon us, and we are reminded that the fashion of this world passeth away and here we have no abiding city, the necessity of Thy providential superintendence is made manifest unto us, and all the afflicting visitations we suffer do but the more forcibly attest Thy divine love. Whom Thou lovest Thou chastenest, and sconrgest every son whom Thou receivest. And who indeed is there among the gons of men that Thou lovest not? Thou art good to all! Thou lovest all! O God of love and mercy, purify and shangeé our hearts, we beseech Theo.

'© Lord onr heavenly Father, we pray Theo so to influence our affections that we may be raised from the tomb of worldly and sensual desires and awake to newness of life. Help us. Lord, to be more fervent in love to Thee, and to love our neighbonr also with grestor fidelity. Enable us to be true and just in all our dealings, and while we are carefai to provide things honest in the sight of ail men, may we be watchful and strengthen the things which remain. May all uncharitableness, frand, and gnile be removed from us. In a}} our duties may the fear of Thee be before our eyes that we sin not. Amen.

Our Father, ate.

LMIGHTY Lord and Saviour, the Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator of the world, the merciful Father, the unchangeable Friend of Thy people,—we humbly approach Thee under a deep sense of Thy goodness, and desire to commence this Sabbath under the devout acknowledgment of our dependence upon Thee. "We live and move and have our being in Thee," and without Thee we can do nothing.

Who can set forth all the marvellous acts of Thy love, or who can fathom its extreme depths? Thy inmost love is indeed only equalled by Thy divine wisdom; and both, as to their intensity and purity, are past finding out. But we are not left in doubt as to the universality of Thy love, so far as is necessary for our present comfort and future well-being. For when, by transgressing Thy divine command, we fall from the innocence in which we were created, Thou didst not leave us to perish, but the wonder-working power of Thy divine love found out a way whereby thou mightest reconcile us unto Thyself; and