Page:The Book of Family Worship.pdf/368

 While we thus pray for ourselves we would not be unmindful of our brethren. O that the dispensations of Thy providence may reach the perverse and rebellious, and fill them with obedience unteo Thee. Strengthen Thou the weak; comfort Thou the afflicted; heal Thou the diseased; and may all the families of the earth be ultimately brought to acknowledge that the Lord is good and doeth good, and His mercy endureth for ever. Amen.

Our Father, etc.

HE secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him: if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

How wonderful is the wisdom which penetrates into all the secret intentions and purposes of the soul! How infinite in knowledge must that wisdom be which so framed the commandntents as to include every species of vice into which frail and erring man might fall! which sees not only the more flagrant evils which hardened depravity may openly indulge in, but penetrates those more specious evils which clothe themselves in the appearance of good, and which, like Satan, enwraps itself apparently in the drapery of an angel of light, imagining that because it can deceive men, it can also prevent the eye of Thee from beholding its true character.

O God of truth, prevent us, we bescech Thee, from falling into this dreadful state. How can we know what is passing in the inmost recesses of our brother's heart? How can we know in what his actions originate? Ignorant as we are, how can we presume to judge? Never may we speak a word which may prejudice our brother in the estimation of another. Never may we use dark insinuations, or lead others to infer that there is in our brother some evil which is of so deadly a character that it is too frightful even to mention. We have seen this done, and we cannot say we are wholly free from sin. But O Lord most merciful, O God most righteous, preserve us from every species of evil speaking and false witness, and rather let us suffer ourselves than be the cause of others unjustly suffering. In all things may we stand in awe and sin not, and may our actions be as upright as the truth is perfect. Amen.

Our Father, etc.

LORD our heavenly Father, we desire to confess that we are altogether unworthy of Thy divine goodness. Many thoughts press themselves on our remembrance which have tended to evil rather than to good; and though we may not have uttered words which slander others, we cannot say our thoughts have been altogether free from it. Nor have we discriminated accurately between good and evil, but both alike have been subjected to our censnre; O who can understand his errors? Lord, we pray Thee, cleanse us from secret faults, and if this day we have been preserved from falling into grievous evils, may we ascribe the praise to Thy goodness, rather than be lifted up by high ideas of our own righteousness.