Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

FAMILY PRAYERS.

FIRST WEEK.

SUNDAY MORNING.

O COME, let us worship and fall down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

Yes, O Lord, we are thine; and Thee we are bound to serve. We grieve to think how many of our fellow-creatures live without Thee in the world; and confess with shame, that other lords have had dominion over us: but henceforth by Thee only will we make mention of thy name. We hope Thou hast subdued the insensibility and indifference to wards Thyself, so awfully natural to us; and awakened in us the inquiry, Where is God my maker, that giveth songs in the night? We hope we are disposed to acknowledge Thee in all our ways; but we feel our need of the exercises of devotion. We trust we hold communion with Thee every day; but we find week-days to be worldly days; and our allowed intercourse with secular concerns tends to reduce our heavenly impressions, and to make us forgetful of our work, and our rest. We therefore bless Thee for the return of a day sacred to our souls and eternity;-a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;-in which, by waiting upon Thee, our hearts are enlarged, and our strength is renewed; so that we can mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. O let our minds be withdrawn from the world, as well as our bodies. Let our retirement be devout. Let our meditation be sweet. Let our conversation be edifying. Let our reading be pious. Let our hearing be profitable-and on Thee may we wait all the day!

Afford us the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. None can need thy succours more than we. Thou knowest our infirmities-Let thy strength be made perfect in our weakness. Our duties are far above our own power -Let thy grace be sufficient for us. Our

dangers are numberless, and we are utterly unable to keep ourselves from falling-Hold Thou us up, and we shall be safe. The burdens we feel would press our lives down to the ground-Lay underneath us thine everlasting arms. Fears alarm us; cares corrode us; losses impoverish us; our very affections are the sources of our afflictions; surely man walketh in a vain show, surely we are disquieted in vain: all, all is vanity and vexation of spirit-While in the world we have tribulation, in Thee may we have peace; and in the multitude of our thoughts within us, may thy comforts delight our souls!

Yet O Lord we would remember, that gratitude becomes us much more than complaint. Our afflictions have been light compared with our guilt; and few compared with the sufferings of others. They have all been attended with numberless alleviations; they have all been needful; all founded in a regard to our welfare; all designed to work together for our good. We bless Thee for what is past; and trust Thee for what is future; and cast all our care upon Thee, knowing that Thou carest for us.

Thou hast commanded us to pray for all men, that we may be bound by our very devotions, as we have opportunity, to do good unto all men, especially unto them that are of the household of faith. May we always cherish and display benevolent dispositions towards our dependents; forgiving dispositions towards our enemies; peaceable dispositions towards our neighbours; and candid dispositions towards our fellow Christians. May we be able to say with our Lord and Saviour, Whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother; and pray with Paul, Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity!

May the goings of our God and King be seen this day in every Christian sanctuary. Go with us to thy house, and give testimony to the word of thy grace. May it have free course, and be glorified in the hearts and lives of those that shall hear it. May it enlighten the ignorant; awaken the careless; reclaim the wandering; establish the weak;

11

comfort the feeble-minded; and make ready a people prepared for the Lord!

Remember those who are this day denied our advantages. Be a little sanctuary to them in the midst of their privations; and let them know that Thou art not confined to temples made with hands. And O forget not those who never enjoyed our privileges; never smiled when a sabbath appeared; never heard of the name of a Saviour and let thy way be known on earth, thy saving health among all nations! Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

SUNDAY EVENING.

salvation; and give us as a token for good, that we may rejoice in Thee.

Yet O God, we would not rest satisfied with a conviction of our relation to Thee, while we are regardless of improving it. May we walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to his gracious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. We can never discharge the obligations thy abundant mercy has laid us under: but may we ever show that we are sensible of them; and that our impressed hearts are asking, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? While we hear Thee saying, O do not that abominable thing which I hate, may we be effectually deterred from sin, and induced to watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. May thy love be shed abroad in our hearts, that none of thy commandments may be grievous. May thy glory with impartiality, and conform ourselves to it be dear to us: may we inquire after thy will with diligence. Uphold us by thy free spirit; and let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our re

deemer !

Hitherto we have been compelled to exbeen no better in religion than a bruised reed claim, My leanness, my leanness! We have or smoking flax. But it is our mercy, that and our encouragement, that Thou givest Thou dost not despise the day of small things; fect that which concerneth us; and commore grace; that Thou hast promised to per

WHO is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods! Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? May we approach Thee with the humility which is due to thy greatness, and the hope that becomes thy goodness. For though Thou art high, yet hast Thou respect unto the lowly; and though continually adored by thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, yet Thou despisest not the prayer of the destitute, but wilt hear their prayer. Our fathers cried unto Thee, and were delivered. They trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. And Thou never saidst to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. Behold a company of sinners at thy foot-manded us to ask and receive that our joy stool, earnestly praying to be remembered may be full. May we therefore not only be with the favour Thou bearest unto thy peo-off sloth, but despondency; may we be strong humble, but active; may we not only shake ple, and to be visited with thy salvation! We would not overlook the blessings of the life that now is. If we have food, and raiment, and agreeable connexions, and case, and health, and safe abode, we would bless Thee; for we have no claim to these bounties, and our present condition renders them valuable. But they are not our God;

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor, And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away. -Thou art the strength of our hearts, and our portion for ever. Whom have we in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that we desire beside Thee.

And praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion. We long to be able with unshaken confidence, to apply the promises of thy grace to ourselves; and to say, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. O say to our souls, in language our consciences can understand, I am thy

in the Lord, and in the power of his might; till we are filled with all-the fulness of and increase with all-the increase of God,

God!

Thou knowest what is in man, and what is necessary to him. Thou art not only addressing us continually by the voice of creation, and the varying events of thy providence, but Thou hast given us thy word and thine ordinances. We behold our sabbaths, or eyes see our teachers, and our ears hear the joyful sound of salvation by the cross, and the grace of our Lord Jesus. Prophets and righteous men desired to see the things that we see, and did not see them; and to hear the things that we hear, and did not hear them. But blessed are our eyes, for they see; and our ears, for they hear. Yet we would remember, that our responsibility will be answerable to our talents; that our chief danger results from our greatest privileges; and

MONDAY MORNING.

O THOU God of all grace; the Father of mercies; the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble! Why hast Thou revealed Thyself in such lovely characters and endearing relations, but to meet our dejections, to remove our fears, and induce us to say, It is good for me to draw nigh to God!

We come to Thee as criminals to be pardoned, as beggars to obtain relief, and as friends to enjoy communion with the God of love. We bow with submission and gratitude to the method which Thou hast appointed and made known for all intercourse between Thee and us. We approach Thee through Him in whom Thou hast proclaimed Thyself well pleased, pleading the propitiation of his blood, and making mention of his righteousness, and of his only.

that our very blessings may be converted into a curse. We would therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into thy rest, any of us should seem to come short of it. Bless this family. May those of us who are at the head of it, walk within our house with a perfect heart, and set no wicked thing before our eyes. May we have a testimony in the bosoms of those who have the best opportunities of observing us, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by thy grace, we have our conversation in the world, and more especially to themward. May we conduct ourselves towards those who serve us, as knowing that we have a master in heaven, and that there is no respect of persons with God; and may our servants, in fulfilling the duties of their station, serve the Lord Christ. May we train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and have the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing them walk in the truth. But we can have access to Thee through We ask not great things for them of a worldly Him only-by one Spirit-that Spirit, the nature; only give them health of body and residue of which is with Thee, and which has soundness of mind, and food and raiment actuated the souls of thy people in all ages. convenient and sufficient for them: but OO give thy Holy Spirit to them that now ask bless them with all spiritual blessings, and number them with thy saints in glory everlasting! Pity those parents whose hearts are bleeding over children of disobedience; and hear all the pious, whose irreligious relations are forcing them often to exclaim, How shall I endure to see the destruction of my kindred! Hast not Thou made of one blood all the nations of men that dwell upon the face of all the earth? Remember the work of thy hands. Have respect unto thy holy covenant; and let the world know, that Thou hast so loved it, as to give thy only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

May

Thee! May He open the eyes of our understanding and convince us of sin. May He humble the pride of our self-righteous hearts, and expel us from every refuge of lies. May He glorify Christ in our wants, desires, dependence, and application; and take of the things of Christ and show them to us. we be enabled to receive the Lord Jesus in all his blessings and influences; and though now we see Him not, yet believing, may we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. In all the distresses of conscience, in all the afflictions of life, and in all the dissatisfactions necessarily experienced in creature-cnjoyments, may we repair weary and heavy laden, to Him who has promised to give us rest. May the vanity of the world wean us from its pursuits; and may the tribulation of the world endear the peace which no storm : can either prevent or destroy!

Hear the prayers which have this day been offered for our native country, for our rightful sovereign, and for the government under which we live. It is a good land which the Lord our God hath given us Thou hast done great things for us whereof we are glad: May we never grow insensible of our privileges, and provoke Thee by our sins to remove them. May they be continued to the latest posterity; and be sanctified to us and to our children. As thou hast given us such a distinguished rank among the nations, may we be for a name and a praise unto Thee in the whole earth: and as we are so largely the subjects of thy goodness, may we be the instruments too; and from us may the word of the Lord sound out land.

into every

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

Amen.

May we arise, and depart hence; may we confess ourselves to be only strangers and pilgrims upon earth; and declare plainlytoo plainly to be misunderstood, that we seek a better country even an heavenly. Prepare us for all the allotments of this short, and changing, and uncertain life. May we have a safe passage out of it, and a comfortable passage through it, and a useful residence in it. May we continually illustrate in our character and conduct, the representations Thou hast given of thy people, as the dew of heaven, the salt of the earth, the light of the world. May we never deem it enough to be blameless and harmless; but may our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven. May we never be ashamed of Jesus, nor of his words; never be deterred

from the prosecution of a known duty, by the fear of man; and never be discouraged from attempting it, by a consciousness of our own weakness. Having thy sanction and presence, may we be strong and courageous; and be steadfast and unmoveable; always abounding in the work of the Lord.

What we know not, teach Thou us. Lead us into all truth. May we see divine things in a divine light, that while they inform our judgment, they may sanctify the heart, and consecrate the whole life to the service and glory of God. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou us from secret faults. Search us, O God, and know our hearts; try us, and know our thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting.

Accept of our united thanksgivings for the preservation and refreshment of the past night and take us under thy guiding and guardian care this day; and whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, may we do all to the glory of God, through our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

MONDAY EVENING.

We have heard, that to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him. Hence we are encouraged to approach Thee. For we are verily guilty, we are deeply guilty. If our depravity has not always broken forth into action, our hearts have been deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; and if our transgressions have not been so gross as those of many of our fellow-creatures, they have been more aggravated, because committed against goodness the most astonishing, light the most clear, and advantages the most distinguishing. And Thou hast seen all, and abhorred all, and couldst easily and righteously have punished us for all. But Thou hast not executed upon us the fierceness of thine anger, because Thou art God and not man. Neither hast Thou treated us with neglect; but Thou hast remembered us in our low estate; and not only without our desert, but without our desire, Thou wast pleased to devise means for our restoration to thy favour, and image, and presence.

We bless Thee for a purpose of grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We rejoice that in the fulness of time he assumed our nature, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: and that as he was delivered for our offences, so he was raised again for our justification, and ascending up on high, entered into the holy place, as a proof of the sufficiency and acceptance of the sacrifice he offered. We rejoice that he has received the whole dispensation of the Spirit, and that in him all fulness dwells. And we bless Thee for the

proclamations of the gospel, which hold him forth to our view in all his grace, and glory, and unsearchable riches, that we through patience and comfort of the scripture might have hope.

O Thou God of hope, fill us with all joy and peace in believing thy promises and invitations, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. May we esteem all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord; and may we supremely desire to win Christ, knowing that he who hath the Son hath life, and shall never come into condemnation. May we prove that we are joined to the Lord, by being one spirit with him. May our sentiments, tempers, and conduct, be formed after the example which he left us; and may we never consider ourselves Christians, but as we long to be like him, and the life also of Jesus be made manifest in our mortal body. May we never love a world that crucified the Lord of glory; nor suffer those sins to live that caused him to die. May his grace, in becoming poor, that we through his poverty might be rich, make us ashamed of our selfishness; and may his unexampled love, in giving his life a ranson for us, so constrain us, as to render any services or sacrifices for his sake our delight.

May He never be wounded in the house of his professed friends. May we rather die than bring a reproach upon his cause. May all his followers be dear to us. May we recommend him to those who know him not, that they may seek him with us. Let the number of those who love his salvation daily increase; and let the accessions include every member of our household, and all our absent friends. Hasten, O Lord, the blessed hour, when all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him-And blessed be his glorious name for ever! And let the whole earth be filled with his glory.

We praise Thee as the length of our days and the God of our mercy. In the morning we committed ourselves to thy care, and Thou hast been with us in our going out and our coming in, and hast kept us in all our ways Pardon whatever Thou hast seen amiss in us through another period of our time. Accept the charge of us through the approaching night, and grant us the sleep which Thou givest thy beloved: for we hope we desire it not only as creatures, but as Christians; not only to gratify our feelings, but to renew our strength for thy service, and to fit us to glorify Thee in our bodies as well as in our spirits, through our adorable Redeemer. Amen.

TUESDAY MORNING.

O THOU Omnipresent and omniscient Jeho vah! Thou art about our path, and our lying down. Thou art acquainted with all our

visit us with thy salvation! Shine into our hearts, and give us the light of the knowledge of thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Enable us by faith to embrace thy unspeak

ways. There is not a word in our tongue, but, lo! O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou understandest our very thoughts afar off. Yea the darkness hidetli not from Thee, but the night shineth as the day: the dark-able gift. May we sit at his feet. May we ness and the light are both alike to Thee.

We extend our wishes beyond the little circle now kneeling in thy presence. We have various absent connexions endeared to our hearts: O place them under thy agency as the God of grace; and keep them under thy care as the God of providence.

We would remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and those that suffer adversity, as being ourselves also in the body. Address to the hearts of the afflicted, the promise, I will be with thee in trouble: thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy days so shall thy strength be.

glory in his cross. May we imbibe his spirit. Known therefore to Thee are our sins, May we follow his example; and whatsoever with every aggravation; and our necessities, we do in word or deed, may we do all in the with all their circumstances. Yet Thou re-name of the Lord Jesus. quirest us to confess our guilt, and to spread our wants before Thee, in order that we ourselves may be suitably affected with them, and be prepared for the promised displays of thy goodness. Every view we take of ourselves convinces us that we lie entirely at thy mercy, and that it is only because thy compassions fail not we are not consumed. We know not the evil there is in one sin; and our iniquities are more in number than the hairs of our head. Thou art our creator: but of the rock that begat us we have been unmindful, and have forgotten the God that formed us. Thou hast nourished and brought up children: but we have rebelled against thee. Thou hast given us laws, founded in a regard to our welfare as well as thine own glory; but we have said with our lives, if not with our lips, Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice? Thou art the perfection of beauty, the centre of excellency, the source of all blessedness; and Thee we ought to have loved supremely: but we have loved and served the creature more than the Creator; we have loved idols, and after them we

Let glory dwell in our land, and upon all the glory may there be a defence. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. Make bare thine arm in the sight of all the nations; and let all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all, now and for evermore. Amen.

TUESDAY EVENING.

have gone. Instead of praying, Lord, lift Thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, we have asked with the multitude, Who will show us any good? Departing from O THOU who wast, and art, and art to come, Thee, we have made flesh our arm. We have the Almighty! With Thee is the fountain leaned on broken reeds, and though they of life. In thy presence there is fulness of have disappointed our hopes, and pierced us joy, and at thy right-hand there are pleasures through with many sorrows, we have often for evermore. It is our privilege as well as returned to the same wretched dependence. our duty to draw near to Thee. It is the preThou hast raised up for us a Saviour; and rogative of our nature, that of all creatures the gospel has presented to our view a plan in this lower world, we alone are made capaof redemption and renovation which the an-ble of knowing, resembling, serving, and engels desire to look into. But we have crowned all our guilt, by neglecting so great salvation, and turning away from Him that speaketh from heaven; and we deserve to be for ever excluded from all the blessings of the cross.

O deal not with us after our desert, but according to our necessity; and where sin has abounded, may grace much more abound. Over all our unworthiness may grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It is thy pleasure that we seek Thee. The desires we feel are of thine own producing. We are willing to be saved in thy own way. We love thy salvation; we love it as it is free, and secures to thyself the undivided glory; and we love it as it is holy, and designed to save us from the power as well as the penalty of sin. O

joying Thee. All our degradation and misery have been produced by our alienation and absence from Thee; and all our happiness and perfection depend upon our reunion and intercourse with Thee. We therefore bless Thee for the revelation Thou hast given us, and by which we learn, that thy thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace and not of evil. We rejoice in a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, who has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God. We pray that the grand design of his sacrifice may be accomplished in each of us. May we feel that we are brought back from the dreadful distance to which sin had conveyed us, and that we are one with God again: and henceforth may the life that we live in the flesh, be a life of communion with the Father of

« AnteriorContinuar »