Fourth Week: Monday Evening
O Lord, Thou art over all by thy providential agency, and rich unto all that call upon Thee, in the exercise of thy mercy and grace. With Thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see light.
Help us to consider the way, the new and living way, in which a fallen creature can approach Thee with acceptance. May we behold the Lamb of
God, that taketh away the sin of the world. May we contemplate the dignity of His person, the perfection of His sacrifice, and the prevalency of His intercession, who is the great High Priest over the house of God. And may we feel the distance between Thee and us done away, and rejoice that now, in Christ Jesus, we, who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
A glorious high throne, from the beginning, has been the place of thy people’s sanctuary; and we have foundjit good to be there. O, what a source is devotion! When under all the toils that weary us, the cares that corrode us, the infirmities that press us down, the fears that disturb us — in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, we can make known our supplication unto God, and feel a peace which passeth all understanding, keeping our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. Yet, we feel the same grace that restored us, to be necessary to preserve us, and to supply. And hast not Thou promised to lead us, to guard us, to suffer us to want no good thing, to make all grace to abound towards us? And art not Thou a faithful God, and able also to perform? Lord, we take Thee at thy word. Do as Thou hast said.
We have tasted that Thou art gracious, and the relish has provoked our desires after more, and they who hunger and thirst after righteousness ar« blessed, and shall be filled. Make us to lie down m green pastures, and feed us beside the still waters, where we shall often exclaim, O, how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!
We often meet with those who have far more grace than we ourselves have; but this encourages M our hope, since they were once poor, and He who supplied them is as rich as ever- — and as accessible — and as free. We are continually meeting with duties and trials, which call for more grace than we have in ourselves, but not more than we have in our divine treasury, in whom it hath pleased Thee that all fullness should dwell. To Him, therefore, may we continually repair, and from His fullness receive, and grace for grace, till every void made by sin, be replenished, and we ourselves filled with all the fulness of God. We bless Thee that Thou dost not despise the day of small things; but we aspire after a day of great ones. We are not straightened in Thee: may we never be contracted in ourselves; may our desires be enlarged; and our hopes emboldened; may we honour Thee by the entireness of our dependence, and the greatness of our expectation; and living and walking in the Spirit, may we go from strength to strength and be changed from glory into glory, till we appear oerfect before Thee in Zion.
We know not what a day may bring forth; nor would we, if it were in our power, draw back the veil that hides the future, and learn the times and the seasons which the Father hath put into His own power. But, O be Thou with us in all, and prepare us for all. Prepare us for the smiles of prosperity; prepare us for the frowns of adversity; prepare us for those losses in substance, and those bereavements in friends — so possible, so probable in a world like this; prepare us for the days of darkless, for they may be many; prepare us for the change, and when heart and flesh fail us, and we have no more a portion in all that is done under the sun, be Thou the strength of our heart, and our portion for ever.
INIay our very memory be blessed. May those
who follow US, praise God that we have ever lived; and may we leave behind us those instrucUonp, examples, and effects, which shall glorify our God on earth, while our spirits have joined the spirits of just men, made perfect in heaven.
And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Hoh Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amm.