Fourth Week: Saturday Morning
O Thou who hast said, I will be sanctified ii them that come niL;h me, and before all the people will I be glorJQed; may we have grace, whereb) we shall serve Thee acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. Thou inhabitest eternityj but our age is as nothing before Thee. Thy understanding is infinite, but we know nothing. Thou art Almighty, but we are crushed before the moth. Thou art of purer eyes than to be behold iniquity, b«t we are vile; what shall we answei Thee. We cannot answer Tllee for one of a thousand of our transgressions: and had we followed the i’;i-cbodings of our consciences, we could not have approached Thee.
But Thou hast proclaimed thy name, the Lord God, merciful and gracious; Thou hast caused all thy goodness to pass before us; Thou hast opened a new and living way into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesui; and we have boldness, and access with confidence, by the faith of Him. — We blesa Thee thai ir Him all fulness dwells, and that ignorant, and guilty, and depraved, and miserable, as we are in ourselves, from Him we can derive wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And we rejoice, that tnese blessings are attainable, without money and without price; and that we may know they are our’s by every title God himself can give; and shall be our’s for ever.
O, let such undeserved, such infinite goodness melt our hearts, and lead us to throw down the weapons of rebellion, and weep over them. May we sorrow after a godly sort, that ever we offended a Being so worthy of all our love and our obedience; and while compelled to acknowledge, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, O Lord, other lords, beside Thee, have had dominion over us: enable us to say. But henceforth, by Thee only will we make mention of thy name. As our reasonable service, to Thee may we dedicate ourselves immediately without delay, and fully without reserve To Thee may we yield our unders.tanding and our intellectual powers; our wills and our active powers; our senses and our bodily powers; our time, our substance, and all our relative powers — may our words, and our actions, and our callings in life, be all holiness unto the Lord.
May we come out from the world, and touch not the unclean thing, and be received and acknowledge as the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. And though they are few in number, and the world knoweth them not, may we choose thy people as our companions, and delight in them as the excellent of the earth. With them, at thy gates, may we daily watch, and wait at the posts of thy doors; with them, may we courageously fight the good fight of faith: with them, may we patiently labour in thy vineyard.
May we love them all; and as we have opportunity, may we unite with them all in holy communion, and co-operate with them all in schemes of civil and sacred beneficence. We bless Thee for the country and the a.sje in which we live. We bless Thee for the spirit which has been awakened, and the efforts that now are making, to promote the temporal, and above all, the spiritual welfare of mankind, by individuals and communities, and combinations of communities. () let them not labour in vain; let the pleasures of the Lord prosper in their havid; let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children; and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish Thou the woi’kof our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hand, establish Thou it.
And prepare us for suffering thy will, as well a? doing- it. May we never look for unmingled felicity here, but expect to find life, as all who have gone before us have found it, light and darkness, pain and pleasure, good and evil When we meet with trials, may we never think them strange things; nor murmur and repine under them. Rathtr may we be thankful, that they are so few and alleviated; rather may we rejoice, that they are all founded in love to our souls, and designed to make us partakers of thy holiness. Sustain us under them; improve us by them; and assure us in due time of our deliverance from them; and of our entering the rest that remains for the people of God, where all sorrow and sighing shall cease, and all tears shall be wiped from our eyes.
And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the lovecf God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all, now and for ever.
Ameru
O