Prayer C
O Lord! we have to look to Thee to teach us what and how to pray. We thank Thee that Thou dost breathe into waiting hearts desires in accordance with Thy holy will; and we would ask, first, that we may be delivered from the dominion of false and foolish wishes, and learn more than ever what is our true good, and where it is to be found. We have hewed out for ourselves broken cisterns, often broken in the very act of hewing them, always broken sooner or later. But we thank Thee that we have the Fountain of living water to come to when our lives are parched. Help us now, that our souls may thirst for good, and thirsting be satisfied, and being satisfied may press hard after Thee.
O Lord! deliver us from the bondage to which we are only too willing to submit, and against which we sometimes feebly and vainly struggle. We thank Thee that Thou canst break our chains, that Thou canst lift our heavy hearts that cleave to earth. How much there is in this day, if we rightly used it, to help us upwards to Thee! We thank Thee for the memories of past days here, and above all for that great remembranceof the Resurrection of JesusChristfromthedead. May we be upborne by the hand of that risen Saviour, and may we, too, have life breathed into us from His eternal life. May we die to sin, and be alive unto God, through Christ our Lord.
May we worship towards Thy holy temple, in Thy fear, that fear which hath no torment. And do Thou graciously help us that the world may loosen its hold upon us, and Heaven increase and tighten its hold. May the things seen and temporal diminish, and the things unseen and eternal become greater in our eyes. May we this day realise more and more how our true life lies far beyond this vale of tears; and that true life which comes in union with Thyself be strong in each of us, and we feel the beatings of a better life, and take it to our feebly throbbing heart. May the memory of Thy benefits lead us to quiet faith and calm hope that to-morrow will be as this day, and much m.ore abundant.
We bless Thee that Thy great storehouse is not emptied by any giving, and that Thou dost never lack the opportunity to bestow upon us Thy kindness and Thy care. Help us that we may welcome into our hearts as Thy gifts all good things, and use them as those ought to do who possess nothing but as stewards, and are administrators unto others of Thy benefits to ourselves.
Be near us, we pray Thee, in our worship now; forgive everything in us which has interfered with the full preparation of heart and mind for this service, and the full possession of the blessings which it is meant to give. Graciously loosen our bonds, and help us in our sluggishness and coldness to rise nearer to Thyself and shake off the oppression of daily cares and low occupations, and to live near Thee now for this brief time that in it there may lie the seeds of good for many days to come, and quickening influences which shall spread through all our lives. We thank Thee for Thy mercies; we beseech Thee to forgive our many imperfections and sins, and help us in our hour of worship, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.