Prayer XC

0 Lord! Whose Name alone is exalted. Whose glory is above the praises of earth and Heaven, we come to

Thee with thankful hearts, and desire to bless Thee that we have access with confidence to Thee, and can lose all our fears and dread, and face the sense of our own unworthiness and weakness without fear when we think of Thee, of Thine infinite heart of love, and of all that Thou hast said to us by Thy mighty works which are Thy Word, and by Him Who is Thy Word concerning Thy loving heart, Thy pardoning grace. Thy cleansing power. May we lose ourselves in Thee, to find ourselves hallowed and ennobled and blessed.

We would come to Thee to praise Thee for whatever sadness may mingle in our praise. We beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us neither to think of ourselves and our unworthiness so as to forget Thine cverabundant love, nor to think of the darkness and the sorrows of our own and of other lives so as to lose the peaceful faith that all which we behold is full of blessing.

We pray Thee to help us to come very near to Thyself, in lowly communion, and the reaching out of our souls towards Thee this morning, that we may rise above the ordinary things of this life and make them the means of getting nearer Thyself and climbing into Thy presence. We thank Thee that we do not need so much to climb as to let Thee lift us. And we pray that we may not resist the great Voice that is ever saying to us ‘Come up higher,’ or the great Power that is ever seeking to raise us from our low estate.

We bless Thee for all the quickening, elevating influences of Thy holy Word, and of Thy mighty Spirit; and we thank Thee that to-day, and at this hour, even outward things do lose their frequent antagonism to the best in ourselves, and do help us instead of hindering us in our approach to Thee.

We bless Thee, for we are weak, for the external aids to inward communion; we thank Thee for the associations of this day, for the memories which many of us have, through long years, of this place, and for all the blessings received in such services as these. We thank Thee for the return of this day of rest. We pray that it may be to us a day of the true rest, rest in God-fearing service. And we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us, as we come near to Thee this morning, to open our hearts to the full radiance of Thy Son, and to give ourselves without reserve to the sacred influences and the sanctifying influences of this place and hour.

And, O Lord, we would come to Thee, drawn by Thy great mercy, and impelled, too, by our sense of need. We look back on the past, and we see that its one failure has been that we have wandered from Thee, and have had so little of Thy life in our lives. Clothe us, we beseech Thee, with all the grace and glory which Thou hast to bestow upon waiting souls. Make us wise, make us Christlike. May we manifest that we are His in our daily lives, and may all the little things that make up so much of our lives be made great because we connect them with Him and with Thee, and with that solemn Eternity which lies beyond, and yet so near.

Help us to live in the light of Thy face, strong to do, patient to bear, whatever Thou dost command and appoint, and wise to see the motions of Thy hand and the hints of Thy will which Thou dost give us in our daily experience, and which we so often pass unobserved. We pray Thee to forgive all that has been contrary to Thy supreme purpose concerning us. We pray Thee to help us in what may yet remain to us of our probation and apprenticeship period here on earth, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, and to become more and more what Thou dost desire us to be, and what Thou hast made it possible for us to be by Thy great gift of Thy Son and His Spirit to us.

Forgive all that has been wrong, strengthen all that is right, bring us nearer to Thyself, and may we habitually live in the secret place of the Most High. Hear us in these our prayers, we beseech Thee; in Thy great mercy answer; Thou surely hast taught us to desire, and Thou surely wilt not refrain from satisfying the desires which Thou dost inspire; may we be a people near unto Thee, and being near Thee grow like Thee. Hear us in our prayer, in Thy mercy forgive and answer us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour-Lord.