The Morning Watches

‘Come near, and blesa us when vre wake, Ere through the world our way we take; Till, in the ocean of Thy love, We lose ourselves in heaven above P itfy Sou

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Ps. oxxx. 6.

This little volume is designed to form, by the Divine blessing, an humble auxiliary in promoting what is pronounced in the best of all manuals of devotion to be “a good thing” — the showing forth of God’s “loving-kindness in the morning]’* and His” faithfulness every night — (Ps. xcii. 2).

It may not be out of place to remark, regarding the verse which forms the key-note to each petition — ‘•’• O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee” — that the word “direct,” in the original Hebrew, may literally be rendered, “set in order.” It refers to the setting in order of the wood for the burnt-sacrifices in the temple of old. While the heart of the believer, according to this beautiful allusion, is represented as a spiritual altar, on which, morning after morning, he offers the oblation of prayer, this motto-verse may also serve as a magnet

VUl THE MORNING WATCHES.

to keep the eye fixed, in each successive petition, on the great Antitypical Sacrifice, through whom alone it is that “the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts” are “acceptable” in the sight of God.

Though more strictly designed for private devotion, and therefore expressed in the first person, it is hoped, by the substitution of the plural pronoun, that the following pages may not be inappropriate for the family altar.

Deoembea 26, 1861.