For Growth in Holiness
“Grow in grace.” — 2 Pet. iii. 18.
O God, draw near to me in Thy great mercy. Another peaceful morning has dawned upon me. May it be mine to know the happiness of those who walk all the day in the light of Thy countenance.
O thou best and kindest of beings, teach me to know, amid the smiles and the frowns, the joys and the sorrows, of an ever-changing world, what it is to have an unchanging refuge and portion in Thee. I can mourn no blank, I can feel no solitude, when I have Thy presence and love. If I have naught beside — stripped and denuded of every other blessing — I have the richest of all, if I be at peace with God.
I desire to dwell with devout contemplation on the infinite loveliness of Thy moral nature. Lord, I long to have this guilty, erring soul, moulded and fashioned in increasing conformity to Thy blessed mind and will. Let my great concern henceforth be, to love, and serve, and please Thee more and more. May all Thy dealings with me, of whatever kind they be, contribute in promoting this growth in holiness. May prosperity draw forth a perpetual thank-offering of praise for unmerited mercies. May adversity purify away the dross of worldliness and sin. May every day be finding the power of sin weaker and weaker, and the dominion of grace stronger and stronger. Living under the powers of a world to come, may I look forward with joyful expectation to the time when sin shall no longer impede my spiritual growth — when Satan shall be disarmed of his power, and my own heart of its deceitfulness — when every faculty of a glorified and exalted nature shall be enlisted in Thy service in a world of eternal joy.
O thou blessed Advocate within the veil — i Thou who art even now interceding for Thy tried and tempted saints, “that their faith fail not” — do Thou impart unto me a constant supply of Thy promised grace. IS’ot only! sprinkle my heart with Thy blood, but con-I quer it by Thy love. Fill me with deep con-! trition for an erring past — inspire me with I puryoses of new obedience for the future. May I know, in my sweet experience, that I “Thy yoke is easy, and Thy burden- light” — I that, growing in holiness, I am growing in i happiness too. Give me an increasing tenderness of conscience about sin — lead me, with more filial devotedness, to cultivate a holy fear of ofiending so gracious a Father. i Habitually realizing my new covenant relationship to Thee, may I ever be ready to exclaim, with joyful sincerity, “O Lord, truly I am Thy servant!”
Revive, blessed God, Thine own work everywhere. “Take unto Thee Thy great power, and reign.” Hemove all hardness and blindness of heart — all contempt of Thy Word. May it have free course and be glorified.
Bless my dear friends. However far separated from one another, we can ever meet at the same throne of the heavenly grace, pleading the same “exceeding great and precious promises.” May we all be following the same path of grace now, and meet amid the endless joys of glory hereafter. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
“CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST.”
ianxttnt P^rning*