For Brighter Views of Jesus

“That I may know Hira.” — Phil. iii. 10.

Blessed Jesus! — Sun of my soul! — Light of mj life! — do Thou shine upon me this morning with the “brightness of Thy rising.” May I enjoy this day union and communion with Thee. May a sense of Thy favor pervade all its duties, sanctify its blessings, and lighten its trials. May it be to me the sweetest and holiest of all thoughts, that Thou art ever with me — that, though unseen to the eye of sense, the eye of faith can discern Thy gracious presence and the manifestations of Thy nearness and love. May the realized assurance, that Thou art thus at my side, dispel every misgiving, and dry every tear. May I liear Thee, even now, saying unto me, “Lo, I am with you” — I am with you now — I shall be with you “alway” — and when the world is ended, “I will” that you “be with me where I am, that you may behold my glory!” O adorable Saviour, how sadly is Thy beauty obscm*ed from my view, by reason of my own sin! How feebly do I apprehend the mystery of Thy love — the glories of Thy person — the perfection of Thine atonement. Hide me in the clefts of the rock, and while there, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.” May every fresh glimpse of “the great love wherewith Thou hast loved me” rebuke the lukewarmness of my own. May I covet a closer walk with Thee. May my existence be one continued Emmaus journey — its hours passing joyously by, because happy in the presence and converse of a risen Redeemer. Blessed Jesus, “abide with me,” for the day is “far spent.” Let me walk with Thee in newness of life. May I breathe Thy spirit of holy submission — of cheerful obedience — of patience under injuries. May I not repine at bearing the cross, so meekly borne for nie; nor murmur at my trials, when I think of Thine. May I be enabled to make every lineament of Thy spotless “character my daily study, 80 as gradually to be transformed into the same image, from glory to glory — looking forward to that blessed time when I shall see Thee without one stain of remaining sin to dim the contemplation, and when I shall be permitted to bathe in the ocean of Thine eternal love.

I thank Thee for the mercies of the bypast night. Give me to reckon every new day a fresh gift of Thy dying grace — to regard all its hours as redeemed hours — ewery moment as “bought with a price.” May these days, and hours, and moments, thus stamjDed with the cross, be consecrated more than ever to Thy praise.

Again, I beseech Thee, ‘’ abide with me.” “Where Thou goest I will go, and where Thou dwellest I will dwell.” Abide with me from morning to evening, and from evening to morning again. “Without Thee I cannot live” — “without Thee I dare not die.” Living or dying, Lord, I would seek to be Thine. Forgive all my many sins, and when the feeble glimpses of a feeble love on earth are at an end, bring me at last to enjoy brighter views of Thee in glory everlasting. Amen.

“CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST.”