For Hope in Discouragement
“■Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and -why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God.” — Ps.
xliii. 5.
O God, in Thine infinite mercy Thou hast again spared me to approach Thy blessed presence. May each morning find me better prepared for the glorious waking-time of immortality, when “the day shall break,” and earth’s shadows shall forever “flee away.” May I seek to rise this day in newness of life, breathing more of the atmosphere of holiness, and partaking more of the character of heaven.
Thou art ever, by the salutary dispensations of Thy providence, reminding me that “earth is not my rest.” It is well, Lord,
38 THE MORNINa WATCHES.
that it should be so; that, by Thine own gracious and needed discipline, the world be disarmed of its insinuating power, and I be weaned from what is precarious at the best, and which ultimately must perish.
O my God, I feel heavily burdened by reason of sin. I mourn my guilty proneness to temptation. How anything and everything seems often enough to drive me from Thee, and to lead me to seek my happiness in created good, rather than in Thyself, the infinite fountain of all excellence! How sad have been my backslidings! — how have solemn vows been broken! — how have abandoned and forsworn sins threatened again to have dominion over me! How little tenderness of conscience has there been! — how little dread of an uneven walk! How often, on the heart which I have consecrated to Thee as an altar for the perpetual sacrifice of praise, and gratitude, and love, has there been burning incense to strange gods!
Lord, when I look to my inner self, I have
good cause indeed for misgivings and despondency. Conscience repeats, over and over again, a sentence of condemnation, and I have naught to extenuate my guilt or palliate my sin. Whither can I flee? Where can I look but to Thee, O Lamb of God, thou sin-bearing and sin-forgiving Saviour!
Enable me to be living more from moment to moment on Thy grace — to rely on thy guiding arm with more childlike confidence — to look with a more simple faith to Thy finished work, disowning all trust in my own doings, and casting myself, as a poor needy pensioner, on the bounty of Him who hath done all, and suffered all, and endured all, for me. Thus relying on the unseen arm of a covenant-God, when the hour of darkness and discouragement overtakes me — when trials multiply, and comforts fail, and streams of earthly blessing are dried up — may I have what compensates for the loss of all, “Thy favor, which is life, and Thy loving-kindness, which is better than life.” “I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
Be the God of all near and dear to me. May all my relatives be able to claim a spiritual relationship with Thee, that so those earthly bonds of attachment, which sooner or later must snap asunder here, may be renewed and perpetuated before the throne.
Compassionate all who are in sorrow. Comfort the feeble-minded. May “the joy of the Lord be their strength.” May valuable lives be prolonged. May those appointed imto death be prepared for their great change. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
“cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the moening,
FOR IN thee do I TRUST.”