ELEVENTH WEEK.—FRIDAY. — Evening

O LORD our God, in Thee we live, and move, and have our being. Our life in the flesh hangs upon thy care, and is sustained by thy goodness. We receive daily bread, because thy compassions fail not. We are closing another day in peace, because it has been crowned with loving-kindness and tender mercy.

But man liveth not by bread alone. Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. Though enriched with the blessings of this life, we, too, must lie down to die, and we know not the day nor the hour when the Son of Man shall come. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Thou hast made us for endless life. Thou hast rendered us capable of bearing thine image and tasting thy joy; of being lights of the world, and temples of the living God; but we have sinned against Thee, O Lord, and are not worthy to be called thy children. By nature we are alienated from Thee, and dead in trespasses and sins; but Thou hast had pity upon us, and proposed to us reconciliation, and shown to us the way of life.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift, that He spared not his own Son, but gave Him, the true bread from heaven, that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life.

We pray that we may be taught of Thee, and become wise unto salvation; and that it may please Thee to draw our reluctant hearts to Christ, in whom Thou hast given us remission of sins.

Through his obedience unto death, may we not come into condemnation, but pass from death into life. Quickened by his Spirit, may we rise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. May we live a life of faith upon Christ, and hunger and thirst after righteousness. May our fellowship be with Thee, O God, and with thy Son Jesus Christ; and so closely unite us with Him that we may learn by experience what it is to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Thus nourished unto eternal life, may we increase in knowledge, grow in grace, abound more and more in love, wax stronger and stronger, rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and be changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord; that though our bodies perish day by day, our souls may live, looking for and hasting unto the glorious appearing of our God and Saviour Christ.

Hear our prayers for our [children and] kindred, that they all may be alive unto Thee, through Jesus Christ; serve Thee in newness of life in this world, and in the world to come have life everlasting. We ask all in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our adorable Lord and Saviour. Amen.