FIFTEENTH WEEK.—THURSDAY. — Evening

GIVE us, we beseech Thee, O Lord God, the spirit of prayer and praise, that this our evening worship may not be a vain and empty service, but be acceptable in thy sight, because fragrant with the merits of thy dear Son, who ever liveth to make intercession for us. We owe Thee, gracious Father, everlasting thankfulness. Our mercies this day have been many and great. Unspeakable, indeed, is thy loving patience and forbearance, for we are utterly unworthy of thy favour. We have gone astray, like lost sheep, from thy commandments, and in many things day by day have preferred our own will to thine, and the way of the world to thy precepts. Forgive us, O merciful God, all our sins—the sins of our secret thoughts, the sins of temper, the sins of the tongue, the sins of act, of which we may have been guilty this day. They are known to Thee; have compassion upon us, and blot them out for ever. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, hear our prayer and grant us thy peace.

Gracious Father, we earnestly implore the gift of the Spirit, that He may dwell in our hearts, and incline us to think and to do such things as please Thee. Take from us all ignorance and hardness of heart, and enable us to receive with meekness thy Word, which is able to save our souls. We pray for the hearing ear and the understanding heart of thy children, and for the teaching of thy Spirit, who alone can guide us into all truth, and enable us to know the things which have been given to us by God. We pray for thy love to be shed abroad in our hearts, that we may live as in the light of thy countenance, and feel that thy commandments are not grievous. Deliver us from the bondage of sin, and self, and Satan, that, keeping Christ’s sayings, we may be spared the second death, and have our life hid with Christ in God. May no unbelief be harboured in our hearts, nor love for what is sinful make us halt in the way of thy commandments, or turn a deaf ear to the warnings of thy holy book.

Mercifully be with us, O God, during the night. Do Thou comfort us and shelter us by thy protecting power. Spare us, if it be thy will, till the morning, and raise us up, strengthened in body and spirit, to serve Thee cheerfully in the duties of another day.

Let thy Divine favour and blessing rest on [the young of this household, and on] all whom we love. Endue them with thy grace, give them a heart-knowledge of thy Gospel, and cause them so to abound in the graces of the Spirit, that they may be seen to be the children of God, and faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus. In his name we ask these and all other mercies which we need. Amen.