First Week. Lord’s Day. Evening

OUR Father which art in heaven, we assemble ourselves as a family at the end of the first Sabbath in this New Year, to confess our sins, to thank Thee for thy goodness to us, and to seek thy blessing upon this closing day's engagements. Blessed be God who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who hath richly blessed us this day. By thy grace we have not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but we have loved the habitation of thy house. Sanctify to our spiritual profit the public reading of the Scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel of thy grace, and all the ordinances of thy Church. Suffer us not to be forgetful hearers, but make us doers of thy Word. May the sweet savour of Church worship abide with us, and by means of all the religious privileges which we enjoy, whether public, private, or domestic, may we bring forth much fruit. In every place, as in many things, we all offend. We have sinned in thy house this day, and have come short of thy glory. We would be humbled by the thought that even in the place where prayer is wont to be made, and even in acts of worship, we grieve Thee and break thy laws. Father in heaven, forgive us, we beseech Thee, and may we now and always feel that the blood of Jesus Christ our Saviour cleanseth us from all sin.

One thing, O merciful Father, we specially ask of Thee, that during this New Year our knowledge of the Saviour may greatly increase. May we know Him as the Word made flesh, and as the only-begotten Son of the Father, and may our experience be that He is full of grace and truth. Grant, we pray Thee, that in every period of life we may be qualified to say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” And now bless us with thy protection during the night, that we may lay ourselves down in sleep and safety, secure from evil, and quiet from fear of evil, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.