FOURTH WEEK.—FRIDAY. — Evening

GRACIOUS Father and God, heaven is thy throne and earth thy footstool, and Thou inhabitest eternity. Blessed be thy name, that Thou wilt also dwell in the humble and contrite heart. Come, Lord, and abide with us and in us. Let us now feel thy presence among us, and, oh! enable us by thy grace to worship Thee in spirit and in truth.

Thou hast preserved and upheld us this day in such health and strength as is good for us. Out of thine own fulness Thou hast supplied our wants, and with the bounties of thy providence hast nourished and clothed us. Wake up our hearts to thankfulness and praise; teach us how undeserving we are, and teach us how much we owe to Thee. Grievous, and great, and many have been our sins and shortcomings in thy sight. Weighed in thy balances we are found wanting; Lord, pity us. Blessed Saviour, who didst visit and teach the guilty and impure when on earth, and draw them to thyself by the power of the Spirit, have mercy upon us. Show us our sinfulness, and reveal thy power and willingness to save. Let nothing keep us from Thee, or hide from us thy glory. Thou, O God, art the Fountain of living waters; we desire to drink daily at the streams of thy love, and to receive thy Holy Spirit in such abundant measure that it may be in us as a well of water springing up to everlasting life. Give us truer conceptions of our own emptiness and of thy fulness. Grant us an ever-deepening experience of the riches of thy grace and love in Christ Jesus, that the signs of the new life may abound in us more and more, and men take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. O Lord, so transform us into his likeness, and give us the mind that was in him, that we may tread in his footsteps, and make it our meat and drink to do thy will.

Look in mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, on the world at large. Give grace to thy Church, that it may scatter far and near the incorruptible seed of thy truth, and look up earnestly and believingly for thy blessing and the promised harvest, in which sower and reaper shall rejoice together. O God, let it not be in vain that thy Gospel is preached from day to day, to the healthy and the sick, to the living and the dying. Let it not be in vain that the precious tidings of the Saviour’s love have come to us, and those that are dear to us. If as yet we have been deaf to thy voice, open our ears now, we pray Thee, and soften and subdue us to a true repentance. To thy kind care we commit ourselves for the night, and all whom we love. Watch us, preserve us, and above all, save us eternally. We ask all for thy dear Son’s sake. Amen.