NINTH WEEK.—FRIDAY. — Morning

O OUR God and Father, who leadest thy people in a way they know not, blessed be thy name for all thy goodness to us and ours this morning, and all our life through. Thou art ever good, in chastisement as in blessing, when Thou deniest as when thou givest. With what tenderness dost Thou reprove us. The darkness Thou makest light; our sorrow Thou turnest into joy; and to us, struggling and tempest-tossed, Thou givest back the sweet calm of peaceful trust. Humbled, repenting, we fall before Thee; we confess; we adore. Great art Thou, O God; wise, loving, and faithful. Teach us how to praise and how to trust.

Wonderful are thy providences, as when Thou didst suffer thy servant Joseph to linger in prison. Thou art still the same, and thy footsteps are in the deep waters. To-day Thou mayest call us to suffer; we may stumble beneath some heavy cross. Stand Thou by us; give us the needed grace; refresh us with thy strengthening presence; subdue sin within us; check the oft-rising murmur; loosen us from earth; bind us closer to Thee. Teach us to fear sin more than suffering; to value more than ease and self-comfort thy presence and grace.

Let not our sorrows and trials make us selfish or idle. May we look kindly on our brother who is sad, comforting him with the consolations with which Thou hast comforted us. May we speak of Thee, our God, and tell of all thy wondrous works to us and all thy people, and trust Thee even when thy judgments are most unsearchable. Enable us to lighten, by words and deeds of blessing, what we cannot remove; and to plead for our brother as for ourselves at thy throne of mercy. Grant us, O Lord, to love our neighbour as ourselves.

If our kindness meet with no grateful return, but they whom we have remembered in their sorrow should in prosperity forget us, let us not repine. Recall to our sorrowing hearts how often we have thus treated Thee and thy goodness; how we have taken thy gifts, and forgotten the Giver; and may we have eyes watchful for our own sin rather than for our brother’s. May we do good with a more single motive, with less self-seeking. May we cease from man, and cleave to Thee; for Thou wilt never forget us, O our God.

Bless this our family each moment in each duty as we need. Unite us in growing love to Christ and to each other; and grant us, if such be thy will, to meet again before Thee this evening in health, thankful and happy, to praise Thee for new mercies, for preserving grace, and for a desire, daily strengthening, to be thine and thine only, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.