SECOND WEEK.—LORD’S DAY. — Evening

O LORD God of our fathers! we desire to bow humbly at thy footstool. We approach Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We make mention of his righteousness. Draw near unto each of us, O Lord: make us feel thy presence: and give us that holy reverence and solemn awe which is the due of the Creator from his creatures, of the Father in heaven from the children on earth. And do Thou, O Holy Spirit, breathe on our souls and inspire our speech, that our communion may be with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost: one God.

We bless Thee, O our Father, for sparing us to see another day of the Son of Man. May the public services of thy House be blessed to our souls. May the Word preached be profitable to us, being mixed with faith: and may our Sabbath day’s sins be blotted out, and not remembered against us. Thou hast seen and knowest all that we have said, and done, and been this day. We confess our sins before Thee: we confess the sins of thought, the sins of feeling, the sins of desire, the sins of imagination, the secret sins, and those which may have been open. We confess each and all of the sins of omission and of commission of which each of us has been guilty this day. Give each of us grace, O Lord, we earnestly beseech Thee, for Christ’s sake, to make hearty and humble confession of our individual sins before Thee ere we retire to rest, and to seek pardon through the merits of the precious blood of Jesus. We join in supplicating this mercy on each and all of us now. O Lord, our God, for thine own name’s sake, and for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, pardon our iniquity, because it is great. And grant, O Lord, that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, may serve Thee without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Thee all the days of our life. Save us, O God, from the hand of our enemies, and from all them that hate us. Keep us ever from the strife of tongues.

Take us into thy very special care this evening. Spread the sheltering shadow of thy wings over our household. Keep us and ours, and all near and dear to us, during the darkness. Waken us to life and health in the morning. Give us grace to begin the labour of the week in thy fear and favour, and may our Sabbath devotions sweeten the performance of all our duties through the coming week.

O Lord our God, bless our Sovereign and our dear native land, and all for whom we ought to pray; and may the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and ours for ever and ever: for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.