SEVENTEENTH WEEK.—THURSDAY. — Evening

WE desire, O God our Father, to thank Thee for thy care and love towards us this day. Thou hast provided for our wants; Thou hast kept us and hast enriched us with all needful blessings.

We thank Thee especially for family mercies. We meet in peace; our home is the dwelling-place, we trust, of thy Spirit. Thou dost overshadow it. Ever abide Thou with us. Be Thou as a wall of fire round about us, and as our glory in the midst.

And yet, O Lord, We are unworthy of this blessedness, though we thus address Thee; we are among the evil and the unthankful. Thou mightest have led us forth with the workers of iniquity. We have no right to enter thus into thy presence; thy love in thy Son is our only plea. It is through his blood we have redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of thy grace. Give us a deeper sense of his sufficiency and love.

We bless Thee, O God, that our ears have heard the Gospel, and that our eyes have seen some of the things Thou hast provided for them that love Thee. Millions have never heard and never seen; and millions who have heard and seen have rejected thy mercy, and have refused to listen to thy voice. Blessed are we if we are called to this feast; doubly blessed if we have obeyed the call. Help us to praise our God, with all his servants, with all that fear Him, both small and great.

And while we are thus thankful for present mercy, we lift our hopes and faith to things above. Victory and rest; freedom from sorrow, and change, and sin; things eye has not seen nor heart conceived—these are before us. We bless Thee for them, for the grace that is the earnest and pledge of them, for the revelation that in part discloses them. Teach us, while waiting for those things, and hastening to them, teach us to be holy in all our behaviour, and to live as pilgrims and strangers on the earth.

Hear our prayers for the afflicted and the persecuted. Sustain the hearts of all who obey and trust in Thee—in all lands and in every condition. Put down oppression and injustice, superstition and idolatry. Lord God Almighty, reign Thou from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

Keep us to-night under thy care. Let thine eye be over us, thy hand around us. Spare us to enter to-morrow on new duties with renewed strength. Give like blessings to all we love, and let thy favours to us, and our friends, and our country, far exceed both our deserts and even our desires, for our Saviour’s sake, to whom with Thee and the Holy Spirit, be all glory and praise, for ever and ever. Amen.