SEVENTEENTH WEEK.—WEDNESDAY. — Evening

ALMIGHTY God, Maker of all things in heaven and earth, we beseech Thee mercifully to hear us. Thou art the high and lofty one that inhabitest eternity, whose name is Holy, and we are sinful and impure, yet Thou hast bidden us to come boldly unto thy throne of grace. O God, we come conscious of our unworthiness, but trusting in thine own promise, through the merits of our great High Priest, whom Thou hast given to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification.

Bestow upon us, we beseech Thee, from day to day, a more lively sense of our countless obligations to Thee. We thank Thee for our creation; for Thou hast made us fearfully and wonderfully, and hast given us reason to understand thy will, and affections capable of loving Thee. Enlighten our understandings with the Holy Spirit to know thy will, and dispose our hearts to do it. We thank Thee for preservation—that Thou hast been pleased to keep all the members of this household safe from all evil. From our childhood unto this day Thou hast preserved us; Thou hast given us food, and clothing, and shelter, and all things we need. We thank Thee for redemption—for that inestimable love in which Thou didst give thy blessed Son to die for us. Especially we thank Thee for those members of this family to whose hearts Thou hast been pleased to reveal Him as the Saviour by whom they are redeemed, and the Master whom they obey; and on those amongst us who are yet strangers to Thee, we pray Thee to bestow thy converting Spirit. We thank Thee for all the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. Enable us to set our affections on things above, and to look for and hasten unto the second coming and glorious appearing of our Lord and Master. Write upon our hearts the sense of all these thy mercies, that we may love Thee perfectly, and serve Thee devotedly all our days.

Conform our hearts, O blessed Lord God, after thine own image, that we may seek to be holy, even as Thou art holy. Make us to be the meek and lowly disciples of our meek and lowly Master. Abase us before Thee, that Thou mayest exalt us; Enable us to be humble in all our dealings with our fellow-men, that we may esteem others better than ourselves, in honour preferring one another. Help us to do good to all men for thy sake; to be kind and gentle, patient and forbearing, in all our dealings, that we may be the children of our Father who is in heaven; not rendering evil for evil, but blessing them that curse us, and praying for those that despitefully use us and persecute us. Fill us with thy Spirit here, and hereafter glorify us in thy kingdom, through the worthiness of thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.