TWELFTH WEEK.—WEDNESDAY. — Morning

O GOD, our Father, suffer us to draw nigh to Thee this morning with our morning sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving. Help us to live this day in thy faith, and fear, and love; and in our life and conduct enable us to walk by faith, and not by sight.

Teach us, O God, the solemnities of the future—the things that shall be, and that must be hereafter. Teach us that we are but dying creatures, living here for a season, and then to pass away. In thy Holy Book we have read this morning about this perishable body, and about this imperishable soul of ours. Oh, teach us to learn the lessons of thy Word, and to value its timely teachings. Teach us how frail are these bodies, and how uncertain is this life; that the body is but a movable tent, an earthly tabernacle, that must one day dissolve, that is even every day dissolving. Fix our affections on things above, and teach us not to rest the foundation of our hopes on the shifting sands of this passing world; but to push forward, and look upward, away from the crumbling clay to the building of God, the house not made with hands; away from that which is temporal and temporary to that which is eternal in the heavens.

Lord, give us spiritual foresight in time to provide for eternity. Teach us so to live that we may not fear to die; and may we so die that we may live for evermore! While we are at home in the body may we be clothed upon with Christ; and then, when we shall depart from the body, we shall not be cast out naked, but shall be clothed upon with immortality. Grant that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him; that, living or dying, we may be the Lord’s.

Prepare us for judgment. Let us love Jesus as our Friend, our Redeemer, our Advocate, and we shall not fear Him as a Judge; for He that hath loved us, and bought us, and pardoned us, and accepted us in this the day of salvation, will not condemn us in the great day of his appearing. Let the love of Christ constrain us, and lead us no longer to live unto ourselves, but unto Him which died for us and rose again. Thus consecrate our days to thyself, O God, by thine anointing Spirit, and receive us as thy servants, and admit us into the adoption of thy Son.

We give Thee thanks, O God, for thy continued goodness. Thou hast sustained us while we slept, and hast kept us from the perils and dangers of the night season. We now commit ourselves to thy good keeping during this day, and humbly pray that Thou wouldst preserve us by thy providence, and at last receive us into thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.