TWENTY-FIRST WEEK.—WEDNESDAY. — Morning

O LORD our God, who reignest alone in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; who art a mighty and a jealous God, and wilt not give thy glory to another, cleanse our hearts from all idolatry of the flesh and of the spirit; crucify every affection, and cast down every imagination that would displace or dishonour Thee.

And that our love to Thee may increase and abound, stir us up to a more diligent and faithful employment of our many and precious privileges. Teach us to love thy Sabbath and reverence thy sanctuary. Fill our hearts with joy in thy service, that we may feel the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, rejoicing to honour Thee, and praise thy holy name. May this earthly rest be to us a lively memorial of thy creating and redeeming love, a pledge and foretaste of the rest without end. And, oh, our gracious Father, shed abroad the fulness of the Spirit on our fainting hearts, and enable us to rejoice in the fruition of thy blessed promise, “I will set my tabernacle among you, and I will walk among you; and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”

We confess that we are unworthy of such privileges, because we too are a stiff-necked and gainsaying generation. But though we are thus evil, Thou hast encouraged us to come to Thee in the name and through the mediation of thy well-beloved Son. In obedience to thy command, in reliance on thy promise, we now approach Thee by the new and living way which He has consecrated for us through his flesh. We come to Thee as blood-bought sinners, pleading our Saviour’s merits, bold in his all-sufficient righteousness. In Him we pray Thee to come and dwell with us, and to make us thy sanctified temple; in Him we beseech Thee to walk with us through all the toil and trial of our earthly pilgrimage, to feed us with the bread of life, to guide us by the pillar of thy presence, and to bring us safely over the waves of Jordan to the promised Canaan of rest.

But while we specially pray for thine abiding presence and love, we seek also, for our journey, all needful temporal blessings. Thou hast commanded us to be anxious about nothing; and we therefore bring to Thee all our daily trials and cares. Thy wisdom knows what is best for us; thy love desires what is best; and we cry to Thee out of our ignorance and weakness, “Thy will be done.”

Finally, we pray Thee, O Lord, to extend the same blessings we have sought for ourselves to all our fellow-creatures, and to make them, with us, members of thy household, and partakers of thine eternal inheritance, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all praise and honour, now and for evermore. Amen.