TWENTY-SECOND WEEK.—SATURDAY. — Evening

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, whose years are throughout all generations, we humbly thank Thee that Thou hast called us unto eternal life through Christ our Lord. From Thee we had fallen into sin, darkness, and death; but the Son of Man hath come to seek and to save that which was lost. Eternal thanks to Thee, O Father, that by dying He destroyed death and him that had the power of death, being delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification. Give us, O Lord, to know Him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. May a living faith in Him ever sustain us amidst the sufferings of this present time; and when the sorrows of death compass us about, may we each be able to say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth!” Comfort us concerning the departed that sleep in Him; and may we rejoice in his blessed words, that “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Be pleased, O merciful Father, to bring all nations out of the shadow of spiritual death. May the heathen find eternal life in the knowledge of Thee, the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. May the Mahometan be directed to a better paradise. May the Jew welcome Him who is David’s Son and David’s Lord. May those among whom this Gospel has long been published bring forth the fruit thereof; so that the great love wherewith Thou hast loved them may constrain them everywhere to love Thee, the Lord their God, with all their strength, and to love one another with a pure heart fervently. Keep all who name the name of Christ from a false profession; and may no leaven of the Sadducees tempt them to doubt or despise the life and immortality which He hath brought to light.

While we thank Thee, O Lord, for spiritual gifts and privileges, we would also gratefully remember our temporal mercies. Through the labours, cares, and dangers of another week Thou hast safely brought us. We bless Thee for our domestic ties, and we pray that we may by thy grace so live together here as to be prepared for those higher relationships which Christ our Saviour shall form in that heavenly world, where all shall be as the angels of God. We confess our individual and family sins and shortcomings, and seek to lie down this night with the sweet sense of thy pardoning love shed abroad in our hearts. Prepare us for the rest and worship of the Sabbath; and when all our work below is ended, may we sleep in Jesus, and awake amidst the Sabbath of thy eternal love. We ask all for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.