Monday Evening — Week 1

We have heard that to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. Hence we are encouraged to approach Thee. For we are verily guilty, we are deeply guilty. If our depravity has not always broken forth into action, our hearts have been deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and if our transgressions have not been so gross as those of many of our fellow-creatures, they have been more aggravated, because committed against goodness the most astonishing, light the most clear, and advantages the most distinguishing. And Thou hast seen all, and abhorred all, and couldst easily and righteously have punished us for all. But Thou hast not executed upon us the fierceness of thine anger, because Thou art God and not man. Neither hast Thou treated us with neglect; but Thou hast remembered us in our low estate; and not only without our desert, but without our desire, Thou wast pleased to devise means for our restoration to thy favor, and image, and presence.

We bless thee for a purpose of grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We rejoice that in the fulness of time he assumed our nature, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and that, as he was delivered for our offences, so he was raised again for our justification, and ascending up on high, entered into the holy place, as a proof of the sufficiency and acceptance of the sacrifice he offered. We rejoice that he has received the whole dispensation of the Spirit, and that in him all fulness dwells. And we bless Thee for the proclamations of the gospel, which hold him forth to our view in all his grace and glory, and unsearchable riches, that we through patience and comfort of the scripture might have hope.

O Thou God of hope, fill us with all joy and peace in believing thy promises and invitations, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. May we esteem all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord: and may we supremely desire to win Christ, knowing that he who hath the Son hath life, and shall never come into condemnation. May we prove that we are joined to the Lord, by being one spirit with him. May our sentiments, tempers, and conduct, be formed after the example which he left us; and may we never consider ourselves Christians, but as we long to be like him, and the life also of Jesus be made manifest in our mortal body. May we never love a world that crucified the Lord of glory; nor suffer those sins to live that caused him to die. May his grace in becoming poor that we through his poverty might be rich, make us ashamed of our selfishness; and may his unexampled love, in giving his life a ransom for us, so constrain us, as to render any services or sacrifices for his sake our delight.

May He never be wounded in the house of his professed friends. May we rather die than bring a reproach upon his cause. May all his followers be dear to us. May we recommend him to those that know him not, that they may seek him with us. Let the number of those who love his salvation daily increase; and let the accessions include every member of our household, and all our absent friends. Hasten, O Lord, the blessed hour when all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him—And blessed be his glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with his glory.

We praise Thee as the length of our days and the God of our mercy. In the morning we committed ourselves to thy care, and Thou hast been with us in our going out and our coming in, and hast kept us in all our ways. Pardon whatever Thou hast seen amiss in us through another period of our time. Accept the charge of us through the approaching night, and grant us the sleep which Thou givest thy beloved; for we hope we desire it not only as creatures, but as Christians; not only to gratify our feelings, but to renew our strength for thy service, and to fit us to glorify Thee in our bodies as well as in our spirits, through our adorable Redeemer. Amen.