Wednesday Morning — Week 1

Again we lift up our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help. Our help is in the name of the Lord God, who made heaven and earth.

Thou art the author of all existence, and the source of all blessedness. We adore Thee for making us capable of knowing Thee; for possessing us with reason and conscience; and for leading us to inquire, Where is God my maker, that giveth songs in the night? We praise Thee for all the information with which we are favored to bring us to thyself; especially the revelation of the gospel. Here we look into thy very heart, and see that it is the dwelling place of pity. Here we see thy thoughts towards us, and find that they are thoughts of peace and not of evil. Here we see Thee waiting to be gracious, and exalted to have mercy. Here thou hast told our consciences how the guilty can be pardoned, the unholy can be sanctified, and the poor furnished with unsearchable riches.

May we be found in the number of those who not only hear but know the joyful sound, that we may walk in the light of thy countenance, in thy name rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness be exalted. May we take Thee, the God of truth, at thy word; and believe the record, that Thou hast given to us eternal life, and that this life is in thy Son. And since it is not only a faithful saying, but worthy of all acceptation, that He came into the world to save sinners, to Him may we look alone for salvation, and with all the earnestness the infinite importance of the case requires.

And to Him may we immediately repair, remembering how short and uncertain our time is, and filled with holy horror at the thought of closing a life of precious, but neglected, privileges, with the exclamation, The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. We long for the experience of a present salvation, not only in the comforts, but in the renewings of the Holy Ghost. We desire to have nothing more to do with sin; and pray as sincerely to be restored to thy image, as to be reinstated in thy favor. We implore spiritual graces, as well as spiritual blessings; and pray that we may always value religious duties, as religious privileges. Deliver us from the disposition of the slave, and uphold us in all our goings by thy free spirit; and enable us to run in the way of thy commandments with freedom and delight.

May we cherish simplicity and godly sincerity of character: may we be in reality before God, what we are in appearance before men—Israelites indeed in whom is no guile. May we be religious, before we profess religion, and leave the world before we enter the church; that we may not be looking back after its forbidden follies and vanities, but with our affections set on things that are above, walk worthy of him who has called us to his kingdom and glory.

And while we are the partakers of thy grace, may we be also the dispensers of it too. Freely having received, may we freely give. May we feel it to be the sublimest of all satisfactions, and count it the greatest of all rewards, to save a soul from death, and to hide a multitude of sins, and while endeavouring to do good, may we be prepared to bear evil. May we consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself; and if reviled, revile not again; or if opposed or slighted, never grow weary in well doing.

But we bless Thee that the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places. We are strangers to the sufferings of those who have gone before us; and can not only sit ourselves, but call every man his neighbor, under the vine and under the fig-tree. May we avail ourselves of our opportunities, and invite those around us to taste and see that the Lord is good, while it is called to-day, knowing how soon the night cometh wherein no man can work.

O God, count us worthy of this calling, and fulfil in us all the good pleasure of thy goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us, and we in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.