Wednesday Morning (Third Week)

O ETERNAL ever blessed Trinity— Three Persons—One GOD—have mercy upon us. Blessed Father, who didst not spare the Son of Thy love, but didst freely give Him up, a ransom for the guilty— Blessed JESUS, Thou sin-bearing and sin-forgiving SAVIOUR, who didst so freely consecrate Thy very life’s-blood for us— Blessed Spirit of all grace, who art waiting and willing to renew and sanctify and heal—yea, to make these worthless souls of ours, temples to Thy praise—Do Thou come to us in all the plenitude of Thy love this morning, that we may feel it to be good for us to draw near unto GOD.

What are our lives but crowded histories of covenant faithfulness,—wondrous attestations to the love and forbearance and patience of GOD. We have received at His hands double for all our sins.

Where could we now have been, blessed LORD, but for Thy great love to us in CHRIST JESUS? On Him our every hope of mercy is built. On His work we desire every hour to live. We rejoice that we have such a Day’s-Man, who has laid His hand upon us both; that He is now pleading for us within the veil—answering for those who cannot answer for themselves. Give us a tender conscience, a broken spirit, filial nearners, holiness of heart, consistency of conduct, uprightness of life. May sin be increasingly hated— may holiness be unceasingly coveted and loved. Loving Thee our GOD, may we love also our fellow-men. Bring us under the power of renewed natures and purified affections. May all that is earthly and carnal, all that is unamiable and selfish, all that is unkind and unholy, be displaced by what is pure, elevated, lovely, and of good report. Above all, may we be brought to live more sensibly under the influence of unseen realities. May we be more of wayfarers than we have been, with our face more Zionwards, feeling that our true home is above. May CHRIST become increasingly precious. Stablish our hearts with the blessed truth, that the coming of the LORD draweth nigh, that so when the hour of death shall overtake us, it may be to us as an angel whispering “ The Master is come and calleth for Thee.”

Compassionate all who are in affliction; may Thy sorrowing people be enabled to trust Thee in the dark. Let them look forward to that joyous period when they shall come to stand in Thy presence, and trace for themselves in the map of time all the wisdom of Thy now inscrutable dealings. Have pity on the careless—reclaim the backslider—arouse the lukewarm— bring back all wanderers who may have strayed from the fold. May they feel the sorest of all losses, to be the loss of their GOD—that nothing can compensate for the forfeiture of Thy favor.

Bless us as a family;—give us the heritage of those that fear Thy name; may the absent know Thee as ever present—and when earth’s separations are at an end, may there be a common meeting place for us all, at last, before Thy Throne.

Be our GOD and guide this day, protect our bodies from danger, preserve our souls from sin; never leave and never forsake us. May we all be found unto praise, and honor and glory, at the appearing of JESUS CHRIST. And all that we ask is for His sake. Amen.

Our Father, &c.

The Grace of our Lord, &c.