Spurgeon's

Prayers

Personalized

Taken from the following books:

C.H. Spurgeon's Prayers

and

The Pastor in Prayer

and

Behold the Throne of Grace

Many of these prayers of Spurgeon have been “personalized” by taking the Elizabethan language out and replacing it with contemporary language such as: “Thee” and “thou” replaced with “you”, and “taketh” replaced with take or taken.

References like “London” have been replace with “city”. Sometimes sentences have been omitted because they don't have any meaning for today, this is indicated by showing a series of periods (…..) .

Table of Contents

C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers

Introduction.

CONTENTS. PRAYER

PRAYER 1. HELP FROM ON HIGH.

PRAYER 2. THANKS BE UNTO GOD.

PRAYER 3. THE LOVE WITHOUT MEASURE OR END.

PRAYER 4. THE ALL-PREVAILING PLEA.

PRAYER 5. TO THE KING ETERNAL.

PRAYER 6. THE WONDERS of CALVARY.

PRAYER 7. “LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE YOU.”

PRAYER 8. A PRAYER FOR HOLINESS.

PRAYER 9. GLORIOUS LIBERTY.

PRAYER 10. THE MUSIC OF PRAISE.

PRAYER 11. UNDER THE BLOOD.

PRAYER 12. ON HOLY GROUND.

PRAYER 13. THE WINGS OF PRAYER.

PRAYER 14. “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL!”

PRAYER 15. THE PEACE OF GOD.

PRAYER 16. HE EVER LIVES.

PRAYER 17. TO BE LIKE CHRIST.

PRAYER 18. O, FOR MORE GRACE!

PRAYER 19. GOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.

PRAYER 20. THE GREAT SACRIFICE.

PRAYER 21. BOLDNESS AT THE THRONE OF GRACE

PRAYER 22. THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

PRAYER 23. THE LOOK OF FAITH.

PRAYER 24. “DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”

PRAYER 25. THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD. Same as XV.

PRAYER 26. PRAYER ANSWERED AND UNANSWERED. Compare with xxii

THE GOLDEN KEY OF PRAYER.

1. THE FIRST HEAD IS PRAYER COMMANDED.

2. LET US NOW TAKE THE SECOND HEAD — AN ANSWER PROMISED.

3. I come to our third point, which I think is full of encouragement to all those who exercise the hallowed art of prayer: ENCOURAGEMENT TO FAITH,

The Pastor in Prayer

Editor’s Preface.

I. THE PERSONAL TOUCH.

II. JESUS INTERCEDING FOR TRANSGRESSORS.

III. GOD’S THOUGHTS AND WAYS FAR ABOVE OURS.

IV. EJACULATORY PRAYER. (New Year)

In Christ.

V. The Day of Salvation.

Christ is All

VI. SITTING OVER AGAINST THE SEPULCHRE.

VII. THE REASON WHY MANY CANNOT FIND REST.

VIII. THE CONQUEST OF SIN.

IX. TRUE PRAYER — HEART PRAYER.

X. DISTINCTION AND DIFFERENCE.

XI. TAKE FAST HOLD.

The Rock of Our Refuge

XII. TRUST AND PRAY.

XIII. KING AND PRIEST.

XIV. THE SIN OF MISTRUST OF GOD.

XV. THE FOOT-WASHING. Compare with #25

XVI. THE LIFE LOOK!

Alone With You.

XVII. REFUGES OF LIES.

XVIII. “YOUR ADVERSARY.”

XIX. RISEN WITH CHRIST.

XX. INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS.

XXI. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES.

XXII. INTERCESSION FOR ONE ANOTHER.   Compare with #26

XXIII. THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED.

XXIV. FREE GRACE AND FREE-GIVING.

XXV. AN EVENING PRAYER.

XXVI. AN EVENING PRAYER.

KEEP IN MERCY’S WAY.

Sleep On, Beloved!

Behold the Throne of Grace

Foreword

Invocations

The Holy Ghost is Here

God of Our Fathers, and Our God

A Word to the Heart

A Day of Delightful Remembrance

The Saviour in the Midst

The Soul's Yearning for God

Refresh Our Waiting Spirits!

Complete Prayers

Jesu's Presence Delightful

Sorrowing, yet Always Rejoicing

Mercy's Streams

Such Love as Seraphs Know

Oh, to be Like Christ!

The Saint's Inalienable Portion

Nothing but Jesus!

The Blessings of the Justified

Come Nearer, Nearer, Nearer!

Accepted in the Beloved

The Gift Unspeakable

A Great God and a Great Company

Praise at All Times

The Blesser and the Blest

Enrich Us All!

Always Our Helper

Choice Passages from Prayers

Adoration

Psalm 30

The Adorable Trinity

Let All the People Praise You!

Children of Abraham

The Cross and the Throne

The Love of the Firstborn

Looking unto Him

Anticipation of Glory

Thanksgiving

Christ in His People

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The Blessings of the Covenant

Our Supreme Delight

Goodness and Mercy

"Though He Slay Me, Yet—"

The Blood-Besprinkled Mercy Seat

The Lamb Upon the Throne

Washed and Made White

Confession

Ashamed of Jesus!

Sin Shall Not Have Dominion

Victory Through the Blood

The Feast of Jehovah

Rest and Refreshing

Supplication

Early Morning Prayer Meeting

Heal Us, Immanuel!

Sincere Faith Desired

A Sigh for Holiness

That Christ may be in us!

Fragrant Fellowship

With Christ in the Heavenlies

Oh, for Newness of Life!

Go on to Fashion us!

Conformed to the Image of the Firstborn

Grace for Everything

Through Bondage to Liberty

Being Rather Than Doing

For the Reign of Christ

Up to the High Mountain

Intercession

Psalm 82

Great Designs of Love

Comforted and Made Ready

The Christless Multitudes

Delight in the Lord's Day

Save the People!

For All Classes and Conditions of Men

"Today He Rose and Left the Dead"

The Harvest Season

End

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C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers

Introduction.

THE day on which a volume of C. H. Spurgeon's Pulpit Prayers appears is a day to be desired. Many will now rejoice to see that day.

Decidedly this selection of the great preacher's prayers supplies a want.

Many of us have long hoped for such a volume; and now we welcome it with warm gratitude.

Lovers of C. H. Spurgeon will delight in this treasury of devotion. They will not open the book without keen anticipation, and assuredly they will not close it with disappointment.

It was memorable to hear this incomparable divine when he preached. It was often even more memorable to hear him pray. Dr. John Cairns, the golden-mouthed preacher and scholar, much as he rejoiced in C. H. Spurgeon's sermons, rejoiced yet more in his prayers. Many can bear a similar witness. Who talked with God as Spurgeon did? His congregational prayers — and I heard many — are always echoing in my grateful heart.

They are sweet and luminous, in the memory, as angel-presences. Never did I hear him pray without adoringly saying, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” How naturally prayer fell from the lips of that great apostle; We felt that he was only doing before the multitude what he was habituated to do in private. Prayer was the instinct of his soul, and the atmosphere of his life. It was his “vital breath” and “native air.” How naturally he inhaled and exhaled it! The greatness of his prayers more and more impresses and delights me. He touched every note. He sped as on eagle's wings, into the Heaven of God.

The things that were given him to utter in prayer were often more profound and beautiful than the sayings that left his lips in preaching. This has often been a feature of the greatest ministries. A noble intellect shines with the glory that excels when it is turned towards God. A man of God is frequently at his intellectual best in prayer. Assuredly it was not seldom so with the beloved Pastor. I once heard him speak thus with God: “O Lord, if some of us began to doubt You we should begin to doubt our senses, for You have done such wonderful things for us. You have done more for us than You DID for Thomas. You DID allow Thomas to thrust his finger into Your wounds; but You have often thrust Your finger into our wounds, and healed them.” Did he not speak by the Spirit when he uttered the pathetic and lovely word? His wonderful knowledge of Scripture made his prayers so fresh and edifying. No man can pray with high effect unless he is steeped in Scripture. Mr. Spurgeon lived and moved and had his being in the Word of God. He knew its remoter reaches, its nooks and crannies. Its spirit had entered into his spirit; and when he prayed, the Spirit of God brought all manner of precious oracles to his mind. Then he lived so entirely in the spiritual world that he was ever ready to pray. He had not to school himself at the moment. His pulpit-prayers were not art, but nature. Every prayer was the effluence of a consecrated personality. No liturgy could have restrained him. One could not imagine him making literary preparation for public prayer. The flower gave out its perfume without effort. The urn was ever being filled where the pure waters rise, and so afforded at any moment abundant refreshment.

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The quivering sympathy of Mr. Spurgeon's prayers thrilled all who heard them. You felt the throbbing of that mighty heart. He was royal in his tenderness. Whom did he forget in those powerful pleadings? The faith of this great saint indeed worked by love. His prayers grandly evinced this.

How ardent were those incomparable prayers! No hint was there of the dull, slumberous, tedious quality which too often has vitiated pulpit prayer.

C. H. Spurgeon was a glowing-hearted “Remembrancer” of God. The warmth of the Baptism of Fire diffused itself throughout his supplications.

The prayers at the Tabernacle kindled countless cold hearts.

And the English was so delectable. We hesitate to call attention to the intellectual or literary aspect of prayer. Yet why should we? God's honored servant thought and studied so incessantly for God's glory that we reaped an intellectual harvest as well as a spiritual harvest from his devotions. Mr. Spurgeon loved God with his “mind,” and our minds were stimulated when we heard him pray.

Let the holy urgency of his prayers be noted. He never lost his importunity. He pleaded for the immediate moment. “Now” was his plea; and verily then and there were we all blessed of God.

As a perusal of this volume will reveal, Mr. Spurgeon's prayers were eminently “theological.” It is a warning, well worthy to be heeded, which a devotional master gave, “Beware of an untheological devotion.” The “theological” quality of C, H. Spurgeon's prayers was very notable.

How he knew God — the Holy Trinity; Jesus, the Son of God and Savior of men; the blessed Spirit. These noble prayers will be seen to be full of theology. They were the utterances of one who studied God, delighted in God, and walked with God, especially with the God-man. Precious to him beyond compare was the Divine Redeemer. The blood of our redemption was his glory. The atoning cross was all in all to him. I would specially commend the “theological” contents of these prayers, for they are rich with enduring wealth. The sweet and holy memories of the prayers we heard no man takes from us. Many such memories will be aroused in many of the readers of this book.

To those who never heard C. H. Spurgeon's glorious voice, these printed prayers will be valuable as suggesting his prophetic power at the Mercy Seat. We covet for this volume a great constituency. Of a truth these prayers are ideals of how men ought to pray. They are calculated to be great inspirations to ministers as they contemplate their congregational prayers. To all Christian workers they will afford real enrichment. For quiet home reading they will be invaluable. I am glad that the publishers have associated with these prayers one of C. H. Spurgeon's delightful and pungent sermons on prayer — an art, of all arts the greatest, in which he was a master indeed. Few could use,. “the golden key of prayer” as he so deftly could. May many be enabled, through grace, by the study of these prayers, to pray more abundantly and more effectually!

DINSDALE T. YOUNG.

CONTENTS. PRAYER

1.        — HELP FROM ON HIGH

2.       — THANKS BE UNTO GOD

3.       — THE LOVE WITHOUT MEASURE OR END

4.       — THE ALL-PREVAILING PLEA

5.       — TO THE KING ETERNAL

6.       — THE WONDERS OF CALVARY

7.        — “LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE YOU”

8.       — A PRAYER FOR HOLINESS

9.       — GLORIOUS LIBERTY

10.   — THE MUSIC OF PRAISE

11.    — UNDER THE BLOOD

12.   — ON HOLY GROUND

13.   — THE WINGS OF PRAYER

14.   — “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL!”

15.   — THE PEACE OF GOD

16.   — HE EVER LIVES

17.    — TO BE LIKE CHRIST

18.   — O, FOR MORE GRACE!

19.   — GOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT

20.  — THE GREAT SACRIFICE

21.   — BOLDNESS AT THE THRONE OF GRACE

22.   — THE PRESENCE OF GOD

23.   — THE LOOK OF FAITH

24.   — “DELIVER US FROM EVIL”

25.. — THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD

26. — PRAYER ANSWERED AND UNANSWERED

SERMON — THE GOLDEN KEY OF PRAYER

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PRAYER 1. HELP FROM ON HIGH.

O You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. “Before Jehovah's awful throne We bow with sacred joy.”

We can truly say that we delight in God. There was a time when we feared You, O God, with the fear of bondage. Now we reverence, but we love as much as we reverence.

The thought of Your Omnipresence was once horrible to us. We said: “Whither shall we flee from His presence?” and it seemed to make hell itself more dreadful, because we heard a voice, “If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”

But now, O Lord, we desire to find You. Our longing is to feel Your presence, and it is the heaven of heavens that You are there.

The sick bed is soft when You are there. The furnace of affliction grows cool when You are there, and the house of prayer when You are present is none other than the house of God, and it is the very gate of heaven.

Come near, our Father, come very near to Your children. Some of us are very weak in body and faint in heart. Soon, O God, lay Your right hand upon us and say unto us, “Fear not.”

Peradventure, some of us are alike, and the world is attracting us. Come near to kill the influence of the world with Your superior power.

Even to worship may not seem easy to some. The dragon seems to pursue them, and floods out of his mouth wash away their devotion. Give to them great wings as of an eagle, that each one may fly away into the place prepared for him, and rest in the presence of God today.

Our Father, come and rest Your children now. Take the helmet from our brow, remove from us the weight of our heavy armour for awhile, and may we just have peace, perfect peace, and be at rest.

Oh! help us, we pray You, now. As You have already washed Your people in the fountain filled with blood and they are clean, now...wash us from defilement in the water. With the basin..., O Master, wash our feet again. It will greatly refresh; it will prepare us for innermost fellowship with You. So did the priests wash before they went into the holy place. Lord Jesus, take from us now everything that would hinder the closest communion with God.

Any wish or desire that might hamper us in prayer remove, we pray You. Any memory of either sorrow or care that might hinder the fixing of our affection wholly on our God, take it away now. What have we to do with idols any more? You have seen and observed us.

You know where the difficulty lies. Help us against it, and may we now come boldly, not into the Holy place alone, but into the Holiest of all, where we should not dare to come if our great Lord had not rent the veil, sprinkled the mercy seat with His own blood, and bidden us enter.

Now, we have come close up to You, to the light that shines between the wings of the Cherubim, and we speak with You now as a man speaks with his friends. Our God, we are Yours. You are ours.

We are now concerned in one business, we are leagued together for one battle. Your battle is our battle, and our fight is Yours. Help us, we pray You.

You who strengthened Michael and his angels to cast out the dragon and his angels, help poor flesh and blood that to us also the word may be fulfilled: “The Lord shall bruise Satan under your feet, shortly.”

Our Father, we are very weak. Worst of all we are very wicked if left to ourselves, and we soon fall a prey to the enemy. Therefore help us.

We confess that sometimes in prayer when we are nearest to You at that very time some evil thought comes in, some wicked desire. Oh! what poor simpletons we are. Lord, help us. We feel as if we would now come closer to You still, and hide under the shadow of Your wings. We wish to be lost in God. We pray that You may live in us, and not we live, but Christ live in us and show Himself in us and through us.

Lord, sanctify us. Oh! that Your spirit might come and saturate every faculty, subdue every passion, and use every power of our nature for obedience to God.

Come, Holy Spirit, we do know You; You have often overshadowed us. Come, more fully take possession of us.

Standing now as we feel we are right up at the mercy seat our very highest prayer is for perfect holiness, complete consecration, entire cleansing from every evil.

Take our heart, our head, our hands, our feet, and use us all for You.

Lord, take our substance, let us not hoard it for ourselves, nor spend it for ourselves.

Take our talent, let us not try to educate ourselves that we may have the repute of being wise, but let every gain of mental attainment be still that we may serve You better.

May every breath be for You; may every minute be spent for You. Help us to live while we live and while we are busy in the world as we must be, for we are called to it, may we sanctify the world for Your service.

May we be lumps of salt in the midst of society. May our spirit and temper as well as our conversation be heavenly; may there be an influence about us that shall make the world the better before we leave it. Lord, hear us in this thing.

And now that we have Your ear we would pray for this poor world in which we live. We are often horrified by it. O, Lord, we could wish that we did not know anything about it for our own comfort. We have said, “Oh! for a lodge in some vast wilderness.”

We hear of oppression and robbery and murder, and men seem let loose against each other.... What is to be done with the millions? What can we do?

At least help every child of Yours to do his utmost. May none of us contribute to the evil directly or indirectly, but may we contribute to the good that is in it.

We feel we may speak with You now about this, for when Your servant Abraham stood before You and spake with such wonderful familiarity to You, he pleaded for Sodom; and we plead for our world.

We would follow the example of the Father of the Faithful and pray for all great cities, and indeed for all the nations.

Lord, let Your kingdom come. Send forth Your light and Your truth. Chase the old dragon from his throne, with all his hellish crew.

Oh! that the day might come when even upon earth the Son of the woman, the Man-child, should rule the nations, not with a broken staff of wood, but with an enduring scepter of iron, full of mercy, but full of power, full of grace, but yet irresistible. Oh! that that might soon come, the personal advent of our Lord! We long for the millennial triumph of His Word. Until then, O Lord, gird us for the fight, and make us to be among those who overcome, through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of our testimony, because we “love not our lives unto the death.”

We lift our voice to You in prayer; also, for all our dear ones. Lord, bless the sick and make them well as soon as it is right they should be. Sanctify to them all they have to bear.

There are also dear friends who are very weak; some that are very trembling. God bless them. While the tent is being taken down may the inhabitant within look on with calm joy, for we shall by-and-by “be clothed upon with our house that is from heaven.”

Lord, help us to sit very loose by all these things here below. May we live here like strangers and make the world not a house but an inn, in which we sup and lodge, expecting to be on our journey tomorrow.

Lord, save the unconverted, and bring out, we pray You, from among them those who are converted, but who have not confessed Christ. May the Church be built up by many who, having believed, are baptized unto the sacred name.

We pray You go on and multiply the faithful in the land. Oh! that You would turn the hearts of men to the gospel once more. Your servant is often very heavy in heart because of the departures from the faith. Oh! bring them back; let not Satan take away any more of the stars with his tail, but may the lamps of God shine bright.

Oh! You that walk amongst the seven golden candlesticks trim the flame, pour forth the oil, and let the light shine brightly and steadily.

Now, Lord, we cannot pray any longer, though we have a thousand things to ask for.

Your servant cannot, so he begs to leave a broken prayer at the mercy seat with this at the foot of it:

We ask in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son.

Amen.

PRAYER 2. THANKS BE UNTO GOD.

O Lord God, help us now really to worship You. We would thank You for this occasion. We bless Your name for setting apart this hallowed season.

Lord, will You shut the door upon the world for us? Help us to forget our cares. Enable us to rise clean out of this world. May we get rid of all its down-dragging tendencies. May the attractions of these gross things be gone, and You catch us away to Yourself.

We do not ask to be entranced nor to see an angel in shining apparel, but we do ask that by faith we may see Jesus, and may His presence be so evidently realized among us that we may rejoice as well as if our eyes beheld Him, and love Him and trust Him and worship Him as earnestly as we should do if we could now put our fingers into the print of the nails. O, You precious Lord Jesus Christ, we do adore You with all our hearts. You are Lord of all.

We bless You for becoming man that You might be our next of kin, and being next of kin we bless You for taking us into marriage union with Yourself and for redeeming us and our inheritance from the captivity into which we were sold.

You have paid Your life for Your people; You have ransomed Your folk with Your heart's blood. Be You, therefore, for ever beloved and adored.

And now You are not here for You are risen. Our souls would track the shining way by which You have ascended through the gate of pearl up to Your Father's throne.

We seem to see You sitting there, man, yet God, reigning over all things for Your people, and our ears almost catch the accents of the everlasting song which rolls up at Your feet: “worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive honor, and power, and glory, and dominion, and might for ever and ever.” Lord, we say, “Amen.”

From the outskirts of the crowd that surround Your throne we lift up our feeble voices in earnest “Amens,” for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood and have made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign with You, for though far off by space, we know that we are very near to Your heart.

You look over the heads of the angelic squadrons to behold us, and You do hear the praises and the groans of Your well-beloved, for are not we most near You, Your flesh and Your bones? We know we are. We feel the ties of kinship within us.

We our best Beloved's are, and He is ours, and we are longing to get through the crowd that surround Him, and to get to the forefront, and there to bow prostrate at the dear feet that were nailed to the tree for us, and worship the Lamb who lives for ever and ever, Who has prevailed to take the book and loose the seven seals thereof, to Whom be glory, world without end. Hallelujah!

O, Savior, accept these our poor praises. They come from those You love, and as we prize any little things that come from those we love, so do we feel that You will accept the thanksgiving, the reverential homage of Your people, redeemed ones who are a people near unto You, whose names are graven on the palms of Your hands, of whom You are the active head and for whom Your heart beats true and full of love e'en now.

Oh, we can say we love You; we wish we loved You more; but You are very dear to us. There is nothing on earth like You. For the love of Your name we would live and die. If we think we love You more than we do, we pray that we may yet love You more than we think.

Oh, take these hearts right now and unite them with Your own, and be You heart and soul and life and everything to us; for whom have we in heaven but You, and there is none upon earth we desire beside You.

We worship the Father, we worship the Son, we worship the Holy Ghost with all the powers of our being.

We fall prostrate before the awful yet glorious throne of the Infinite Majesty of heaven. Lord accept us since we offer these praises in the name of Jesus.

And now most blessed Lord, look down upon those who do not love You. O Redeemer, look upon them with those eyes of Yours which are as flames of fire. Let them see how ill they treat You. May they consider within themselves how dire is the ingratitude which can be negligent of a Savior's blood, indifferent from a Savior's heart.

Oh, bring the careless and the godless to seek for mercy. Let those that are postponing serious things begin to see that the very thought of postponement of the claims of Christ is treason against His Majesty.

O Savior, shoot Your arrows abroad and let them wound many that they may fall down before you and cry out for mercy.

But there are some who are wounded; broken hearts that seek peace — men and women, like Cornelius, that want to hear the words which God commands.

Oh, come Divine Physician, and bind up every broken bone. Come with Your sacred medicine which You have compounded of Your own heart's blood, and lay it home to the wounded conscience, and let it feel its power.

Oh! give peace to those whose conscience is like the troubled sea which cannot rest.

O God, our God, let not the teaching of the Sunday-school, the preaching of the Evangelists, the personal visitations of individual minds, let not any of these efforts be in vain. Do give conversions.

We groan out this prayer from our very heart, yet can we also sing it, for You have heard us plenteously already, and our heart rejoices in God the Savior who works so graciously among the children of men.

We have been astonished as the Holy Ghost has fallen even upon the chief of sinners, and men afar off from God have been brought in. But, Lord, do more of this among us.

Let us see greater things than these. Where we have had one saved, let us have an hundred to the praise of the glorious name and the Well-beloved.

Lord, keep us all from sin; teach us how to walk circumspectly; enable us to guard our minds against error of doctrine, our hearts against wrong feelings, and our lives against evil actions. Oh, may we never speak unadvisedly with our lips, nor give way to anger. Above all, keep us from covetousness which is idolatry, and from malice which is of the devil.

Grant unto us to be full of sweetness and light. May love dwell in us and reign in us. May we look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others.

Give us to live for Jesus. There is no life like it. Help us to be Christly men, Christ's men, and may we in all things reflect the light which we receive from Him.

Bless our beloved Church, and all its organizations. O God, take care of it. Oh! You make every member of the Church a pastor over others. Let all strive together for the good of all, and so may Your kingdom come among us.

And prosper all the churches of Jesus Christ. What we ask for ourselves we seek for them.

Let missionaries especially be helped by Your Spirit, and may there come a day in which the minds of men may be better prepared to receive the Gospel, and may Messiah's Kingdom come to the overthrow of her that sits on the Seven Hills and to the eternal waning of Mohammed's moon, to the overthrow of every idol, that Christ alone may reign.

Our whole heart comes out in this. Reign, Immanuel, reign; sit on the high throne; ride on Your White Horse; and let the armies of heaven follow You, conquering and to conquer.

Come, Lord Jesus; even so, come quickly. Amen and amen.

PRAYER 3. THE LOVE WITHOUT MEASURE OR END.

Lord, we would come to You, but You come to us. Draw us and we will run after You.

Blessed Spirit, help our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Come, Holy Spirit, and give right thoughts and right utterance that we may all be able to pray, the whole group feeling that for each one there is a portion.

We are grateful as we remember ... there is One who bears the names of all His redeemed upon His breast, and upon His shoulder, who will take care with the love of His heart and the power of His hand to maintain the cause of all His own.

Dear Savior, we put ourselves under Your sacred patronage. Advocate with the Father, plead for us this day, yea, make intercession for the transgressors.

We desire to praise the name of the Lord with our whole heart, some of us as have tasted that the Lord is gracious may we all taste and feast of our Savior's graciousness.

Truly You have delivered us from the gulf of dark despair, wherein we wretched sinners lay.

You have brought us up also out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay,

You have set our feet upon a rock, and the new song which

You have put into our mouths and we would ... bless the Lord whose mercy endures for ever. We thank You, Lord, for the love without beginning which chose us before the earth was, for the love without measure which entered into covenant for our redemption,

for the love without failure which in due time appeared in the person of Christ and wrought out our redemption,

for that love which has never changed, though we have wandered; that love which abides faithful even when we are unfaithful.

O God, we praise You for keeping us till this day, and for the full assurance that You will never let us go. Some can say, “He restores my soul,” they had wandered, wandered sadly, but You have brought them back again.

Lord, keep us from wandering, then will we sing, “Unto Him that is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before His presence with exceeding joy.”

Bless the Lord, our inmost soul blesses the Lord.

Blessed be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Triune;

blessed be the Lord for every office sustained by each divine person, and for the divine blessing which has come streaming down to us through each one of those, condescending titles worn by the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We feel like singing all the time; we would take down our harp from the willows, if we had hung it there, and we would waken every string to the sweetest melody of praise unto the Lord our God.

Yet, Lord, we cannot close with praise, for we are obliged to come before You with humble confession of sin. We are not worthy of the least of all these favors; we cannot say, “He is worthy for whom You should do this thing,” nay, but we are altogether unworthy, and Your gifts are according to the riches of Your grace, for which again we praise You.

Lord, forgive us all our sin. May Your pardoned ones have a renewed sense of their acceptance in the Beloved.

If any cloud has arisen to hide You from any believing eye, take that cloud away.

If in our march through this world, so full of mire as it is, we have any spot on us, dear Savior, wash our feet with that blessed foot-bath, and then say to us, “You are clean every whit.” May we know it so, that there is no condemnation, no separation; sin is removed as to its separating as well as its destroying power, and may we enter into full fellowship with God.

May we walk in the light as God is in the light, and have fellowship with Him, while the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Let no child of Yours have any dead work upon his conscience, and may our conscience be purged from dead works to serve the living and true God.

And oh! if there are any that after having made the profession of religion have gone astray by any form of sin, Lord, restore them.

If they have fallen by strong drink, if they have fallen by unchastity, if they have fallen by dishonesty;

if, in any way, they have stained their garments, Oh! that Your mighty grace might bring them back and put them yet among the children.

But give them not up, set them not as Admah, make them not as Zeboim, but let your repentings be kindled and Your bowels of compassion be moved for them, and let them also be moved, and may they return with weeping and with supplication, and find You a God ready to pardon.

Furthermore, we ask of You, our Father, this day to perfect Your work within our hearts. We are saved, but we would be saved from sin of every form and degree; from sins that lie within, and we are scarcely aware that they are there.

If we have any pride of which we are not conscious, any unbelief of which we are not aware, if there is a clinging to the creature, a form of idolatry which we have not yet perceived, we pray You, Lord, to search us as with candles till You do spy out the evil and then put it away.

We are not satisfied with pardoned sin, “We pray, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Help us in our daily life, in our families, in our relations as husbands or wives, parents; or children, masters or servants, in our business transactions with our fellow men, in our dealings with the Church of God, may we be true, upright, pure; kept from the great transgression because we are kept from the minor.

Oh! that we may be such as glorify Christ. Save us, we pray You, from the common religion; give us the peculiar grace of a peculiar people.

May we abide in Christ, may we live near to God.

Let not the frivolities of the world have any power over us whatever. May we be too full grown in grace to be bewitched with the toys which are only becoming in children.

Oh! give us to serve You, and especially, and this prayer we have already prayed but we pray it again, make us useful in the salvation of our fellow man.

O Lord, have we lived so long in the world and yet are our children unconverted? May we never rest until they are truly saved.

Have we been going up and down in business, and are those round about us as yet unaware of our Christian character?

Have we never spoken to them the Word of Life? Lord, arouse us to a deep concern for all with whom we come in contact from day to day.

Make us all missionaries at home or in the street, or in our workshop, wherever Providence has cast our lot, may we there shine as lights in the world.

Lord, keep us right, true in doctrine, true in experience, true in life, true in word, true in deed. Let us have an intense agony of spirit concerning the many who are going down to the everlasting fire of which our Master spoke.

Lord, save them! LORD, SAVE THEM! Stay, we pray You, the torrents of sin that run down the streets of our cities; purge the dead sea of sin, in which so many of the heathen are lying. Oh! that the day were come when the name of Jesus shall be a household word, when everybody knew of His love, and of His death, and of His blood, and of its cleansing power.

Lord, save men, gather out the company of the redeemed people; let those whom the Father gave to Christ be brought out from among the ruins of the fall to be His joy and crown. “Let the people praise You, O God, yea, let all the people praise You.” Let the ends of the earth fear Him who died to save them.

Let the whole earth be filled with the glory of God.

This is our great prayer, and we crown it with this:

Come, Lord Jesus, come Lord and tarry not.

Come in the fulness of Your power and the splendor of Your glory!

Come quickly, even so come quickly; Lord Jesus.

Amen.

PRAYER 4. THE ALL-PREVAILING PLEA.

O Lord God! the Fountain of all Fulness, we, who are nothing but emptiness, come unto You for all supplies, nor shall we come in vain, since we bear with us a plea which is all prevalent.

Since we come commanded by Your Word, encouraged by Your promise, and preceded by Christ Jesus, our great High Priest, we know that whatsoever we shall ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive.

Only help us now to ask right things, and may the utterances of our mouth be acceptable in Your sight, O God our Strength and our Redeemer.

We would first adore Your blessed and ever-to-be-beloved Name. “All the earth worships You, the Father everlasting.”

Heaven is full of Your glory. Oh! that men's hearts were filled therewith, that the noblest creatures You have made, whom You set in the Paradise of God, for whom the Savior shed His blood, loved You with all their hearts.

The faithful, chosen, called, and separated, join in the everlasting song. All Your redeemed praise You, O God! As the God of our election we extol You for Your everlasting and immutable love.

As the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bless You for that unspeakable gift, the offering of Your Only-begotten.

Words are but air, and tongues but clay, and Your compassion is divine, therefore it is not possible that any words of ours should “reach the height of this great theme,” or sound forth Your worthy praise for this superlative deed of grace.

We bless You, also, Divine Son of God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, that You did not disdain to be born of the Virgin, and that, being found in fashion like a man, you did not refuse to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Let Your brows be girt with something better than thorns; let the eternal diadem for ever glitter there. You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood; unto You be glory, and honor, and power, and majesty, and dominion, and might, for ever and ever!

And equally, most blessed Spirit, You who brooded over chaos and brought it into order, You who begot the Son of God's body of flesh, You who quickened us to spiritual life, by whose divine energy we are sanctified, and hope to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, unto You, also, be hallelujahs, world without end!

O Lord! our soul longs for words of fire, but we cannot reach them! Oh! when shall we drop this clay which now is so uncongenial to our song?

When shall we be able with wings to mount upward to Your throne, and having learned some flaming sonnets that have once been sung by cherubim above, we shall praise You for ever? Yet even these are not rich enough for Your glory. We would sing unto You a new song. We will, when we reach the heavenly shore, become leaders of the eternal music.

“Day without night” will we “circle God's throne rejoicing,” and count it the fulness of our glory, our bliss, our heaven, to wave the palm and cast our crowns with our songs at Your feet for ever and ever!

Our Father, which are in heaven; next to this we would offer prayer for those who never think of You; who, though created by You, are strangers to You; who are fed by Your bounty, and yet never lift their voices to You, but live for self, for the world, for Satan, for sin. Father, these cannot pray for themselves for they are dead; Your quickened children pray for them.

These will not come to You, for, like sheep, they are lost; but You seek them, Father, and bring them back.

Oh! our glorious Lord, You have taught us to pray for others, for the grace which could have met with such undeserving sinners as we are, must be able to meet with the vilest of the vile.

Oh! we cannot boast of what we are; we cannot boast of what we have been by nature. Had we our doom we had now been in hell.

Had we this day our proper, natural, and deserved position, we should still have been in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

'Tis Your rich, free, sovereign, distinguishing grace which has brought us up out of the miry clay, and set our feet upon a rock.

And shall we even refuse to pray for others?

Shall we leave a stone unturned for their conversion?

Shall we not weep for those who have no tears and cry for those who have no prayers? Father, we must and we will.

“Willingly our pity would reclaim,

And snatch the fire-brands from the flame.”

There are those who are utterly careless about Divine Things. Will You impress them! May some stray shot reach their conscience! Oh! that they may be led solemnly to consider their position and their latter end!

May thoughts of death and of eternity dash like some mighty waves, irresistibly against their souls! Oh! may heaven's light shine into their conscience!

May they begin to ask themselves, where they are, and what they are, and may they be turned unto the Lord with full purpose of heart.

There are others who are concerned, but they are halting between two opinions. There are some that we love in the flesh who have not yet decided for God. Behold it trembles in the balance!

Cast in Your cross, O Jesus, and turn the scale! Oh! Love irresistible, come forth, and carry by blessed storm the hearts which have not yet yielded to all the attacks of the law!

Oh! that some who never could be melted, even by the furnace of Sinai, may be dissolved by the beams of love from the tearful eyes of Jesus! Lord, Lord, if there be a heart that is saying,

“Now, behold I yield; lo!

At Your feet rebellion's weapons I lay down, and cease to be Your foe,

You King of kings”— if there, be one who is saying, “I am willing to be espoused unto Christ, to be washed in His blood, to be called in His righteousness” — bring that willing sinner in now! May there be no longer delay; but may this be the time when, once for all, the great transaction shall be done, and they shall be their Lord's, and He shall be theirs.

Oh! that we could pour out our soul in prayer for the unconverted! You know where they will all be in a few years! Oh! by Your wrath, we pray You, let them not endure it! By the flames of hell be pleased to ransom them from going down into the pit!

By everything that is dreadful in the wrath to come we do argue with You to have mercy upon these sons of men, even upon those who have no mercy upon themselves.

Father, have You not promised Your Son to see of His soul's travail? We point You to the ransom paid; we point You once again to the groans of Your Son, to His agony, and bloody sweat! Turn, turn Your glorious eyes thither, and then look on sinners, and speak the word, and bid them live.

Righteous Father, refresh every corner of the vineyard, and on every branch of the vine let the dew of heaven rest. Oh! that You would bless Your church throughout the world! Let visible union be established, or if not that, yet let the invisible union which has always existed be better recognised by believers.

Will You repair our schisms; will You repair the breaches which have been made in the walls of Zion? Oh! that You would purge us of everything unscriptural, till all Christians shall come to the law and to the testimony, and still keep the ordinances and the doctrines as they were committed to the apostles by Christ!

Remember our land in this time of need. You be pleased by some means to relieve the distress prevalent. Quicken the wheels of commerce that the many who are out of employment ... may no longer be crying for work and bread......

Above all, You long-expected Messiah, come! Your ancient people who despised You once are waiting for You in Your second coming, and we, the Gentiles, who knew You not, neither regarded You, we, too, are watching for Your advent.

Make no tarrying, O Jesus! May Your feet soon stand again on Olivet! You shall not have this time there to sweat great drops of blood, but You shall come to proclaim the year of vengeance for Your foes, and the year of acceptance for Your people.

“When will you the heavens rend, In majesty come down?”

Earth travails for Your coming.

The whole creation groans in pain together until now.

Your own expect You; we are longing till we are weary for Your coming. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Amen and Amen.

PRAYER 5. TO THE KING ETERNAL.

Our God and Father, draw us to Yourself by Your Spirit, and may the few minutes that we spend in prayer be full of the true spirit of supplication.

Grant that none of us with closed eyes may yet be looking abroad over the fields of vanity, but may our eyes be really shut to everything else now but that which is spiritual and Divine. May we have communion with God in the secret of our hearts, and find Him to be to us as a little sanctuary.

O Lord, we do not find it easy to get rid of distracting thoughts, but we pray You help us to draw the sword against them and drive them away, and as when the birds came down upon his sacrifice Abraham drove them away, so may we chase away all cares, all thoughts of pleasure, everything else, whether it be pleasing or painful, that would keep us away from real fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

We would begin with adoration.

We worship from our hearts the Three in One, the infinitely glorious Jehovah, the only living and true God. We adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.

We are not yet ascended to the place where pure spirits behold the face of God, but we shall soon be there, perhaps much sooner than we think, and we would be there in spirit now, casting our crowns upon the glassy sea before the throne of the Infinite Majesty, and ascribing glory and honor, and power and praise, and dominion and might to Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

All the Church worships You, O God, every heart renewed by grace takes a delight in adoring You, and we, among the rest, though least and meanest of them all, yet would bow as heartily as any worshiping, loving, praising, in our soul, being silent unto God because our joy in Him is altogether inexpressible.

Lord, help us to worship You in life as well as lip. May our whole being be taken up with You.

As when the fire fell down on Elijah's sacrifice of old and licked up even the water that was in the trenches, so may the consuming fire of the Divine Spirit use up all our nature, and even that which might seem to hinder, even out of that may God get glory by the removal of it.

Thus would we adore.

But, oh! dear Savior, we come to You, and we remember what our state is, and the condition we are in encourages us to come to You now as beggars, as dependents upon Your heavenly charity.

You are a Savior, and as such You are on the lookout for those that need saving, and here we are, here we come. We are the men and women You are looking for, needing a Savior.

Great Physician, we bring You our wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, and the more diseased we are and the more conscious we are today of the depravity of our nature, of the deep-seated corruption of our hearts, the more we feel that we are the sort of beings that You are seeking for, for the whole have no need of a physician but they that are sick.

Glorious Benefactor, we can meet You on good terms, for we are full of poverty, we are just as empty as we can be. We could not be more abjectly dependent than we are. Since You would display Your mercy here is our sin; since You would show Your strength here is our weakness; since You would manifest Your loving-kindness here are our needs;

since You would glorify Your grace here are we, such persons as can never have a shadow of a hope except through Your grace, for we are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, and if You do not magnify Your grace in us we must perish for ever.

And somehow we feel it sweet to come to You in this way. If we had to tell You that we had some good thing in us which You required of us, we should be questioning whether we were not flattering ourselves and presumptuously thinking that we were better than we are. Lord Jesus, we come just as we are; this is how we came at first, and this is how we come still, with all our failures, with all our transgressions, with all and everything that is what it ought not to be we come to You.

We do bless You that You do receive us and our wounds, and by Your stripes we are healed; You do receive us and our sins, and by Your sin-bearing we are set clear and free from sin. You do receive us and our death, even our death, for You are He that lives and was dead, and are alive for evermore.

We just come and lie at Your feet, obedient to that call of Yours, “Come unto Me all you that labor and I will give you rest.”

Let us feel sweet rest, since we do come at Your call.

May some come that have never come till this day, and may others who have been coming these many years consciously come again, coming unto You as unto a living stone, chosen of God and precious, to build our everlasting hopes upon.

But, Lord, now that we are come so near You, and on right terms with You, we venture to ask You this, that we that love You may love You very much more.

Oh! since You have been precious, Your very name has music in it to our ears, and there are times when Your love is so inexpressibly strong upon us that we are carried away with it.

We have felt that we would gladly die to increase Your honor.

We have been willing to lose our name and our repute if so be You might be glorified, and truly we often feel that if the crushing of us would lift You one inch the higher, we would gladly suffer it.

For oh! You blessed King, we would set the crown on Your head, even if the sword should smite our arm off at the shoulder blade.

You must be King whatever becomes of us; You must be glorified whatever becomes of us.

But yet we have to mourn that we cannot .. always .. feel as we should this rapture and ardor of love.

Oh! at times You do manifest Yourself to us so charmingly that heaven itself could scarce be happier than the world becomes when You are with us in it.

But when You are gone and we are in the dark, oh! give us the love that loves in the dark, that loves when there is no comfortable sense of Your presence.

Let us not be dependent upon feeling, but may we ever love You, so that if You turned Your back on us ... we would think none the less of You, for You are unspeakably to be beloved whatsoever You do, and if You do give us rough words, yet still we would cling to You, and if the rod be used till we hurt..., yet still will we love You, for You are infinitely to 'be beloved of' all men and angels, as Your Father loved You.

Make our hearts to love You even more the same. With all the capacity for love that there is in us, and with all the more that You can give us, may we love our Lord in spirit and in truth.

Help us, Lord, to conquer sin out of love to You.

Help some dear strugglers that have been mastered by sin sometimes, and they are struggling against it; give them the victory, Lord, and when the battle gets very sharp, and they are tempted to give way a little, help them to be very firm and very strong, never giving up hope in the Lord Jesus, and resolving that if they perish they will perish at His feet and nowhere else but there.

Lord, raise up in our churches many men and women that are all on fire with love to Christ and His Divine Gospel.

Oh! give us back again men like Antipas, Your faithful martyr, men like Paul, Your earnest servant who proclaimed Your truth so boldly.

Give us Johns, men to whom the Spirit may speak, who shall bid us hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. Lord, revive us! Lord, revive us; revive Your work in the midst of the years in all the churches.

Return unto the Church of God in this country, return unto her. Your adversaries think to have it all their own way, but they will not, for the Lord lives, and blessed be our Rock. Because of truth and righteousness, we beseech – You lay bare Your arm in these last days.

O Shepherd of Israel, deal a heavy blow at the wolves and keep Your sheep in their own true pastures, free from the poisonous pastures of error.

O God, we would stir You up. We know You sleep not, and yet sometimes it seems as if You slept awhile and leave things to go on in their own way.

We beseech You awake. Plead Your own cause. We know Your answer, “Awake! awake! put on Your strength, O Zion.” This we would do, Lord, but we cannot do it unless You do put forth Your strength to turn our weakness into might.

Great God, save this nation! O God of heaven and earth, stay the floods of infidelity and of filthiness that roll over this land. Would God we might see better days!

Men seem entirely indifferent now. They will not come to hear the Word as once they did.

God of our fathers let Your Spirit work again among the masses. Turn the hearts of the people to the hearing of the Word, and convert them when they hear it. May it be preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

Our hearts are weary for You, our King, Your a King forgotten in Your own land, You a King despised among Your own people, when will You yet be glorious before the eyes of all mankind?

Come, we beseech You, come quickly, or if You come not personally, send forth the Holy Spirit with a greater power than ever that our hearts may leap within us as they see miracles of mercy repeated in our midst.

Father, glorify Your Son. Somehow our prayer always comes to this before we have done.

“Father, glorify Your Son that Your Son also may glorify You,” and let the days come when He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.

Bless all work done for You, whether it be in the barn or in the cathedral, silently and quietly at the street door, or in the Sunday-school or in the classes, O Lord, bless Your work.

Hear also prayers that have been put up by wives for their husbands, children for their parents, parents for their children.

Let the holy service of prayer never cease, and let the intercession be accepted of God, for Jesus Christ's sake.

Amen.

PRAYER 6. THE WONDERS of CALVARY.

Great God, there was a time when we dreaded the thought of coming near to You, for we were guilty and You were angry with us, but now we will praise You because Your anger is turned away, and You comfort us. …. the very throne which once was a place of dread has now become the place of shelter. I flee unto You to hide me.

We long now to get .. away from the world, even from the remembrance of it, and have fellowship with the world to come by speaking with Him that was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty.

Lord, we have been worried and wearied oftentimes with care, but with You care comes to an end, all things are with You, and when we live in You we live in wealth, in sure repose, in constant joy.

We have to battle with the sons of men against a thousand errors and unrighteousnesses, but when we flee to You, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace.

Above all, we have to battle with ourselves, and we are very much ashamed of ourselves.

After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory. Oh! bring us, then, we pray You, now near to Yourself. Let us bathe ourselves in communion with our God.

Blessed be the love which chose us before the world began. We can never sufficiently adore You for Your sovereignty, the sovereignty of love which saw us in the ruins of the Fall, yet loved us notwithstanding all.

We praise the God of the Eternal Council Chamber and of the Everlasting Covenant, but where shall we find sufficiently fit words with which to praise Him who gave us grace in Christ His Son, before He spread the starry sky.

We also bless You, O God, as the God of our redemption, for You have so loved us as to give even Your dear Son for us. He gave Himself, His very life for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and separate us unto Himself to be His peculiar people, zealous for good works. Never can we sufficiently adore free grace and dying love. The wonders of Calvary never cease to be wonders, they are growingly marvellous in our esteem as we think of Him who washed us from our sins in His own blood.

Nor can we cease to praise the God of our regeneration who found us dead and made us live, found us at enmity and reconciled us,

found us loving the things of this world and lifted us out of the slough and mire of       selfishness and worldliness into the love of divine everlasting things.

O Spirit of God, we love You this day, especially for dwelling in us. How can You abide in so rude a habitation. How can You make these bodies to be Your temples, and yet You do so, for which let Your name be had in reverence so long as we live.

O Lord, we would delight ourselves in You this day. Give us faith and love and hope that with these three graces we may draw very near to the Triune God.

You will keep us, You will preserve us, You will feed us, You will lead us, and You will bring us to the mind of God, and there will You show us Your love... there will You make us know and taste and feel the joys that cannot be expressed.

But a little longer waiting and we shall come to the golden shore; but a little longer fighting and we shall receive the crown of life that fades not away.

Lord, get us up above the world. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, and mount and bear us on Your wings, far from these inferior sorrows and inferior joys, up where eternal ages roll.

May we ascend in joyful contemplation, and may our spirit come back again, strong for all its service, armed for all its battles, armored for all its dangers, and made ready to live heaven on earth, until by-and-by we shall live heaven in heaven. Great Father, be with Your waiting people, if any in great trouble --- You greatly help;

if any that are despondent --- You sweetly comfort and cheer;

if any that have erred, and are smarting under their own sin, --- You bring them back     and heal their wounds;

if any that this day are panting after holiness --- You give them the desire of their    hearts; if any that are longing for usefulness --- You lead them into ways of usefulness.

Lord, we want to live while we live. We do pray that we may not merely groan out an existence here below, nor live as earthworms crawling back in and out of our holes... but oh! give us to live as we ought to live, with a new life that You have put into us, with the divine quickening which has lifted us as much above common men as men are lifted above the beasts that perish.

Do not let us always be hampered like poor half-hatched birds within the egg; may we chip the shell today and get out into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Grant us this, we pray You.

Lord, visit our church. We have heard Your message to the churches at Ephesus; it is a message to us also.

Oh! do not let any of us lose our first love. Let not our church grow cold and dead.

We are not, we fear, what once we were. Lord, revive us! All our help must come from You. Give back to the church its love, its confidence, its holy daring, its consecration, its liberality, its holiness.

Give back all it ever had and give it much more.

Take every member and wash his feet, Sweet Lord, most tenderly, and set us with clean feet in a clean road, with a clean heart to guide them, and bless us as You are won't to do after a divine fashion.

Bless us, our Father, and let all the churches of Jesus Christ partake of like cause and tenderness. Walking among the golden candlesticks trim every lamp and make every light, even though it burns but feebly now, to shine out gloriously through Your care.

Now bless the sinners. Lord, convert them. O God, save men, save this great country, this wicked country, this slumbering dead country. Lord, arouse it, arouse it by any means, that it may turn unto its God.

Lord, save sinners all the world over, and let Your precious Word be fulfilled.

“Behold He comes with clouds.” Why tarry? Make no tarrying, O, our Lord. And now unto Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER 7. “LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE YOU.”

Our Father, when we read Your description of human nature we are sure it is true, for You have seen man ever since his fall, and You have been grieved at heart concerning him. Moreover, You have such a love towards him that You did not judge him harshly; and every word that You have spoken must be according to truth. You have measured and computed the iniquity of man, for You have laid it on the Well-Beloved; and we know You have not laid upon Him more than is meet.

O God, we are distressed, we are bowed down greatly when we see what is the condition to which we and all our race have fallen.

“Where is boasting then?” And yet we grieve to say that we do boast, and have boasted; and that our fellow-men are great at boasting; whereas they ought rather to lay their hands upon their mouths before You.

It has become a wonder to us that You should look upon man at all; the most hateful object in creation must be a man, because he slew Your Son, because he has multiplied rebellions against a just and holy law.

And yet truly there is no sight that gives You more pleasure than man, for Jesus was a man; and the brightness of His glory covers all our shame; and the pureness and perfectness of His obedience shines like the sun in the midst of the thick darkness. For His sake You are well pleased, and You do dwell with us.

Lord, we once thought that those descriptions of our heart were somewhat strained, but we think not so now, for verily we perceive that had it not been for restraint which held us like fetters we, in our unregenerate state, were capable of anything; for, even now, when we are regenerate, the old sin that abides in us is capable of reaching to a high degree of infamy; and did not the new life restrain the old death we know not what we might yet become.

We thought once we were humble; but we soon found that our pride will feed on any current flattery that is laid at our door.

We thought we were believers, but sometimes we are so doubting, so unbelieving, so vexed with skepticism that we should not certainly choose to follow --- that is Your work in us. By nature we are such liars that we think You a liar too; the surest token of our untruthfulness, that we think that You can be untrue.

Oh, this base heart of ours! has it not enough tinder in it to set on fire the course of nature? If a spark do but fall into it, any one of our members left to itself would dishonor Christ, deny the Lord that bought us, and turn back into perdition.

We are altogether ashamed. Truly in us is fulfilled Your own Word: “You shall be a shame, and never open Your mouth any more.”

For Your love to us has silenced us, that great love has hidden boasting from us;

Your great love, wherewith You love us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins;

Your great love wherewith You have loved us still, despite our ill manners, our wanderings,

our shortcomings, and our excesses.

Oh, the matchless love of God! Truly if there be any glory it must be all the Lord's; if there be any virtue it is the result of grace; if there be anything whatsoever that lifts us above the devil himself it is the work of the Divine Spirit, to whom be glory!

And now at the remembrance of all this, and being in Your presence, we do yet rejoice that our unrighteousness is covered; from condemnation we are free: and we are the favored of the Lord.

You have given us, O Lord, to taste of that love which is not merely laid up for us, but we have enjoyed it, and do enjoy it still.

Our heart knows the Father's love, for we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba Father.”

And we joy and rejoice in the redemption of our spirits, and we expect the redemption of our bodies, when, at the coming of the Lord they too shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

O Jesus, You will bring Your Israel out of Egypt, and not a hoof shall be left behind; no, not a bone, nor a piece of Your elect shall be left in the hands of the adversary.

We shall come out clean, delivered by Him Who does nothing half-way, but Who on the cross said, “It is finished.”

Who much more will say it on His throne: Glory be unto Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Who has lifted us up from our ruin and condemnation, and made us new creatures, and justified us, and guaranteed us eternal life, which eternal life shall be manifested at the coming of the Lord.

All glory be unto His ever blessed name for ever and ever!

And now, Lord, during the few days that remain to us here below, be it all our business to cry, “Behold the Lamb!”

Oh! teach our hearts to be always conscious of Your love; and then these lips, that they may set out as best they can by Your divine help the matchless story of the Cross.

Oh! do give us to win many to Jesus; let us not be barren, but may we have to cry that we are the beloved of the Lord, and our offspring with us.

May we have many spiritual offspring that shall go with us to the throne, that we may say before Him, “I and the children that You have given me.”

Lord, bless the work of the Church and all its branches; and let Your kingdom come into the hearts of multitudes by its means.

Remember all churches that are really at work for Jesus, and all private individuals, workers alone, workers by themselves. Let the Lord's own name be made known by tens of thousands. Give the Word, and great may be the multitude of them that publish it. Let all this, our beloved country, know Christ, and come to His feet; let the dark places of this country be enlightened with the sweet name of Jesus. And then let the heathen know You, and the uttermost parts of the earth hear of You.

Oh! from the tree declare You Your salvation, and from the throne let it be published in proclamations of a king. “Let the people praise You, O God; yea, let all the people praise You.” Our heart seems as if it had not anything else to ask for when it reaches to this; yet would we go back a moment and say:

Lord, forgive us our sins;

Lord, sanctify our persons; Lord, guide us in difficulty; Lord, supply our needs.

The Lord teach us; the Lord perfect us; the Lord comfort us; the Lord make us meet for the appearing of His Son from heaven!

And now we come back to a theme that still seems to engross our desires. Oh! that Christ might come.

Oh! that His word might be made known to the uttermost ends of the earth! Lord, they die, they perish, they pass away by multitudes!

Every time the sun rises and sets they pass away!

Make no tarrying, we beseech You. Give wings to the feet of Your messengers, and fire to their mouths, that they may proclaim the Word with Pentecostal swiftness and might.

Oh! that Your kingdom might come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, for Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER 8. A PRAYER FOR HOLINESS.

Our Father, we worship and love You; and it is one point of our worship that You are holy. Time was when we loved You for Your mercy; we knew no more; but now You have changed our hearts and made us in love with goodness, purity, justice, true holiness; and we understand now why “the cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts,”

We adore You because You are holy, and we love You for Your infinite perfection.

For now we sigh and cry after holiness ourselves. Sanctify us wholly, spirit, soul and body.

Lord, we mourn over the sins of our past life and our present shortcomings. We bless You --- You have forgiven us; we are reconciled to You by the death of Your Son.

There are many who know that they have been washed, and that He that bears away sin has borne their sin away. These are they who now cry to You to be delivered from the power of sin, to be delivered from the power of temptation without, but especially from indwelling sin within.

Lord, purify us in head, heart and hand; and if it be needful that we should be put into the fire to be refined as silver is refined, we would even welcome the fire if we may be rid of the dross.

Lord, save us from personal sin, from sins of temperament, from sins of our surroundings. Save us from ourselves in every shape, and grant us especially to have the light of love strong within us.

May we love God; may we love You, O Savior; may we love the people of God as being members of one body in connection with You.

May we love the guilty world with that love which desires its salvation and conversion; and may we love not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

May we help the helpless, comfort the mourner, sympathize with the widow and fatherless, and may we be always ready to put up with wrong, to be long suffering, to be very patient, full of forgiveness, counting it a small thing that we should forgive our fellow-men since we have been forgiven of God.

Lord, tune our hearts to love, and then give us an inward peace, a restfulness about everything.

May we have no burden to carry, because, though we have a burden, we have rolled it upon the Lord.

May we take up our cross, and because Christ has once died on the cross may our cross become a comfort to us.

May we count it all joy when we fall into divers trials, knowing that in all this God will be glorified, His image will be stamped upon us, and the eternal purpose will be fulfilled, wherein He has predestined us to be conformed unto the image of His Son.

Lord, look upon Your people. We might pray about our troubles. We will not; we will only pray against our sins.

We might come to You about our weariness, about our sickness, about our disappointment, about our poverty; but we will leave all that, we will only come about sin. Lord, make us holy, and then do what You will with us.

We pray You help us to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

If we are fighting against: sin — “the sin which does so easily beset us” — Lord, lend us heavenly weapons and heavenly strength that we may cut the giants down, these men of Anak that come against us.

We feel very feeble. Oh! make us strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. May we never let sin have any rest in us, may we chase it, drive it out, slay it, hang it on a tree, abhor it, and may we “cleave to that which is good.”

Some of us are trying, striving after some excellent virtue. Lord, help stragglers; enable those that contend against great difficulties only to greater grace, more faith, and so to bring them nearer to God.

Lord, we will be holy; by Your grace we will never rest until we are. You have begun a good work in us and You will carry it on. You will work in us to will and to do of Your own good pleasure.

Lord, help the converted child to be correct in his relation to his parents; help the Christian father or mother to be right in dealing with children, “may they not provoke their children to anger lest they may discourage.”

Take away willfulness from the young; take away impatience from the old.

Lord, help Christian men of business. May they act uprightly; may Christian masters never be hard to their servants, to their workpeople; and may Christian workpeople, give to their masters that which is just and equal in the way of work in return for wage.

May we as Christian men --- not aside always standing upon our rights, but always be willing each one to minister to the help of others.

And, oh that as Christians we might be humble! Lord, take away that stiff-necked, that proud look; take away from us the spirit of “stand by, for I am holier than You;” make us condescend to men of low estate; ... and even to men of low morals, low character.

May we seek them out, seek their good. Oh! give to the Church of Christ an intense love for the souls of men. May it make our hearts break to think that they will perish in their sin.

May we grieve every day because of the sin of this world. Set a mark upon our forehead and let us be known to You as men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the City.

O God, save us from a hard heart, an unkind spirit, that is insensible to the woes of others.

Lord, preserve Your people also from worldliness, from rioting, from drunkenness, from chambering and wantonness, from strife and envy, from everything that would dishonor the name of Christ that we bear.

Lord, make us holy. Our prayer comes back to this. Make us holy; cleanse the inside and let the outside be clean too. Make us holy, O God: do this for Christ's sake. Not that we hope to be saved by our own holiness, but that holiness is salvation. Then we are saved from sin.

Lord, help Your poor children to be holy. Oh! keep us so if we are so; keep us even from stumbling, and present us faultless before Your presence at last.

We pray for friends that are ill, for many that are troubled because of the illness of others. We bring before You every case of trouble and trial known to us, and ask for Your gracious intervention.

We pray for Your ministers everywhere; for Your missionary servants. Remember brethren that are making great sacrifice out in the hot sun or in the cold and frozen north. Everywhere preserve those who for Christ's sake carry their lives in their hands.

And our brethren at home, in poverty many of them, working for Christ, Lord, accept them and help us to help them. Sunday-school teachers, remember them; and the tract visitors from door to door, and the City missionaries, and the Bible women, all who in any way endeavor to bring Christ under the notice of men. O, help them all.

We will offer but one more prayer, and it is this. Lord, look in pity upon any who are not in Christ. May they be converted. May they pass from death to life, and they will never forget it; may they see the eternal light for the first time, and they will remember it even in Eternity.

Father help us; bless us now for Jesu's sake.

Amen.

PRAYER 9. GLORIOUS LIBERTY.

Our Father, we bless Your name that we can say from the bottom of our hearts, “Abba, Father.”

It is the chief joy of our lives that we have become the children of God by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and we can in the deep calm of our spirit say,

“Our Father, which are in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done in earth as in heaven.”

Lord, we thank You for the liberty which comes to our emancipated spirit through the adoption which You have made us to enjoy.

When we were in servitude the chains were heavy, for we could not keep Your law; there was an inward spirit of rebellion; when the commandment came it irritated our corrupt nature and sin revived, and we died.

Even when we had some strivings after better things, yet the power that was in us lusted into evil...; we wanted to fly from the Father's house; we were wild men, men of the wilderness, and we loved not living in the Father's house.

O God, we thank You that we have not been cast out. Indeed, if You had then cast out the child of the bondwoman You had cast us out, but now through sovereign grace all is altered with us.

Blessed by Your name.

It is a work of divine power and love over human nature, for now we are the children of the promise, certainly not born according to the strength of the human will, or of blood, or of birth, but born by the Holy Ghost through the power of the Word, begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, children of the Great Father who is in heaven, having His life within us.

Now, like Isaac, we are heirs according to promise and heirs of the promise, and we dwell at home in the Father's house, and our soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and our mouth shall praise You as with joyful lips.

O God, we would not change places with angels, much less with kings of the earth. To be...Your sons and daughters — the thought of it does bring to our soul a present heaven, and the fruition of it shall be our heaven, to dwell for ever in the house of the Lord, and go no more out, but to be His sons and His heirs for ever and ever.

Our first prayer is for others who as yet are in bondage. We thank You, Lord, that You have given them the spirit of bondage and made them to fear.

We are glad that they should be brought to feel the evil of sin, to feel the perfection of Your law, to know something of the fiery nature of Your justice, and so to be shut up unto salvation by grace through faith.

But, Lord, let them not tarry long under the pedagogue, but may the schoolmaster with his rod bring them to Christ.

Lord, cure any of Your chosen of self-righteousness; deliver them from any hope in their own abilities, but keep them low.

Bring them out of any hope of salvation by their own prayers or their own repentance.

Bring them to cast themselves upon Your grace to be saved by trusting in Christ.

Emancipate them from all observance of days, weeks, months, years, and things of human institution, and bring them into the glorious liberty of the children of God that Your law may become their delight, You become their strength, their all, Your Son become their joy and their crown.

We do pray this with all our hearts.

Lord, deliver any of Your children from quarrelling with You. Help us to be always at one with our God. “It is the Lord; let Him do what seems Him good,” and blessed be His name for ever and ever.

God, bless our country … and all lands where Your name is known and reverenced, and heathen lands where it is unknown.

God, bless the outposts, the first heralds of mercy, and everywhere may the Lord's kingdom come and His name be glorified.

Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

PRAYER 10. THE MUSIC OF PRAISE.

O Blessed God, we must be helped by Your Spirit or we cannot worship You aright.

Behold the holy angels adore You, and the hosts redeemed by blood bring everlasting Hallelujahs to Your feet.

What are we, the creatures of a day, polluted with sin, that we should think that: we can praise You?

And yet the music of praise were not complete if Your children did not join in it, even those of them who are still in this world below. Help us, then; enable us to tune our harps and to fetch forth music from our spirit.

Verily, Lord, if there are any creatures in the world that can praise You we ought to do so. Each one among us feels that he has some special reason for gratitude.

Lord, it is an unspeakable mercy to know You — to know You as our reconciled God, to know You as our Father in Christ Jesus, who has forgiven us all our trespasses.

Oh! it is unspeakably sweet to come and rest in You, and to know that there is now no cause of quarrel between us and You; on the contrary, that we are bound to one another by a covenant which in infinite tenderness and mercy You have made, that Your people might have strong consolation, and might boldly take hold on You.

Oh! the joy of knowing that we are Yours for ever, Yours in the trials of life, and Yours in the last dread trial of death, and then Yours in resurrection, Yours throughout eternity. We do therefore worship You, O God, not as a constraining nor under terror or pressure, but cheerfully and gladly, ascribing unto You praise, and power, and dominion, and glory, and honor, world without end.

We wish we knew how to do something for You. We pray that we may be helped to do so ere we die; yea, that every flying hour may confess that we have brought Your Gospel some renown; that we may so live as to extend the Redeemer's kingdom at least in some little measure; that ours may not be a fruitless, wereed life; that no faculty of ours may lay by and rust; but to the utmost of our capacity may we be helped of the Divine Spirit to spend our whole life in real adoration.

We know that he prays that serves, he praises that gives, he adores that obeys, and the life is the best music.

Oh! set it to good music, we pray You, and help us all through to keep to each note, and may there be no false note in all the singing of our life, but all be according to that sacred score which is written out so fully in the life music of our Lord.

We beseech You to look down upon Your children, and cheer us. Lord, lift us up. Come, Holy Spirit, like a fresh, bracing wind, and let our spirit, through Your Spirit, rise upward toward God.

We would with much shame-facedness acknowledge our transgressions and sins. There are some that never felt the burden of sin at all. Lord, lay it on them; press them with it. Almighty God, vex their souls; let them find no rest till they find rest in You. May they never be content to live and die in sin, but of Your infinite mercy come to them, and make them sorry for their sin.

As for Your people, we are grieved to think that we do not live better than we do.

Blessed be Your name for every fruit of holiness, for every work of faith, but oh! for more. You have changed the tree; it is no longer a bramble; it can bring forth figs, but now we want to bring forth more of these sweet fruits.

The Lord make us to love Christ intensely, to love the souls of men most heartily, to love Your truth with earnestness, to love the name of Jesus above everything. May we be ravished with the sound of it.

The Lord give us to have every grace, not only love, but faith, and hope, and holy gentleness, meekness, patience, brotherly love.

Build us up, we pray You, Lord, in all knowledge, and in all experience, and give us with this submission to Your will, holy resignation, great watchfulness, much carefulness in our speech, that we may rule the tongue, and so rule the whole body.

The Lord pour out His Spirit upon us that every chamber of our nature may be sweetened and perfumed with the indwelling of God, till our imagination shall only delight in things chaste and pure; till our memory shall cast out the vile stuff from the dark chambers; till we shall expect and long for heavenly things, and our treasure shall all be in heaven and our heart be there.

Take our highest manhood, Lord, and saturate it in Your love, till like Gideon's fleece it is filled with dew.... not a single portion of it left un-moistened by the dew from heaven.

How we do bless You for many that are striving to walk as Christ walked, and who are also trying to bring others to Christ.

O Lord, help us in this struggle after holiness and usefulness; and as You have given to many the desire of their hearts in this respect up to a certain measure; now enlarge their hearts, and give them more both of holiness and usefulness.

Oh! give us to be like trees planted by the rivers of water, that we ourselves may be vigorous, and then give us to bring forth abundant fruit according to our season, to the praise and glory of God.

Our desire is that we may be quickened in our progress toward the celestial life. Visit us with Your salvation. Lord, let us not only have life, but let us have it more abundantly.

May we every one of us quicken His pace, and may we run more earnestly than ever toward the mark that is set before us.

Remember all Your Church throughout the whole world. Prosper missionary operations. Be with any ministers or missionaries that are depressed for lack of success. Be with any that are rejoicing because of success. May each heart be kept in a right state, so that You may use Your servants to the utmost of possibility.

O God, send us better days than these, we pray You. We thank You for all the light there is, but send us more light. We thank You for what life there is among Christians, but send more of it.

Bind the churches together in unity, and then give them such speed, such force, such power that they shall break into the ranks of the adversary, and the victory shall be unto Christ and to His people.

Remember our dear country.....Be gracious unto all ranks and conditions of men. Have mercy upon all that are poor and needy, all that are sick and sorrowing, and that are tossed upon the sea.

Remember the prisoners and such as have no helper.

Be gracious to such as are at the moment of death; and, finally, let the day come when the Sun shall shine forth in all His brightness, even Christ Jesus shall be manifested, to be admired in them that believe, and to make glad the whole creation.

Make no tarrying, O You Sun of Righteousness, but come forth speedily. We ask it for Your name's sake.

Amen.

PRAYER 11. UNDER THE BLOOD.

Jehovah our God, we thank You for leaving on record the story of Your ancient people. It is full of instruction to us. Help us to take its warning to avoid the faults into which they fell!

You are a covenant God, and You keep Your promises and Your Word never fails. We have proved this so hitherto : —

“Thus far we find that promise good, Which Jesus ratified with blood.”

But as for ourselves we are like Israel of old, a fickle people, and, we confess it with great shame, there are days when we take the timbrel and we sing with Miriam “unto the Lord who triumphed gloriously;” and yet, we grieve to say it, not many hours after, we are thirsty, and we cry for water, and we, murmur in our tents; the brackish Marah turns our heart and we are grieved with our God.

Sometimes we bow before You with reverence and awe when we behold Your Sinai altogether in smoke; but there have been times when we have set up the golden calf and we have said of some earthly things, “These be your gods, O Israel.”

We believe with intensity of faith and then doubt with a horribleness of doubt. Lord, You have been very patient with us. Many have been our provocations, many have been Your chastisements, but : —

“Your strokes are fewer than our crimes, And lighter than our guilt.” “You have: not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” Blessed be Your name!

And now fulfill that part of the covenant wherein You have said, “A new heart also will I give you and a right: spirit will I put within you. I will put My fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from Me.”

Hold us fast and then we shall hold fast to You. Turn us; and we shall be turned; keep us and we shall keep Your statutes.

We cry to You that we may no more provoke You.

We beg You rather to send the serpents among us than to let sin come among us.

Oh! that we might have our eye always on the brazen serpent that heals all the bites of evil, but may we not look to sin nor love it.

Let not the devices of Balaam and of Balak prevail against us, to lead Your people away from their purity.

Let us not be defiled with false doctrine or with unholy living, but may we walk as the separated people of God and keep ourselves unspotted from the world.

Lord, we would not grieve Your Spirit. Oh! may we never vex You so as to lead You in Your wrath to say, “They shall not enter into my rest.”

Bear with us still for His dear sake whose blood is upon us.

Bear with us still and send not the destroying angel as You did to Egypt, but again fulfill that promise of Yours, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.”

Just now may we be consciously passed over by the Spirit of condemnation;

may we know in our hearts that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

May we feel the peace giving power of the Divine absolution.

May we come into Your holy presence with our feet washed in the brazen laver, hearing our great High Priest say to us, “You are clean every whit.”

Thus made clean may we draw near to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Further, our heavenly Father, we come before You now washed in the blood, wearing the snow white robe of Christ's righteousness, and we ask You to remember Your people.

Some are sore burdened; lighten the burden or strengthen the shoulder.

Some are bowed down with fear; peradventure they mistrust; forgive the mistrust and give a great increase of faith that they may trust You where they cannot trace You.

The Lord remember any who bear the burden of others. Some cry to You day and night about the sins of the times, about the wanderings of Your Church. Lord, hear our prayers!

We would bear this yoke for You, but help us to bear it without fearing so as to distrust You. May we know that You will take care of Your own case and preserve Your own truth, and may we therefore be restful about it all.

Some are crying to You for the conversion of relatives and friends; this burden they have taken up to follow after Jesus in the cross bearing. Grant them to see the desire of their heart fulfilled.

God, save our children and children's children, and if we have unconverted relatives of any kind, the Lord have mercy upon them for Christ's sake. Give us joy in them — as much joy in them as Christians as we have had sorrow about them as unbelievers.

Further, be pleased to visit Your Church with the Holy Spirit.

Renew the day of Pentecost in our midst, and in the midst of all gatherings of Your people may there come the downfall of the holy fire, the uprising of the heavenly wind.

May things that are now slow and dead become quick and full of life, and may the Lord Jesus Christ be exalted in the midst of His Church which is His fulness, “the fulness of Him that fills all in all.”

May multitudes be converted; may they come flocking to Christ with holy eagerness to find in Him a refuge as the doves fly to their dovecotes.

Oh! for salvation work throughout both here and across the sea and in every part of the world, specially in heathen lands.

Bring many to Christ's feet, we pray You, everywhere where men are ready to lay down their lives that they may impart the heavenly life of Christ.

Work, Lord, work mightily! Your Church cries to You. Oh, leave us not! We can do nothing without You! Our strength is wholly Yours! Come to us with great power, and let Your Word have free course and be glorified.

Remember every one that calls You Father. May a Father's love look on all the children.

May the special need of each one be supplied, the special sorrow of each one be assuaged.

May we be growing Christians, may we be working Christians, may we be perfected Christians, may we come to the fulness of the stature of men in Christ Jesus.

Lord Jesus, You are a great pillar; in You all fulness dwells.

'You began Your life with filling the water-pots to the full; You filled Simon Peter's boat until it began to sink; You filled the house where Your people were met together with the presence of the Holy Ghost; You do fill heaven; You will surely fill all things; fill us, oh! fill us today with all the fulness of God, and make Your people thus joyful and strong, and gracious and heavenly!

But we cannot leave off our prayer when we have prayed for Your people, though we have asked large things; we want You to look among the thousands and millions round about us who know You not.

Lord, look on the masses who go nowhere to worship.

Have pity upon them;

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Give a desire to hear Your Word.

Send upon the people some desire after their God.

O Lord take Sinners in hand Yourself.

Ah! come and reach obstinate, obdurate minds;

Let the careless and the frivolous begin to think upon eternal things. May there be an uneasiness of heart, a sticking of the arrows of god in their loins, and

May they seek too the great physician and find healing this very day.

Ah! Lord, You say “today, if you will hear his voice,” and we take up the echo.

Save men today, even today.

Bring them Your spirit in power that they may be willing to rest in Christ. Lord, hear, forgive, accept and bless, for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

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PRAYER 12. ON HOLY GROUND.

“Our Father, which are in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We fear that we often begin our prayer with petitions for ourselves, and put our daily bread before Your kingdom, and the pardoning of our sins before the hallowing of Your name.

We would not do so today, but guided by our Lord's model of prayer, we would first pray for Your glory; and here, great God, we would adore You.

You have made us and not we ourselves. We are Your people, and the sheep of Your pasture. All glory be unto You, Jehovah, the only living and true God.

With heart and mind, and memory and fear, and hope and joy, we worship the Most High.

It well becomes us to put our shoes from off our feet when we draw near to God, for the place whereon we stand is holy ground. If God in the bush demanded the un-sandalled foot of the prophet, how much more shall God in Christ Jesus?

With lowliest reverence, with truest love, we worship God in Christ Jesus, uniting therein with all the redeemed host above, with angels and principalities and powers.

We cannot cast crowns at His feet, for we have none as yet, but if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, if there be about us anything of grace and good repute, we ascribe it all to God.

We cannot veil our faces with our wings, for we have none, but we veil them with something better than angelic wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. With these we cover our faces, with these we cover our feet, and with these we fly up to God in holiest fellowship of God.

Glory, and honor, and power, and dominion be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and for ever.

Great God, we long that You may be known unto the ends of the earth, that the idols may be utterly abolished.

We long that false doctrine may fly like birds of darkness before the light and Your coming. Reign You in the hearts of our fellow men. Lord, subdue sin, and under Your feet let drunkenness, and un-chastity, and oppression, and every form of wickedness be put away by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.

Oh! that today, even today, many hearts might be won to God. Convince men of the wrong of being alienated from God, put into their hearts sorrow for sin and dread of wrath to come, and lead and drive men to Christ.

Oh! how we pray for this, the salvation of our fellow men, not so much for their sakes as for the sake of the glory of God and the rewarding of Christ for His pain.

We do with all our hearts pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Lord, help us to do Your will. Take the crippled kingdom of our manhood and reign You over it.

Let spirit and body be consecrated to God. May there be no reserves; may everything be given up to You. Reign for ever!

Pierced King, despised and nailed to a tree, sit You on the glorious high throne in our hearts, and may our lives prove that You are Lord over us; by our every thought and desire, and imagination, and word, and act, in every respect being under Your divine control. Your people breathe to You out of their very hearts the prayer that You may reign over us without a rival.

O Savior, use for Yourself what You have bought with blood, and drive out the enemy, and let no power have any dominion over us except the power of Your good Spirit which works righteousness and peace.

We pray today also that Your truth may prevail against the many anti-Christs that have gone forth against it. Our Father, restore a pure language to Your Zion once again.

Take away, we pray You, the itching for new doctrine, the longing for that which is thought to be scientific and wise above what is written, and may Your Church come to her moorings, may she cast anchor in the truth of God and there abide; and if it be Your will may we live to see brighter and better times.

If it might be so we would pray for the coming of our Lord very speedily to end these sluggish years, these long delaying days.

But, if He come not, yet put power into Your truth and quicken Your Church that she may become energetic for the spread of it, that so Your kingdom may come.

This do we seek first and above everything, the glory of God. We ask for grace that we may live with this end in view. May we lay ourselves out to it. May this be our morning thought, the thought that we have in our minds when we lay awake at nights.

What shall I do, my Savior, to praise? How can I make Him illustrious and win another heart to His throne?

Now bless us; forgive us our trespasses wherein we have sinned against You.

Seal our pardon upon our consciences, and make us feel that as we truly forgive them that trespass against us, so have You forgiven us all our iniquities.

We pray You lead us not into temptation. Do not try us, Lord, nor suffer the devil to try us. If we must be tried then deliver us from evil, and especially from the evil one, that he may get no dominion over us.

Oh! keep us, Lord. This life is full of trial. There are many that are perplexed about temporary things. Let not the enemy lead them to do or think anything that is amiss, because of the straitness of supply.

Others are blessed with prosperity. Lord, let it not be a curse to them. Let them know how to abound as well as to suffer loss. In all things may they be instructed to glorify God, not only with all they are, but with all they have, and even with all they have not, by a holy contentment to do without that which it does not please You to bestow.

And then, Lord, give us day by day our daily bread; provide for Your poor people; let them not think that the provision for themselves rests fully on themselves; but may they cry to You, for You have said, “Your bread shall be given you, Your waters shall be sure.”

If we follow You, if You lead us into a desert, You will strew our path with manna. May Your people believe this, and let them have no care, but like the birds of the air which neither sow nor gather into barns, and yet are fed, so may Your people be.

But, above all, give us spiritual help. Give us wisdom, which is profitable to get.

Give us the absence of all self-seeking, and a complete yielding up of our desires to the will of God.

Help us to be as Christ was, who was not His own, but gave Himself to His Father for our sins; so may we for His sake give ourselves up to do or suffer the will of our Father who is in heaven.

Remember Your people in their families and convert their children; give us help and strength; spare precious lives that are in danger; be gracious to any that are dying; may the life of God swallow up the death of the body.

Prepare us all for Your glorious advent; keep us waiting and watching, and come quickly to our heart's desire, for we pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, for Yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever.”

Amen.

PRAYER 13. THE WINGS OF PRAYER.

Our Father, Your children who know You delight themselves in Your presence.

We are never happier than when we are near You. We have found a little heaven in prayer.

It has eased our load to tell You of its weight;

It has relieved our wound to tell You of its smart;

It has restored our spirit to confess to You its wanderings. No place like the mercy seat for us.

We thank You, Lord, that we have not only found benefit in prayer, but in the answers to it we have been greatly enriched.

You have opened Your hid treasures to the voice of prayer;

You have supplied our necessities as soon as ever we have cried unto You; yea, we have found it true:

“Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.”

We do bless You, Lord, for instituting the blessed ordinance of prayer. What could we do without it, and we take great shame to ourselves that we should use it so little.

We pray that we may be men of prayer, taken up with it, that it may take us up and bear us as on its wings towards heaven. And now at this hour will You hear the voice of our supplication. First, we ask at Your hands, great Father, complete forgiveness for all our trespasses and shortcomings.

We hope we can say with truthfulness that we do from our heart forgive all those who have in any way trespassed against us. There lies not in our heart, we hope, a thought of enmity towards any man. However we have been slandered or wronged, we would, with our inmost heart, forgive and forget it all.

We come to You and pray that, for Jesus' sake, and through the virtue of the blood once shed for many for the remission of sins,

You would give us perfect pardon of every transgression of the past. Blot out, O God, all our sins like a cloud, and let them never be seen again.

Grant us also the peace-speaking word of promise applied by the Holy Spirit, that being justified by faith we may have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us be forgiven and know it, and may there remain no lingering question in our heart about our reconciliation with God, but by a firm, full assurance based upon faith in the finished work of Christ, may we stand as forgiven men and women against whom transgression shall be mentioned never again for ever.

And then, Lord, we have another mercy to ask which shall be the burden of our prayer. It is that You would help us to live such lives as pardoned men should live.

We have but a little time to tarry here, for our life is but a vapor; soon it vanishes away; but we are most anxious that we may spend the time of our sojourning here in holy fear, that grace may be upon us from the commencement of our Christian life even to the earthly close of it.

Lord, You know there are some that have not yet begun to live for You, and the prayer is now offered that they may today be born again. Others have been long in Your ways, and are not weary of them.

We sometimes wonder that You are not weary of us, but assuredly we delight ourselves in the ways of holiness more than ever we did.

Oh! that our ways were directed to keep Your statutes without slip or flaw. We wish we were perfectly obedient in thought, and word, and deed, entirely sanctified. We shall never be satisfied till we wake up in Christ's likeness, the likeness of perfection itself.

Oh! work us to this self same thing, we beseech You.

May experience teach us more and more how to avoid occasions of sin.

May we grow more watchful; may we have a greater supremacy over our own spirit; may we be able to control ourselves under all circumstances, and so act that if the Master were to come at any moment we should not be ashamed to give our account into His hands.

Lord, we are not what we want to be. This is our sorrow. Oh! that You would, by Your Spirit, help us in the walks of life to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

As men of business, as work-people, as parents, as children, as servants, as masters, whatever we may be, may we be such that Christ may look upon us with pleasure. May His joy be in us, for then only can our joy be full.

Dear Savior, we are Your disciples, and You are teaching us the art of living; but we are very dull and very slow, and beside, there is such a bias in our corrupt nature, and there are such examples in the world, and the influence of an ungodly generation tells even upon those that know You.

O, dear Savior, be not impatient with us, but still school us at Your feet, till at last we shall have learned some of the sublime lessons of self-sacrifice, of meekness, humility, fervor, boldness, and love which Your life is fit to teach us.

O Lord, we beseech You mold us into Your own image. Let us live in You and live like You. Let us gaze upon Your glory till we are transformed by the sight, and become Christ-like among the sons of men.

Lord, hear the confessions of any that have back-slidden, who are rather marring Your image than perfecting it. Hear the prayers of any that are conscious of great defects during the past. Give them peace of mind by pardon, but give them strength of mind also to keep clear of such mischief in the future.

O Lord, we are sighing and crying more and more after You.

The more we have of You the more we want You; the more we grow like You; the more we perceive our defects, and the more we pine after a higher standard, to reach even unto perfection...

Oh! help us. Spirit of the living God, continue still to travail in us. Let the groanings that cannot be uttered be still within our Spirit, for these are growing pains, and we shall grow while we can sigh and cry, while we can confess and mourn; yet this is not without a blessed hopefulness that He that has begun a good work in us will perfect it in the day of Christ.

Bless, we pray You, at this time, the entire Church of God in every part of the earth. Prosper the work and service of Christian people, however they endeavor to spread the kingdom of Christ.

Convert the heathen; enlighten those that are in any form of error. Bring the entire Church back to the original form of Christianity. Make her first pure, and then she shall be united. O, Savior, let Your kingdom come. Oh! that You would reign, and Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

We pray You use every one of us according as we have ability to be used.

Take us, and let no talent lie to canker in the treasure house, but may every talent of Yours be put out in trading for You in the blessed market of soul-winning.

Oh! give us success. Increase the gifts and graces of those that are saved. Bind us in closer unity to one another than ever. Let peace reign; let holiness adorn us.

Hear us as we pray for all countries, and then for all sorts of men, from the Sovereign on the throne to the servant in the cottage.

Let the benediction of heaven descend on men, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

PRAYER 14. “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL!”

Lord, we are longing to draw near; May Your Spirit draw us near.

We come by the way of Christ our Mediator.

We could not approach You, O our God, if it were not for Him, but in Him we come boldly to the throne of heavenly grace.

Nor can we come without thanksgiving — thanksgiving from the heart, such as the tongue can never express.

You have chosen us from before the foundation of the world, and this well-head of mercy sends forth streams of loving-kindness never ceasing.

Because we were chosen we have been redeemed with precious blood. Bless the Lord! And we have been called by the Holy Spirit out of the world, and we have been led to obey that wondrous call which has quickened us and renewed us, and made us the people of God, given us adoption into the Divine Family. Bless the Lord!

Our hearts would pause as we remember the greatness of each one of Your favors, and we would say,

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” When we consider our utter unworthiness before conversion, and our great faultiness since, we can only admire the riches of abounding grace which God has manifested to us unworthy ones. Bless the Lord!

And when we think of all that You have promised to give, which our faith embraces as being really ours, since the covenant makes it sure, we know not how ... to express Your great goodness.

We would make our praises equal to our expectations, and our expectations equal to Your promises.

We can never rise so high.

We give to You...the praise of our entire being; unto Jehovah, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the Creator of the world, the redeemed of men, unto Jehovah be glory for ever and ever, and let all His people praise Him. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

O Lord, Your works praise You, but Your saints bless You; and this shall be our heaven; yea, our heaven of heavens eternally, to praise and magnify the great and ever blessed God.

May many a maiden this day, May many a man break forth and say, with the virgin of old,         “My soul does magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

May there be going up this day sweet incense, of praise laid by holy hands, privately upon the altar of God.

May this place be filled with the smoke ...to the acceptance of God who shall smell a sweet savor of rest in Christ, and then in the praises of His people in Him.

But, Lord, when we have praised You we have to fold the wing; yea, we have to cover the face and cover the feet and stand before You to worship in another fashion, for we confess that we are evil, evil in our original, and though renewed by sovereign grace

Your people cannot speak of being clean, rid of sin. There is sin which dwells in us which is our daily plague. O God, we humble ourselves before You.

We ask that our faith may clearly perceive the blood of the atonement and the covering of the perfect righteousness of Christ; and

May we come afresh, depending alone on Jesus. “I, the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me.”

May this be our one hope, that Jesus died and rose again, and that for His sake we are accepted in the Beloved.

May every child of Yours have his conscience purged from dead works to serve the true and living God.

May there be no cloud between us and our Heavenly Father; nay, not even a mist, not even the morning mist that soon is gone.

May we walk in the light as God is in the light.

May our fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, be unquestionable; may it be fuel; may it fill us with joy; may it be a most real fact this day; may we enjoy it to the full, knowing whom we have believed, knowing who is our Father, knowing who it is that dwells in us, even the Holy Spirit.

Take away from us every thing which now might hinder our delighting ourselves in God. May we come to God this day with a supreme joy; may we speak of Him as “God my exceeding joy; yea, mine own God is He.” ….

May we come near to You, having no doubt and nothing whatsoever that shall spoil the beautiful simplicity of a childlike faith which looks up into the great face of God and says, “Our Father, which are in heaven.”

There are those who never repented of sin and never believed in Christ, and consequently the wrath of God abides on them. They are living without God, they are living in darkness. O God in Your great mercy look upon them. They do not look at You, but You look at them. May the sinner see his sin and mourn it; see His Savior and accept Him; see himself saved, and go on his way rejoicing. Father, do grant us this.

Once more we pray You bless Your Church. Lord quicken the spiritual life of believers. You have given to Your Church great activity, for which we thank You.

May that activity be supported by a corresponding inner life. Let us not get to be busy here and there with Martha, and forget to sit at Your feet with Mary. Lord, restore to Your Church the love of strong doctrine.

May Your truth yet prevail. Purge out from among Your Church those who would lead others away from the truth as it is in Jesus, and give back the old power and something more.

Give us Pentecost; yea, many Pentecosts in one, and may we live to see Your Church shine forth clear as the sun and fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.

God grant that we may live to see better days. But if perilous times should come in these last days make us faithful.

Raise up in our country, raise up in many other countries, men that shall hold the truth.... Raise up in every country where there has been a faithful church men that will not let the vessel drift upon the rocks.

O God of the Judges, You who raised up first one and then another when the people went astray from God; raise up for us still....our Deborahs, our Baraks, our Gideons and Jephthahs, and Samuels, that shall maintain for God His truth....

Lord look upon Your Church in these days. Lord revive us. Lord restore us. Lord give power to Your Word again that Your name may be glorified.

Remember the Church of God in this land in all its various phases and portions, and pour out Your Spirit upon it.

Remember the multitude of Your people across the sea in..., prosper them, bless them with the increase of God.

And wherever You have a people may Jesus dwell with them and reveal Himself to His own, for Christ's sake, to whom be glory with the Father and with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever.

Amen.

PRAYER 15. THE PEACE OF GOD.

Our God, we stand not afar off as Israel did in Sinai, nor does a veil hang dark between Your face and ours; but the veil is rent by the death of our Divine Lord and Mediator, Jesus Christ, and in His name we come up to the blood sprinkled mercy seat, and here we present our prayers and our praises accepted in Him.

We do confess that we are guilty; we bow our heads and confess that we have broken Your law and the covenant of which it is a part. Did You deal with us under the covenant of works none of us could stand. We must confess that we deserve Your wrath and to be banished for ever from Your presence.

But You have made a new covenant, and we come under its divine shadow; we come in the name of Jesus. He is our High Priest; He is our righteousness; He is the well-beloved in whom You are well pleased.

Holy Spirit teach us how to pray. Let us know what we should pray for as we ought. Our first prayer is: Be You adored; reign You over the whole earth; hallowed be Your name.

We desire to see all men submit themselves to Your gracious government.

We wish especially that in the hearts of Your own there may be an intense love for You and a perfect obedience to You. Grant this to each one of us.

We would each one pray, “Lord, sanctify me; make me obedient; write Your law upon my heart and upon my mind.” Make our nature so clean that temptation cannot defile it.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.” May our course be very clean, our path be very straight; may we keep our garments unspotted from the world; and in thought and desire and imagination, in will and in purpose, may we be holy as God is holy.

O God, we pray again fulfill that covenant promise, “I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

May we be very tender towards You; may we feel Your faintest monition; may even the gentlest breath of Your Spirit suffice to move us; may we not be “as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle...,” but may we be as children obedient to a father; may we yield our members cheerfully to the instruments of righteousness; may we have a natural desire wrought in the new nature towards everything that is pure and honest, unselfish and Christly.

O, Spirit of God dwell in us. Is not this also a covenant promise, “I will put My Spirit within you, and I will make you to walk in My ways.” Dwell with us Holy Spirit; rule over us Holy Spirit; transform us to Your own likeness, O Holy Spirit!

Then shall we be clean; then shall we keep the law. We...pray...for those who are unfamiliar with the work of the Spirit of God, who have never owned their God, who have lived as if there were no God.

Open their eyes that they may see God even though that sight should make them tremble and wish to die. O! let none of us live without our God and Father.

Take away the heart of stone, take away the frivolities, the levity, the giddiness of our youth, and give us in downright earnest to seek true happiness where alone it can be found, in reconciliation to God, and in conformity to His will.

Lord save the careless, save the sinful, the drunkard.... The unholy and unjust men, deliver these from their filthiness; the dishonest and false, renew them in their lives; and any that are lovers of pleasure, dead while they live, and any that are lovers of self, whose life is bounded by the narrowness of their own being, the Lord renew them, regenerate them, make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. For this we do fervently pray.

Lord God the Holy Ghost, may faith grow in men; may they believe in Christ to the saving of their souls. May their little faith brighten into strong faith, and may their strong faith ripen into the full assurance of faith.

May we all have this last blessing; may we believe God fully; may we never waver. Resting in the Great Surety and High Priest of the New Covenant may we feel “the peace of God which passes all understanding,” and may we enter into rest.

Bless Your people that are at rest, and deepen that rest.

May the rest that You give be further enhanced by the rest which they find when they take Your yoke upon them and learn of You.

May Your Word be very sweet to them.

May there come over our spirits a deep calm, as when Christ hushed both winds and waves. May we feel not only resignation to Your will, but delight in it, feeling pleased with all the Lord provides.

May we rest in our God and be quite happy in the thought that our sins and our iniquities He will remember no more.

He has brought us into covenant with Him by a covenant which can never fail, so like David we may say this morning: “Although my house be not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.”

Lord, bless Your Word throughout the world. Prosper all missions amongst the heathen, all work among the Mohammedans; and, oh! send Your grace to the churches at home. Turn the current of thought which sets so strong in the wrong direction, and bring men to love the simplicities of the Gospel.

Remember our country in great mercy, and in all ranks and conditions of men give the blessing. May there be multitudes come to Christ from among the poorest of the poor, and let the wealthy be led away from their sin, and brought to Jesus' feet.

Be gracious ... to all that are in authority over us. May peace and order be maintained, and let not the peace of the world be broken.

But what of all this? Our heart goes far beyond all this: “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; for Yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever.”

“Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” All things are in Your hand, come quickly; the cries of Your

people persuade You, “the Spirit and the bride say, come,” make no tarrying, O, our Redeemer,

and unto the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, the God of Abraham, and God of our Lord Jesus Christ be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER 16. HE EVER LIVES.

Our God, we come to You by Jesus Christ who has gone within the veil on our behalf and ever lives to make intercession for us.

Our poor prayers could never reach You were it not for Him, but His hands are full of sweet perfume which makes our pleading sweet with You. His blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat, and now we know that You do always hear those who approach You through that ever blessed name.

We have deeply felt our entire unworthiness even to lift up our eyes to the place where Your honor dwells. You have made us to die to our self-righteousness.

We pray now because we have been quickened; we have received a new life, and the breath of that life is prayer.

We have risen from the dead, and we also make intercession through the life which Christ has given us.

We plead with the living God with living hearts because He has made us to live.

Our first prayer shall be for those who do not pray.

There is an ancient promise of Yours, “I am found of them that sought Me not; I said, Behold Me, behold Me, to a people that were not a people.”

Prove the sovereignty of Your grace, the priority of Your power, which runs before the will of man, by making many willing in this the day of Your power, and calling the things that are not as though they were.

May the day come in which they that are in their graves shall hear the voice of God, and they that hear shall live. How very often You show Your mighty power. O Lord, we bless You that the voice of God has called many to Christ.

Those that are hardened have felt a softness stealing over their spirits; those who were careless have been compelled to sit down and think; those that were wrapped up in earthly things have been compelled to think of eternal things; and thinking, have been disturbed, and driven to despair, but afterwards led to You, even to You, dear Savior, who was lifted high upon the cross that by Your death sinners might live.

But, Lord, we next would pray that Your own people should know somewhat of the quickening of the Spirit of God.

Lord, we thank You for the very least life to God, for the feeblest ray of faith and glimmering of hope. We are glad to see anything of Christ in any man; but You have come, O Savior, not only that we might have life, but that we might have it more abundantly, so our prayer is that there may be abundance of life.

O make Your people strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. Lord, we find when we walk close with God that we have no desire for the world.

When we get away altogether from the things that are seen and temporal, and live upon the invisible and eternal, then we shall have angels' food; nay, better than that, the food of Christ Himself, for his flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed.

Then have we meat to eat that the world knows not of. We pray You raise all our brothers and sisters in Christ into the high and heavenly frame of mind in which they shall be in the world and not be of it.

Whether they have little or much of temporal things, may they be rich in You and full of joy in the Holy Ghost, and so be blessed men and women.

We pray for some of Your own people who seem to be doing very little for You. Lord, have mercy upon those whose strength runs towards the world, and who give but little of their strength to the spread of the Gospel and the winning of souls.

O let none of us fritter away our existence; may we begin to live since Christ has died; may we reckon that because He died, we died to all the world, and because He lives, we live in newness of life. Lord we thank You for that newness of life.

We praise Your name for a new heaven and a new earth; we bless You that we now see what we never saw before, and hear what we never heard before.

Oh! that we might enter into the very secret place of this inner life.

May we have as much grace as can be obtained; may we become perfect after the manner of Your servant Paul, but still press forward, seeking still to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ.

Lord, make us useful. Oh! let no believer live to himself.

May we be trying to bring others to Christ. May our servants, and work-people, and neighbors all know where we live; and if they do not understand the secret of that life, yet may they see the fruit of that life, and may they ask, “What is this?” and inquire their way to Christ that they may be sanctified too.

O Lord, we pray You visit Your Church. May none of us imagine that we are living aright unless we are bringing others to the cross. Oh! keep us from worldliness; keep us much in prayer; keep us with the light of God shining on our forehead. May we be a happy people, not because protected from affliction, but because we are walking in the light of God.

Again we offer prayer for the many efforts that are scattered abroad today. May they be good wherever they are. We pray for all churches; Lord, revive them all. Wherever Christ is preached, may it be proved that He draws all men unto Him.

May the preaching of Christ today be peculiarly efficacious. Oh! that You would raise up many that would preach Christ, simply, boldly, and with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

Send us better days; send us days of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Lord, shake the earth with the power of God. Oh! that the heathen lands may hear the Word of God and live. But first convert the Church, and then You will convert the world. Oh! deal with those that depart from the faith and grieve Your Holy Spirit.

Bring them back again to their first love, and may Christ be fully and faithfully preached everywhere to the glory of His name.

Now forgive us every iniquity; now lift us beyond the power of every sin; now lift us to pray and praise; now make the home full of sacred power, and, last of all, come, Lord Jesus....

Even so, come quickly, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Amen and Amen.

PRAYER 17. TO BE LIKE CHRIST.

Blessed are You, O God; teach us Your statutes! Because

You are the infinitely blessed One, You can impart blessing, and You are infinitely willing to do so, and therefore do we approach You with great confidence, through Jesus Christ Your Son, whom You have made blessed for evermore.

Oh! hear You the voice of Your servants this day, and according to Your infinite love and wisdom answer...us; according to Your riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.

First we would confess before You, O God, the sin we have committed, mourning over it.

Touch each one's heart now with tenderness that everyone of us may lament that You should even have a few things against us, if they be but few, for in the great love of our blessed Master He said to His churches, “Nevertheless, I have a few things against You.”

O Lord, if You have so kept us by Your grace that there have been but a few things against us, yet help us to bewail them much.

O, Infinite Love, can we sin against You at all? How debased is our nature then! Forgive, sweet Savior, forgive sins against Your love and blood, against Your wounds and death, and give us Your Spirit,

O Savior may we more fully live Your life while we are here among the sons of men, for as You are, even so also are we in this world, and we wish the parallel to become more close and perfect every day!

Forgive those who have never felt the guilt of sin, who are living in it, who are carnally minded, who are therefore dead.

O, quicken by Your divine Spirit; take away the pleasure which they feel in sin; deliver them from being the bond slaves of it. Alas! we know the sorrow of sometimes being captured by it, but still we are not yet slaves.

The Spirit, the life of God, in Jesus Christ, has made us free from the law of sin and death. O, deliver others; bring them up out of the horrible pit of sin. Deliver them from the death of their natures and save them by the Spirit of the living God, and apply the precious blood of Jesus to their hearts and consciences.

And, Lord, hear us who are Your children, in whom the Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Hear us while we bring before You our daily struggles.

Blessed be Your name; there are some sins which You have helped us to overcome, and now they are trodden beneath our feet with many a tear that we ever should have been in bondage to them.

And O! there are rebellions within our nature still. We think that we are getting holy, and behold we discover that we are under the power of pride, that we are self-conceited about ourselves. Lord help us to master pride.

And then when we try to be humble before You we find ourselves falling into inaction and indifference. Lord, slay sloth within us, and never let us find a pillow in the doctrines of grace for ease while yet a single sin remains.

...the raging lusts of the flesh will sometimes pounce upon us like wild beasts. Help us to be very watchful lest by any means we be torn and rent by them. O keep us, we beseech You, Lord, for without Your keeping we cannot keep ourselves.

Alas! we are even sometimes subject to unbelief. If trials come which we expected not, or if the body grows faint, how liable we are to begin to doubt the faithful promise, and so to grieve the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we cannot bear this; it is not enough for us that our garments are clean, and that we walk uprightly before men; we long to walk before You in such a way that there will be nothing to grieve Your Spirit, nothing to vex the tender love of our Beloved.

O, come, Divine Spirit, and exercise Your cleansing power...according to Your promise, “I will cleanse Your blood which I have not cleansed, says the Lord, that dwells in Zion.”

O that everything might help us towards purity, for we crave after it; we mind the things of the Spirit, and there is groaning within us to be utterly delivered from the things of the flesh, that we may in spirit, soul, and body, be a cleansed temple fit for the indwelling of the Holy One of Israel.

Lord help us, we pray You, in our daily life, to be as Christ was. If we are men of sorrows, may there be that luster about our sorrow which there was about His in patience and holly submission to the Divine law.

If we are men of activity may our activity be like His, for he “went about doing good.” May we seek in all ways the good of our fellow-men and the glory of our God.

We wish that the zeal of Your house would eat us up; that we should be full of sacred warmth; that our lips were touched with the live coal so that there be fire in us perpetually flaming and burning, and ourselves a living sacrifice unto God.

Bless us, we pray You, as to our example and influence. May it always be of a spiritual help; may there be sweetness and light about us which all must be obliged to perceive.

Not for our honor would we crave this, but that our light may so shine before men that they may “see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.”

The Lord grant us this! We beseech You, bless the unconverted among us; bring them in, dear Savior, bring them in. Help the living among us to compel them to come in that Your house may be filled; may something of a sacred compulsion be used that they may not be left outside to starve in the highways and hedges, but be brought in to the Gospel feast.

O, Savior, let Your kingdom come. When will this earth be delivered from...superstition and of infidelity?

O that You would hear creation's groans and come quickly.

You great Deliverer, joy of the earth are You, the expected of the tribes of Israel still; come, we beseech You, You absent love, You dear unknown, You fairest of ten thousand fair; come a second time to earth and to the sons of men, and specially to Your Bride, the Church.

Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

PRAYER 18. O, FOR MORE GRACE!

Our Father, You do hear us when we pray.

You have provided an advocate and intercessor in heaven now; we cannot come to You unless Your Holy Spirit motivate us to pray, and help us while we plead.

We would ...truly and personally know the Christ and have Him to be our all in all.

We would live as He is everything to us; more than all in Him we find.

We do accept You, Lord Jesus, to be made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We will not look to any other besides You for anything, for everything is in You. Our sin is pardoned, our sinful nature is subdued; we have a perfect righteousness; we have an immortal life; we have a sure hope; we have an immovable foundation.

Why should we look beyond You? Why should we look within to ourselves, knowing that You shall be the only well from which we will draw the living water, the only foundation upon which we will be built.

We would thrust out new roots this day, and take fresh hold on the blessed soil in which grace has planted us.

O Savior, reveal Yourself anew, teach us a little more, help us to go a little deeper into the divine mystery. May we grip You and grasp You; may we suck out of You the nutriment of our spirit; may we be in You as a branch is in the stem, and may we bear fruit from You.

Without You we can do nothing.

Forgive, we pray You, Your servants, any wanderings during the past. If we have forgotten You, forget not us; if we have acted apart from You, forgive the act. Blot out the sin. Help us in the future to live only as we live in You, to speak, and even to think, as in union with our living Head.

Take away from us all life which is contrary to the life of Christ; bring us into complete subjection in Him, until for us to live shall be Christ in every single act of life. May we walk humbly with God in joyful faith in the finished work of Christ.

Savior, look on Your beloved ones, and give blessings according to our necessities. We cannot pray for...all, but You can, Great Intercessor, plead for each one, and get for each one of us the blessing wanted.

Are we depressed? Give us stronger faith. Have we become worldly? Pardon this great offense and lead us more into spiritual things. Have we become joyous, but have forgotten the Source of Joy? Lord, sweeten and savor that joy with the sweet perfume of Your own presence.

Have we to preach, and do we feel weak? Oh! be our strength. Are we engaged in the Sundayschool, and have we seen little success? Lord, teach us how to teach; give us our boys and girls to be our spiritual reward.

Are we sickly? Have we those that vex us because they are unholy and ungodly? This, indeed, is a terrible trial to many; Lord, help them, both in their personal sickness and in this great spiritual trouble.

Have we dear ones whom we love with all our hearts, who pine before our eyes? Lord, have pity upon them and restore them, and give them patience to bear pain; and give us resignation to Your will in this matter.

Whatever the trial of Your servants, make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it. Our great concern, however, is to grow in grace and to become like our Master. We struggle and we struggle, but how small our progress! Lord, help us in any matter in which we have felt defeated.

If we have been betrayed through want of watchfulness, Lord forgive and help another time. If any of Your servants have lost the brightness of their evidence, give them to come to Christ as sinners if they cannot come as saints.

And if through Satan's temptation any are sorely put to it even to keep their feet, hold them up; and if any have fallen, help them to say, “Rejoice not against me, O, mine enemy; when I fall I shall arise.”

Now look in great mercy upon those who are unconverted; Lord save them. Some are quite careless; Lord, they are dead; come and quicken them. We cannot see, but You can. Oh! that some of the most remorseless and hardened might be softened by the touch of Your Spirit this very day; and may others who are not careless, but who are even seeking after eternal life, but who are going the wrong way to work, may they be shown their error, may they be led in the way by You, may they look, and, looking, live.

We know how many of them are wanting to be this and that before they take Christ to be all in all; may they cease their seeking by finding everything in Christ.

As You are a prayer-hearing God, and a God of pardon, issue many a pardon from Your heavenly court today, sealed with the Redeemer's blood, signed with the Father's name. Oh! today, Lord, ere men grow old in sin, ere they die in their sins, save them with an everlasting salvation.....

Remember all people, especially the poor, the widows and the fatherless, and any that are depressed in spirit, whose depression tends to the failure of reason; the Lord restore them, and such as are dying.

O Lord, let them not die without hope, and may Your believing people learn to pass away without even tasting the bitterness of death. May they enter into rest, each one walking in his own uprightness.

Save this age from its own intellectual pride; give back the spirit of simple faith in Christ, for we desire His glory.

“For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.”

PRAYER 19. GOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.

O Lord, many of us feel like the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. Come by this way and make the lame ones perfectly sound. O Lord, You can do by Your servants today what You did by them in the olden time. Work miracles of mercy even upon outer court worshipers who are too lame to get into the holy place.

But there are many who feel like that man when he was restored. We would follow our Restorer, the Prince of Life, into the temple, leaping and walking and praising God.

He has gone into the temple in the highest sense, up to the throne of God. He climbs, and we would follow, up the steps of the temple one by one, made meet. We would come nearer and nearer to the throne of God.

O Lord, You have done such great things for us that we feel the drawings of Your love. “The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying: Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you.”

Draw us nearer, Lord, draw us into the inner Sanctuary; draw us within the place which once was hidden by the veil which Christ has rent; bring us right up to the throne of grace, and there beholding the glory of God above the Mercy Seat may we have communion with the Most High. Heal all our diseases and forgive us all our trespasses.

Still, Lord, though healed of a former lameness so that now we have strength, we need a further touch from You; we are so apt to get dull and stupid; come and help us, Lord Jesus. A vision of Your face will brighten us; but to feel Your Spirit touching us will make us vigorous.

Oh! for the leaping and the walking of the man born lame. May we today dance with holy joy like David before the Ark of God. May a holy exhilaration take possession of every part of us; may we be glad in the Lord; may our mouth be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, “for the Lord has done great things for us whereof we are glad.”

Today help Your people to put on Christ. May we live as those who are alive from the dead, for He is the quickening Spirit; and may we feel Him to be so. Is any part of us still dead, Lord quicken it.

May the life which has taken possession of our heart take possession of our head; may the brain be active in holy thought; may our entire being, indeed, respond to the life of Christ, and may we live in newness of life.

We would willingly fall down on our faces and worship the Son of God today. It is such a wonder that He should have loved us; and He has done such wonderful things for us and in us that we may still call Him God's unspeakable gift. He is unspeakably precious to our souls.

You know all things, Lord; You know that we love You. May that love bubble up today like a boiling cauldron, may our hearts overflow; and if we cannot speak what we feel, may that holy silence be eloquent with the praise of God.

Lord, send Your life throughout the entire Church. Lord, visit Your Church, restore sound doctrine, restore holy and earnest living.

Take away from professors their apparent love for frivolities, their attempts to meet the world on its own ground, and give back the old love to the doctrines of the cross, the doctrines of the Christ of God; and once more may free grace and dying love be the music that shall refresh the Church, and make her heart exceeding glad.

Just now when the earth is waking up to life, Lord, wake up dead hearts; and if there are seeds of grace lying dormant in any soul may they begin to bud, may the bulb down at the heart send forth its golden cup and drink in of the light, the life of God.

Oh! save today. “Your King in the midst of You is mighty: He will save.”

Our very heart is speaking now much more loudly and sweetly than our lips can speak. Lord save sinners; great High Priest have compassion on the ignorant and such as are out of the way.

Great Shepherd of the sheep gather the lambs within Your arm; find out the lost sheep; throw them on Your shoulders and bring them home rejoicing.

We ask that everywhere there may be great numbers added to the Church. You who brought in five thousand so soon, bring in five thousand in many and many a place.

We read the statistics of Your Church with great sorrow; how small an increase! Lord multiply us with men as with a flock; increase the people, and increase the joy. Make us to joy before You as the joy of harvest.

Lord, we pray for our country with all our heart; and as You ask us we pray for those in authority, ...for all magistrates and rulers. We pray also for the poorest and the down-trodden. The Lord look upon the poor of this world, and make them rich in faith, and comfort them in heart by the Holy Ghost.

...Let Your light and Your truth go forth to the most distant parts of the earth; “let the people praise You; O God let all the people, praise You.” Give us the times of refreshing. May we have a visit from Christ by the power of His Spirit; and until He come may there be a blessed...time of peace and salvation.

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” And come Yourself, great King. May our eyes, if it please You, behold You on earth; but if not, if we fall asleep ere that blessed array, we can say,

“I know that my Redeemer lives; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Bless every Sunday-school teacher, every tract distributor, every open-air preacher. Bless, we pray You, all Bible-women and nurses, deacons and missionaries of the City Mission, Bible readers and all others who in any way seek to bring men to Christ.

O God the Holy Ghost, work mightily, we pray You; flood the world with a baptism of Your power, and “let the whole earth be filled with a knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

We ask all in that dear name which made the lame man whole, which is sweet to God in heaven and dear to us below; and unto Father, Son and Holy Ghost be glory, world without end.

Spurgeon's Prayers Personalized                                   66 / 262

Amen.

PRAYER 20. THE GREAT SACRIFICE.

O God our Father, we do remember well when we were called to You; with many sweet and wooing voices we were bidden to return.

You did Yourself hang out the lights of mercy that we might know the way home, and Your dear Son himself came down to seek us. But we wandered still.

It brings the tears to our eyes to think that we should have been so foolish and so wicked, for we often extinguished the light within and conscience we tried to harden, and we sinned against light and knowledge with a high hand against our God.

You have often brought us very low even to our knees, and we cried for mercy, but we rose to sin again.

Blessed was that day when You struck the blow of grace — the effectual blow... We saw ourselves to be slain by the law, to be lost, ruined, and undone, and then we rolled to and fro in the tempests of our thoughts and staggered like drunken men, and were at our wits' end — then we cried unto You in our trouble, and blessed be Your name for ever,

You delivered us. O happy day that sealed our pardon with the precious blood of Jesus accepted by faith. We would recall the memory of that blessed season by repeating it.

We come again now to the cross whereon the Savior bled; we give another look of faith to Him. We trust we never take away our eyes off Him, but if we have done so we would look anew; we would gaze into the body of the Son of God, pierced with nails, parched with thirst, bleeding, dying, because “it pleased the Father to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.”

Lord God, we see in Your crucified Son a sacrifice for sin; we see how You have made Him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him; and we do over again accept Him to be everything to us.

This is the victim by whose blood the covenant is made through faith; this is that Paschal Lamb by the sprinkling of whose blood all Israel is secured; for You have said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.”

This is the blood which gives us access into that which is within the veil; this is the blood which now to our souls is drink indeed, and we do rejoice in the joy which this new wine of the covenant has given unto our spirits.

We would take afresh the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. We would pay our vows now in the midst of all the Lord's people and in the courts of His house; and this is a part payment of our vow that we bless the Lord Jesus who has put away our sin.

We bless Him that He has redeemed us unto Himself not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with His own precious blood; and we do avow ourselves today to be the Lord's.

We are not our own; we are bought with a price. Lord Jesus, renew Your grasp of us, take us over again, for we do even with greater eagerness than ever before surrender ourselves to

You, and so “bind the sacrifice with cords, even with cords to the horns of the altar.”

O Lord, I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid. You have loosed my bonds. The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock. Henceforth within that Rock I hide myself.

For Him I live. The Lord enable all His people with sincere hearts, with undivided hearts, thus again to give themselves up to Jesus, and You set in them anew the marks and tokens of Your possession till every one of us shall say as many of us can say,

“From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

We bless You, Lord, for that mark to which some of us can look back with much joy. It is not in our hand, nor in our forehead, nor on our foot, nor on our heart alone; our whole body has been buried with Christ in baptism unto death, and now the whole body, soul and spirit, by our willing consecration, belong unto Christ henceforth and for ever.

Our Father, there is one prayer which has kept rising to our lip even while we have been thus speaking to You. It comes from our very heart. It is: Bring others to Yourself. Have You not said, O God of Jacob, “Yet will I gather others unto Him that have not been gathered?” Have You not given to Your Son the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession? Lord, give Your Son the reward of His travail; give Him a part of that reward this day wherever He is preached. Oh! that some might be moved with the love of Christ.

Lord, some know not who You are; convince them of Your Deity and Your power to save. Lord, many of them do not think; they live as if they were to die, and there would be an end of them. O Divine Spirit, convince them of judgment to come.

Set before each careless eye that day of terrible pomp when for every idle word that men shall speak they must give an account.

O Divine Spirit, teach unreasonable men true reason; teach the stubborn sensitiveness; look upon them, Jesus, just as You did on those of the synagogue, not with anger, but still being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts.

“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” and bring many, many, many this very day to the dear feet that were nailed to the cross. Oh! how we long for it. Deny us what You will, only bring sinners to Yourself.

Lord Jesus, You are gone from us. We rejoice that this is the fact, for You have taught us that it is expedient for us that You should go, and that the Comforter should be with us; but, oh! let us not miss that promised presence of the Comforter.

May He be here to help and succor in all works of faith and labors of love, and may we feel that He has come among us and is dwelling with us because He is convincing the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come.

O Spirit of God, bring men to accept the great propitiation, to see their sin washed away in the purple flood whose fount was opened when the heart of Christ was pierced, and may bloodwashed sinners begin to sing on earth that everlasting anthem which shall be sung by all the redeemed in heaven.

We beseech You now, Lord, to look upon all Your people, and grant every one a blessing.

Some are in great trouble. Deliver them, we pray You. Others may be in great peril, though they have no trouble.

The Lord save His people from the evils of prosperity. It may be some of Your own people find it hard to worship because of cares; may they be able, like Abraham, when the birds came down upon the sacrifice, to drive them away.

O Spirit of God, make us all more holy. Work in us more completely the image of Christ. We do long to be as the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and temper, and in unselfishness of life. Give us the character of Christ, we pray You.

Redemption from the power of sin is purchased with His blood, and we crave for it, and pray that we may daily receive it. Let the whole militant Church of Christ be blessed; put power into all faithful ministries; convert this country; save it from abounding sin; let all the nations of the earth know the Lord.....

The Lord bless His people. Bring the Church to break down all bonds of nationality, all limits of sects, and may we feel the blessed unity which is the very glory of the Church of Christ; yea, let the whole earth be filled with His glory.

Our prayer can never cease until we reach this point:

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Nothing less than this can we ask for. ….We ask it for Christ's sake.

Amen.

PRAYER 21. BOLDNESS AT THE THRONE OF GRACE

O God! we would not speak to You as from a distance, nor stand like trembling Israel under the law at a distance from the burning mount, for we have not come unto Mount Sinai, but unto Mount Sion, and that is a place for holy joy and thankfulness, and not for terror and bondage.

Blessed be Your name, O Lord! We have learned to call You “Our Father, which are in heaven”; so there is reverence, for You are in heaven; but there is sweet familiarity, for You are our Father.

We would draw very near to You now through Jesus Christ the Mediator, and we would be bold to speak to You as a man speaks with his friend, for have You not said by Your Spirit, “Let us come boldly unto the throne of the heavenly grace.”

We might...flee from Your face if we only remembered our sinfulness. Lord! we do remember it with shame and sorrow; we are grieved to think we should have offended You, should have neglected so long Your sweet love and tender mercy; but we have now returned unto the “shepherd and bishop of our souls.” Led by such grace, we look to Him whom we crucified, and we have mourned for Him and then have mourned for our sin.

Now, Lord, we confess our guilt before You with tenderness of heart, and we pray You seal home to every believer here that full and free, that perfect and irreversible charter of forgiveness which You give to all them that put their trust in Jesus Christ. Lord!

You have said it: “If we confess our sins, You are merciful and just to forgive us our sins and to save us from all unrighteousness.” There is the sin confessed: there is the ransom accepted: we therefore know we have peace with God, and we bless that glorious one who has come “to finish transgression, to make an end of sin,” to bring in everlasting righteousness, which righteousness by faith we take unto ourselves and You do impute, unto us.

Now, Lord, will You be pleased to cause all Your children's hearts to dance within them for joy?

Oh! help Your people to come to Jesus again today.

May we be looking unto Him today as we did at the first.

May we never take off our eyes from His Divine person, from His infinite merit, from His finished work, from His living power, or from the expectancy of His speedy coming to “judge the world in righteousness and the people with His truth.”

Bless all Your people with some special gift, and if we might make a choice of one it would be this: “Quicken us, O Lord, according to Your Word.”

We have life; give it to us more, abundantly. Oh, that we might have so much life that out of the midst of us there might flow rivers of living water. The Lord make us useful. Do, dear Savior, use the very least among us; take the one talent and let it be put out to interest for the great Father.

May it please You to show each one of us what You would have us to do. In our families, in our business, in the walks of ordinary life may we be serving the Lord, and may we often speak a word for His name, and help in some way to scatter the light amongst the ever-growing darkness; and ere we go hence may we have sown some seed which we shall bring with us on our shoulders in the form of sheaves of blessing.

O God! bless our Sunday schools, and give a greater interest in such work, that there may be no lack of men and women who shall be glad and happy in the work of teaching the young. Do impress this, we pray You, upon Your people just now.

Move men who have gifts and ability also to preach the Gospel. There are many that live in villages, and there is no gospel preaching near them. Lord! set them preaching themselves.

Will You move some hearts so powerfully that their tongues cannot be quiet any longer, and may they attempt in some way, either personally or by supporting some one, to bring the gospel into dark benighted hamlets that the people may know the truth.

...Oh! arouse us to the spiritual destitution of the masses O God, help us all by some means, by any means, by every means to get at the ears of men for Christ's sake that so we may reach their hearts.

We would send up an exceeding great and bitter cry to You on behalf of the millions that:

enter no place of worship, but rather violate its sanctity and despise its blessed message.. Send us another Jonah; send us another John the Baptist.

Oh! that the Christ Himself would send forth multitudes of laborers amongst this thick standing corn, for the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Our most earnest prayers go up to heaven to You now for great sinners, for men and women that are polluted and depraved by the filthiest of sins. With sovereign mercy make a raid amongst them. Come and capture some of these that they may become great lovers of Him that shall forgive them, and may they become great champions for the cross.

Lord, look upon the multitudes of rich people ... that know nothing about the gospel and do not wish to know. Oh! that somehow the poor rich might be rich with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And then, Lord, look upon the multitude of the poor and the working classes that think religion to be a perfectly unnecessary thing for them. Do, by some means we pray You, get them to think and bring them to listen that faith may come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Above all, O Holy Spirit, descend more mightily. Would, God, You would flood the land till there should be streams of righteousness; for is there not a promise, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.” Lord, set Your people praying; stir up the Church to greater prayer-fulness.

Now, as You have bidden 'us, we pray for the people among whom we dwell. We pray for those in authority in the land... Your benediction to all judges and rulers as also upon the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low. Lord, bless the people; let the people praise You, O God! yea, let all the people praise You, for Jesus Christ's sake.

Amen and Amen.

PRAYER 22. THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

Our Father, which are in heaven, our hearts are full of gratitude to You for Your Word. We bless You that we have it in our houses, that You have given to many of us to understand it and to enjoy it.

Although as yet we know not what we shall know, yet have we learned from it what we never can forget, that which has changed our lives has removed our burdens, has comforted our hearts, has set our faces like flints against sin and made us eager after perfect holiness. We thank You, Lord, for every leaf of the Book, not only for its promises which are inexpressibly sweet, but for its precepts in which our soul delights, and especially for the revelation of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

O God, we thank You for the manifestation of Him even in the types and shadows of the Old Testament. These are inexpressibly glorious to us, full of wondrous value, inexpressibly dear because in them and through them we see the Lord.

But we bless You much more for the clear light of the New Testament, for giving us the key to all the secrets of the Old Testament, for now, reading the scriptures of the new covenant, we understand the language of the old covenant and are made to joy and to rejoice therein.

Father, we thank You for the Book, we thank You for the glorious Man, the God whom the Book reveals as our Savior; and now we thank You for the Blessed Spirit, for without His light upon the understanding we should have learned nothing. The letter kills, it is the Spirit that gives life.

Blessed are our eyes that have been touched with heavenly eye-salve. Blessed are the hearts that have been softened, that have been made ready to receive the truth in the love of it!

Blessed be the sovereign grace of God that has chosen unto Him a people who delight in His Word and who meditate in it both day and night!

Our hearts are full of praises to God for this Man of Truth, for this unmeasured wealth of holy knowledge. Lord make us to enjoy it more and more. May we feed upon this manna; may we drink from this well of life; may we be satisfied with it, and by it be made like to the God from whom it came.

And now, Lord, our prayer is to You at the mention of Your sacred Book, that You would write it upon the fleshy tablets of our heart more fully. We want to know the truth that the truth may make us free. We want to feel the truth that we may be sanctified by it.

Oh! let it be in us a living seed which shall produce in us a life acceptable before God, a life which, shall be seen in everything that we do unto the living God, for we remember that You are not the God of the dead but of the living.

Lord, we ask that Your Word may chasten us whenever we go astray, may it enlighten us whenever for a moment we get into darkness. May Your Word be the supreme ruler of our being. May we give ourselves up to its sacred law to be obedient to its every hint, wishing in all things, even in the least things, to do the will of God from the heart and having every thought brought into captivity to the mind of the Spirit of God.

Bless Your people; bless them in this way by saturating them with the Word of Your truth. O Lord, they are out in the world so much. Oh! grant that the world may not take, them off from their God. May they get the world under their feet; let them not be buried in it, but may they live upon it, treading it beneath their feet, the spiritual getting the mastery always over the material.

Oh! that the Word of God might be with us when we are in the midst of an ungodly generation. May the Proverbs often furnish us with wisdom, the Psalms furnish us with comfort, the Gospels teach us the way of holiness, and the Epistles instruct us in the deep things of the kingdom of God.

Lord educate us for a higher life, and let that life be begun here. May we be always in the school, always disciples, and when we are out in the world may we be trying to put in practice what we have learned at Jesus feet. What He tells us in darkness may we proclaim in the light, and what He whispers in our ear in the closets may we sound forth upon the housetops.

Oh! dear, dear Savior, what could we do without You. We are as yet in banishment, we have not come into the land of light and glory; it is on the other side the river, in the land where You give, Your land of Immanuel, and till we come thither be You with us.

We have said unto ourselves, How shall we live without our Lord; and then we have said unto You, “If Your Spirit go not with us, carry us not up hence.” Oh! be to us this day as the fiery cloudy pillar that covered all the camp of Israel. May we dwell in God; may we live and move in God; may we be conscious of the presence of God to a greater extent than we are conscious of anything else.

Bless the churches. Look on them, Lord; cast an eye of love upon the little companies of the faithful wherever they may be and help them and their pastors, and may the churches be in every place a light in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. O God, we are waiting and watching for a display of Your great power among the people.

It is an age of great luxury and great sin and gross departures from the truth; we beseech You defend Your own.

When Your ark was carried captive among the Philistines and set up in the temple of Dagon, Dagon fell before it, then You smote Your adversaries in the hinder parts and put them to a perpetual reproach, and You can do the like again, and we pray it may be so.

Oh! for the stretched out hand of God. We are longing to see it in the conversion of great multitudes by the gospel, that those who have said,

“Aha, aha, the gospel has lost its power,” may be made foolish by the wisdom of the Most High, even as Jannes and Jambres were made foolish when they could not do so with their enchantments, but God was with His servant.

O, Jehovah, You are the true God, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, this God is our God for ever and ever; He shall be our guide even unto death. Them who spoke by the apostles speak still by Your servants, and let Your Word be with as much power as when You said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”

Oh! for the lifting up of Your voice! Let confusion and darkness once again hear the voice of

Him that makes order and that gives life. Oh! how we would stir You up, gracious God. Our prayers would take the form of that ancient one, “Awake, awake, put on Your strength.” are You not He that cut Egypt and wounded the crocodile? Have You not still the same power to smite and to vindicate Your own truth and deliver Your own redeemed?

O Lamb, slain from before the foundation of the world, You are still to sit upon the throne, for He that is on the throne looks like a Lamb that has been newly slain. O Jesus, we beseech You take to Yourself Your great power; divide the spoil with the strong; take the purchase of Your precious blood and rule from the river even unto the ends of the earth.

Here we are before You; look on us in great pity. Lord, bless Your own people. With favor compass them as with a shield. Lord, save the unsaved. In great compassion draw them by the attractive magnet of the cross, draw them to Yourself, compel them to come in that the wedding may be furnished with guests.

With one heart we put up our prayer on the behalf of the teachers of the young. We thank You, Lord, that so many men and women are ready to give their Sunday's rest to this important service. Oh! grant that zeal for teaching the young may never burn low in the church. May any that are taking no part in it and who ought to be, be aroused at once to commence the holy effort.

Bless the teachers of the senior classes; may their young men and women pass into the church; may there be no gap between the school, and the church. Bridge that distance by Your sovereign grace.

But equally bless the teachers of the infants and of the younger children. May conversion go on among the young. May there be multitudes of such conversions. ...we would pray that no child may leave the schools, unsaved.

Oh! save the children, great Lover of the little ones. You who would have them suffered to come to You, You will not forget them, but You will draw them and accept them. Lord! save the children.

Let all the schools participate in the blessing which we seek, and by this blessed agency may this nation be kept from heathenism; these people especially be preserved from its dogged disregard of the Sunday, and its carelessness about the things of God. ...let Jesus Christ be glorified among the little ones, and again may there be heard loud hosannas in the streets of Jerusalem from the babes and sucklings out of whose mouths You have ordained strength.

The Lord be with these dear workers throughout today and make it a high day, a festival of prayer and faith, a time when Jesus the Lord shall especially meet with them and bless them.

God bless our country! God save our Sovereign! Grant guidance at this time to all with regard to the political affairs of this nation. Grant Your blessing to all ranks and conditions of men, and let every nation call You “blessed”

Let all tongues speak the name of Jesus and all men own Him as Lord and King. We ask it in His name.

Amen.

PRAYER 23. THE LOOK OF FAITH.

Our Father, we have listened to Your gracious words.

Truly Your paths drop fatness.  Wherever You are, mercy abounds.

Before Your feet rivers of grace spring up.

When You come to man it is with the fulness of pardoning love.

You have bidden us come to You and seek You while You may be found. We would come now.

May Your holy Spirit help us!  May Jesus lead the way and be our Mediator now!

Blessed be Your name; there are many who sought Your face many years ago. We have since then tasted that You are gracious, and we know by a delightful experience that You do indeed give milk and honey to such as trust You. Oh! we wish we had known You earlier.

Lord, You have been full of truth and faithfulness to us throughout every step of our journey, and though You have not withheld the rod of the covenant from us, we are as grateful for that this morning as for the kisses of Your lips. You have dealt well with Your servants according to Your Word. Blessed be Your name for ever and ever.

But there are some who have never come to You; they are hearers, but hearers only; they have listened to gracious invitations thousands of times, but they have never accepted them. Say unto them, “Thereto have you gone, but no further shall you proceed in your carelessness and trifling. Here shall you stay and turn unto Your God.”

O Savior, You have all power in heaven and earth, therefore You can through the preaching of Your Word influence the hearts of men. Turn them, and they shall be turned. Oh! do it this day.

We would now in our prayers come; as we came at first would we come again; we would renew our vows, we would again repeat our repentance and our faith, and then look at the brazen serpent and touch but the border of Your garment.

We would begin again. O, Lord, help us to do it in sincerity and truth. And first we do confess that we are by nature lost and by practice ruined.

We are altogether as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We would lie at those dear pierced feet bleeding at heart because of sin, wounded, mangled, crushed by the fall and by our own transgression.

We confess that if You should number our sins upon us and deal with us accordingly we should be sent to the lowest hell.

We have no merit, no claim, no righteousness of our own.

Oh! now, dear Savior, we look up to You. Oh! that some might look for the first time, and those of us that have long looked would fix our happy gaze again upon that blessed substitutionary sacrifice wherein is all our hope.

Dear Savior, we do take You to be everything to us, our sin-bearer and our sin destroyer. We have not a shadow of a shade of a hope anywhere but in You, Your life, Your death, Your resurrection, Your ascension, Your glory, Your reign, Your second advent; these are the only stars in our sky.

We look up to You and are filled with light.

But O You dear, dear Savior, we dare not turn to ordinances, we dare not turn to our own prayers, and tears, and alms-givings, we dare not look to our own works, we only look to You; Your wounds, Immanuel, these bleed the balm that heals our wounds, Your crowned head once girt with thorns, Your body once laid in the silent tomb, Your Godhead once covered and concealed from man, but now resplendent amidst triumphant hosts.

If we can perish trusting in You we must perish, but we know we cannot, for You have bound up our salvation with Your glory, and because You are a glorious Savior for ever, none that trust in You shall ever be confounded. But we do trust You now.

If all our past experience has been a mistake, yet we will begin at the cross today; or if we have never had any experience of You before we would begin today. Oh! hear You, hear You the prayer : —

“Dear Savior, draw reluctant hearts, To You let sinners fly.”

By His agony and bloody sweat, by His cross and passion, by His precious death and burial, we beseech You hear us now!

We plead with You for some that are not pleading for themselves, O Spirit of God, let it not be so any longer. Now sweetly use Your key to open the fast-closed door, and come into men's hearts and dwell there that they may live.

We have a thousand things to ask We should like to plead for our country and for all countries; we should like to plead with You for the sick and for the dying, for the poor and for the fatherless.

We have innumerable blessings to ask, but somehow they all go away from our prayer just now, and this is our one cry: Save, Lord, we beseech You, even now send salvation! Come Holy Spirit to open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears and quicken dead hearts.

Father, glorify Your Son that Your Son may glorify You.

Holy Spirit, do Your office and take of these things of Christ and reveal them unto us. We gather up all our prayers in that salvation through the blood of the Lamb.

Amen.

PRAYER 24. “DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”

O God, let us not be formalists or hypocrites at this time in prayer.

We feel how easy it is to bow the head and cover the face, and yet the thoughts may be all astray, and the mind may be wandering hither and thither, so that there shall be no real prayer at all.

Come, Holy Spirit, help us to feel that we are in the immediate presence of God; and may this thought lead us to sincere and earnest petitioning.

There are some who know not God; God is not in all their thoughts; they make no reckoning of You, You glorious One, but do their business and guide their lives as if there was no God in heaven or in earth. Strike them now with a sense of Your presence.

Oh! that Your eternal power might come before their thoughts, and now may they join with Your reverent people in approaching Your mercy seat.

We come for mercy, great God; it must always be our first request, for we have sinned, sinned against a just and holy law of which our conscience approves. We are evil, but Your law is holy and just and good.

We have offended knowingly; we have offended again and again; after being chastened we have still offended, and even those of us who are forgiven, who through Your rich love have been once for all washed from every stain, yet have we sinned grievously; and we confess it with much shame and bitter self-reproach that we should sin against such tender love, and against the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is in His people; and who checks them and quickens their consciences; so that they sin against light and knowledge when they sin.

Wash us yet again. And when we ask for this washing it is not because, we doubt the efficacy of former cleansing. Then we were washed in blood.

Now, O Savior, repeat upon us what You did to the twelve when You took a towel and basin and washed their feet. And when that was done You told them that he who had been washed had no need save but to wash his feet. After that was done he was clean every whit.

Oh! let Your children be in that condition...— clean every whit — and may they know it; and thus being clean may they have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Christ; and may they now come and stand where the cherubim once were, where the glory still shines forth.

And may we before a blood-sprinkled mercy seat, ourselves washed and cleansed, pour out our prayers and praises.

As for those that never have been washed, we repeat our prayer for them. Bring them, oh! bring them at once to a sense of sin.

Oh! that we might see them take their first complete washing, and may they become henceforth the blood washed and blood redeemed consecrated ones, belonging forever unto Him who has made them white through His atoning sacrifice.

And, blessed Lord, since You do permit Your washed ones to come close to Yourself we would approach You now with the courage which comes of faith and love, and ask of You this thing.

Help us to overcome every tendency to evil which is still within us, and enable us to wear armor... that the arrows of the enemy from without will not penetrate, that we may not be wounded again by sin.

Deliver us, we pray You, from doubts within and fears without, from depression of spirit, and from the outward assaults of the world.

Make us and keep us pure within, and then let our life be conducted with such, holy jealousy and watchfulness that there may be nothing about us that shall bring dishonor to Your name. May those who most carefully watch us see nothing but what shall adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

Lord help Your people to be right as parents. May none of us spoil our children; may there be no misconducted families to cry out against us.

Help us to be right as employers; may there be no oppression, no hardness and unkindness. Help us to be right as employees; may there be no eye service, no purloining, but may there be everything that adorns the Christian character.

Keep us right as citizens; may we do all we can for our country, and for the times in which we live.

Keep us right, we pray You, as citizens of the higher country; may we be living for it, to enjoy its privileges, and to bring others within its ranks, that multitudes may be made citizens of Christ through our means.

Lord help us to conduct ourselves aright as Church members; may we love our brethren; may we seek their good, their edification, their comfort, their health.

May such of us as are called to preach have grace equal to that responsibility.

Lord make every Christian to be clear of the blood of all those round about him. We know that there are some who profess to be Your people, who do not seem to care one whit about the souls of their fellow men. God forgive this inhumanity to men, this treason to the King of kings.

Rouse the Church, we pray You, to a tenderness of heart towards those among whom we dwell.

Let all the churches feel that they are ordained to bless their neighbors. Oh! that the Christian Church in our country might begin to take upon itself its true burden. Let the Church with its mass of poverty and sin round about it, care for the people and love the people; and may all Christians bestir themselves that something may be done for the good of men, and for the glory of God.

Lord, do use us for Your glory. Shine upon us, O Emmanuel, that we may reflect Your brightness; dwell in us, O Jesus, that out of us may come the power of Your life.

Make Your Church to work miracles, because the miracle-worker is in the midst of her.

Oh! send us times of revival, seasons of great refreshing; and then times of aggression, when the army of the Lord of Hosts shall push its way into the very center of the adversary, and overthrow the foe in the name of the King of kings.

Now forgive Your servants all that has been amiss, and strengthen in Your servants all that is good and right. Sanctify us to Your service, and hold us to it.

Comfort us with Your presence; elevate us into Your presence. Make us like Yourself; bring us near Yourself, and in all things glorify Yourself in us, whether we live or die.

Bless the poor, remember the needy among Your own people; help and succour them. Bless the sick, and be very near the dying. The Lord comfort them.

Bless our country...send peace to disquieted districts; give wisdom to our congressmen in the making and in the seeing to the keeping of the law.

And may Your kingdom come not here only, but in every land and nation. Lands across the flood remember with the plenitude of Your grace. Let the whole earth be filled with Your glory.

We ask it for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

PRAYER 25. THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD. Same as XV.

Jehovah, our God, You love Your people, You have placed all the saints in the hand of Jesus, and You have given Jesus to be to them a leader, a commander and a husband;

and we know that You delight to hear us cry on the behalf of Your Church for You care for Him, and You are ready to grant to Him according to the covenant provisions which You have laid up in store for Christ Jesus.

Therefore would we begin this prayer by entreating You to behold and visit the vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted.

Look upon Zion the city of our solemnities; look upon those whom You have chosen from before the foundation of the world, whom Christ has redeemed with blood, whose hearts He has won and holds, and who are His own though they be in the world.

Holy Father, keep Your people, we beseech You, for Jesus' sake Though they are in the world let them not be of it, but may there be a marked distinction between them and the rest of mankind.

Even as their Lord was holy, harmless and undefiled, and separate from sinners, so may it be with believers in Christ. May they follow Him and may they not know the voice of strangers, but come out from the rest that they may follow Him without the camp.

We cry to You for the preservation of Your Church in the world, and especially for her purity. O, Father, keep us, we beseech You with all keeping, that the evil one touch us not.

We shall be tempted, but let him not prevail against us. In a thousand ways he will lay snares for our feet; but, oh! deliver us as a bird from the snare of the fowler. May the snare be broken that we may escape.

Let not Your Church suffer dishonor at any time, but may her garments be always white. Let not such as come in among her that are not of her..... O, Christ, as You groaned concerning Judas, so may Your children cry to You concerning any that have fallen aside into crooked ways, lest the cause of Christ in the earth should be dishonored.

O, God, cover, all the people of Christ...with Your feathers and keep Your Church even until He shall come Who, having loved His own that were in the world, loves them even to the end. We would ask just now that we may be washed as to our feet; we trust You have bathed us once for all in the sin-removing fountain. You have also washed us in the waters of regeneration and given us the renewing of our minds, through Jesus Christ; but O for daily cleansing.

You see any fault in us? Ah! we know that You do. Wash us that we may be clean. Are we deficient in any virtue? Oh! supply it that we may exhibit a perfect character to the glory of Him who has made us anew in Christ Jesus. Or is there something that would be good if not carried to excess? Be pleased to modify it lest one virtue should slaughter another, and we should not be the image of Christ completely.

O Lord and Master, You who washed Your disciples' feet of old, still be very patient toward us, very condescending towards our provoking faults, and go on with us, we pray You, till Your great work shall be completed and we shall be brethren of the First Born, like unto Him.

Gracious Master, we wish to, conquer self in every respect; we desire to live for the glory of God and the good of our fellow men; we would have it true of us as of our Master, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.”

Will You enable us especially to overcome the body with all its affections and lusts; may the flesh be kept under; let no appetite of any kind of the grosser sort prevail against our manhood, lest we be dishonored and unclean.

And let not even the most refined power of the natural mind be permitted to come so forward as to mar the dominion of the Spirit of God within us.

Oh! help us not to be so easily moved even by pain, may we have much patience, and let not the prospect of death ever cause us any fear, but may the spirit get so much the mastery of the body that we know nothing can hurt the true man.

The inner newborn cannot be smitten, nor is it to die; it is holy, incorruptible, and lives and abides for ever in the life that is in Christ Jesus.

Oh! for a complete conquest of self. Especially render us insensible to praise, lest we be too sensitive to censure. Let us reckon that to have the approbation of God and of our own conscience is quite enough; and may we be content, gracious God, to bear the cavillings of unreasonable men; yea, and to bear the misrepresentations of our own brethren.

Those that we love, if they love not us, yet may we love them none the less, and if by mistake they misjudge us, let us have no hard feelings towards them, and God grant we may never misjudge one another, does not our Judge stand at the bar?

Oh! keep us like little children who do not know, but expect to know hereafter, and are content to believe things which they do not understand. Lord keep us humble, dependent, yet serenely joyful. May we be calm and quiet even as a weaned child, yet may we be earnest and active.

Savior, make us like You. We wish not so much to do as to be. If You will make us to be right we shall do right. We find how often we have to put a constraint upon ourselves to be right, but, oh! that we were like You, Jesus, so that we had but to act out ourselves, to act out perfect holiness. We shall never rest till this is the case, till You have made us ourselves to be inwardly holy, and then words and actions must be holy as a matter of course.

Now, here we are, Lord, and we belong to You. Oh! It is because we are Your own that we have hope. You will make us worthy of You. Your possession of us is our hope of perfection. You do wash our feet because we are Your own. Oh! how sweet is the mercy which first took us to its heart and made us all its own. and now continues to deal tenderly with us, that being Christ's own we may have that of Christ within us which all may see proves us to be Christ's own!

Now we would bring before You all Your saints and ask You to attend to their trials and troubles. Some we know are afflicted in person, others are afflicted in their dear friends, some are afflicted in their temporal estate and are brought into sore distress.

Lord, we do not know the trials of all Your people, but You do, for You are the Head, and the pains of all the members are centered in You. Help all Your people even to the end.

Now we pray You to grant us the blessing which we have already sought, and let it come upon all the churches of our beloved country.

May the Lord revive true and undefiled religion here and in all the other lands where Christ is known and preached, and let the day come when heathendom shall become converted, when the crescent of Mohammed shall wane into eternal night, and when she that sits on the Seven Hills and exalts herself in the place of God shall be cast down to sink like a millstone in the flood.

Let the blessed Gospel of the eternal God prevail, let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Oh! that we may live to see that day. The Lord bless our country; have pity upon it...

Grant that there may be in Your infinite wisdom a change in the state of trade and commerce, that there may be less complaint and distress.

Oh! let the people see Your hand, and understand why it is laid upon them, that they may turn from wrongdoing and seek righteousness and follow after peace.

Then shall the blessing return. The Lord hear us as in secret we often cry to You on behalf of this misled land. The Lord deliver it, and lift up the light of His countenance upon it yet again, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

PRAYER 26. PRAYER ANSWERED AND UNANSWERED. Compare with xxii

God of Israel, God of Jesus Christ, our God for ever and ever!

Help us now by the sacred Spirit to approach You aright with deepest reverence, but not with servile fear; with holiest boldness, but not with presumption. Teach us as children to speak to the Father, and yet as creatures to bow before our Maker.

Our Father, we would first ask You whether You have ought against us as Your children?

Have we been asking somewhat of You amiss, and have You given us that which we have sought? We are not conscious of it, but it may be so, and now we are brought as an answer to our presumptuous prayers into a more difficult position than the one we occupied before.

Now it may be that some creature comfort is nearer to us than our God; we had better have been without it and have dwelt in our God and have found our joy in Him. But now, Lord, in these perilous circumstances give us grace that we may not turn away from You. If our position now be not such as You would have allotted to us had we been wiser, yet nevertheless grant that we may be 'taught to behave ourselves aright even now lest the mercies You have given should become a cause of stumbling, and the obtaining of our hearts' desire should become a temptation to us.

Rather do we feel inclined to bless You for the many occasions in which You have not answered our prayer, for You have said that we did ask amiss and therefore we could not have, and we desire to register this prayer with You that whensoever we do ask amiss, You would in great wisdom and love be pleased to refuse us.

O, Lord, if we at any time press our suit without a sufficiency of resignation do not regard us, we pray You, and though we cry unto You day and night concerning anything, yet if You see that herein we err regard not the voice of our cry, we pray You. It is our hearts' desire now, in our coolest moments, that this prayer of ours might stand on record as long as we live, not as I will, but as You will.

But, O Lord, in looking back we are obliged to remember with the greatest gratitude the many occasions in which You have heard our cry. We have been brought into deep distress, and our heart has sunk within us, and then have we cried to You and You have never refused to hear us, The prayers of our lusts You have rejected, but the prayers of our necessities You have granted.

Not one good thing has failed of all that You have promised.

You have given to us exceeding abundantly above what we asked or even thought, for there was a day when our present condition would have been regarded as much too high for us ever to reach, and in looking back we are surprised that those who did lie among the pots of Egypt should now sit every man under his vine and fig-tree, that those who wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way should now find a city to dwell in, that we who were prodigals in rags should now be children in the Father's bosom; that we who were companions of swine should now be made heirs of God and joint heir's with Christ.

Oh! what encouragement we have to pray to such a prayer-hearing God who far exceeds the request of His children.

Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever, our inmost heart is saying. Amen, blessed be His name. If it were only for answered prayer or even for some unanswered prayers we would continue to praise and bless You as long as we have any being.

And now, Lord, listen to the voice of Your children's cry. Wherever there is a sincere heart seeking for greater holiness answer You that request, or wherever there is a broken spirit seeking for reconciliation with You be pleased to answer it now. You know where there is prayer, though it be un-uttered, and even the lips do not move.

Oh! hear the publican who dares not lift his eye to heaven. Hear him while he cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Hear such as seem to themselves to be appointed unto death. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before You!

Oh! that You would grant peace and rest to every troubled spirit all over the world who now desires to turn his face to the cross and to see God in Christ Jesus. O Lord, if there are any of Your servants exercised about the cases of others we would thank You for them.

Raise up in the Church many intercessors who shall plead for the prosperity of Zion, and give You no rest till You establish her and make her a joy in the land.

Oh! there are some of us that cried to You about our country. You know how in secret we groaned and sighed over evil times, and You have begun to hear us already, for which we desire to praise and bless Your name. But we would not cease to pray for this land that You would roll away from it all its sin, that You would deliver it from the curse of drunkenness, rescue it from infidelity, from popery, from ritualism, from rationalism and every form of evil, that this land might become a holy land.

O, Lord, bring the multitudes of the working men to listen to the gospel. Break in, we pray You, upon their stolid indifference. Lord, give them a love of Your house, a desire to hear Your gospel, and then will You look upon the poor rich who so many of them know nothing about You and are worshiping their own wealth.

The Lord grant that the many for whom there are no special gospel services, but who are wrapped up in self-righteousness, may be brought to hear the gospel of Jesus that they also, as well as the poor, may be brought to Christ.

God bless this land with more of gospel light, and with more of gospel life and love. You will hear us, O Lord.

Then would we pray for our children, that they might be saved. Some of us can no longer pray for our children's conversion, our prayers are heard already. But there are others who have children who vex them and grieve their hearts.

O God, save sons and daughters of godly people. Let them not have to sigh over their children as Eli did and as Samuel did, and may they see their sons and daughters become the children of the living God.

We would pray for our servants, for our neighbors, for our kinsfolk of near or far degree, that all might be brought to Jesus. Do this, O God, of Your infinite mercy.

And as we are now making intercession we would, according to Your Word, pray for all kings, such as are in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives. We pray for all nations also. O Lord, bless and remember the lands that sit in darkness, and let them see, a great light, and may missionary enterprise be abundantly successful.

And let the favored nations where our God is known, especially this land and the land across the mighty ocean that love the same Savior and speak the same tongue, be always favored with the Divine presence and with abundant prosperity and blessing.

O Lord, You have chosen this our race and favored it and multiplied it on the face of the earth, and whereas with this staff it crossed this Jordan it has now become two great nations.

Lord be pleased to bless the whole of the race and those absorbed into it, and then all other races that in us may be fulfilled the blessing of Abraham, “I will bless you and you shall be a blessing.”

And now, Father, glorify Your Son!

In scattering pardons through His precious blood glorify Your Son!

In sending forth the Eternal Spirit to convince men and bring them to His feet, Father glorify Your Son!

In enriching Your saints with gifts and graces, and building, them up into His image, Father glorify Your Son!

In the gathering together of the whole company of His elect and in the hastening of His kingdom and His coming, Father glorify Your Son!

Beyond this prayer we cannot go:

“Glorify Your Son that Your Son also may glorify You,” and unto Father, Son and Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

THE GOLDEN KEY OF PRAYER.

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

— Jeremiah 33:3.

Some of the most learned works in the world smell of the midnight oil; but the most spiritual, and most comforting books and sayings of men usually have a savor about them of prisondamp. I might quote many instances: John Bunyan's Pilgrim may suffice instead of a hundred others; and this good text of ours, all moldy and chill with the prison in which Jeremiah lay, has nevertheless a brightness and a beauty about it, which it might never have had if it had not come as a cheering word to the prisoner of the Lord, shut up in the court of the prison-house. God's people have always in their worst condition found out the best of their God. He is good at all times; but he seems to be at His best when they are at their worst. “How could you bear your long imprisonment so well?” said one to the Landgrave of Hesse, who had been shut up for his attachment to the principles of the Reformation. He replied, “The Divine consolations of martyrs were with me.” Doubtless there is a consolation more deep, more strong than any other, which God keeps for those who, being His faithful witnesses, have to endure exceeding great tribulation from the enmity of man. There is a glorious aurora for the frigid zone; and stars glisten in northern skies with unusual splendor. Rutherford had a quaint saying, that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept His wine there, and he began to seek at once for the wine-bottles, and to drink of the “wines on the lees well refined.” They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls. You know, my companions in affliction, that it is so. You whose bones have been ready to come through the skin through long lying' upon the weary couch; you who have seen your earthly goods carried away from you, and have been reduced well nigh to penury; you who have gone to the grave yet seven times, till you have feared that your last earthly friend would be borne away by unpitying Death; you have proved that He is a faithful God, and that as your tribulations abound, so your consolations also abound by Christ Jesus. My prayer is, in taking this text this morning, that some other prisoners of the Lord may have its joyous promise spoken home to them; that you who are straitly shut up and cannot come forth by reason of present heaviness of spirit, may hear Him say, as with a soft whisper in your ears, and in your hearts, “Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you know not.” The text naturally splits itself up into three distinct particles of truth. Upon these let us speak as we are enabled by God the Holy Spirit. First, prayer commanded — “ Call unto Me;” secondly, an answer promised — “And I will answer you ;” thirdly, faith encouraged — “And shew you great and mighty things which you know not.”

1. THE FIRST HEAD IS PRAYER COMMANDED.

We are not merely counseled and recommended to pray, but bidden to pray. 'This is great condescension. A hospital is built: it is considered sufficient that free admission shall be given to the sick when they seek it; but no order in council is made that a man must enter its gates. A soup kitchen is well provided for in the depth of winter. Notice is promulgated that those who are poor may receive food on application; but no one thinks of passing an Act of

Parliament, compelling the poor to come and wait at the door to take the charity. It is thought to be enough to proffer it without issuing any sort of mandate that men shall accept it. Yet so strange is the infatuation of man on the one hand, which makes him need a command to be merciful to his own soul, and so marvelous is the condescension of our gracious; God on the other, that He issues a command of love without which not a man of Adam born would partake of the gospel feast, but would rather starve than come. In the matter of prayer it is even so. God's own people need, or else they would not receive it, a command to pray. How is this? Because, dear friends, we are very subject to fits of worldliness, if indeed that be not our usual state. We do not forget to eat: we do not forget to take the shop shutters down: we do not forget to be diligent in business; we do not forget to go to our beds to rest: but we often do forget to wrestle with God in prayer, and to spend, as we ought to spend, long periods in consecrated fellowship with our Father and our God. With too many professors the ledger is so bulky that you cannot move it, and the Bible, representing their devotion, is so small that you might almost put it in your waistcoat pocket. Hours for the world! Moments for Christ! The world has the best, and our closet the parings of our time. We give our strength and freshness to the ways of mammon, and our fatigue and languor to the ways of God. Hence it is that we need to be commanded to attend to that very act which it ought to be our greatest happiness, as it is our highest privilege to perform, viz, to meet with our God. “Call unto Me,” says He, for He knows that we are apt to forget to call upon God. “What meanest you, oh, sleeper? arise and call upon your God,” is an exhortation which is needed by us as well as by Jonah in the storm.

He understands what heavy hearts we have sometimes, when under a sense of sin. Satan says to us, “Why should you pray? How can you hope to prevail? In vain you say, I will arise and go to my Father, for you are not worthy to be one of his hired servants. How can you see the King's face after you have played the traitor against Him? How will you dare to approach unto the altar when you have yourself defiled it, and when the sacrifice which you, would bring there is a poor polluted one?” O brethren, it is well for us that we, are commanded to pray, or else in times of heaviness we might give it up. If God command me, unfit as I may be, I will creep to the footstool of grace; and since He says, “Pray without ceasing,” though my words fail me and my heart itself will wander, yet I will stammer out the wishes of my hungering soul and say, “O God, at least teach me to pray and help me to prevail with You.” Are we not commanded to pray also because of our frequent unbelief? Unbelief whispers, “What profit is there if you should seek the Lord upon such and such a matter?” This is a case quite out of the list of those things wherein God has interposed, and, therefore (says the devil), if you were in any other position you might rest upon the mighty arm of God; but here your prayer will not avail you. Either it is too trivial a matter, or it is too connected, with temporals, or else it is a matter in which you have sinned too much, or else it is too high, too hard, too complicated a piece of business, you have no right to take that before God! So suggests the foul fiend of hell. Therefore, there stands written as an everyday precept suitable to every case into which a Christian can be cast, “Call unto Me — call unto Me.” are you sick? would you be healed? Cry unto Me, for I am a Great Physician. Does providence trouble you? are you fearful that you shall not provide things honest in the sight of man? Call unto Me! Do Your children vex You?

Do you feel that which is sharper than an adder's tooth — a thankless child? Call unto Me. Are your grief's little yet painful, like small points and pricks of thorns? Call unto Me! Is your burden, heavy as though it would make your back break beneath its load? Call unto Me! “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved? In. the valley — -on the mountain — on the barren rock — in the briny sea, submerged, anon, beneath the billows, and lifted up by-and-by upon the crest of the waves — in the furnace when the coals are glowing — in the gates of death when the jaws of hell would shut themselves upon you — cease you not, for the commandment evermore addresses you with “Call unto Me.” Still prayer is mighty and must prevail with God to bring you your deliverance. These are some of the reasons why the privilege of supplication is also in Holy Scripture spoken of as duty: there are many more, but these will suffice this morning. We must not leave our first part till we have made another remark. We ought to be very glad that God has given us this command in His Word that it may be sure and abiding. You may turn to fifty passages where the same precept is uttered. I do not often read in Scripture, “You shall not kill;” “You shall not covet.” Twice the law is given, but I often read gospel precepts, for if the law be given twice, the gospel is given seventy times seven. For every precept which I cannot keep, by reason of my being weak through the flesh, I find a thousand precepts, which it is sweet and pleasant for me to keep, by reason of the power of the Holy Spirit which dwells in the children of God; and this command to pray is insisted upon again and again. It may be a seasonable, exercise for some of you to find out how often in scripture you are told to pray. You will be surprised to find how many times such words as these are given: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you”—“You people, pour out your heart before Him.” “Seek you the Lord while He may be found; call you upon Him while He is near.” “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened, unto you” — “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation” — “Pray without ceasing” — “Come boldly unto the throne of grace.” “Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.” “Continue in prayer.” I need not multiply where I could not possibly exhaust. I pick two or three out of this great bag of pearls. Come, Christian, you ought, never to question whether you have a right to pray: you should never ask, “May I be permitted to come into His presence?” When you have so many commands, (and God's commands are all promises, and all enablings,) you may come boldly unto the throne of heavenly grace, by the new and living way through the rent veil.

But there are times when God not only commands His people to pray in the Bible, but He also commands them to pray directly by the monitions of His Holy Spirit. You who know the inner life comprehend me at once. You feel on a sudden, possibly in the midst of business, the pressing thought that you must retire to pray. It may be, you do not at first take particular notice of the inclination, but it comes again, and again, and again — “Retire and pray!” I find that in the matter of prayer, I am myself very much like a waterwheel which runs well when there is plenty of water, but which turns with very little force when the brook is growing shallow; or, like the ship which flies over the waves, putting out all her canvas when the wind is favorable, but which has to tack about most laboriously when there is but little of the favoring breeze. Now, it strikes me that whenever our Lord gives you the special inclination to.

pray, that you should double your diligence. You ought always to pray and not to faint; yet when He gives you the special longing after prayer, and you feel a peculiar aptness and enjoyment in it, you have, over and above the command which is constantly binding, another command which should compel you to cheerful obedience. At such times I think we may stand in the position of David, to whom the Lord said, “When you hear a sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then shall you bestir yourself.” That going in the tops of the mulberry trees may have been the footfalls of angels hastening to the help of David, and then David was to smite the Philistines, and when God's mercies are coming, their footfalls are our desires to pray; and our desires to pray should be at once an indication that the set time to favor Zion is come. Sow plentifully now, for you can sow in hope; plough joyously now, for your harvest is sure. Wrestle now, Jacob, for you are about to be made a prevailing prince, and your name shall be called Israel. Now is your time, spiritual merchantmen; the market is high, trade much; your profit shall be large. See to it that you use right well the golden hour, and reap, your harvest while the sun shines. When we enjoy visitations from on high, we should be peculiarly constant in prayer; and if some other duty less pressing should have the go-by for a season, it will not be amiss and we shall be no loser; for when God bids us specially pray by the monitions of His. Spirit, then should we bestir ourselves in prayer.

2. LET US NOW TAKE THE SECOND HEAD — AN ANSWER PROMISED.

We ought not to tolerate for a minute the ghastly and grievous thought that God will not answer prayer. His nature, as manifested in Christ Jesus, demands it. He has revealed Himself in the gospel as a God of love, full of grace and truth; and how can He refuse to help those of His creatures who humbly in His own appointed way seek His face and favor? When the Athenian senate, upon one occasion, found it most convenient to meet together in the open air, as they were sitting in their deliberations, a sparrow, pursued by a hawk, flew in the direction of the senate. Being hard pressed by the bird of prey, it sought shelter in the bosom of one of the senators. He, being a man of rough and vulgar mould, took the bird from his bosom, dashed it on the ground and so killed it. Whereupon the whole senate rose in uproar, and without one single dissenting voice, condemned him to die, as being unworthy of a seat in the senate with them, or to be called am Athenian, if he did not render succour to a creature that confided in him. Can we suppose that the God of heaven, whose nature is love, could tear out of His bosom the poor fluttering dove that flies from the eagle of justice into the bosom of His mercy? Will He give the invitation to us to seek His face, and when we, as He knows, with so much trepidation of fear, yet summon courage enough to fly into His bosom, will He then be unjust and ungracious enough to forget to hear our cry and to answer us? Let us not think so hardly of the God of heaven. Let us recollect next, His past character as well as His nature. I mean the character which He has won for Himself by His past deeds of grace. Consider, my brethren, that one stupendous display of bounty — if I were to mention a thousand I could not give a better illustration of the character of God than that one deed — “He that spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all” — and it is not my inference only, but the inspired conclusion of an apostle — “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” If the Lord did not refuse to listen to my voice when I was a guilty sinner and an enemy, how can He disregard my cry now that I am justified and. saved! How is it that He heard the voice of my misery when my heart knew it not, and would not seek relief, if after all He will not hear me now that I am His child, His friend? The streaming wounds of Jesus are the sure guarantees for answered prayer. George Herbert represents in that quaint poem of his, “The Bag,” the Savior saying —

“If you have anything to send or write

(I have no bag, but here is room)

Unto my Father's hands and sight,

(Believe me) it shall safely come.

That I shall mind what you impart

Look, you may put it very near my heart,

Or if hereafter any of friends

Will use me in this kind, the door Shall still be open; what he sends I will present and somewhat more

Not to his hurt.”

Surely, George Herbert's thought was that the atonement was in itself a guarantee that prayer must be heard, that the great gash made near the Savior's heart, which let the light into the very depths of the heart of Deity; was a proof that He who sits in heaven would hear the cry of his people. You misread Calvary, if you think that prayer is useless. But, beloved, we have the Lord's own promise for it, and He is a God that cannot lie. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will answer you.” Has He not said, “Whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believe that you shall have it and you shall have it.” We cannot pray, indeed, unless we believe this doctrine; “for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him;” and if we have any question at all about whether our prayer will be heard, we are comparable to him that wavers; “for he who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed; let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” Furthermore, it is not necessary, still it may strengthen the point, if we add that our own experience leads us to believe that God will answer prayer. I must not speak for you; but I may speak for myself. If there be anything I know, anything that I am quite assured of beyond all question, it is that praying breath is never spent in vain. If no other man here can say, it, I dare to say it, and I know that I can prove it. My own conversion is the result of prayer, long, affectionate, earnest, importunate. Parents prayed for me; God heard their cries, and here I am to preach the gospel. Since then I have adventured upon some things that were far beyond my capacity as I thought; but I have never failed, because I have cast myself upon the Lord. You know as a church that I have not scrupled to indulge large ideas of what we might do for God; and we have accomplished all that we purposed. I have sought God's aid, and assistance, and help, in all my manifold undertakings, and though I cannot tell here the story of my private life in God's work, yet if it were written it would be a standing proof that there is a God that answers prayer. He has heard my prayers, not now and then, nor once nor twice, but so many times, that it has grown into a habit with me to spread my case before God with the absolute certainty that whatsoever I ask of God, He will give to me. It is not now a “Perhaps” or a possibility. I know that my Lord answers; me, and I dare not doubt, it were indeed folly if I did. As I am sure that a certain amount of leverage will lift a weight, so I know that a certain amount of prayer will get anything from God. As the rain cloud brings the shower, so prayer brings the blessing. As spring scatters flowers, so supplication ensures mercies. In all labor there is profit, but most of all in the work of intercession: I am sure of this, for I have reaped it. As I put trust in the queen's money, and have never failed yet to buy what I want when I produce the cash, so put I trust in God's promises, and mean to do so till I find that He shall once tell me that they are base coin, and will not do to trade with in heaven's market. But why should I speak? O brothers and sisters, you all know in your own selves that God hears prayer; if you do not, then where is your Christianity? where is your religion? You will need to learn what are the first elements of the truth; for all saints, young or old, set it down as certain that He hears prayer.

Still remember that prayer is always to be offered in submission to God's will; that when we say, God hears prayer, we do not intend by that, that He always gives us literally what we ask for. We do mean, however, this, that He gives us what is best for us; and that if He does not give us the mercy we ask for in silver, He bestows it upon us in gold. If He does not take away the thorn in the flesh, yet He says, “My grace is sufficient for you,” and that comes to the same in the end. Lord Bolingbroke said to the Countess of Huntingdon, “I cannot understand, your ladyship, how you can make out earnest prayer to be consistent with submission to the Divine will.” “My lord,” she said, “that is a matter of no difficulty. If I were a courtier of some generous king, and he gave me permission to ask any favor I pleased of him, I should be sure to put it thus, 'Will your majesty be graciously pleased to grant me such-and-such a favor; but at the same time though I very much desire it, if it would in any way detract from your majesty's honor, or if in your majesty's judgment it should seem better that I did not have this favor, I shall be quite as content to go without it as to receive it.' So you see I might earnestly offer a petition, and yet I might submissively leave it in the king's hands.” So with God. We never offer up prayer without inserting that clause, either in spirit or in words, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will; not my will, but Your be done.” We. can only pray without an “if” when we are quite sure that our will must be God's will, because God's will is fully our will. A much slandered poet has well said : —

“Man, regard your prayers as a purpose of love to your soul,

Esteem the providence that led to them as an index of God's good will; So shall you pray aright:, and your words shall meet with acceptance.

Also, in pleading for others, be thankful for the fulness of your prayer;

For if you are ready to ask, the Lord is more ready to bestow

The salt preserves the sea, and the saints uphold the earth;

Their prayers are the thousand pillars that prop the canopy of nature.

Verily, an hour without prayer, from some terrestrial mind,

Were a curse in the calendar of time, a spot of the blackness of darkness.

Perchance the terrible day, when the world must rock into ruins,

Will be one un-whitened by prayer — shall He find faith on the earth? For there is an economy of mercy, as of wisdom, and power, and means; Neither is one blessing granted, unbesought from the treasury of good:

And the charitable heart of the Being, to depend upon whom is happiness,

Never with holds a bounty, so long as his subject prays;

Yea, ask what you will, to the second throne in heaven,

It is Yours for whom it was appointed; there is no limit unto prayer: But and if you cease to ask, tremble, you self-suspended creature, For your strength is cut off as was Samson's: and the hour of your doom is come.”

3. I come to our third point, which I think is full of encouragement to all those who exercise the hallowed art of prayer: ENCOURAGEMENT TO FAITH,

“I will shew you great and mighty things which you know not?” Let us just remark that this was originally spoken to a prophet in prison; and, therefore, it applies in the first place to every teacher; and, indeed, as every teacher must be a learner, it has a bearing upon every learner in divine truth. The best way by which a prophet and teacher and learner can know the reserved truths, the higher and more mysterious truths of God, is by waiting upon God in prayer. I noticed very specially yesterday in reading the Book of the Prophet Daniel, how Daniel found out Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The soothsayers, the magicians, the astrologers of the Chaldees, brought out their curious books and their strange looking instruments, and began to mutter their abracadabra and all sorts of mysterious incantations, but they all failed What did Daniel do? He set himself to prayer, and knowing that the prayer of a united body of men has more prevalence than the prayer of one, we find that Daniel called together his brethren, and bade them unite with him in earnest prayer that God would be pleased of His infinite mercy to open up the vision. “Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” And in the case of John, who was the Daniel of the New Testament, you remember he saw a book in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne — a book sealed with seven seals which none was found worthy to open or to look thereon. What did John do? The book was by-and-by opened by the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to open the book; but it is written first before the book was opened, “I wept much.” Yes, and the tears of John which were his liquid prayers, were, as far as he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the folded book was opened.

Brethren in the ministry, you who are teachers in the Sunday-school, and all of you who are learners in the college of Christ Jesus, I pray you remember that prayer is your best means of study: like Daniel you shall understand the dream, and the interpretation thereof, when you have sought unto God; and like John you shall see the seven seals of precious truth unloosed, after that you have wept much. “Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up the voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver, and searches for her as for hid treasures; then shall you understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” Stones are not broken, except by an earnest use of the hammer; and the stone-breaker usually goes down on his knees. Use the hammer of diligence, and let the knee of prayer be exercised, too, and there is not a stony doctrine in Revelation which is useful for you to understand, which will not fly into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. “Bene orasse est bene studuisse” was a wise sentence of Luther, which has been so often quoted, that we hardly venture but to hint at it. “To have prayed well is to have studied well.” You may force your way through anything with the leverage of prayers. Thoughts and reasonings may be like the steel wedges which may open a way into truth; but prayer is the lever, the prise which forces open the iron chest of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure that is hidden therein for those who can force their way to reach it. The kingdom of heaven still suffers violence, and the violent takes it by force. Take care that you work away with the mighty implement of prayer, and nothing can stand against you.

We must not, however, stop there. We have applied the text to only one case; it is applicable to a hundred. We single out another. The saint may expect to, discover deeper experience and to know more of the higher life and scriptural life, by being much in prayer. There are different translations of my text. One version renders it, “I will shew you great and fortified things which you know not.” Another reads it, “Great and reserved things which you know not.” Now, all the developments of spiritual life are not alike easy of attainment. There are the common frames and feelings of repentance, and faith, and joy, and hope, which are enjoyed by the entire family: but there is an upper realm of rapture, of communion, and conscious union with Christ, which is far from being the common dwelling-place of believers. All believers see Christ; but all believers do not put their fingers into the prints of the nails, nor thrust their hand into His side. We have not all the high privilege of John to lean upon Jesus' bosom, nor of Paul, to be caught up into the third heaven. In the ark of salvation we find a lower, second, and third story; all are in the ark, but all are not in the same story. Most Christians, as to the river of experience, are only up to the ankles; some others have waded till the stream is up to the knees; a few find it breast-high; and but a few — oh! how few! — -find it a river to swim in, the bottom of which they cannot touch. My brethren, there are heights in experimental knowledge of the things of God which the eagle's eye of acumen and philosophic thought has never seen; and there are secret paths which the lion's whelp of reason and judgment has not as yet learned to travel. God alone can bear us there; but the chariot in which He takes us up, and the fiery steeds with which that chariot is dragged, are prevailing prayers. Prevailing prayer is victorious over the God of mercy, “By his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found Him in Beth-El, and there he spake with us.” Prevailing prayer takes the Christian to Carmel, and enables him to cover heaven with clouds of blessing, and earth with floods of mercy. Prevailing prayer bears the Christian aloft to Pisgah and shows him the inheritance reserved; ay, and it elevates him to Tabor and transfigures him, till in the likeness of his Lord, as he is, so are we also in this world. If you would reach to something higher than ordinary groveling experience; look to the Rock that is higher than you, and look with the eye of faith through the windows of importunate prayer. To grow in experience then, there must be much prayer.

You must have patience with me while I apply this text to two or three more cases. It is certainly true of the sufferer under trial: if he waits upon God in prayer much he shall receive greater deliverances than he has ever dreamed of —“great and mighty' things which you know not.” Here is Jeremiah's testimony: — “You drew near in the day that I called upon You: You said, Fear not. O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life.” And David's is the same: — “I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place .... I will praise You: for You have heard me, and are become my salvation.” And yet again: — “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.” “My husband is dead,” said the poor woman, “and my creditor is come to take my two sons as bondsmen.” She hoped that Elijah would possibly say, “What are your debts? I will pay them.” Instead of that, he multiplies her oil till it is written, “Go you and pay your debts, and” — what was the “and?” — “live you and your children upon the rest.” So often it will happen that God will not only help His people through the miry places of the way, so that they may just stand on the other side of the slough, but He will bring them safely far on the journey. That was a remarkable miracle, when in the midst of the storm, Jesus Christ came walking upon the sea, the disciples received Him into the ship, and not only was the sea calm, 'but it is recorded, “Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” That was a mercy over and above what they asked. I sometimes hear: you pray and make use of a quotation which is not in the Bible — “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or even think.” It is not so written in the Bible. I do not know what we can ask or what we can think. But it is said, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think.” Let us then, dear friends, when we are in great trial only say, “Now I am in prison; like Jeremiah I will pray as he did, for I have God's command to do it; and I will look out as he did, expecting that he will show me reserved mercies which I know nothing of at present.” He will not merely bring his people through the battle, covering their heads in it, but he will bring them forth with banners waving, to divide the spoil with the mighty, and to claim their portion with the strong. Expect great things of a God who gives such great promises as these.

Again, here is encouragement for the worker. Most of you are doing something for Christ; I am happy to be able to say this, knowing that I do not flatter you. My dear friends, wait upon God much in prayer, and you have the promise that He will do greater things for you than you know of. We know not how much capacity for usefulness there may be in us. That ass's jawbone lying there upon the earth, what can it do? Nobody knows what it can do. It gets into Samson's hands, what can it not do? No one knows what it cannot do now that a Samson wields it. And you, friend, have often thought yourself to be as contemptible as that bone, and you have said, “What can I do?” Ay, but when Christ by His Spirit grips you, what can you not do? Truly you may adopt Paul's language and say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” However, do not depend upon prayer without effort. In a certain school there was one girl who knew the Lord, a very gracious, simple-hearted, trustful child. As usual, grace developed itself in the child according to the child's position. Her lessons were always best said of any in the class. Another girl said to her, “How is it that your lessons are always so well said?” “I pray God to help me,” she said, “to learn my lesson.” Well, thought the other, “Then I will do the same.” The next mornings when she stood up in the class she knew nothing; and when she was in disgrace she complained to the other, “Why I prayed God to help me learn my lesson and I do not know anything of it. What is the use of prayer?” “But did you sit down and try to learn it?” “Oh! no,” she said, “I never looked at the book.” “Ah,” then said the other, “I asked God to help me to learn my lesson; but I then sat down to it studiously, and I kept at it till I knew it well, and I learned it easily, because my earnest desire, which I had expressed to God was, help me to be diligent, in endeavoring to do my duty.” So is it with some who come up to prayer-meetings and pray, and then they fold their arms and go away hoping that God's work will go on. Like the negro woman singing, “Fly abroad, you mighty gospel,” but not putting a penny in the plate; so that her friend touched her and said, “But how can it fly if you don't give it wings to fly with?” There be, many who appear to be very mighty in prayer, wondrous in supplications; but then they require God to do what they can do themselves, and, therefore, God does nothing at all for them. “I shall leave my camel untied,” said an Arab once to Mahomet:, “and trust to providence.” “Tie it up tight,” said Mahomet, “and then trust to providence.” So you that say, “I shall pray and trust my Church, or my class, or my work to God's goodness,” may rather hear the voice, of experience and wisdom which says, “Do your best; work as if all rested upon your toil; as if your own arm would bring your salvation;” “and when you have done all, cast yourself on Him without whom it is in vain to rise up early and to sit up late, and to eat the bread of carefulness: and if He speed you give Him the praise.”

I shall not detain you many minutes longer, but I want to notice that this promise ought to prove useful for the comforting of those who are intercessors for others. You who are calling upon God to save your children, to bless your neighbors, to remember your husbands or your wives in mercy, may take comfort from this, “I will shew you great and mighty things, which you know not.” A celebrated minister in the last century, one Mr. Bailey, was the child of a godly mother. This mother had almost ceased to pray for her husband, who was a man of a most ungodly stamp, and a bitter persecutor. The mother prayed for her boy, and while he was yet eleven or twelve years of age, eternal mercy met with him. So sweetly instructed was the child in the things of the kingdom of God, that the mother requested him — and for some time he always did so — to conduct family prayer in the house. Morning and evening this little one laid open the Bible; and though the father would not deign to stop for the family prayer, yet on one occasion he was rather curious to know “what sort of an out the boy would make of it,” so he stopped on the other side of the door, and God blessed the prayer of his own child under thirteen years of age to his conversion. The mother might well have read my text with streaming eyes, and said, “Yes, Lord, You have shewn me great and mighty things which I knew not. You have not only saved my boy, but through my boy You have brought my husband to the truth.” You cannot guess how greatly God will bless you. Only go and stand at His door, you cannot tell what is in reserve for you. If you do not beg at all, you will get nothing; but if you beg He may not only give you, as it were, the bones and broken meat, but He may say to the servant at His table, “Take you that dainty meat, and set that before the poor man.” Ruth went to glean; she expected to get a few good ears: but Boaz said, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and rebuke her not;” he said moreover to her, “At mealtime come you hither, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” Nay, she found a husband where she only expected to find a handful of barley. So in prayer for others, God may give us such mercies that we shall be astounded at them, since we expected but little. Hear what is said of Job, and learn its lesson, “And the Lord said, My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job .... And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

Now, this word to close with. Some of you are seekers for your own conversion. God has quickened you to solemn prayer about your own souls. You are not content to go to hell, you want heaven; you want washing in the precious blood; you want eternal life. Dear friends, I pray you take this text — God Himself speaks it to you — “Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and shew you great and mighty things, which you know not.” At once take God at His word. Get home, go into your chamber and shut the door, and try Him. Young man, I say, try the Lord. Young woman, prove Him, see whether He be true or not. If God be true, you cannot seek mercy at His hands through Jesus Christ and get a negative reply. He must, for His own promise and character bind Him to it, open mercy's gate to you who knock with all your heart. God help you, believing in Christ Jesus, to cry aloud unto God, and His answer of peace is already on the way to meet you. You shall hear Him say, “Your sins which are many are all forgiven.”

The Lord bless you for His love's sake.

Amen.

Spurgeon's Prayers Personalized                                   97 / 262

The Pastor in Prayer

Being a Choice Selection of C. H. Spurgeon’s Sunday Morning Prayers

Editor’s Preface.

A man of faith and prayer, is an apt description of the late Pastor of the Tabernacle.

His faith was responsive to the Divine call and obedient to the Divine command it grasped the promises of God and proved the secret of his strength for service and endurance.

Familiar with the mercy-seat, he sought for heavenly guidance and found in the exercise of prayer a well-spring of joy, and the inspiration for his ministry. Things not seen and eternal ever lay within the range of his soul’s vision, and he lived as one who had business with eternity.

Mr. D. L. Moody in commencing his first address in the Tabernacle, October 9th, 1892, pathetically recalled the time when he first entered the building, twenty-five years ago. He had come four thousand miles to hear Mr. Spurgeon. What impressed him most was not the praise, though he thought he had never heard such grand congregational singing; it was not Mr. Spurgeon’s exposition, fine though it was, nor even his sermon; it was his prayer. He seemed to have such access to God that he could bring down the power from heaven; that was the great secret of his influence and his success.

The following selection of Mr. Spurgeon’s Sunday morning prayers, reported verbatim, will be welcomed as a precious memorial of a life and ministry by which God was honored, souls saved, believers edified, and “workers together with God” were encouraged in all holy service. They

will furnish stimulus for the preacher in the pulpit and aids to devotion to saints in solitude.

The sermons to which the prayers were preludes, are published in the “Metropolitan

Tabernacle Pulpit;” the hymns are contained in “Our Own Hymn Book.”

I. THE PERSONAL TOUCH.

“For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”

---Mar 5:28 NASB

25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse-- 27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 30 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” 31 And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'” 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

O Lord God, the great I AM, We confess and cheerfully acknowledge that all come of You. You have made us and not we ourselves, and the breath in our nostrils is kept there by your continued power.

We owe our sustenance, our happiness, our advancement, our ripening, our very existence entirely, unto You.

We would bless You for all the mercies with which You surround us, for all things which our eyes see that are pleasant, which our ears hear that are agreeable, and for everything that makes existence to be life.

Especially do we own this dependence when we come to deal with spiritual things. O God, we are less than nothing in the spiritual world. We do feel this growingly, and yet even to feel this is beyond our power.

Your grace must give us even to know our need of grace. We are not willing to confess our own sinfulness until You show it to us. Though it stares us in the face our pride denies it, and our own inability is unperceived by us. We steal Your power and call it our own till You do compel us to say that we have no strength in ourselves.

Now, Lord, would we acknowledge that all good must come of You, through Jesus Christ by Your Spirit, if ever we are to receive it. And we come humbly, first of all acknowledging our many sins.

How many they are we cannot calculate, how black they are, how deep their ill-desert; yet we do confess that we have sinned ourselves into hopeless misery, unless Your free undeserved grace rescue us from it.

Lord we thank You for any signs of penitence — give us more of it. Lay us low before You under a consciousness of our undeserving state. Let us feel and mourn the atrocity of our guilt. O God we know a tender heart must come from You. By nature our hearts are stony, and we are proud and self-righteous.

Spurgeon's Prayers Personalized

Help everyone here to make an acceptable confession of sin, with much mourning, with much deep regret, with much self-loathing, and with the absence of anything like a pretense to merit or to excuse.

Here we stand, Lord, a company of publicans and sinners, with whom Jesus deigns to sit down. Heal us, Emanuel! Here we are needing that healing....come and manifest Your healing power!

There are many of us who have looked unto Jesus and are lightened, but we do confess that our faith was the gift of God. We had never looked with these blear eyes of ours to that dear cross, unless first the heavenly light had shone, and the heavenly finger had taken the thick scales away.

We trace therefore our faith to that same God who gave us life, and we ask now that we may have more of it. Lord, maintain the faith You have created, strengthen it, let it be more and more simple.

Deliver us from any sort of reliance upon ourselves, whatever shape that reliance might take, and let our faith in You become more childlike every day that we live.

O dear Savior, there is room for the greatest faith to be exercised upon Your blessed person and work.

O God the most high and all-sufficient, there is room for the greatest confidence in You.

O Divine Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, there is now sufficient room for the fullest faith in Your operations.

Grant us this faith. Oh work it in us now while at the same time we do confess that if we have it not it is our shame and sin. We make no excuse for unbelief, but confess it with detestation of it that we should ever have doubted the truthful, the mighty, the faithful God.

Yet Lord, we shall fall into the like sin again, unless the grace that makes us know it to be sin shall help us to avoid it.

And now, Lord, we ask You to accept of us this morning whatever offerings we can bring. We bring our hearts to You, full of love to You for what You have done, full of gratitude, full of faith, full of hope, full of joy.

We feel glad in the Lord. But we do confess that if there be anything acceptable in these our offerings, they are all first given from You. No praise comes from us till first it is wrought in us, for

“Every virtue we possess,

And every victory won;

And every thought of holiness,

Are Yours, great God, alone.”

Well may we lay those fruits at Your feet that were grown in Your garden, and that gold and silver and frankincense which You Yourself bestowed, only first give us more! Oh to love the Savior with a passion that can never cool; Oh to believe in God with a confidence that can never stagger!

Oh to hope in God with an expectation that can never be dim!

Oh to delight in God with a holy overflowing rejoicing that can never be stopped, so that we might live to glorify God at the highest use of our powers, living with enthusiasm, burning, blazing, being consumed with the indwelling God who works all things in us according to His will!

Thus, Lord, would we praise and pray at the same time, confess and acknowledge our responsibilities, but also bless the free, the sovereign grace that makes us what we are.

O God of the eternal choice,

O God of the ransom purchased on the tree,

O God of the effectual call, Father, Son and Spirit, our adoration rises to heaven like the smoke from the altar of incense.

Glory and honor and majesty and power and dominion and might be unto the one only God, for ever and ever, and all the redeemed by blood will say, Amen.

Look at this time, we beseech You, upon us as a church and give us greater prosperity. Add to us daily. Knit and unite us together in love. Pardon church sins. Have mercy upon us that we do not more for You.

Accept what we are enabled to do. Qualify each one of us to be vessels fit for the Master’s use, then use each one of us according to the measure of our capacity. Will You be pleased to bless the various works carried on by the church; may they all prosper......

And Lord bless us. We live unto You; our one aim in life is to glorify You. For You we hope we would gladly die; yes, for You we will cheerfully labor while strength is given; but, Oh, send prosperity, and not to us only, but to all workers for Jesus, to all missions in foreign lands, and missions in the heathendom at home.

Bless all Your churches far and near, .... Lord send plenteous prosperity to all the hosts of His Israel. May Your kingdom come!

And, Lord, gather in the unconverted our prayers can never conclude without pleading for the dead in sin. Oh quicken them, Savior! and if any one here has a little daughter that lies dead in sin, like Jairus may they plead with Jesus to come and lay His hand upon her that she may live.

If we have any relatives unsaved, Lord, save them save our co-workers, save our neighbors, save this great land, yea, let Your kingdom come over the whole earth. Let the nations melt into one glorious empire beneath the sole sway of Jesus the Son of David and the Son of God. Come quickly, O Lord Jesus, even so, come quickly. Amen.

SERMON: No. 1382. (November 4, 1877.)

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 9:9-31. HYMNS: 174, 415, 603.

II. JESUS INTERCEDING FOR TRANSGRESSORS.

“Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.” — Isaiah 53:12. NASB

Gracious God, we praise You with our whole hearts for the wondrous revelation of Your love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We think every day of His passion, for all our hope lies in His death but as often as we think upon it, we are still filled with astonishment that You should so love the world as to give Your only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life; that heaven’s eternal darling should come to earth to be made a man, and in manhood’s form to be despised and rejected of the very men whom He came to bless; and then should be made to bear the sin of many and to be numbered with the transgressors, and being found in that number to die a transgressor’s death, a felon’s death upon the gibbet of the cross.

Oh this surpasses all belief if it had not indeed been actually so and if the sure word of prophecy had not of old declared it, we could not have imagined it. It would have seemed blasphemy to have suggested such a thought, yet

You have done it. Your grace has almost out-graced itself,

Your love has reached its height — love to rebels; so to love that even Your Son could not be spared.

O God, we are afflicted in our hearts to think we do not love You more after such love as this. Oh, were there not a stone in our hearts we should melt in love to You, we should account that there was no thought fit to occupy the mind but this one stupendous thought of God’s love to us, and henceforth this would be the master-key to our hearts, that should unlock or lock them at Your will — the great love wherewith You have loved us. We lie in the very dust before You in utter shame, to think that we have sometimes heard this story without emotion and even told it without tenderness.

The theme truly has never become stale to us. We can say in Your presence that the story of Christ’s death still brings joy and makes our hearts to leap. But yet Lord, it never has affected us as we could have expected it would.

Give us more tenderness of heart, give us to feel the wounds of Jesus till they wound our sins to death.

Give us to have a heart pierced even as His was, with deep sympathy for His griefs, and an allconsuming love for His blessed person.

We adore You, Father, for Your great love in the gift of Jesus we equally adore You most blessed Jesus, for resigning Your life for our sakes and then we adore the Blessed Spirit who has led us to know this mystery and to put our trust in Jesus.

Unto the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, do we pay our reverent homage...; only we see Him yet more clearly than the patriarchs of old did, for God in the time of Jesus Christ is seen in the clearest light that mortal eye can bear.

And now we have a prayer to put up to You, Great God, and it is this, that in us Your dear Son may see some portion of the travail of His soul.

Lord, let Him see a reward for His sufferings in all of us being repentant for sin, and trusting in God, and confessing His name.

We fear there are among us...some who still indulge in the sins which brought Christ to death, some that still are trusting in their own righteousness and so are despising His, because if their’s will suffice then His were superfluous.

O God, we beseech You bring men away from all their false trusts to rest in the great sacrifice of Your dear Son.

Let not one person here be so callous to the merit of Christ as not to love Him, or so indifferent to the efficacy of His blood as not to desire to be cleansed in it.

Oh bring every one of us now to believe in Jesus Christ with our whole heart unto eternal life, ... so ... thousands …... may belong to Jesus, that He may have a portion with the great. But even those who have believed in Christ have need to put up the same prayer.

Our Lord and Master, Redeemer and Savior, come and take entire possession of us. …. You must take by force what You have purchased, or You will never have it. By force of arms, the arms must be those of love, will You capture our willful, wayward spirit. Come and divide the spoil with the strong in us we pray You.

Take every faculty and use it, overpower and sanctify it.

Every moment of our time help us to employ for You, every breath may we breathe out to Your honor.

We feel that there is unconquered territory in our nature yet. Subdue, Lord, we beseech You our corruptions, cast them out, and in our spirit rule and conquer.

There set up Your eternal throne — “Wean our heart from every creature You to love and You alone.”

We do pray this with our whole hearts; and assist us we pray You most blessed Redeemer, to show forth Your praises in our lives.

Sanctify us in our households. May we go in and out before You shewing the name and nature of Christ. Help us in our business, that in all we do among our fellow men we may act as Christ would have us act.

Strengthen us in secret; there may we be mighty in prayer.

Guard us in public, that neither in act nor word we may slip away from You. Above all, cast cords of love around our hearts. Oh hold us Savior, never let us go. Suffer no professed Christian here ever to violate the loyalty of his obedience to his King.

May those dear wounds of His have more sway over us than ever silver scepter had over the subjects of earthly princes. May we feel that if He drank for us the vinegar and gall, whatever cup He sets before us we will cheerfully drink. Rule us, Savior, rule us, we beseech You. And let no believer here violate the chastity of his heart to the Beloved of his soul.

O Jesus, let us love You so intensely, that whatever else there may be of loving relationship, still this may cover all and swallow up all.

Oh to be wholly Christ’s! We do mourn that we cannot reach to this — that in the secret of our hearts every devil should be cast out, every demon driven to its deep, every sin made hateful, every thought of sin made loathsome to us, until only pure desires and inward longings after perfect holiness shall predominate in our nature.

O God, let the scourge still be used to drive out the buyers and sellers: we would not ask to have them spared, but let the temple be the Lord’s, seeing he has built it and has cleansed it with His blood. Bless at this time very graciously the church to which we belong.

Let us in this place know the power of prayer today and to-morrow: especially pour out upon the members of this church an intense spirit of supplication.

May we agonize to-morrow for the glory of God, and today also, and let it not depart from us so long as we live Send us, Lord, a mighty ground-swell of intense desire for the glory of God, and may these Your servants banded together in church fellowship recognize their sweet obligations to their dying Lord, and determine that the prayers of the church shall go up before Him like sweet perfume.

Lord, convert our friends that still remain unsaved. Oh mighty power of God, let none come into this house even accidentally and casually without receiving some devout impression.

May the Spirit of God work mightily by our ministry and the ministration of all His servants now present, whether in the Sunday School, or in the streets, or in the lodging houses, or from door to door, or when they privately speak to individuals. Oh, glorify Yourself in us.

Dear Savior, we pray You come and mark us all distinctly with the blood mark as being wholly Yours, and henceforth may we say with Paul, “Let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

As we have been buried with You by baptism into death, so would we be dead to all the world and only live for Christ. God grant it may be so, and we will glorify You in life and death and for ever....

Amen

SERMON: NO. 1385 (November 18, 1877.)

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 53 HYMNS: 327, 412, 329.

III. GOD’S THOUGHTS AND WAYS FAR ABOVE OURS.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:8-9. NASB

God, most high and glorious, the thought of Your infinite serenity has often cheered us, for we are toiling and ..., troubled and distressed here below...but You sit for ever in perfect happiness. Your designs cause You no care or fear, for You will surely carry them out.

Your purposes stand fast as the eternal hills Your power knows no bound, Your goodness no stint.

You bring order out of confusion, and our defeats are but Your victories. We sow in tears, but You do see us reap in joy.

Our everlasting happiness is present to You, even while groans and mourning are our present lot. Glory be to the Lord most high, who sits on the clouds, who sits King for ever and ever. Our hearts rejoice to hear the gladsome tidings that the Lord reigns. Let His kingdom be established over the sons of men, for His kingdom must come, and of it there will be no end. Behold, we come to Your throne ... bearing about with us a body of sin and death, and consequently much of sin, and much of care, and it may be much of sorrow; but we would be unburdened now --- at Your mercy-seat.

As for our cares we are ashamed that we have them, seeing You care for us. We have trusted You now for many years, and Your faithfulness has never been under suspicion, nor Your love a matter of question.

We therefore leave every concern about our families or about ourselves, about our business, or about our souls, entirely with our God.

And as for our sin, we bless You for a sight of the precious blood of Jesus when You see it You do pass over us. No angel of justice smites where once the blood is sprinkled.

Oh, let us have a sight of the blood of Jesus, too, and rest because You have for ever put away our sin, because we believe in Jesus.

Thus, Lord, help us to stand before You, entering into Your rest as we enter into Your presence; and may this be a time of peace wherein the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep the hearts and minds of His people through Christ Jesus.

Still, Lord, we have a burden which we must now lay before You, and ask You to help us in it. We mourn over the condition of Your church, for on every side as we look around we see men endeavoring to undermine the doctrines of the everlasting Gospel.

Time was when a man was famous for lifting up his axe upon the trees of the forest, but now they with axes break down the carved work of Your sanctuary, they despoil Your truth. There is scarce a single doctrine of Your word which the wise men among us do not deny.

Yea, and those that pretend to be the ministers of the gospel are amongst the first to speak against it, and to denounce it, and to sanction license to sin because You will no more punish it, and to declare that Jesus Christ is not Your Son.

O Lord God, our heart often sinks within us; we are apt to wish to lay our hand upon the ark to steady it, for the oxen shake it; but we know it is in Your hand, and having spread the case before You we leave it there.

Many a Rabshakeh’s letter have we read of late behold we bring it into the sanctuary and spread it before the Lord.

O Lord our God, rebuke the unbelief, rebuke the skepticism’s of those who assail both You and Your Christ, and the gospel of Your truth.

And we would ask You to do it thus if it please You, revive deep spirituality in the hearts of Your own children.

Oh that we might live so near to the great Shepherd as to be familiar with His voice, to know its tones, that so a stranger we may not follow, for we know not the voice of strangers.

If it were possible they would deceive even the very elect, and how shall Your elect be kept from their deceptions but by abiding in the truth and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Oh revive Your church we pray You in this respect! Give to those who know You intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into us by experience the things which we do know; may they be beyond all question to us.

And may we never be ashamed to glory in the good old way, the way the fathers trod, the way which leads to heaven and to God.

May we not be ashamed to vindicate it, and to bear reproach; for Your gospel has of old been to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, and so we expect it ever to be a stumbling-block to those who go after the way of superstition, and also to be foolishness to the wise men of the world.

O God, again confuse the knowledge of men by what, they think to be the foolishness of the gospel.

Again let it be seen that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

O Jesus, Son of the Highest, we know that the truth is powerful, because You are the soul of it — the very essence of it. Put Your life into it we pray You.

May the eternal spirit go with every word which God-sent ministers shall proclaim, and may the Lord grant that as the mists fly before the sun and the clouds before the wind, so error and superstition may be driven away by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness in all the glory of His brightness.

We have also to bring before You another burden, and that is the godlessness of this present age. It is not alone the wise men but, behold, the men that know not seek not after God. O Lord, the multitude delight in sin. Drunkenness defiles our city, and filthy words are heard on every side.

Be not wrath with this nation, we beseech You. It has been entrusted with wondrous privileges. Forgive it and have mercy upon its aggravated sin.

Lay not its heavy responsibilities to its charge, but let this nation be saved. We pray for it as we are in duty bound to do, and as our love constrains us to do.

Oh let the masses of the people yet come to seek after Christ, or by some means, by all means, by every means, may the ears of men be reached and then their hearts be touched.

May they hear, that their souls may live; and may the Lord who in everlasting covenant sets forth His Son, glorify Him in the midst of the nations. Let all the nations know the Christ of God.

Our Father, we pray You help the few, valiant few, that press forward into the dense area of the enemy. Help them to fight valiantly!

May these pioneers of the Christian host in mission lands be increased in number, may they be kept in good heart, may they have confidence in God, and may the Lord send the day of victory much sooner than our feeble faith has dared to hope.

But, Lord, we have yet another burden — it is that we ourselves do not love You as we should, that oftentimes we grow lukewarm and chill, and doubt creeps over us, and unbelief mars our confidence, and we sin and forget our God.

O Lord help us! Pardon is not enough, we want sanctification. We beseech You let the weeds that grow in the seed plot of our soul be cut up by the roots. We do want to serve You. We long that every thought we think, and word we say or write, should be all for You.

We would lead consecrated lives, for we are persuaded that we only live as we live unto God, that anything else is but trilling.

Oh to be taken up as offerings wholly to be consumed upon the altar of the Lord, joyfully ascending to Him in every outgoing of our life.

Now ... be pleased to refresh us. Draw nigh unto us, You gracious God; it is only Your presence that can make us happy, holy, devout or strong.

Shadow us now with Your wings, cover us with Your feathers, and under Your wings may we trust.

May we follow very near unto You, and so feel the quickening warmth, the joy which only Your nearness can bring. If any in Your presence ... are unsaved, oh save them now.

Do grant that the this gathering may bring such glad tidings to their ear, that their heart shall leap at the sound of it, and they shall return unto God, who will abundantly pardon.

Bless every preacher of the Word today, and all Sunday schools, classes of young men and women, …. and every form of holy service.

Accept the prayers and praises of Your people. Receive them even from the sick beds of those detained at home. Let not one of Your mourners, the weary watchers of the night, be kept without a smile from God.

The Lord bless us now, and all His chosen people. Our soul cries out for it.

Break, O everlasting morning, break o’er the dark hills!

Let our eyes behold You, and till the day break and the shadows flee away, abide, with us, O our Beloved abide with us now. Amen.

SERMON: No. 1387. (December 2, 1877.)

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 55. HYMNS: 36, (Song 1), 1O3, 202.

IV. EJACULATORY PRAYER. (New Year)

“Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.” — Nehemiah 2:4. NASB

O Lord, our God, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Some of us have to thank You for many mercies bestowed. We thank You for them, for we feel that we are entirely in Your hands in all respects.

Others of us have been brought very low, bruised full sore, but having a little strength remaining, we desire to praise and bless the Giver of every gift.

You are good when You give, and

You are good when You take away.

You are good when the night gathers heavy about us.

You are good when the sun shines and gladdens our pathway.

You are always good and do good, and blessed be the name of the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof, and through the night watches let His praise be still celebrated.

In the recollection of all that You have done for us Your people, we are filled with amazement as well as with gratitude, that You should have loved us before the foundation of the world, that sovereign love should have pitched upon us poor unworthy ones,

that You should so love us as to redeem us with the blood of Jesus and give the only              Begotten to die for unworthy creatures like us,

that You should love us notwithstanding our sins and transgressions,

that You should love us despite the hardness of our hearts and the rebellion of our    nature.

It is strange, it surpasses belief at times, yet we know it to be so.

And since the hour when we knew Your love and learned to say Abba, Father, we confess we have been unworthy still. We have but little felt Your goodness, we have often acted very ungratefully, very distrustfully.

But Lord, You have not changed, but still does Your faithfulness abound to Your servants; for which again we can only say, Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Especially would we make mention of the goodness of the Lord during another year. Each believer here has trodden a different pathway to some it has been a very smooth road, to others a very rough climb: to some a deep descent into the valley of sorrow and humiliation. But You have led Your people by a right way.

With all the twisting of the wilderness march, we are persuaded that when You lead us about, still we go the nearest way.

You know best, and oftentimes to retreat is to advance, and to be beaten back is to make surest headway.

We would again in the recollection of the whole year, whatever it may have been, lift up the song of grateful praise, raise another stone of help to record the loving-kindness of our God.

And now do we hoist sail and draw up anchor to sail into another year.

O You blessed Pilot of the future as of the past, we are so happy to leave all to You; but in leaving all to You we have one wish, and it is that You would in the next year glorify the Father’s name in us more than in any other year of our lives.

Perhaps this may involve deeper trial, but let it be if we can glorify God.

Perhaps this may involve the being cast aside from the service that we love; but we would prefer to be laid aside if we could glorify You the better.

Perhaps this may involve the ending of all life’s pleasant work and the being taken home — well, Your children make no sort of stipulations with their God, but this one prayer ascends from all true hearts this morning,

“Father, glorify Your name.” will You glorify Yourself, great Father, by making us more holy.

Purge us every day, we beseech You, from the selfishness that clings to us.

Deliver us also from the fear of man, from the love of approbation so far as these might lead us astray.

Help us to be resolute and self-contained: to do, and think, and speak the right at all times. Give us great love to our fellow men. May we love them so that we could die for them if need be.

Above all, blessed Jesus, our Redeemer, let Your love to us fire us with love to You. Stamp Your dear image on our hearts, and let us never wander from the path of complete obedience to Your will.

Here we stand, asking to be washed again in the open fountain that every sin may be put away; but also begging to be washed in the water “from the river side that flows,” that every wrong desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to the mind of God may be utterly taken away from us.

We beseech You strengthen Your servants, for the battles of another year. Give them courage for all the trials, give them grace for all the joys.

Help us to be a holy and a happy people! Let the redeemed of the Lord speak well of His name, and whatever their distress may be at times yet over all may they lift up notes of perpetual joy, glorying in the name of the Lord their God.

We ask You, O God, at this time to revive religion in our land.

Oh that You would be pleased to speak by the Holy Ghost that the gospel’s power may be known: there be many that run away from the truth; Lord, hold us fast to it, bind us to it.

May there be a people found in this place, and throughout this land, that will abide by the doctrines of the gospel, come what may.

May we not be ashamed to be old fashioned and to be thought fanatical.

May we not wish to be thought cultured, nor aim to keep abreast of the times.

May we be side by side, with You, O bleeding Savior; and be content to be rejected, be willing to take up unpopular truth, and to hold fast despised teachings of sacred writ even to the end. Oh make us faithful, faithful unto death.

And now Lord, bless our church. You have been very gracious to us; be gracious to us still, Oh that we had health and strength to labor here as our heart desires may it please You yet to give us these!

But if not, use what there is of us till the last is gone, and be pleased ever to find some one or other to go in and out before this people, to feed them with knowledge and understanding. “Father, glorify Your name.”

We ask You once more that You would, by some means, cause peace to be re-established throughout the earth. Grant that this nation may not be drawn into war. We have been foolish once over it, grant that we may not be so again, but Oh, let Your Kingdom come without the use of the sword.

Oh angel of war, will you not rest! Oh sword of the Lord, put Yourself into Your scabbard and be still; for the sake of the great Prince of Peace we ask it.

Amen.

In Christ.

In Christ I feel the heart of God.

Throbbing from heaven through earth: Life stirs again within the clod.

Renewed in beauteous birth.

The soul springs up, a flower of prayer, Breathing his breath out on the air.

In Christ I touch the hand of God,

From His pure height reached down,

By blessed ways before untrod,

To lift us to our crown; — Victory that only perfect is Through loving sacrifice, like His.

Holding His hand, my steadied feet

May walk the air, the seas;

On life and death His smile falls sweet, —

Lights up all mysteries:

Stranger nor exile can I be

In new worlds where He leads me.

Not my Christ only: He is ours;

Humanity’s close bond;

Key to its vast unopened powers,

Dream of our dreams beyond. —

What yet we shall be, none can tell; Now are we His, and all is well. Lucy Larcom.

SERMON: NO. 1390. (September 9, 1887.)

SCRIPTURE: Nehemiah 1:1-8, and Nehemiah 2:1-8. HYMNS: 181, 636, 978.

V. The Day of Salvation.

“ for He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF

SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY

OF SALVATION” — 2 Corinthians 6:2. NASB

O God, You art our exceeding joy. The very singing of Your praises lifts our heart upward when we can join in the solemn psalm or the sacred hymn, our heart doth leap within us. And when Your name is glorified, when we see sinners glorifying the name of Jesus, when we look forward to the brighter days when myriads shall flock to the Crucified above all, when we contemplate His final triumph, then is our heart very restful and our spirit rejoices in God our Savior. What a fountain of delight You are, and how richly have You promised to bless the men that delight themselves in God. You have said,” Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desire of your heart.” Do You reward us for being delighted? Oh pleasant duty, which hath appended to it so divine a promise.

Shall we have the desire of our heart when our heart finds all its desire in You? Oh blessed

Lord, You do indeed meet them that work righteousness and that rejoice in Your ways; and

You fill Your people with good things, so that their youth is renewed like the eagles’. We pray You help us who know You, to glorify You. We have known You from our youth, some of us, and hitherto have we declared Your wondrous works. Oh may there never be in our heart, and above all may there never come from our lips, or in our life, anything that might dishonor You. Oh let us die a thousand deaths sooner than ever dishonor Your hallowed name.

This is dearer to us than the apple of our eye. We have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your honor dwells. Gather not our soul with sinners, nor our lives with cruel men; but let us be helped, even to the end, to follow the Lamb whither soever He goes, even if it be to Gethsemane and Calvary. Oh to be perfect in heart towards the Lord! Our lives are faulty we see much to grieve over; but we would have our whole heart towards Your statutes; and we bless You that so it is, for our heart is in Your ways, and we are willing to spend and to be spent for You. Reservation would we not make to the very slightest, but lay ourselves out for Your honor only, for by us and in us, Father glorify Your name.

Look down upon the great assemblies of this morning all over the world, and let Your eye of tenderness rest here. You see here many that love Youe — may we love You more! You see many that live by the life of God — oh life of God live in us to the full! You see also, we fear, some that are declining from Your ways, in whom grace is but a flickering light.

Lord, trim the lamps, bring back the wanderers, for there is no joy but in God. And perhaps, nay we fear it must be so, that You see in this throng, ungodly ones, careless and indifferent. Oh sword of the Lord, pierce them through, that carelessness may be slain, that their souls may live. Oh You who art as a polished shaft hidden in the quiver of the eternal, go forth today to smite to the heart the proud, the self-righteous, and those that will not stoop to ask mercy at Your hands but as for the humble and the contrite, look upon them; the broken-hearted and the heavy-laden do You relieve, and such as have no helper do You succor.

Bring up the sinner from the prison house, let the lawful captive be delivered. Let the mighty God of Jacob lead forth His elect, as once He did out of Pharaoh’s bondage. The Red Sea is already divided that they may march through it. The Lord save multitudes — He knows them that are His. Accomplish their number and let Jesus so be rewarded, though Israel be not gathered.

Oh Lord, we ask ourselves for strength to bear and to do. Some of us would ask, if it were Your will, restoration to health; but Your will be done. Others would ask deliverance out of trouble — again, Your will be done. Some would come before You with conscious guilt, and ask for a new application of the precious blood. We had better all ask it, let us all have it.

O God bless this church and people more and more. How richly you hast blessed them! When we look back upon past years, what hath God wrought! Shall thou be without our song? Even when we are not as we would be, shall our voice, if it be cracked and broken, still be silent? No, if every harp-string shall be broken but one, that one shall still resound the love of Jesus, and the glory of God. Long as we live we will bless Your name, our King, our God of love; for there is none like You. “Whom have we in heaven but You, and there is none upon earth that we desire beside You.” Our soul is clean divorced from all earth’s good, and married to the Christ of God for ever. By bonds that never can be snapped we are one with Him, and who shall separate us from His Love?

The Lord be pleased to reveal Himself to His servants. Oh for the uplifting of the veil, for the drawing near of the people that are made glad by’ the blood, for the speaking of God unto the soul, and the speaking of our soul unto God. Oh for converse with the Eternal, for such fellowship as they may have who are raised up together with Christ, and made to sit in the heavenlies with Him. Oh Savior, grant us a glimpse of Your great love. One flash of Your eye is brighter than the noonday. One word from Your lips will be sweeter to us and more full of music, ‘than the harps of angels.

Grant it to every one of Your children all over the world, both to the sick and to the dying. Oh how gloriously will they die!

And now Lord, we ask You to bless our country at this time, and by Your great and infinite mercy preserve us we beseech You from war. Oh that peace may reign yet all over the world, but let not this nation inter-meddle and be as one that takes a dog by the ear, but may there be wisdom given where we fear folly, and strength given where wisdom reigns. The Lord grant that wars may utterly cease unto the ends of the earth. Oh make a way we pray You, for the progress of Christianity, of civilization, of liberty, of everything that is honest and of good repute. May Your kingdom come, and Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven, for Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON: No. 1394. (January 13, 1878.)

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 49. HYMNS: 241, 239, 406.

Christ is All

OH, the bitter shame and sorrow, That a time could ever be When I let the Savior’s pity

Plead in vain, and proudly answered, “All of self, and none of Thee.”

Yet He found me. I beheld Him Bleeding on the accursed tree,

Heard Him pray, “Forgive them, Father!”

And my wistful heart said faintly, “Some of self, and some of Thee.”

Day by day His tender mercy, Healing, helping, full and free, Sweet and strong, and ah! so patient,

Brought me lower, while I whispered, “Less of self, and more of Thee!”

Higher than the highest heavens, Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Tiny love at last hath conquered; Grant me now my soul’s desire, — “None of self, and all of Thee!

MONOD.

VI. SITTING OVER AGAINST THE SEPULCHRE.

“The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” --Matthew 27:6. NASB

Most glorious Lord God, it is marvelous in our eyes that You should become incarnate, that Your Son should take our flesh upon Him.

It surprises us greatly that the Lord of Life should condescend to die, and that the incorruptible One should be laid in the grave.

We are full of loving gratitude, we are also full of adoring wonder.

When we have stood at the sepulcher and looked into it and thought of Jesus having lain there,

when we have seen it open and knew that it was empty,

we bless Your name that even He died and was buried, and magnify You that He is risen again from the dead.

These great facts concerning our divine Lord are the foundation of our confidence in Him. We bless You that they have been attested by such fourfold witness, and yet further that afterwards He appeared alive to so large a number of those who knew Him that the fact of His rising from the dead might never be questioned again.

We do not question it, our hearts devoutly believe the fact, but Lord we want by Your Holy Spirit to know the facts in their living power.

We wish that we might have fellowship with our Lord, who is our Head, in all this.

Oh that we might know how to die with Him, and to live with Him in newness of life.

O God we do rejoice that the old man was crucified with Him.

We would daily mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts.

We wish to be to the world, to sin, to selfishness as dead and buried men; as dead men, out of mind, so would we be.

Oh that no faculty might hear the voice of the charmer when it charms us towards sin! may we be delivered from the mere power to obey the lusts of the flesh and the temptations of the devil.

May grace so sanctify us that we may reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

O God we have too much of the ill alive about us. Go on to crucify it: let it die and, painful and lingering though the death may be, may we reckon the thing to be dead, because it is crucified, and never treat it as though it were a living thing to be fed and to have provision made for it but let it die and let it be buried.

May those of us who bear in their body the marks of the Lord Jesus be solemnly concerned that our baptism should be no fiction, but that we should be really baptized into the death of Christ with all the fullness of the deadening power that is about the sacred burial by fellowship with Him.

And, O Lord, give us more and more to have the new life, yea, and to have it more abundantly, for this is one of the objects of His coming.

May the new life always rule us, may we walk by its power, may we have strength through its influence, may we be elevated by its energies,

may we be indeed entirely subjugated as to our own entire manhood to the control of     the Holy Spirit through the new-born life.

We do pant for this as the hart pants after the water brooks. We ask especially...that we may be in the Spirit and so may be in the fullness of the quickening power.

May we do nothing after the dead manner of formality.

May there be no dead hymn, nor dead prayer. Lord, give the preacher life. Oh give the hearers life. Oh may this be living worship..., the bowing not of heads alone, but of hearts, and the closing not alone of the eyes to things that can be seen, but the closing of the eyelids of the thought to everything worldly.

O Lord, imprison us in the grave of Christ today, that within those sacred walls we may find a chamber where our Lord shall manifest Himself to us, as He does not unto the world.

A spring shut up, a fountain sealed are You O Christ to us, and we would be such to You; a garden enclosed for our Beloved, wherein He may take His delights. Our soul shall sing for joy, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; he feeds among the lilies.” Oh! for a day’s release from every care! Now break the bands of our yoke.

And Oh that we could live above care in the weekdays too, casting all our care on Him who cares for us, and leaving all in those wise hands that rule the world, and can well rule our mean affairs.

Today, gracious Lord, reproach Your children and comfort them, also rebuke and reprove as may seem good unto You; but Oh, sanctify us for the skies, and prepare us for the place which You are preparing for us.

The Lord be very mindful of all his sick servants at home, of any that are under depression of spirit, and especially of such as are near to die.

Oh be very gracious to all Your children under temptation, and if any are in very sharp trial, and are also conscious of having brought it upon themselves, which makes the trial worse than ever, yet of Your mercy do You let the fullness of the power of Your grace be manifest in them, that in the ages to come they may, with all saints declare the exceeding riches of Your power and love in Christ Jesus.

And now, Lord, bless the unconverted.... Be pleased to save them; let the eternal purpose be fulfilled in many today:

Oh bring home Your prodigal children, and let such as are coming home be met by the loving Father, and may such as have come home have a feast of fat things today.

May elder brethren today be made better tempered, be made more into sympathy with the great Father!

May there be blessings all round today for all of us, and so may we together bless and magnify Your august and sacred name.

O You one God of Israel, whom we worship, let others worship whom they may; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is our God for ever and ever, and we worship You Oh Jehovah Elohim, in the name of Jesus Christ Your only begotten Son. Amen.

SERMON: 1404 (March 24, 1878.)

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 27:44-61. Mark 15:42-47. Luke 23:50-56. John 19:38-42. Romans 6:1-13.

HYMNS: 909, 832, 844.

VII. THE REASON WHY MANY CANNOT FIND REST.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” — James 4:7-10. NASB

Permit us, gracious Father, to come very near to You.

May the drawings of the Divine Spirit now sweetly attract us to God; and most blessed Jesus, fulfill Your office as Mediator, bring us now near to God by Your precious blood.

Oh for the power to pray aright this morning! May Your servant have it largely that he may be able to lead all this people, by the power of the Spirit, close to the mercy-seat.

First would we adore and bless and magnify our God; not only O God for what You are to us, but for what You are in Yourself, for You are incomparably glorious. In You, all perfections shine.

Through the rebellion of our flesh we cannot delight ourselves in Your ways, because they are hard and afflictive apparently; yet we do delight in You, and we will at all times rest our souls in the excellence and goodness and loving kindness of the Most High.

As You have revealed Yourself in Christ Jesus, You are now become to Your people the object of inexpressible delight. You have bidden us delight in You, promising to give us the desire of our hearts.

We trust we can...truly say, that You are our exceeding joy; the thought of God gives to our soul exceeding pleasure. Our soul exalts in her God: He is our God and we will extol Him, He is our fathers’ God and we will glorify Him.

But, Lord, we do confess that our nature is at enmity with You. The fallen corrupt nature of Adam has revolted and gone aside from God; and though we hope that by Your free grace You have renewed us, yet the old rebellions come up at times, and the evil nature urges us still to oppose You.

Therefore our prayer this morning is that we may not only extol You with our words, as we do now; but by the entire submission of our hearts in loyal reverence to You, we may pay You the truest homage.

But, Lord, lest we should not have done this, or thinking that we have done so, should still have failed, we will make this the burden of our morning prayer. A large number of us have put on Christ by open confession of His name.

Oh Searcher of hearts, are we really in Christ? Have we been by His spirit begotten again? Will You be pleased to search our hearts, that this question may be put beyond all suspicion.

Help us to be very diligent in self-examination, observing whether our spirit be the spirit of Your children, whether our griefs be the griefs that tare repenting hearts, whether our joys are the joys of faith or the delusions of presumption.

May we make severe trial of ourselves, often and often putting ourselves into the balances of the sanctuary, to see whether we be full weight or no.

One thing we hope we can say with confidence, that our trust is stayed where You would have it stayed, even in the work, the blood, the righteousness, the person of Your dear Son.

We have no confidence but in Christ, this we know; but Lord, if this be a true confidence it will work by love and purify the soul.

Oh that there might be the sweet results of faith about our secret character and public life.

We do sin, the Lord grant we may never leave off grieving because of sin, never may we be contented with ourselves, never fancy that we have reached a point where we may rest and be thankful, and that there is nothing more for us to do in seeking to be more than conquerors of ourselves.

As we have read the charge of Your word against that unruly member, the tongue; as we have heard Your servant James rebuking our envy and other evil spirits that are within us, we do feel humbled under Your hand, and our prayer is,

Lord, kill our envy, Lord, help us to command our tongue, grant us grace to be holy; may we be kind and gentle towards our fellow men, having that fruit of the Spirit, which follows upon purity, even peace.

Oh that we might live for You and not for self. Slay self we pray You, gracious God, whenever there is a selfish, angry disposition about us; help us to trample it out, as men put out sparks lest a fire should arise therefrom.

Oh to be Christly!  We do desire to live on earth the life of Jesus — sent into the world by Him as He was sent into the world by the Father.

We would closely copy all His acts, words, and spirit; for so only are we saved, when we are saved from the power of sin and transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Let no drunkard here imagine that his life ought to be spent in a selfish endeavor to save himself from the flames of hell; but may he rather reckon that the grand object is to be saved from the power of sin, and to be consecrated unto God, and to live unto the glory of the most High.

Oh Lord, we do fear that selfishness even enters into our most holy things; we mar and spoil our prayers, and preachings, and teachings, with the unwashed hands with which we go about them.

Oh that You would make us clean we pray You; while we thus pray to You, we do also know that believing in Christ we are clean; we thank You we do not doubt His justifying power.

While we are now crying to Him to be sanctified, may we not doubt His power to sanctify; but while crying, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death,” as well we may, we do nevertheless shout exultingly, “Thanks be unto God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

And now we beseech You, look upon some who are seeking salvation, but do not find it; who hear the simple gospel but somehow cannot enter into its rest. We know that something hinders — Satan hinders.

There may be in the heart of seekers here, attachment to a favorite sin. Oh deliver them from that fascination.

There may be still some holding fast to evil associations, some predominance of evil passions. Oh God help penitent souls to come to You, asking to be delivered from sin in every shape, from the sugar of sin as well as from the gall of sin.

Oh make the soul of the seeker to be weary till he is delivered from corruption.

May there be none here that shall fancifully seek after a pretended salvation, which will leave them as they are, but may they know that Jesus saves His people from their sins; and, oh, that with self loathing, and deep contrition, and earnest heart searching, souls may come to You again and cast themselves before Your face, trusting in Jesus, and crying out to be delivered from sin; and may this be the day of deliverance.

Oh that at this very hour..., You may raise up of these stones children unto Abraham. Men that seem naked and cold as stones, quicken by the mighty Spirit this very day; and may they be led to yield themselves unto God, and their members instruments of righteousness. The Lord grant it, and we will bless His name.

Lord, save us all, not only now, but in that day. So as by fire perhaps some of us will be saved, but we had rather pray that you would minister unto us an entrance abundantly into the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We have many things to ask of You, but You know, without our use of words. Give to all before You, and to all Your people everywhere, exactly what You see they need.

We pray for the revival of the Church of God, for help to be given this day to all preachers, and teachers, and seekers after the souls of others. We pray You, Lord, to add to Your church daily of such as shall be saved.

Sword of the Lord rest and be quiet now; and may the gospel with its benign influences spread over all nations, till there shall be no selfish clutching, no rapacious grasping at territories, no oppression of one race by another; but may the laws of the King of Peace be universally proclaimed, and obeyed even by those who perhaps yield not their hearts to His sway;

for we do know, great King, that while You have a special kingdom in Your people, yet the Lord has given You power over all flesh; and we pray this may be recognized, and we may see it.

Your kingdom come, O Jesus; may Your kingdom come, Your Father’s kingdom and let His will be done on earth as it is in heaven; for Yours is the kingdom and the power and, the glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

SERMON: NO. 1408. (April 7, 878.)

SCRIPTURE: James 3:1-12; James 4:1-12. HYMNS: 907, 641, 119 (Song 2.).

VIII. THE CONQUEST OF SIN.

“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” — Romans 6:14. NASB

Glorious Lord God, our inmost hearts worship You; for You are high above the heavens, and yet You humble Yourself to behold the things that are in heaven and that are on earth.

And in Your condescension You have regard to the very lowest of mankind. Many of us can sing “He has regarded my low estate;” for You do raise the poor out of the dust, and the needy out of the dunghill, that You may set them among princes, even the princes of the people.

Who is a God like unto You: Hallelujah!

our praises shall never cease from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, and all through the night watches, the Lord’s name is to be praised.

Our Father, for that is the sweetest title by which we can address You, we pray You save us entirely from sin.

There are many in Your presence who are resting in the peace which comes of justification by faith.

We know that we are righteous through the righteousness of another, even Jesus Christ; but we pant and pine for personal likeness to Yourself. If You be our Father, then upon every child of Yours should be the Father’s image impressed: so let it be.

We beseech You, Lord, to enable us to recognize our death to sin; and when it tempts us may we be deaf to the voice of the charmer with the deafness of death; and when it would use our members as instruments of unrighteousness, may we be quite incapable thereof with the incapacity of death.

O God, deliver us we pray You from the invasion of sin, as well as from the dominion of it.

Grant us to walk as Christ walked; in His newness of life may we live — may the life in the flesh be a life of faith upon the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us; and may it be a life of love, and consecration of burning zeal for God; a life of pure holiness; such a life as the incarnate God Himself has lived among the sons of men.

We lament that in the body of this death there is much that we abhor.

We are tempted to indolence at times, and though busy in the world we become spiritually idle.

We are tempted to envy others because they excel us, and we mourn to confess the meanness of our spirit in this matter; and also we have to lament our pride.

We have nothing to be proud of; the lowest place is ours; but Lord, we often conceive ourselves to be something when we are nothing.

We pray You forgive all these vices of our nature; but at the same time kill them, for we hate...to think we should fall into such evils.

...have mercy upon us for our unbelief. You have given us proof of Your existence, and of Your love to us, and of Your care over us especially have You given us Your only begotten Son, best pledge of love.

And yet we acknowledge that we do doubt. Unbelief comes into the soul. We are...ashamed of this. We could lie in the very dust to think it should be so.

Lord, have mercy upon us; but also help us to be strong in faith in the future, giving glory to God.

We must sorrowfully also lament our hearts, how they wander. If You give us a blessing we begin to idolize it. How often do we set our hearts upon children, upon some beloved object, or upon wealth, or upon honor.

Somehow or other, this spiritual adultery too often comes upon us, and the chastity of our hearts towards our God is violated. Be pleased to forgive us in this thing also.

“Take this poor heart and let it be, For ever closed to all but You” — A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Let the whole heart be Christ’s alone, And never stray again.

Yet we do bless You this morning that we can pray in this fashion, for there was a time when it never struck us that there was much amiss with us, when sin was no plague to us; when we lived even in outward sin with but slight accusation of conscience, and certainly without any pain at heart.

You know, Lord, that sin is our greatest curse; we would sooner suffer anything than sin, at least when we are in our right mind we feel so. O God, deliver us from sin!

At the very thought of its coming near to us we cry, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me;” and we only find comfort in the blessed truth that You give us; the victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Let that victory be very apparent, may it be very clear to our own consciousness, very much displayed in our lives.

O God, help us to live towards You in all devotion, confidence, obedience, resignation and simple childlike trust. Help us to love You with all our heart and soul and mind.

Enable us also to live to our fellow-men according to Your word, loving our neighbor as ourselves. Save us from all un-neighborly tempers, all hard thoughts, all slanderous words.

Deliver us from bearing any anger in our heart from everything that is ungenerous or unkind do save us, and let the law of love be written on the fleshy tablets of our renewed heart, and be carried out in all the thoughts and words and acts of our lives.

Especially help us to master our tongue, for if that be bridled the whole body will be manageable.

Keep us, O God. when we are in company, and equally preserve us when we are in secret.

Help us to keep the door of our lips; and grant that when that door is opened there may not come out of it sweet waters and bitter may we not both bless and curse, but may we speak that which is good to edification, and may our speech be also seasoned with salt.

Thus would we cry unto You after holiness. You know we do not expect to be saved by it; but we do look upon it as salvation to be saved from sin, to be delivered from corruption; to be emancipated from the bondage of the evil is the great thought of our spirit, and we look forward to heaven with this as one of its highest felicities, that we shall be without fault before the throne of God, and that nothing that defiles shall ever enter there. O Lamb of God, by whom we have been redeemed from sin and washed from uncleanness, will You graciously daily wash our feet that we may be clean every whit, and may enter in through the gates into the city, and be among those of whom it is written — “They shall walk with Me in white for they are worthy.”

And at this hour, which is an hour of grace, we would ask You to help any of Your children who are under bondage. If they have lost their hope, if their faith has become weak, if their love burns low, Lord renew the faith of Your people like that of the eagles; and let them mount up with eagles and rise above their doubts, their deadness, and their care.

Should any of Your servants be in deep trouble, will You grant them grace to glory in tribulation also, because it works patience, experience, and hope.

And may the Lord grant to all his tried and troubled ones, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Prosper Your universal church. Send the preaching of the pure gospel again to the world. Silence the voices of those that are spreading infidelity and superstition and may the day come when every pulpit Shall resound with the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, and His people shall again return to their allegiance to the faith — the faith once delivered to the saints, never to swerve again.

O God, suffer us to intercede with You a moment for our unconverted ones. Give us to feel great sorrow and heaviness of heart for those who, as yet, are far off from God Lord, bring them in.

O God, awaken the careless and frivolous — there may be such here this morning, who have never given any solemn consideration to the matters of their soul.

May they be awakened and aroused today; and while we set forth the way of salvation by grace, may they feel their need of it and be willing to accept it; and may the Lord save them this day.

May any that are anxious, but are missing the mark, looking to themselves instead of to Christ, learn the way of life and run in it. Save them, O God; yea, save this people. Let all within these...walls today be within the Temple gates above at the last.

May every congregation of the faithful everywhere be under the Divine blessing.

Bless our country, we pray You and we lift up again the voice of earnest prayer that peace may not be broken. Oh, let not bloodshed break forth in the midst of the continent; but may it please You to send wisdom to the councilors of all nations, that by some means such a dreadful calamity may be avoided; and may He come who will end all danger of war, even the Prince of Peace Himself, in whose days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the sun and moon endure.

The Lord hear us now; and forgive, and answer, and bless, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus and unto Israel’s one God revealed to us in the Trinity of Mystic Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be glory by Christ Jesus. Amen, and Amen.

SERMON: No. 1410. (April 21, 1878.) SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:6.

HYMNS: 911, 647, 64

IX. TRUE PRAYER — HEART PRAYER.

“For You, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to Your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house'; therefore Your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to You.”

— 2 Samuel 7:27. NASB

Oh Lord...we would begin our praise by the acknowledgment of our natural condition; we would remember the miry clay and the rock whence we were hewn, for we were “by nature children of wrath even as others.”

Well do we remember when we felt this, and when the bitterness and gall were in our mouths, of which we had to drink both day and night. How heavy was the load of sin! all our thoughts were engrossed with that sense of pressure and of dread.

We looked on the right hand and there was none, and on the left and we found no helper; but then You You delivered us by leading us to cast a faith look to the Divine, only begotten, and crucified Son.

At this moment vividly is it upon our recollection how You brought us up out of the “horrible pit;” we remember now the new song which You put into our mouths as we found our feet fast on the rock and our goings established.

It is long since then with some of us, but all the way has been strewn with mercies, and we desire this morning to record, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” We thank You now in the retrospect for the trials which we have endured. Some of us have been brought very low with physical pain and mental weariness, and others have been sore smitten with bereavement, losses and crosses, and persecutions, but there is not one out of all our trials which we could have afforded to have been without. No, Lord, all has been ordered well, there was a need be for every twig of the rod, and we desire now to thank You that we can see in looking back, how all things have even now worked together for good, though we know we cannot see the end as yet.

You are good, You are blessed, like David we would willingly sit down before You in silence and wait awhile, for our words when we do use them are totally inadequate to the expression of what we feel, much more of what we ought to feel concerning Your goodness and Your loving kindness; yet we will bless Your name with such language as we have.

Jehovah, our God, let others worship whom they will and seek after what object of love they please, this God is our God for ever and ever, He shall be our guide even unto death.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Triune God of Israel, we express most solemnly the reverence we feel for You; and render to You our humble adoration as we acknowledge You to be the One and only God, by whom the heavens and the earth were made, by whom all things consist, the Redeemer of Your people, their Father and their Friend, for ever and ever!

All our hearts worship You, Oh You glorious Lord!

And truly since we have received so many mercies at Your hand, we do feel that You will never forsake us nor in any darkness which may be in our path in the future, will You desert Your own. You have done too much for us to desert us now.

We have cost You so much — Oh wondrous price that You have paid for us — and You have spent so much of wise thought, and gracious act upon us, that we are persuaded You will go through with the work which Your wisdom has undertaken.

But give us faith to believe this when the stormy times come, let us not doubt, but what our helmsman will bring us to the desired haven.

Though winds and waves assault our keel, may we still find perfect peace and rest in the thought that He who is in the hinder part of the ship is Master of winds and waves.

Comfort Your children this morning, great Father, if any of them are in doubt just now; and bring them all into an assured confidence and perfect restfulness in the Lord their God.

Next, we would humbly entreat of You that we may each one be permitted to do some great service for You before we go hence we do not mean great in the wisdom of our fellows, but let it be all that we can do.

If we cannot build a house for You, yet have we set our hearts upon doing something; and if it be Your will, direct our minds to what it shall be, lest our minds should not be Your mind but let not one of us be barren or unfruitful.

If we have indeed been redeemed by the blood of Christ, may we reckon that we must live to Him; may the love of Christ constrain us, and may something come of our lives that shall be a blessing to the sons of men, ere we go hence.

And our Father, while we offer this prayer, we will also pray with a deep gratitude for all Your mercies may they take possession of all our hearts that, as when David sat in his house of cedar he “magnified the Lord,” so may we also whenever things go smoothly with us.

Lord, may the gratitude we feel prompt us to say again “what shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits towards me.”

Make every child of Yours here to be every day serving You; and serving You so that heaven’s work may begin below, and something of heavens’ pleasure may be enjoyed even now.

But Lord, while we work for You, always keep us sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Let our faith never wander away from the simplicity of its confidence in Him.

Let our motive never be anything but His glory; may our hearts be taken up with His love, and our thoughts perpetually engaged about His person.

Let us choose the good part which shall not be taken away that if we serve with Martha we may also sit with Mary.

Let this church, Lord, receive a fresh anointing of the Holy Ghost, that all its members may be spending themselves for the Master will You quicken, we pray You, every agency; In all our Sunday schools, may there be no lack of teachers, may our young friends find it a delight to be teaching the little ones; may there be even a superabundance of workers in this department.

Let not anything flag to which the church has set her hand.

Prosper us in the education of our young men for the ministry! bless us, we pray You, with our dear orphan boys may they, all of them, be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Remember our colporteurs scattered about this country, and prosper them in their going from house to house with the Word of God, and may they be great soul-winners, all of them, that the Lord’s name may be glorified.

And all the thousand and one things which constitute the activities of the churches at large, You bless and prosper them so far as they are according to Your mind; and may it please You to give to the churches prayer in proportion to activity, and faith in proportion to zeal.

O Lord! visit Your church at this time, which is a time of peril, and in Your mercy revive among us the love of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. Rebuke, we pray You, those who with their philosophy and vain deceit would mar and spoil the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Grant that in all deliberations of any part of Your church, which concern this great and grievous and crying evil, there may be decision and wisdom and help given, that all may be done and ordered to Your glory.

Bless our nation, Lord, we pray You, and let the spirit of Christianity permeate it, enter into the high places, and flow down even to its darkest dens.

And, we beseech You, let us have peace; may nothing happen to break it, may it be established on a firm and judicious footing, and for many a year may no sound of trumpet, or noise of cannon he heard throughout the whole earth.

Let the people praise You, O God, and learn war no more! Let all the nations be blessed! May the gospel of Christ Jesus penetrate into the remotest regions, and where it is known may the power of it be felt far more.

Bless our brethren across the sea of another land, but who with the same tongue worship our Lord in spirit and in truth, and our brethren on the southern side of the globe, and all the scattered saint in every nation; visit them with the dew of the Holy Ghost, and make the gardens of the Lord amidst the desert to be green, and blossom as the rose.

Now help us this morning, give to every one a sense of pardoned sin forgive us, O Father, for Christ’s sake!

Give to each one of us also sanctifying power, that we may be cleansed from the influence of guilt.

Give power in the delivery of the gospel.

May the truth sink into the soul, and may this be a good and happy, devout and beneficial occasion to all of us here gathered.

We ask it for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1412. (May 5, I878.) SCRIPTURE: 2 Samuel 7.

Spurgeon's Prayers Personalized                                   130 / 262

X. DISTINCTION AND DIFFERENCE.

“You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied Him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,' or, 'Where is the God of justice?'” -– Malachi 2:17

“So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

— Malachi 3:18.  NASB

Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Your people desire to set their seal to this, and to acknowledge that You are overflowing goodness.

O blessed God, You have remembered both our temporal and our spiritual wants; You have lifted us up from the gates of the grave, delivered our soul from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling.

You have dealt well with Your servants, O Lord, according to Your Word. There is none like unto the God of Israel, there is none that deals so bountifully; for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts above our thoughts and His ways above our ways.

Our soul, therefore, blesses God the Lord, and all that is in us is stirred up, His holy name to magnify and bless. “Bless the Lord” is the utterance of our inmost soul this...; “from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same let the Lord’s name be praised.”

And now, Lord, You will listen to us while we confess before You how unworthy we have been of all Your goodness; for we are a sinful generation, even as our fathers were.

We have sinned times without number, and even those of us who are Your people, and have been born into Your house, we have even more than others to mourn over our sin, for You have made us more sensible of it, and we have sinned against greater light, which we do sorrowfully confess.

Our sins of pride, of unbelief, of hasty judgment of Your providence, our neglect of searching into Your mind in the Word, our neglect of possessing Your mind in our daily life, our transgressions and our shortcomings make against us a great list of accusations.

But we bless You that they will not stand as accusations, for behold, none can lay anything to the charge of Your people, seeing all was laid on Him upon whom the transgression of Your people was laid of old by Your own hand; and now, washed in His precious blood, and clothed in His matchless righteousness, we know that despite our faults we stand accepted in the Beloved, for which again we bless You. Deep down in our hearts shall, the song begin in humiliation of spirit because of our offenses, but it shall rise to the very heights of heaven while with joy we behold how we are “raised up together and made to sit in the heavenly places,” and are presented in Christ Jesus “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.”

Lord, we desire this morning to contemplate with admiration Your ways toward us.

You have put some of us into the furnace. There is no child of Yours but knows something of the heat of the furnace, and we perceive that You are as a refiner unto us, and that the fire is meant to consume our dross and tin, therefore do we thank You for it.

For all the acts of discipline to which we are subject we, would praise the wisdom and the love of our divine Father. You would not have us live in sin; sin is much worse than furnace work.

All the trial in the world is not so hard to carry as a sense of sin.

Lord, if You do give us choice to keep our sins and to live in pleasure, or to have them burnt away with trial, we will say to You, Lord, give us the sanctified affliction, but deliver us from all the influences of sin, from every evil habit, from all the increase of former sin, all the ore that is mixed with the precious metal, everything that diminishes the brightness of Your grace in us, everything that keeps You from taking delight in us, take it away, we beseech You and if this life is to be to Your people the crucible and the burning heat, even to a white heat, so let it be, so long as You do sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore that nothing should be lost. Oh, blessed God, help any of Your children that are in the midst of the heat now. Let them see the Lord sitting near and watching, and let them feel perfectly at ease, because in His hands all things must be well.

And gracious God, we pray You, work in us according to the chapter we have been reading such a holy love to You, that we may render to You all that we have. We have sometimes said in our soul “Take not tithe, but take You all.” Keep us true to this.

May we feel that we are “not our own but bought with a price,” and let this be...a real force which constrains us, because

“we thus judge that if one died for all, then all died, and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again.” We do pray for grace that we may spend all our time, every faculty, and all that we possess in glorifying our Lord and Master amongst the sons of men in

“Works which perfect saints above And holy angels cannot do.”

...Bless, we pray You, all city missionaries, all visitors from house to house, all those who seek to reclaim fallen women, or waifs and strays among the children. Let the philanthropic work that is done in the city, ever be under Your eye, and be upheld by Your gracious hand. Our ragged schools, and especially our Sunday schools, look upon with favor, and grant them ever to be a nursery for the Church of God.

And the Lord bless all that in any way seek to make known the savor...Jesus. Oh, give the humble tongue that tells of Christ to speak with fire, and where the multitudes are gathered together, there give...earnestness, sincerity and depth of power to bring sinners to Jesus.

“Let the people praise You, O God, yea, let all the people praise You!”

Let our great cities be swept clean of vice and infidelity and superstition. Deliver our country villages and hamlets from the drunkenness and ignorance in which they dwell. Let the whole earth behold the brightness of the coming of the Lord.

Let Jesus Christ reign from pole to pole until He Himself shall come openly and manifestly to take to Himself His great power, and all the kingdoms surrender themselves into His hands.

...Touch now with Your sacred finger some careless heart that may be using even the House of

God as a place for the gratification of curiosity, desiring no spiritual gift whatsoever, yet will You be pleased to lay Your hand upon that heart and make it feel that God is near, and may conscience say “Be you sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you.” Oh, that there might not be the power to put aside that kingdom, but may the conscience now be so touched and girded with strength that the will may submit, and the judgment yield, and the affections bow, that God may reign over many a heart which hitherto has been a rebellious province of His domain.

...“Let the people praise You, O God, yea, let all the people praise You!”...

And now may the good seed drop into furrows that shall welcome it, and from it may there spring a harvest to Your glory, O You ever blessed, unto whose name be honor, world without end, through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1415. (May 19, 1878.) SCRIPTURE: Malachi 2:17; Malachi 3. HYMNS: 885, 714, 728.

XI. TAKE FAST HOLD.

“Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.”

— Proverbs 4:13.  NASB

Blessed God, our heart praises You, our inmost soul rejoices in Your name, for the Lord is good, and His mercy endures for ever.

Your people praise You, O God, for all that You have been unto them, and we can each one set forth Your worthy praise based on our personal experience of Your goodness. You have dealt well with Your servants, O Lord, according unto Your word.

We bless You for teaching us from our youth, for some of us have known You, even from our childhood, and Your word was precious to us even in our earlier days, when, like young Samuel, we were spoken to of the Lord.

Now You have borne and carried us these years in the wilderness with unchanging love and goodness... You have made and You do carry; You do not forsake the work of Your own hands. “Your mercy endures for ever,” and let Your praise endure for ever also.

O Lord, we would cling to You more firmly than ever we have done: we would say, “Return unto Your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with You, for You have delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling.”

We would this morning “take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” ...Blessed be the name of the Lord, we have been brought low, but the Lord has helped us; we have oftentimes wandered, but He has restored us; we have been tried, but He has preserved us; yea, we have found His paths to be “paths of pleasantness” and all the ways of His wisdom to be “ways of peace.”

We bear our willing witness to the testimony of the Lord, we set our seal that “He is true” and we cry again “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even with cords unto the horns of the altar.” From henceforth let no man trouble us, for we “bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

We are His branded servants henceforth and for ever. Our ear is nailed to our Master’s doorpost, to go no more out for ever.

And now, Lord, we beseech You, hear the voice of our cry.

Your people would first of all ask You to deepen in them all the good works of Your grace.

We do repent of sin — give us a deeper repentance!

May we have a horror of it, may we dread the very approach of it, may we chastely flee from it and resolve, with sacred jealousy, that our hearts shall be for the Lord alone.

We have faith in Jesus, blessed be Your name, but Oh strengthen and deepen that faith!

May He be all in all to us; may we never look elsewhere for ground of rest, but abide in Him with an unwavering, immutable confidence, that the Christ of God cannot fail nor be discouraged, but must for ever be the salvation of His people.

We trust we can say also that we love the Lord, but Oh that we loved Him more!

Let this blessed flame feed on the very marrow of our bones. May the zeal of Your muse consume us, may we feel that we love the Lord with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, with all our strength, and hence may there be about our life a special consecration, an immovable dedication unto the Lord alone.

O Lord Jesus, deepen in us our knowledge of You.

You have made the first lines of Your likeness upon our character; go on with this work of sacred art till we shall be like You in all respects.

We wish that we had greater power in private prayer, that we were oftener wrestling with the covenant angel.

We would that the Word of God were more sweet to us, more intensely precious, that we had a deeper hunger and thirst after it.

Oh that our knowledge of the truth were more clear and our grip of it more steadfast. Teach us, O Lord, to know the reason of the hope that is in us, and to be able to defend the faith against ill comers.

Plough deep in us, great Lord, and let the roots of Your grace strike into the roots of our being, until it shall be no longer I that live, but “Christ that lives in me.” Holiness also of life we crave after.

Grant that our speech, our thoughts, our actions, may all be holiness, and “holiness unto the Lord.”

We know that there be some that seek after moral virtue apart from God. Let us not be of their kind, but may our desire be that everything should be done as unto the Lord, for You have said,

“Walk before Me, and be you perfect.” Help us so to do, to have no master but our God, no law but His will, no delight but Himself.

Oh, take these hearts, most glorious Lord, and keep them, for “out of them are the issues of life,” and let us be the instruments in Your hand, by daily vigilance, of keeping our hearts, lest in heart we go astray from the Lord our God....

We do remember when we were baptized into the sacred Name — Oh never may we dishonor that sacred ordinance by which we declared that we were dead to the world and buried with Christ.

Some of us do remember our early covenant with God, when we gave over to Him ourselves and all that we had.

Oh, in life’s last hour when we bow ourselves for weakness, may it be to bless that sacred bond and to “enter into the joy of our Lord.” And if You have taught us anything since then, if You have given us any virtue or any praise, may we hear You say, “Hold fast that which you have, that no man take Your crown.”

Oh let no brother or sister become distinguished in grace and then decline, let none bear fruit and afterwards become barren, but may our path “shine more and more unto the perfect day.” Our spirit craves after with strong desire, that the whole of our life from the commencement with Christ to its ending with our being with Christ, may glorify and bring help to His Church.

...Our chief desire is for Your cause in the earth. We are often very heavy about it. ‘The days seem to us to be neither dark nor light, but mingled; oh that the element of light might overcome the darkness!

We do pray You, raise up in these days a race of men that shall know the gospel and hold it fast. We do feel that we have so much superficial religion, so much profession without true possession to back it up.

Oh, Lord, may our churches be built with precious stones, and not with wood, hay, and stubble.

May we ourselves so know the gospel that no one can beat us out of it; may we so hold it that our faces shall be like flints against the errors of the age; so practice it that our lives shall be an argument that none can answer, for the power of the gospel of Jesus.

And with this be pleased to grant to Your churches more power over the sons of men. Oh Lord, make Your ministers throughout all the world to be more fruitful in soul winning. Let us not rest without sowing the good seed beside all waters.

Forgive us our coldness and indifference; forgive us that we sleep as do others, for it is high time for us to awake out of sleep. Oh Lord, do help us to live while we live; shake us clear of these grave clothes which cling to us; say to us, most blessed Jesus, what You said concerning Lazarus of old, “Loose him, and let him go.” May we get ...away from the old death and the old lethargy, and live under the best conditions of life, diligently serving God.

Convert the nations, we pray You! Help our dear brethren who stand far out in the thick heathen darkness, like stone sentinels; let them bear their witness well, and may the day come when the Christian church shall become a missionary church, when all over the world those that love, Christ shall be determined that He shall conquer.

You have not yet made the church “terrible as an army with banners;” would God she were. May those days of Christian earnestness come to us, and then shall we look for the latter day of glory.

And now, Father, save any...that remain unconverted. May this day be the day of their salvation. We would most earnestly entreat that some word may drop into the most careless heart; and this prayer especially, convert this day in this house of prayer, if it may please You....

Take hold of some that are specially set against You, some that are very bold spirits even in sin, thorough-hearted in their wickedness — convert such now! Say unto them, “See I have made you a chosen vessel to bear my name unto the Gentiles,” and may there come such power with it that they may not be disobedient unto the heavenly vision.

Your Church needs such men. Oh that such were brought out today! We put it up as a prayer to be registered in heaven, and we mean to look for its answer, that You would today take hold of some men that shall become afterwards leaders in the church of God, this day striking them down with the sense of sin and leading them to Christ....

Oh that long-continued peace might happen to this poor earth, for its wounds are many. Behold, how all things languish for the lack of peace — the Lord send it.

Quicken trade and commerce, remove the complaining that is now heard in our streets. Kindly consider us in the matter of the weather, that the harvests may not be spoiled, and bless the people, O Lord.

Let the people praise You, and “then shall the earth yield her increase.”

The Lord grant all this, with the forgiveness of sin, the acceptance of our person, and assist us ever to live to His glory, for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1418. (June 9, 1878.)

SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 4. HYMNS: 560, 632, 684.

The Rock of Our Refuge

In the shadow of the Rock let me rest,

When I feel the tempest’s shock thrill my breast;

All in vain the storm shall sweep while I hide, And my tranquil station keep by Your side.

On the parch’d and desert way where I tread, With the scorching noon-tide ray o’er my head,

Let me find the welcome shade, cool and still, And my weary steps be stayed while I will.

I in peace will rest me there, till I see That the skies again are fair over me —

That the burning heats are past, and the day Bids the traveler at last go his way.

Then my pilgrim staff I’ll take and once more

I’ll my onward journey make as before;

And with joyous heart and song I will raise

Unto You, O Rock, a song glad with praise!

Ray Palmer.

XII. TRUST AND PRAY.

“O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.” — Isaiah 30:19.  NASB

O Lord God, the strength and the hope of Your people, we would approach You through Jesus Christ Your Son with notes of thanksgiving, for we are not ashamed of our hope, neither has our confidence led us into confusion.

We have proven it to be true, that they that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which can never be moved, which abides for ever.

We trusted in You with regard to our innumerable sins, and You have cast them behind Your back.

We trusted in You, yea, we trusted in You when many evils compassed us about, and we were sore beset with temptation and You brought us out and sat our feet upon a rock and establish our goings.

We trusted in You, alas! too feebly, in the hour of our distress when we were troubled exceedingly with earthly things, still You did not fail us though our faith trembled though we believed not You did abide faithful.

The Lord has helped His people, yea the Lord has been the strength and the help of His chosen.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all,” and at this moment, in looking back upon the past, we have nothing to do but to admire and to adore the constancy of love, the faithfulness of grace.

We thank You, O God, on the behalf of many of Your people, our brethren, that You have dealt so well with them. We knew them many years ago when their young hearts first believed in You, and here they are still the living, the living in Zion, to praise You as they do this day.

Their feet have sometimes almost gone, their steps have well nigh slipped, but You have held them up, and they are walking in their integrity, preserved as only grace could preserve them, living still to praise Your name.

We bless You on the behalf of the much tried among Your children. They went through fire and through water; men did go over their heads, yet have You preserved them.

Their hope seemed to wither like the fading leaf, and the summer of their joy turned into a bleak winter of adversity, yet has the spring time come to them and the time of the singing of birds, yea, they begin to pluck their first ripe fruits, and they joy...in the Lord.

O Lord, we praise You for keeping alive a testimony for the truth in the land. There have been dark and evil days, and some that professed to be Your servants have turned traitors to the gospel; yet still You have heard the cry of the faithful, and the candle is not put out, neither has the sun gone down, but even unto this day the Lord, the God of Israel reigns in the midst of His people and His saints exult in His name.

And now with this thankfulness upon our hearts, we would humbly ask You to strengthen us as to our future confidence in You.

Are there any of Your servants here at this time, or anywhere all over the world, whose confidence begins to fail them by reason of present affliction or deep depression of spirit?

We beseech You strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, and let their faith no longer waver, but may they become strong in the Lord in full assurance of faith.

Oh God, you know the burden of every heart before You, the secret sighing of the prisoner comes up into Your ears. Some of us are in perplexity, others are in actual suffering of body. Some are sorely cast down in themselves, and others deeply afflicted with the trials of those they love, but as for all these burdens, our soul would cast them on the Lord — in quietness and confidence shall be our strength, and we would this morning, all without exception who are tried and troubled, take up the place of sitting still, leaving with quiet acquiescence everything in the hands. of God.

Great Helmsman, You shall steer the ship and we will not be troubled. By Your grace we will leave everything most sweetly in Your hands. Where else should these things be left? and we will take up the note of joyous song in anticipation of the deliverance which will surely come.

Save Your people from unbelief, save them from confidence in the creature. Bring us one and all to be as to the world even as a weaned child. May we have done with these things, and as to You, O Lord, may we with strong desire seek after yet more of You, and cling to You as our sure confidence for evermore.

As for the future, we desire to bless Your name that You have covered it from our eyes, nor would we wish to lift even a corner of the veil which hides from us the things that are to be, but we delight to feel that He who has ruled all things for our good changes not.

It may be You have appointed for us great torrents of tribulation, but You will be with us if we pass through the river. Perhaps You will permit us to go through blazing fires of persecution or temptation, but we shall not be burned, for You have assured us it shall be so, that we shall go through the fires unhurt since You will be with us.

Peradventure it is written in the tablets of Your eternal purpose that we shall soon end this mortal life and die. Well, be it so, we shall the sooner see Your face, the sooner drink eternal droughts of bliss.

But if You have appointed for us gray hairs and a long and weary time of the taking down of the tabernacle, only grant us grace that by infirmity our faith may never fail us, but when the windows are darkened may we still look out to see the hope that is to be revealed; and when the grasshopper becomes a burden still let our strength be as our days, even to the last day.

We now commit ourselves again to Your keeping, O faithful Creator; to Your keeping, O Savior of the pierced hand; to Your keeping, O eternal Spirit, You who are able to keep us from falling, and sanctify us fully that we may be made to stand among the saints; in light. O God, we can trust You, and we do.

Our faith has gathered strength by the lapse of years. Each following birthday, we trust, confirms us in the fact that to rely upon God is our happiness and our strength, and we will do so, though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. We will not fear since God abides fast for ever, and His covenant cannot fail.

And now today will you lead others to trust You. Oh be You so revealed wherever the congregations are met together, that men may come to You and live.

Oh that the people in this house this morning, might not one of them go away unbelievers. If they have been indifferent to these things and have never studied the ground of the believer’s confidence, may they see it clearly this morning, and accept of it as the rock on which they shall build.

Oh if there be in this audience, as we fear there must be, many that are living to trust in their wealth, or their talents, or their position in life, or who are trusting in nothing but raising their building without a foundation at all,

Oh bring them this day to see that there is nothing worthy of an immortal soul’s confidence except the immortal and ever-living God, and this day come by Christ Jesus unto the Father. May many a heart end all its weary wanderings and sit still at Christ’s feet and see the salvation of God.

God bless our country! May faith be multiplied in the land! Preserve our nation at this juncture. Guide, we pray You, the deliberations of councilors and princes.

May peace be preserved, and at the same time may the great purposes of God with regard to the spread of liberty and of the gospel be sub-served by every decree of the council. O God, we beseech You, ease the world of the sway of every evil principle. Let the day come when all classes of men shall study the interest of others as well as their own, when the various nations shall yield to the one scepter of Christ and like kindred tribes shall melt into one.

Yea, hasten His coming and His reign when the shout shall go up to heaven that the “Lord God omnipotent reign.” As You bid us, we pray for all in authority over us... We pray for other nations also, and especially for countries and colonies where our language is spoken and our God is worshiped — may the Lord’s choicest blessings rest there.

We also put up special prayer for any of our dear friends that are in trouble, asking You to help some who have been suffering bitter bereavement, others who are vexed with sickness in their own persons.

The Lord be pleased to be gracious unto all who trust Him, and to make them trust Him in the darkest hour.

And now, unto the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, Israel’s one God, be glory throughout all the world.

Amen and Amen.

SERMON: No. 1419. (June 16, 1878.) SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 30 HYMNS: 125, 747.

XIII. KING AND PRIEST.

“Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.” — Zechariah 6:13.  NASB

Glorious God, it is the flower of our being to worship You.

This is the crown and glory of life, to adore and worship the Life-giver from whom all good things come. Worship has often been to us as a bath in heavenly pleasure, and we have come out of it refreshed and comforted, blessed, and filled with heavenly delight.

Oh for the Holy Spirit’s power to help us in worship now! Breathe upon us, Oh Divine Spirit, and let that breath cause us to forget the world, but bring us into the fullest life in the contemplation of God and heaven.

Blessed God, Father, Son, and Spirit, our whole spirit would reverence

You, yet would we have such knowledge of Your goodness that we might not be overawed with

Your greatness; such a sense of Your nearness in the person of Jesus Christ, the Man, the Branch, that we might not be driven away with terror, but may be drawn near with filial love and holy boldness.

Lord, there was once a great gulf between us, but You have bridged that gulf, for now the Lord Jesus Christ is brother to our souls, yet is He Son of the Highest; truly man, yet truly God, He is the Interpreter, one of a thousand, the Daysman, who this day lays His hand upon us both. Oh how we joy in Christ, and You do joy in Him too. We long to glorify Him, and You do delight to glorify Your Son. We would set Him on high, and You have set Him “far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named.”

Now this day we pray You, “behold our Shield and look upon the face of Your Anointed;” and while we shelter behind Him as a shield, let Him stand for us, and let the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ be seen, that You may be precious to us unworthy ones.

O Lord, we worship with all our heart and adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and Oh most blessed Lamb of God, with all the saints before the throne, we pay You reverence — casting all that we have before You.

Crowns we have none, not even of silver and gold, but such as You have graciously given, we would willingly lay at Your feet, content to feel that everything is ours when it is Yours, and the more ours when we have yielded it up to You.

We wish we could live for Jesus wholly, that there were no distractions, no secondary channels into which the stream of life could flow, but that as He is all to us, so all of us might be unto Him alone.

And now we present ourselves before the Throne of God, in the name of Jesus Christ our great High Priest. And first, we ask for pardon through the blessed blood.

Some of us You have already pardoned give us a new sense of it. Continue to pardon us; let us feel as if we came every day to the “fountain filled with blood,” and as if the washing were every day new. But, oh, have pity upon some that have never been pardoned.

Hear the cry of sinners as they seek Your face, and wherever there is a penitent spirit be pleased speedily to send it relief, and let forgiveness of sin be felt wherever the burden of sin weighs down the spirit.

Next would we ask You to subdue our iniquities. Lord, conquer the power of sin in all of us. Grant us power to live above it; let not the passions of the flesh, nor the lustings of the mind, bring the spirit into subjection; but may our spirit rule over mind and body; and may Christ rule over our spirit, and so may we know the “liberty wherewith Christ makes us free.” Next we ask for perfect consecration, that everything we are and have may be the Lord’s, not in name, but in deed and in truth.

And then we ask for fruitfulness. Oh, help us to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit to the glory of God. May our character get more beautiful every day.

If there are any traces of Christ’s artistic work upon us, may He go on with that Divine pencil until He shall have produced in us a perfect character, and we shall be among Men copies of the perfectness of our Master.

O Lord, we do ask You to make us fit for heaven. We hope it is not long before we shall be there. We have sometimes had glimpses between the gates of pearl; we have had such foretastes of the “place prepared,” that sometimes we are in haste to be gone; the flavor of the grapes of Eschol is in our mouths, and we long to be where all the clusters grow.

But we are conscious of unfitness for that state as yet. Oh, go on, most blessed Spirit, with Your patient work, until You shall have made us heavenly, and then we shall be caught up to the “heavenly places,” to see the face of our Beloved.

Yet let not all Your saints be gone as yet. Spare us some, we pray You, to build up Your church below; for that they should abide with us is expedient for our weakness — that they may help us, that they may be to us instead of eyes, for they know where to encamp in the wilderness.

You have taught them experimentally Your word, and filled them with an unction from the Holy One, and, therefore, for our sakes let not Your saints be hastened home for a while. We breathe this prayer with bated breath, because there is One who prays for us, whose prayer must always have the first reply; it is even He, the Well Beloved, whom our ears can hear saying at this moment “Father, I will that they whom You have given Me be with Me where I am.” O Lord Jesus, take us whensoever You will!

Now, standing thus before the throne of God without fear, we would humbly ask You to bless our country. Oh that You would look upon this nation which has sorely sinned, which has turned away from the path of peace to seek the ways of glory and of blood. O Lord, be pleased to turn its course aright again. We beseech You bring us out of the disasters which we have been made to suffer, and let the nation lie penitent at the feet of God.

Oh that the Christian party in this realm might prevail — that the Church of God might have a little influence over the worldly mass. Oh that the time were come when the salt shall more completely savor all the masses, and the glorious leaven shall work until all the measures of meal are leavened.

We do ask You Lord to give power to truth, to righteousness, to godliness, to peace, and to every other principle which is favored of the Lord of heaven; and let this land be delivered from the curse of the Papacy, from all the incoming both of rationalism and ritualism; and let the truth as it is in Jesus prevail, not only here but everywhere, till the whole “earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.”

Bless other nations also, we pray You, and the church of God in every land. For the saints of every tongue we pray, especially for those of our own… kin, scattered across the ocean hither and thither.

Make the whole of Your people to be full of life and vigor, and may the day come when the missionary spirit shall be more fully caught by the church at home, and they that have gone forth shall bring tens of thousands to be built into the temple of God.

O Lord we wait upon You now, and ask the overshadowing of Your presence!

Jesus of Nazareth, pass by just now!

Divine Spirit, rest upon us now!

Holy Father, look upon Your children now, and make this place to be glorious at this good hour!

We ask it in the name of the Well Beloved.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1495. (September 21, 1879.) SCRIPTURE: Psalm 110. ZECHARIAH 6:9-15. EPHESIANS 2:11-22.

HYMNS: 154, 419, 395.

XIV. THE SIN OF MISTRUST OF GOD.

“ The LORD said to Moses, 'How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?” — Numbers 14:11.   NASB

Our Father, blessed be the grace and love which have taught us to use that dear familiar name — “Our Father, which are in heaven,” and therefore highest and most exalted, and worthy to be breathed with awe and reverence by all that draw near to You.

“Hallowed be Your Name.” Oh that all the earth would ever reverence it.

As for ourselves, enable us by Your grace to use it with awe and trembling; and may a consideration of the glorious character which is intended by Your gracious name, ever lay us in the very dust before You, and yet lift us up with holy joy and with an unwavering confidence.

We come before You...through Christ Jesus to express our entire confidence in You. We believe that You are, and that You are the rewarder of them that diligently seek You.

Glorious Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, You have not changed: You are still a covenant God, and You keep that covenant to all Your people; neither do You permit a single word of it to fall to the ground.

All Your promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus to Your glory by us, and we believe those promises will be fulfilled in every jot and title: not one of them shall want its mate, not one of them shall fall to the ground like the frivolous words of men. Have You said and will You not do it?

Have You commanded and shall it not come to pass? We are utterly ashamed and full of confusion, because we have to confess that we have doubted You. Many of our actions have been atheistic. We have lived at times as if there were no God.

Lord, forgive us that death in life, in which so many of our years were spent, when we found something in the world apart from There, and were content with the things of the hour, the vile shadows, transient gusts of things which truly are not, for You alone are all in all.

We have repented, as You know, through Your grace, most bitterly of that time of death in which we tried to live; and now You have given us to see our pardon in the wounds of Jesus, and our soul puts their trust in Him. God incarnate is the ground of our hope that we are accepted and forgiven, notwithstanding that previous life of ours.

But Lord, the worst of it is, that in many of our actions, even since then, we manifest a disbelief of You. Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, You may well say of us, “How long will it be ere they believe Me, though I have shewn all my signs and wonders among them?”

O God

You have been very faithful to Your servants till now.

In no one instance is there a breach of promise.

You have tried us as silver is tried, but in very faithfulness You have afflicted us.

You have brought us very low indeed, but underneath us have still been the everlasting arms. You have brought us into the wilderness, but You have furnished a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

You have made us to see the end of all perfection, but Your love, even then, has been perfected — perfected in our weakness.

You are all goodness, and truth, and grace, and loving kindness; and therefore blessed be Your name for ever and ever.

And now blot out the sin of Your servants.

Once again let this unbelief of ours be forgiven, and let us stand, with no sin upon the conscience, but absolved through Jesus’ blood, in the enjoyment of such confidence with You, that we may lift up our face without a cloud, and may trust in You henceforth without a doubt, and go on our way rejoicing whatever that way may be. Lord teach us to be resigned to Your will; teach us to delight in Your law; teach us to have no will but Your will; teach us to be sure that everything You do is good and is the very best that can be done. Help us to leave our concerns in Your divine hands, being persuaded that You have sway even over evil; that out of it You bring good, and better still in infinite progression, till Your high purposes, shall develop in Your own perfect glory, and in the perfect bliss of all them that put their trust in You.

Are any of Your servants...in great trial? Lord help them. Whatever they fail in, let them not fail in faith. May we scorn to doubt our God.

Oh let not the devil get so much power over us as to cause us to mistrust the Eternal, who must not be mistrusted, but may we glorify You.

May we snatch the great opportunities of glorifying You which troubles and trials bring, and count ourselves to have high talent committed to us when we have the opportunity of showing our conquest of self and our glorying in God in the time of trial.

The Lord. bless His people here with Abrahamic faith, which staggers not at the promise through unbelief.

O God, have mercy upon the unbelievers..., who have heard Your word, and who profess to believe in the inspiration of Your sacred Book, and yet have never come and put their confidence in Christ.

We know that they are condemned already, because they have not believed upon the Son of God.

But Oh deliver them from this great sin, and may they come at this very hour, and cast their helpless souls upon Him on Whom You have laid our help.

May they begin to believe and then they shall begin to live; and You will breathe peace into such, and You will give them rest, and strength, and holiness, and they shall be more than conquerors if they will but believe their God.

O Lord, we beseech You, save our unconverted friends and neighbors from this gall of bitterness, this horrible yoke of iniquity which consists in disbelieving God and His Christ. And, then, deliver any of Your children that have back-slidden, and have got into a state of mis-belief. May they be brought back; may they come with weeping and lamentation, and again trust the ever-blessed Father; and may our confidence become strong that our peace may be like a river, and our righteousness like the waves of the sea.

God bless our beloved church! Give to it more faith may the prayers that go up before You be salted with faith...and may all that is done of the brotherhood for Christ, be done in simple confidence in God. We know that if we believe not we shall never be established.

….Give a blessing...we pray You, to us all; may we make a distinct advance in the divine life; may we get to a higher platform; may we leave the mists of doubt and fear below us in the valley, and quit the marshes of the plain, and climb the glittering hill-tops of eternal security in Christ and blessed oneness with Him, by simply believing Him who cannot lie — who has sworn by two immutable things and cannot from His purpose turn, nor from His word draw back. O God, grant this faith to the entire church.

We believe the world will be brought in, when the church believes her God the Kingdom will come, and the glory shall be made visible to all flesh, when once we have the confidence we ought to have in Him who is worthy to be praised, and to be trusted evermore.

And now by the precious blood of Jesus accept this feeble prayer of ours, and send down a shower of benedictions; and to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1498. (October 5, 1879.) SCRIPTURE: Numbers 13:20-23, Numbers 14:1-25, Hebrews 3:7-19. HYMNS: 192, 239, 67O.

XV. THE FOOT-WASHING. Compare with #25

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” — John 13:3-5.   NASB

Jehovah, our God, You love Your people, You have placed all the saints in the hand of Jesus, and You have given Jesus to be to them a leader, a commander and a husband;

and we know that You delight to hear us cry on the behalf of Your Church for You care for Him, and You are ready to grant to Him according to the covenant provisions which You have laid up in store for Christ Jesus.

Therefore would we begin this prayer by entreating You to behold and visit the vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted.

Look upon Zion the city of our solemnities; look upon those whom You have chosen from before the foundation of the world, whom Christ has redeemed with blood, whose hearts He has won and holds, and who are His own though they be in the world.

Holy Father, keep Your people, we beseech You, for Jesus' sake Though they are in the world let them not be of it, but may there be a marked distinction between them and the rest of mankind.

Even as their Lord was holy, harmless and undefiled, and separate from sinners, so may it be with believers in Christ. May they follow Him and may they not know the voice of strangers, but come out from the rest that they may follow Him without the camp.

We cry to You for the preservation of Your Church in the world, and especially for her purity. O, Father, keep us, we beseech You with all keeping, that the evil one touch us not.

We shall be tempted, but let him not prevail against us. In a thousand ways he will lay snares for our feet; but, oh! deliver us as a bird from the snare of the fowler. May the snare be broken that we may escape.

Let not Your Church suffer dishonor at any time, but may her garments be always white. Let not such as come in among her that are not of her..... O, Christ, as You groaned concerning Judas, so may Your children cry to You concerning any that have fallen aside into crooked ways, lest the cause of Christ in the earth should be dishonored.

O, God, cover, all the people of Christ...with Your feathers and keep Your Church even until He shall come Who, having loved His own that were in the world, loves them even to the end. We would ask just now that we may be washed as to our feet; we trust You have bathed us once for all in the sin-removing fountain. You have also washed us in the waters of regeneration and given us the renewing of our minds, through Jesus Christ; but O for daily cleansing.

Do You see any fault in us? Ah! we know that You do. Wash us that we may be clean. Are we deficient in any virtue? Oh! supply it that we may exhibit a perfect character to the glory of Him who has made us anew in Christ Jesus. Or is there something that would be good if not carried to excess? Be pleased to modify it lest one virtue should slaughter another, and we should not be the image of Christ completely.

O Lord and Master, You who washed Your disciples' feet of old, still be very patient toward us, very condescending towards our provoking faults, and go on with us, we pray You, till Your great work shall be completed and we shall be brethren of the First Born, like unto Him.

Gracious Master, we wish to, conquer self in every respect; we desire to live for the glory of God and the good of our fellow men; we would have it true of us as of our Master, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.”

Will You enable us especially to overcome the body with all its affections and lusts; may the flesh be kept under; let no appetite of any kind of the grosser sort prevail against our manhood, lest we be dishonored and unclean.

And let not even the most refined power of the natural mind be permitted to come so forward as to mar the dominion of the Spirit of God within us.

Oh! help us not to be so easily moved even by pain, may we have much patience, and let not the prospect of death ever cause us any fear, but may the spirit get so much the mastery of the body that we know nothing can hurt the true man.

The inner newborn cannot be smitten, nor is it to die; it is holy, incorruptible, and lives and abides for ever in the life that is in Christ Jesus.

Oh! for a complete conquest of self. Especially render us insensible to praise, lest we be too sensitive to censure. Let us reckon that to have the approbation of God and of our own conscience is quite enough; and may we be content, gracious God, to bear the cavillings of unreasonable men; yea, and to bear the misrepresentations of our own brethren.

Those that we love, if they love not us, yet may we love them none the less, and if by mistake they misjudge us, let us have no hard feelings towards them, and God grant we may never misjudge one another, does not our Judge stand at the bar?

Oh! keep us like little children who do not know, but expect to know hereafter, and are content to believe things which they do not understand. Lord keep us humble, dependent, yet serenely joyful. May we be calm and quiet even as a weaned child, yet may we be earnest and active.

Savior, make us like Yourself. We wish not so much to do as to be. If You will make us to be right we shall do right. We find how often we have to put a constraint upon ourselves to be right, but, oh! that we were like You, Jesus, so that we had but to act out ourselves, to act out perfect holiness. We shall never rest till this is the case, till You have made us ourselves to be inwardly holy, and then words and actions must be holy as a matter of course.

Now, here we are, Lord, and we belong to You. Oh! It is because we are Your own that we have hope. You will make us worthy of You. Your possession of us is our hope of perfection. You do wash our feet because we are Your own. Oh! how sweet is the mercy which first took us to its heart and made us all its own. and now continues to deal tenderly with us, that being Christ's own we may have that of Christ within us which all may see proves us to be Christ's own!

Now we would bring before You all Your saints and ask You to attend to their trials and troubles. Some we know are afflicted in person, others are afflicted in their dear friends, some are afflicted in their temporal estate and are brought into sore distress.

Lord, we do not know the trials of all Your people, but You do, for You are the Head, and the pains of all the members are centered in You. Help all Your people even to the end.

Now we pray You to grant us the blessing which we have already sought, and let it come upon all the churches of our beloved country.

May the Lord revive true and undefiled religion here and in all the other lands where Christ is known and preached, and let the day come when heathendom shall become converted, when the crescent of Mohammed shall wane into eternal night, and when she that sits on the Seven Hills and exalts herself in the place of God shall be cast down to sink like a millstone in the flood.

Let the blessed Gospel of the eternal God prevail, let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Oh! that we may live to see that day. The Lord bless our country; have pity upon it....

Oh! let the people see Your hand, and understand why it is laid upon them, that they may turn from wrongdoing and seek righteousness and follow after peace.

Then shall the blessing return. The Lord hear us as in secret we often cry to You on behalf of this misled land. The Lord deliver it, and lift up the light of His countenance upon it yet again, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1499. (October 12, 1879.) SCRIPTURE: John 13:1-17. HYMNS: 186, 262, 263.

XVI. THE LIFE LOOK!

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” — John 3:14-15.   NASB

Our Father, we wish....to come to You anew in Christ Jesus.

Many of us can look back to the happy moment when first we saw the law fulfilled in Christ, wrath, appeased, death destroyed, sin forgiven, and our souls saved.

Oh it was a happy morning — a blessed time. Never did the sun seem to shine so brightly as then, when we beheld the Sun of Righteousness, and basked in His light.

Many days have passed since then with some of us, and every day we have had proofs of the faithfulness of God to the gospel of His Son. We have proved the power of Jesus’ blood for daily cleansing; we have proved the power of His Divine Spirit for daily teaching, guidance, and sanctification; and now we want no other rock to build upon than that which we have built upon; we desire no other hope, nor even to dream of any other, but that hope which You have set before us in the Gospel, to which hope we have fled for refuge, and which hope we still have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

But Lord, we would still begin again ...by looking unto Jesus Christ anew — whatever may be our sin, whatever Your pure and holy eye can see amiss in us, which we cannot see we desire to come to Jesus as sinners, guilty, lost, ruined by nature, and again to give the faith look, and to behold Him hanging on the cross for us.

You know with what heartiness, and depths of truthfulness, we can say, “Lord, I believe, help You mine unbelief.” We again declare that all our hope is centered in the atoning Sacrifice, and in the risen Savior, who has gone into the glory as the testimony of our justification, and of our acceptance in Him.

Oh dear Savior, if in the course of years we have tried to add anything to the one foundation, if unconsciously we are relying now upon our knowledge, our experience, our Christian effort, we desire to clear away all this heap of rags and get down on the foundation again.

None but Jesus! None but Jesus! Our soul rests in none but Jesus; and we hate and loathe, with our inmost nature, the very idea of adding anything to what He has finished, or attempting to complete what is perfect in Him.

Oh this morning let Your people feel that there is now no condemnation to them.

Let them feel the completeness of the washing Christ has given, the blessed fullness of the righteousness which Christ has imputed, the eternal vitality of that life with which Christ has endowed us, the indissoluble character of that union by which we are knit to Christ by ties that never can be broken; and may we today rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh; and You write upon our hearts these blessed words, “Filled with all the fullness of God,” and may we know it is so, that we have all that we can hold; and may we be praying to be enlarged, that we may take in even more of Christ than we have as yet received; for He is all ours, altogether ours, and ours world without end.

And now, Lord, we beseech You to help all...to look to Jesus Christ alone. Peradventure some backsliders here are questioning whether they ever believed in Jesus. May they leave that question alone and believe in Him now. May they be content to let the past go by the wall, and once for all come, if they never came, and embrace the Savior whom You, great God, have set forth as all-sufficient to save.

Let Peter weep bitterly, but let him come to his Master again.

Oh, let the most wandering cry to You, and may they look to Your holy temple; and as they look, let the eternal life stream into them again, by the energy of the Eternal Spirit; and may they feel that whatever may have been the past, they are restored like prodigal children to a feast of love, restored for ever to the Father’s house.

There may be some here that are so tossed about mentally, that are so dismayed with inward temptation, so out of their wits by the assaults of Satan, that they know not what to do. Lord when they have no wit, give them wit enough to trust Christ; and when they can do nothing else, may they faint away upon the bosom of Eternal Love.

The Lord help His servants, when they are in extremity, to feel that now is the time for God to begin; and when they are driven over the very verge of hope, and the precipice of despair is before them, oh grant them grace to fall into the arms of Jesus, and there shall they find life from the dead.

But oh look in great mercy upon the many that may be here, who never have believed in Jesus. O Strong Son of God, Immortal Love, whom, though we have not seen Your face, we do believe in, and rely upon, ride forth this morning with Your arrows dipped in Your own blood, and shoot them out amongst this audience, that the people may fall under them, wounded with the sense of sin, smitten even to self-despair with a consciousness of guilt and oh that they might get healing from the hands that wound them, may they get life from the hand that is their hope.

May they look to You, anointed of the Lord, ennobled in the highest heaven, who once received the sinner here below in Your own Person, and who still receives sinners, that they might come to You and live.

There are many that are now joining us, great God, in this prayer, that we may have many conversions this very morning. We mean to look, and wait, and watch for it. We ask that this very morning, while Jesus Christ is lifted up, many may look unto Him and be cured of the serpent’s bite for ever.

You have promised to hear Your people’s prayer, and this is a prayer that must be according to

Your mind; and it is for the honor of Your dear Son; and it is put up in faith, put up in faith in Jesus; therefore You can not run back from it, but You must keep that word to which in humble, but adoring faith, we hold You — “My word shall not return unto me void.”.... The like blessing we ask for all Churches, and for all ministers of the gospel of Jesus. We ask for a revival of true godliness all over the world. We pray You to grant that these disastrous times may drive Your children nearer to You; may deliver many of them from a worldly spirit; and may it come to pass that while they grow poor one way they may grow rich in another, by the sanctification of their losses and affections.

God be gracious to this land. Send us, we pray You, the Holy Spirit more abundantly than ever; and may there be myriads born to Christ in these latter days. So do You with all the nations, till all lands shall bow before You, and all generations shall call You blessed.

We offer special prayers this morning for the rising generation. The Lord bless our Sunday Schools. Teach the teachers, bless and superintend the superintendents, and let the schools be more than ever a place where the lambs are cared for and tended, that they may grow up as sheep of the fold of Jesus.

Many prayers have been offered already today for this end we pray You hear them all, and let the richest blessing of heaven rest on those devoted men and women, who deny themselves many privileges that they may have the greater privilege of feeding the lambs of Christ. The Lord hear us and do for us exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

SERMON: NO. 1500. (October 19, 1879.) SCRIPTURE: Numbers 21:4-9. John 3:1-18. HYMNS: 240, 539, 331.

Alone With You.

Alone with You, alone with You.

Now through my breast

There steals a breath, like breath of balm, That healing brings, and holy calm,

That soothes like chanted song or psalm, And makes me blest.

Alone with You, alone with You, In Your pure light

The splendid pomps and shows of time,

The tempting steeps that pride would climb, The peaks where glory rests sublime, Pale on my sight.

Alone with You, alone with You,

My softened heart

Floats on the flood of love divine,

Feels all its wishes drowned in Yours;

Content that every good is mine You can impart.

Alone with You, alone with You, I want no more

To make ray earthly bliss complete,

Than oft my Lord unseen to meet For “sight” I wait till tread my feet Yon glistening shore.

Ray Palmer.

XVII. REFUGES OF LIES.

“I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies And the waters will overflow the secret place.” — Isaiah 28:17.   NASB

O Lord, how shall we speak with You, for we are dust and ashes! May Your Spirit speak in us, that we may speak unto Your Spirit.

And how shall we draw near to You, for we have no merits. Let the merits of Jesus stand for us, that we may acceptably approach our God, being “accepted in the Beloved.” Lord, we are full of infirmities, and full of wants, and full of sin, and we come and cast ourselves at Your feet.

Being nothing, we would ask to receive everything of You; and being altogether undeserving, we would look to Your loving kindness and tender mercy, and expect much from that divine source, through Jesus Christ Your Son.

Help Your servant now to pray for all this people, and may there be a voice in our prayer for every man’s want before You.

At the same time, help all of us to be instant in prayer; and may there not be a prayerless heart among us, but may every man, and every woman too, come with his own request and burden, and may it be done unto him according to Your grace.

First we would lie humbly before You, confessing our sin, our frequent sin, our willful sin; our sin against light and knowledge; sins of heart and thought, sins of word and sins of action.

There is no power of body, or of the will, which has not been defiled with sin; and we confess this before You with much shame. So great has been the stream, that we are sure, there must be a deep and large fount of pollution within our nature, and You have made some of us to know that it is so.

You have taken us into the chambers of imagery, that are within our spirit, and we have dug through the wall, and have gone from one chamber to another; and the deeper we search, the more we are shocked, and the further we have prayed into the secrets of our being, the more are we utterly ashamed that we should be such creatures as we are by nature.

...“We are altogether as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags!” “We all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” As the wind strips the leaves from the trees and leaves them bare, so we stand before You...

We have not by nature, one green shoot or anything like fruit we are unprofitable altogether, and only fit to be “hewn down and cast into the fire;” for what fruit we have borne, if it has been the fruit of our nature, has been more the fruit of thorns and thistles, than of figs and grapes.

Lord God, we wonder that You ever had any mercy on us at all; for in justice and judgment, if we were set upon the Throne, we could do no other than condemn ourselves, for there is no plea against Your justice that can be found within our lives or nature....

O God, You have smitten a heavy blow at our proud self; You have made us lie broken in pieces before You. You have set up another in the place of the false god that ruled us.

We do not live for self, nor even for self-salvation. Jesus Christ has become the Lord and Master of our spirit, and He has delivered us from the dominion of self and sin, and helped us to be obedient unto You.

Now, henceforth, the strongest portion of our will is towards holiness.

Oh, that we could be perfectly holy! we sigh after it and cry after it we think we could bear all trials, we feel persuaded we could give up all pleasures, if we might but win the pleasure of complete obedience to God.

This, indeed, is the target towards which, like arrows shot from an archer’s bow, our lives are speeding. Though rough winds turn us aside, yet shall we strike the target by Your grace.

The Lord be pleased to help us every day to put down sin.

O Lord, whenever pride arises, may we be more than ever humbled in Your sight. Whenever self comes up, may we be determined it shall not live, but flee to the precious blood, that we may slay it.

Lord, save us from self; save us from the love of the world; save us from the pride of the eye, and the pride of life save us, we beseech You, from everything that is natural to fallen man, and let the new nature which You have planted manifest itself day by day, till we shall be made like unto Christ, “whom having not seen we love,” but to whom we shall be conformed, for we shall “see Him as He is.”

Look with great grace, we pray You, O Lord, upon the slaves of sin... break their fetters. Oh, save this people. We know there, are some...that as yet are in the “gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.”

Move, O Divine Spirit... and fetch out from among us those that know not God, that they may know themselves and their God this day.

Oh make this Sunday to be a profitable, soul winning, one of the high days on which heaven’s bells shall ring out more sweetly than ever, because many and many a prodigal child has come back to the Father’s house to make the Father glad.

Save souls, we pray You, all over the world. Wherever Jesus Christ is lifted up, may He “draw all men to Him,” and may a great multitude look to Him and be lightened, that their faces may no more be ashamed!

And now, Lord, look upon this people for good. You know the troubles of every burdened spirit. You know how some whom You love are sick; how others have to watch over their dearest ones fading away and withering like flowers. Lord, send comfort to the saints in trouble.

Oh, grant us grace to bear whatever Your righteous will puts upon us without repining; and if business is going amiss, and if many things are cross to the desires of nature, may we feel it is Your will, and, therefore joyfully yield to that will; nay, more, may we take a delight in being stripped, if God strip us;

take a delight in smarting, if it be God who makes us smart.

When You do use the chisel upon these blocks of stone that are to be built upon the Living Stone, Lord, do not only square us, and fashion us, but separate us from the old rock to which we have been wedded so long set us free from that hole of the pit, and let us be brought into the upper air, and built upon Christ, to lie there for ever.

Bless this our beloved church and its officers. We thank You for Your mercy that many of us are spared to do service for You, notwithstanding many infirmities.

We bless You for others, who having gone from us, have been brought back again; for the many Sunday School teachers among us; and ask that all may be anointed with fresh oil, that every working or suffering brother and sister may receive fresh grace this day; that this may be a time of the trimming of lamps, that all may shine brightly to the praise of Your grace.

Bless our country. The Lord in mercy avert the horrors of war from us. Grant that, by some means, peace may be continued, and war come to an end where it still rages; and oh, that the policy of truth and righteousness may once more be taken up in this land, and our nation be forgiven its great national crimes.

...and all peoples that dwell on the face of the earth visit with the splendor of Your love. “Let the people praise You, O God, yea, let all the people praise You then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.”

Forgive the weakness of our prayer, forgive the wandering of our heart but through the Well-Beloved, who stands before You now in all His beauty as risen from the dead; through Him whom our soul loves, even as You love Him; through Him whom we adore as “God over all, blessed for ever,” though bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh — through Him and for His sake look kindly on us now!

Amen and Amen.

SERMON: No. 1501. (October 26, 1879.) SCRIPTURE: Matthew 7. HYMNS: 118 (Song 2), 822, 381.

XVIII. “YOUR ADVERSARY.”

“For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

— Revelation 12:12.   NASB

Great God, we bless You that the battle between Yourself and the powers of darkness has never been uncertain. We praise Your name that now it is for ever sure to end in victory.

Amidst the struggles of the present day, we would look back to the conflicts of Calvary, and see how our Lord for ever ... broke the dragon’s head.

Oh that Your people this morning might know that they are contending with a vanquished enemy, that they go forth to fight against one who, with all his subtlety and all his strength, has already been overthrown by Him who is our Covenant Head, our Leader, our Husband, our all.

Grant to Your dear children who are by any means depressed because they feel the serpent at their heel, that that they may bless the name of Him whose heel was bruised before, but who in the very bruising broke the serpent’s head.

Our souls with songs of inward joy extol the mighty Conqueror. All honor and glory be unto Him who stood foot to foot with the Arch Enemy, but who was never wounded by him; the prince of this world came, but there was nothing in You.

O Jesus, no tendency to sin, no turning aside; but You won from the first, even to the last, a glorious victory over this dread adversary of mankind.

We see You now arrayed in Your clothing dipped, with blood, victorious over all Your foes. Our Spirit triumphs in the anticipation of the time when all Your enemies shall be destroyed, and death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, and God Shall be all in all.

Oh that the time were come ... for Your advent, when the hidden shall be revealed, and the church of God shall no longer need her wings with which to fly, but shall come forth in all the glory with which Your love arrays her, clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet.

Glory, and honor, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might, be unto Him that sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!

And now, we present ourselves before the throne of the great King to pay our reverence and homage there; for the Lord is God alone, and our heart worships Him intensely, reverently bowing unto the very dust before the Lord, for we are less than nothing, and Jehovah is all in all.

We would confess our many sins, with great self abhorrence, and detestation of them. The Lord be pleased to forgive his servants in this thing, and let us each this morning feel the application of the precious “blood which speaks better things than that of Abel.”

May every child of God know now that he is clean through the washing of the blood. Oh that we might be certain that no guilt is recorded against us now, for it is blotted out for ever and the record is destroyed. Being justified by faith may we have peace, deep, lasting peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And Lord, will You be pleased to heal us of any wounds that we have received in the great conflict.

You know that during the week some of us have been in the thick of the battle, and manifold temptations have gathered about us. If we have acquired ... defilement, be pleased to put it away.

If in converse with the world we have mired or dusted our feet, wash them, blessed Master, ... that we may be clean every whit.

If our faith has suffered any damage, or our hope is not so bright as it was, or if our love to You be not as fervent as at one time it was; if the soul be sinking under the pressure of the fight in any degree,

Oh You whose every word is music, whose every promise is balm, whose every touch is life, draw near to the weary warrior now, and refresh us that we may rise again to the conflict, and never tire until the last enemy shall be beneath our feet, as beneath our Master’s feet. And O Lord, if it may please You, look upon any of Your servants who are more than ordinarily tried, or who by reason of bodily weakness or the stress of severe trial, may specially need consolation, put under such the everlasting arms.

So let the whole host be refreshed. Let those that lie in hospital be brought out of it and made whole, and as it is said of the host when You brought it out of Egypt, “there was not one feeble person in all their tribes,” so may it be with us; may the weakest become as David, and David as the Angel of the Lord.... Deny us not we beseech You.

And now, we ask You to give victory to Your church all over the world.

Oh look, You Mighty One, look down upon the heathen, and see how their gods stand riveted to their thrones. Cast them down, O Christ!

You who have cast out the dragon, cast down these inferior powers of darkness until not an idol god shall be left.....

Lord, look on countries where the gospel is proclaimed, and yet men live in sin, and the policy of many ... is unchristian, if not anti-christian.

Oh look You on the nations; gather out the remnant of the woman’s seed, even from among them, and let the light of Your chosen shine forth, that it may be seen that Your saints are not only lights to themselves but lights of the world, lights of the nations wherein they dwell.

… Behold this day the gospel is preached, but the many turn their backs upon it. They might hear it, and they will not, and many that do hear it, reject it.

The Lord raise up many voices yet that will be heard, that must be heard; and open men’s ears; compel them to hear; yea, compel them to come into Your marriage banquet, that Your Son may have guests at His great feast of mercy.

The Lord bless us this day. Help us to be voices for God.

Make our churches to be full of such voices. May there be no silent member among us concerning the things of Christ; but may each one overcome through the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony.

O God, will you bless the various agencies carried on by us, that we may, as a church, help and do our part in the evangelization of the world.…

Oh make us to be more and more a living church, a church in Which God shall shew forth the glory of His power.

Oh how we long for this! May all ministries among us be living ministries, Holy Ghost ministries, and so may it be in all the churches, that every golden candlestick may have a candle well lit; and may it come to pass that from the olive trees there shall pass into the golden pipes always sufficient of the sacred oil to keep the lights well burning to the glory of our God.

We cast ourselves upon You, and ask You to make us all useful today in our families, in our classes, in the church, in the world and when You shall have used us here, permit us the great joy of serving You day and night in Your temple above.

One more prayer it is, convert those who sit with us from Sunday to Sunday and are unconverted. Lord have mercy upon some that once were professors of religion, but continue to come in and out among us without repentance, without turning back to Him whom once they professed to know.

Lord have mercy upon others that are hearers but hearers only, attentive hearers too, but not doers of the word. Oh save them speedily, bring them to Jesus at once.

We ask it for His dear name’s sake.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1502. (November 2, 1879.) SCRIPTURE: Revelation 12. HYMNS: 317, 335, 449.

XIX. RISEN WITH CHRIST.

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.“If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” — Colossians 3:1-2.    NASB

Our Father, we dare call You by that blessed name, for we feel the spirit of children.

We have an earnest love to You, and an implicit trust in You; and we desire in all things to be obedient to Your will, and to seek Your honor.

All our dependence is placed on You since the day when You taught us to believe in Jesus Christ and now, You are all in all to us, You are our fullness, and we lose ourselves and find ourselves completely in You.

We would come to You this by the way which You have appointed; and enabled by the Spirit whom You have given, we would speak with You.

Father, we are always grieving if more or less we offend against Your holy mind; and we grieve ourselves, to think that we should grieve You.

Our innermost desire is to be absolutely perfect.

Oh how we wish we were! We hate every false way, and every sin; and we desire, with all the power of our mind, to be delivered from the dominion of any sin, and to be led into the blessed freedom of complete obedience to God.

You know Lord, for You search the heart and You try the reins of the children of men —

You know we can truly say, unless indeed we be under a very deep delusion, that we do wish to promote Your glory among the sons of men; and that we count nothing to be riches, but that which makes us rich towards God; nothing to be health, but that which is sanity before the most High — holiness in Your sight; and we reckon nothing to be pure, but what You have cleansed; and nothing to be good, but that upon which Your blessing rests.

Yet Lord, though it be so, though our mind has been by Your Spirit set towards holiness, there is a death within us; the old nature which strives against our life, and the members of the body often join with the corrupt nature within, to lead us astray.

We swing towards holiness and then we seem like the pendulum, to swing the other way. We are wretched, because of this, and we cry out to You to deliver us. Oh that You would deliver us!

We do thank You that Jesus gives us the victory; but we long to have that victory in ourselves more constantly realized — more perfectly enjoyed.

We would lie in the very dust before You because of sin; and yet, at the same time, rejoice in the great Sin-bearer, that the sin is not imputed to us, that it is put away by His precious blood, that we are accepted in the Beloved.

But even this does not content us; we are crying after the work of the Holy Ghost within, till Satan shall be bruised under our feet, and sin shall be utterly destroyed.

Lord, You know the groanings of our heart; our prayers cannot express them but we bless You that there is One who makes intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered, who is with us, and dwells in us, and is promised to be with us for ever. We shall overcome, we shall win the victory,

we shall rise superior to depression of spirit,

we shall overcome the doubts, and fears, and tribulations of our inward heart, we shall overcome, for Christ leads the way and victory lies in His cross; and we are sure of it, and therefore would we begin to sing the hymn of victory even now, saying —

“thanks be unto God who causes us always to triumph in every place, by Jesus Christ His Son.”

At this time we would entreat You to visit us with Your salvation Lord we all want renewing, refreshing, reviving; but there are some of Your people that sink very low by reason of physical infirmity and mental suffering; they lie in the very dust.

But Lord, when our soul cleaves to the dust, You can still quicken us according to Your word; and we ask You to make this a red-letter day in our experience.

May we renew our youth ... may the joy of our first days be restored may the childlike faith of the first steps we ever took towards Christ, be given to us now; and may we learn to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

O Lord our God, we do beseech You look upon the faint hearted and such as are suffering with affliction. Bring again from Bashan, yea bring up Your people from the depths of the sea.

Take away our mourning and give us music: remove our sackcloth and give us beauty take away our sighs and fill our mouths with songs; and let this be a radiant day of gladness, and a time of feasting from the Bridegroom’s own hand; and may our own spirits, rejoice in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

At this time also, great Father, will You visit this church with Your great favor; and as You have abounded toward us these many years in blessing, so give us now some new token, some fresh visitation for good.

… Oh give us summer weather as a church. May there be a great revival of religion in all the members, and especially in the minds of such as are growing cold or indifferent to holy things. Wherever there is any laxity of life, any slight holding of precious truth; wherever the world is creeping in with its corroding influences;

wherever there is anything of sin which our eye sees not, but which Your eye detects, be pleased to put it away.

Fill the whole church with unity, with love, with life, with power.

We thank You For the many that are coming in among us fresh from the world.

God be thanked for new converts; may they be like fresh blood in the veins of the church, keeping her alive and keeping her active; and may the spirit of the Lord come down upon pastors, and elders, and deacons, Sunday School teachers and workers and sufferers; and let the whole church be quickened.

Yea, and not this church only but all the little hills of Zion, do You water with showers from on high.

Let the country churches receive a blessed visitation. Let all the churches in foreign lands also be visited by the selfsame Comforter; and may there come to Your church in these dark and dreary days, bright shining after the rain.

May the time of the singing of birds come, and the voice of the turtle be heard in our land! And oh, while You are doing this, look on sinners! Oh look on sinners!

When You bless Your people, You do make them blessings.

When the church is vigorous, when the people praise You, then shall the earth yield her increase, then shall all the nations praise You too; for the joy of Zion is the joy of the whole earth, when the Lord makes glad His people then He makes the earth sit still and rest, or even if it rages, yet still there is a time of salvation, a time of the in gathering of the hidden ones, and Christ’s name is glorious.

But Lord there is a great tumult in the world just now we pray You overrule it for Your glory.

Grant that the best ends of progress, of truth and righteousness may be sub-served; and may it be seen still, that the Lord reign.

Even though the people should riot and rebel against the truth, yet Youadvance Your cause; even by disaster and defeat, if so it must be, or by success and prosperity.

Let Your kingdom come, good Lord; let Your kingdom come, and let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and our hearts shall sing with the angel choir, and be glad with all the ransomed before the throne, because God is glorified.

This is our soul’s grandest object, that Jesus’ name be lifted high, and His throne be set up among the people, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

And now unto the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, be glory, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1530. (March 28, 1880.) SCRIPTURE: Colossians 2:8-23 Colossians 3:1-15. HYMNS: 306, 319, 873.

XX. INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS.

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 'Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.'” — Romans 8:26-27.    NASB

Our Father, we bless You that we dare use that name without a question; for many of us feel the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. We thank You that we have passed from death unto life, and have been begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He that sits on the throne, and makes all things new, has made us new, and called us into newness of life, and made us to feel a life within us which must outlast the ages, for it is the life of God.

Our Father, we would not crouch before You, like slaves before a tyrant, but feel the spirit of adoption, which shall draw us into familiar intercourse with You, though still with holy trembling, for You are God in heaven, and we are still but men upon the earth, and at the very sight of You we feel a trembling coming over us; yet is there joy with it; and You have taught us to rejoice, with trembling.

We would in spirit now pass into that inner place, into which the High Priest of Israel dared not come but once a year, and then not without blood. We bless You that the veil is rent; and now every believer is made a priest, and permitted to come, into the Holy of Holies, and to draw near unto the mercy-seat, all blood be-sprinkled, without fear of being regarded as an intruder, or smitten down like Nadab and Abihu.

O God, we stand, therefore, now in Your immediate presence, and our very heart speaks to You, and we rejoice that You who searches the heart, knows what our heart would say; and if these lips should fail to speak out the heart’s utterances, You will interpret what is written in every bosom; and if no lip this morning should express the desire of certain of Your saints, because their groanings are such that they cannot utter them themselves, and, therefore, cannot expect anyone else to do it, yet You will read every heart; for every heart is open before You as a book, and You read the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And first, our Father, we would earnestly ask that every believer here may feel the power of the sprinkled blood most vividly and consciously. May we hear Jesus say by it, “You are clean, clean every whit;” and may we have a sense of entire security, because You have Yourself said it — ‘‘When I see the blood I will pass over you.” This is the blood of our passover, and no destroying angel can touch us.

Now, Lord, next to this give each one of Your children power to become the sons of God in their actions. May we become more and more like the First-born; may we begin to exercise our sonship by conquering ourselves. Help us to put down sin. May every sinful thought be driven out, and every thought be brought into captivity to the Spirit of God. Oh help us to be perfectly consecrated to Your service, because we are the children of God. May we not live like children of the devil, neither serve him, nor serve our affections and lusts.

And, oh, grant us also to become sons by reason of the spirit of boldness that we shall feel. Give us not again the spirit of bondage that we may fear; but give us, we pray You, more and more of the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father.

Lord, purify us! You have pardoned; now purify, until every sin shall be destroyed within our hearts.

We pray You hear the prayers of Your children who also ask for strength and succor in their time of need. O Spirit of God help our infirmities. If we be pressed down with a Load of sorrow; if we are in perplexity and know not what to do; if we are slandered and persecuted; if we in any way are made to feel the weight of the cross, help us, we pray You......

May we rather rejoice in infirmities, because the power of God rests upon us; and may we glory in tribulations also, because these work in us, by Your good Spirit, all manner of holy graces to Your glory.

The Lord deliver His people from burdensome care; and, indeed, from caring about themselves! Oh for power to roll our burden upon our God, and to sing all day long because we are the Lord’s, and He is ours.

“The Lord is our Shepherd we shall not want. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” O Lord, make us a holy and a happy people.

Help us to live the separated life, and to tread it with firm and brave step.

Help us while we wrestle not with flesh and blood, to fight with principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high places; and may it be ours to be made, by Your Spirit, to triumph in every place, being led in triumph by You from strength to strength, from time to time, from age to age, till the history of Your whole church shall be one long triumph for the conquering Lord. Glorify Yourself in us, we pray You, even in these mortal bodies, and in our spirits which are Yours.

Now would we put up most fervent and earnest prayer for such who, as yet, do not know You. O Spirit of God, convince men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come; and especially convince the human heart of the sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh make this to be very clear to the heart, that not believing in Jesus is the highest act of enemity against God.

The rejection of God when He becomes man and dies out of infinite love — surely this is the highest crime and misdemeanor against the great King.

Oh that this might strike, like an arrow, into the heart of some. If they cannot accuse themselves of any gross sin of the body, yet may this gross of all sins be laid, like a millstone, upon their conscience, that they have refused the Son of God and done despite to His precious blood; and how shall they escape if they neglect so great salvation!

O Spirit of God lay this home; and then convince them of righteousness.

Let them see where righteousness is to be had, even in Christ! Let them know that righteousness is demanded of them; and, if they have it not from Christ, they will never have it, and they must perish in their sins.

And oh, Divine Spirit, set before them judgment to come.

Let them tremble at the thought that You will come, that the great judgment shall be held, and rebels against God and His Christ must be punished with eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

Thus bring the sinner to his knees; thus bring the conscience to tenderness; and then, sweet Spirit, reveal Jesus Christ to the troubled heart, and let there be the peace of God through faith....

We specially pray for our country that God would bless it; and oh, that we might have a season of revival of pure and undefiled religion in the land.

We perceive that You can turn the hearts of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved in the wind.

Oh that there might come a deep searching of heart, great thoughtfulness of the Scriptures, reverence of God and the principles of justice and peace and may this land make another stride in onward progress, and out of it may there be gathered a people whom You have chosen, who shall show forth Your praise.

With equal affection do we pray for all countries and lands; and especially for that kindred nation where our own tongue is spoken, and our own God is worshipped....

Lord, put down all false doctrine, all Popery, Mohamedanism and idolatry; and may the day come in which Christ Himself shall be King among the nations, and

His reign shall be inaugurated by the manifestation of His redeemed; and unto Him be glory for ever and ever.

Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1532. (April 11, 1880.) SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:14 to end. HYMNS: 1009, 978, 460.

XXI. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES.

“indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;” — 2 Corinthians 1:9.    NASB

Our Father blessed be Your name for ever and ever.

Oh that we praised You more!

We must confess we never bless You as we ought, and our life is far too full of murmuring, or at the best too full of self-seeking, for even in prayer we may do this; and there is too little of lauding, and adoring, and praising, and magnifying, and singing the high praises of Jehovah.

Oh God, will You teach us to begin the music of heaven! Grant us grace to have many rehearsals of the eternal Hallelujah.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.”

Grant us grace that we may not bring You blessings merely because You feed us, and clothe us, and because we receive so many mercies at Your hand; but may we learn to praise You even when You do put us under the rod, and when the heart is heavy, and when mercies seem but scant.

Oh that when the flocks are cut off from the stall, and there is no harvest, we may nevertheless rejoice in God.

Oh Lord, teach us ... the art of praise.

Let our soul take fire, and like a censor full of frankincense, may our whole nature send forth a delicious perfume of praiseful gratitude unto the ever blessed One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Oh Lord, our chief desire this morning before You is to be right with You.

Oh make us right with You, great Father. There are some ..around.. who are not right with You at all;

Your countenance they cannot behold, and

You can not accept their offering, for it is true of them, as of Cain, “sin lies at the door.” Oh God roll every sin away, but we know they must first feel the burden of it, they must come to You and confess it, they must accept the great Substitute and rest in Jesus.

And our prayer shall be, Father, if our sin be not forgiven, we would put our head into Your bosom and sob out, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before You and am no more worthy to be called Your son.”

Grant the kiss of forgiveness to each of Your children this morning, and may we feel that You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; and in the joy of this, may we feel peace with You.

But Lord, many of us have been forgiven years ago.

We have walked with You now, with holy joy and confidence, some of us; for a quarter of a century, and others for more; yet Lord there may be something between us and You even now, and if there be, “shew me wherefore You contend with me.”

If You see in Your servants any wrong thing encouraged, any evil desire cherished; if there be anything that we delight in that You do not delight in; if we have any habit which grieves You; if in anything we vex Your Holy Spirit, our Father, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; and then point out to us the trespass, and teach our feet to keep the ways of Your commandments, and to trespass no more; for our heart is right towards Your statutes and we desire holiness.

Oh we desire perfection. We know what it is to make a conscience of our every thought. We have looked upon every act of our lives and desired that in all things we might be conformed to Your will, and

You know this makes us walk very tenderly at times, and with much brokeness of spirit before You, because the more we look into our lives, the more we see to lament; and in proportion as You do make us holy, in that very proportion do we spy out our unholiness, and find nests of sin where we never dreamed that the loathsome things had been.

Father, cleanse us from secret faults. Purge us!

You have purged us with hyssop once, and we are clean; now wash us with water, even as You, blessed Jesus, washed Your disciples’ feet, and make us clean every whit, that we may be Your priests and kings, sanctified wholly; and make us a people zealous of good works.

Bless, Lord, ... our church, and let nothing spring up in this church that would grieve Your Holy Spirit.

We know that there are some among us that walk not after Your commandments, some that grow cold, some that are negligent in prayer, some that add nothing to the strength of Your service.

But Lord, is it not so with all the churches? Oh will You not still continue to look upon the faithful, and to make them yet more faithful; and to look upon the wandering, and the backsliding, and to restore then lest they be an occasion of grief unto Your Israel, as Achan was who had hidden away the goodly Babylonish garment, and the wedge of gold in his tent. If You have prospered any among us who may have grown rich, and have forgotten the God who gave them everything; or

if You have brought any into poverty and in their poverty they have not acted as they should; or

if You have left any brother to his own heart, and he has found out that he is a fool; if any of us have grieved You, oh lay not this; sin to the charge of Your church, and lay it not to the charge of the offender either, but let a sweet forgiveness be bestowed, let a restoration be granted by Your Spirit, and let the church be right with God.

Oh how we pray for this!

Lord, You have not taken away Your blessing from us. We do rejoice in this every day You help us, and this month You have sent us perhaps more than ever — glory be to Your name!

And... provide for all the work of the church, and send prosperity to it in every part and quarter of it; and therefore do we fear and tremble because of all the goodness which You do make to pass before us; and our heart is jealous with a godly jealousy, lest in anything we should vex the Spirit of God. Oh Lord, grant us to be holy, grant us to be accepted in the Beloved, and You shall have all the praise.

Now we have but one other prayer; and that is, if we are right with You, help us to be right in all the transactions of daily life.

Help us to be right with regard to Your providential dealings with us.

Lord give much patience to those that are tried.

Give a holy resignation both to the sick and to the bereaved, and to such as are brought into poverty.

Be very gracious to Your dear children that they may never dishonor You when they are in affliction.

And will You keep Your people right with regard to the world.

Oh that the witness that we bear might be an unstained one.

Oh grant to us to be a light in the world, that we may never cast darkness instead of light over the minds of men.

Help us to live out Christ’s life.

Oh Lord, help us to be so consumed with zeal, that it may eat us up; and may we be so full of love, that those who are round about us may know that if we write a harsh letter, or say a strong word, love alone dictates it.

May we in everything be Christly, Godly; for God is love.

Conquer our tempers, subdue our passions, rule us in body, soul, and spirit.

Make us so to live that, when death shall close our life on earth, heaven itself, shall be but a continuance of the same life, because even now we have the beginnings of heaven in the earnest of the Spirit.

And now Lord, bless Your universal church, and grant to it mercy and favor.

Gather together Your elect from under all heaven.

Let the company of the faithful be accomplished and the universal reign of Christ established. Bless our own dear country. God save and bless ... guide our rulers ..., uphold, sustain and direct them. Let them be guilty of no folly; but the Lord teach our senators wisdom.

And may it please You Lord, to bless other countries too; especially those lands which love our common Christ, and speak our mother tongue; and, indeed, all the nations where Jesus Christ is known, visit with a revival.

And heathen, and Mahometan, and Popish lands; Oh let the light break in upon their midnight, let the day dawn and Christ be glorified.

What more can we ask we ask all in His dear name, dear to us and dear to You, Oh our Father and unto the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Ghost be glory everlasting. Amen.

SERMON: No. 1536. (May 2, 1880.) SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 1. HYMNS: 125, 624, 741.

XXII. INTERCESSION FOR ONE ANOTHER.   Compare with #26

“Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.” — 1 Samuel 12:23.    NASB

God of Israel, God of Jesus Christ, our God for ever and ever; help us now by the sacred Spirit, to approach You aright with deep reverence, but not with servile fear; with holiest boldness, but not with presumption.

Oh teach us as children to speak to the Father, and yet, as creatures to bow before our Maker.

Our Father, we would first ask You whether You have ought against us as Your children. Have we been asking somewhat of You amiss, and have You given us that which we have sought? We are not conscious of it, but it may be so; and now we are brought, as an answer to our presumptuous prayers, into a more difficult position than he once we occupied before.

It may be that some creature comfort is nearer to us than our God. We had better have been without it, and have dwelt in God, and have found our joy in Him.

But now, Lord, in these perilous circumstances, give us grace that we may not turn away from You.

If our position now be not such as You would have allotted to us, had we been wiser, yet nevertheless grant that we may be taught to behave ourselves aright, even now, lest the mercies You have given should become a cause of stumbling, and the obtaining of our heart’s desire, should become a temptation to us.

Rather this morning do we feel inclined to bless You for the many occasions in which You have not answered our prayer, for You have said that we ask amiss, and therefore we could not have; and we desire to register this prayer with You, that whensoever we do ask amiss You would in great wisdom and love be pleased to refuse us.

O Lord if we at any time press our suit, without a sufficiency of resignation, do not regard us we pray You; and though we cry unto You day and night, concerning anything, yet, if You see that herein we err, regard not the voice of our cry we pray You.

It is our heart’s desire in our cool moments, that this prayer might stand on record as long as we live, — “Not as I will, but as You will.” But, oh Lord, in looking back,

we are obliged to remember with the greatest gratitude, the many occasions in which You have heard our cry.

We have been brought into deep distress, and our heart has sunk within us, and then have we cried to You, and You have never refused to hear us.

The prayers of our lusts You have rejected, but the prayers of our necessities You have

granted; not one good thing has failed of all that You have promised.

You have given us exceedingly abundantly above what we asked, or even thought; for there was a day when our present condition would have been regarded as much too high for us ever to reach; and, in looking back, we are surprised that those who did lie among the pots of Egypt, should now sit every man under his vine and fig tree;

that those who wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way, should now find a city to dwell in;

that we who were prodigals in rags, should now be children in the Father’s bosoms that we who were companions of swine, should now be made heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

Oh what encouragement we have to pray to such a prayer-hearing God, who far exceeds the requests of His children!

Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever; our inmost heart is saying, Amen, blessed be His name!

If it were only for answered prayer, or even for some unanswered prayers, we would continue to praise and bless You as long as we have any being.

And now Lord, listen to the voice of Your children’s cry ….

Wherever there is a sincere heart seeking for greater holiness, answer You that request; or wherever there is a broken spirit seeking for reconciliation with Yourself; be pleased to answer it now.

You know where there is prayer, though it be unuttered, and even the lips do not move. Oh hear the publican who dares not lift his eyes to heaven; hear him while he cries, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Hear such as seem to themselves to be appointed unto death.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before You.

Oh that You would grant peace and rest to every troubled spirit within this house ... and to all such all over the world, who now desire to turn their faces to the cross, and to see God in Christ Jesus reconciling them unto Himself.

O Lord, if there are any of Your servants exercised about the cases of others, we would thank You for them. Raise up in the church many intercessors, who shall plead for the prosperity of Zion, and give You no rest till You establish her, and make her a joy in the land.

There are some of us that cried to You about our country. You know how in secret, we groaned and sighed over evil times; and You have begun to hear us already, for which we desire to praise and bless Your name.

But we would not cease to pray for this land, that You would roll away from it all its sin. That You would deliver it from the curse of drunkenness, from infidelity, from popery, from ritualism, from rationalism, and every form of evil, and that this land might become a holy land.

O Lord, bring the multitudes of the working men to listen to the gospel. ... Lord give them a love to Your house, a desire to hear Your gospel.

And then will You look upon the poor rich who, so many of them, know nothing about You, and are worshipping their own wealth.

The Lord grant that the many for whom there are no special gospel service, but who are wrapped up in self-righteousness, might be brought to hear the gospel of Jesus, that they also, as well as the poor, might come to Christ.

God bless this land with more of gospel light; with more of gospel life and love. You will hear us O Lord!

Then would we pray for our children, that they might be saved.

Some of us can no longer pray for our children’s conversion our prayers are heard already; but there are others who have children who vex them, and grieve their hearts.

O God save sons and daughters of godly people. Let them not have to sigh over their children as Eli did, and as Samuel did; and may they see their sons and daughters become the children of the living God.

We would pray for our servants, for our neighbors, for our kinsfolk of near or far degree, that all might be brought to Jesus. Do this, O God, of Your infinite mercy!

And as we are now making intercession; we would, according to Your word, pray for all kings and such as are in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives. We pray for all nations also.

O Lord bless and remember the lands that sit in darkness; and let them see a great light; and may missionary enterprise be abundantly successful.

And let the favored nations, where our God is known, ... that love the same Savior and speak the same tongue, be always favored with the divine presence, and with abundant prosperity and blessing.

O Lord, You have chosen this our race, and favored it and multiplied it on the face of the earth; and whereas with its staff it crossed this Jordan, it has now become two great nations. Lord be pleased to bless the whole of this race, and those absorbed into it; and then all other races, that in us may be fulfilled the blessing of Abraham. “I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing.”

And now, Father, glorify Your Son! In scattering pardon through His precious blood, glorify Your Son!

In sending forth the eternal Spirit to convince men, and bring them to His feet, Father, glorify Your Son!

In enriching Your saints with gifts and graces, and building them up into His image, Father, glorify Your Son!

In the gathering together of the whole company of His elect, and in the hastening of His kingdom, and His coming, Father, glorify Your Son!

Beyond this prayer we cannot go.

Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You; and unto Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1537. (May 9, I880) SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 1:21-23. HYMNS: 177, 972, 958.

XXIII. THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED.

“Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”

— John 21:20.  NASB

Our Father, which are in heaven, You are infinitely beyond the grasp of our understanding; but in great condescension, You have brought Yourself very near to the grasp of our love, and we trust ... many of us can say with all sincerity, “You know all things. You know that I love You.”

O Lord, it has seemed to us impossible not to love You; for You are so supremely lovable, so full of goodness, so perfect.

You have manifested Yourself to us as love, and shall not love go out towards love? … we feel our hearts warmed towards You, in the person of Your dear Son. Surely we cannot see Him

made our brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, sympathizing with us,

married to us, dead for us and risen again for us

— we cannot gaze into His... royal face, without feeling our heart melt at the very sight of Him.

Oh Jesus we love You — we are Yours; and You are ours.

You have given Yourself to us, as well as for us; and now we cheerfully give ourselves back to You, feeling that we are never so much our own, as when we are Yours; that indeed we are not ourselves, until we, are lost in You; but that then have we found our tru manhood, when it and all else is surrendered to the all conquering power of Jesus Christ our Lord.

We come ... with the same prayer with which we commenced — it is the prayer for love.

We have expressed our love, but we are ashamed when we have done so, because after all what is our love? it is so faint, so cold to You, compared with Your love to us.

So we ... adore You ... for the love which You have manifested to us.

You loved us before the foundation of the world: Yours is no new compassion; for whom You DID foreknow,

You predestined to be conformed unto the image of Your Son, out of Your own pure love to them and because You have loved us with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have You drawn us, and we feel the drawings now.

You first plucked us like brands out of the burning. We remember well when You drew us from a corrupt world, and from our own self-righteousness, and we came to Jesus.

But You are drawing still we feel the sacred bands; we yield to them, glad to do so. Lord, draw us this morning upward to Yourself, nearer than ever.

May we not be satisfied with those heights of devotion to which we have attained; but may we reach somewhat higher today.

Oh that we might become more completely consecrated! May the image of Christ become more perfect upon us, stamp it deeper into our nature.

We trust the image is there; but oh that it set still deeper into our very selves, that all might see that the seal of the Holy Ghost was upon us, in the likeness of Christ our Lord.

Our Father, will You be pleased today to fill us with delight because of Your love.

Are we heavy of heart — let Your sweet love lighten the burden; for what after all can there be to trouble the man whom God loves?

Shall we not find even in Your rod a sweetness, as Jonathan did, when he dipped his rod in the honey?

Have You not said, “as many as I love I rebuke and chasten,” shall we not therefore take Your rebukes, and chastenings, and even rejoice in them, because therein the love of God is manifested toward us.

Are Your dear children poor, or are they sick in body, or are they losing those they love, or is there yet a newly dug grave over which they could shed floods of tears?

Oh sweet love of God, comfort them. Cover all the rocks, O mighty title of everlasting love, till not a rock is seen, and on that glassy sea may our spirits float above the rocks, which else had wrecked our lives.

We do pray You give us comfort, but also give us strength as well as consolation.

Lord, we are very weak, and in ourselves we have no desire to be otherwise, because when we are weak, then are we strong; but we are very strong in You, and we do wish to have faith to perceive this.

Lord, some of Your children think You weak, because they are; and suppose that grace will fail then, because the flesh does but oh teach them better, and may they know that it is just in the death of the creature, that they shall find the life of God revealed.

Oh that our spirit might be always subject to the Divine Spirit may its earthiness and feebleness, only reveal the heavenliness, and the strength of the indwelling Spirit of God.

And oh grant us to feel that we have power to overcome sin; that we have power to resist the lusts of the flesh, and to despise the pomp of the world, and the lust of the eyes.

Though we groan within ourselves concerning the body of this death, yet sing we also “thanks be unto God that gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Help Your children to take the victory, to rejoice that they do conquer; yea that we are mute titan conquerors, through Him who has loved us.

And now that we are asking You to let Your love be revealed to us in all its sweet influences; and now that we ask also that our love to You may be fervent, we pray You make us useful to our brethren.

O Lord, we would not live unto ourselves; make us serviceable in gathering in the lost sheep.

Make us wise that we may go after them in their devious wanderings, and discover them.

Lord, help us to speak a word in season to him that is sad of heart. When Your arrows stick fast in the conscience, may we know how to apply the balm of Jesus’ wounds.

Make us ready to tell out the sweet gospel which has been so precious to our own souls; and as men that have newly come ourselves from the presence of a pardoning Savior — men but newly washed in that dear blood which makes white as snow, may we go and tell to our fellow-men, all black as they are, how they also can be made whiter than snow.

Lord, make us useful to Your own children that have back-slidden. May we be as Peter was to whom You said, “when You are converted strengthen Your brethren.”

O Lord, make us useful among back-sliders — this very day may some of us be enabled to do somewhat toward the fetching up of the rear guard, of those that loiter and linger, that the whole army of Christ may quicken its pace and march to victory.

And now, Lord Jesus, we have a thousand things to ask of You, and of Your Father; but You know what we have need of before, we ask.

Give to each one of Your own that special gift most needed we may not even know what it is, but according to Your own wisdom and prudence, deal out of Your treasury things new and old, for the enrichment and comfort of Your people….

All other churches remember with even a greater blessing. Let all the churches …. be revived and refreshed. Yea, and those that speak not our tongue — those advanced posts among the heathen; remember them favorably, and visit them graciously.

Oh that the time were come when war shall cease, when drunkenness shall be put away, when all cruelty shall be abolished, when every superstition shall come to an end, and all oppression of man by man.

When shall it be? ... when He comes, whose right it is to reign.

At the very thought of His coming our spirits begin to glow and burn with lofty hopes.

Come quickly; even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. “Let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.”

SERMON: No. 1539. (May 23, 1880.) SCRIPTURE: 1 John 2. HYMNS: 810, 784, 798.

XXIV. FREE GRACE AND FREE-GIVING.

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.”

— 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.  NASB

Glorious Lord God; our faith is fully assured of Your being, and our heart rejoices in Your infinite love,

Blessed was the day when first we knew our God.

We mourn and lament with deep penitence, that we should have lived so, long strangers to our best friend, to Him in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways.

It is of Your grace that we were ever brought to know You.

Had we been left to ourselves we should have wandered on, and have remained in darkness till this day; but blessed be Your name,

O You God of all grace,

You have revealed Yourself to us,

You have brought Your life to our death, and made us alive in You;

You have brought Your light to our blindness, and made us to behold You; and now You are not only the greatest source of joy to our spirit, but You are all our joy — we have none apart from You.

Whatever of comfort we find in the creature, we know it is but fickle; and while it is there, it comes from You, for all these things are empty, and vain, and void without You.

Whom have we in heaven but You, and there is none upon earth that we desire beside You!

And Lord, we bless You for ever teaching us the way of faith; for enabling us to cast our guilty souls upon the Divine propitiation, made in Christ Jesus; for peace, like a river, has streamed into our spirit ever since.

We bless You for the power to trust You with everything else, for time as well as for eternity. We are sure we never live except as we live by faith; that all else is but death, and the counterfeit of life.

Lord God,

You have written death before our eyes on all the creature;

You have made us see the vanity of the most substantial things on earth.

Behold we walk as in a vain show, and we disquiet ourselves in vain.

All things are but shadows; but You, You are the eternal all. Casting our anchor upon You we are steadfast, and fixed, and safe; but all things else are quicksands.

We cannot, dare not, find comfort, nor make a hope of them.

You, Lord, are all our expectation, all our salvation, and all our delight; and ... we would cry, “Only my soul waits upon God, for my expectation is from Him.”

Now this day, be pleased, in infinite mercy by Christ Jesus, to visit us. Give us first a sense of perfect pardon. May there be nothing between any child of Yours and Yourself, great Father, that could mar the perfection of communion.

May we know that You have forgiven us for Jesus Christ’s sake. And as for anything in us that would grieve Your Spirit, take it away at once, and then let Your Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Oh now give us the spirit of adoption. If indeed we be Yours, by Your Fatherly love to us, we do beseech You breathe into every child of Yours a sense of love, a sense of Your near presence.

And then Lord, will You deal with us according to Your wisdom and prudence. Take out of us every evil and false way: anything wherein we have deceived ourselves do remove. Anything which looks like growth in grace, which is mere puffing up … do take away; anything which we prize, which is but counterfeit,

do utterly destroy and oh, bring us of Your great love to know Christ in truth, that what we know we may know, and not think we know.

And oh that there might be a deep reality about our Christian experience, and knowledge; that the truth of God may be incarnate in the truth which lives in us.

Dear Savior, You know the peculiar trials and conditions of all these Your people; and, we do pray You, now deal with each child of Yours according to his special need. Great Physician walk this hospital. Come and look on each special case, and may there be a masterpiece of Your heavenly surgery in the case of each one of us.

Many of us need comfort; our heart is cast down within us. There are many of Your saints in whose soul deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterspouts.

Command Your loving kindness this ..., and let Your song be with us at this moment. Up from the shades may we ascend into the eternal light.

Oh that the sun of Your love might shine full on our brows, till our faces shall be bright like the face of Moses?

Oh that we might have such fellowship with God this morning, that we might defy Satan, defy unbelief, defy the flesh, defy the world, with a holy joy which comes not of the creature, and which the creature cannot mar — a “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” a drink out of the eternal fountains which well up from the deep which lies under, in the immutable and everlasting love and decree of God.

Oh, let it be so with every child of Yours at this good hour.

Now we do, with all our hearts, pray You to gather in the rest of Your family who, as yet, are far off from You.

O mighty grace, seek out the prodigal!

O mighty love, receive the prodigals when they come back!

O mighty grace change their hearts and make them to love the great Father.

We do pray for all who are out of the way; for such ... as remain unsaved. Lord, let them not die in their sins. Have mercy upon some that have had a godly training, but remain ungodly. Oh condemn them not, we pray You, with such a mass of guilt upon them; but save them yet. Lord, have great mercy upon such as are ignorant of Christ, and therefore sin, but know not what they do. Let them become trophies of Your wondrous love. Gather them in; oh, gather them in today.

Now Your servant, with a full heart, desires to bless You for the continual increase which You do make to this church. You have refreshed our soul by the testimonies of many that have lately found the Savior.

Blessed be the Lord, the Holy Ghost, who has not suffered the word to fall to the ground, but who has added to the church daily of such as shall be saved. Lord, continue this great favor. Stir up our dear brethren and sisters to continual prayer for a blessing. May the fire on this altar never go out; but as we have enjoyed, these many years, an unexampled prosperity, oh that we might continue to enjoy it still, unworthy though we be.

Still, Lord, help us in every holy word and work.

Prosper us in the enterprises to which we set our hands. Bless our young man that go forth from us to preach the word... May there be many such reared up in this church that shall preach Christ crucified.

Give to the church more and more the spirit of evangelization, and may many young men in the church, that are now sitting still and quiet, be moved to preach even in the streets, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Lord renew the zeal of the church towards the Sunday school. May there be more coming forward to give themselves to the training of the young for Christ. Oh say to many a Peter, “Feed My lambs.”

Revive the church of God in every place, we beseech You....

Let the kingdom of Jesus Christ spread in all countries. Let Your kingdom come, great God, and let it come speedily.

It does not trouble us to think that Christ shall come; it is indeed our joy. Make no tarrying, oh our Lord!

But meanwhile make us watchful, earnest, active; and may we be as good servants, whose loins are girt, and whose lamps are trimmed. May we wait for the Master till He comes. Now give a blessing this ... we come back to that prayer of ours — a blessing to each one. Bless me, even me also, O my Father! ‘The prayer is offered in the name of Jesus Christ the Mediator.

Amen.

SERMON: No. 1542. (June 13, 1880.) SCRIPTURE: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4. 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-4. HYMNS: 728, 694, 248.

XXV. AN EVENING PRAYER.

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

— Hebrews 11:6.   NASB

Our Father, our faith is in You; our expectation is from You; our love goes out towards You; we believe You, we accept every word of Your sacred revelation as being eternal verity and immutable truth.

Sometimes we are troubled to know whether the promises are for us — whether we really have a share in covenant blessings; but we thank You that You have helped many of us to hold a trial in the court of conscience, and since our heart condemns us not we have confidence towards God. Let this be the portion of all Your children. May we come away from doubting and fearing and hesitating, and may we believe. Oh, for the faith which trusts the bare promise of God! Let us not be asking for ‘signs and wonders, and withholding faith because these are not given to us; but whatsoever we find in Your word may we believe it to be sure truth, and hang our souls upon it. Above all things, give us grace to trust in Jesus, in the full atonement made, and the utmost ransom paid. “He is all my salvation and all my desire” may we each one be able to say this of Him who “of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”

“You, O Christ, are all we want; More than all in You we find.”

Oh, let us never mistrust You, You blessed Son of God. May we have no doubt about Your Father’s love — no suspicion as to the love of the Spirit; but may we joy in God by Jesus Christ, through whom also we have received the atonement. May we come to anchor, and, casting anchor in the port of peace, may we never be troubled again about that question, but be able to say “My Father” with an unfaltering lip.

The Lord grant that we may all of us have not only faith in Christ, but full assurance of faith, whereby we shall trust, for the present and for the future, everything in those dear hands that were nailed to the cross for us.

Help Your children to perform an act of faith tonight by leaving all their troubles apart and coming close to their Lord.

He has sweat great drops for us, and now You ask Your own children to cease therefrom, even as of old You commanded the priests to wear no garment that caused sweat, because they were to find rest in Your service and peace in the performance of their holy duties. Even so may Your people do.

You are so good, so kind, so just, so holy, that no mistake is possible to You.

You are the fountain and source of all law what You command it is ours to obey.

We have heard the thunder of that sentence, “Nay, but O man, who are you that replys against

God?” and in meekness of heart and lowliness of spirit we bow before the infinite glory of Your majesty, and it is to us the most joyful of all songs,

“The Lord reign let the earth rejoice. Let the multitudes of the isles be glad thereof.” Lord, we yield up to Your sovereignty all that we are and all that we have.

Do as You will with us.

Whenever our wishes grow into willings, and our willings become obtrusive fault-findings with Your providence, have mercy upon Your servants in this thing, and take away from us the evil heart of unbelief that dares to question You.

Be this the finale of our every prayer, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will;” and be this the great pleading of our heart every day, “Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

O You who are God, we have heard You say, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and what a silence have You made in our heart, where else there had been murmuring and complaint, when we have understood “The Lord has done it.”

Aaron held his peace when he knew this; and so would we. Nay, we would do more.

We would speak out of our griefs and our down-castings, and say, “The Lord gave, and the

Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in

Him, for the Lord is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Blessed be His name.” And now, our Father, hear the pleadings of Your children as we thus bow before You and yield everything to Your parental will.

Now bless Your children.

Sanctify us, Lord, spirit, soul, and body.

Cleanse us even as with hyssop.

Cleanse us in our inward parts, and make us to know wisdom in the secret places of our spirit.

And, Lord, will You also help such of Your children as are very sorely burdened.

When You lay on a burden, give strength equal to it, and if the burden should press heavier and heavier, hold the everlasting arms yet more consciously underneath us.

Remember some present who have lately been bereaved. They lately had the sentence of death in themselves by reason of sore disease of body. Help, strengthen, comfort, deliver.

The widow and the fatherless are always Your care. Look, most tender and compassionate Lord, upon all such as are in any trouble of mind, or body, or estate; and let the rich comforts of the Comforter Himself be dispensed to them.

And, Lord, will You keep those that are not troubled. Let them rejoice with trembling. Will You preserve us all from any of the intoxication that comes of prosperity, and when our heart is glad, if it be not with the high joy that comes of God, let us always look to You to sober us in such moments.

The Lord lead us safely on to His eternal kingdom. We will not ask whether the road will be rough or smooth. We leave that with You; only bring us to behold the face of Him we love.

If You will give us bread to eat and raiment to put on, and bring us to our Father’s house in peace, it is all we ask below. Whatsoever Your will ordains, only do bring us to our Father’s house in peace. Grant us this.

Father, one other prayer it is that You would bless those that do not know You.

We pray You that we may have in our own hearts much of the heaviness that Paul knew, when we think of the many ungodly ones, especially of those that are of our own acquaintances and relatives, such as have heard the gospel from their very childhood, in whose father’s house there was a prophet’s chamber, whose mother died with the name of Jesus on her lips, whose father, grown gray with age, is on the road to glory, and they are still unconverted.

Oh, bring them in! Dear Father, there are many of us praying now from the bottom of our hearts that all our children may be Your children, and that all related to us may be of the family of Christ.

Then, Lord, we thank You for that blessed word, “The promise is unto you and to your children;” but You did not stop there, for You have said, “and to them that are afar off, even to as many as; the Lord our God shall call.”

Lord, bring in the far-off ones. Save poor fallen women save the equally fallen men. Oh God, have mercy upon heathen lands; upon Popish countries; upon those that sit in the Mahometan moon-darkness.

The Lord be pleased to let His light shine over all the sons of men, and accomplish the number of His redeemed, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

And to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be glory, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

SUNDAY EVENING, August 20, 1885. SCRIPTURE; Romans 9. HYMNS: 734, 623, 624.

XXVI. AN EVENING PRAYER.

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:10.  NASB

Glorious God, there are many of us who can bless You that we know You.

There was a time when we lived in Your world but had never known the Creator. We were partakers of Your providence, but we did not know the Provider. We went up and down in the sunlight, but we were blind.

There were voices all around us, but we were deaf to all things spiritual. And some of us lived in this way for years. Some in Your presence are in that way this evening. They know not God; neither do they desire the knowledge of Your ways.

They can see and understand many things, but they do not desire to know Him in whom they live and move and have their being.

It was a happy day for us when, in the infinite sovereignty of Your love, You looked upon us, and call us by Your grace. Then did the dead heart begin to beat. Then light entered the darkened eye, and then we turned to You.

It was the best discovery we had ever made when we found that there was, after all, a God, ready to hear us, willing to listen to our cries.

But, Lord, at the first this great discovery caused us much pain, for we found in our hearts an enmity to You, a natural alienation; and we found that we had grieved You, that we had vexed Your spirit by sin.

We admire You all the more for this, for we would not care for a God who did not hate sin. Oh, with what reverence we fell at Your feet even when we heard You speak in tones of thunder, and say, “The soul that sins, it shall die.”

When Your Grace had really made us to know You, Your justice, terrible as it was, had our submissive reverence. We felt that, if our souls were sent to hell, righteousness and justice would approve it well.

O God, we remember how we lay at Your feet. Our thoughts were as a case of knives cutting our hearts; and then You came to us, and You made known Your love.

O blessed day in which You revealed Yourself dressed in the silken robes of love! When we saw that Jesus died that we might live, that the cross was the best proof of divine affection, then we looked to Jesus suffering in our stead. We trusted in the great atonement, and we found a peace.

O, what shall we say of it? Our very soul sings at the remembrance of the peace which has never been taken from us.

Many days have passed since first we knew it, and many changes we have seen, but we have never lost our hold on Christ; nor has He ever lost His hold of us; and here we are still, to weep to the praise of the mercy that we have found, and to tell to others, as we have breath to speak, that the Lord is a great sin-pardoning God.

There is none like Him, passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin, and, for Jesus' sake, receiving the vilest of the vile to His bosom, and casting out none that come unto Him; taking up even the blasphemer and the drunkard, yea, the very worst, and washing even these from their crimson sins and making them whiter than newly fallen snow.

O Lord, we sometimes wish that we could sing like cherubim and seraphim. Then would we praise You better. But as it is, human voices are all we have, but they shall be used to the praise of “free grace and dying love,” to which we owe all that we have, and all we ever hope to have.

Now, Lord, tonight bless this people. O my Lord, bless these dear friends from whom I have been separated for a while. Bless and prosper them. Let those that fear Your name be happy in You while we are preaching tonight. May those who are truly Yours, have a joyous and happy season. May they rejoice in the great love of God, and feel their souls overflow with delight at their remembrance of it.

But, oh, we beseech You, especially save souls tonight. Make up for our ten dumb Sundays. Give us tonight ten times as much — nay, it must be eleven times as much we cannot afford to lose this one. Oh, give us eleven times as much blessing as we have ever had before. May many, many, many be brought out of darkness into marvelous light, and delivered from the prison-house into the liberty of Christ.

Lord, there are some here that have heard us many times, and yet You have not spoken to their hearts effectually. Oh, speak tonight. Take them in hand, great Lord. They shall be made willing in the day of Your power.

Oh, that this might be the day of Your power! There are others who are quite strangers to this house, and perhaps to the gospel. May the new note strike them. From the silver cornet of the gospel may there come to them a sound unknown before, which shall reach their very soul; and may they answer to it. Bid them come to Christ and live tonight.

O divine love, sweetly draw them. Cast the bands of love about them, and the cords of a man, and draw them to Yourself.

Young men and young women and old men and old women, — draw them to Yourself, most divine Lord; and may there be many trophies to the power of the gospel tonight. All our prayer is now before You. We wish everybody in the house to be saved.

The Lord grant it, for Christ’s sake.

Amen.

SUNDAY EVENING, Jan. 3Oth, 1887.

SCRIPTURE: Genesis 22. HYMNS: 199, 782, 288.

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KEEP IN MERCY’S WAY.

Let sermons and prayers be Your delight, because they are roads wherein the Savior walks.

Let the righteous be Your constant company, for such ever bring Him where they come. It is the least thing you can do to stand where grace usually dispenses its favor. Even the beggar writes his petition on the flagstone of a frequented thoroughfare, because he hopes that among the many passers, some few at least will give him charity; learn from him to offer Your prayers where mercies are known to move in the greatest number, that amid them there may be time for You.

Keep your sail up when there is no wind, that when it blows you may not have need to prepare for it; use means when you see no grace attending them, for thus will you be in the way when grace comes.

Better go fifty times and gain nothing, than lose one good opportunity. If the angel stir not the pool, yet lie there still, for it may be the moment when you leave, it will be the season of his descending.

Think it not possible to pray too frequently; but at morning, at noon, and at eventide lift up Your soul unto God. Let not despondency stop the voice of your supplication for He who hears the young ravens when they cry, will in due time listen to the trembling words of your desire.

Give Him no rest until He hear You; like the importunate widow, be you always at the heels of the great One; give not up because the past has proved apparently fruitless; remember Jericho stood firm for six days, but yet when they gave an exceeding great shout, it fell flat to the ground.

“Arise, cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches: pour out Your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Let tears run down like a river day and night give yourself no rest; let not the apple of Your eye cease.”

Let groans, and sighs, and vows keep up perpetual assault at heaven’s doors.

“Heav’n’s never deaf,

But when man’s heart is dumb.”

There is not a single promise which, if followed up, will not lead you to the Lord. He is the center of the circle, and the promises, like radii, all meet in Him, and thence become Yea and Amen.

As the streams run to the ocean, so do all the sweet words of Jesus tend to Himself launch your barque upon any one of them, and it shall bear you onward, to the broad sea of His love. The sure words of Scripture are the footsteps of Jesus imprinted on the soil of mercy — follow the track and find Him.

The promises are cards of admission not only to the throne, the mercy-seat, and the audience chamber, but to the very heart of Jesus. Look aloft to the sky of Revelation, and you will yet

Spurgeon's Prayers Personalized                                   188 / 262

find a constellation of promises which shall guide Your eye to the Star of Bethlehem.

Above all, cry aloud when you read a promise — “Remember Your word unto Your servant, on which

You have caused me to hope.

From “The Saint and his Savior.”

Sleep On, Beloved!

Sleep on, beloved, sleep, and take your rest;

Lay down your head upon Your Savior’s breast: We love you well; but Jesus loves you best —

Good-night!

Until the shadows from this earth are cast;

Until He gathers in His sheaves at last; Until the twilight gloom is over-past —

Good-night!

Until the Easter glory lights the skies;

Until the dead in Jesus shall arise,

And He shall come; but not in lowly guise —

Good-night!

Only “good-night,” beloved — not “farewell!”

A little while, and all His saints shall dwell

In hallowed union, indivisible —

Good-night!

Until we meet again before His throne,

Clothed in the spotless robe He gives His own, Until we know even as we are known —

Good-night!

C.H. Spurgeon's Prayers

Behold the Throne of Grace

C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers and Hymns

Selected and Arranged by

Chas. T. Cook

Spurgeon's Prayers Personalized                                   190 / 262

Foreword

That Charles Haddon Spurgeon was supreme among the famous preachers of the Victorian age is, today, all but universally conceded. The passage of time, which plays havoc with shallow reputations, has in nowise modified contemporary estimates of his greatness, nor has it made foolish the predictions that his influence would long abide. Never was he more assuredly acclaimed the "Prince of Preachers" than in this centenary year of his birth.

With the possible exception of John Bunyan, no Nonconformist preacher belongs more certainly to the Church universal. His published sermons have gone out into all the earth, and have influenced a vaster multitude even than that which, year in and year out, hung upon the silver-trumpet notes of his marvellous voice. In the printed page they have made an irresistible appeal, not only to all sections of the Protestant Church, but also to AngloCatholics, and even to priests of the Roman Catholic and the Eastern churches.

But Spurgeon's power did not lie wholly in his exceptional preaching gifts. He was a mighty man of prayer. Not even his pulpit genius could have attracted such vast congregations throughout a period of nearly forty years, nor would his ministry have been so rich in spiritual results, had he not lived in closest intimacy with the unseen. "You spoke as if you had come straight from the Presence," said a worshipper, on one occasion, to Dr. Alexander Whyte. That was how many felt whenever Spurgeon preached.

There were some—D. L. Moody notably among them—who were more deeply moved by his pulpit prayers than by his sermons. Another eminent American visitor—the late Dr. A. T. Pierson—who had still closer associations with Spurgeon and his Tabernacle than the great evangelist, has vividly described the impression made upon himself when Spurgeon led the devotions of his people:

"And oh, what praying, peculiar for that element of adoration, in which nearly all public prayer is lacking! His confession of sin is humble, his supplication fervent, his intercession importunate; but when he praises and extols God, it is an eagle soaring toward the sun, and bearing you on its wings. You see the glory of God; you feel smitten with the splendour of His power and wisdom, goodness and holiness" (Evangelistic Work, p. 166).

It is known that Spurgeon attached as much importance to the prayer as to the sermon. He strongly advised his students against entrusting that part of the service to another, while his own attitude was stoutly defined in the declaration, "I would sooner yield up the sermon than the prayer." Those who would learn the secrets of Spurgeon's success cannot afford to ignore this vital aspect of his pulpit ministry.

At a time, therefore, when the Centenary celebrations have caused increased attention to be devoted to Spurgeon and his message, it is surely fitting that a new selection of his prayers and hymns should be given to the world. Over a long period of years the prayers were reported for Mr. Spurgeon's own use, but with no thought of publication. Many, however, will be thankful that the manuscripts have been preserved, making it possible for a later generation to have access to such treasures of devotion. Two collections of the prayers, which were published shortly after the Tabernacle pastor's death, have long since been out of print. The present volume is an entirely new selection, chosen from among the stenographers' transcripts which remain in possession of Marshall, Morgan & Scott. The topical titles

throughout have been supplied by the compiler, who has also attached an Amen to each of the selected passages in the concluding section.

Included in the volume are a number of Spurgeon's hymns, written in the first instance for the Tabernacle hymn-book ("Our Own Hymn-book"), now out of print. Several of these are of a high order, and are worthy of a place in every hymnary.

It is not our purpose to examine the prayers in detail, but perhaps one or two observations may be allowed. While many books of written prayers have been published for the edification of believers, here is a collection of extempore utterances. In this respect, at least, the volume is unique. Not a few earnest people are lamenting that nowadays extempore prayer is "a lost art." Such a criticism is, of course, an obvious exaggeration. Nevertheless, it has sufficient substance to make it well worth while for ministers and preachers to inquire how far the powerlessness of the modern pulpit may be directly traceable to formalism and unreality in prayer. Do congregations feel instinctively that the preacher is in touch with the Throne? It is not difficult to detect when a man is "praying in the Holy Ghost." Spurgeon knew the holy war as did few men. He lived in such conscious dependance upon his heavenly Father, that his whole being was poured out in his supplications. Many of his prayers rose to high levels of eloquence, but it was the eloquence of a heart aflame, and no conscious striving after effect. His simplicity was as marked as his intensity.

Sir William Robertson Nicoll placed in the forefront of Spurgeon's pulpit qualities the fact that he possessed "the theological temper." But Spurgeon's theology was never more living and practical than in his prayers. How large the grace of God looms in every address to the Most High! Over and over again he seems to be drawn to the Mercy Seat by the wonder of the grace which brought salvation down, rather than driven to God by a sense of need. He rejoices to be occupied with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet it is the realization that men owe everything to the Vicarious Sacrifice which gives such wide range to his intercessions. It is because he believes with all his heart that grace is as sovereign as it is free, that he is emboldened to ask great things, confident that, with such a God, all things are possible. Although the writer never saw Spurgeon, he owes an immeasurable debt to him. It was through the ministry of his son and successor in the Tabernacle pastorate—Thomas Spurgeon —that he was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. It was in membership with his great church in South London that he was nurtured in the Faith, and led out into Christian service. And, in due course, it was at Spurgeon's College that he learned how to employ whatever gifts he may have to better purpose in the noblest of all callings. He is encouraged to send forth this volume in the belief that the reading of these prayers will be made a means of grace to many believers, both in the place of secret communion, and at the family altar. Further, he would cherish the hope that preachers, and Christian workers generally, may gain from these glowing utterances of a great ministry, new inspiration to pray and work for the quickening of the Church of Christ, and the salvation of a lost world.

CHAS. T. COOK.

Invocations

The Holy Ghost is Here

For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us. Acts 15:28.

The Holy Ghost is here,

Where saints in prayer agree, As Jesu's parting gift He's near Each pleading company.

Not far away is He,

To be by prayer brought nigh, But here in present majesty, As in His courts on high.

He dwells within our soul,

An ever welcome Guest;

He reigns with absolute control, As Monarch in the breast.

Our bodies are His shrine,

And He th' indwelling Lord; All hail, thou Comforter divine, Be evermore adored.

Obedient to Your will,

We wait to feel Your power,

O Lord of life, our hopes fulfil, And bless this hallowed hour.

Tune: "Trentham."

God of Our Fathers, and Our God

Blessed be Your Name, Your ever-living God. Our neighbors die; friend after friend departs; few of us have not lost someone dear to us; but You abide the same, and of Your years there is no end. We come to You. You are this day as strong to deliver as in our fathers' time; as true to Your promise, and as mighty to perform Your Covenant as when You spake unto Abraham at Mamre, or did work mightily in the field of Zoan for the Children of Israel. You, O God, are for ever strong and mighty. Never can Your arm know palsy, nor can Your brow decay. We look up to You with joyful confidence, knowing that You are an inexhaustible fountain of every good thing, and believing that You will supply our need out of the riches of Your fullness of glory by Christ Jesus. Will You refresh our souls. We come as the Children of Israel came to the wells of Elim, and we would now sit by the palm-trees thereof. Let our souls gather strength. Give comfort to the mourners; give rebuke to those that slumber, and a word in season to everyone. As for the minister, may he be as one that brings forth out of the treasury things new and old. May there be food fitted for strong men, as well as milk for babes, and may we all of us retire from the Master's house feeling that He has satisfied us with good things, and made us rejoice in Himself. Our Father, hear and bless us for Jesus' sake. Amen. April 19 (Morning), 1863.

A Word to the Heart

Permit us, Lord, to behold again the light of Your countenance. May our glad spirits approach again to the Throne of Grace, receiving grace from the Throne enabling us so to do. Oh that You would have a word with our heart! May the truth be mighty; may it pierce into the conscience, may it reach the inner man. May those who are born again, and those who are afar off, receive some good thing. Vain is the help of man. The preacher depends on nothing of his own, but behold, here he is at Your feet. Speak through Your servant to this great assembly, and let not a word fall to the ground; neither may there be a deaf ear nor a hard heart. God Almighty, glorify Your Son Jesus by Your Holy Spirit. We ask it for His sake. Amen. April 19 (Evening), 1863.

A Day of Delightful Remembrance

Gracious God, preserved by Your goodness, we are permitted to come up to Your house. We desire here to pay our vows in the midst of Your people. We hail the Sabbath as a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable. We delight to find ourselves in the place where prayer is won't to be made, and we humbly hope that this day our supplications will be heard in heaven. Let our praise be accepted at the Throne, and that there will be for each of us a portion of meat in due season. Oh for the bedewings of the Holy Spirit upon every plant of the Lord's right-hand planting. Let every soul be nourished in this house today. As trees planted in the courts of the Lord, so may we flourish and bring forth fruit.

May this be a day to be remembered by us. May Your people, especially, be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And though they may not, like John in Patmos, behold the Lord with their visible eyes, yet may they see Him spiritually, and rejoice in the glory of His presence. Bless the Word this morning. The burden of the Lord is upon us. Help us to deliver Your Word with power. Oh, that You would enable us to plead with sinners. We have sought to plead with God for men; now may we plead with men for God.

Throughout the whole service may a deep solemnity rest on every mind. May those who know the are of prayer be holding up Your servant's hands as did Aaron and Hur. May they be praying, like Moses on the mountain, while we, like Joshua, fight in the plain. Let the Spirit come down upon the unconverted this morning, and save them with a great salvation. We ask it for the Saviour's sake. Amen. July 5 (Morning), 1863.

The Saviour in the Midst

O God, our hearts are up unto You. We want to feel that You are here. We cannot expect this if we ask so great a blessing in our own name, but we ask it through the merits of Jesus Christ. Divine Saviour, You have said, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Be here now, for we are more than two or three. You have been pleased to give us Your Holy Spirit to be the Comforter that shall abide with us for ever; may He abide with us tonight.

We have to confess that sometimes we go through the service as a mere matter of routine. We are afraid that many of Your people do not join as they should do in prayer, nor does their heart go up with the sacred longing. May it not be so now. May there be real worship the whole service through.

When we come clustering round the Table, may we be hungering and thirsting after Jesus, who is the Bread of Heaven, and may we eat of His flesh, and drink of His blood. The Lord give us His help. We are perfect weaklings. There is nothing else that we are perfect in. Lord, give us the perfect strength, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

July 5 (Evening), 1863.

The Soul's Yearning for God

O Lord, You delight to dwell in the midst of Your people. Where Your saints gather themselves together in the Name of Jesus there are You in the midst of them. Let us feel Your presence here throughout all the services of today. Nothing short of this can satisfy us. It is in vain that we see the minister in his place, or that we are enabled to join in the customary voice of song. We want to feel that You are here. Our heart pants after You as pants the thirsty stag for the water-brooks. Come and refresh our spirits! Earth shall be made like heaven if You will be with us, and if You are absent Your house becomes but as other houses, and the sanctuary itself has lost its power to bless.

Father, forgive our sins. Help us to wash our hands in innocency, and so to compass Your altar. Our Father, draw us near to Yourself. Let the attractions of heaven overcome the lesser attractions of earth. Close to Jesus may we come this day. Beneath that cross where once did hang our hope, there let us find our joy. May there be today in the hearts of many of Your people a renewed consecration to Your service. May there be a giving of the Spirit afresh to Your people, and oh, let sinners be converted today! While we try to cast the net, do You bring them to it. Make the hands strong that shall draw the bow, and do You direct it so exactly that the arrow may find out the joint in the harness. O Spirit of God, be not absent from us, but from the first opening prayer to the last amen, may Your power be revealed, for Christ's sake.

Amen.

August 16 (Morning), 1863.

Refresh Our Waiting Spirits!

Our Father, delight Your children with Your presence. Indulge us with Your smile. For a little longer we are spared in this vale of tears; but soon we hope to see Your face behind the curtain, in the land of the blessed, in the home of Your people. Till then, refresh our waiting spirits. Give us drops of heaven's glory before we come to bathe our souls in it. Refresh us with heaven's manna before we sit at the heavenly table. Let us have the clusters of Eshcol before we go up to take possession of this goodly land, and may Your people, despite the weakness of the flesh and the infirmities of nature, be so filled with grace that like Moses they may climb to the top of Nebo and have a vision across the stream. Our Father, which are in heaven, we are persuaded that our great request is none too great for You. Bring us up to heaven now. Illuminate our eyes that we may behold You in Your own light, through Jesus Christ. Be thou a help to the speaker and to every hearer. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

August 16 (Evening), 1863.

Complete Prayers

Jesu's Presence Delightful

Then... came Jesus and stood in the midst. John 20:19.

Amidst us our Beloved stands,

And bids us view His pierced hands; Points to His wounded feet and side, Blest emblems of the Crucified.

What food luxurious loads the board, When at His table sits the Lord!

The wine how rich, the bread how sweet, When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!

If now with eyes defiled and dim,

We see the signs but see not Him,

Oh may His love the scales displace, And bid us see Him face to face!

Our former transports we recount,

When with Him in the holy mount,

These cause our souls to thirst anew, His marred but lovely face to view.

Your glorious Bridegroom of our hearts, Your present smile a heaven imparts!

Oh lift the veil, if veil there be, Let every saint Your beauties see.

Tune: "Whitburn."

Sorrowing, yet Always Rejoicing

Expecting to receive the precious help of Your Holy Spirit, we would wait upon You, O Lord, with all earnestness of desire, with all sincerity of heart, and with all confidence of faith. Oh that now our fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ! May this be a season of access to God through Christ Jesus. May we not stand at a distance from You, but may we now speak to our God as a man speaks with his friend.

Our Father, we feel that we must praise and bless Your Name this morning. You have smitten us during this week; very many of our families have been made to mourn, but still—

"Your strokes are fewer than our crimes, And lighter than our guilt."

We are constrained to say, now, when Your chaveening hand falls upon us—"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." It is impossible for You to do that which is unkind, and if we have received good at Your hands, shall we not receive with equal cheerfulness that which appears to be evil? You do well, O Lord, and nothing shall alter us in this our boasting, that in everything You do the best thing that could be done. We would not only be resigned to Your will, but we would feel a divine pleasure and satisfaction in the thought that You have Your own will; for who should have it, who should reign, who should be the disposer of events, but You?

O our gracious Friend and Father, we bless You, then, with all our hearts for Your trying dispensations, and for the mercies with which You are pleased to sweeten them. Oh how good have You been to us, Your people. In old eternity You did ascribe our names in the Book of Life. In the fullness of time, You gave Your Darling from Your bosom, that He might be offered up a sacrifice for us, and then when the full time was come, You did call us by Your grace from wandering in the ways of sin unto the paths of righteousness. You did take us out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. You did set our feet upon a rock, and did establish all our goings. Therefore will we praise the God of grace. While we have any being we will extol the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And when we leave this clay to be the food of worms, it shall be in confident expectation that our body shall rise again, and our spirit shall mount to heaven, singing as it mounts, to look for ever into the face of God, for ever to sing the praise of Kim who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood. Oh that we knew the language of heaven! Would that we could borrow the notes of angels:—

"Teach us some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above."

Oh for the music of those golden harps, and the notes that fall from perfect lips!

"Had we our tongues, like theirs, inspired, Like theirs, our joys should rise."

But till then, good Lord, we offer You such as we have, and since 'tis perfumed with a Saviour's merits, and put into the golden censer which waves in His hand, we believe that even our poor frankincense and myrrh shall not be unaccepted, but that You will receive it through Jesus Christ, the great High Priest.

Father, we now desire You to have pity upon us, Your children; who have of late erred and strayed, even as we have done aforetime. You have washed us,—in that Fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins, we have found perfect cleansing. But as the priests needed to wash their feet in the laver every day, so do we. Oh wash us clean again; and as before the judgment seat we are clean, so now before our Father's face, let us, too, be clean.

O You that dwells in Zion, rid us of corruptions within. Drive out the Canaanites. Some of our besetting sins are like those that have chariots of iron; but do You drive them out before us by the irresistible power of Your grace, till the whole land of Mansoul in its uttermost lengths shall belong unto God alone.

Father, we have a thousand wants, and we have but few words in which to express them; but You know them altogether. Our Father, which are in heaven, we want more love to You! Sometimes we feel the spirit of adoption, and we can cry "Abba Father;" but there are times when this world creeps in, and when gloomy doubts prevail, and we fear to call You ours. Strengthen our faith, that our love may be strengthened too. You know all things; You know that we love You. Oh for grace to love You more! and we want to have a greater longing, and hungering, and thirsting after Christ. We would not be indifferent to His charms. He has given Himself to us. Oh let us not live as though we were destitute of such a Treasure. He is, we hope, dearer to us than all our senses are, our limbs, our passions, or our eyes. Oh let us live nearer to Him, or, when absent, let us mourn as the dove that laments for her mate. If we may not drink of Him, give us at least grace to hunger and thirst after Him.

Most glorious and inestimably precious Jesus; we desire to honour You more. How few are the jewels which we put into Your Crown! How small is the homage which we pay to You! Do You help us to live talking of Jesus, and walking with Jesus, receiving His image. May our lives be distinct portraits of the life of Christ. May we so live that men may take knowledge of us that have been with the Nazarene, and have caught His speech, His manner, and His conduct.

Most glorious Spirit, it is Yours to make our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost, and to drive out from us everything which would prevent Jesus from dwelling within. Do You do this, until we shall live wholly and only for Him. Better to die for Jesus than to live for self; better to bleed for Jesus than to preserve one's life wholly unsuffering, separated from Him.

Let this church ever have in its midst the sweet savour of Your ointments! Oh that the name of Jesus might always charm the members of this church. Whatever others may do, may we fear and love Jesus. Oh crucify us, nailing us to His cross. Let us die with Him; let us slumber in His grave; and then let us wake up and live only in His resurrection. And may our life be an ascended one, which He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Do look upon each member of the church now. There are so many families that have been bereaved, that we pray for all. You take away a mother here; You take away a husband there; You remove a child yonder; You are smiting on the right hand and on the left. We would kiss the rod and the hand that wields it, but we pray that the richest consolation may be given, especially, to those who through years and infirmities suffer much. We pray that richer consolation than usual may be given where most it is required. Do sanctify their

bereavements. May the whole of the flock feel that when the Shepherd is taking away one after another, it is time for us to be ready for His coming. May these things be as a shout in the midnight—"Behold the Bridegroom comes; go ye forth to meet Him." May a deep spirit of earnestness pervade the members. May we walk as those who are Christ's, as men who are alive from the dead, and cannot live as they were once won't to do.

Remember with equal favour the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do revive Your work in the midst of the years. Wherever and by whomsoever Your cross is lifted up, there let the energy of the Spirit be found, and there let sinners believe and live, and let Your saints be comforted. O Father, remember those present who are not as yet converted to God. O Spirit of God, go forth into their hearts to slay, and like healing balm, make them whole; wound and heal, for You must do both. Your great Omega of our souls, be the Alpha to their souls. You who will complete, do begin. Mighty Finisher, be You the Author. May some man be led to feel that he can go no farther. May some sinner be brought this very morning to a dead pause. May he stand still and say: "This will not do! I must reverse my course; no longer will I live unto the world, for that the time past sufficeth. Now will I live unto Him." Make our word this morning encouraging, and at the same time arousing, to Your people, and in the evening come up with us, that the word may be specially blessed to unconverted hearts.

Let all nations know their God. Wherever there are wars and strife, let them cease when the end is answered. Let slavery loose her fetters; let liberty reign everywhere. Let the Advent of Christ soon arrive. Let the idols be dashed in pieces; let all false foundations be razed to the ground, and may He come whose right it is to reign. O Jesus, the world hath waited long; and we have heard the word which saith, "Overturn; overturn;" but when will You stop the overturn to establish the righteous things, and to cast down all evil? When will You come to be King of kings and Lord of lords? And now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory for ever and ever, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. April 19, 1863.

Mercy's Streams

Our Father which are in heaven, we are not worthy to be called Your sons. We have so sinned against You that if You should drive us for ever from Your house of love, and from Your heart of mercy, we could not blame You. Justice would but have its due if we were this day sorrowing with the rich man. Lord, we thank You for Your long-suffering mercies, that You have not cut us down as cumberers of the ground. We thank You that You did not permit eternal ruin to fall upon us. And we thank You that though, since we have known You, we have been very unfaithful, and are always going astray from Your loving-kindness holds good, and Your mercy is not put away from Your people. We know not which most to wonder at, Your loving-kindness or our ingratitude. How stupid, how indifferent have we been. The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib, but we have not known, we have not considered. Even the sheep follow their shepherd but we would not follow You, but we went astray after any leader rather than follow Him who is now today our All-in-All.

Gracious God, we have all sinned peculiarly in our own position. Your servant would confess his own want of earnestness and faithfulness in his ministry. With shame and confusion of face would he make his confession before Your footstool. And Your servants who are members of the Church of Christ would acknowledge that they have not lived for God as they should. How little have we done for Him who died to save our guilty souls. Our love is cold. Your mercies flow to us like rivers, but returns are but scanty drops. Lord, forgive us all. We come to You conscious that we are guilty, and most of all ashamed of ourselves that we are not more ashamed, and blushing that we do not blush, mourning that we do not mourn. God be merciful unto us sinners. With the publicans we take our place. Our cry is the cry of the returning prodigal. O Father, we are not worthy to be called Your sons, but our faith beholds the promise, the sweet and assuring promise made to sinners, and we know that God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imparting to us our trespasses.

O Lord Jesus, our souls fly to You. You are the only refuge of our heart. Our confidence is fixed upon Your blood and righteousness, and we believe that these will never fail us. We are persuaded that if we build upon this Rock of ages, the floods may come, and the winds may beat upon that house, but it shall not fall because it is built upon the rock. Renew the faith of Your people. Let its former simplicity come back. May we each of us come to Jesus as we did at first, weary, and overworn, and sad, and sinful, and find in Him all that our largest want can possibly demand. Oh for grace today to take a bleeding Saviour at His word, and to believe Him to be the propitiation for our sins.

But, our Father, we have many petitions to put up to You this morning. We pray You hear them. We are sometimes afraid that we Your people are growing cold in heart. You have brought summer weather upon our bodies, and You make the whole earth to rejoice in the light of the sun; but how often is there winter within while there is summer without. We are afraid that too often we come up to the house of prayer without prayer, and go away from it, in consequence without a blessing. How little heart is there in our praise! How little true earnestness in our prayers!

Lord, we would confess our sanctuary sins; but we would be delivered from them. There have been times when we have worshipped You with a holy enthusiasm, when the blessed fire has rested upon every heart. Bestow upon us those tokens. Help the minister to preach better. May there be some life in the ministry. Help the people to hear better; may there be a deeper and more solemn attention to the Word. Especially this morning, while we feel God's burden pressing very heavily upon us, so that our hearts are borne down to earth, help us to deliver it with boldness, with fidelity, with earnest affection.

At this hour, Lord, inspire the heart of every child of Yours to true prayer. Help us to feel the weight of men's souls. May the wondrous value of a soul be opened up to our understanding; may the preciousness of a soul be laid upon our hearts, and may we pray, every one of us, as if we have never prayed before, and if we have had power with You, may we have a special power now, while silently we are pleading. God have mercy upon us, and have mercy upon sinners this day.

Lord, Your servant blesses You that You have not altogether taken away Your blessing from his ministry. Still Your saints rejoice. Still are sinners converted, but we want to see larger ingatherings. We thirst and pant for more numerous conversions. Our souls travail in birth for the souls of others till Christ be formed in them. Nothing can satisfy us until we see more sons born unto Christ.

Our Father which are in heaven, there are young men and women here who listen to us whose hearts are untouched; put out Your finger now and make their hearts dissolve. Here are men who are parents, women who are mothers; they are in middle life, but as yet the hammer of God has not come home to the heart. Lord bring it home today, and while the law is being preached may it act as a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. Here, too, are some aged men who are tottering on the brink of Jordon, and on the other side there is a dismal country without hope or light. Oh save them, save them, save them yet, that they may cross the river after another fashion, and land in that blest country of which our cheerful voices have been singing. There are strangers within Your courts: they are unknown to us, but Searcher of all hearts, You know them. May they hear a sermon they shall never forget. May the arrows of God stick so fast that they may never be drawn out, except by that healing Hand that once was pierced.

O Jesus, we cannot pray as we would, but our hearts are full of bursting with an anxious desire to see men saved. Father, hear our cry. We have one argument that You will hear. It is that Jesus died. Behold we set His bloody sweat before Your eye, His flagellations, His piercings on the mount of doom. Remember Jesus, O mighty Father. Look with eyes of love on Him, and then with eyes of pity look on us. Can You deny us? Will You not hear us when we have such a plea as this? If the preacher urged aught that he has said, or aught that his hearers have done, well might You turn Your back upon us. But we urge what Jesus did. O mighty God, we cannot let You go except You bless us. As Jacob laid hold upon the Angel and wrestled with Him, so lay we hold upon the Covenant Angel now. We must have a blessing. What shall our hearts do if You hear us not? Our soul cries unto You; out of the depth of our nature we cry unto You. Oh give us this day souls to our ministry, and souls for our hire.

Father, we want to feel this morning that we are in the Spirit. We are afraid that too often we sing, and it is but a form; that we pray and it is but an utterance of words. Bring every one of us into the Spirit today. Let us be over-shadowed by Him, baptized in Him, till there shall be no room for any thought or emotion but concerning things divine. Let us feel as we have sometimes felt: "Surely God is in this place and I knew it not." Oh come now and spread the skirts of Your convenant love over us, and You shall have the glory.

Bless our country, and bless it through the ministers of the Gospel. May they begin to preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Restore to us the Revival, the skirts of whose departing presence we begin to see... Oh take not that day away for ever, but return, blessed Spirit, return. And first return to this house, and let a new season of wonderful revival begin in this house of prayer, and then spread from house to house, and from country to country, until the whole land shall be covered with its divine light.

Our Father, come to us now. We have asked amiss we know, but You will forgive the error of it. But we love asking through Jesus Christ, and You can not deny us. Lord, we believe. We would not waver; we shall have nothing of the Lord if we waver. We believe that You will bless us. We believe that souls shall this morning be saved, and that our souls shall be stirred up. We ask it again, believing that we shall receive it, for His dear sake, to whom, with You and the blessed Spirit, be glory for ever. Amen.

July 5, 1863.

Such Love as Seraphs Know

O Lord, You know that our body exercises great influence upon our soul, by reason of the great heat of this day, many feel weary... Will You give so much of the blessed Spirit, that, notwithstanding the weakness of the flesh, our spirit may have fellowship with God.

We specially desire, tonight, to cry unto You upon one or two accounts, and we trust that we may be heard in heaven Your dwelling-place. First, we do very devoutly pray You to let the word of this morning live in the hearts of those who heard it. We could not wrestle as we would, but still we did pour out our heart for this people, and our soul went out after them as a mother's heart goes out after her sick child. We know that many of Your people have been lifting up their hearts in prayer. Let our united supplication bring a blessing upon the congregation, and out of the many who listened to us, may a large number be brought to Christ.

Now tonight, we are soon to come to Your Table. As a church we ask that there we may have Your presence in a very remarkable and delightful manner. Some of the people have been much in trouble. May they get ease from every care, and relief from every anxiety, while they behold their Saviour offered up for them. Some of Your people we know, are getting cold in heart and backsliding, gray hairs are upon them here and there, and perhaps they know it not. May this evening's service restore to them the love of their espousals. May they be brought back to that first heat of youthful piety, when first they knew the Lord. It may be that there are some here who have back-slidden very much. They have come to forget the assembling of themselves together. Prayer has been neglected; the closet is not often entered; it may be that family prayer is almost given up. There may be some in Your presence who have even fallen into outward sin, and yet they are come up here tonight. Lord, may they come as mourners. Make this place to them a Bochim: may they repent of their sin. May this be the place of their return unto You; and may they hear You say, "Return unto Me, for I am married unto you." Let the divine attractions of infinite affection and love lift each one of us up from the world. Oh, You have loved us with a love surpassing thought. You have redeemed us with a price beyond all price; and can we be cold and indifferent towards You? Come, blessed Spirit, come, and fire us with heaven's own flame! Oh that we may be filled with such love as seraphs know, with more than a seraph's delight and more than a seraph's energy.

Lord, if You see any of us dead and cleaving to the world, You can lift us up. This is our comfort, that we cannot be so dead that You can not quicken us. Let the hand of love that drew us first, draw us now. Jesus, if You be mine, assure my conscience of her part in Your most precious blood. If our lips can only lisp "Abba Father," may the Spirit of adoption be with us now. Hide not Yourself from Your own flesh, our divine Husband. You who are the Head of Your Body, be not strange to the members of Your frame. Reveal Yourself to us, for You will make us all that we should be. Your love can make us loving; Your presence can make us joyous; Yours example can make us holy.

Come Jesus, then; come and tabernacle with Your people; and while we preach, and when we sit at the Master's Table, may Your ointment give forth a sweet smell. Gracious Lord, will You bless many in this house tonight. Crowded together, they are come here, they scarce know what for. May some good word drop like good seed into prepared soil. O God, have mercy upon those present who never had mercy upon themselves. There is the blasphemer here, who scarcely speaks without an oath. Forgive him Lord. Give him a new heart, and help him to live in Your fear. Here are those that never pray, and they may soon die, and then prayers will be too late. Lead them to see their state by nature. Let their desperate danger be set before them in its true colours. Bring them to the Saviour. Wash them in His blood. Save them with His great salvation. Our soul pleads with You for the dying sons of men. Jesus, is not Your blood able to cleanse? Spirit, have thou not power to change the heart? Now, even now, let the sinner live to the praise and the glory of Your grace.

We have many things to ask of You, but we will not ask them now. Only do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask, or even think, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

July 5 (Evening), 1863.

Oh, to be Like Christ!

O God, we feel the hands of Your love holding us fast, and the cords of Your love drawing us towards Yourself. Oh, that every one now in this house felt the same! Let every one now become truly a suppliant, and out of all this company may there not be one wandering heart, nor one spirit that does not now draw nigh unto God.

Our Father which are in heaven: here at Your footstool we confess that our hearts are full of evil. We are always going astray from You; and though we have tasted of Your love, and know something of its constraining power, yet is our soul as full of vanity as a cage that is crowded with unclean birds. Even when we would pray, our distracted thoughts are flying hither and thither. How little of our time do we spend in Your service. How few are the words that we speak about You, or for You. How little is the savor of Christ upon our garments. How seldom do we rise to God, or taste of joy above! We are of the earth, earthy; and though we hope that in some degree we are spiritual, yet alas, we are compelled to feel that we are carnal. We acknowledge, O God, our sins of omission. We have all of us forgotten You and forsaken You, times without number. Nor are we without sins of commission too, for we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have done those things which we ought not to have done, as well as left undone those things which we ought to have done.

Oh, that You would have mercy upon us and blot out all our sins. Father, we do not love these things, our souls strive against them; and though we do not fight with the powers of darkness as we ought, neither are we adversaries as we should be, yet there is a something within us which pants after holiness. The divine spark which we have within us cannot be content till it has burned up sin. You have been pleased to quicken us by Your grace, and to make us Your children; and nothing ever will content our spirits till we are wholly given up to Your service; till the very being and power of sin shall be cut out root and branch, and we shall be made in all things like unto Yourself. This is our longing desire; and we feel that we shall never have any rest till we attain to it; and since we know we shall never attain to it on earth, we are convinced that there remains a rest for the people of God, and towards that rest we would push forward with earnestness of desire.

Our gracious God and Father, since You have taught us to hate these wandering thoughts and these sins, will You not give us grace to overcome them? Oh that we could be what we want to be! We are well aware that even our model which we have painted in our own mind, is not a perfect one, for we have not fully understood the perfection of the Lord Jesus, so as to set Him before us as our example. We do complain, gracious God, that even in trying to draw the picture of that example we fail, and that our thought makes an imperfect Christ out of Him who is altogether matchless. Yet, even to that poor ideal of Christ we never have as yet attained. Oh that we could reach it! Oh that we could be like Christ! We feel that we want to be some use in the world. We would not live here selfishly, merely to be ourselves saved, and ourselves to enjoy the pleasures of this life. Lord, help us to honour You. By some means or other do You get glory out of us. Put as much grace into us as we can hold, and put us to as much service as that grace can make us perform; or to as much patient endurance as that grace can enable us to sustain. We would be used to the utmost. We would not be laid by the side of the altar, but would be put upon it and be utterly consumed, till the caul and the fat and inwards and every part of us, shall be wholly given up to the Lord's own work.

Lord, help us to think nothing of toil, of contempt, of ignominy; but may we be prepared by evil report, good report, by honour and by dishonour, as deceivers and yet true, by being all things to all men, by some means, or by any means, to glorify Your name, and to bring sinners to Yourself. We come to You now, having asked that the power of sin may be subdued, and we humbly pray for a perfect cleansing in the precious blood. Just as we are come to that cross of Calvary, and where the blood drops, we hide ourselves.

"Other refuge have I none;

Hangs my helpless soul on You."

Jesus, once the dying Saviour, but now risen and ascended, will You not look down on us? We do believe that You can save. You are very God of very God; there is nothing impossible with You. Here on Your cross we hang; into Your hands we commend our spirits without reserve. We have no hope but in You; but we believe that You are mighty to save, and that You can save us, even us. Let each man say—"Even me; even me," and may there be, this morning, in every individual, a distinct and personal putting himself into the hands of the great Surety, by an act of simple faith. "Lord save me, or I perish." "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Let this be the prayer of each heart this morning.

Now, great Father, hear a pastor's prayer for his people. You know that at the thought of this multitude, our soul is bowed down within us. Your servant Moses could not carry the burdens of the people which You brought up out of Egypt; much less can we carry the burden of this host upon us. O God, Your servant feels His own inability every day, more and more, till sometimes his heart is ready to break with a sense of the overwhelming responsibilities which You have laid upon one of the weakest creatures whom You did ever honour in Your service. But O God, will You not be the Pastor of this people? Will You, Jesus, not be the great Shepherd and Bishop of these souls?

Help the brethren who help us. Stand by the church officers in all that they seek to do for Christ, and grant to them that they, being good shepherds of the flock, may have a good reward. Keep our members. Some of them are very poor. Oh let them not be too much cast down. Let them not lack any good thing. Supply their wants out of Your fullness. Some of them are very young. Keep them; let not early temptations be too strong for them. Many of them are very weak in faith: comfort and strengthen them. Some, You know, are very much tempted; every day they are tempted; and perhaps they are tempted by their besetting sin. Oh keep them! Some of them are going back: they are backsliding. Gracious Father, rouse them. Besides these, there are some that are sick, and some that are desponding in spirit, and there are some who have lately had to mourn over sad bereavement. Visit every aching heart, and give consolation to every troubled spirit this day. Feed the whole company of Your children with bread to the full.

We feel even more anxiety for the unconverted part of our congregation. O God, save them we pray You. Those who listened to the Gospel till it has become an old thing with them; those who listen to it, and yet never feel its power—by the blood of Christ, we beseech You, to save them. Oh, by Your promised blessing upon the Word, let these be gathered in unto Christ: let these be made part of His purchase, the reward of His soul's travail. Save them! aye, save them this day!

Bless the services of last Sabbath-day. Let the brother who then filled our lack of service have a blessing upon himself and upon his people.

Bless today all the works that are going on: the Sabbath-schools, and all who are preaching the Gospel. Throughout all England, let the Spirit of God be seen in His great power. Throughout the world, let the Kingdom of Jesus come. But here, this morning, clothe the minister with salvation, and make Your people shout aloud for joy.

We have nothing, Lord; give us Yourself. We have no power, Lord; clothe us with Your power. And as of old You did make Your prophet speak words that moved the heart, and made men feel the terror of Jehovah's presence, so do You speak today through us. Take us into a divine rapture, a holy enthusiasm. Let the glowing coal touch our lips, uncircumcised though they be. And now today, even today, let Your ancient Gospel be as a two-edged sword in Your mighty hand, to cut, and pierce and divide; to slay, to kill, and to make alive. And unto You shall be the glory, world without end. Amen.

August 16, 1863.

The Saint's Inalienable Portion

O Lord, the God of Your people, those whom You have chosen, and called, and redeemed, and saved, must and will bless Your holy Name. Surely, if we were to refuse Your praises, our silence would be sinful in the highest degree. We would praise You, O blessed God, not only with our hearts but with our voices. Blessed be the day in which You did bring us to accept You as our portion, and our heritage, for now we find in You a possession ample and wide. There is no limit to Your goodness, Your riches are unsearchable. You have all good things within the compass of Yourself, and You have given Yourself to us according to Your word, "I will be their God, and they shall be My people." We bless the Lord that our heritage is never exhausted. The world has its winter, but You have none. Even the world's sun hath its wintry times, and we see but little above the horizon, but You are ever a summer's sun into Your people, without variableness or shadow cast by turning.

We bless You that we can never lose our portion. Time cannot impair it: death cannot take it from us, or take us away from it. Rather, we expect death, which would destroy all mortal things, to bring us nearer to the God we love, and in our disembodied state we shall behold You more clearly than we do now. In the latter day when our Kinsman shall stand a second time upon the earth, this is our joy—that though the worm devour this body, yet in our flesh shall we see God, whom our eyes shall see for themselves and not another. O God, we know not how to express our delight in You. You are the happy God, and You are the happy-making God. You have often come to us and lifted us up out of danger, and set us on our high places. You have tuned our harps. When every string was broken You have come and repaired it, and taught us how to sing a new song unto the Lord God of our life. Oh, that we had nothing else to do but to praise You! And truly, we have nothing else to do; but we are so slow to know this. We get full of cares and troubles and doubts and fears and sins. Lord, cleanse and purge Your servants; and give us to feel that all that remains for us:

"Is but to love and sing

And wait until the angels come

To bear us to their King."

Oh for a well-tuned harp! Oh for a life that shall be one of minstrels—a life that shall be a psalm full of Hallelujahs.

Accept, this morning, the thanksgiving of some that have been sore sick, but who once again feel strength returning. Accept the thanks of others that have been far across the sea, and have come home again safely. Receive the thanksgiving of yet others who have been delivered out of great trouble, or who have seen their dear ones raised up from beds of languishing. We have all some cause for thankfulness, therefore will we praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same.

Now Lord, if there be any cause of disquietude upon the heart of any of Your servants so that they cannot praise You upon the high-sounding cymbals, but feel bound to sit down in the dust, hear You their complaints. Lies there upon the conscience of any child of Yours a sin unforgiven? Then help Your dear child to confess it with his head in his Father's bosom, and to receive full absolution. Do You say, "Daughter, Your sins be forgiven you. Son, go in peace, Your sins be forgiven thee." Or, is it that we are mourning under some great grief, which perhaps has not yet happened, but the shadow of which is upon us? Give Your servants great patience. Teach them to bear Your will, and oh give them the happiness are of "glorying in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patience," and that out of patience shall come glory to God. Are there any here that feel heavy because those whom they love are not here this morning? There are precious ones that are detained at home for whom we earnestly pray that they may be speedily restored to health. Meanwhile, help us, even in this, still to feel that the Lord is good and His mercy endures for ever. Let us not rob You of our song. Lord deal tenderly with Your people. Blessed Shepherd! You never drive. We have it concerning You that You "carry the lambs in Your bosom," and that You "gently lead those that are with young." Deal tenderly with them, and with all the flock; we pray that every child of Yours may get a sweet refreshment. May there not be one of us that shall be without a smile for the Father's face, and a kind gentle word dropped into our spirit by the Holy Spirit that shall sink all our fears and send us away happy.

Lord, we pray another prayer, which is this: that those now present who do not know the believer's joy, may learn it today. Oh that this day may be as the beginning of days to some that shall enter within these walls. Today, may some when they hear of the plenitude of blessing which You give to Your people be made to long to be amongst that happy number. Create, we beseech You, a soul thirst in such as are self-satisfied. Breed a sharp hunger in the hearts of those who have been content with the good things of time and sense. May they begin to long after something more enduring, more satisfying; and when You has set them longing, reveal Christ Jesus to them, and let them see how He can fill the soul with peace and joy, and how through Him:

"Immortal joys come streaming down;

Joys, like His griefs, immersed unknown."

Do, Father, grant to Your servant this great privilege and honour, of conducting some to the Saviour. Oh happy we shall be, now that You permit us to occupy the pulpit again. Do grant that Your servant may not preach in vain. May every sowing of the seed produce a harvest; and some of the regular hearers do You decide this morning. Some of the strangers do You take in the meshes of the Gospel net this day. Oh do give us fruit in this May time. Give us to see the buds of hope, and the blossom of desire, and may there be fruit to the glory of God.

God bless the Church at large, and send times of great revival. Oh that there may be more fruit in every church, all Your servants seeking to be fruitful. Let the members of this church each one seek to bring others to Christ. May there not be one barren one among us. Lord save us all. Save the gray heads among us. Save the little children that have come, perhaps for the first time, into the pew today. Save all of us; and in the day when the muster roll is read, may each one of us answer to his name and say, "Here am I.".....

Oh send forth Your light and Your truth to every troubled country. Let the Gospel come; for where it goes liberty follows, and there shall be no liberty except Christ make men free. Let all nations know their Saviour. Bless all missionary operations. Let Your power go forth, Lord, with all that preach Christ, wherever He is proclaimed.

Now before the throne of Your magnificence we bow ourselves with deep humiliation. What are we, and what is our father's house that we should take Your name upon our lips? Yet You, Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth, are our covenant God. You have sworn by Yourself that You will bear us as on eagles' wings. We cast ourselves before You. Lead us into perfect holiness. Lead us into glory; and there when we shall see You, we will eternally adore You, even as we adore You now, saying, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end." Amen. May 14, 1882.

Nothing but Jesus!

O You that dwells in the highest heavens, yet dwell in lowly hearts, make us lowly; set us free from all wrath, and pride, and foul desire, and grovelling worldliness. Make us conscious of sin; trembling at You but rejoicing in Your mercy; hoping in Your salvation; triumphing in Your love. Even so, our hearts become a temple, and God, even God, that fills all things, shall come and fill us also, with all the fullness of God. O God, we cannot live without You. You have spoiled us for the world. We cannot now be content with it; and You have spoiled us for all things short of Jesus. We believe in nothing else but in Jesus, and in all else that we do, we go back with intense delight to the preaching and the hearing of the Gospel. There is none like it. We thank You, O blessed Saviour, that You are such a wonderful lover of the sons of men; so willing to go out of Your way after a poor sinner as to be under a compulsion to go the way through Samaria where a guilty one shall come and speak with You, and You shall speak with her. We do admire Your blessed condescension in making Your first convert to be one who had so foully fallen and in winning that one heart, and thereby winning so many more. Far be it from us ever to come to You in the filthy rags of our own righteousness. They are worse than nothing. Oh that we might be willing to come to the Saviour as people that want saving, to come to His blood to be washed, to come weak and feeble, to find strength in Him, and nowhere else. You will not meet us on any other terms but these. The Pharisees You would not meet. You did go away from them when they had heard about You that You did make and baptize disciples: then You did avoid them, for You hadst not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Oh it was a sweet day when You did turn my way, my Lord, to meet me. Many of Your dear ones here this morning, most blessed Lord Jesus, praise You for the singular adaptation of the Gospel to their own case. Nothing else could have helped them. They were under too deep a sense of sin to be relieved by the doctrine of mere reformation. They were too far gone to be healed by any flattering unction that could be laid to their soul as to what they could do. But they found all in You, as indeed we do this morning. Some of us have been acquainted with You these thirty years and more. A third of a century have some of us known You, and some for half a century have been living upon You in dependence upon Your bounty. But we have never had a want that You could not supply. We never had a grief which You could not assuage, but we have not, even now, in prospect of death and the grave, any fear which You can not allay.

It has pleased the Father that in You should all fullness dwell, and God forbid that we should ever think of adding to You, or going beyond You, for You are our All-in-All. O precious Christ, we take You over again today, and come with all our emptiness and sin, and folly and weakness, and spiritual death, just as we are, and cast ourselves on You, as man casts himself into the sea, not to up-bear himself, but to be up-borne. So cast we ourselves into the sea of Your fullness, to be up-borne by You all the days we have to spend in this house of our banishment.

Blessed Lord Jesus, You will never cast away a soul that has cast away everything else for You. You are bound to those who trust You by the bands of Your promises that never can be broken. And here we are, this morning, babes that hang upon Your bosom—emptinesses that are being filled, and sometimes are filled, only they cannot hold all of You. The sea is in us, but we are in the sea. We are filled with the fullness of God, and into that fullness are we still sinking deeper and deeper. Lord Jesus, cure our sins, and among the rest, take away our fears. Give us to trust You with a simple childlike confidence. May we have no difficulties, because God is with us. May we have no disturbance, because the peace of God does keep our heart and mind by Christ Jesus. Oh now to take You o'er again—our Life, our Health, our Righteousness, our All-in-All, from this time forth and even for evermore. Spirit of God— come upon us now, that this may be so with all Your people.

Bless Your dear saints—all of them. Comfort them in their afflictions, and bear them up in any trouble of mind. Be very gracious to Your people here, binding us more and more firmly together in a holy, living unity; and stir us up more and more to seek the good of the sons of men, and more especially to seek the glory of our divine Lord and Master. Jesus, we are Yours and belong to nobody else. No cause engrosses our hearts but Yours. All our sympathies run one way—in the channel where flows the precious blood of our redeeming Lord. All for Christ and none besides, in our heart at this time. Oh keep it so; keep it so till we behold the Wellbeloved in His glory, and are wrapped up in His splendour with Him.

Bless, at this time, those who are beginning to seek after better things. Though perhaps as yet they know not the Lord, if there is any stirring up of grace to seek somewhat better, Lord, lead them further than they mean to go. Bring them to Yourself, and let the stir that has been made here this week, end in conversions, else shall we care nothing about it whatever. If Jesus be not glorified, we shall loathe it rather than love it. O dear Saviour, bring men up from the very depths of transgression, from lust, and drunkenness, and wrath, and rioting, and evil speaking —bring them up, Eternal Spirit. How glad we are to get a word with them; how anxious that that word should, like the Master's, reveal them to themselves, and then reveal Him to them.

Oh save, Lord,

"Salvation, let the echo fly

The spacious earth around."

Let it be so. Let the dark parts of the wicked city see the flame-flash of Christ's eye. May it come to pass that there should be added to our church of such as shall be saved, who once were among the number who seemed right to be damned. Oh save Lord, save every unconverted one here this morning—the old, the young, and righteous in themselves, and the truly righteous.

Sword of the Lord, will You never rest? Will You never be quiet? We beseech You, O God of infinite mercy, turn men's minds from all the sins that breed the cruelties and wickednesses of war, and may there come next a peace of soul and heart with God, and then a peace with our fellow men. Oh for the Kingdom and the Coming! Oh that Christ Himself would soon appear! But if in mercy He tarries till men repent, then come, divine Spirit, and lead them to repentance, and let the elect of God be gathered together out from among the sons of men, and the divine purpose be accomplished, and let Jesus see of the travail of His soul. Our heart asks infinitely better than our lips can do. Oh hear us for Jesu's sake. Amen.

September 10, 1882.

The Blessings of the Justified

O Lord, give to all that have believed in You a sense of perfect deliverance from sin. Let us not be saying, "I know that I shall be justified in the Day of Judgment." Let us not postpone that blessing, but may we enjoy it now; for truly if You are the Resurrection so that we may believe in You now, surely You are our Justification to be accepted and rejoiced in now? And we do accept You—Jesus. Your blood is our cleansing; Your righteousness is our vesture. We stand accepted in the Beloved, as many of us as have believed in Your holy Name. Let Your people enjoy now that sweet peace which comes of being justified by faith; and if any here have not believed, oh that they might put their trust in Christ! May faith be wrought in them. May they cheerfully and at once receive the great Atonement and be saved thereby.

O our Blessed Lord, You have ascended on high and received gifts for men. We pray You to grant us our measure of those gifts. Give to Your believing people the Holy Spirit. May we receive Him abundantly, in clearness of insight into Your Word, in closeness of fellowship with You, in greater likeness to Your character, in greater zeal for Your glory. What are Your people, without Your Spirit resting on us? Holy Ghost, dwell in us. We cannot even pray aright without You; and for those works of holiness to which we are set apart, we have no strength without You. But if You are with us, we can perform all things. Rest on the preacher when he tries to preach to the congregation; on every minister in every place who shall tell of Jesus' love. And rest also in large measure upon all who personally speak to individuals, upon all who teach in our schools, upon all who stand in the street to proclaim a living Saviour. Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, the Riches and the Endowment of the Church, and let us realize Your extraordinary power today. It is Yours to convince Your people, and to convert them, so that truth shall be in their hearts a deep convincement, and comfort shall rise into delight. But we want Your power upon the unconverted. Oh come, sweet Spirit, to take away the heart of stone out of men's flesh, and give them the heart of flesh. Now the stone to flesh convert! Let the obdurate accept their Lord, the prejudiced, the willful, be subdued to the sweet scepter of divine love. We want to see the churches built up and increased with the increase of God. Multiply us with men as with a flock, and let every scatterer of the good seed reap an hundredfold harvest.

We want for ourselves, also, that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ. We long to be confirmed and established in the truth, and in the life of

God. We wish to rise higher and higher in the likeness to our Lord, and in the possession of His Spirit. Oh bring us up out of our grave, out of our sins, out of the world, and everything that drags us down. Bring us up into the higher regions of spirituality, and of divine light and power. Oh, be with us our God; give us all the blessings of the Covenant without stint.

Take care of all sick ones very graciously, and may such as are appointed unto death feel a sweet agreement with the appointment, and find heaven begun in their hearts while yet they linger here below. The Lord prosper His own cause throughout the earth. Let the heathen be brought to Christ by myriads. May men that now sit in darkness behold great light.

Remember our country. May there be a quickening of trade! May there be more work for the poor and the needy. May there be less complaining in our streets. May there come better and brighter days for this country. We pray the same for all lands, for we feel that there is a touch of grace which has made us one with all the saints in every nation. We forget nationality in our being all citizens of the New Jerusalem. The Lord send a blessing upon all saints everywhere; and chiefly this blessing, that He Himself may come. Come quickly, even so; come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.

April 20, 1884.

Come Nearer, Nearer, Nearer!

O God, You are our God, and therefore do we seek unto You. We have a covenant interest in You. You have given Yourself to us of old in the person of Your dear Son. You are our Surety. You, O Saviour, did stand for us in the transactions of eternity. You did also redeem us in the fullness of time, laying down Your life that we might live, and now You are All-in-All to us. Our life is not in ourselves, but in You. Our truest and best self is Christ, for we live not, save only as our "life is hid with Christ in God."

Lord, we want this morning to enter into closest possible fellowship with You. In days gone by You have cast Your skirt over Your servants. In the shadow of Your wing we have rejoiced. In the light of Your countenance we have been ready to die of excessive joy. The coming near to us of our God has been heaven, it is indeed all the heaven we expect in the future, as it is all we have known in the past. Come near, O our God, come nearer, nearer, nearer. Still, some secret to our heart reveal, as yet undiscovered. You have led some of us into darkness and not into light, and You have covered us in the night watches and made it darkness round about us, till our spirit sank within us. Now it is Your way to bring light out of darkness, and joy out of sorrow. Oh, make our joy today to be like Jabez, of whom we read that he was more honourable than his brethren because his mother bare him with sorrow. Oh, that the sorrow pang might bring forth today in Your people some new joys, some blessed novelty of fellowship, that we may enter yet more and more into the secret places and tabernacles of the Most High, and dwell beneath the shadow of the Almighty. O Lord, Your people want this; nothing can so strengthen comfort, lighten, sanctify and perfect us as this. Are we earth bound? Oh, for Your presence, and we shall be of a heavenly mind. Are we deeply depressed in spirit? Oh, for the light of Your countenance, for it shall make us gladder than a wedding day. Oh that we might get at You, our God, for then shall the bonds of this world seem like cobwebs and disappear.

If You be near us, we can do or bear, we can suffer or we can sing; all things are possible when the Omnipotent is within. If the all-sufficient God shall but reveal Himself to us, we care not what our circumstances are. Then are we rich when Christ is near. Then are we full of joy and strength when He draws near to His servants. Peradventure, some have come here from a week of great anxiety. Help them to be anxious no longer, to cast their care on the Lord. Oh, let not the sheep take to shepherdising, but may they leave the Shepherd to do His own work for them. Oh, deliver Your people from attempting to rule the world. Let us not want to drive our Father's horses, but be satisfied to ride with Him. Some of Your children may have come here in conscious sin; they know they are Yours but they equally know they are not what they ought to be. Your presence can light them up; it can spiritualise, it can purify; and they shall feel in the presence of God that the Lord hath sanctified them by His truth and Himself. O Lord, we have heard of some that can look back upon their lives with pleasure and satisfaction, but we wish to look nowhere but to You, our Saviour. You are our Wisdom —not our experience: You are our Righteousness—not our good deeds and alms-givings; You are our sanctification—not our prayers and watchings. You are everything to us, and we are just nothing. We were nothing when You did begin with us, when we lay wallowing in the blood, cast out in death in the open field to perish. Then did You say "Live," and we lived by virtue of that word, and by that word of God shall men live, and so do we live. O Lord, You are emptying us from vessel to vessel. You are letting us see the dregs of our depravity

and the violence of our nature; and we loathe ourselves till we are ready to cry, "Bury my dead out of my sight! "Yet this we do know, that in Christ we are lovely, and comely, and You seest no sin in Jacob, neither iniquity in Israel. You delight Yourself in Your people; You have loved them with an everlasting love, therefore have You drawn them; therefore You draw them; and therefore will You draw them, till You have drawn them to perfection in Yourself, to dwell with You for ever.

O Redeemer of our spirits, visit Your people this day! You are our next of kin; be not strange unto Your own flesh. You have laid down Your life for us: what value You set upon us! Let us be precious in Your sight and honourable, because You have loved us; and may we know it today. Take every doubt from the heart of Your people; let not a single thought of mistrust abide with any one of us. May we just lean on Christ as hard as we can, with a full weight of weakness and sin and sorrow, and just swoon away into the eternal love, and there lie passive in His hand. To know no will but His, nor active be until He makes us so by His own power.

Bless Your ministering servants before You. The Lord fill them full of His truth, with power to speak it. Oh that we might be clear at the last! The Lord look upon the many that there are nowadays that are preaching another gospel, that is not another, and let a blast and confusion from the Eternal go out against those who undermine the essential doctrines of Your word. O God, we grow negligent often in our prayers as we cry out before You against those who would rob Your Son of His deity, His precious blood of its value, sinners of their only hope, who even dare to blot out the terrible threatenings of Your Word, and make sin to be such a trifle as to be scarcely worth mentioning. Oh raise up a race of true preachers, we beseech You. O God of Wesley and Whitefield, let not the breed die out. May we have again men that can thunder when God would have them be like a tempest, but can speak with soft and gentle words when God would find a Barnabas to comfort the sons of men. O God of the Eternal Truth, let the old doctrine yet prevail, and may those that hate it be put to the rout.

Lord save the world, we pray You, with the Gospel; let it go forth even to the ends thereof. Let these lands know the power of Christ, and the great land across the Atlantic, and that other country on the other side of the world where they dwell of our kith and kin, and every race of man. Oh that Christ might be King of kings openly, as we know He is secretly, and let the whole earth bow at His feet, and pay homage unto Him who wore the crown of thorns and surrendered hands and feet to the nails. Oh for His glory! Oh for His glory! Oh for ten thousand thousand hearts for Him! Oh for nations to come and pay homage to Him who hath given His life for men. Our heart and flesh cry out to You on behalf of the Well-beloved. Why tarry You, our Father, in rewarding Your Son? His work is finished, but He hath not yet seen of the full travail of His soul. Pluck Your right hand from Your bosom, O Eternal God, and give Your Son yet the precious reward of His Passion. Come quickly, even so, come quickly! All Your people cry to You. Why tarry You? The wheels move so tardily. The Gospel spreads so slowly. Oh for the days of the Son of man in the glory of His second Advent! We ask it for His Name's sake. Amen.

September 14, 1884.

Accepted in the Beloved

Our Father God, we wish to speak with You as a man speaks with his friend. But who are we that we should draw near to You, for at best we are but dust and ashes? Yet we come through Him who is our Friend, who long ago introduced some of us to You, and has given us permission to use His name with You. You know Him well. He is Your only-begotten Son, the Well-beloved of Your heart. He is very dear to us, but He is dearer still to You. We do remember well when You did receive us at the gate of the house, with all Your Fatherly compassion, when You did, for His dear sake, "accept us in the Beloved."...

Now, Father, having come to You in that respect years ago, we are not afraid to come to You this morning, making mention of the righteousness of Christ, and coming into the innermost place of Your sanctuary without fear; for our Father will receive us, and He will hear the desires of our heart. Our first cry shall be one of gratitude to You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, that He, as the good Shepherd, might lay down His life for us, and redeem us from wrath. Oh, we have joy in God today, a deep fathomless joy; but it is through Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the Atonement. We come not unto You Father, except by Him; and coming by Him, we bless the Father that He hath given His Son to die for us, that we might live through Him. This is the centre of all history to us. This is the light of every day, and the star of every night; the life of our life, and the light of our delight, our entrance into heaven—that He loved me and gave Himself for me. May every believer here not only know this, and be sure of it, but be deeply affected by the fact. May we be stirred to an intense affection, to a fervent gratitude to One who has done everything for us, that we might live through Him.

Now we pray You, our Father, by the love of Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of God dwelling in us, may sanctify us unto the service of Him who hath redeemed us with His precious blood. Take out of us, O God, everything which would grieve His Spirit. Plant in us every fair and lovely thing in which He may take pleasure. May the weeds be taken up by the roots, and may the flowers be watered until they come to a sweet perfection. Oh, how we long to live Christly lives —such lives in business, in the domestic circle—such lives even upon a sick bed, if You appoint our portion there. Oh, help us, dear Saviour, to live as those whose life is hid in You, to whom

You have become the life, linking Yourself so completely with our personality that we can say "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me."

Our next prayer is that others may be found by Christ, and forgiven, and washed, and made white, and may become the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. O Lord, save the millions of our race. The whole world still lies in the wicked one; comparatively, the light hath fallen upon few. O Lord, grant that the Kingdom of Christ may be extended, and the first gray beams of light that denote the morning sun be followed by the glorious noontide. Oh, that the morning might chase away the long dark ages of the world. The Lord grant power to His Gospel, in our own country, in this our own city, too.

O God, remember London. If the burden of Nineveh was heavy, what must the burden of London be, with its multitudes sickening in poverty, its multitudes sickening in vice and drunkenness? O God, have mercy upon the publicans and sinners. Oh that You would in pity look upon those who will not look upon You, who give us no opportunity of preaching to them the Gospel, for they will not come to hear it. Incline their hearts towards the house of God, incline their hearts towards the Sabbath, give them to long after something better than this weary wilderness of a world can yield them, and may they turn unto the Lord who gives comfort to the comfortless. Lord Jesus, put forth Your power, this morning, in this congregation, for there are many here that are strangers to You. They sit among Your people today, and they will soon rise up to sing, but they know You not; no love in their hearts to You, no faith in Your precious blood; no longings after their Father and their God.

Shepherd of the lost sheep, find the lost sheep this morning! Oh, let no man go out of this place untouched. Let conviction come at last, and let conversion follow quick upon the heels thereof. Oh do not let us gather this morning in vain, and then separate unblessed. Friend of sinners, let the sinners be gathered unto You.

We offer prayer today for such of Your people as are unable to be with us by reason of sickness. We thank You for some who desire to thank God that they are here today, after having for a while been detained. We pray for some that will never come here again, for they are on their way to the glory. The Lord give them to fall sweetly asleep, and to wake up in their Master's likeness, in the glory land. So may it be with each of us when our time shall come. Help us to live upon the borders of eternity. Help Your servant to preach as a dying man to dying men. Help the teachers in our schools to preach as dying men and women. Oh grant that every worker here may work as though he felt the day was far spent, and the night was coming in, in which no man can work. Lord, we do not live as we ought to do. Arouse us, we beseech You. We are like the cold sacrifice upon the altar. We need the fire. Oh bid the fire fall upon us until we are utterly consumed. May a divine ardour possess our spirit, and a sacred fervour run through our entire lives. May we live as those ought to live who have been bought with the heart's blood of the Son of God. Oh lift us above common living; lift us above common Christians; help us to live the true life of a Christian over again, and may the Lord to that end strengthen and sanctify, and instruct, and perfect us, that unto His name there may be some praise through us; for He hath created us for Himself, and we must show forth His praise.

Look on foreign lands, we pray You. Help our brethren the missionaries. Be very gracious to those who live in climates where death threatens them every day. Preserve the lives of our brethren and sisters on the Congo. Let us not have to hear of more sacrifices from that region, and let Africa be enlightened, and let its dark parts be illuminated; and everywhere may Your Kingdom come. Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven; for Yours is the Kingdom the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

September 28, 1884.

The Gift Unspeakable

2 Corth. 9:15 “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

O God, thrice holy, infinitely blessed, we can meet You at the Cross. You are well pleased with

Jesus, and so are we. Your pleasure in Him is as constant as it is boundless. Our pleasure in Him increases every day. That is all our salvation and all our desire. With Thomas, we have put our hand into the great gash in His side, and we have cried "My Lord and my God!" Our very heart loves Jesus; oh that we loved Him more! Still do we delight in Him. Our happiest moments are in His company—Jesus the Well-spring and River of joy. We are our Beloved's, and our Beloved is ours.

Help us, we pray You, in spirit and in truth, to come near to the Cross of Him who hath redeemed us from death and hell by His death. We would first of all praise You. The heavens are telling of Your glory; but not so loudly as the greatest providence declares Your kindness, and not so sweetly as the cross. Here we behold Your inmost heart. Here we see the love of God made manifest. Behold what manner of love is here! We could not have imagined it; but we do believe it. It could not have seemed true at first blush that You should pierce Your Son with the sharpest smart, that we might enjoy the richest life; yet so it is, and we believe it. It pleased the Father to prove Him. You have put Him to grief: You have made His soul an offering for sin. Lord, we cannot praise You as we would for the Gift unspeakable: it is unspeakable, and so we must leave it. We can each one of us feel with emphasis how true this is: for me, unworthy me, God, the Lord of love and glory, the Eye of the Universe, the Jewel of heaven, died a villain's death for me! Lord we shall always wonder at it: we shall always feel we can never comprehend the height of this.

Our heart is filled with the praise which shall make us sit silent—praise sits silent on our tongues. We can never sufficiently express Your goodness. But we ask also that this morning in coming to the Cross, we might then exhibit before You a true repentance for sin. But what have we done? We have put to death the Son of God! What have we done? It seemed playing when we sinned, but it turns out to be dreadful work, work of the most solemn kind. We playfully brought ourselves into a mischief, out of which nothing could redeem us but His death. We laughed and sported when we transgressed, but it cost Him cries and tears and bloody sweat, and agonies unknown, to bring us back again from our foolish wandering. God forgive us—yea, You have forgiven us! This sacrifice of Christ upon which we do rely is the assurance that You have put away our sin—that we shall not die here. As the Scapegoat, He has carried our transgressions into the wilderness of forgetfulness: they shall not be numbered against us any more for ever. But Lord, whilst You forgive us, we cannot forgive ourselves. We would chide ourselves as long as we live for having cost our Lord so dear. Such love, and such an ill return!

Dear Saviour, will You so deal with us when You wash us, that You shall not only take away the guilt of sin, but the power of it—that henceforth we may treat You better; that holiness and true reverence, and hearty loyalty may be our service all our days. O You, who did hang naked on the cross, we pray You, we beseech You, take our whole body, soul, and spirit, and dwell in it and reign over it, and get to Yourself glory from it, while we live and when we die, and when we rise again, and to eternity.

We would further ask, while we stand this morning at the foot of the Cross, that we may be crucified with Christ to all the world. Oh that the spear might go through our hearts; that the heart henceforth might be dead to all but Christ. And may hands and feet—the instruments of action and of motion—be fastened to His Cross, that we may stray no more, and serve no more the old masters, but may become henceforth wholly the Lord's. We desire, sweet Saviour, to feel the power of Your Death, that we may know the power of Your Resurrection. We ask that we may see the world crucified unto us, and that we may be crucified unto the world; that henceforth Christ only may live in us, and we may only live in Him. Lord, bless Your people, that this high privilege—for we are persuaded it is a high privilege—may indeed become ours —to be dead with Christ, to be buried with Christ, to be risen with Christ, to be reigning in Christ, and henceforth to be in loving, living, lasting union with Him who hath redeemed us to God by His blood.

But Lord, there are here this morning some who know nothing yet of the power of Jesus Christ; and our prayer is that they may look on Him whom they have pierced, and may mourn for Him, and be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. And this day, may there be opened in the House of David, and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain which shall cleanse them from sin and from uncleanness. Oh that today some might stop and ask: What is this? The Son of God in death! Why? May none of them pass by, as if it were nothing to do with them, but may a great multitude stand and look at Jesus—look till they live, until they weep, until they wipe their tears away with a holy joy because He died that sin might die.

Lord Jesus, work in the world more powerfully than You have done of late. Our heart is often heavy as we see sin of every kind around us, and especially the insidious advance of error in the midst of Your own Church, which makes the Cross of Christ of none effect. Lord Jesus, reign, we beseech You. O Son of God, we beseech You, reign from the Tree. You are gone up on high: You have led captivity captive. All power is in Your hands: exert that power, graciously exert it, for the salvation of myriads of men. Let the earth bow before You. What a little flock is still Yours! We beseech You, gather the nations; let the whole earth call You blessed. Our prayer is, "Let the whole earth be filled with His glory!" May "Hosanna" be our one cry, which shall make us forget every other prayer this morning. Oh, this one thing we do desire—that the hearts of all would acknowledge You; that every closed door should be opened to You; that every obstinate spirit could yield to You. Lord Jesus, reign in the hearts of our young children, of our husbands, wives, brethren, friends, and families. Lord, rule in the hearts of our neighbors. May the whole earth know You, You exalted One. By the merit of Your Passion, we beseech the Father to glorify You. Father, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. And unto Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be glory world without end. Amen.

April 3, 1887.

A Great God and a Great Company

Great God, we are an exceeding great number of people and how shall one pray for all? Help by Your Holy Spirit, that the words uttered may be suitable for all gathered here. But if not, put prayer into the heart of each individual; may every person here this morning pray, and if he cannot use the words of the one speaker, may he in his heart pray for himself. Oh, let no man, let no woman, let no child, go out of the Tabernacle this morning without having prayer towards God. Your honour is here; Your glory is here revealed. In great congregation of Your people Your presence is greatly desired.

May we, every one, have an audience with God. To some of us You have long been sweetly familiar; we have spoken more to You than to anyone else. There are those here that have spent more time with God than with any other individual. Certainly we have asked larger things of You and have obtained greater answers from our requests to You, than from our requests to our fellow men. Lord, hear our prayers.

Some here, however, have never prayed; may the unfamiliar prayer be breathed this morning for the first time. Lord compel men to come near their God. They will have to come to You: they will have to come before Your Judgment Seat; let them not refuse Your Mercy Seat. While yet the day of grace lasts, let them not turn their backs on God, but rather may they seek You now with full purpose of heart, and seek till they find salvation.

Some here once prayed but they have back-slidden, and now they have forgotten their hiding place, their resting place. So long is it since they enjoyed prayer that now this morning they are quite strange to it. Come, Holy Spirit, bring the wanderer back. Dear Shepherd, fetch home the stray sheep, and since it may be too lame to come home, put it on Your shoulder and bear it home rejoicing. Glorify the power of Your arm as well as the love of Your heart in bringing home Your wanderers.

And now, Lord, if You will help us to pray we will begin by adoring You. Our Father, which are in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Here, all prayer should begin with reverent homage to the Most High. You are our Creator, Preserver, Benefactor; all good comes from You, Your deep abyss of love. Every drop of the rain of comfort falls from heaven. Every dewdrop of consolation, are You not the Father of it? We ascribe all honour and glory to You, for every good gift and every perfect gift, is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

May Your Kingdom come among men. We long to see You reign over every class of society. Oh that the great ones of the earth would humble themselves before You. Oh that the multitude would own Him who is exalted out of the people, the people's Friend. May Your will be done, O Lord, on earth, as it is in heaven. That would make earth a nether heaven.

Would God that men would give up their own wills, their own lustings, their own pride, and follow after God and be obedient. Holy Spirit, You alone can do this. All the eloquence of preachers will effect nothing without the Holy Ghost.

We trust not in music, nor education, nor in civilization, nor in anything but the distinct power of the Holy Ghost, working in men to will and to do of God's own good pleasure. Our Father, take to Yourself Your great power. You are Lord of all, and even the will of man which You have made so free, is in bonds till You are Master of it, and then, when it is in bond to You, it becomes alone truly free.

Lord God, sacred Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, reign on earth. Let Your eternal purposes be accomplished. Let the decrees of Your sovereignty be carried out. Let Your grace be glorified. Let the whole earth be filled with Your glory. We know no deeper and no higher prayer than this: oh, that it were fulfilled right speedily!

Now suffer us to speak for ourselves, having thus endeavoured to pay You homage. We confess that we have sinned. Father forgive us. To many, forgiveness has been once for all bestowed. You have washed us, and he that is washed needs not save to wash his feet. But give us the foot washing, this morning. Oh that we might come to the laver and be clean, and then go in as priests into the Holy Place of the Most High.

Jesus, we believe in Your precious blood. Once for all, it has put away sin; the great Sacrifice has made complete atonement; it can never be repeated, it never needs to be. In that one Sacrifice we are clean, as many as have believed, and there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

But Saviour, we now sin in another fashion, as children against paternal government, against a Father's love, and as children we ask to be pardoned. Hide not Your face from us, put not Your servants away in anger; deal graciously with Your children, and let us walk in the light, as God is in the light, and have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and may joy and peace abound in us.

Is there anything between us and God; does anything darken our light? Lord take it away. Have we any doubts? Let the light remove them. Does anything trouble us? May we cast our care on You. Have we any dark foreboding? May we put our foreboding away, for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Enable every child of God to have perfect rest in God, this morning. May we be on loving terms with God. May we have not even the least grit in the machinery. May there not be a speck of dust in the eye, for in dealing with God our heart is tender, as the apple of the eye, and the least thing offendeth. May we be, in Christ Jesus, accepted in the Beloved, dear to God, and may God be dear to us.

Oh, for the inflowing of divine love. May we feel the heart of God beat toward us, this morning. Open our hearts, Lord, to receive Your heart, and let Your great heart flow into us, till our heart flows back to You with tides of warm emotion and tender love. Your servant will not be able to edify Your people this morning by any power he has, but may the Holy Spirit come; may the floods of God come, and may this be a blessed time to the people of God, a time of great nearness to God, and the light of God shining into every secret part of the soul.

Lord, if we are all right with You, what an amount of happiness there is here, what a heaven this place is! And if You will come and set us all working for You, what an amount of light will go forth from this place! If by our lips and lives we henceforth bear testimony to our God, what a result we shall see; how many will be taught, how many will hear, how many will be blessed!

Lord, we are not what we ought to be, we are not what we want to be, we are not what we shall be. Come upon us, we pray You, come and use every child of Yours here for the conversion of others. Come and make us to be burning and shining lights, each one in our day and generation.

The members of this church, Lord, make them a holy people. May we not only have the name of Christians, but may we have the life of Christians. Lord, forgive the inconsistent ones.

Sanctify, we pray You, the consecrated ones, and if any are unconsecrated, take them today; make them to feel that they are not their own, but are bought with a price. Father, bless those who are newly added to us. May they be good and strong.

May the Spirit of God build them up, and make them to be temples for His own indwelling. Bless all the work done by this church, in every department. Among the young, do prosper us in the Sunday school, in the classes, in the Orphanage—everywhere may young children be born to God. Bless the work of the church in reference to the drunkard. May the mission of the past week be blessed of God, and may the days that yet remain be fuller of blessing than those that are passed. Remember the mission work of the church—all our sons and daughters that are in foreign lands, preaching for Christ.

Our God, use each one of us. Use me, even me, O my Father. There is many a young girl praying, "Lord use me." There is many a worker in the Tabernacle this morning, quite unknown, who is saying, "My Father, use even me." Condescend, Lord, to hear that prayer, and make us to glorify You on earth, that we may be ready to glorify You in heaven.

Now remember the unconverted among us, and call them today. Call the careless; call the seeker: let him be a seeker no longer, but become a finder. Comfort the despairing; bring the broken-hearted to the great Physician, who can make them whole. Oh save us; save everyone. Is there one person here that is like to be left out of our prayer? Lord, we pray twice for him, for her. Save that prayerless one. Are there any here who despise prayer? Lord change their hearts and renew them. Are there unbelievers here, for whom there is no God and no hereafter? Open their blinded eyes and let them see their God. Do save this company! We are such a mixed multitude it is impossible to pray for every one distinctly, and yet we make the attempt, saying, Our Father bless each one! Omit not one, for Christ's sake. Amen. October 13, 1889.

Praise at All Times

O God, our God, we would praise You this morning, not only with the voice of song, but with the heart. Sometimes our praise takes the form of thankfulness; and, indeed, we have good reason to thank You for mercies more numerous than the sand. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." Sometimes we praise You by believing in the teeth of appearances. We would learn also to thank You when Your hand is heavy and Your ways are dark. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord."

We are persuaded that the sweetest praise that ever comes to You comes from Your tried children when, under a smarting rod, they kiss the rod, and Him that hath appointed it. Help Your dear children who are much afflicted, to praise You by a cheerful submission to Your will. It must be right, for God hath done it; it must be for the best, for God is love. Father, when You stagger us, when we seem at our wits' end, and know not what to do or what to say, may we still hold to You, and feel it is the Lord. Let Him do what seems to Him good.

Here, in Your presence, we would each one render that form of praise which is suitable for the hour. The healthy and the happy praise You with exultant voice. The sick and the sorry praise You with a living hope. Those who are suffering and bowed down, praise You with a willing acquiescence, desiring that even from the loosened string some music may come to the Most High.

Our Father, when we shall get up to see You; when Your unveiled face shall appear unto Your perfected ones, we shall willingly have nothing to do but to praise. There will be no regrets, no remembrances of any hard words from You, or rough stroke from Your rod. It will be praise and only praise; as it will be so, as it ought to be so. Let it be so now.

And here, with heavenly minds, may we be unanimous in praise; may there be no child of God that refuses to praise God this morning. If any have left their harps so long upon the willows that they almost forget the songs of Zion, teach them over again. Let a new flash, a new light arouse the hallowed instincts of their inner life, and may they begin with double zest to praise God who has brought them out of their captivity.

While we praise You this morning, we are longing that others might do the same. The deepest prayer of our own heart is, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Lord, bring our friends and kinsfolk to praise You—everyone. Just as all the tribes stood in their representatives around their father's bed, so may all Your children gather to the living God and praise Him: let no one be absent.

We pray You now to bring in the lost sheep of the House of Israel; the many redeemed by blood, not yet redeemed by power, the many chosen who have never chosen You, the many who will be in the glory but as yet are glorying in their shame and minding earthly things. Bring, we pray You, many under the influence of the Gospel, myriads to worship Christ and to be saved by Him; and may His name be as ointment poured forth in every place today, enchanting many and attracting them to bow at His feet.

Our Father, we pray You forgive Your children all the wrong they have done during another week. If there be anything between us and God, take it away. You have taught us to ask and it shall be given us; You have bidden us seek if we cannot find You, and seek until we find. But You have also added, "Knock," as if there might be a door between us and You: "Knock and it shall be opened." Lord, if there is any door between us, may that door be opened; may we begin knocking at it now, and never cease until it opens. We would not have even the beginning of a cloud between our heart and our Father. Lord, put away the sin as between a child and his father. You have put away our sin as between a subject and a king. We are pardoned; we are clean; we are washed with the blood of Christ—so many as have believed in His name—there is no sin remaining on us.

But, as children, we come under another discipline, and members of a family that offend our Father. Our Father, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." We do very freely and very heartily and very truly forgive anybody who may have aggrieved us. Do You so with Your children, and let us feel of a certainty now that we are perfectly reconciled with God, and that we are one with You, and speak with You as a man speaks with his friend.

Then, our Father, when You have thus put away everything that interposes lead us into Your truth. Teach us more of Your Word; teach it to us by experience; may we have it burned into our hearts; may we know the truth not only in the letter of it, but in the life and spirit of it. And, teach us to be holy. Oh how we long for this! We would have every passion under subjection; we would have every power and faculty bitted and held in with a bridle; nay, we would have every evil tendency killed, and have every holy tendency imparted. Take us, Lord, and sanctify us. We are not content with justification; we want sanctification. Make and keep us pure within, clean in motive, clean in imagination. Oh, how difficult! Make us so that our very thoughts shall be a matter of conscience, and every thought shall be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, that we could live as angels do here in this mortal body, living as purely, as joyfully, as obediently, as they do; not bound down by the body nor kept in subjection to any of its appetites but made free to be the servants of God with enhanced delight!

Remember any child of those here who may have slipped; Lord restore him. And, if any of us have wandered and are not aware of it, bring us back at all events; and if gray hairs are upon us here and there, and we know it not, restore to us our youth; bring back to us whatever of energy and holiness we once had, and somewhat more.

Oh make us like Christ: we do pray You, make us like Christ. We would even accept His cross and the vinegar, if we might have His holiness. We make no exception of anything of Christ's; we would take Him as He was, or as He is: only let Christ be formed in us, the hope of glory.

We pray with great earnestness that You would bless this church. We thank You for additions constantly made to our members; we pray that they may be good men, and true, holy women, in their very hearts. Lord, keep those that are in membership. Let us not fall; let us not fall. Make us all useful. Keep the church in unity, peace and concord, and give it zeal and passionate longing for the conversion of the souls of men.

O Lord, we pray remember us tonight, when we come to Your Communion, may the Lord be there! And when we gather together, and our dear evangelists will be here, may a very large tide of blessing come. May many be brought in who now think nothing of You. While we are preaching, may the Holy Spirit be working, may souls be saved by thousands.

Remember the churches of our neighbors round about whenever Christ is preached. May there be a revival of pure and undefiled religion where Christ is not preached. The Lord comfort the ministers, the Lord comfort the churches. Oh, put an end to that revival of heresy, which we see on every side! Your glorious Word is treated as a common book, nay, hardly so well respected as a poor almanack. The Lord have mercy upon those who doubt His Word, and bring back a reverence for every line of inspiration, above all a deep love to the Atoning Sacrifice. Let it not be despised, but may the precious blood be preached everywhere and multitudes washed in it and made clean. We pray for our country. We pray for every other country, and ask that peace may rule everywhere; and we close our prayer with this deepest wish: "Your Kingdom come"—Yourself, Great King, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen and Amen.

November 3, 1889.

The Blesser and the Blest

Our Father, we feel unworthy to go into Your holy presence and to take Your name upon our lips, yet in Christ we have a worthiness which is perfect. Making mention of His name we are not afraid to stand before the blessed throne of Deity. For Christ's sake hear us, we pray You. But we are also impotent in prayer. Your servant feels that to pray for such an assembly as this is far beyond his power. Who can pray aright for himself without the teaching of the Spirit of God? Who can pray for all this mass of people? My Lord, I am as unable as I am unworthy; nevertheless hear and help.

First would we praise You. The last week was a week of signal blessing with many of us, and if we did not praise You we could not pray, for he that does not remember favours received, can hardly ask for more. You have done great things for us, whereof we are glad. You have daily loaded us with benefits, our cup runs over. "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name."

Let not Your people spare their praises; may they pour them out like rivers of oil. As the incense rose in clouds from the holy altar, so may praise go up to God like the smoke of the morning sacrifice.

But, Lord, we also adore as well as praise. We worship Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the one God of Israel. We wish every blessing to the God of blessing, to whom be glory, and honour, and power, and light, and might, and dominion for ever and ever. We wish we could be always adoring. It is our heaven on earth, and it will be our heaven in heaven for ever to glorify God. This is our chief end, and we only find our bliss as we are able to reach unto it. But, You blessed God, words cannot speak our reverence; praise sits on our tongue while we adore the God of the Covenant, the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, our God for ever and ever, who shall be our guide even unto death.

And now look upon Your people here and bless us. There are many workers in the midst of this house today. O God, help us. We are very weak, and if we get a little strength, it only adds to our weakness. We grow more and more dependent upon an Almighty arm. If we had not God, we had nothing. Bless Your servants who preach the Gospel. May they never dream that they can save a soul.

May they leave salvation with the Saviour whose work it is. May we be instruments in the hands of God, and be content to give Him all the praise when we have the largest success.

Lord, if You would save everybody in the Tabernacle we can take no credit for it, but lay it down at the feet of the divine Spirit, who rules the will of men, and leads men to put their trust in Christ.

Yet would we work as if all depended upon us; throw our whole soul into every sacred exercise, and with all our might and main, plead with men and warn them, and entreat them to flee from the wrath to come. O God, the Holy Spirit, work in every congregation, in every Sunday school, and work in the private houses of men and women who do not come out to public worship, and bring them while they read Your Word at home; or work by Your providence and bring them to Christ somehow, that He may see of the travail of His soul.

Bless Your own people, especially, by giving us more faith. May we believe up to the hilt. May we believe, and believe, and still believe! May we never stagger at a promise through unbelief, and may no affliction ever stagger us. If we are in the cave may we sing David's cave-song: "O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise."

Lord save us from unbelief, which brings misery, but a childlike trust brings happiness. Give us greater love to You; shame that we should need to pray the prayer, but we do. Inflame us with Your love; may all our hearts be taken up with love to Christ; may we live love to Him and so to our fellow-men.

God bless His dear people with patience; make patience have her perfect work that we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. The Lord give us perfect consecration, and a holy waiting for His coming. May we be looking for the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and so be kept ever on the watch for the setting loose of earthly things, finding our joy not here nor there, but in Him and waiting for His appearing.

Revive Your Church at this time. O that there would come a heavenly wind to blow over Your fainting Church! Lord, she has been ill-fed of late; she has eaten ashes with her bread, false doctrine with Your truth. Come and purge away false doctrine and error, and may Your own truth be proclaimed again. Then men, feeding upon it, shall have the old gladness, the old holiness, the old service of God.

The Lord remember this our beloved church. Lord we cannot keep it, it has long ago outgrown all our ability. Come You and be the Shepherd of the flock, and preserve Your sheep, even to the end. At this hour remember our many dear friends who are away. The Lord grant that their holiday may do them good, and oh grant that to-morrow, none of the feebler sort may be tempted into sin. We sometimes dread the effect of holidays upon some who get into company and are allured into sin. Lord keep them today, and to-morrow. And now as there are many strangers here today who fill up the places of our own friends, give them a blessing.

Remember the stranger that is within Your gates, for many of them are no strangers to You, though they may be to us. God bless them, and the churches to which they belong. Give them a good meal today. May they have a square meal of Gospel food, and go away greatly refreshed. And if any have come to the Tabernacle this morning who are not converted, may this be their birthday. This day, may they confess their sin and flee to Christ, and believe in Him, and know their sin forgiven, and go away with a heart full ready to leap with joy because the Lord has met with them. Your servant feels very unfit for preaching: do You help him. Oh, give us souls this morning. If we speak feebly, yet do You work mightily. Bring many to Christ's feet. Do it Lord; we have a simple desire for Your glory. While we thus pray, honour Yourself, honour Your truth, honour Your Son, indulge Your mercy, magnify Your name in the conversion of men. We ask it all in the name of the Well-beloved. Amen.

May 25, 1890.

Enrich Us All!

O Lord, enrich us with all spiritual blessings according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Give us first complete peace of mind. Deliver us from all slavish fear. Let us rest in the great Father's love. Save us also from carefulness and that anxiety which does fret and eat as does a canker. Help us today to cast our burden upon You, whatever that burden may be. Work in us, O God, the precious gift of faith, and increase faith if we have it. Let us not only have life, but have it more abundantly. Brighten our hope, and may we joyfully expect the coming of the Lord. Every day inflame our love, and may we more intensely love our God, our Saviour, and our brethren, and our fellow men. Work in us, we pray You, the blessed character of our divine Exemplar. Lead us to follow in His steps. May we be truly Christians, as truly as He was Christ. Amen.

Always Our Helper

O God, You are our God. Early in life many of us were brought to put our trust in You, and since then You have been our God in many and many an experience. We have been in troubles often, but You have always been our Helper. We have been in danger, but He that keeps Israel hath neither slumbered nor slept. We can truly say this morning, "Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice." What a God You have been to us in our experience—so tender over our weakness, ever teaching us little by little as we have been able to bear it; so long-suffering with our follies... and comforting without measure.

Lord, You have heard our prayers, even when we have hardly thought they could be answered. We have been unbelieving, but You have been faithful. We have been undeserving, but Your grace has never failed. There are many of us present who have known You now as long as Israel knew You in the wilderness, these forty years, and never once have You failed to keep Your promise, or to remember Your people for good. May our faith grow exceedingly. May we that have had experience of Your goodness, feel ashamed ever to entertain a doubt, and when the dark thought ever crosses our mind which would make us mistrust, may we chase it as a strange and vain thought, which must not even lodge, much less dwell, within our hearts. "The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock"—strong to keep His promise, unchanging, unexhausted, ever the eternal Fountain of good things to His waiting peoples. We pray, O Lord, that those who have not believed in You, may take courage from the experience of Your people to be assured that You will keep them also. There may be some here just beginning to believe—little children—the Lord strengthen them. May they feel no hesitation in committing their souls to the keeping of the great God. May they come to You, our Father, through Jesus Christ Your Son, and now believe, and leave the future, the past, the present—leave everything—with You. We do heartily pray for some here present who are not far from the Kingdom, who have been upon the verge of believing for months, but they think it is a venture, they are afraid lest they may not believe, though You command them may they come and taste and see that the Lord is good, for blessed is the man that trusts in You.

Look in great mercy upon Your people gathered here. Some of them are full of joy. You have sown their sky with stars. Their way is bright with inward joy and with surrounding comforts. May they not begin to worship their comforts, nor kiss their hands to the stars, nor begin to make a god of the things around them. O Lord, keep Your people in the hour of prosperity. May our hearts never wander from the living God, and may we walk as much by faith in the unseen as we should do if we were in the dark. But many of Your people here are in quite another case. Some of us are in pain. Oh help us to forget we have a body. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Help us to rise above the flesh. Some here are remembering household troubles. Enable them not to forget them, but to feel that they come from the Father's hand, and that He must have a good intent in them. So may they accept the bitter cup, and as they drink it, may the cup of consolation be set to their lips. Remember some that are at this moment remembering the dead, unburied yet. Their sorrows are green. O God, send new comfort where You have sent fresh grief. Deal graciously with us, O Lord, whatever our circumstances may be. It may be our trouble is not without, but within—"Some deep sense of sin renewed; This will work us lasting good" if we carry it not too far.

It may be we have had great battles of late with Satan, with some old corruption. Make us victorious. It may be that some one of Your promises, even, has been too great for us, and we have scarcely been able to believe it. O God, visit Your people. What strange creatures we are! The little world within has its summer and its winter, its heartquakes, its tornadoes, its storms. Great Master, govern the world of our inner nature as You govern the world of nature, and may we conquer yet. May we yet come into the certainties, where the birds sit on the waves and all is still. We shall come there we know in heaven, but even now give us the peace of God which passes all understanding, the perfect rest of conquered self, and of simple confidence in You. Why are thou troubled; why are You cast down, O my soul, why are You disquieted within me? Bring Your people again to the hill Mizar and to the land of the Hermonites; and yet again may they praise Him, who is the health of their countenance and their God. As a church, we want the presence of God more fully. We pray that this week, during the Mission that is to be held, many may be brought in who are far from God in moral conduct, and be converted. May they give up the drink, but may they also give up all sin, by being created anew in Christ Jesus by the Holy Ghost. O God, continue to add to our number, for many have gone home to heaven, and many are growing old, and in the ordinary course of things will not be long with us. Lord add to us at the one end, as You diminish at the other. Bring in our children, bring many to the Sabbath school. Bring in the young men and women. Bring in the outsiders who live near this place, and yet never enter it. May they come and hear for eternity, and may their souls live. We wish, O God, with all our hearts, that this church and its many branches and schools, its college and orphanage, its evangelists and colporteurs, might all be under the divine benediction. O Lord, we have an agency, and a great machinery, but we must have the power. Come, Holy Spirit: we adore You from the bottom of our hearts, and we pray You to work mightily with Your people, that work may be done and Christ may be glorified. Save those now present today who have not yet tasted that the Lord is gracious. Save them now. May a second thought drop into their hearts, and work there like a fire spot, setting their sin alight that it may be consumed. May many be so impressed this morning as never to forget, but to turn to God with full purpose of heart. O my Lord, continue to give me fruit among this people. I beseech You, bring my hearers to be obedient to Christ. Your people are praying with me now, as with one heart—Lord save the ungodly! Save those, also, who are hearers but have never felt the divine power with the word. Save them now even this day.

Bless our country. God be pleased to rule and overrule. Give peace and quietness among all ranks and conditions of men. God bless those who rule among us....Best of all, come, O You great King of all the earth! Son of God, make haste to come. We pray You, appear and be glorified in the eyes of men, and reign among Your nations, and end the world's strife and sin.

We ask it for Your glory's sake. Amen.

October 12, 1890.

Choice Passages from Prayers

Adoration

Psalm 30

You have... girded me with gladness.

I will exalt You, Lord of hosts,

For You exalted me;

Since You have silenced Satan's boasts, I'll therefore boast in You.

My sins had brought me near the grave,

The grave of black despair;

I looked, but there was none to save Till I looked up in prayer.

In answer to my piteous cries,

From hell's dark brink I'm brought: My Jesus saw me from the skies, And swift salvation wrought.

All through the night I wept full sore,

But morning brought relief;

That hand, which broke my bones before, Then broke my bonds of grief.

My mourning He to dancing turns,

For sackcloth, joy He gives,

A moment, Lord, Your anger burns, But long Your favour lives.

Sing with me then, ye favoured men,

Who long have known His grace; With thanks recall the seasons when Ye also sought His face.

Tune: "Abridge."

The Adorable Trinity

O Lord, we feel as if we must just stand before You in adoration. Glory be unto the Triune God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, "the God of the whole earth shall He be called." Let Jehovah be worshipped everywhere. Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, the Friend and Helper of man: unto His name be glory for ever and ever. You have revealed Yourself unto us in trinity as well as in unity, and we adore You as You reveal Yourself.

Glory be unto the Father. We feel the love of children within our hearts; we can say Abba,

Father. Oh, how we love You, our God. Father of Jesus, Father of all that are in Jesus, our Father—sweeter word than Abraham could use. You have given us more light and introduced us to a nearer and dearer place than the patriarch knew: shall we not worship? Inconceivably glorious: we are awe-struck. Inconceivably good: we are quickened into boldness. Our God, our Father—we mingle the two words and we feel it to be very sweet to be in the immediate presence of such an One.

With equal honour and depth of love do we adore the Son of God, not only God but also Man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. We have not seen You and still must rest in faith alone; but we believe that You did come to earth, did live and die, that You were buried, and on the third day did rise again from the dead; and You are gone up into glory, and You shall shortly come again to take Your people from among men to dwell with You. Our heart expects You, we long for You; even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. Meanwhile, our spirit bows in lowliest and most loving reverence. With all the shining ranks above of cherubim and seraphim, we adore the Lamb in the midst of the Throne as God over all, blessed for ever.

And You, too, O Sacred Spirit, the Holy Spirit, we reverence and love You, for You are our Comforter. You are now the power of this dispensation. You are with us, and You will abide with us. You dwell in our hearts; we worship You and bless the condescending love that deigns to dwell in such poor tenements as our nature.

Blessed be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Our soul would take a flight out of our bodies for a moment up to the gate of pearl. It is open, and we pass along the golden streets, and we behold Your glory, too excessive for the eye. We hear in spirit the eternal song, and lo, we bow with all the redeemed by blood. We have no crowns to cast at Your feet, O God, but all that we have, and all we are, we ascribe unto You, "By the grace of God I am what I am." We have no words, we can only in the silence of our spirit adore, and again adore, and magnify and extol the Lord that lives for ever. Accept our poor worship, through the Mediator Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let All the People Praise You!

Oh that we could praise You! We do not feel like praying just now so much as praising You—

"Oh for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise."

Oh for an overflowing power of the Holy Ghost kindling our whole soul, our whole being, like a burnt-offering, that we might smoke toward heaven, rising in flames of rapturous love and mighty adoration. The Lord lives. Blessed be my rock, and let the God of Israel be exalted. He is my God, and I will extol Him. He is my father's God and I will prepare Him a habitation. Oh let the people praise You, great God, let all the people praise You; then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our God, shall bless us. Oh, give a special blessing to this dear church of ours. Continue to multiply us; continue to give us more gifts and more graces. Make us a holy people, and keep us so, a devoted, earnest, eager people, longing to extend the dominion of Christ. The Lord hear the daily prayers of this congregation. Amen.

Children of Abraham

O God, You are our God, and we will exalt You. You are our fathers' God, and we will exalt

You. You are the God of Abraham, and of Moses, and of Jacob. Jehovah, the God of David, the God of the whole earth shall You be called. Our soul does magnify You, for You have manifested Yourself to us more clearly than to the patriarchs and kings of old. In the face of Jesus Christ we see Your glory. The express image of Your person, have You made Him to be; and we worship and adore You in Him, magnifying with all our hearts the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Triune God of Israel, to whom be blessing for ever and ever! Happy are the people who call You their God. Happy are we who have by Your mighty grace been born the children of the promise, the true seed of Abraham, seeing we have believed, and are thus the children of believing Abraham. Amen.

The Cross and the Throne

O You infinitely glorious Jehovah, to praise You is our delight. We never feel so blessed as when we are either at the foot of the Cross, or at the foot of the Throne, and we bless You that we know both places. We know not where of the two we can best adore. O You blessed One, that ever You should come from heaven to earth to bleed and die! What can our hearts say? What can our souls render? Our eyes are better than our lips in this adoration, for we can weep to the praise of the mercy which we see in the bleeding Son of God; but still at the foot of the Throne we would worship Him that lives for ever. All glory be to our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Comforter. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. We would worship and bow down; we would kneel before the Lord our Maker, in the reverence of our hearts. All honour and glory and power and dominion be unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!

We would adore the Most High as we take a retrospect of all His dealings with us. You have dealt well with Your servants, according to Your word. We have often provoked You, but You have as often forgiven us; we have started aside like a deceitful bow, but You have been faithful to Your every word of promise. We have been feeble and weak, and are not worthy of Your regard, but You have shown Yourself strong on the behalf of them that serve You. The right hand of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. In our life and in our experience we have seen what great things the Lord does for them that put their trust in

Him, and we can say, "Happy is the man that hath the God of Jacob for His confidence." O Hope of Israel, You not deceive. You give us no eggs that will not hatch, no mockery of blessing; but he whom You bless is blessed. None can reverse the benediction. We bless You, O God, for our election or ever the earth was, for our calling by Your effectual grace. We bless You for our pardon bought with blood. We bless You for the power of grace which has kept us until now. Who could hold us up but You? And as we set up our Ebenezer today, it is with songs of gratitude unto the Lord whose mercy endures for ever. Amen.

The Love of the Firstborn

Our Father, we love You with all our hearts for Your matchless love in giving up Your onlybegotten Son for us. You were ever well-pleased with Him. You have delighted in Him and He in You. Yet for our sakes, for the sake of miserable puny beings, whom You might have swept away in a moment, You did give Him that He might take upon Him our nature; that having taken our nature He might be Your servant, and might carry out His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. We find it very hard to see our children suffer, and if they are taken from us by death, our hearts are broken. Yet did You, infinitely loving Father, give Your only-begotten Son that He might die, and that we might live through Him. Oh, if we have a spark of love toward You, may Your Holy Spirit now fan it to flame. And since the First-born has made us brethren, and is Himself the Firstborn among many brethren, may that same love which is in the heart of the Firstborn be in the hearts of the younger brotherhood, that we may all love You, O Father, even as Jesus loves You, and You love Him. Amen.

Looking unto Him

Great God of the Sabbath, and Lord of the assemblies of Israel, we worship You, You Most High, the Lord of Hosts, God all-sufficient. Our spirits bow into the dust before the infinite majesty of the All-in-All. The Lord lives: God is. We are but as passing shadows and things of an hour; but, O God, You are for ever and ever, and our spirits worship You.

We ask this great favour at Your hands, that the Lord Jesus Christ may stand among us by His spiritual presence, and that we may all of us be especially conscious that He is fulfilling His promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Many of us have looked to Him and we have been lightened, and our faces are not ashamed. We would look to Him again today. Oh, that He might be set forth manifestly crucified among us, and as we look to Him crucified for us, may our souls drink in deep peace and heavenly repose.

Give to every believer a sweet sense of pardoned sins, a blessed consciousness of divine love, a holy peace of mind, a blessed restfulness in Christ. Give also perfect consecration, strong resolve to serve the Lord while here below to the utmost of our capacity. Give more receptiveness that we may be ready to hold. Lord, enlarge us; give much faith to believe great things and to lay hold of great things. Amen.

Anticipation of Glory

O blessed Saviour, we would ask for all believers to realize their union with Christ Jesus. Oh that our hearts might track You upward to Your throne ascending high. Let us rise with You by a joyous confidence, for we shall be there ere long, and let us now survey Your power, Your state, the glories of Your kingly condition, where You sit at the right-hand of God for ever, having finished the propitiation for the sins of men. We worship You, Immanuel—"God with us." We now adore You, Jesus, before the Father's throne. There is no coming to the Father, but by You; but in tracking You we have come to the Father, and to the place where the "many mansions" are.

Our spirit now anticipates her time of rejoicing when, delivered from the house of clay and from the nature of sin, we shall be for ever with the Lord. Yet further, do we anticipate yet more that last Day, when He shall come according to His promise. O Saviour, You shall come, as surely as You have come once You shall come again, and then our bodies, now our burden, shall become our joy, for You will call them, "from beds of dust and silent clay." You will renew them, You will revive them, and then will You receive us unto Yourself to be with You, world without end. Lay to the hearts of Your children, O Holy Spirit, these priceless consolations. Help us to get out of the present, if it be surrounded with pain or loss or depression, and may we live in that eternal future which is so full of excessive glory that we may well take from it now, and enjoy it without fear of diminishing it when we come to our heritage.

The Lord help us to be risen with Christ and then to set our affections upon things above, where Christ sits at the right-hand of God. Oh for grace to do this. And may this day, therefore, be as one of the days of heaven upon earth. May our life of today be a fragment of the life we lead in Christ, the eternal life that we shall spend with Him in the glory.

O dear Saviour, let every believer come very close to You now. May this be a moment in which we shall feel that if there has been distance, and wondering and doubt, there shall not be any of these any longer. We have come close to our Lord; we will lean upon the Beloved; we will abide in Him even as He bids us abide, and in the biding gives us the promise, speaks the word of command, "Abide in Me and I in you." Amen.

Thanksgiving

Christ in His People

Ye have done it unto Me. Matt. 25:40.

Jesus, poorest of the poor!

Man of Sorrows! Child of grief! Happy they whose bounteous store Ministered to Your relief.

Jesus, though Your head is crowned,

Crowned with loftiest majesty, In Your members You are found, Plunged in deepest poverty.

Happy they who wash Your feet, Visit You in Your distress.

Honour great, and labour sweet, For Your sake the saints to bless.

They who feed Your sick and faint

For You a banquet find; They who clothe the naked saint Round Your loins the raiment bind.

You will keep their soul alive;

From their foes protect their head; Languishing, their strength revive, And in sickness make their bed.

You will deeds of love repay;

Grace shall generous hearts reward

Here on earth, and in the day

When they meet their reigning Lord.

Tune: "University College."

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Our Father, which are in heaven, it is an intense joy to us to call You by that endearing name, for it is no mere empty title. We feel the spirit of adoption in us "whereby we cry, Abba, Father." We feel the nature of God in us, which has been given us by the Spirit of God, the quickening, the renewal, the begetting again unto a lively hope.

O Lord, we thank You, that we are Your children by regeneration as well as by adoption, that we have been made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust. And we would revel in the thought that now it is given to us to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe on the name of Jesus, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Help us to enjoy the sweet privileges which come to us through being introduced into Your family.

May we be among the number of those who dwell in Your house and go no more out for ever; who must be still praising You, because they are always within the precincts of their great Father's house.

Oh, what have You done for us, great God? What a wonderous grace is this; and what have You prepared for us? Who can tell what You have laid up for them that fear You, among the sons of men?

We would now approach You, Lord, with that filial fear which well becomes dear children who are conscious of a thousand transgressions. Yet would we approach You with that filial boldness which is born of a sense of love, and daily grows upon mercies perpetually given. We worship You, O God our Father, with all our heart, and soul and strength. We love You; we trust You; we delight in You; You are all in all to us. You have made with us an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure; and therefore are we bound to You by bonds that never can be broken.

And You, most blessed Jesus, Son of the Highest, we also worship You with an intensity of

affection. You are our Brother, our Goel (the title goel is applied to Christ, who redeems us from all evil by the payment of a ransom), our next of kin, and we know that You livest; and though after our skin worms destroy this body, yet in our flesh shall we behold You.

We shall see You for ourselves and not another, to which hope we are daily coming. You will come to take Your people up to their eternal home: therefore do we adore You now with all our heart, and with all the sacred love of our being. Blessed be the Son of God who spared not His honour, but became a Man, who spared not Himself, but died "the Just for the unjust to bring us God."

And, O Eternal Spirit, with equal reverence do we worship You; for it is by You that we come to Jesus, and it is through Jesus that we come to the Father. Oh, Your wondrous love in dwelling in us! We are often astonished as we think of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: we put it side by side with the incarnation of the ever-blessed Son, and we know not which is the greater mercy, the greater condescension of these two. O blessed Spirit, make us deeply grateful for both, and because we know the one through the other may we rejoice In each as You shall help us.

Blessed be the one God, the God of Abraham, "the God of the whole earth shall He be called." With all our spirit reverently prostrate we adore and worship the only living and true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The Blessings of the Covenant

O Lord, we take to ourselves without stealth, but of good and honest right, all the blessings of the Covenant; seeing we are heirs of the Covenant, joint-heirs with Christ Jesus Your Son, and therefore does our soul again exalt in God; for You are ours in Covenant now, and we are Yours. You are the Covenant God, and we are the Covenanted ones, a people near unto You, whom Your grace has chosen and called and redeemed and set apart unto Yourself; of whom You have said, even of all believers: "This people have I formed for Myself. They shall show forth My praise."

And, indeed, most gracious God, we feel this morning as if we must show forth Your praise as we remember all Your delivering mercy to us. Some of us have now known You for years, and we have had great and sore troubles, but You have established Your word unto Your servants wherewith You have caused us to hope. You have led us by devious ways, but always by the right way. You have chaveened us sore, but You have not appointed us unto death. You have given us marks of Your Fatherly love in every touch of Your rod, and therefore do we bless Your name. You did bring us through fire and through water; men did ride over our heads, yet have You brought us out into a wealthy place. You have set our feet upon a rock and established our goings, and our soul sometimes wishes that the body would dance before the ark of God, for very joy and gratitude that overflows the soul, and would overflow the body too, till the very flesh should be made to pay homage before the ever-blessed One who hath caused His mercy to flow to us in ceaseless rivers of love. Amen.

Our Supreme Delight

Gracious God, the highest pleasure we anticipate is that of worshipping You to perfection with cherubim and seraphim and all the host redeemed by blood, with legions of angels and creatures innumerable we hope to pour out day without night continually songs of adoring joy, and even now one of our nearest approaches to heaven is in sacred song. O You, our supreme delight, our inheritance, our light, our life, our all; we can truly say we delight in God. O You blessed One, we love Your Word, we love Your House, we love Your Day. And You Yourself, what shall we say of You! Take us more and more unto Yourself through Jesus Christ the Mediator, and let our hearts be more and more taken up with You. Your servants have gone another six days' journey through the wilderness and they are glad to come to an oasis, to the Lord's Day, a day set apart for worship and spiritual improvement. Be near us Lord, today; put everything away. May we keep the world outside, and may we have such a fullness of God in us, and be ourselves so wholly in God, that the day may be delightful, every hour of it, even to the closing benediction when we fall asleep. Amen.

Goodness and Mercy

Our God, we love You: we can say from our very hearts we love You. We are not what we ought to be. We often turn aside, but still our heart is right toward You and Your Covenant; though we be faint, we are yet pursuing. Through infinite mercy our faces are still Zionward; our confidence is nowhere but in our God. "From Him comes my salvation." Glory be unto the name of Jehovah for ever and ever and ever! Our hearts cannot feel all they ought to feel, nor can our tongues express the thousandth part of the emotions of our inmost nature, as we look back upon the way whereby the Lord our God has led us; how, in the splendour of His mercy, He has kept us, and would not let go away from Him; how He has fed us, and would not suffer us to feed upon the husks that the swine do eat. And He has preserved us even to this day, and made with us an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure, which neither death nor hell shall ever disannul. Accept our thanks today; accept the special thanks of some of us who at this peculiar season seem overwhelmed with mercy. We do not know where to begin; and if we began where could we leave off, for it is endless mercy, infinite mercy, inconceivable mercy: "Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Amen.

"Though He Slay Me, Yet—"

O Lord our God, before we ask anything at Your hands, we desire to praise and magnify Your name; for You are good in Yourself, and in all Your thoughts, and all Your acts, and in all that You do toward us. You are good when You do lay us low, when the bed of sickness becomes hard, and our bones are weary. You are good when You strip us of all earthly comforts; good when we stand at the grave's mouth and bury our dearest love. You are in everything good. Shall we not bless the God who takes, as well as the God who gives? We would not follow You as a dog follows a stranger for a bone; but we would love You as loving children, who love even a chaveising Father, and have learned to say, "Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him." If ever, even for a moment, the thought of complaint should flit across our spirit, we beg to be forgiven. Shall a living man complain? Surely it is such a mercy that we are yet alive; that we still have our reason; that we are not cast away for ever into hopeless misery. It is such grace on Your part, that long as we live, we will bless Your name, yea, while immortality endures! We desire that on our dying bed, if it should please You, we may die singing. We would wish that our first song in heaven should be "Hallelujah unto Him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood; unto Him be glory now and for ever." O Lord, we would bring before You now our sins and our sorrows. Oh, forgive Your servants in everything wherein we have offended. There are some here that must stand before You today as prisoners at the bar. Help them to plead guilty, to confess their sins, and to plead the precious blood, and the glorious righteousness of Jesus Christ, Your Son, that they may be absolved, and hear You say: "Your sins be forgiven thee." But there are others of us who have heard that word many years ago, and the music of it has never departed out of our minds. We ask that we may hear You say it now in another sense, for we are no longer prisoners at the bar; we are not under the law, but we are under grace. The one washing in the precious blood has made us clean; as before the Judge of all the earth we are whiter than snow. But now, as children, we offend our Father, we grieve the Spirit of God, we vex our Elder Brother, tender as He is, and so we say that we who have been delivered from sin in its condemning power— we say, "Lord forgive Your children's transgressions, and let us be washed as to our feet in the water which Christ pours forth, wherewith He did wash of old His disciples' feet, and washes them still." Then may we this day, all of us, be clean every whit, and so be fit to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, and to have fellowship with the Holy Father, and with His Holy Son, and with the Holy Ghost. O Lord, grant us this perfect cleansing. Amen.

The Blood-Besprinkled Mercy Seat

O God Most High, the one God of Israel, we are longing to adore You. Adoration will be the employment of heaven. It is certainly our greatest enjoyment on earth. But we are not worthy to come unto Your presence, or to present to You the vials of our praises. We would therefore, first, in lowly reverence, make confession of our state and of our guilt. We are fallen creatures, even by nature, and as our nature, such has our life been. We have come short of the glory of God and have offended in many things. We dare not look up apart from the way which You has provided for our up-looking, even through the Mediator, Jesus Christ. O God, if You hadst driven us long ago from Your presence, and hadst forbidden us to think of worship, what could we have said? How shall we dare to tread Your courts on the ground of merit; for surely if You should lay Your justice to the line, and Your righteousness to the plummet, there is not one of us that could stand?

O Lord, we thank You for the Atonement, for the great expiatory Sacrifice. So would we compass Your altar, O God. We come sprinkled with the blood to a blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat, and we are not afraid to come when we can make mention of the Righteousness of Christ and His Atonement. We feel that we are reconciled unto God by the death of His Son. Lord, let a sweet sense of pardon and perfect cleansing rest upon the hearts of Your people. May those who have never yet come to You for mercy, look to Jesus and be saved; and may those of us who long ago were washed in the Fountain filled with blood, now receive the foot washing which Jesus daily gives, and, being cleansed every whit, may we be able to come with our adoration into the presence of the Eternal God. Amen.

The Lamb Upon the Throne

O Lord God, the hosts unnumbered, washed in the blood, are bowing before You now, proclaiming eternal honours to Him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb. Behold all the angels in heaven join in the selfsame adoration, ascribing all honour and praise unto the Lord our God. And we, in the outward rank, further off from the central Throne, bow also, and here upon this darkened planet we worship Him who made heaven and earth. We worship the blessed One who hath redeemed us with His precious blood, and we worship that glorious Spirit by whom we have been quickened and called unto the knowledge of God. Unto the one

God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, unto Him be glory for ever and ever, and from the very bottom of our hearts we utter this our doxology. Amen.

Washed and Made White

Lord, we would come with our confessions, for as often as we adore we feel how fitly we might cover our faces. The angels have six wings, but we have none. We cannot cover our faces with wings, but we bless Your name, we have something better than angelic wings; we have the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, and with these we cover our faces; with these we cover our feet; and with these we fly out to You now in rapture and adoring love. You have brought us very near You, despite our sin; and as for our sin, You have cast it as far from us as from Yourself, as east is from west. have You not said, "I will cast all their sins behind My back"? And You have done it. Even to as many as have looked to the wounds of Jesus You have given personal cleansing, and we are clean every whit through the water and the blood; and we need not be ashamed to stand even before Your presence, O thrice Holy One, for we have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, would we be always before You, and serve You day and night in Your temple, dwelling ever with You, sleeping under the shadow of Your wings, and rejoicing in the light of Your countenance. But if any among us have not yet been forgiven, Father forgive them. Oh let great love convince of sin, and lead to the sin-atoning blood. This very day may many a sinner lose the burden of his sin at the sepulchre of Christ. Oh for pardons to be freely distributed! You are the Father of pardons. "Who is God like unto You, passing by iniquity, transgression and sin, and remembering not the iniquity of the remnant of Your people?" Glory be unto Your Name! Amen.

Confession

Psalm 15

Lord, who shall abide in Your tabernacle?

Lord, I would dwell with You, On Your most holy hill: Oh shed Your grace abroad in me, To mould me to Your will.

Your gate of pearl stands wide,

For those who walk upright;

But those who basely turn aside You chase from Your sight.

Oh tame my tongue to peace,

And tune my heart to love;

From all reproaches may I cease, Made harmless as a dove.

The vile, though proudly great,

No flatterer find in me;

I count Your saints of poor estate Far nobler company.

Faithful, but meekly kind;

Gentle, yet boldly true;

I would possess the perfect mind Which in my Lord I view.

But, Lord, these graces all

Your Spirit's work must be; To You, through Jesu's blood I call Create them all in me.

Tune: "St. George."

Ashamed of Jesus!

Our dear Redeemer, we have read of Your weeping at the grave of Lazarus. We have been made to feel how near akin You are to us. You are no stranger: You are no great noble set high above us, ashamed of us; You are not ashamed to call us brethren. And we have said in our hearts, "Have I ever been ashamed to own Him in any company?" We are ashamed to think that ever the bare idea of being ashamed of Christ should have crossed our spirits.

"Ashamed of Jesus, just as soon,

Might midnight blush to think of noon."

We are nothing: You are everything. We are poor worms of the dust, and You are the Eternal Son of God. We are disgusted with ourselves that there ever could have been a temptation to be ashamed of the Crucified, ashamed of the soft impeachment that we are indeed Your followers. Forgive us Saviour! Because of Your great tenderness, put this away also among all our other sins, and mention it not against us for ever that such a wicked cowardliness could have made us so hold our tongue when we ought to have spoken for You. From henceforth may we be able to say—

"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord Or to defend His cause."

But we thank You for ever coming so near us, and our prayer is that we may have the grace today to feel very near to You. You are not strange to Your own flesh, and shall we be strange to You? Great Bridegroom, You love us, and You delight in us, and shall we not delight ourselves in You? Come, take away the hardness of our hearts, and give us now to be quick and tender, sensitive to Your love. Melt the wax, and then impress Your image on it, and make us bear the faintest touch of Your finger throughout the whole of life. Oh for want of sensitiveness, how we miss the highest privileges You bestow. Make us very tender. Oh that we might yield to Your sweet love with all our hearts; and since You are the Man that is near akin to us, may we rejoice in You beyond all things, and find our heaven in the effects of Your relationship to us. Amen.

Sin Shall Not Have Dominion

Our Father, which are in heaven, forgive our evil deeds towards Your Son! You delight in Him and so do we; but we have strange ways of showing it sometimes. Give us to love Him perfectly. May we say, "Lord You know all things, You know that we love You." May we so love You that even our enemies may be compelled to say, "See how they love their Lord!" Oh make us to display our love so clearly and decidedly as our Master showed His love to buried Lazarus.

Cleanse Your people: let our conscience be purged from dead works. May we know that we are forgiven. May we have no doubt about it. May we know that we are cleansed from the guilt and the defilement of sin. May we therefore have access with boldness to our Father in heaven, and may the power of sin which has been broken, be destroyed in us. Sin is not on the throne now, but it lurks in the corners, and if it could, it would get to the front again. We thank You for that word, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." God grant it never may! We sorrow with deep inward anguish over some who profess to be Your people in whom sin has had dominion. Lord, when any turn away we ask ourselves, "Shall I do this?" and we know that unless You hold us fast we shall decline, and prove to be like them at last. But do not let us wander; nay, let not a thought go after evil. Let us have no god but God, no christ but Christ, no spirit but the Spirit. May we be absorbed in God! In Him may we live and move and have our being, not only in a natural, but in a spiritual sense—

"Take our poor heart and let it be Forever closed to all but You."

Lord, we get high ideas sometimes; we rise into the pure air of fellowship, but our grief is that we are so soon drawn back again. Earth's attractions hold us, the flesh hampers us, our own infirmities hinder us. Lord help us! He that began the work must carry it on or it will never come to completion. Perfect that which concerns us. Lord we would be rid of sin. We long that every tendency to sin may be burnt on the head with the hot iron of Your love, so that it shall be compelled to die. O come, great Lord, and wield Your scepter over all the powers and passions of our nature, and if they need a rod of iron to subdue them, yet spare them not till grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Victory Through the Blood

We bless You, O God, that there is a Throne of Grace to come to, and that it is sprinkled with the precious blood of Jesus, so that the guilty may come without fear, that Your wrath should not break forth upon them. We come, blessed Lord, with all our hearts. Oh draw us, that we may run after You. Our desire is toward You, and to Your fear; but oh for the Holy Spirit to enable us; for we are lame and broken, and ready to perish, except You help us. Breathe into us now the prayers which we shall breathe out. Write on our hearts the very words which we shall speak in Your presence. There is the natural tendency in us towards that which is evil; and even in the hearts of those who are regenerate, that tendency still struggles for the mastery. "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." But still the battle is often very stern; and in the conflict we are made to cry out, "Oh wretched man that I am." Lord, by Your grace we hate the very thought of sin. O Lord, we have broken all Your commandments. We have not loved You with all our heart and soul and strength; nor have we loved our neighbour as ourselves. We are all condemned by that perfect law; and if sentence were executed upon us, it would only be great justice. Thanks be to Your holy Name! Many of us have fled to Christ, and You have blotted out our sin. We praise You for full remission, freely and graciously given, never to be reversed; for You have said: "I will cast their iniquities into the depths of the sea." What a joy is this! May Your believing people be certain of it. May they know that there is "therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." May their souls rest and triumph in the perfect washing, and the perfect clothing, which Jesu's blood and righteousness have given to us. And oh that others, who have never yet known Your pardoning love, might come to You this morning, and take it, and receive it. May there be many a heart here conscious of guilt, which shall be enabled to look to Jesus, the great Sin-offering, and looking to Him, may be able to see how God is reconciled, how sin is blotted out, how the wandering prodigal child is led to the Father's bosom. O precious Sin-bearer, let many know that You did bear their sin. Let them know it today. Is it not written, "By His knowledge shall My Righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities"? May that priceless promise be fulfilled in thousands of cases. Oh that in this house some might breathe the silent prayer, "Lord Jesus, fulfil it to me." Amen.

The Feast of Jehovah

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy Name. Lord stir up Your people to praise You this day. At this halting-place of our pilgrimage, may we keep the day with song. Ordain the day of feasting for Your people. Come You to the feast; then shall our hearts be exceeding glad, and we will sing our Hallels unto Jehovah, the ever-blessed Jah, the Lord God of Israel. O Father, in Your presence, though we feel ourselves at peace with You, we cannot but lament the many times in which we have offended You, nor can we cease to mourn that even now we come far short of what we owe You. Purge us. O Lord, purge us with hyssop and we shall be clean; wash us and we shall be whiter than snow. We confess our transgressions, and our iniquity we would not hide; but we look again to the great Sacrifice. Our eyes are on the Lamb that was slain, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. You know, Father, that all our hope is here, and this is our joy, that though we walk in the light, as God is in the light, and have fellowship with You, yet still for every offence that comes, the blood of Jesus Christ Your Son cleanses us from all sin. Amen.

Rest and Refreshing

O our gracious God, we have need not only to make confession of sin, but to ask of You innumerable favours. We need to be comforted, for we are often bowed down. It may be we need to be sobered, for our heart runs astray after the idols of the world. It may be that today we are dull and heavy. Oh, give us the Holy Spirit that we may be quick and lively and joyful in Your House of prayer. Whatever it is that ails us, O Jehovah-Rophi, lay Your healing hand upon us, and if in anything we have need, O Jehovah-Jireh, in the mount may it be seen that the Lord does provide. Bless Your people here. Here are many of Your servants who delight to do Your will, but they are, perhaps, somewhat weary: Lord, refresh them. For this is the rest, and this is the refreshing—that we come and feed on Jesus Christ the Heavenly Bread. Amen.

Supplication

Early Morning Prayer Meeting

My voice shall You hear in the morning, O Lord. Ps. 5:3.

Sweetly the holy hymn Breaks on the morning air;

Before the world with smoke is dim We meet to offer prayer.

While flowers are wet with dews, Dew of our souls descend,

Ere yet the sun the day renews; O Lord, Your Spirit send.

Upon the battle-field, Before the fight begins,

We seek, O Lord, Your sheltering shield, To guard us from our sins.

Ere yet our vessel sails Upon the stream of day,

We plead, O Lord, for heavenly gales To speed us on our way.

On the lone mountain side Before the morning's light, The Man of Sorrows wept and cried, And rose refreshed with might.

Oh hear us then, for we Are very weak and frail;

We make the Saviour's name our plea, And surely must prevail.

Tune: "Franconia."

Heal Us, Immanuel!

O Christ Jesus our Lord, You are still mighty to heal, and we are a company who have come together full of sicknesses and sores and sorrows of all kinds. We would not rest a moment while blessings are so rife, and power to heal is so remarkably present in You; but we would each one strive to touch You, if we may, and ask that this day virtue would come out of You, O blessed risen Christ, to heal us of whatsoever disease we have.

There are some that are Your children, beloved Lord, but they are afflicted with the palsy of a weak and trembling faith. Lord, strengthen our faith. Lift us up beyond all question. Let there be no doubts in our mind about the fundamental principles of the everlasting Gospel. Let us have no distrust of Your power to save even us, though we be the least of all saints and a very chief of sinners. Let us have no distrust of Your Providence, no doubt of Your faithful love; but may we just trust You as a child trusts its father, without the shadow of distrust, resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him. Heal us, Immanuel, of our unbelief and make us strong in faith, giving glory to God. Peradventure some of Your children here are sorely tempted; they have had many trials during the week; they scarcely know how they have lived during the week, but here they are, and Your lovingkindness has kept them alive.

"As your days so shall your strength be": that is the promise. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us": that is the experience. "I will trust and not be afraid": that is the practical inference from the promise and the experience. May each child of Yours say that through the power of the touch of the Master. Amen.

Sincere Faith Desired

O Lord, we often question ourselves to know whether we have real faith in Jesus Christ our

Lord, and we will now pray You to search us, and try us and see that we are really trusting in Him; and if we are, Lord increase our faith. But if we have merely a notional faith, rid us from the counterfeit, and give us yet the real, precious gold, which wisdom alone can furnish. Oh, for a humble but sincere faith in our divine Lord. Lord, if it be necessary to break our hearts in order that we may have it, then let them be broken. If we have to unlearn a thousand things to learn the sweet secret of faith in Him, let us become fools that we may be wise, only bring us surely and really to stand upon the Rock of Ages—so to stand there as never to fall, but to be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation. Amen.

A Sigh for Holiness

O God, we are often ashamed of ourselves to find how vehemently our affections will turn toward earthly loves, how soon we are carried away by a sort of spiritual harlotry after other things. Oh, make us to be right with Yourself; our whole heart being given up to the one everblessed God, in the Trinity of divine Persons, whom we would worship this morning with all our heart and soul and spirit. We ask of You, most blessed Father, that Your Holy Spirit may repeat in us the life of Christ. Especially, we pray that we may know the fellowship of His suffering, and the power of His resurrection. We know that He has suffered that we may not suffer, and has taken upon Himself our griefs, that we may be filled with joy. Yet, let the shadow of His blessed grief fall over our spirits now. May that shadow begin in our souls the consciousness of the darkness, the blackness, the heinousness of sin. May we see it in its true colours, and loathe ourselves to think we ever should have loved the wages of

unrighteousness, and the pleasures of transgression. What pleasure can there be in disobeying our Father, in revolting against One who loves us so infinitely?

May we feel the misery of sin, and clean our hearts as with a scourge, to think that ever they should have gone aside from the infinite purity of love. Lord we would feel the shame of sin. We would count it as a thing that is not fit to live. Oh that it might be perfectly crucified in us, and the flesh out of which it comes. Would to God the whole power of evil within us, the very embodiment of evil might be slain; and that we might be delivered from its power entirely, to serve God in holiness all the days of our lives. Saviour, help us to mortify the flesh with its corruptions and lusts. May that which was our pride become our shame; that which was our love become our hate. May every form of sin for which we have been so ready to make excuse and apologies, be condemned by us, and taken out to die a felon's death. Let not our hands spare, nor our eyes have pity upon any one of our sins; but may we smite them till we have been clean delivered from their dominion, and even from their intrusion. We sigh for holiness, we pine for it. Lord grant we may attain to it, aye, to the very fullness of it by Your sanctifying Spirit. Amen.

That Christ may be in us!

Most gracious Father, we who have received Christ now desire to receive something more than pardon and salvation. We long that Christ may be in us the hope of glory—aye, of glory, of perfection, and exaltation. If we are darkened today, may we be enlightened by the brightness of the hope that is to be revealed. Help Your poor servants to live above poverty, because they are rich in Christ. Let Your suffering and afflicted ones, though the body be torn with pain, yet be full of joy, because there is a hope—a glorious hope—that the body shall be raised again from the grave and shall suffer no more. The Lord grant us grace not to live in this cloudy day of the present, but to mount aloft into the eternal brightness of the future, and to anticipate those joys which You has reserved for them that love You.

Lord, keep us firmly believing in You. Forgive us whenever we sinfully mistrust You, and help us to believe You, come what may; yea, help us when the burden is heaviest, still to believe You, and help us to cast it upon You, being assured that as our day is, so shall our strength be. We would each one of us ask of You greater fruitfulness unto God. We want that our whole life should be full of honour and glory unto God. Let us be loaded down with clusters, bowed down if need be like a well-laden branch. We wish not to be broken off; but we would always be content to bear any breakage, if we might but be loaded to the full with fruit for the Wellbeloved. Amen.

Fragrant Fellowship

Act 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”

Our Father, as many of us as have been pardoned now desire of You that the Spirit of God, dwelling within us, may daily preserve us from all sin. Sanctify our thoughts. Keep our whole being clean and sweet before God, that as priests unto God, we may be always fit to offer sacrifice, and may never be shut out of the temple because of our uncleanness. Oh for such perpetual communion with God that we may be able to exercise a perpetual ministry on the behalf of God, offering prayer and thanksgiving and testimony among the sons of men. Lord grant us this. Be it ours to be Enochs, full of the divine life, so that we cannot die; full of the divine light so that we cannot err; walking with God in unbroken fellowship year after year.

Blessed Spirit, will You teach us every day to be more useful. May we know how to get at men for God. Give us the keys of men's hearts, as far as we can be trusted with them. May there be about us a savour of Christ. May we come out of the ivory palaces wherein He hath made us glad, smelling of the myrrh and aloes and cassia, and all those other beds of spices in which we have lain. May men be sure that we have been with Jesus, because our conduct and converse shall daily betray that we also have been with Jesus of Nazareth. Give us the very brogue of Canaan: give us the accent of truth, and righteousness and love, and may those about us who have hitherto despised our Lord be led by us, through Your Spirit, to honour and reverence Him. Amen.

With Christ in the Heavenlies

O dear Saviour, it is such a joy to us to know that You are "Very God of Very God," most truly divine. We worship You. It is an equal joy to know that You are in all points made like unto Your brethren—most truly Man, of the substance of Your mother. We joy in Your humanity. Our heart rejoices to have such a Brother as You are, born for adversities; and it is a great privilege to us to think of You as sitting at the right hand of God, daily interceding for us, for though Your Passion is but once, yet the influence of it is for ever. Though You did but once bring the Sacrifice, yet You present it day and night on behalf of those that come to God by You.

And we, too, are at the Father's right hand, since You are there. You represent our humanity. You represent us, and we are accepted in the Beloved, and we are raised up together, and made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ. Let us realise our privilege. Lord, let us not live as if we were merely earth-born, for we are born from heaven. Let us not live as if our portion were beneath the moon; for our best portion lies on the other side of Jordan, in the goodly land; thither Christ has gone to take possession of it in our name. And as You are with the Father, let us feel that we are with the Father. Forgetting all the noise and turmoil of this week of tossings to and fro; forgetting all cares and anxieties of family and of business, we would now steal away to Jesus, and feel that we have stolen away towards God, and are now speaking with our Father face to face.

Lord, You know us. Will You not look upon Your children with that sweetly-searching eye of Yours which will spy out our wants to fulfil them; our desires, to grant them; our sins to pardon them; our weaknesses, to give us strength equal to our day? Father, we, being evil, speak to our fathers, and they give us, as their children, what we need. And now we speak to You, and You are not evil, and You will surely give us exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think. You will leave no one unsupplied, no grief unassuaged. In fact, we feel perfectly happy when we feel perfectly in the presence of God. We have all we want when we come to You. How am I rich when Christ is mine! To Him be the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Oh, for Newness of Life!

Lord, give us to know the power of Your resurrection. This day, may we rise from all our natural apathy, and sluggishness, and insensibility, to have a tender, fleshy heart that shall feel deep contrition on account of sin, and a profound sympathy with Christ in His griefs on account of sin. Lord, give us to leave the world behind us, reckoning it to be a grave in which we must not rest; for He hath quickened us, though we were dead in trespasses and sin. May we rise into newness of life, and as we have been buried with Him in the likeness of His death, let us rise with Him in the likeness of His resurrection. Oh, for newness of life! have You not said, "Behold, I make all things new"? Lord, let everything be new in us, and everything living, vividly living, quickened into fullness of life, life more abundantly. Grant us this, we pray You; and then give us fellowship with You, even in Your uprising, till we be raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenlies with Christ, reigning with Him as He reigns, exercising a hallowed priesthood, even as He exercises it, being made kings and priests unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Go on to Fashion us!

Blessed Lord, we trust there are beginnings and outlines of Your own character in us, through Your Holy Spirit; but let that work be carried on, putting more of the contents of beauty, more of the sweetness, the gentleness, the tenderness, that was in Yourself. O divine Sculptor, the divine Spirit; go on to fashion us, until, as Jesus was, so we may be. We will not ask to be spared pain or sorrow, if we may but grow in grace and in the likeness of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Oh make us such, that even You Yourself can look upon us in Christ, and see with delight the work of Your own hands. Some of us have a hard struggle against inward corruption and hindering circumstances, and impetuous passions. Oh subdue us, Lord. Bring every thought into captivity to the law of Christ. Lead us as captives, triumphing over us in every place, and making even devils to see how sin is conquered in us, and that Christ does reign. Amen.

Conformed to the Image of the Firstborn

We ask that we may be among those who love Christ and keep His commandments. We are very anxious about this: the Lord make us obedient to our blessed Leader. May we follow in His steps. We must complain of ourselves that we are not what we want to be, nor what we should be. Oh we do rejoice in this—that we are not what we shall be, for "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Will You be pleased, by Your Spirit, O our Father, to conform us to the image of the Firstborn. Take out of us all tempers that are not according to His gentleness, all spirits that are not after the manner of His obedient, loving, filial spirit. May we be sons in whom You are well pleased. May we behave ourselves in Your house in such a way that You can manifest Yourself to us, and give us answers to our prayers. Help us to delight ourselves in that You may give us the desire of our hearts. We want to be all that believers can be. The Lord grant that the life of faith in us may come to its flower, and not be for ever merely in the stalk and root; may we bring forth ripe fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit of God. Fire us with the heavenly flame. Make us intensely earnest for the increase of the Redeemer's Kingdom, for the conservation of His truth, and for the exhibition of that truth in all its sanctifying power.

Amen.

Grace for Everything

O God, we ask You to grant us grace to overcome every tendency to evil in our character, every habit which has been formed which genders towards sin. Help us to overcome all the inclinations of our constitution; may these be kept in due check. We know You have given us for the preservation of life, certain appetites and desires which in themselves are not sinful, but they are too often the causes of sin, being carried beyond due bounds. We pray that we may each one have power over himself. May the Holy Spirit anoint us unto our kingships, that we may reign over ourselves in an imperial way. May the Lord Jesus reign over us! We should have every thought brought into captivity. We desire that spirit, soul and body may live unto Him who died for us, that we being not our own nor the world's, much less Satan's, may be the well-known property of the Lord of Hosts, and may live entirely as to every part of our nature, "Unto Him that loved us and gave Himself for us."

Lord bless us in our works! Give us grace to perform our ordinary business so as to glorify God in it. Give us grace to do our spiritual work aright. Are we preachers of the Gospel? Oh for great grace to preach with a divine anointing! Are we teachers in the school? Oh for great grace to understand the nature of children and to be able to rule their hearts! Whatever else we are doing, do You enable us to do it as unto the Lord. Let officers of the churches be enabled to be ensamples to the flock, and to go in and out before the people, exhibiting all those rules which adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour. Lord, we want to be better Christians than we are; we want to be saturated with Your Spirit, as Gideon's fleece was wet with dew. We are learning a little every day of our own weakness and of the corruption that lies within. Every day may we see more and more the suitability of Christ; the perfectness and suitability of His working, to bring us unto His perfect image. Amen.

Through Bondage to Liberty

O God, remember any in this house that have never known the griefs of Christ because they have never themselves grieved over sin. O Father, let the Holy Spirit come upon them as the Spirit of bondage, convincing them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And then let Him come as the sweet Spirit of liberty, leading them to the joy and peace in believing which come through the eternal merits and the precious blood of our redeeming Lord. Oh, that every one of us might look to Christ and live; yea, live for ever through the life that is in Him. Amen.

Being Rather Than Doing

We pray You, Lord, to make us more like Yourself in every respect. Once we were all for doing; now we are much more for being. We would rather sit with Mary and do nothing but learn, than become cumbered with much serving like good Martha. Lord, we sometimes feel we could honestly say, some of us, we could not do any more that we know of, or else we would do it; but now we want to serve You better, and we pray that we may do it with a simpler motive, with greater singleness of heart, with deeper devotion to Christ. We want not only to live and work, but to have Christ living in us, and for our life to be but a branch streamlet from the mighty river of the life of Christ. Lord, make us like the Firstborn among many brethren. He is the very model of the family. Make us like Him, O our Father, for the glory of Your Name.

Amen.

For the Reign of Christ

O Father in heaven, take away from us all the dust of the last week's travel. Now may we wash our feet in the laver and be clean, and so let us compass Your altar, O God. Deliver us from everything that hinders and hampers the leaping and the flying of the quickened spirit. May we run and not be weary. May we mount up with wings as eagles. May we walk and not faint, and may this be a day of high joys and of supreme delights; and if of earnest effort and of Christian labour, may all this be part of the delight. May it be that we live to pleasure for we live to You.

Bless us as a church and a people, and continue to increase us with the increase of God. Knit us more and more together in holy love, and let the Spirit of God like a cloud rest over this place, and within the hearts of His people may He be as a flaming fire. Send times of revival and refreshing to all the churches. Let our whole country be visited with a blessing from on high. O Lord, we thank You that we have the open Bible, and an open ministry, and the Spirit of God with us. Let Great Britain flourish by the preaching of the Word! Bless the Throne, and the Court of Parliament, and send great wisdom at this time that everything may be done aright to Your honour and to the prosperity of the people. Let all the nations of the earth be visited with Your love. Let the House of Israel be remembered in the time of sorrow and captivity. O God, deliver Your Ancient People from the hands of cruel and unrighteous men; and let the day come when we shall all feel one in Christ, and every national distinction shall be swept away; for, have You not made of one blood all nations of men that dwell upon the face of the earth? And do You come, Messiah, Prince of Peace, and Son of Man, man's King and Lord. Come You and reign over us You Ancient of Days, without whom was not anything made. Come and take the crown which You did purchase by Your shame and death, and reign for ever over the sons of men.

Now forgive us, accept us, quicken us, bless us. We ask all in the name of the Well-beloved.

Amen.

Up to the High Mountain

Speak, Lord, and if there be darkness make it light with Your Word. Speak to any that are sleeping and bid them awake. Speak to any that are heavy of heart, and bid them rejoice. May we clash the high-sounding cymbals today, whilst we rejoice in Jehovah who is our strength and our song, "who also is become our salvation." May we get us up to the high mountain today, and rejoice in Him who bids us mount and mount away. May our dwelling be on high. Do You say unto us, "Who can ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall dwell in His holy place?" We desire that we may be men of that order, who would come near unto You. We would be as near as Jesus is, so near, so very near to God, we cannot nearer be. Amen.

Intercession

Psalm 82

You shall inherit all nations.

The kings of earth are in the hands Of God who reigns on high;

He in their council chamber stands. And sees with watchful eye.

Though foolish princes tyrants prove,

And tread the godly down;

Though earth's foundations all remove; He wears still the crown.

They proudly boast a godlike birth,

In death like men they fall;

Arise, O God, and judge the earth, And rule the nations all.

When shall Your Son, the Prince of Peace Descend with glorious power?

Then only shall oppression cease: Oh, hasten the welcome hour.

Tune: "St. Anne."

Great Designs of Love

Lord bless Your people. Let the fullness of Your grace be ours. Let us not only be believers but full believers. Let us not only be saintly, but make us real saints. May we live unto God. May we rise superior to the ordinary mass of mankind, in holy obedience, doing Your will, that we may know of Your teaching in holy faith, accepting the teaching so that God may dwell in us and we in God. Dear Father, save this congregation. There may be some here who have put themselves to a good deal of inconvenience to come to this place, and yet are not saved. Why they should want to hear the Word and yet not receive it, we do not know; but perhaps You have great designs of love for them today, and the hour has come when they shall be made to know You have loved them with an everlasting love. They have been indifferent and careless up till now. Perhaps they have even resisted Your Spirit. They refused Christ and provoked Him; but now, Lord, where sin abounded let grace much more abound. May this be the beginning of days to some who shall this morning see Christ, accept Him, delight in Him, receive perfect pardon through Him and become new creatures in Him, to the praise and glory of Your grace. The Lord bless the Word to some who little expect it. May it come to them as a wonder, as the man who ploughed his field and thought only of the clods and the oxen, and the possible harvest, yet stumbled on a treasure hidden there. Amen.

Comforted and Made Ready

God comfort His mourners! Let the joy of the departed ones be such joy to us that we shall scarcely know a grief. Make us ready, Lord. Keep us waiting for Your Coming, or for our ascent unto You. Oh, how short a time will intervene, and we shall see the God with whom we speak today! In how few days, or weeks, or months, or years, shall we have crossed the Jordan, and we shall come, each man into his heritage. God grant it be so! Let nobody in this house come short of it through unbelief, but may we all be there when the muster roll is read, to answer to our names. Oh, grant it may be so, You blessed Lord of love. Amen.

We are greatly cheered and comforted as we remember, O Saviour, that You are the "Resurrection and the Life." United unto You we can never utterly die, and if dead, yet shall we live; for it is not possible that there should be dead members of Your living Body. You are not the God of the dead but of the living, and therefore, those that have fallen asleep are yet alive. In the fullness of life they still exist; they all have still their God, and he that hath his

God hath bliss. We would come close to You, Jesus, crowding away from the death that hovers all around us, coming from the thick darkness of the sepulchre into the brightness of Your blessed presence; that we may live in the light, and walk in it as You are in the light, and have fellowship with Your Father and with You. Oh the joy of being one with You! Amen.

The Christless Multitudes

Our Father, we ask of You a great favour; it is that others whom Christ has redeemed might be brought to know Him. O Lord, we live in the midst of millions that lie still in the wicked one, as if his bosom were their resting place. O, Saviour, be You exalted among men. Oh, that Your name were sweet to them as ointment poured forth! Would God they knew the excellence of a life with You, the sweet peace and the brilliant peace with which You endow the hearts of Your people! Lord, they will not be convinced, and those that are convinced yet somehow start back; they know that You are the Son of God, and yet they do not believe, and even those that believe You believe not as they should. O Spirit of God, give faith we pray You: work it in the hearts of millions. Bring them to the Saviour's feet, and may this day be a day of the manifestation of Your holy power in gathering in the wanderers and strengthening those that are with God. O Lord, there are many that are with us, but there are multitudes that are not with God nor with us. The Lord change them and renew their hearts for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Delight in the Lord's Day

We thank You, Lord, for putting the Sabbath not at the end of the week, as once it was, as though we were to work six days to get one day's rest, but now we begin the week with rest. You give us that rest not earned, but given. And with that rest we are to take in strength to do the six days' work: make it so today. May this be the market day of the week, and may we make good marketing. May Your servants take in large stores. It is a port at which we call. May we victual the vessel well, and then go sailing over the six leagues of days with the provision You have given to us today. The Lord grant it! And may Your people be fed with the finest of the wheat, and go their way as men who have been to a festival, who sing for joy of heart. Look in mercy upon Your Church at large. Revive Your churches; Laodicean we fear they are. Come Lord, with a live coal from off the altar, and set Your churches on a blaze again. Oh for the days of the Son of Man, times of refreshing! We would see millions converted to God. We would see the whole Church quickened to the fullest extent by the indwelling Spirit. You can do it Lord. Do it for Your name and glory's sake. Amen.

Save the People!

Our Father, we do earnestly pray You to look upon these unconverted among us; we are always praying for them, but we would begin to pray with a greater intensity. Hear the many supplications which have gone up for some who are almost persuaded to be Christians, but not quite. Oh let them not tarry longer in that dangerous place, on the brink of faith, knowing but not obeying, hearing but not receiving the Gospel. Oh decide many this morning! While Your servant is preaching, the Lord bring sinners to Himself; and all over London, and all over the world, wherever, whether by pastor or evangelist, or private member, the Gospel is being told out, whether among us or among the heathen, let the blessed message be backed up by the Eternal Spirit; and may men be turned to Christ by thousands, and hundreds of

thousands, until the whole earth will be filled with Your glory. Lord convert London; we bless You have not cast it out, but if there be any worthy to be called outcasts, the Lord gather together the outcasts of Israel and bring them to His own dear feet. Save the people, O Lord, and raise up a nation that shall fear Your name. Amen.

For All Classes and Conditions of Men

The Lord bless today all His people wherever gathered, of many nations, and speaking differing tongues. We pray for our people at home, and we offer prayer for the one great family of God all over the world. Oh, that there might be a revival of religion in every country; and where as yet Christ is not known, break on the long night of heathendom. Grant that yet the people may seek after God, and God's own Gospel come to meet their seeking. O God, have pity upon our land with all its sorrows, and may something be done yet to reach every inhabitant, that the Gospel may come to every house and to every heart, till this city shall be as renowned for Godliness as now it is for the multitude of men. O Lord, we long for Your glory to be known by all mankind. Our heart sighs for the Jew, that He still refuses the Messiah, oh bring Him to the dear Messiah's feet. We cry to You for those who go about in

Romanism and Ritualism, seeking after a righteousness of their own. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Oh, that they might have the knowledge, and might seek Jesus, and find in Him eternal life. Amen.

"Today He Rose and Left the Dead"

Our Father, if there be any who are mourning, and that hang down their heads, lift up the light of Your countenance and make them glad. On this Day of the Lord's Resurrection may no soul be in the gloom of the sepulcher.

"Today He rose and left the dead, And Satan's empire fell."

May all the saints today rejoice in their risen Lord, and rise with Him, and sit together with Him in the heavenlies, and reign with Him in the fullness of His joy. The Lord bless our dear friends who cannot come up to Your house. Remember them and so do we. The Lord send them His blessing in their chamber. Oh, that the house wherein they tarry might be bright with the presence of their Lord. Restore the sick; and such of our brotherhood as are appointed unto death, the Lord be solemnly with them. May they die in transports. May they depart out of this world full of the eternal life. May the great sea of God come up in flood-tide into the river of their being, so that though it begins to run low from its natural sources it may be filled from the supernatural deeps of God's indwelling presence. Amen.

The Harvest Season

O God, our Father, while we pray for the whole Church, we would not forget any one of Your saints. There is not a lamb among Your flock we would disdain to feed. Bless the tired ones! There are those that have dear ones very sick and ill: the Lord comfort and sustain them under great trouble of seeing others suffer. Remember any that are in temporal difficulties, and those who are themselves ill. But especially help those who are depressed in spirit. There are among Your own people plants that grow in the shade. Remember the man of a sorrowful spirit, and the woman of a sad heart. Lift up the light of Your countenance upon Your people and let them be no more sad. Send, we pray You, seasonable weather for the in gathering of the fruits of the earth; but above all send a time of in gathering to Your Church. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. Fulfill that promise of the Father which You have made to Your Son "They shall call them a people which was not a people, and a beloved which was not a beloved. Nations which knew not You shall run unto You." Oh draw them today; save them today. May this Midsummer Sunday be a day in which many fruits shall ripen for Christ. Lord save the people; save the whole of this people. We ask it in the name, the mighty Sovereign name, of Jesus. Amen.

End

MONERGISM BOOKS

Table of Contents

C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers. 7

Introduction. 7

CONTENTS. PRAYER.. 9

PRAYER 1. HELP FROM ON HIGH. 10

PRAYER 2. THANKS BE UNTO GOD. 13

PRAYER 3. THE LOVE WITHOUT MEASURE OR END. 16

PRAYER 4. THE ALL-PREVAILING PLEA. 19

PRAYER 5. TO THE KING ETERNAL. 22

PRAYER 6. THE WONDERS of CALVARY. 27

PRAYER 7. “LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE YOU.”. 31

PRAYER 8. A PRAYER FOR HOLINESS. 34

PRAYER 9. GLORIOUS LIBERTY. 37

PRAYER 10. THE MUSIC OF PRAISE. 39

PRAYER 11. UNDER THE BLOOD. 42

PRAYER 12. ON HOLY GROUND. 45

PRAYER 13. THE WINGS OF PRAYER. 48

PRAYER 14. “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL!”. 51

PRAYER 15. THE PEACE OF GOD. 54

PRAYER 16. HE EVER LIVES. 56

PRAYER 17. TO BE LIKE CHRIST. 58

PRAYER 18. O, FOR MORE GRACE! 61

PRAYER 19. GOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 63

PRAYER 20. THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 67

PRAYER 21. BOLDNESS AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.. 70

PRAYER 22. THE PRESENCE OF GOD. 74

PRAYER 23. THE LOOK OF FAITH. 78

PRAYER 24. “DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”. 80

PRAYER 25. THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD. Same as XV. 83

PRAYER 26. PRAYER ANSWERED AND UNANSWERED. Compare with xxii 86

THE GOLDEN KEY OF PRAYER. 89

1. THE FIRST HEAD IS PRAYER COMMANDED. 89

2. LET US NOW TAKE THE SECOND HEAD — AN ANSWER PROMISED. 92

3. I come to our third point, which I think is full of encouragement to all those who exercise the h

The Pastor in Prayer. 101

Editor’s Preface. 101

I. THE PERSONAL TOUCH. 102

II. JESUS INTERCEDING FOR TRANSGRESSORS. 105

III. GOD’S THOUGHTS AND WAYS FAR ABOVE OURS. 108

IV. EJACULATORY PRAYER. (New Year). 113

In Christ. 116

V. The Day of Salvation. 117

Christ is All 119

VI. SITTING OVER AGAINST THE SEPULCHRE. 120

VII. THE REASON WHY MANY CANNOT FIND REST. 124

VIII. THE CONQUEST OF SIN. 127

IX. TRUE PRAYER — HEART PRAYER. 132

X. DISTINCTION AND DIFFERENCE. 137

XI. TAKE FAST HOLD. 140

The Rock of Our Refuge. 143

XII. TRUST AND PRAY. 145

XIII. KING AND PRIEST. 148

XIV. THE SIN OF MISTRUST OF GOD. 151

XV. THE FOOT-WASHING. Compare with #25. 154

XVI. THE LIFE LOOK! 157

Alone With You. 160

XVII. REFUGES OF LIES. 161

XVIII. “YOUR ADVERSARY.”. 164

XIX. RISEN WITH CHRIST. 167

XX. INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS. 170

XXI. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES. 173

XXII. INTERCESSION FOR ONE ANOTHER.   Compare with #26. 177

XXIII. THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 181

XXIV. FREE GRACE AND FREE-GIVING. 184

XXV. AN EVENING PRAYER. 187

XXVI. AN EVENING PRAYER. 190

KEEP IN MERCY’S WAY. 192

Sleep On, Beloved! 193

Behold the Throne of Grace. 194

Foreword. 196

Invocations. 198

The Holy Ghost is Here. 198

God of Our Fathers, and Our God. 198

A Word to the Heart. 199

A Day of Delightful Remembrance. 199

The Saviour in the Midst. 200

The Soul's Yearning for God. 200

Refresh Our Waiting Spirits! 200

Complete Prayers. 202

Jesu's Presence Delightful 202

Sorrowing, yet Always Rejoicing. 202

Mercy's Streams. 205

Such Love as Seraphs Know.. 208

Oh, to be Like Christ! 209

The Saint's Inalienable Portion. 211

Nothing but Jesus! 214

The Blessings of the Justified. 216

Come Nearer, Nearer, Nearer! 217

Accepted in the Beloved. 220

The Gift Unspeakable. 222

A Great God and a Great Company. 224

Praise at All Times. 227

The Blesser and the Blest. 230

Enrich Us All! 232

Always Our Helper. 234

Choice Passages from Prayers. 236

Adoration. 237

Psalm 30.. 237

The Adorable Trinity. 237

Let All the People Praise You! 238

Children of Abraham... 239

The Cross and the Throne. 239

The Love of the Firstborn. 240

Looking unto Him... 240

Anticipation of Glory. 240

Thanksgiving. 242

Christ in His People. 242

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 243

The Blessings of the Covenant. 244

Our Supreme Delight. 244

Goodness and Mercy. 245

"Though He Slay Me, Yet—". 245

The Blood-Besprinkled Mercy Seat. 246

The Lamb Upon the Throne. 246

Washed and Made White. 247

Confession. 249

Ashamed of Jesus! 250

Sin Shall Not Have Dominion. 250

Victory Through the Blood. 251

The Feast of Jehovah. 252

Rest and Refreshing. 252

Supplication. 254

Early Morning Prayer Meeting. 254

Heal Us, Immanuel! 254

Sincere Faith Desired. 255

A Sigh for Holiness. 255

That Christ may be in us! 256

Fragrant Fellowship. 256

With Christ in the Heavenlies. 257

Oh, for Newness of Life! 258

Go on to Fashion us! 258

Conformed to the Image of the Firstborn. 258

Grace for Everything. 259

Through Bondage to Liberty. 259

Being Rather Than Doing. 259

For the Reign of Christ  260

Up to the High Mountain  260

Intercession. 261

Psalm 82  261

Great Designs of Love  261

Comforted and Made Ready  262

The Christless Multitudes  262

Delight in the Lord's Day  262

Save the People! 263

For All Classes and Conditions of Men  263

"Today He Rose and Left the Dead"  264

The Harvest Season  264

End. 264

Table of Contents

C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers

Introduction.

CONTENTS. PRAYER

PRAYER 1. HELP FROM ON HIGH.

PRAYER 2. THANKS BE UNTO GOD.

PRAYER 3. THE LOVE WITHOUT MEASURE OR END.

PRAYER 4. THE ALL-PREVAILING PLEA.

PRAYER 5. TO THE KING ETERNAL.

PRAYER 6. THE WONDERS of CALVARY.

PRAYER 7. “LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE YOU.”

PRAYER 8. A PRAYER FOR HOLINESS.

PRAYER 9. GLORIOUS LIBERTY.

PRAYER 10. THE MUSIC OF PRAISE.

PRAYER 11. UNDER THE BLOOD.

PRAYER 12. ON HOLY GROUND.

PRAYER 13. THE WINGS OF PRAYER.

PRAYER 14. “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL!”

PRAYER 15. THE PEACE OF GOD.

PRAYER 16. HE EVER LIVES.

PRAYER 17. TO BE LIKE CHRIST.

PRAYER 18. O, FOR MORE GRACE!

PRAYER 19. GOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.

PRAYER 20. THE GREAT SACRIFICE.

PRAYER 21. BOLDNESS AT THE THRONE OF GRACE

PRAYER 22. THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

PRAYER 23. THE LOOK OF FAITH.

PRAYER 24. “DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”

PRAYER 25. THE WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD. Same as XV.

PRAYER 26. PRAYER ANSWERED AND UNANSWERED. Compare with xxii

THE GOLDEN KEY OF PRAYER.

1. THE FIRST HEAD IS PRAYER COMMANDED.

2. LET US NOW TAKE THE SECOND HEAD — AN ANSWER PROMISED.

3. I come to our third point, which I think is full of encouragement to all those who exercise the h

The Pastor in Prayer

Editor’s Preface.

I. THE PERSONAL TOUCH.

II. JESUS INTERCEDING FOR TRANSGRESSORS.

III. GOD’S THOUGHTS AND WAYS FAR ABOVE OURS.

IV. EJACULATORY PRAYER. (New Year)

In Christ.

V. The Day of Salvation.

Christ is All

VI. SITTING OVER AGAINST THE SEPULCHRE.

VII. THE REASON WHY MANY CANNOT FIND REST.

VIII. THE CONQUEST OF SIN.

IX. TRUE PRAYER — HEART PRAYER.

X. DISTINCTION AND DIFFERENCE.

XI. TAKE FAST HOLD.

The Rock of Our Refuge

XII. TRUST AND PRAY.

XIII. KING AND PRIEST.

XIV. THE SIN OF MISTRUST OF GOD.

XV. THE FOOT-WASHING. Compare with #25

XVI. THE LIFE LOOK!

Alone With You.

XVII. REFUGES OF LIES.

XVIII. “YOUR ADVERSARY.”

XIX. RISEN WITH CHRIST.

XX. INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS.

XXI. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES.

XXII. INTERCESSION FOR ONE ANOTHER.   Compare with #26

XXIII. THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED.

XXIV. FREE GRACE AND FREE-GIVING.

XXV. AN EVENING PRAYER.

XXVI. AN EVENING PRAYER.

KEEP IN MERCY’S WAY.

Sleep On, Beloved!

Behold the Throne of Grace

Foreword

Invocations

The Holy Ghost is Here

God of Our Fathers, and Our God

A Word to the Heart

A Day of Delightful Remembrance

The Saviour in the Midst

The Soul's Yearning for God

Refresh Our Waiting Spirits!

Complete Prayers

Jesu's Presence Delightful

Sorrowing, yet Always Rejoicing

Mercy's Streams

Such Love as Seraphs Know

Oh, to be Like Christ!

The Saint's Inalienable Portion

Nothing but Jesus!

The Blessings of the Justified

Come Nearer, Nearer, Nearer!

Accepted in the Beloved

The Gift Unspeakable

A Great God and a Great Company

Praise at All Times

The Blesser and the Blest

Enrich Us All!

Always Our Helper

Choice Passages from Prayers

Adoration

Psalm 30

The Adorable Trinity

Let All the People Praise You!

Children of Abraham

The Cross and the Throne

The Love of the Firstborn

Looking unto Him

Anticipation of Glory

Thanksgiving

Christ in His People

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The Blessings of the Covenant

Our Supreme Delight

Goodness and Mercy

"Though He Slay Me, Yet—"

The Blood-Besprinkled Mercy Seat

The Lamb Upon the Throne

Washed and Made White

Confession

Ashamed of Jesus!

Sin Shall Not Have Dominion

Victory Through the Blood

The Feast of Jehovah

Rest and Refreshing

Supplication

Early Morning Prayer Meeting

Heal Us, Immanuel!

Sincere Faith Desired

A Sigh for Holiness

That Christ may be in us!

Fragrant Fellowship

With Christ in the Heavenlies

Oh, for Newness of Life!

Go on to Fashion us!

Conformed to the Image of the Firstborn

Grace for Everything

Through Bondage to Liberty

Being Rather Than Doing

For the Reign of Christ

Up to the High Mountain

Intercession

Psalm 82

Great Designs of Love

Comforted and Made Ready

The Christless Multitudes

Delight in the Lord's Day

Save the People!

For All Classes and Conditions of Men

"Today He Rose and Left the Dead"

The Harvest Season

End