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FOURTH SERIES.

SUNDAY MORNING.

O LORD, thou art our God; early will we seek thee; our soul thirsteth for thee; our flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. We rejoice that we are permitted to worship in thy presence; and we lament that our hearts are so seldom raised towards thee as they ought to be raised to the Perfection of all excellence, and the Fountain of all goodness. May our affections at this time be engaged in thy service. May our desires be toward thee and to the remembrance of thy name; and because thy loving-kindness is better than life, may our lips be taught to praise thee.

As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so may our souls pant after God, and thirst for God, for the living God. May we experience the influence of thy Spirit, withdrawing our minds this

day from the objects of time-loosening the hold which our affections are too prone to take of what is seen and temporal-discovering to our view the glories of thy character-causing us to feel the attractions of thy love-and inducing us with undivided hearts to rejoice in thee as our supreme felicity, and only satisfying portion.

We bless thee that we have been spared to see the light of this day; that not only have our lives been prolonged, but another day of the Son of Man has been vouchsafed us; and that notwithstanding our past remissness in the improvement of our privileges, we are again called to go up to thy house, to meet with thy people, to hear thy word, and to unite in thy service. O may a sense of thy goodness in thus multiplying our privileges, and in continuing with us means and mercies which might justly have been taken from us, sink down into our minds, and awaken us from that spiritual slumber in which we are too apt to indulge: may it stir us up to wait upon thee in the exercise of all the sentiments and affections with which we ought to be animated in thy presence. May thy word be sweet unto our taste, and come to each of us in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Let every prejudice that opposes its ready admission into our hearts be removed; let it appear to us in its native majesty and glory; and let it be felt by us to be what indeed it is, the word of the living and true God, which is able to make us wise unto salvation. With simplicity of heart may we hearken to what God the Lord will be pleased to say to us in it; and as new

born babes, we may desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby.

In every part of our service, may we enjoy thy assistance and blessing. In all our attempts to praise thee, or to hold communion with thee, may we find not only that we have a great High Priest over the house of God, through whom we have access to thy throne, but that the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Through the grace of thy Spirit, may we be enabled so to engage in the exercises of thy worship, and to hold fellowship with thee in thy house of prayer, that we shall have cause from experience to say, "how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. Our soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, our heart and our flesh crieth out for the living God."

With ourselves, we would be mindful of all whom we ought to remember in our addresses at thy throne. Let thy grace be exceeding abundant towards them in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. May thy ministering servants especially enjoy thy favour and assistance in every part of their duty. Taught of God, may they be fully qualified to teach others; and through their instrumentality, may thy name be hallowed, and thy church built up-may sinners be converted, and saints edified and comforted.

In every part of the world, may the truth as it is in Jesus be proclaimed and believed. We rejoice in the promise, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and that all nations

shall flow into it. Hasten the accomplishment of this thine own word in thine own time; and let the whole earth be filled with thy glory!

All that we ask is for Christ's sake, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, both now and for evermore. Amen.

SUNDAY EVENING.

O LORD, we come before thee this evening as thy children and the sheep of thy pasture; and we bless thee for all the goodness and mercy we have this day experienced in our going out and in our coming in. We thank thee that we have not only had food convenient for us; but that thou hast made abundant provision for the wants of our souls, and hast invited us to partake of the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy place. We thank thee that it has been our privilege this day to assemble in thy house, to unite in thy service, and to listen to thy word; and that while numbers of our fellow-creatures are involved in the darkness and misery of heathenism, bowing down to stocks and stones, and worshipping the work of their own hands, we have been blessed with the light of religious and saving knowledge, and have been taught to worship God in the spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to place no confidence in the flesh.

May the goodness, O Lord, of which we are the objects, deeply affect our hearts. May we remember our obligations, and not be unmindful of any of thy

benefits and while we compare our condition with that of many around us, and contrast it with that which our iniquities have deserved, may we feel ourselves constrained, by a sense of unmerited and abounding goodness, to yield ourselves up to thee as thy servants and children for ever.

And we give thee thanks, gracious God, that this we are permitted and encouraged to do; and that we are assured of thy willingness to accept of us, and to bless us as thine own. We bless thee that thou hast sent thy Son into the world to bring us back to thee; and we rejoice that in him thou art a just God while thou art a Saviour-a God of infinite righteousness and holiness, while thou receivest sinners and justifiest the ungodly. Blessed be God, that we have this day been reminded of the virtue of the Saviour's death and of the power of his glorious resurrection: and we humbly pray that, recognizing in the separation of this day from the other days of the week a sign and a memorial of the completion of that work, by which sinoffering was finished, and an everlasting righteousness was brought in, we may feel renewed encouragement to place our trust in the Saviour, and from faith in his blood to entertain confidence toward thee, and a good hope of eternal life. May we be enabled from Sabbath to Sabbath to go from strength to strength in our Christian journey, deriving fresh motives to ardour and perseverance in thy service, from the remembrance of the finished work of our risen and ascended Redeemer.

And O grant that thy Holy Spirit, as the fruit of

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