John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 2: Religious and Scriptural / The Scottish Chap Literature of Last Century, Classified

by Dougal Graham

O may this thy servant have been spared in order to live hereafter to the glory of thy name.—We beseech thee, perfect all that concerns his recovery; and grant that this gracious interposition may properly effect both him and every one of us in this family. From henceforth may we all more entirely depend upon thee for the continuance and preservation of our dearest earthly comforts: may we consider them as thy free gifts, O Lord, and know that they alone makest every earthly blessing be to us what it is.

And give us grace so to use and enjoy all our temporal comforts, as those who know that the fashion of this world passeth away. Grant we may learn, from this late affliction in our family, to live more like persons who are soon to be separated by death, and to give all diligence to grow rich towards God, that we may be better prepared for a breach in our family whenever it shall come. And whensoever, O God, thou shalt be pleased to call any of us away, though for a season our family may thus be separated, may we all be united again in heaven, and be for ever with the Lord and with one another.

That we may none of us fall short of so glorious an end, O give us a clear knowledge of the excellency of our God, and a firmer dependence upon the word of thy grace. Grant us a strong love to the Lord Jesus Christ, and a greater resemblance of him; that each of us in our particular station may be zealous for God, full of mercy and justice towards men, and possess every temper whereby God can be glorified in us.

Fill our minds with a more cheerful and lively sense of our obligations to thee, especially for this late additional mercy: write it, we beseech thee, on our hearts, so that no temptation from without, or corruption from within, may make us ever act as if we forgot it.

And now, O Lord, we again present both ourselves and family, all we have and all we are, a lively sacrifice unto thee for all our remaining days. Be with us when we are passing through the valley of the shadow of death; may we then fear no evil, nor have cause to fear any. Guard us through the gloomy passage, and bring us safe to thine eternal kingdom and glory. We humbly ask all these blessings, though utterly unworthy ourselves of any notice, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who ever liveth to make intercession for us. Amen.

FOR THE DUE DISCHARGE OF DOMESTIC DUTIES.

O Lord and heavenly Father, who has commanded us concientiously to discharge each duty we owe one to another, take away, we beseech thee, from us all stubbornness, pride, and self-conceit; all envy, hatred, and ill-will, which would lead us to despise thy gracious restraints, and destroy that harmony which thou wouldest have to reign in every family. From the least to the greatest member of each house, give them grace to walk before thee unto all well-pleasing.

Teach and incline servants to do their work with singleness of eye, as unto Christ: to be ambitious of serving their masters with all fidelity, and of preventing all just cause of anger or rebuke from them for obstinacy, sloth, or carelessness. Grant them wisdom to consider their station not as any hardship, much less any disgrace to them, but as the post which thy fatherly love hath appointed them to fill. Give them to understand, to their great peace and strong consolation, that by doing their work from a principle of faith and love to Christ Jesus, they may stand as high in thy favour, and grow as rich towards God, as if their condition entitled them to all respect from the world. And may they never imagine they are religious and Christians altogether, any longer than they abstain from all those frauds and deceits which they are tempted to use for filthy lucre’s sake.

Be merciful and gracious, O God, to all heads and governors of families. Save them from haughtiness of carriage, from passionate reproaches, and every kindred unchristian treatment of their inferiors and dependents. O! convince the rich that it is not their merit, but thy providence alone that makes the difference of station, and appoints the subordination: not that they should be as tyrants in their houses, and imperious to their servants, but that they should add to the comfort of those who are under them. Enable them, therefore, carefully to avoid hurting those who labour for them, by their forwardness and behaving towards them with such rudeness, as they would be ashamed to shew to any equal. Imprint upon their minds a lively remembrance that they have a master in heaven, who is no respecter of the persons of men, before whom both masters and servants must give a strict and solemn account of their behaviour to each other. Inspire all who preside in families not only with justice, but with mercy and piety towards their servants. Like the good centurion, whose praise is in the gospel, may they sympathize with them in all their afflictions, be glad to alleviate their burden, when sickness and old age oppress them, and to sweeten the bitter cup that is appointed them to drink. Give them grace to teach their servants the fear of the Lord by their own example, and to let their light so shine before them, that they may be led to glorify God also, in whose hands is their breath, and whose are all their ways.

Dispose, O Lord, the hearts of all parents to receive and obey the commands addressed in a peculiar manner to them. Teach them always to regard their children as immortal souls intrusted to their care, and for whose nurture and admonition in the fear of the Lord they are strictly answerable; and may they esteem it their greatest pleasure, and their highest honour, to be teaching their children the sacred truth, when they sit with them in the house, and when they walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up. Give them to observe with hearts sensibly affected, the natural depravity too apparent in every one of their offsprings, and to be solicitous to bring them by early discipline and instruction to him who alone can deliver from it. Make them vigilant to check the first sallies of their vile affections, to furnish them with the means of knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, and to habituate them from their childhood to some profitable employment of their time, and their understanding, as they are able to bear it. Keep all parents from setting a bad example before the eyes of their children, and so teaching them an evil lesson against themselves. And may they dread nothing more than the insupportable doom of being condemned as accessaries to the damnation of their own children by their worldliness, sensuality and neglect of their souls. And as thou knowest that no parents are of themselves sufficient to educate their children according to thy will, O! do thou fill them with wisdom and discretion. Guide them continually with thine eye, between the extremes of shewing a false indulgence or an irksome severity to the fruit of their own bodies. Bless altogether the relation thou hast established between them, so that parents may have the joy of seeing their children growing up as pleasant plants before thee, and children have reason to rise up and call their parents blessed, and to praise God for them in time and in eternity.