On all my beloved friends I supplicate Thy richest blessing. Protect them with Thy favor as with a shield. Sanctify them, body, soul, and spirit. Seal them unto the day of eternal redemption.
Bless all poor afflicted ones. Let them receive largely out of the wells of Thine own everlasting consolation. Let them see Thy sovereign hand alone in their trials, and say with unrepining submission, "The Lord's will be done!"
Lord, take the charge of me through the silent watches of the night. May I fall asleep listening to the gracious benediction, "Peace be unto you." And when the gates of the morning are opened, may it be to hear anew Thy voice saying, "My presence will go with you." Hear, accept, and answer me, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.
"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."
TENTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.
"Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."—Rom. viii. 15.
Blessed Lord! I desire to draw near this night with holy boldness to the footstool of Thy throne, rejoicing that I can look up to Thee as my Father in heaven. "Behold what manner of love is this the Father hath bestowed on me, that I should be called a child of God." Thou mightest have righteously left me orphaned, friendless, portionless for ever. But in the midst of wrath Thou hast remembered mercy: the kindness of no earthly parent, O God, could equal thine. Thou hast borne with all my obstinacy, all my perverseness, and waywardness, and ingratitude. I am at this hour the monument of a love as wondrous as it is undeserved.
Oh teach me to cultivate more and more a spirit of child-like obedience to Thee; to cherish a holy fear of offending so kind and forgiving and beneficent a Father. Whilst Thou art strewing my wilderness path with unmerited blessings, may I be enabled to rise above every earthly gift and mercy to the better inheritance I have in Thee, the bountiful Bestower of all! Let me feel every created blessing to be doubly sweet, as emanating from a Father's hand, and being a proof and pledge of a Father's love. Let the hour of prayer be doubly hallowed by the thought that I am permitted to haunt a Father's presence, and pour my wants into a Father's ear. Let the season of sorrow be sweetened by the thought that the rod is in a Father's hand, and that the voice, though apparently rough, is the tender whispering of parental love.
Blessed Jesus! I desire to remember that it is Thou and Thou only who hast not left me "comfortless." It is Thou who hast devised and completed a way by which "Thy banished" may not be "expelled" from a Father's presence. Thou hast opened a door of welcome to the chief of sinners. It is Thy blessed voice and Thy glorious work which utter the gracious declaration, "In my Father's house there are many mansions." Oh let me lean with a more simple and entire dependence on Thee; let me live from day to day with an unfaltering trust in Thy mercy. May every new evening, as it finds me laying the incense-offering of gratitude and love on Thine altar, find me also a stage nearer my Father's house, nearer home, and nearer Thee.