O Thou, better than the best of earthly friends, who, though enthroned amid the hosannas of angels, hast still Thy human sympathy unaltered and unchanged, draw near to me this night, and breathe upon me, and say, "Peace be unto thee." Let me know the melting energy of Thy love, and the attractive power of Thy cross. May I keep the unwavering eye of faith steadily directed to Thy all-glorious sacrifice. Be Thou the habitual object of my contemplation, the source of holiest joy, the animating principle of obedience. May all creature love be subordinated to Thine. May my temper, my walk, my conversation, be regulated in accordance with Thy blessed will and holy example. May this be the lofty aim and ambition of life, to act so as to please Jesus.
Bless my dear friends, may they too be led to count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord, whom to know is life eternal. Pity the careless; reclaim the backsliding; comfort the sorrowful; sustain the dying. May the Lord arise and have mercy on Zion; may He show that the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come!
Ere I lay my head on my nightly pillow, I would lay anew my guilt on the head of the Divine Surety; may I fall asleep under the blessed sense of sin forgiven, and look forward to that blessed day when earth's night-shadows shall have vanished forever, and when I shall be enabled more fully "to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." And all I ask or hope for is for His sake. Amen.
"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."
FIFTEENTH EVENING.
FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY.
"Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee."—Psalm cxliii. 8.
O God, Thy favor is life, Thy loving-kindness is better than life. Thy mercies have been new to me every morning, and Thy faithfulness every night. Thou hast watched over me from the earliest years of infancy with more than a Father's care. The kindness of the kindest on earth has been coldness itself when compared with Thine. I rejoice that I can thus trace in a wondrous past the visible footsteps of Thy love, and fearlessly trust and repose in Thee for the future.
Thou art a rich provider. None so able, none so willing to guide me in every perplexity, to extricate me from every difficulty, and to befriend me amid the fitful changes of life. What a safe anchorage is this amid the world's restless surges of vicissitude, "The Lord reigneth!" Do Thou enable me wholly to follow the Lord my God; to follow Thee not only in smooth places, but even when the path is rough and the way thorny. May I confide in the wisdom of all Thine allotments. I rejoice that all the changes Thou orderest for Thy covenant people are changes for the better, and not for the worse.
O blessed Jesus! Thou who art the true pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, do Thou precede me ever in all my wilderness wanderings. May I encamp only where Thou leadest me. May I strike my tent only when Thou speakest that I "go forward." Let me experience the conscious happiness of knowing no will but Thine, and of being solicitous in all things to follow the guiding voice and footsteps of the Great Shepherd of the flock. If there be aught in Thy providence perplexing me now, I would say in child-like simplicity, "I am oppressed, undertake Thou for me!" "My heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Hide me in the crevices of that smitten Rock; let me know the safety and joy of being shielded there, until earth's calamities be overpast.