and ready at all times to do thy will and submit to thy righteous pleasure. Thou art our merciful and indulgent Father. O grant to thy children those best of gifts, a firm and right faith, a steadfast and well grounded hope, and a nevcr failing charity. Thou art the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us grace to receive him as our Saviour, and learn of him as our teacher, and follow him as our guide and example, and love him as the friend who died for us; that so we may be numbered among his true disciples, and become fellow heirs with him in thy heavenly kingdom. Help us to remember, and to imitate the benevolence which filled his soul. May we consider mankind as our brethren, and be heartily disposed to relieve their wants; to comfort their sorrows; to redress their wrongs; to pardon those who have offended us; to love those who hate us; to do good unto all. May we walk within May our houses with perfect hearts. May we study to advance each other's happiness, and to quicken each other's piety. every good and holy disposition be daily improving in our breasts, until we become fit for that happy kingdom where love and peace and joy for ever reign. Hear us in thy Son's name, for whom we bless thee, and through whom we ascribe unto thee all honor and glory for ever. Amen. A SECOND. O GOD, our heavenly Father, we beseech thee to incline thine ear unto thy children, and favorably hear our prayer. We pray that thou wouldst guide and lead us by thy providence, and comfort us by thy mercy, and protect us by thine almighty power. We submit to thee all our thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings; and we desire to have thee always in our minds, to do all our works in thy name, and in thy strength to bear all calamity with patience. Give us grace that we may be attentive to our spiritual concerns, temperate in our enjoyments, vigilant in our conduct, and steadfast and immovable in all good purposes. Dispose our hearts to admire and praise thy holiness; to hate all evil works; to love our neighbor, and to renounce the vanities of the world. Enable us to conduct ourselves with prudence in all transactions, and show courage in danger, fortitude in trial, submissiveness in adversity, and in prosperity an humble mind. Let thy grace illuminate our understandings, direct our wills, sanctify our bodies, and bless and save souls. Make us diligent in curbing all irregular affections; zealous in imploring thy grace; careful in keeping thy commandments, and constant in working out our salvation. our Finally, O God, make us sensible how little is the world, how great thy heavens, how short time, and how long a blessed eternity. O that we may well prepare ourselves for death; that we may flee from the wrath to come, and obtain of thee everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A THIRD. O LORD, our heavenly Father, who hast preserved us to the present hour, and hast blessed us with unnumbered benefits, give us grace, we beseech thee, to be truly grateful, and sincerely to renew the dedication of ourselves and of our lives to thee. We confess before thee our sins, which are more than we can number or express; and we adore the riches of thy mercy which forgiveth our sins, and healeth our iniquities. Grant that through the daily contemplation of the doctrines of thy gospel, our hearts may be daily made better. May the faith of Christ be made effectual to bring down our pride, to subdue our selfishness, to improve our temper, to direct and restrain our tongues, to animate us with the purest zeal, and to fill us with charity to our neighbor. May it also sanctify our daily work, exciting our diligence in it, and teaching us to look to thee, O Lord, for our great and final recompense. O God, we pray thee to bless us to the end of our lives. Defend us in all future dangers; succor us in all sorrows, trials, and adversities; and when the toils of this mortal life are over, conduct us in safety to thine everlasting peace and rest. To thee, who hast been the support of our infancy, the help of our youth, and the guide of our advancing years, do we commit ourselves for ever. To thee do we humbly resign all our affairs, and commend our bodies and our souls, our temporal and eternal interests. And to thee do we ascribe all glory and praise, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen. FOR SUNDAY MORNING OR EVENING. ALMIGHTY God, Father of all thy creatures, we adore thee for thy great goodness, in providing not only for our temporal necessities, but also for the spiritual wants of our souls. We thank thee for thy holy word, by which we are instructed in thy will, and are made wise unto salvation. We thank thee for thy holy Sabbaths, on which our thoughts are especially called away from earthly things, to the consideration of those things which are heavenly and eternal. We praise thee for the gift of thy Son Jesus Christ; that he hath set us an example by his holy life; that he hath redeemed us by his painful and precious death; and that by his resurrection from the dead on the third day, he hath given us assurance of immortality. We pray thee, O Lord, to impress deeply on our minds these solemn truths, that we may not forget them amidst the cares and occupations of the world, but may daily be reminded of our Christian privileges and Christian duties. Save us from indifference and levity, as well as from wickedness and sin. Pardon our sins in times past; pardon our forgetfulness of thee our God, and grant us thy peace. We pray thee to send the blessed gospel of thy Son over the world. Bless the labors of thy ministers in every place; fill them with zeal for thine honor, and with love to thy name. May Christ be preached from the rising to the setting sun; and may each of us endeavor to recommend our faith by our conduct. We intercede for our relations, connexions, and friends; especially for those who may be in sorrow, sickness or trouble. Grant unto them those consolations which thou only canst bestow, and put into their hearts a holy trust in thee. And may those who feel that their infirmities come upon them, and that their outward frame decays, be enabled to believe that when earthly things fail, they shall have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Take us now, O God, under thy gracious care. Let thy blessing attend us, and thy good Spirit rest upon us. May the truths which we hear with our outward ears sink into our hearts; and may we, through the ensuing week, rise up and lie down, at peace with thee, and with all mankind. When our Sabbaths and all our days on earth are numbered and finished, receive us, O God, we beseech thee, to thine eternal rest; through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen. PRAYER FOR A BEREAVED FAMILY. O THOU eternal Lord our God, the Lord of life and death, who givest and who takest away, enable us all to say, with sincere and humble resignation, Thy name be blessed, and thy will be done. In all our troubles and adversities, whensoever they oppress us, we would come to thee, O Father, and put our whole trust and confidence in thee, and lay down the burthen of our sorrows before thee, and look to thee alone for consolation and help; for we know that thou art a God of mercy and compassion, and that though clouds and darkness are round about thee, righteousness and judgment are the foundations of thy throne. We desire to submit with all humility and patience to the recent afflictive dispensation of thy righteous providence. Be pleased to sanctify it to thy servants the members of this family. Teach us to turn this sorrow to our eternal good; and let the sense of our loss make us cleave more steadfastly to thee. Let no repining thoughts rise in our hearts, but help us to place our affections more strongly on those immovable things which are above, and to resign unto thee all our thoughts and desires. By this chastisement may we be purified from sin, quickened in duty, mortified to the world, and raised above it. Send thy holy Spirit to abide with and comfort our hearts, and enable us to endure tribulation as becometh disciples of thy Son Jesus Christ. In Bind more closely together the surviving members of this family. crease in us a tender and faithful affection. May we learn how to promote each other's happiness, and mitigate the sorrows which have befallen, or yet await us. Teach us to feel the vanity of earthly things, to delight in thy word, to study thy will, to observe thy law, and to work out our own salvation; that when we go the way of all the earth, we may be comforted by thy presence, and admitted to that |