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Prayer of Parents for their Children.

O God! thou art our God, and we will seek thee; our father's God, and we will exalt thee! and we beseech thee to be our children's God. Save them from sin, and satan, and this evil world. Save them from the vanity of childhood and youth: incline their hearts to holiness, and give them the wisdom which is from above. Pour thy Spirit upon our seed, and thy blessing upon our offspring; that they may be a seed to serve thee, which shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

Teach and enable us to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and to instruct and guide, reprove and exhort them in the meekness of wisdom, as those who travel in birth again to see Christ formed in their souls. Let none of our's come short of eternal life, or be found on Christ's left-hand at the great day. Let it be the joy of our hearts to see them walking in the truth, and setting their faces heaven-ward.

We ask not for them great things belonging to this world. So far as shall be for their spiritual and eternal good, favour them with health and safety, give

them direction and blessing in every honest employment, and feed them with food convenient for them. Especially make them wise for their souls and eternity.

If it should please thee to remove any of them from us by death, while they are young, make us humbly submissive and resigned, and firmly persuaded that all is well. If, while they are young, thou shouldest remove us from them, be thou infinitely better to them than we were capable of being; for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. And, when we are gone to praise thee in heaven, let our dear children be praising thee on earth; and be living, not to themselves, but to him that died for them and rose again.

Lord, thou knowest our care and concern, and we desire to cast it upon thee. Let serious godliness in our family make our dwelling a house of God, and a nursery for Christ and glory. Let our children do more and better service for thee in their day, than we have done in ours. And before the tribunal of Christ may we joyfully say, 'Here are we, and the children thou gavest us.' Grant us this rich grace, for the sake of thy dear and only begotten Son, to whom, with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, be the kingdom, power, and glory, for ever. Amen.

The Poor Man's Prayer.

O thou Father of all! who hast graciously promised to deliver "the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper;" we had fainted, unless we had believed in thy goodness! We have been brought low, and thou hast helped us at thy hand we have received our daily bread. And though sometimes our cup of earthly good has been almost dry; yet thou hast again supplied it, and again encouraged us to trust in thee! Hast thou said, the very hairs of our head are all numbered; and may we not cast our care upon him who thus careth for us! Thou, Lord, hast never forsaken them that trust in thee! But, O our God, we thank thee, that though poor as to this world's good, we may be rich in faith, and heirs of heaven. We thank thee for that bread which cometh down from heaven-that bread which is the life of the world, and the life of our souls; we would feed upon it till our souls are nourished unto eternal life! We will not complain while we see him who was rich for our sake become poor. Blessed Jesus! how highly hast thou honoured the poor; and how greatly

hast thou favoured them with the glad tidings of thy gospel! Blessed poverty, that makes us poor in spirit, and heirs of thy kingdom! Having nothing, we may then possess all things.

May we be thy humble followers in humility and poverty of spirit, be conformed to thine image, and made meet for that world where sorrow and sighing shall flee away, where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes; and where we shall be made kings and priests unto our God for ever! Amen.

HYMN.

Though troubles assail,
And dangers affright;
Though friends should all fail,
And foes all unite :
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide;

The Scripture assures us,
"The Lord will provide."

The birds without barn

Or storehouse are fed;
From them let us learn

To trust for our bread.

His saints what is fitting
Shall ne'er be deny'd,
So long as 'tis written
"The Lord will provide."

We may, like the ships,
By tempests be tost
On perilous deeps;
But cannot be lost.
Though Satan enrages

The wind and the tide ;
The promise engages,

The Lord will provide,"

His call we obey,

Like Abraham of old, Not knowing our way;

But faith makes us bold. For, though we are strangers, We have a good guide; And trust in all dangers, "The Lord will provide."

When Satan appears
To stop up our path
And fill us with fears,
We triumph by faith.
He cannot take from us,
Though oft he has try'd,
This heart-cheering promise,
"The Lord will provide."