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Service for Days of Public Thanksgiving.

The Service may commence with a Canticle, Psalm or Hymn, announced by the Minister, during which Minister and People stand.

Then the Minister shall say,

UR help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm cxxiv., 8.

Here, and at the end of the several Prayers, the People

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Then the Minister shall say,

Let us pray.

ALMIGHTY God and heavenly Father! we have come together on this day of public thanksgiving, to offer unto thee our praises and our prayers, and to hear thy holy word. Thou hast promised to hearken favourably unto all those who call upon thee in the name of thy Son. We, therefore, beseech thee to look down upon us in mercy, and to purify our thoughts and affections, that we may render unto thee an acceptable service; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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GOD! who hast given thy Holy Scriptures for

our instruction, we beseech thee to enlighten our minds and purify our hearts, that we may worthily read, hear, and meditate upon them, and may understand and receive, as we ought, the things which are therein revealed. Enable thy ministers to declare thy word with purity and clearness, with simplicity and zeal. Render their preaching effectual, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, so that the good seed may be received into our hearts as into ground well prepared, and bring forth fruit in abundance. Grant that we may be not only hearers, but doers of thy word, and that, living conformably with its divine instructions, during the time of our sojourning here, we may attain unto eternal salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Here may be sung a Psalm or Hymn.

Then the Minister shall say,

HEAR, with reverence, the Ten Commandments

of the Law of God, as they are written in the 20th chapter of the Book of Exodus.

Here the People rise.

OD spake these words, saying, I am the Lord

GOD

thy God, who brought thee out of the land of

Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

II.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

III.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

IV.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

V.

Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days

may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

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Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife; nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass; nor anything that is thy neighbour's.

HE

EAR also what our Lord Jesus Christ saith, in the 22d chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

HOU shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy

THOU

heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

EARLY beloved!

DEARLY

If we say that we have no`sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. I. John, i., 8.

If God enter into judgment with us, in his sight shall no man living be justified. Psalm cxliii., 2. But there is forgiveness with him. Psalm cxxx, 4. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I. John, i., 9.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise. Psalm li., 17.

Him that cometh unto me, saith the Lord, I will in no wise cast out. St. John vi., 37.

Let us, therefore, humbly confess our sins.

LORD God! Eternal and Almighty Father!

we confess before thy Divine Majesty that we are miserable sinners, born in corruption and iniquity, prone to evil, and of ourselves incapable of any good. We acknowledge that we transgress, in various ways, thy holy commandments, so that we draw down on ourselves, through thy righteous judgment, condemnation and death. We are, O Lord! under heartfelt sorrow for having offended thee; and we implore thy grace to relieve our wretchedness. Vouchsafe, O most gracious God and merciful Father! to have compassion on us, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Pardon our sins, give us the graces of the Holy Spirit, and increase them day by day; to the end, that

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