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XXIV.

Self-Examination.

Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words.

I entreated thy favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to thy word.

I thought on my ways, and turned my feet to thy testimonies.

I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to thee, because of thy righteous judgments.

I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.

O THOU the preserver of our lives, our Father which art in heaven, our grateful hearts would praise thee in this evening hour. The labors of the day finished, we would lay aside the cares and anxieties of life, and here at our family altar, united in loving harmony, commit ourselves to thee.

We thank thee, O Father, that thou dost bow thy heavens and graciously hear when we devoutly make known our wants and aspirations. Especially do we thank thee that now, at the close of this day, we may come as children, and speak to thee the thought of our hearts, and invoke the assistance of thy Spirit. O lead us to self-examination. Aid us to see ourselves as thou seest us. In thy light may we see

light. Cleanse our sight that we may discern the secrets of our hearts, and know the motives which prompt us to action. Help us to try our ways to see if we have this day served thee, made thy will our rule, and thy work our employment; if we have lived mindful of the momentous concerns of the life eternal.

O Thou whose mercy is over all thy children, forgive our sins. We would arise and come home to thee. We hear the gracious call of thy messengerSon, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest; and we would come with open hearts and penitent confessions, and say, Father, forgive us. May we so live in all purity, honesty and love, that earth shall have passed, and the shadows of our lifeevening shall be gathering round us, we may hear benign voices, angels of peace, saying, Fear not, for you there remaineth a rest in heaven.

when all our days on

O God, these days and nights are passing rapidly, and time makes his mark upon these mortal tabernacles; may we be prepared to live in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

O Father of infinite love, help us to keep our minds and hearts in the glorious faith and cheering hope of Christ Jesus our Lord, that whether we wake or sleep we may live with him, through whom to thee be rendered praise and thanksgiving, world without end. Amen.

XXV.

The Searcher of Hearts.

O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thought afar off.

Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts;

And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

ALMIGHTY GOD, our heavenly Father, we would again adore thy goodness, and seek thy forgiving mercy, and commit ourselves to thy watchful care. Thy kind providence has guarded and guided us through another day. Thou hast graciously continued our powers of body and of mind, and hast surrounded us with a multitude of blessings. What thanks shall

we render unto thee for all thy mercies? If it hath pleased thee to mingle cares and afflictions with the brightness of our lot, we know that they come from a Father's hand, and are working out for us a Father's purposes of love.

Almighty Parent, teach us to enjoy thy favors with a filial gratitude, and to meet thy sanctifying chastisements with a filial submission and a filial trust. May the remembrance of thy constant goodness cheer and sustain us amidst the labors and perplexities, the changes and disappointments, of life. May we do our best, looking unto thee; and having done our best, in a calm and cheerful faith, we will leave the issue unto thee, knowing that in thy hands we are forever safe. Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

O God, the searcher of hearts, as we look back on the day that is now drawing to its close, we would examine ourselves as in thy sight, and try our hearts and our ways by the word and the life of Christ; and if in aught we have been wanting in his spirit, or have been violating his law, God be merciful to us sinners. Awaken us to a deeper sense of our dangers and of our duties. Help us by thy Holy Spirit to forsake the sins which we confess, and to carry out the good purposes which we now form in thy presence. Help us to see the wrong, to abhor and to shun it; help us to see the right, to love and to pursue it. May it be our great aim, the one thing which we keep ever before us, that which we first and most earnestly

seek, to be religiously faithful to the duties of our lot, both the little and the great.

O God, our heavenly Father, thou hast made our life on earth a pilgrimage brief and uncertain: and now we are a day's march nearer to the grave and to eternity. We know that the time is short to us and to all. May we live, while we live; live as thy true children and servants, made for nobler pleasures than those of sense, for higher glories than any which men can offer, for sweeter rewards than those of earthly gain.

And now, O God, who compassest our path and our lying down, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, we would seek the blessing of sleep, reposing now, as always, in the arms of thy protecting providence, and committing ourselves and all whom we love to thy fatherly care. We would go to the slumbers of this night, as we hope to go to the slumbers of the last, in peace with thee, in harmony with our friends, in charity towards all, in a Christian faith and a Christian hope, looking up to heaven and to thee. We pray for thy blessing upon our neighborhood, our country and the world, upon every righteous cause and every quickening truth in its struggle with the old evil that is in the world; we ascribe unto thee the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

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