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That he would grant to us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,

In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

To give knowledge of salvation to his people, by the remission of their sins,

Through the tender mercy of our God; by which the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shades of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

GLORY be to thee in the highest heavens, O thou God of our salvation! Thou hast proclaimed peace on earth, and infinite good-will to men. Unto us has been born a Guide and Deliverer. Glad tidings from heaven he brought; holy is the truth which he uttered, immortal the hope he inspires. We hail the morning which commemorates his birth. We rejoice that we too may hear the song heard by the wondering shepherds. We thank thee that we may unite in the joyful commemoration which makes us one with millions of thy children in all parts of the world. We praise thee that we may take up the glad memories and the holy hopes of this day, and help bear them onward to millions who shall come after us. Glory to God in the highest that, through thy tender mercy, the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the

shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And while to thee, his Father and our Father, his God and our God, we bring these our grateful acknowledgments, we would offer our prayers that we may be more deeply impressed with a sense of that divine grace which commended thy love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Jesus Christ came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

We adore thy providence in the advent of this great messenger from heaven. We gratefully acknowledge thy hand in the special gifts with which he was endowed, and in the miraculous power which he exercised; and thank thee that by signs and wonders he was approved of thee as thine anointed, the Son of thy love, the chosen revealer of thy will. In thine own Spirit, given unto him without measure, the spirit of grace, of truth and of power, we joyfully see the testimony thou didst bear to his authority. Thanks be to thee that he came clothed, not in royal pomp, but in the ornaments of a lowly and single mind; and that as in him appeared a divine compassion and benignity, we behold in him thy glory, the glory as of the only-begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth.

We praise thee that thou hast thus revealed thyself in the flesh, and that the divinity which shines through all things hath appeared most brightly of all, in a living shape, in one made in all points as we

are, who, though rich, for our sakes became poor, and took the form of a servant. Thus hast thou drawn near to us, and we are enabled to see the invisible, and hold communion with the uncreated and the eyerlasting. For all that thy beloved Son did and suffered, for his words of truth, for his triumph over the powers of darkness, for his serene and unfaltering faith and his unfailing love, for his readiness to taste of death for our sales, for the mysterious and immeasurable impression he made on a guilty world by his sacrifice on the cross, for his glorious resurrection and ascension, and that he still lives at thy right hand, we would, on this day, bring thee the offerings of devout gladness and praise.

O, may a sense of thine abounding mercy be inscribed upon our inmost souls, by the influence of thy Holy Spirit. May our whole being be moulded by the truth as it was set forth in Jesus, and may we reflect, in some humble degree, the living glory which shone so steadily in him. Lead us to him in all lowliness of spirit, to trust in him as the redeemer of souls. Thus shall we best express our gratitude, when by the cleansing and renewal of our souls they shall, through thy grace, be transformed into his divine image. Like him may we conquer the world. For thy truth and grace may we hold ourselves ever ready to live and to die. Give unto us the spirit of self-sacrifice. May all that earth can bribe us with be as dross in comparison with the consciousness of

fidelity to God. Save us from our sins. Save us from the corruptions of our hearts. Break our slumbers. Let the light of Christ search our souls and scatter our darkness. Never may we prove false to those interests for which he came into the world, and when in it gave his body to be broken, and his blood to be poured out on the cross.

O Thou who art working in and through all things to fulfil the purposes of infinite wisdom, give thy holy word new power among men. Let not the Lord Jesus lie buried and forgotten. Raise him up the conqueror of the world, and give him an everlasting empire in our hearts, and let every eye see him, and every tongue confess him to be Lord, to the glory of thee, the Father. Every year, as this joyful anniversary comes round, may it find the world more and more in harmony with the song of the angel choir. Draw Christians of different names together, and unite them by ties of mutual respect and love. May all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and languages, be filled with his spirit, and be governed by his law. Let all superstition, and injustice, and slavery, and intemperance, and fraud, disappear before that religion which came down from heaven, bringing precious and divine gifts unto men. Soften all hearts. Quicken all consciences, that every form of evil may vanish, and that thy grace may abound, and thy saving truths be known to all hearts. And to thee shall be rendered everlasting praise. Amen.

V.

Close of the Year.

Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth; and my age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

Surely every man walketh in a vain show: surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

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And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Deliver me from all my trangressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

O THOU in whose sight a thousand years are but as a day, all things on earth are passing away, but thou remainest one and the same, and to thy years there is no end. Thy providence has brought us to the close of another year, and we would raise our thoughts above the flight of time to the eternity in which thou dwellest, and to those things which know no change, but from glory to glory.

The departing year in its course has carried hence the hopes and treasures of many hearts. Friends, with whom at its beginning we exchanged affectionate

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