Evening Incense by Macduff, John Ross

The writer has endeavored in the following pages to comply with frequent requests made to him to prepare a small volume of Evening Prayers, suitable as a companion to the "Morning Watches."

May He with whom is "the residue of the Spirit," "cause His Angel to fly swiftly" and touch us in the time of our Evening Oblation; and may all that is amiss in thought and word be lost in the fragrant incense-cloud which ascends from the Golden Altar before the Throne!

FIRST EVENING.
FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD.

"Abide with us; for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent."—Luke xxiv. 29.

O God, I desire to approach Thy throne of Grace on the evening of this day, beseeching Thee to grant me Thy benediction and blessing. The shadows of night have once more gathered around me; may no shadow of sin or unbelief darken my soul, or interrupt my communion with Thee. "It is not night if Thou art near." Let me enter the inner chamber of Thy presence, and experience conscious fellowship with Thee my Father in Heaven.

Do Thou graciously forgive all the sins of the past day, its sins of omission and of commission, of thought, and word, and deed. Hide me anew in the clefts of the Smitten Rock. I confidently repose my everlasting interests on the finished work and righteousness of a tried Redeemer. May I know more and more of the attractive power of His Cross—the adaptation {8} of His character and work to all the wants and weaknesses, the sorrows and infirmities, of my tried and suffering and tempted nature. May I live more under the sovereign motive of love to Him, and experience more the happiness of life spent in His service.

Gracious Lord! may a sense of Thy favor penetrate with its leavening power every duty in which I engage, lessening every cross and sweetening every care. Take what Thou wilt away, but take not Thyself; no earthly good can compensate for the loss of Thy friendship. Existence would be one vast blank without Thee. Give me to realize the blessedness of unfaltering dependence on Thy covenant mercy, knowing that all which befalls me is the pledge and dictate of unerring love, and that nothing can come wrong that comes from Thy hand.

Thus while my daily walk is hallowed and brightened by Thy presence and fellowship, may I be enabled to look calm and undismayed on the unknown and chequered future, feeling that even over the gloomy portals of the grave, with Thee as my Portion and Heritage, I can write, "To die is gain!" Meanwhile do Thou fit me {9} for every duty, prepare me for every trial. If Thou givest me the "full cup," give me grace to carry it with a steady hand. If Thou sendest adversity, let me regard it as Thine own gracious discipline, to wean me from earth and train me for glory.

May it be my great ambition, through the help of Thy Blessed Spirit, to attain a gradual resemblance to the character and conformity to the will of my adorable Redeemer. May I be clothed with humility. May I be daily becoming more meek and gentle, more contented and thankful, more submissive and resigned, watching against anything in my heart or conduct that I know would be displeasing to Thee, making it my meat and my drink to do Thy holy will.

Thou unslumbering Shepherd of Israel, vouchsafe Thy guardian care to all near and dear to me: shield them from danger: give Thine angels charge over them; sanctify them body, soul, and spirit; seal them unto the day of eternal redemption.

May we all lie down to sleep this night in Thy fear, and awake in Thy favor, fitted for the {10} duties of a new day. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

SECOND EVENING.
FOR PARDONING GRACE.

"For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great."—Ps. xxv. 11.

Gracious God! do Thou look down upon me this night in Thy great mercy. May I have now the inner sunshine of Thy presence! Ere I retire to rest, let me pitch my tent near Thyself, and enjoy the tokens of Thy favor and blessing. Thy loving-kindness has been new to me every morning, and Thy faithfulness every night.

I desire to render Thee the thank-offering of a grateful heart. My life is one wondrous attestation to Thy patience and forbearance. The kindness of the best earthly friend has been nothing to Thine. Thou mightest long ere now have left me to reap the fruits of my {11} own guilty estrangement, withdrawing the grace and Spirit I have so long resisted, executing against me the awful doom of the cumberer. But I am still spared, a living monument of mercy. Thy ways are not as man's ways, nor Thy thoughts as man's thoughts.

Lord, I would seek anew this night to close with the alone Sovereign remedy! Jesus! there is no other prop but Thee to support a sinking soul and a sinking world. There is nothing between me and everlasting destruction but Thy glorious work and finished righteousness. I rejoice to think that it is all I need—living or dying, for time or for eternity. O blot out in Thy precious blood my many, many sins. Nothing in my own hands I bring; I cling simply to Thy cross. Mercy and truth have there met together; righteousness and peace have embraced each other. Reposing in what Thou has done, and in what Thou art still willing to do, I can rejoicingly say, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul."

Bring me to live more habitually under the constraining influence of redeeming love. Purchased at such a price, may I be willing freely {12} to consecrate soul and body to Thy service. Let me feel that the bitterest of all trials is the forfeiture of Thy favor and love, and the loftiest joy is the assured possession of Thy gracious friendship. May my spirit be brought into blessed unison with Thine. May I become more gentle, and resigned, and submissive, and unselfish; more heavenly-minded; more Saviour-like. May I be led to regard all, even Thy darkest dealings to me here, as needful parts in Thy plan of stupendous wisdom. May I rest contented in the assurance that what I know not now I shall know hereafter.

Unite me to all my dear friends, and them to me, in the bonds of Christian love. Amid all the fluctuations of this mortal life, may we ever have grace given us to cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart. Treading the same pilgrim-journey, may we arrive at last at the same pilgrim-home.

I would retire to rest this night with my eye on the opened fountain. O give me that peace of Thine which the world knoweth not of, which the world cannot give, and, blessed be God, which the world cannot take away! Abide {13} with me, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent. Give thine angels charge over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and, when all my evenings and mornings shall be finished, may it be mine to wake up with Thyself in glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ my only Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

THIRD EVENING.
FOR RENEWING GRACE.

Blessed God, I desire anew to end this night with Thee! Do Thou enkindle my soul as with a live coal from off Thy holy altar! Let all unhallowed and obtrusive thoughts and cares be set aside, that I may enjoy a season of fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

I rejoice to think that I have such a Friend to repair to—such a never-failing refuge in every season of perplexity and trouble; vicissitude {14} is written on all around me, but "Thou art the same." Though often, alas! I have changed towards Thee, Thou hast never changed towards me. Thou didst love me from the beginning, and that love remains to this hour, infinite, unalterable!

Lord, I am mourning over my many and grievous backslidings, my base and unworthy requital of all Thine unmerited kindness. Bring me in poverty of Spirit, with deep conscious unworthiness, to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Give me a realizing sense of the evil of sin, and my own sin in particular. I feel that I have no abiding and depressing consciousness of my guilt. How little of genuine, heartfelt contrition do I experience! How often I appear to be humble and penitent when I am not! How do my very prayers condemn me; and my confessions of sin need themselves to be confessed!

Oh renew me in the spirit of my mind.—May all old things pass away; may all things be made new. Transform me by the indwelling power of Thy quickening Spirit. May affections now alienated from Thee be reclaimed {15} to Thy service. May I seek to be more animated by the sovereign motive of love to Him, whose I am, and whom it is alike my duty and my privilege to obey. Knowing that this is Thy will concerning me, even my sanctification, may it be my constant ambition to be growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I have in myself no might, no power, no sufficiency, to do any of these things. My sufficiency is of Thee. Do Thou make Thy grace sufficient for me, and perfect strength in weakness. Keep me from all evil that would be likely to grieve me. Wean me from all that is fleeting and perishable here, and may all Thy dealings towards me issue in the confirmed habit of a holy life. If Thou sendest affliction, let me regard it as Thine own way of dispensing spiritual blessing, and bow with lowly submission to Thy sovereign appointments.

Bless all my beloved friends. Keep them as the apple of Thine eye. Hide them under the shadow of Thy everlasting wings. Sanctify trial to all in sorrow. Let the widow and the fatherless put their trust in Thee. Succor the {16} poor and him that hath no helper. Support the aged. Sustain the dying. May we all bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.

As the pillar of cloud has been with me by day, so may the pillar of fire be with me this night. Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and when I awake may I be still with Thee. And all I ask is for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

FOURTH EVENING.
FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE.

Blessed Lord, do Thou bend Thy pitying eye of love and mercy upon me this evening. Draw Thou near to me as I venture once more on praying and on pleading ground. I desire to feel that I am one night nearer glory. Oh, enable me to feel, as night after night is silently {17} stealing over my head, that my seasons and opportunities of grace are fleeting fast away, and that soon the night cometh, wherein I can work no more.

Alas! O God, how little have I improved the time that is past! I am a wonder to myself, that with all my deep ingratitude and utter vileness I am yet permitted to approach Thy footstool: I have sinned against light and love—warning and mercy—grace and privilege. The retrospect of life is a retrospect of guilt. I mourn over my manifold shortcomings—the alienation of my heart from Thee—the fitfulness of my spiritual frames—the ebbings and flowings in the tide of my love. When tried by the lofty and unerring standard of Thy law, how are my best actions and duties marred with defilement! How much self-seeking and self-glorying—how little animated by the predominating motive of love to Thee, and singleness of eye to Thy service!

Blessed Jesus! I flee anew to the pavilion of Thy love. I have no other hope, no other refuge, but in Thy finished work—Thy matchless atonement—Thy spotless righteousness. {18} There is in Thee an all-sufficiency for every want. Finite necessities cannot exhaust Infinite fullness. Let me hear Thy voice saying, "Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee!" O sprinkle me with Thy blood; sanctify me, body, soul, and spirit. Transform me more and more into Thine own image. May I know more and more the happiness of true holiness—that I am really blessed in seeking to walk so as to please God. May the power of grace wax stronger and stronger, and the power of sin wax weaker and weaker. May trials and crosses become light and easy to me when borne in a spirit of meek, unrepining submission to the Divine will. May this quiet every doubt and misgiving, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Lord, may every providential dealing prove a heart-searcher, testing the reality of my love to Thee, and my meetness and preparedness for Thy heavenly kingdom.

Extend, Lord, Thy cause and Gospel everywhere. Strengthen Thy missionary and ministering servants. May they ever hear the sound of their Master's footsteps behind them. May {19} thy churches walk in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

Bless all my beloved friends wherever they are; do Thou be their Almighty Protector and Guide. Let the angel come at this the time of evening incense, touching all our hearts, and granting us an answer to our several petitions. Let us rise to-morrow refreshed for Thy service; and fitted for whatsoever in Thy good providence we may be called either to do or to suffer. Hear me, gracious God, for the sake of Him whom Thou hearest always. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

FIFTH EVENING.
FOR RESTRAINING GRACE.

Blessed God, Thou hast in Thy mercy permitted me to see the close of another day. With what unwearying watchfulness has Thou been compassing my path!—defending me from {20} danger, guarding me from temptation, hedging up my way with thorns, "preventing me with the blessings of Thy goodness!" There is no friend in the world I have like Thee; none so able, none so willing to be my friend. If I have been successful in resisting sin, it is all Thy blessed grace which has enabled me. From how many slippery places has Thou rescued me! When often on the brink of the precipice, ready to fall, Thy interposing hand has saved me from inevitable destruction. When through my own weakness and unwatchfulness I must now have been wandering in hopeless alienation from Thee, Thou hast mercifully not suffered the bruised reed to be broken, nor the smoking flax to be quenched.

Lord, my earnest prayer is that Thy grace may still be made sufficient for me. May no spiritual foe be allowed to invade my peace or endanger my safety. Let Thy love be restored to its rightful ascendancy in my affections. May no rival be allowed to usurp its place. May I ever exercise a holy jealousy over this truant, wandering, deceitful heart; seeking day by day to subdue unmortified sin.

{21} May all Thy dispensations issue in my sanctification. Let me seek no unruffled path; may the cross be willingly carried. Thou lovest me too well to give me my own way. Whatever Thy will and Thy dealings may be, be it mine cheerfully and rejoicingly to acquiesce in them, knowing them to be the dictate of infinite wisdom and unchanging love. May all my worldly business and engagements be interfused and hallowed with the blessed sense and assurance of Thy favor! Walking all the day in the light of Thy countenance, I must be safe!

God of Bethel—God of all the families of the earth, vouchsafe Thy richest benediction on all near and dear to me. Give thine angels charge over them; let their names be written among the living in Jerusalem; and oh, may we all seek in our several spheres to glorify Thee on earth, either by active duty or by patient endurance; exemplifying in our daily walk the meek and lowly, the unselfish and self-denying, spirit of Him, who hath left us an example that we should follow His steps.

Hasten the coming of Thy Son's kingdom. {22} Arise, O God, and plead Thine own cause. "Save Thy people, bless Thine inheritance, feed them also and lift them up for ever."

The curtain of night is again drawn around me. If it be Thy will, spare me to see the light and enjoy the comforts of a new day; may I seek anew to enjoy them in Thee; may every blessing be doubly sweet to me, bearing the impress of Thy love in Jesus. Guide me in life, through death, into glory, for the sake of Him in whom is all my hope, and to whom, with Thee the Father, and Thee, ever-blessed Spirit, one God, be ascribed all blessing and honor and glory and praise, world without end. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

SIXTH EVENING.
FOR RESTORING GRACE.

Blessed God, I rejoice to know that the gates of prayer are ever open;—that for the {23} sake of Jesus Christ, my adorable Redeemer, Thou art waiting to be gracious, not willing that any should perish.

Come in the plenitude of Thy love this evening, that I may feel it to be good for me to draw near to God! Scatter my darkness, Thou better Sun, with the brightness of Thy rising. Give me filial confidence in approaching the mercy-seat, rejoicing in the mightiest of all Beings as my Father and Friend.

Blessed Jesus! I would exercise a simple confidence and trust in Thy finished work, I would seek to wash anew in the opened fountain of Thy blood, to repose anew in the faithful saying which never can cease, to the sin-stricken, sin-burdened soul, to be worthy of all acceptation, that Thou didst come into the world to save the chief of sinners.

I have to mourn, O Lord, my constant proneness to depart from Thee—the instability of my best purposes of obedience. Unsupported by Thy grace I must fall. There is nothing, O Thou great Intercessor within the veil, but Thine omnipotent pleadings between me and irretrievable ruin. But Thou hast prayed, and {24} art even now praying, for me that my faith fail not. Oh if I am still prone to start aside, like a deceitful bow, do Thou bring me back again! Reclaim my truant heart from its wanderings. I would cast myself with simple dependence on Thy grace for the future. This is sufficient for all wants and equal to all exigencies. Thine everlasting arms are lower than my deepest necessities. Adorable Saviour, I may well cast my every care on Thee, for these cares Thou makest Thine own. Thou hast a heart to feel for those who have often no heart to feel for themselves. Oh let me ever seek to hear Thy directing voice and to hear no other.

Do Thou carry on within me Thine own work in thine own way. Thou, Great Shepherd of Israel, canst not lead me wrong. I delight to trace Thy guiding love in the past, and I may well trust Thee still; going up through the wilderness may I lean on Thine arm; when I come to die may the gloom of the dark valley be lighted with the rays of Thy love, and may I hear Thy voice whispering in gentle accents, "Fear not, for I am with thee." Be gracious to all my beloved friends. Train {25} them also, by Thy good Spirit, for eternity. Fit them for every duty. Arm them against every temptation. Dispose them to fear Thy glorious name, and to live from day to day under the powers and influences of a world to come. Compassionate the afflicted; comfort the bereaved; support the dying.

Lord, take the charge of me during the silent watches of another night. May I rise on the morrow to renew my work and warfare on earth, looking forward to the time when the twilight of this world shall melt into everlasting day, and when nothing shall evermore mar or interrupt the blessedness of endless communion with Thee: through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

SEVENTH EVENING.
FOR QUICKENING GRACE.

"Quicken me after Thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of Thy mouth."—Psalm cxix. 88.

O God, on this the close of another day, I desire to approach the footstool of Thy throne. Glory be to Thy holy name that I can enjoy freedom of access into Thy presence, and with the confidence of a child unburden and unbosom to Thee all my wants and sins, my sorrows and infirmities, my perplexities and cares.

Lord, how unworthy I am of the least of all Thy mercies! What righteous cause hast Thou to cut me down as a cumberer of the ground. How cold my love, how unfrequent my prayers! How full my heart of pride and vain-glory, self and sin! How little have I habitually realized Thy nearness and sought Thy favor as my chief good! There is enough of coldness and formality in my best approaches to Thy footstool to lead Thee in Thy wrath to spurn me forever away, and to mingle my blood with my sacrifices!

I cast myself as a worthless unworthy sinner {27} at the feet of Jesus. I need daily, hourly washing at that fountain which He has opened for sin and for uncleanness. Wash me, gracious Lord, fully, freely, and forever. Let me know the blessedness of "no condemnation." Deepen my contrition on account of my sin. I am apt to palliate its enormity, to invent vain excuses for its commission, to hide its heinousness from myself, and to hide it from Thee. Let me see all sin, and my own sin in particular, in the light of Calvary's cross. May I hate it with a perfect hatred, and resolve in Thy grace that it henceforth have no dominion over me. Oh quicken me by the indwelling of Thy blessed Spirit. May I seek to be progressing in the divine life. May my pathway heavenward be brightened by a lively sense of reconciliation through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

Let me lean on Thy heavenly arm, seeking Thy glory with singleness of eye. May it be my greatest grief to give Thee pain, my greatest joy and happiness to do Thy will. Keep me from all hard thoughts and unrighteous surmises regarding Thy dealings. May I see them all as designed to quicken my steps in the heavenly {28} way, to bring me nearer Thyself, and to impart an increasing meetness for glory. Let Thy kingdom come, let Thy blessed Gospel triumph over the pride and superstition and will-worship of man. Put an end to war and discord, and may all the ends of the earth see Thy salvation. Bless Thy ministering servants; may they be valiant for the truth, and have no fear but the fear of God.

Be the Guide and Guardian of all whom I love. Preserve their bodies from danger and their souls from sin. Watch over them and me this night; be about our bed as Thou hast been about our path. Night after night as I retire to rest may I think of the deeper darkness of the night of death, which must, sooner or later encompass me. Reposing in the merits of my gracious Redeemer, may I be enabled to look beyond death and the grave, to that morning without clouds, when I shall awake in His likeness, and be ushered into the full vision and fruition of Thee my God; and all that I ask or hope for is for His sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

EIGHTH EVENING.
FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.

"Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."—Rom. iii. 22.

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, I desire to draw near into Thy sacred presence on this the evening of another day, under a deep sense of my own great unworthiness. What am I, guilty, sinful, polluted, that I should be permitted to take Thy name into my lips, or so much as lift up my eyes to the place where Thou in glory dwellest!

I desire to renounce all dependence on myself. I come with all the great burden of my great guilt to a great Saviour. I seek to bring the unrighteousness of an unworthy creature to the infinite righteousness and everlasting faithfulness of a tried Redeemer. Where would I have been, Blessed Jesus! this night, but for Thee! All I am, and all I have, I owe to Thy free, sovereign, unmerited grace. All my temporal mercies are sweetened to me as flowing from Thy cross, and bearing on them the image {30} and superscription of Thy love. And for every spiritual blessing I enjoy, and every spiritual hope I entertain, I desire doubly to adore thee, Thou Great Author and Finisher of my faith! Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none in all the earth I desire besides Thee. Thou alone canst fill up the aching voids of my heart. In vain can I look to a transient world, or to the perishable creature, for solid peace and permanent enjoyment. All my well-springs are in Thyself; with Thee for my portion I am independent of every other.

I desire this night to obtain a lively and humbling view of my own spiritual poverty and deep creature destitution, that I may rejoice in the fullness and all-sufficiency of that righteousness which is unto all and upon all them that believe. In that righteousness I would seek to live, and in that righteousness I would seek to die. There is nothing else between me and everlasting ruin. But for Thee, Thou great Covenant-Angel standing in the breach, the fire of God would break forth and mingle my blood with this my evening sacrifice! But I "will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be {31} joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness." I take Thee, O adorable Saviour, as mine only, mine wholly; mine for all wants and all exigencies. I rejoice in the inexhaustible riches treasured up in Thee—that Thy fullness is adequate to supply all my present necessities; and out of that fullness I may still continue receiving, and that for ever and ever!

Lord, look in great kindness on all whom I love. Pity a perishing world. Arrest the careless; reclaim the wandering; strengthen the feeble. Hasten Thy Son's coming and kingdom. How long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Save Thy people; bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up for ever.

Let the curtain of Thy protecting providence be drawn around me this night. Let me fall asleep at peace with Thee, ready, if need be, to awake up in glory. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

NINTH EVENING.
FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING.

"Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."—Rom. v. 1.

Gracious God, I would seek to end another day with Thee; I would desire to look up to Thee through Jesus Christ, Thy well-beloved Son, and to be made partaker of that peace which passeth all understanding. There is no other refuge for the sin-stricken, woe-worn spirit. In vain amid other portions and meaner joys can I say to my soul "peace, peace." There is no peace! But reposing, blessed Saviour, on Thy finished work and everlasting righteousness, I have a peace which the world knows not of, and which enables me to rise superior to all the vicissitudes and changes of this changing life.

I desire to remember with a grateful heart that this peace has been purchased for me by the blood of the cross—that it is made as sure as everlasting power and wisdom and faithfulness can make it. O Thou great Prince, who {33} hast power with God and dost prevail, I would lift the undivided eye of faith to Thy bleeding sacrifice! Do Thou dispel every disquieting fear with the thought that Thou hast done all, and suffered all, and procured all for me. Being justified by faith, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I rejoice in the plenitude of Thy promises, that they are all yea and amen to them that believe. Man's word may fail, man's faithfulness may falter, but "the word of the Lord is tried," Thy faithfulness is unto all generations!

O God, enable me to rejoice more and more in Thee as my everlasting portion. May I know nothing to compare with the enjoyment of Thy favor. Other props may be removed, other refuges may prove refuges of lies, but Thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

Give me grace to be active in Thy service while it is called to-day. Opportunities are fleeting. The night cometh wherein none of us can work. May simple believing be followed by the earnest cultivation of every Christian virtue, and by progressive advancement in the {34} heavenly life. May I faithfully employ the talents Thou hast intrusted to me, and seek never to be weary in well doing. Preserve me from every unholy temper and unchristian deed. May I be gentle and meek, patient and forgiving, kind and benevolent, living in charity towards all men.

On all my beloved friends I supplicate Thy richest blessing. Protect them with Thy favor as with a shield. Sanctify them, body, soul, and spirit. Seal them unto the day of eternal redemption.

Bless all poor afflicted ones. Let them receive largely out of the wells of Thine own everlasting consolation. Let them see Thy sovereign hand alone in their trials, and say with unrepining submission, "The Lord's will be done!"

Lord, take the charge of me through the silent watches of the night. May I fall asleep listening to the gracious benediction, "Peace be unto you." And when the gates of the morning are opened, may it be to hear anew Thy voice saying, "My presence will go with {35} you." Hear, accept, and answer me, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TENTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

"Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."—Rom. viii. 15.

Blessed Lord! I desire to draw near this night with holy boldness to the footstool of Thy throne, rejoicing that I can look up to Thee as my Father in heaven. "Behold what manner of love is this the Father hath bestowed on me, that I should be called a child of God." Thou mightest have righteously left me orphaned, friendless, portionless for ever. But in the midst of wrath Thou hast remembered mercy: the kindness of no earthly parent, O God, could equal thine. Thou hast borne with all my obstinacy, all my perverseness, and waywardness, and ingratitude. I am at this hour the monument of a love as wondrous as it is undeserved.

{36} Oh teach me to cultivate more and more a spirit of child-like obedience to Thee; to cherish a holy fear of offending so kind and forgiving and beneficent a Father. Whilst Thou art strewing my wilderness path with unmerited blessings, may I be enabled to rise above every earthly gift and mercy to the better inheritance I have in Thee, the bountiful Bestower of all! Let me feel every created blessing to be doubly sweet, as emanating from a Father's hand, and being a proof and pledge of a Father's love. Let the hour of prayer be doubly hallowed by the thought that I am permitted to haunt a Father's presence, and pour my wants into a Father's ear. Let the season of sorrow be sweetened by the thought that the rod is in a Father's hand, and that the voice, though apparently rough, is the tender whispering of parental love.

Blessed Jesus! I desire to remember that it is Thou and Thou only who hast not left me "comfortless." It is Thou who hast devised and completed a way by which "Thy banished" may not be "expelled" from a Father's presence. Thou hast opened a door of welcome to {37} the chief of sinners. It is Thy blessed voice and Thy glorious work which utter the gracious declaration, "In my Father's house there are many mansions." Oh let me lean with a more simple and entire dependence on Thee; let me live from day to day with an unfaltering trust in Thy mercy. May every new evening, as it finds me laying the incense-offering of gratitude and love on Thine altar, find me also a stage nearer my Father's house, nearer home, and nearer Thee.

Take all my beloved friends under Thy shadowing wings this night. The darkness can not screen them from Thee; the curtains of night can not exclude Thy kind and watchful eye. Guide, guard, protect them, and bring them all at last to Thy heavenly kingdom.

Bless Thy Church everywhere; lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes. Be a wall of fire around Thy Zion and the glory in the midst thereof. Clothe her priests with salvation, let her saints and people shout aloud for joy.

Bless those on whom Thou hast laid Thine afflicting hand. May they take refuge in the arms that are chastising them, and be enabled to {38} say in unmurmuring submission, "The Lord's will be done." Hear me, gracious Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

ELEVENTH EVENING.
FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD.

O God, I desire to come into Thy gracious presence this night, beseeching Thee to bless me. Let my prayer come before Thee as incense. May the incense-offering of gratitude and thanksgiving ascend from a grateful heart. How manifold are the proofs I have to recount of kindness on thy part! how deep the ingratitude I have to mourn on my own! My sins have reached unto the clouds; they are more in number than the sand of the sea.

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. I cannot evade Thy righteous scrutiny; {39} all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom I have to do! Lord, I have to lament the proneness of this evil heart of unbelief ever to depart away from Thee, the living God. I mourn the debasing influence of earthly things; the fascinating power of a present evil world. How inclined to conform to its evil maxims and unholy practices! How often am I found ranged among those who "mind earthly things;" my soul cleaving to the dust, instead of soaring upwards to Thyself, my alone satisfying portion!

Lord, it is my earnest prayer that Thou wouldst wean me from the world. Keep me from over-anxiety about the things that are seen—from being over-careful and troubled about earth's "many things," to the exclusion of the one thing needful! Break every alluring worldly spell; disenchant things temporal of their false and delusive charm; disengage me by all the salutary discipline of Thy providence from what is fleeting, uncertain, transient, perishable; and unite me to the things which cannot be shaken, but which remain forever! May my citizenship be more in heaven; imbibing {40} more of the pilgrim spirit, may I declare plainly that I seek a better country.

May the sins of the past day be forgiven; may the blood of sprinkling wash their guilt away. May I be driven nearer and closer to Him who is the true refuge and portion, and Saviour of His people. I rejoice to think that He has a balm for every wound, a comfort for every bosom, a solace for every tear. May it be mine to go up through the wilderness leaning on His arm. May Thy Holy Spirit carry on His own work of sanctification within me. May He enlighten, quicken, comfort, strengthen me; and mould me in gradual conformity to Thy divine will.

Bless all connected with me, by whatever tie. When earth's separations are at an end, do Thou take me and all dear to me to the enjoyment of Thy presence and love in Thine own everlasting kingdom. Let the pillar of Thy presence be over us this night. Guard me during sleep's unconscious hours. Let no unquiet dreams disturb my repose; may I compose myself to rest under the sweet assurance that Thou the Lord sustainest me; and when I awake, may I {41} be still with Thee, through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWELFTH EVENING.
FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST.

O God Almighty, do Thou draw near to me at this time in Thy great mercy, and accept of this my Evening Sacrifice! I bless Thee for all that gladdens my earthly lot, for food and raiment, for friends and home, for health of body and soundness of mind. Lord, I delight to trace the wondrous way by which Thou hast hitherto led me! Thou hast compassed my path and my lying down. Thou hast supplied my ever-recurring necessities. My wants have been infinite, but infinite too has been the gracious supply. With a grateful heart I would set up my Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped me." And remembering Thy {42} faithfulness in the past, I would confidently trust Thee for the future.

May I thankfully employ the manifold gifts of Thy bounty. Impress upon me the feeling that I am but a steward, responsible to Thee for all I possess. Let me not selfishly appropriate the varied means of usefulness thou hast put within my power, but willingly employ these in Thy service for the good of others. When Thou comest to demand a reckoning, may I be able to give a faithful account of my stewardship, paying Thee Thine own with usury.

Lord, while I bless Thee for the other proofs and tokens of Thy love, far above all would I bless Thee for Jesus. Where would I have been this night but for Him? How dreary would have been the past! How dismal and hopeless the future! Thanks, eternal Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! Let me feel, more than I have done, the exceeding riches of Thy grace in Thy kindness toward me through Christ Jesus. Let all Thy dealings only serve to confirm my love to Him, and to lead me to cleave to Him with fuller purpose of heart. May he have my undivided homage. Let no {43} earthly gift or blessing supplant the Giver, but may every rill of creative bliss be doubly sweet to me as flowing from His atoning sacrifice.

I rejoice in the midst of trial and perplexity to think of Thee, Thou tried and suffering One. I rejoice that amid my sorrows I can remember Thine, that amid my very tears, I can remember Jesus wept. Thou canst enter into all the peculiarities of Thy people's case, for Thou wert in "all points tempted." Let me feel, even amid the changes of life, that what I am apt to call vicissitudes, are the sovereign decrees and allotments of Thine infinite wisdom; and what I cannot comprehend now, be it mine to wait the disclosures of that blessed morning when, standing at the luminous portals of Heaven, I shall joyfully acknowledge that the Lord hath done all things well.

Bless my beloved friends; may they be growing in thy fear and favor; may they all at last, as sheaves in thy heavenly garner, be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

I commend myself, gracious God, to Thy care; let me retire to rest this night in the {44} blessed consciousness of Thy favor; and if spared to see the light of a new day, fit me for whatsoever Thou hast in store for me. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

THIRTEENTH EVENING.
FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE.

O God, Thou makest the outgoings of the evening and the morning to rejoice over me. I thank Thee for Thy sparing mercy during the past day. While multitudes of my fellow-men have been called away into an eternal world, I am still preserved in the land of the living, and in the place of hope. It is of Thy compassions alone that I am not consumed.

My way Zionward may well be studded with Ebenezers, testifying "the Lord hath helped me." I may well set to my seal that God is true. The pillar of Thy presence has guided me through many a perplexing path. Thy love has {45} smiled through many a threatening cloud. Thy restraining grace has arrested me in many a slippery way; when "my soul was among lions," how often has the Lord "sent his angel" to rescue me and shut the lions' mouths. I am this night a marvel and miracle of Thy patience, and forbearance, and mercy.

Lord, I joyfully take all these past kindnesses as tokens for the future. To Thee I would confidingly commit the unknown morrow, and cleave to Thy guiding arm with full purpose of heart. The lot is thrown into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord; O, be it my joy and privilege, thus reposing in Thy covenant faithfulness, to say, "Undertake Thou for me." Looking forward to that time when all Thy inscrutable dealings will be unfolded, when inner meanings and purposes now undiscerned by the eye of sense will be brought to light, and all discovered to be full of infinite love.

Keep me from dishonoring Thee by the workings of unbelief; I am prone to trust my own wisdom, O give me teachableness of spirit and simplicity of faith, waiting patiently on {46} Thee; leaving all that concerns me and mine to Thy better direction.

Blessed Jesus! I would seek to cleave closer and closer to Thy cross. I have no trust but in Thy finished work. Other refuges may fail, but I am as secure in Thee as everlasting love and wisdom and power can make me. O cleanse every guilty stain away in thy most precious blood. Let me live day by day at the opened fountain, and feel that I only "live" while there. Thus simply relying on Thy justifying grace, may I seek to walk in Thy footsteps and to imbibe Thy spirit. May I follow Thee, O Lamb of God, whithersoever Thou seest meet to lead me. May I never feel as if I would wish one jot or tittle regarding me altered, when the reins of empire are in Thy hands.

Take my beloved friends under Thy special care. Watch over them, provide for them, decide for them. In all their ways may they acknowledge Thee, and in all things seek Thy honor and glory.

Pity the afflicted. Stay Thy rough wind in the day of Thy east wind. Let them rejoice that every bitter drop in the cup of life is appointed {47} by Thee. May they submissively drink it, saying, "Thy will be done!"

Hear, Lord, the voice of my supplications, when Thou hearest, forgive, and grant me an answer in peace, seeing all that I ask is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

FOURTEENTH EVENING.
FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings."—Phil. iii. 10.

Almighty God, do Thou draw near to me this night in Thy great mercy. What am I, that infinite unworthiness and nothingness should be permitted to stand in the presence of infinite purity, majesty, and glory? Lord, I dare not have ventured to bow at thy footstool in my own merits. I am poor and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Enter not in {48} judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight no flesh living can be justified.

But, adored be Thy name, I have an all-sufficient ground of confidence wherewith to approach Thee. I bless Thee, that by the doing and dying of Jesus, Thou hast opened up a way of reconciliation to the chief of sinners. Oh, enable me to know more fully the adaptation of His person and work to all the necessities and exigencies of my character and circumstances. Let me know him in His infinite Godhead, as "mighty to save;" in His spotless humanity, as mighty to compassionate. Let me know Him in all His offices, as my Prophet, my Priest, my King; my Kinsman-Redeemer within the veil, my Refuge in trouble, my Guide in perplexity, my Support in death, my Portion through eternity. I rejoice, blessed Jesus, at the hidden springs of life resident in Thee! Thou art suited to all the varied wants and circumstances, and trials of Thy people—for every moment of need, for every diversity of situation. I can mourn no real blank, if I have Thy presence and blessing.

O Thou, better than the best of earthly {49} friends, who, though enthroned amid the hosannas of angels, hast still Thy human sympathy unaltered and unchanged, draw near to me this night, and breathe upon me, and say, "Peace be unto thee." Let me know the melting energy of Thy love, and the attractive power of Thy cross. May I keep the unwavering eye of faith steadily directed to Thy all-glorious sacrifice. Be Thou the habitual object of my contemplation, the source of holiest joy, the animating principle of obedience. May all creature love be subordinated to Thine. May my temper, my walk, my conversation, be regulated in accordance with Thy blessed will and holy example. May this be the lofty aim and ambition of life, to act so as to please Jesus.

Bless my dear friends, may they too be led to count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord, whom to know is life eternal. Pity the careless; reclaim the backsliding; comfort the sorrowful; sustain the dying. May the Lord arise and have mercy on Zion; may He show that the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come!

{50} Ere I lay my head on my nightly pillow, I would lay anew my guilt on the head of the Divine Surety; may I fall asleep under the blessed sense of sin forgiven, and look forward to that blessed day when earth's night-shadows shall have vanished forever, and when I shall be enabled more fully "to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." And all I ask or hope for is for His sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

FIFTEENTH EVENING.
FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY.

"Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee."—Psalm cxliii. 8.

O God, Thy favor is life, Thy loving-kindness is better than life. Thy mercies have been new to me every morning, and Thy faithfulness every night. Thou hast watched over me from the earliest years of infancy with more than a Father's care. The kindness of the kindest on earth has been coldness itself when compared {51} with Thine. I rejoice that I can thus trace in a wondrous past the visible footsteps of Thy love, and fearlessly trust and repose in Thee for the future.

Thou art a rich provider. None so able, none so willing to guide me in every perplexity, to extricate me from every difficulty, and to befriend me amid the fitful changes of life. What a safe anchorage is this amid the world's restless surges of vicissitude, "The Lord reigneth!" Do Thou enable me wholly to follow the Lord my God; to follow Thee not only in smooth places, but even when the path is rough and the way thorny. May I confide in the wisdom of all Thine allotments. I rejoice that all the changes Thou orderest for Thy covenant people are changes for the better, and not for the worse.

O blessed Jesus! Thou who art the true pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, do Thou precede me ever in all my wilderness wanderings. May I encamp only where Thou leadest me. May I strike my tent only when Thou speakest that I "go forward." Let me experience the conscious happiness of knowing {52} no will but Thine, and of being solicitous in all things to follow the guiding voice and footsteps of the Great Shepherd of the flock. If there be aught in Thy providence perplexing me now, I would say in child-like simplicity, "I am oppressed, undertake Thou for me!" "My heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Hide me in the crevices of that smitten Rock; let me know the safety and joy of being shielded there, until earth's calamities be overpast.

Graciously forgive all the sins of this past day—the sins of thought, word and deed; all my selfishness and uncharitableness; all my pride and vain-glory; all my censoriousness and inconsideration of the wishes and feelings of others. Blessed Jesus! let me follow more closely Thy holy footsteps, and drink more deeply of Thy heavenly spirit.

Bless all in sorrow, sanctify to them their trials, may they see and own a "need be" in them all. Prepare the dying for death, and spare useful lives.

Take all belonging to me this night under the shield of Thy protecting providence, let {53} them ever commit their way onto Thee, and do Thou bring it to pass. Hold up their goings in Thy word, that their footsteps may not stumble.

Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep; and when all my days and nights on earth are finished, may it be mine to enjoy Thy presence in a cloudless, nightless Heaven; through Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

SIXTEENTH EVENING.
FOR VICTORY OVER SIN.

O God, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Evil cannot dwell with Thee, fools cannot stand in Thy presence. Thou hast solemnly declared, "Thou canst by no means clear the guilty," and that "though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not escape unpunished."

Lord, I rejoice that I can draw near to Thee {54} in the name of Him by whom the guilty have been cleared; and through whom it is that a holy and righteous and sin-hating God can yet be holy and just, in the very act of justifying the ungodly.

I desire to adore Thee for all Thy creative and providential goodness. Thou hast loaded me with Thy benefits. The past is paved with love. I see in the retrospect of life nothing but amazing, unmerited kindness, mercy upon mercy! Amid manifold changes there has been no change in Thee, no altered looks, no fainting or weariness or estrangement. Amid the wanderings of my own fitful spirit I can write over every remembrance of the past, But "Thou art the same!"

I desire with penitence of soul to mourn my own ingratitude and sin, the desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of my own evil heart, the power of corruption, the mastery of self, the alienation of my affections from Thee their rightful Sovereign and Lord. What an easy prey have I often fallen in the hour of temptation—by thought and word and deed dishonoring Thy name and basely requiting Thy love! {55} Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy child!

Give me genuine contrition for the past, inspire me with new purposes of obedience for the future. Without Thy favor and reconciliation, in peace I cannot live, in peace I dare not die! My cry would be, "More grace, more grace!" Let me be gaining every day fresh victories over sin; may my soul be daily nurtured by the influence of heaven-born principles. May I know the expulsive power of the new implanted affection of love to Thee. Dethrone the world. Subjugate the power of sin. Give me greater tenderness of conscience; may I jealously guard every avenue to temptation, and be ready ever with the reply to the seductions of the tempter, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

Let me be willing to forego anything rather than forsake Thy ways. Be it my habitual purpose and desire to cleave unto Thee the Lord with full purpose of heart. Let me hallow all life's duties and engagements with Thy favor, looking forward to that time when my {56} will and Thine, blessed God! shall be one, and when there shall be no more sin to interrupt the interchange of love and devotedness.

Bless all my dear friends; may the blessing of Jacob's God, the God of all the families of the earth, rest upon them. Give them all needful temporal blessings. Fill their souls with peace and joy in believing. May they and I look forward with joyful anticipation to that "morning without clouds," which knows no change nor vicissitude, when there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, because there will be no more sin; and all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

SEVENTEENTH EVENING.
FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH.

"The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."—Gal. ii. 20.

O God, I desire to draw near unto Thy blessed presence on this the evening of another {57} day, adoring Thee for all the loving-kindness Thou art continually making to pass before me. May I ever be enabled to look up to Thee as the Author and Bestower of all my mercies. May no created good ever be suffered to dispossess Thee of my affections. May all that I enjoy, alike temporal and spiritual, be traced to Thee, the Fountain of all happiness. May prosperity be hallowed by receiving it as a pledge of Thy favor, and may trial lose its bitterness by the consciousness that every thorn in my path is permitted by Thee, and every bitter drop in the cup appointed by Thee.

May I thus seek, O God, from day to day, to live a life of simple faith and dependence on Thy grace; with confiding love may I commit my every care and want and perplexity to Thy better direction, feeling sweetly assured that Thou wilt guide me by a right way to the city of habitation.

Above all would I seek a renewed interest in those covenant blessings which Christ died to purchase and which He is exalted to bestow. All my hope is in Him; weak, helpless, perishing, I flee to Him, as the help and hope and {58} portion of all who seek Him. Hide me, O blessed Jesus, in Thy wounded side. I would overcome alone through the blood of the Lamb. Wash me thoroughly in Thy precious blood. May I hear Thine own voice of pardoning love saying, "Your sins which are many are all forgiven."

After all Thou hast done for me, let me harbor no guilty and unworthy suspicions of Thy faithfulness. Let me feel assured that tender love regulates all Thy allotments. Thou art pledged to use the dealing and discipline best suited for Thy people's case, and what will best effect Thine own will concerning them, even their sanctification. Carry on within me Thine own work in Thine own way. Fortify me against temptation; let me not surrender myself to the base compliances of a world lying in wickedness. But, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, may I know that He who is with me is greater far than all that can be against me. Oh enkindle afresh my expiring, languishing love; let me live more under the influence of "things not seen," having the eye of faith more upwards {59} and homewards, looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God my Saviour.

Let Thy kingdom come! Arise, O God, and plead Thine own cause. May all the ends of the earth soon be gladdened with the Gospel's joyful sound!

Bless all in sorrow, all bereaved of near and dear friends; may they see no hand in their trials but Thine. Thou givest us our blessings; and when Thou seest meet Thou revokest the grant. Let us see love in every threatening wave, all rolling at Thy bidding.

Lord, take the charge of me this night. Abide with me, blessed Saviour, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. Oh, may it be mine to feel that each successive evening as it brings me nearer eternity, is ripening me for its never-ending joys. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

EIGHTEENTH EVENING.
FOR THE DAILY DEATH.

O God Almighty, Father of all mercies, God of all grace, I beseech Thee to look down upon me at this time in Thy great kindness; let me feel it to be good for me to draw near unto God.

I desire to come acknowledging my great unworthiness. Forgive, gracious Lord, my many, many sins of thought, word, and deed; wash out all the defilements of the day. If I were to be tried by the doings of any single hour, how would I stand condemned! I am a miracle of mercy; kept, sustained, upheld, moment by moment, by the power of God.

Blessed Saviour! where could I have been this night but for Thee? Thou art praying for me, as for Thy faltering disciple of old, that my faith fail not. I do rejoice to think that the same hand that was once outstretched for me on the cross is now lifted up in pleading {61} love before the Throne, and that He who is for me is greater far than all that can be against me! Oh strengthen me with all might by Thy Spirit in the inner man. Subdue my corruptions, crucify all remaining sin. Let me die to the world; let me not imbibe its false maxims, conform to its sinful tastes, or accord with its evil practices. Let self in all its manifold forms be crucified, and God exalted. Come, Lord! search me, try me, prove me, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Let me maintain a constant and habitual hatred of those sins that do more easily beset me; may I exercise a holy jealousy over my own heart. Let no prosperity be strengthening my ties earthward, and weakening my ties heavenward. If Thou givest me much of worldly good, may I write upon it all, "the things which are seen are temporal." May it be my exalted ambition to use it for Thy glory. If Thou sendest trial, let it issue in the peaceable fruits of righteousness, producing a child-like acquiescence in Thy present dealings. Let me never forget my pilgrim attitude. {62} Let me be ever looking forward to that joyous time when, "clean escaped" from the corruptions that are in the world, I shall stand "faultless before the Throne." Meanwhile, make me more heavenly-minded, copying the example of Him who was meek and lowly in heart.

Let me be gentle and forgiving, let me not harbor unkind suspicions of others, but consider myself, lest I also be tempted. O give me the character of Heaven on this side of death, that when I come to pass through the swellings of Jordan I may be prepared for the joyous welcome awaiting me on the shores of glory, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"

Have mercy on a world lying in wickedness! Pity the careless; arouse the slumbering; support the weak; succour the poor and those that have no helper. Bless Thy Church everywhere. May Thy ministering servants hide themselves, that their Lord may be exalted.

Take the charge of me and of all near and dear to me this night. Keep me, O keep me, King of kings, beneath Thine own Almighty wings. Lying down in Thy fear may I awake {63} in Thy favor, fitted for all the duties of a new day; and all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

NINETEENTH EVENING.
FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF.

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."—2 Cor. iii. 5.

O God! do Thou bend Thy pitying eye upon me this night, as I venture once more into Thy sacred presence. What mercy it is that, with all my great unworthiness, a throne of grace is still open, and a God of grace is still waiting to be gracious!

I come to Thee in deep creature-destitution, bringing nothing in my hands, but simply cleaving, blessed Jesus, to Thy cross; looking away from my guilty self and my guilty doings to Thee, who hast done all and suffered all for me, I rejoice to think that Thou hast broken {64} every chain of condemnation—that Thou hast satisfied the requirements of a broken law; and having overcome the sharpness of death, Thou hast opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Oh let me not continue in sin because all this wondrous grace abounds. Let me not think lightly of the accursed thing which was the cause of all Thine untold and unutterable anguish. I know, Lord, that I am apt at times to plead vain excuses for my sins. I am unwilling to think them, and to think myself, so vile as I really am, in Thy pure and holy eye.

My heart is deceitful; but "Thou art greater than my heart." Oh bring me in self-renouncing lowliness to cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Let me cling to no remnants of my own self-righteousness. Let me see that my best actions are marred with defilement and mingled with impure and unworthy motives.

Enable me to aim more and more at the conquest of self. Show me the plague of my own heart. Keep me from all that is unamiable and selfish, from all that is unkind and uncharitable, and that would exalt myself at the expense of {65} others. Keep me holy. Keep me lowly.—Lead me through the valley of humiliation. May life become more one grand effort to crucify sin and to please God. Take, gracious Saviour, my whole heart, and make it Thine; occupy it without a rival. May there be no competing affection. Keep me from alienating existence from its great end, by living to myself. May this be the superscription on all my thoughts, and duties, and engagements—"I am not my own, I am bought with a price."

May whatever be Thy time be mine. May I not murmur at deferred blessings or disappointed hopes. May my own will be resolved into the will of Him who knows best what to give and what to withhold.

May the Lord have mercy upon Zion. May showers of blessing descend on Thy holy hill. Hasten the glories of the latter day, when Jesus shall take to Himself His great power and reign!

Bless all my dear friends; may those ties which may be so soon severed here be rendered indissoluble by grace. Guard their couch and mine this night; give us refreshing sleep, lying down in Thy fear, and awaking in Thy favor, {66} fitted for all the duties of a new day. And all we ask or hope for is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTIETH EVENING.
FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT.

O Lord, I rejoice that I am permitted with filial confidence to approach Thy blessed presence. What a privilege it is to have such liberty of access to the Mercy-seat—to look upwards to Thee, the Infinite One, whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain, and call Thee my Father and my God! Earthly love may grow cold or changeable, or perish; but "Thou art the same." The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. Like as a father pitieth his children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear Him.

Alas! I have to mourn too often an unthankful {67} spirit amid all Thy manifold mercies. I have been rebellious and wayward, ungrateful and selfish. Thou mightest righteously have surrendered me to my own perverse will; left me to the fruit of my own ways, and to be filled with my own devices. It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed! Infinite is my want, but infinite too is my help. I would seek to stand before Thee, O God, in the nothingness of the creature, and to know the boundless resources treasured up for me in the great Redeemer. Unite me to Him by a living faith, as Thine own child by adoption; may it be my great desire to glorify Thee, my Father in Heaven; cherishing towards Thee a spirit of filial love and devotedness, seeking to do only what will please Thee, and having a salutary fear of offending so kind and forbearing a Parent.

Oh keep me from any sullen fretfulness, or unbelieving misgivings, under the strokes of Thy chastening hand. Let there be no hard construction of Thy dealings. May I see all Thy chastisements tempered with gracious love—all to be needful discipline. Give me an unwavering trust and confidence in Thy faithfulness. {68} Nothing befalls me but by Thy direction; nothing is appointed but what is for my good.

Let Thy varied dealings conform me to the image of my adorable Lord. Let me be willing to suffer patiently for Him who so willingly and so patiently suffered for me. Let me not so much seek to have my afflictions removed as to have grace given me to glorify Thee in them, and in the spirit of a weaned child to say, "Even so, Father!" O may my heart become a living temple, my life a living sacrifice, breathing the incense of gratitude and love. Let me give myself no rest until in this soul of mine I find a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

Do Thou sanctify trial to all the sons and daughters of sorrow. Draw near to those bereaved of beloved relatives. Do Thou Thyself compensate for every earthly loss. May they know that Thou art faithful who hast promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Have mercy on Thy whole Church. Heal divisions. Bless Thy preached word. Strengthen {69} Thy ministering servants, that they may be enabled to proclaim the whole counsel of God.

Take the charge of me, and of all near and dear to me, this night. Give Thine angels charge over us. May no unquiet dreams disturb our rest, and when we awake may we be still with Thee. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-FIRST EVENING.
FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS.

"The path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more onto the perfect day."—Proverbs iv. 18.

O God, I bless Thee that Thou hast spared me during another day, and permitted the shadows of another evening to gather around me in peace. It is Thou, Lord, only who makest me to dwell in safety. Enable me to live from day to day as the pensioner on Thy bounty; to feel my dependence; to receive every created blessing and gift direct from Thy hand, and to {70} seek to have all of them sweetened and hallowed as the pledges of Thy covenant love in Jesus.

I bless Thee, gracious God, for the richer tokens of Thy redeeming grace in Him. I bless Thee that His infinite merit has come in the place of my infinite demerit, that in Him there is "no condemnation;" that in His precious blood I have a secure shelter from the terrors of Thy righteous law and the accusations of a guilty conscience. May I know more and more the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. May my every hope of pardon centre in His cross. May I be living from day to day under the constraining influence of His love, and experience now a sweet foretaste of that everlasting communion which awaits me in His presence hereafter.

Lord, quicken me in my heavenly way; let me not loiter or linger on the road. Let this be my habitual feeling and watchword, "I am journeying." May I seek to mark my progressive advancement in the divine life, my increasing conformity to the image and will of Thee, my God. Keep me humble, cherishing a constant sense of my dependence on Thee. Oh in {71} every step Zionward, may I be led to cry, "Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe." Let there be no longer any halting between two opinions, any wavering or indecision. May I regard life as a great mission to please Thee. Let my animating wish be to be nearer Thee now, ere I come to be with Thee for ever in glory everlasting. Walking heavenwards, may I feel I am walking homewards.

May I spend each day as if possibly it were my last, so that should the midnight cry break upon my ears, "Prepare to meet Thy God," it might be to me no unexpected summons, but as an angel whispering, "The Master is come and calleth for thee."

Look down in mercy on the dark places of the earth full of the habitations of horrid cruelty. How long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Go forth with Thy missionary servants in heathen lands; may they witness much of Thy power; may Thy word still be mighty as ever to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds. Give thy Churches at home grace to be more faithful in the fulfilment of the great commission of their Great Head—"Go ye into {72} all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!"

Take all my beloved friends this night under Thy guardian care. Shield them from all danger; and if Thou art pleased to spare us till to-morrow, may we rise refreshed and invigorated for the duties of a new day. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-SECOND EVENING.
FOR HUMILITY OF HEART.

O God, Thou art great and greatly to be feared. Thy greatness is unsearchable. Thou art seated on a throne that is high and lifted up; myriads of blessed spirits cease not day nor night to celebrate Thy praise in their ever-triumphant hymn, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts."

But I rejoice to think that though Heaven is Thy dwelling-place Thou deignest to dwell in {73} the humble and contrite heart; no sacrifice dost Thou so love as that of the broken spirit; no incense so prized by Thee as the incense of a grateful, believing soul, which, oppressed with its own unworthiness and sin, reposes with unwavering trust in the work and righteousness of the Great Surety.

Lord, on this ever-living, ever-loving Saviour I desire wholly to lean. As helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless, I cast myself on Him who is Helper of the helpless and Friend of the friendless. There is nothing but Thy sacrifice and intercession, O Thou Lamb of God, between me and everlasting destruction. O wash every crimson and scarlet stain away in Thy precious blood. Let me lie low at the foot of Thy cross. Give me a lowly estimate of myself, and a lofty view of Thy all-glorious work and finished righteousness. I have no other hope of mercy, and, blessed be Thy name, I need no other.

While I take Thee as my Saviour, may I be enabled to follow Thee also as my pattern; conscious of the supreme enthronement of Thy love in my heart, may I feel superior to all the fluctuations and changes of a changing world. May {74} I live as the chartered heir of a better inheritance; while in the world, may I seek not to be of it. May I diffuse around me the noiseless influence of a heavenly life, subordinating all I do to Thy glory. Lord, enable me to be useful in the sphere in which Thou hast placed me, to work while it is called to-day, remembering that there is no work nor device nor labor in the grave whither I am going.

Bless all in sorrow. Sanctify their trials. Keep us ever from the guilty atheism of looking to second causes. May we ever rejoice in the elevating assurance that "the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," and that Thou orderest all things wisely and well. May the Holy Spirit the Comforter pour his own balm into every bleeding heart.

Have mercy on a world lying in wickedness. Hasten that glorious period when creation, now groaning and travailing in sin, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and be translated into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Let Thy word everywhere have free course and be glorified. May Jesus, faithfully {75} "lifted up" by the attractive power of his cross, draw all men unto him.

Let Thy best benediction rest on my friends. The Lord watch between them and me when we are absent one from another. May we experience Thy guardian care this night; and if spared to awake in the morning, may it be to spend a new day in Thy service, through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING.
FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION.

O God, Thou art from everlasting to everlasting. Loving me at the beginning, Thou hast promised to love me even unto the end. Notwithstanding all the fitful changes of my own changing heart towards Thee, there has been, and can be, no shadow of turning in Thy covenant faithfulness towards me. I am at this {76} hour the monument of Thy mercy—a living comment on the words, "Thy ways are not as man's ways, nor Thy thoughts as man's thoughts."

If I have been enabled in any degree to resist the assaults of temptation, it is all Thy doing. I am "kept by the power of God." Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul must long ere now have dwelt in silence. By the grace of God I am what I am.

Lord, indulged and cherished sin unfits me for the enjoyment of Thy service and favor. I have to lament my proneness to evil, the natural bias of my heart to that which is opposed to Thy pure and holy will. When I would do good, sin is too often present with me. I feel the power of my spiritual adversaries. If left to myself and my own unaided resources, I must often hopelessly resign the conflict.

But I rejoice to think that there is help and hope and strength at hand. I would look to Him who is now bending upon me an eye of unchanging love from the throne. All Thy ascension glories, blessed Redeemer, have not obliterated the tenderness of Thy humanity. Thou art {77} "that same Jesus;" Thou, the abiding Friend, art still left changeless among the changeable; and when Satan often desires to have me, that he might sift me as wheat, it is Thy intercessory prayer that saves me from utter ruin. Thou art pleading for me, that my faith fail not! Oh may I be found invincible in the hour of temptation, being made more than conqueror through Him that loved me. Sheltered in Thee the true Refuge, the wicked one will touch me not.

Let me not trifle with my own soul or with the momentous interests of eternity. Let me every day be living under the realizing consciousness that Thy pure eye is upon me. Keep me from all that is at variance with Thy gracious mind. Keep me from unchristian tempers, from an unholy or inconsistent or uneven walk. By a Christ-like demeanor may I exhibit the sanctifying and transforming influence of the Gospel on my own soul, that others may take knowledge of me that I have been with Jesus.

God of Bethel! do Thou take under Thy protecting providence all related to me by endearing ties. However far we may be separated from one another, let us never be separated from {78} Thee. Let us often rejoice in this our common meeting-place; that around Thy mercy-seat in spirit we can assemble, and lay our evening incense in the one Golden Censer of our gracious High Priest!

Take charge of me this night, defend me from all danger; whether I wake or sleep, may I live together with Thee; and all that I ask or hope for is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-FOURTH EVENING.
FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL.

O God, I come into Thy presence this night, rejoicing that amid all earth's vicissitudes, I have in Thee a rock that cannot be shaken. Thou doest according to Thy will in the armies of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth! Thou doest all things well, and nothing {79} but what is well. There is no finite wisdom in Thy dealings. All is the result of combined faithfulness, power, and love. Let me repose in the righteous ordinations of Thy will. If Thou withhold from me earthly blessings, let me feel that the very denial is precious because it is Thy sovereign pleasure. Covenant love and wisdom cannot lead or teach me wrong; every burden is imposed by Thee. The lot may be thrown into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

O Thou who turnest the shadow of death into the morning, may every wilderness-storm only drive me nearer Thyself, my true shelter. Thou takest the sting from every cross, the bitterness from every cup. Let me recognise in all that befalls me the tokens of a Father's love; and if sense and sight should at times fail to descry "the bright light in the cloud," may I see written over every dark trial Thine own unanswerable challenge, "He that spared not his own Son, but gave Him up to the death for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Lord! the end of all Thy sovereign dealings {80} is to subjugate my wayward will, and to unfold more of the preciousness of Jesus. Blessed Spirit of all grace! do Thou take of the things that are Christ's and show them unto my soul. Let me not stagger at the promises through unbelief. Let me see nothing but love in the past, love in the present, and love looming through the mists of a cloudy future. Thou, O God, art seated by every furnace; all is meted out, all is provided for; all has a "need be" in it! Magnify the power of Thy grace in me, by a sweet spirit of patient submission to Thy righteous ordinations. May I seek to have no other prayer than this, "Father, glorify Thy name." Impart Thou that inner sunshine which no outward darkness or trial can obscure. May the peace of God, which passeth understanding, keep my heart.

May Thy Holy Spirit shed abroad His blessed influences over the whole Church. Revive Thy work, O God, in the midst of the years. In wrath remember mercy. May Thy ministers be more faithful. May Thy people be more close and consistent in their walk with Thee. May the young be growing up in Thy fear and favor; {81} may the aged find in Thee the staff of their declining years. May the sick and afflicted pillow their head on Thy promises. May the dying fall asleep in Jesus.

I commend myself, my friends, and all belonging to me, to Thy paternal care and keeping; and when earth's long night-watches of trial and sorrow are ended, may I wake up in the sorrowless morning of glory, to enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with Thyself. Through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-FIFTH EVENING.
FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY.

"Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord."—Romans xii. 11.

Lord, I come to Thee this night rejoicing in the thought that Thou faintest not, neither are weary: Thou art ever good, and doing me good. Thine arm is never shortened, Thine ear is {82} never heavy. The gates of prayer are ever open. The Throne of the Heavenly Grace is ever accessible, none of Thy children need perish with hunger!

May the darkness now gathering around me be as the shadow of Thine infinite presence. I take comfort in the thought that the Shepherd of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; that He is ever bending over me his watchful, untiring eye, compassing my path and my lying down, and holding up my doings that my footsteps do not stumble.

Lord, how sad is the contrast of Thine unwearied and unwearying watchfulness, with my negligence and inactivity in Thy service. How little have I sought to promote Thy glory. How little have I felt the solemnity and responsibility of being a steward in Thy household! Let me be more zealous for Thy honor in the future. Let me seek more than I have ever yet done, to ask in the midst of life's duties and engagements, its perplexities and trials, in simple faith, "Lord! what wouldst thou have me to do?" Let me feel that duty is a delight when done for Thee. Keep me from further relaxing {83} my diligence. Let me not mock Thee any longer with the wrecks of a worn affection. Let there be no half-surrender of the heart and life to Thee, but may soul and body be consecrated as living sacrifices, and may I have the growing experience that active obedience in Thy service is self-rewarding.

Lord! I have indeed a vast work to do and a brief time to do it in. May opportunities and talents, while I have them, be cheerfully given to Thee. May the warning words oft sound in my ear, "Work while it is called today, for the night cometh wherein no man can work." Oh prepare me for my Saviour's coming. Forbid that I should be found among the slothful servants or the faithless stewards who are squandering their Lord's money, and are living, forgetful that a time of reckoning is at hand! May I be so waiting and so watching, and so working, that the cry may never break too soon or too suddenly on my ears—"Behold, the Judge standeth before the door!"

Send forth thy gracious Spirit into a world lying in wickedness. Scatter the darkness that is now brooding over the nations. Bless all {84} thy ministering servants; may they be valiant for the truth; may the Lord send His own angel to stand by them, and to shut the mouths of every adversary.

Bless all my friends; may they too be working out their own salvation with fear and trembling, and so be found at last prepared for the appearing and kingdom of Jesus.

Take me under Thy protecting care this night; vouchsafe me a season of refreshing repose; spare me to awake in Thy favor; and may every returning morning find me better prepared for the glorious noon-day of immortality; through Jesus Christ, my ever-living Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-SIXTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING.

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."—Rom. viii. 14.

O Lord, Thou art the God of my life and the length of my days. There is no real happiness independent of Thee. Thy favor is life. In vain can I seek for any satisfying portion in an unsatisfying world. If bereft of Thee I am bereaved indeed. But with Thy countenance shining upon me, I must be safe, I must be happy.

Do Thou pour down upon me the gifts and graces of Thy Holy Spirit. May he "garrison" my heart. May He write on its blood-besprinkled lintels the superscription, "Holiness to the Lord." Oh may this soul of mine become a living temple, an "habitation of God through the Spirit." Let me not trifle with convictions. Let me not grieve by my hardness and impenitency that gracious Agent, whereby I am sealed unto the day of redemption; but may all my affections be willingly surrendered to His service. By His omnipotent energy may {86} every high thought and lofty imagination be brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. May I be enabled to lean upon Him in the extremity of my weakness. Fill me with all joy and peace in believing that I may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost; fitted for Thy service here, and for the enjoyment of Thee forever hereafter.

I pray for the outpouring of the same blessed Spirit on the whole Church. May He descend like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth. Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon the slain in the valley! Hasten that glorious period when the year of Thy redeemed shall come, when the earth shall be full of the tabernacles of the righteous, in which the voice of joy and melody will continually be heard!

Oh that there were more in me of the mind of my gracious Saviour, on whom the Spirit was poured without measure. May I, like Him, be more meek and gentle, more amiable and forgiving, overcoming evil with good.—Transform me into the same image from glory to glory, by the Lord the Spirit.

{87} Hide all my friends under the shadow of Thy wings. Put Thy good Spirit also into their hearts. May He guide them into all the truth, and reveal to them more and more of the preciousness of Jesus.

Let all poor afflicted ones rejoice in the presence and consolations of the promised Comforter; may He pour oil and wine into their wounds; may He strengthen them in the midst of all their tribulations, and enable them in lowly resignation to say, "The Lord's will be done." Teach us all to repose in that will as the best; and to make it day by day our aim and ambition to attain a greater conformity to it.

Lord, take the charge of me through the watches of the night. Under the blessed sense of Thy presence and favor I would compose myself to rest, and when I awake, may I be still with Thee. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING.
FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION.

"The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."—Isaiah xi. 9.

O God, I desire to draw near into Thy blessed presence, beseeching Thee to lift upon me the light of Thy countenance and grant me a Father's blessing. I am utterly unworthy of Thy mercies. And it is only in Jesus, the Son of Thy love, that I dare venture to cast myself at Thy footstool.

I rejoice to think that in Him there is an open door of welcome; that He has by His doing and dying satisfied the demands of Thy righteous law, and magnified all Thy glorious attributes. I would bury all my sins in the ocean-depths of His redeeming love. Oh let me now know the blessedness of living, and at last the blessedness of dying, at peace with Thee, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life.

Darkness is still covering the lands, and gross darkness the people. Lord, do Thou have mercy on a world lying in wickedness. I rejoice to {89} think of all Thy glorious promises concerning the latter day. That this creation of ours, now groaning and travailing in bondage under sin, is yet to be delivered from the yoke of corruption, and to be translated into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Glorify Thy great name in the salvation of sinners! Hasten the period of predicted glory, when all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God; when from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised. May Thine own omnipotent Spirit brood over the darkness, as He did over chaos of old, and say, "Let there be light, and there will be light." May gladsome voices soon be heard proclaiming, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

Oh may I know personally something of that compassionate yearning over ruined souls and a ruined world that my Saviour had. Let me be prodigal in devising means for the extension of His kingdom and the good of my fellow-men. I would pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers to the harvest. Stand by Thy missionary servants. May they have {90} many souls for their hire. May mountains of difficulty be levelled before them; may crooked things be made straight and rough places plain, and may the glory of the Lord be revealed. Let them exercise simple faith in the power of Thy word and the efficacy of Thy grace. May they feel that these are mighty as they ever were to the pulling down of strongholds.

Arouse Thy churches to greater zeal. May Jesus, faithfully lifted up by His servants, by the attractive power of His cross draw all men unto Him. May they be the honored instruments of preparing many gems for Immanuel's crown, who will be found unto praise and honor and glory at His second appearing.

Lord, guard me through the silent watches of the night; be the defence and protection of my friends and relatives; may they too dwell under the shadow of Thy wings and experience the sleep of Thy beloved; and when the night of earth's ignorance shall vanish away, may we all wake up in glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-EIGHTH EVENING.
FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL.

O God, Thou hast permitted me in Thy great mercy to see another evening. How many of my fellow-men have this day slept the sleep of death, and are now beyond the reach of grace and privilege! I am still spared, all unworthy though I be, a monument of Thy forbearance and love.

I desire to make acknowledgment of my many and grievous offences. They are more in number than the sand of the sea;—sins against light, and mercy, and warning; sins committed against the kindest of Benefactors, the most indulgent of Parents.

I would seek anew to take refuge in the offered shelter of the Gospel, and to rejoice anew in the faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the chief of sinners. Oh may I be enabled confidingly to repose in His matchless sacrifice, and with lively appropriating {92} faith to say, "He loved me and gave Himself for me!"

Lord, carry on Thine own work within me. Quicken my languid and languishing affections by the omnipotent agency of Thy Holy Spirit. Let me not live at a guilty distance from Thy favor; but may I covet a close and habitual walk with Thee, and feel the sustaining power of Thy grace in my heart.

Revive Thy work in Thine own Church universal, Thou great High Priest, who walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Do Thou feed every lamp with the oil of Thy grace. Let them burn with a clearer, holier, more steady and consistent flame. As lights set in the world, may they diffuse Thy glory; and feel the honor of being instrumental in shedding abroad a Saviour's love.

Oh may the Lord arise and have mercy upon Zion. May the time to favor her, yea, the set time, soon come. As there is but one Shepherd, so may there soon be but one sheep-fold. Let Thy churches no longer continue apart from one another in unholy estrangement, but live in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace; holding fast that which they have, that no man {93} take their crown. Spirit of all grace, come in all the plenitude of Thy love and mercy. Breathe upon every portion of Thy visible Church, and say, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost!" "Awake, O north wind! come, thou south! blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." May Thy gracious influences descend like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth.

Bless all Thy faithful ministers. May peace be upon them and upon the whole Israel of God. Direct their hearts and the hearts of all Thy faithful people into Thy love, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

Comfort all in sorrow. May they see a "need be" written on all their trials. May they look beyond the long night-watch of earth to the glories of that eternal morning when clouds and darkness shall for ever flee away.

Take charge of me while I sleep, and as evening after evening comes round may I feel that a day has been spent for Thee. Hear me, gracious Lord, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

TWENTY-NINTH EVENING.
FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."—Ps. xxiii. 4.

O God, I come to Thee this night through Jesus Christ, the Son of Thy love, beseeching Thee to have mercy upon me, and to impart unto me that Peace of Thine which passeth all understanding. Blessed be Thy great and glorious name for those hopes full of immortality which have been opened up to me in the Gospel. I rejoice in Christ as the great Abolisher of death. I rejoice that the rainbow of covenant faithfulness spans the entrance to the dark valley; that all that is terrible in the last enemy is in Him taken away, and that I can regard these closing hours of existence as the introduction and doorway into everlasting bliss.

Give me grace, O God, to be living in constant preparation for death. Let me not unprofitably squander my present golden moments. {95} Let me live while I live—let me live a dying life. Let me feel that life is a trust given me by Thee. O Thou Great Proprietor of my being, may this all important talent of time be more consecrated to Thy glory. Let it not be mine, when the hour of death arrives, to bewail, when it is too late, lost and forfeited opportunities. Let me not leave till then, what best can be done and what only may be done now. May it be my earnest endeavor while it is called today to secure a saving interest in the everlasting covenant, and then I need not fear how soon the silver cord may be loosed and the golden bowl broken. Through Jesus the darkness has been taken from death, and to His own true people its shadows will melt and merge into the brightness of eternal day.

Thou art ever giving me impressive remembrances that "at such an hour as I think not," the summons may come, "Prepare to meet Thy God." The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Verily every moment there may be but a step between me and death. Let me be so living a life of habitual faith in {96} the Son of God that this step may be changed into a step between me and glory.

Lord, prepare all who may now be laid on dying couches for their great change. May their eyes be directed to Jesus. Pillowing their heads on his exceeding great and precious promises, may they fall asleep in the glorious hope of a joyful resurrection.

Bless all in sorrow; those who have recently been bereaved of near and dear friends, who may have been called recently to the brink of the tomb, consigning their loved ones to the narrow house appointed for all living. May they be enabled to fix their sorrowing gaze on the brighter prospects beyond death and the grave, and anticipate that glorious hour when, reunited to death-divided friends, they will be able to exult together in the song, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Take the charge of me this night. Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and when I too come to the long night and slumber of death, may it be the gentle rest of Thy beloved, a falling asleep in the arms of {97} everlasting love, looking forward to the joyful waking time of immortality, through Jesus Christ my only Saviour. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

THIRTIETH EVENING.
FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT.

O God, Thou art daily loading me with Thy benefits. Thou art making the outgoings of the evening and morning to rejoice over me, giving me unnumbered causes for gratitude and thankfulness. No earthly friend could have loved and cared for me like Thee. Oh may the life Thou art thus preserving by Thine unceasing bounty be unreservedly dedicated to Thy praise.

Lord, keep me mindful that I am soon to be done with this world, that I am fast borne along the stream of time to an endless futurity. {98} "It is appointed unto all once to die, and after death the judgment." May I be living in a constant state of preparedness for that solemn hour when small and great shall stand before God, and the books shall be opened. Educate me for eternity. Let me not be frittering away these fleeting but precious moments. Impress on me the solemn conviction that "as men live so do men die," that as death leaves me so will judgment find me. Oh let death leave me falling asleep in Jesus, united to Him by a living faith, that so judgment may find me seated at His right hand, listening to the joyous welcome, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Blessed Jesus, all my hope of a glorious resurrection centres in Thee. I look to Thee as the strong tower which cannot be shaken. I flee anew to the holy sanctuary of Thy covenant love. Sheltered there, amid a dissolving earth, and burning worlds, I shall be able joyfully to utter the challenge, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?" Meanwhile may I seek to "occupy" till my Lord comes. Keep {99} me from all negligence and unwatchfulness. Trim my flickering lamp. Let me live with Thy Judgment-throne in view. Whether waking or sleeping, may I bear about with me the thought that I must soon give an account of myself to God. May I feel that all the talents and means Thou hast given me are trusts to be laid out for Thee. When thou comest to demand a reckoning, may I not be among the number of those who have hid their talent in the earth, and have the cheerless retrospect of a misspent time.

Lord! bless my friends, reward my benefactors, forgive my enemies. Sanctify sorrow to all the sons and daughters of trial. May the torch of Thy love light up their gloomy prospects. May every providential voice sound loud in their ears, "Arise and depart ye, for this is not your rest!"

Gracious God, watch over me during the night, and grant that at last, when all earth's evenings and mornings shall have passed away, I may, on the great day-break of glory, wake up in Thy likeness, through Him in whom is all my hope, and to whom, with Thee, O Father, {100} and Thee, ever blessed Spirit, one God, be everlasting praise, honor, and glory, world without end. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

THIRTY-FIRST EVENING.
FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN.

O God, I come into Thy gracious presence on this the close of another day, beseeching Thee to accept of my evening sacrifice. May this my unworthy prayer come up before Thee perfumed with the fragrant incense of the Saviour's adorable merits. It is my comfort to know, O Thou blessed Intercessor within the veil, that Thou art even now appearing in the presence of God for me! The names of Thy covenant people are engraven on Thy breastplate, {101} and, all unworthy in themselves, they are accepted in the Beloved.

My special prayer to Thee this night is, that by Thy grace I may be made meet for Thy blood-bought inheritance in Glory. Transform me by the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost; may I be dying daily unto sin, and living daily unto righteousness. Make me more heavenly-minded. Give me more of a pilgrim attitude and a pilgrim spirit. May I ever feel that my true home is above, that I am here but a wayfarer and sojourner, as all my fathers were. May I attain, as I advance nearer heaven, the blessed habit of a holy life, bearing about with me the lofty impress of one who is born from above and for above, declaring plainly that I seek "a better country."

Let me not arraign the appointments of Infinite wisdom, but patiently await the disclosures of the great day. Keep me from a hasty spirit under dark dispensations. I am no judge as to what fancied mercies are best withholden. Let me look to every trial as an appointed messenger from the Throne whispering in my ears, "Be ye also ready!" May {102} I delight often to anticipate that happy time when I shall suffer no more, and sin no more; when Thou shalt no longer teach me by mysterious dispensations and a crossed will; when all shall be "a sea of glass" without one disturbing ripple, and I shall trace with joyous heart the long line of unbroken love and unchanging faithfulness! Anew I would wash in the atoning fountain. Anew I would take refuge "in the faithful saying." O blot out all the sins of the bygone day. Let them not rise up in the Judgment to condemn me. Let me close my eyes this night listening to the Saviour's own voice—"Your sins which are many are all forgiven you."

May the Lord arise and have mercy upon Zion. May the streams of Thy grace make glad the city of God. Build up her broken walls; restore her ruined towers; may her watchmen be men of faith and men of prayer; making mention of the Lord, and keeping not silence, till He establish, and till he make Jerusalem again a praise in the earth.

Lord, bless my friends. Let us exult in those ties which survive the uncertain ones of {103} earth, and look forward to the hour when we shall come to stand at last faultless before Thy Throne. Oh, prepare us all for the breaking of that eternal day—that "morning without clouds," when in Thy light we shall see light—when the love of Christ shall be enthroned supremely in every heart, when the glory of Christ will form the animating motive and principle of life that shall never end: and all I ask is for His sake. Amen.

"LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS
INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS
AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE."

BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED
BY
H. HOOKER.

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With all its wise moderation of statement, there is a warm glow in the language of Dr. Hallam's book, a fervor in the feeling, and even an eloquence of expression in many places, which cannot but produce in all its readers a more full and harmonious appreciation of our incomparable Liturgy. It will make the worship of our congregations a wonderfully more reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto God, inspiring it with a deeper and truer life wherever its healthful influence extends."—Church Journal.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Evening Incense

EVENING INCENSE.

Table of Contents

FIRST EVENING.
FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD.

SECOND EVENING.
FOR PARDONING GRACE.

THIRD EVENING.
FOR RENEWING GRACE.

FOURTH EVENING.
FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE.

FIFTH EVENING.
FOR RESTRAINING GRACE.

SIXTH EVENING.
FOR RESTORING GRACE.

SEVENTH EVENING.
FOR QUICKENING GRACE.

EIGHTH EVENING.
FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.

NINTH EVENING.
FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING.

TENTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

ELEVENTH EVENING.
FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD.

TWELFTH EVENING.
FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST.

THIRTEENTH EVENING.
FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE.

FOURTEENTH EVENING.
FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.

FIFTEENTH EVENING.
FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY.

SIXTEENTH EVENING.
FOR VICTORY OVER SIN.

SEVENTEENTH EVENING.
FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH.

EIGHTEENTH EVENING.
FOR THE DAILY DEATH.

NINETEENTH EVENING.
FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF.

TWENTIETH EVENING.
FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT.

TWENTY-FIRST EVENING.
FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS.

TWENTY-SECOND EVENING.
FOR HUMILITY OF HEART.

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING.
FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION.

TWENTY-FOURTH EVENING.
FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL.

TWENTY-FIFTH EVENING.
FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY.

TWENTY-SIXTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING.

TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING.
FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION.

TWENTY-EIGHTH EVENING.
FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL.

TWENTY-NINTH EVENING.
FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH.

THIRTIETH EVENING.
FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT.

THIRTY-FIRST EVENING.
FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN.

BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED
BY
H. HOOKER.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

Evening		Page
I.	FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD.	7
II.	FOR PARDONING GRACE.	10
III.	FOR RENEWING GRACE.	13
IV.	FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE.	16
V.	FOR RESTRAINING GRACE.	19
VI.	FOR RESTORING GRACE.	22
VII.	FOR QUICKENING GRACE.	26
VIII.	FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.	29
IX.	FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING.	32
X.	FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.	35
XI.	FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD.	38
XII.	FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST.	41
XIII.	FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE.	44
XIV.	FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.	47
XV.	FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY.	50
XVI.	FOR VICTORY OVER SIN.	53
XVII.	FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH.	56
XVIII.	FOR THE DAILY DEATH.	60
XIX.	FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF.	63
XX.	FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT.	66
XXI.	FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS.	69
XXII.	FOR HUMILITY OF HEART.	72
XXIII.	FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION.	75
XXIV.	FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL.	78
XXV.	FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY.	81
XXVI.	FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING.	85
XXVII.	FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION.	88
XXVIII.	FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL.	91
XXIX.	FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH.	94
XXX.	FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT.	97
XXXI.	FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN.	100

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Evening Incense

EVENING INCENSE.

Table of Contents

FIRST EVENING. FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD.

SECOND EVENING. FOR PARDONING GRACE.

THIRD EVENING. FOR RENEWING GRACE.

FOURTH EVENING. FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE.

FIFTH EVENING. FOR RESTRAINING GRACE.

SIXTH EVENING. FOR RESTORING GRACE.

SEVENTH EVENING. FOR QUICKENING GRACE.

EIGHTH EVENING. FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.

NINTH EVENING. FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING.

TENTH EVENING. FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

ELEVENTH EVENING. FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD.

TWELFTH EVENING. FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST.

THIRTEENTH EVENING. FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE.

FOURTEENTH EVENING. FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.

FIFTEENTH EVENING. FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY.

SIXTEENTH EVENING. FOR VICTORY OVER SIN.

SEVENTEENTH EVENING. FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH.

EIGHTEENTH EVENING. FOR THE DAILY DEATH.

NINETEENTH EVENING. FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF.

TWENTIETH EVENING. FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT.

TWENTY-FIRST EVENING. FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS.

TWENTY-SECOND EVENING. FOR HUMILITY OF HEART.

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING. FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION.

TWENTY-FOURTH EVENING. FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL.

TWENTY-FIFTH EVENING. FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY.

TWENTY-SIXTH EVENING. FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING.

TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING. FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION.

TWENTY-EIGHTH EVENING. FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL.

TWENTY-NINTH EVENING. FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH.

THIRTIETH EVENING. FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT.

THIRTY-FIRST EVENING. FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN.

BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY H. HOOKER.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

FIRST EVENING.
FOR COMMUNION WITH GOD.

SECOND EVENING.
FOR PARDONING GRACE.

THIRD EVENING.
FOR RENEWING GRACE.

FOURTH EVENING.
FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE.

FIFTH EVENING.
FOR RESTRAINING GRACE.

SIXTH EVENING.
FOR RESTORING GRACE.

SEVENTH EVENING.
FOR QUICKENING GRACE.

EIGHTH EVENING.
FOR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.

NINTH EVENING.
FOR PEACE IN BELIEVING.

TENTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

ELEVENTH EVENING.
FOR WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD.

TWELFTH EVENING.
FOR GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST.

THIRTEENTH EVENING.
FOR TRUST FOR THE FUTURE.

FOURTEENTH EVENING.
FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.

FIFTEENTH EVENING.
FOR GUIDANCE IN PERPLEXITY.

SIXTEENTH EVENING.
FOR VICTORY OVER SIN.

SEVENTEENTH EVENING.
FOR THE LIFE OF FAITH.

EIGHTEENTH EVENING.
FOR THE DAILY DEATH.

NINETEENTH EVENING.
FOR RENUNCIATION OF SELF.

TWENTIETH EVENING.
FOR A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT.

TWENTY-FIRST EVENING.
FOR HEAVENWARD PROGRESS.

TWENTY-SECOND EVENING.
FOR HUMILITY OF HEART.

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING.
FOR FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION.

TWENTY-FOURTH EVENING.
FOR COMPOSURE IN TRIAL.

TWENTY-FIFTH EVENING.
FOR ACTIVITY IN DUTY.

TWENTY-SIXTH EVENING.
FOR THE SPIRIT'S TEACHING.

TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING.
FOR THE WORLD'S CONVERSION.

TWENTY-EIGHTH EVENING.
FOR THE CHURCH'S REVIVAL.

TWENTY-NINTH EVENING.
FOR SUPPORT IN DEATH.

THIRTIETH EVENING.
FOR PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT.

THIRTY-FIRST EVENING.
FOR MEETING IN HEAVEN.

BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED
BY
H. HOOKER.