better world-of a world where thou hast provided mansions for all the holy and the good, and where our sorrows and our struggles will be forgotten in our joy.

Show thy favour, great Parent of the universe! to those with whom we are more immediately connected by the ties of kindred and friendship. Our heart's desire and prayer to thee in their behalf is, that they may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Accept our unfeigned thanks, O God! for all thy past mercies, and take us under thy protection during the slumbers of this night. Into thy hands we commend ourselves. Keep thou thy watch around our beds; and, if such be thy blessed will, may we arise in the morning with

feelings of lively gratitude to thee, and with a sincere desire to conse-. crate ourselves to thy service.

These our prayers we offer up to thy Divine Majesty, in the name of Jesus Christ. Unto thee, his Father and our Father, his God and our God, be dominion and honour for ever. Amen..

Γ

58

FRIDAY MORNING.

O THOU who alone art God! the Creator and Governor of the world, the Father of lights and the Fountain of happiness! The universe in all its parts declares thy glory and speaks thy praise; and we would esteem it our duty and our privilege to bow down at thy footstool, to express, as far as we are able, our admiration of thine infinite perfections, and to worship thee, with holy fear and grateful love.

We rejoice in the being which thou hast given us, and bless thee

that thou hast made us to bear thine image, and hast conferred on us the privileges of thy children. We adore that tender mercy which, notwithstanding our unworthiness, has preserved us in existence, supplied our returning wants, and continued to us the exercise of our powers both of body and of mind. It is because thy compassions fail not, that our sleep, through the past night, has been comfortable and refreshing, that we have arisen from our beds in safety, and are going forth to the scenes and employments of another day.

Heavenly Father! we commit ourselves and all our concerns to thy gracious and unerring providence ; beseeching thee to order our steps aright, and to give us wisdom that we may know the things which belong

to our present as well as to our future peace. Sensible, from melancholy and repeated experience, of our own frailty, we would put our trust in that goodness by which we have never been forsaken. Teach us, O Lord! thy statutes: turn away our eyes from beholding vanity; and work in us true repentance. Suffer us not any longer to spend our time in pursuits that are offensive to thee and inconsistent with our duty, nor to be so engrossed by worldly cares and pleasures as to forget that our great business is to grow rich for eternity, and to secure to ourselves those incorruptible blessings which are at thy right hand.

May we carry with us into the various circumstances of life a deep conviction that thou art acquainted