us, and teach us to honour and revere them. Thou hast cast our lines in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage. O may we think of those less favourably situated, and treat them with sympathy, and render that aid which their necessities require and our superfluities enable us to bestow. Thou hast endowed us with bodily health and with all the comforts and blessings of bodily existence; for these and other Thy innumerable benetits we desire to glorify Thy holy name. O Lord.
It is fit that we acknowledge Thy benefits and glorify Thy name for all the mercies Thou hast showered down upon us in a temporal sense of the word. But great as these are, how are they exceeded by the promise of eternal happiness and eternal enjoyments if we prepare for them! Aid us, therefore, we beseech Thee, to bring our minds into such states, that we may seek after and secure the one thing needful. O teach us. Heavenly Father, not merely to say "Thy will be done" when we are in prosperity, and when "all men speak well of us," but at all times and in all seasons to bring ourselves completely under the influence of Thy love and fear. Aid us, therefore, we earnestly entreat Thee, to keep ourselves in a constant state of submission to Thy will, whatsoever may happen unto us. Thou leadest us by a way we know not; our ways are not as Thy ways, nor our thoughts as Thy thoughts. We may see the wicked in great power, flourishing as a green bay-tree; but if we consider them, their prosperity is evanescent, and if we seek them after many days, they are not to be found; but if we mark the perfect, and behold the upright, we shall find the end of that man to be peace.
Finally. O Lord, if even death itself threaten us at a time when our affairs assume a more prosperous appearance, may we still consider that our true home is in a brighter a more glorious sphere, that this is not our rest; and may we, whether in prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, life or death, still repose our whole trust and confidence in Thee. Amen.
Our Father, etc.
THIRTEENTH WEEK.—SABBATH MORNING.
O LORD God, our Redeemer and Regenerator, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Thou art from eternity! and we humbly desire to approach Thee, and worship Thee as the essence of all that is excellent, true, and good.
On this day of rest our souls would desire to contemplate Thy perfections, and to meditate on all Thy marvellous acts. Help us, we beseech Thee, to trace Thee in Thy wonders of old, so that we may have respect unto Thy commandments, and observe all Thy precepts, and do them. Open our eyes, we pray Thee, and show us, as Thou didst the primitive disciples, a few of those wondrous things contained within the letter of Thy Word.
In the promulgation of the law, as in every divine act, we are convinced there is no one subject noticed, no one incident recorded, but that is of importance for us to comprehend; and on this day, when we assemble in Thy presence, and Thy commandments are read in our ears, O grant us a perception of their true and spiritual meaning.
Lord, Thou didst Thyself inscribe these laws with Thine own finger on the tables of stone, and thus didst Thou significantly teach us that the
