that grace and peace may be multiplied to all those These prayers we offer up in the name and through EVENING FAMILY PRAYER. LORD, teach us to pray. O eternal God whose name is Love, and who so loved the world that thou gavest thine only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, help us, by thy Holy Spirit, to believe in Christ Jesus; and trusting in him to have access unto thee. out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Ever give us a spirit of sympathy, and tender feeling, and love for each other; and may we always be ready to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. When any member of the family is on a journey, add— O Lord, we beseech thee, regard with thy favour, protect and defend him who is now absent from us. Take him under thy special care. Preserve him from every temptation. Prosper him in his undertakings. May he be a blessing wherever he goes; and bring him in health and peace among us again, that we may together have fresh cause to praise and bless thy holy name. Confession. We feel our need of a Saviour for sinners, for we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. When we look back even on the past day, thy law accuses us of many sins, and our own consciences justly condemn us. We have been forgetful of thy presence; our conversation has been light and trifling; and we have not, with a single eye, sought thy glory, or copied the holy life of our Saviour Christ. He left us a perfect example, but how seldom we tread in his steps; how little we have of his meekness and lowliness of heart, of his zeal and love, Lord, thou knowest, and we with sorrow acknowledge! We have all of us sinned against the light of thy word, and the checks of our consciences. Petition. Grant us thy grace that we may not be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Give us true repentance, and may our sins lead us to despair of salvation by any works of our own; and bring us humbled and penitent to the foot of the cross. Help us by faith to behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Teach us to renounce our own righteousness, and to depend wholly on Jesus Christ. May we be able to say and feel," in the Lord have I righteousness and strength." [Teach us to come to Jesus Christ, and now to look to him, not only for pardon and peace, but also for grace and strength. We are weak, but Jesus is strong grant that we may be made strong in and through him. Draw us to Christ, that we may receive out of his fulness all that we need, repentance, remission of sins, and the gift of thy Holy Spirit; that he may dwell in our hearts by faith, and we be rooted and grounded in love.] We commend ourselves to thy care during the night. Let no evil come nigh us. May our last thoughts be with thee; and when we awake up, may we be still with thee. Refresh our bodies with the quiet repose of the night, and renew our spiritual strength. Teach us ever to watch and pray, and to be always ready, seeing we know neither the hour, nor the day, when the Son of man shall come. Intercession. Extend thy merciful care to all that are near and dear to us. We pray for all our relatives. May those that are endeared to us by the ties of nature, be yet more dear by the stronger bonds of grace. Grant that we may be all one in Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray for our Christian friends, for our neighbours, and all with whom we have intercourse. Bless those that minister before the Lord. May all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, be faithful, wise, humble, and devoted servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every where raise up pastors according to thine heart, which shall feed thy people with knowledge and understanding. Grant thy blessing to every Missionary now preaching Christ to the Gentiles. Cause Jew and Gentile, in every place, to turn to the Lord, that they may be saved. Bring on the happy day, when there shall be one fold and one Shepherd; and they shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all thy holy mountain. Thanksgiving. O thou Giver of every good and perfect gift, we praise and bless thee for thy great and continued mercies to us. All things thou givest to us richly for enjoyment. We receive from thee full provision for all our temporal wants; and thou forgivest our iniquities. [Like as a father pitieth his children, so thou our Lord and Father pitiest them that fear thee. Thou knowest our frame; Thou rememberest that we are dust. Thou hast had compassion on us in our low and lost estate, and thou gavest thy Son to die for us; and now thou offerest and givest us thy Holy Spirit, to soften our hard hearts and to help our infirmities. Thou justifiest us freely by thy grace, adoptest us into thy family, and givest us a hope full of glory.] Behold what manner of love thou our Father hast bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! God of mercy, grant, only grant, that we may be followers of thee as dear children, and shew forth thy praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, through Jesus Christ. Blessing. And now blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen. Our Father, &c. The Lord bless us, and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace. ANOTHER EVENING FAMILY PRAYER. O THOU, who art the God of all the families of the earth, who didst favourably notice Abraham's commanding his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord; be thou present with us now, and enable us by thy Holy Spirit, and through thy Son's intercession, to worship thee in spirit and in truth. Confession. We feel that we have sins common to us all to mention when we come together before thee. We were all born in sin, the children of wrath, and have in common a corrupt nature and a continual propensity to depart from thee. And O how often have we offended thee, the God of all the earth, by actual transgressions. We have sinned in thought, word, and deed. Gracious Lord, we confess that in the day that is past, by vain thoughts, by idle words, by sinful indulgences, we have grieved thy Spirit, and we have incurred thy displeasure. Our only refuge is in thy promised mercy in Christ Jesus. We cast ourselves wholly on that mercy. Fixing all our hopes on our Saviour's cross, we confess our guilt, and ask that the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son may cleanse us from all sin. Petition. And give us, we beseech thee, the comfortable assurance that our sins are forgiven. Let the Spirit itself bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. Plentifully impart to us the gift of thy Spirit, that we may bring forth love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, and temperance. Grant that we may so copy the example of our Saviour, that we may be the Epistles of Christ, known and read of all men; and have clear evidence of our own salvation. Teach us so to live, that we may glorify thee who hast bought us with a price of such amazing value as the blood of thine own Son. O that all now kneeling together may indeed obtain mercy in Christ Jesus, be passed from death to life, and |