desire to thank Thee for the Word of thy Truth, for the exceeding great and precious promises Thou hast given to me. I have not valued them as I should have done, nor realised the fulness of power and blessing that is in them. Help me to do so now. Thou hast encouraged me to plead thine own promises with Thee, and I would do so now. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which Thou hast caused me to hope. O Thou Father of mercies and God of all consolation, help me to hope now in thy word. Thou hast said "Ask," and I do ask for the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth, to apply thy Word with power to my soul. Help me to resist the first suggestions of evil as they spring up within me, and to turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. Help me to look to Jesus. May I through Him draw nigh unto Thee; may I by his grace and love become like unto Thee. Accept my grateful thanksgivings for the mercies of the past day, and of my past life. Grant that at eventide it may be light. May my re

maining days be my best days, more full of faith and love than any which have gone before. Be pleased to watch me this night, and all near and dear to me. I would remember before Thee all who are in sorrow and sickness. Help me to bear in mind that the close of life will soon come, and so to rest upon thy promises now, that they may be my strength and my joy then. Prepare me for my summons whenever it shall come, and when I pass through the waters do Thou be with me. For the joy that is set before me I would turn away from all that can grieve thy Spirit and dishonour thy blessed Son. О merciful God, who hast prepared for those who love Thee such good things as pass understanding, help me patiently to wait for them, and to expect them, through Jesus Christ, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Spring.

The Period of Humiliation.

COLLECT FOR LENT.

Almighty and Everlasting God, who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those that are penitent, create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Now doth the sun appear,

The mountain's snow decay,

Crown'd with frail flowers forth comes the infant year: My soul, time posts away;

And Man yet in that frost

Which flower and fruit hath lost,

As if all were immortal here, dost stay!

For shame! thy powers awake,

Look to that heaven which never night makes black, And then, at that immortal sun's bright rays,

Deck thee with flowers which fear not rage of days.

-Drummond.

MORNING.

Meditation.

"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."-JOB xlii.

5, 6.

As long as the soul abides in the darkness of sin and yields unresistingly to its motions, a false peace prevails. God is not truly known. A theoretical conception of his holiness is possible, but the vision of Him is dim and distorted. Foul stains defile the soul, but they pass without detection in nature's night, nor does any discovery of them strike shame or beget sorrow. But a beam of the true light forces its way through the closed eyelids of the sinner, and God is seen in his holiness. Straightway the ingrained impurities and the polluting sins of the heart and life start into view under the splendours of the revelation. And then a horror at the guilty past shakes and shatters the fabric of false peace. The Law is magnified and made

D

honourable, and keen humiliation for felt sin brings the soul into the dust of sincere contrition.

CONFESSION AND PRAYER.

O God, Father of Light, hast Thou seen me? Hast Thou seen me? Has thine eye of sleepless keenness followed my works of evil, my words of lightness, my thoughts of foolishness ? And are these things noted in thy book? I confess my sin and my transgression is ever before me. All this evil have I done in thy sight. And yet I thought not so. I walked on in thick darkness, and knew not whither I went, nor saw the sin which I was daily adding to sin, but heaped up wrath against the day of revelation of thy righteous judgment. But now in thy mercy Thou hast made known to me the plague of my heart Thou hast showed me the exceeding sinfulness of my sin. The days of darkness were many; but thy sun hath risen upon them, and the true Light now shineth. I see thy perfect holiness, thy pure and

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