"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."
