We do ask you Lord, to give power to truth, to righteousness, to godliness, to peace, and to every other principle which is favored of the Lord of heaven; and let this land be delivered from the curse of false gospels, from all the incoming both of rationalism and ritualism.
Let the truth as it is in Jesus prevail, not only here but everywhere, until the whole “earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.”
Amen.
Standing now before the throne of God without fear, we would humbly ask you to bless our country. Oh, that you would look upon this nation which has sorely sinned, which has turned away from the path of peace to seek the ways of glory and of blood. O Lord, be pleased to turn its course aright again.
We plead with you to bring us out of the disasters which we have been made to suffer, and let the nation lie penitent at the feet of God. Oh, that the Christian party in this realm might prevail—that the Church of God might have a little influence over the worldly mass. Oh, that the time were come when the salt shall more completely savor all the masses, and the glorious leaven shall work until all the measures of meal are leavened.
Let not all your saints be gone as yet. Spare us some, we pray, to build up your church below; for that they should abide with us is expedient for our weakness—that they may help us, that they may be to us instead of eyes, for they know where to encamp in the wilderness.
You have taught them your word by experience, and filled them with an unction from the Holy One, and, therefore, for our sakes let not your saints be hastened home for a while. We breathe this prayer with bated breath, because there is One who prays against us, whose prayer must always have the first reply; it is even he, the Well Beloved, whom our ears can hear saying at this moment: “Father, I will that they, whom you hast given me, be with me where I am.” O Lord Jesus, take us whensoever you will!
O Lord, we do ask you to make us fit for heaven. We hope it is not long before we shall be there. We have sometimes had glimpses between the gates of pearl; we have had such foretastes of the “place prepared,” that sometimes we are in haste to be gone; the flavor of the grapes of Eschol is in our mouths, and we long to be where all the clusters grow.
But we are conscious of unfitness for that state as yet. Oh, go on most blessed Spirit, with your patient work, until you shall have made us heavenly, and then we shall be caught up to the “heavenly places,” to see the face of our Beloved.
We ask for fruitfulness. Oh, help us to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit to the glory of God. May our character get more beautiful every day. If there are any traces of Christ’s artistic work upon us, may he go on with that Divine pencil, until he shall have produced in us a perfect character, and we shall be among men copies of the perfectness of our Master.
O Lord, we do ask you to make us fit for heaven. We hope it is not long before we shall be there.
We ask you to subdue our iniquities. Lord, conquer the power of sin in all of us. Grant us power to live above it; let not the passions of the flesh, nor the lustings of the mind, bring the spirit into subjection; but may our spirit rule over mind and body; and may Christ rule over our spirit, and so may we know the “liberty of Christ which makes us free.”
Next, we ask for perfect consecration, that everything we are and have may be the Lord’s, not in name, but in deed and in truth.
Now we present ourselves before the Throne of God, in the name of Jesus Christ our great High Priest. And first, we ask for pardon through the blessed blood.
You have already pardoned some of us: give us a new sense of it. Continue to pardon us; let us feel as if we come every day to the “fountain filled with blood,” and as if the washing were new every day. But, oh, have pity upon some that have never been pardoned. Hear the cry of sinners as they seek your face; and wherever there is a penitent spirit, be pleased speedily to send it relief, and let forgiveness of sin be felt, wherever the burden of sin weighs down the spirit.
But, O Lord, we worship with all our heart, and adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and Oh, most blessed Lamb of God, with all the saints before the throne, we pay you reverence—casting all that we have before you.
Crowns we have none, not even of silver and gold, but only what you have graciously given, we would willingly lay at your feet, content to feel that everything is ours when it is yours, and the more ours, when we have yielded it up to you. We wish we could live for Jesus wholly, that there were no distractions, no secondary channels into which the stream of life could flow, but that as he is all to us, so all of us might be unto him alone.
Oh how we joy in Christ and you joy in him too. We long to glorify him, and you delight to glorify your Son. We would set him on high, and you have set him “far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named.”
Now this day, we pray, “behold our shield and look upon the face of your Anointed;” and while we shelter behind him as a shield, let him stand for us, and let the glory of God shine in the face of Jesus Christ, that you may be precious to us unworthy ones.
Blessed God, Father, Son, and Spirit, our whole spirit would reverence you; yet would we have such knowledge of your goodness, that we might not be overawed with your greatness; such a sense of your nearness in the person of Jesus Christ, the Man, the Branch, that we might not be driven away with terror, but may be drawn near with filial love and holy boldness.
Lord, there was once a great gulf between us, but you have bridged that gulf; for now the Lord Jesus Christ is brother to our souls, yet is he Son of the Highest; truly man, yet truly God, he is the Interpreter, one of a thousand, the Daysman, who this day lays his hand upon us.
