We thank you, O God, on the behalf of many of your people, our brethren, that you have dealt so well with them. We knew them many years ago when their young hearts first believed in you, and here they are still, the living in Zion, to praise you, as they do this day.
Their feet have sometimes almost gone, their steps have well near slipped; but you have held them up, and they are walking in their integrity, preserved as only grace could preserve them, living still to praise your name.
We trusted in you, alas! too feebly, in the hour of our distress when we were troubled exceedingly with earthly things, still you did not fail us, though our faith trembled: though we did not believe you were still abiding in faithfulness.
The Lord has helped his people, yes the Lord has been the strength and the help of his chosen. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all;” and at this moment, in looking back upon the past, we have nothing to do, but to admire and to adore the constancy of love, the faithfulness of grace.
O Lord God, the strength and the hope of your people, we would approach you through Jesus Christ your Son, with notes of thanksgiving; for we are not ashamed of our hope, neither has our confidence led us into confusion. We have proven it to be true, that they that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which can never be moved, which abides forever.
We trusted in you with regard to our innumerable sins, and you have cast them behind your back. We trusted in you when many evils compassed us about, and we were overrun with temptation, and you brought us out into a wealthy place: you set our feet upon a rock and establish our goings.
The Lord bless our country. Keep us in peace, we ask you and in times of congress and deliberation may there sit in the council chamber One higher than the kings of the earth, and greater than its ambassadors. Oh, that long-continued peace might happen to this poor earth, for its wounds are many. Behold, how all things languish for the lack of peace—the Lord send it.
Quicken trade and commerce, remove the complaining that is now heard in our streets. Kindly consider us in the matter of the weather, that the harvests may not be spoiled, and bless the people, O Lord. Let the people praise you, and “then shall the earth yield her increase.” The Lord grant all this, with the forgiveness of sin, the acceptance of our person, and assist us ever to live to his glory, for Jesus’s sake.
Father, we will come into contact today with many who that remain unconverted. Save them Father! May this day be the day of their salvation. We would most earnestly entreat that some word may drop into the most careless heart; and this prayer especially, convert this day, if it may please you, some that shall be very earnest Christians in years to come; take hold today of some whom you have ordained to be like Paul, who shall be missionaries to the ends of the earth!
Take hold of some that are specially set against you, some that are very bold spirits even in sin, thorough-hearted in their wickedness—convert such now! Say to them, “See I have made thee a chosen vessel to bear my name to the Gentiles;” and may there come such power with it, that they may not be disobedient unto the heavenly vision. Your church needs such men. Oh, that such were brought out today! We put it up as a prayer to be registered in heaven, and we mean to look for its answer, that you would today take hold of some men that shall become afterwards leaders in the church of God, this day striking them down with the sense of sin and leading them to Christ.
Convert the nations, we pray! Help our dear brethren who stand far out in the thick heathen darkness, like lone sentinels; let them bear their witness well, and may the day come when the Christian church shall become a missionary church, when all over the world those that love Christ shall be determined that he shall conquer.
You have not yet made the church “terrible as an army with banners:” would God she were! May those days of Christian earnestness come to us, and then shall we look for the latter day of glory.
Be pleased to grant to your churches more power over the sons of men. Oh, Lord, make your ministers throughout all the world more fruitful in soul winning. Let us not rest without sowing the good seed beside all waters. Forgive us our coldness and indifference; forgive us that we sleep as do others, for it is high time for us to awake out of sleep.
Oh, Lord, help us to live while we live; shake us clear of these these grave clothes which cling to us; say to us, most blessed Jesus, what you said concerning Lazarus of old, “Loose him, and let him go.” May we get right away from the old death and the old lethargy, and live under the best conditions of life, diligently serving God.
We do feel that we have so much superficial religion, so much profession without true possession to back it up. Oh, Lord, may our churches be built with precious stones, and not with wood, hay, and stubble.
May we ourselves so know the gospel that no one can beat us out of it; may we so hold it, that our faces shall be like flints against the errors of the age; so practice it, that our lives shall be an argument that none can answer, for the power of the gospel of Jesus.
Oh let no brother or sister become distinguished in grace and then decline, let none bear fruit and afterwards become barren; but may our path “shine more and more unto the perfect day.” It is this our spirit craves after, with strong desire, that the whole of our life, from the commencement with Christ to its ending with our being with Christ, may glorify and bring help to his church.
And now, hear us again while we cry unto you. Our chief desire is for your cause in the earth. We are often very heavy about it. The days seem to us to be neither dark nor light, but mingled; oh that the element of light might overcome the darkness! We do pray, raise up in these days a race of men that shall know the gospel and hold it fast
Until life’s latest hour may we keep the sacred pledges of our early youth. We do remember when we were baptized into the sacred Name—Oh, never may we dishonor that sacred ordinance by which we declared that we were dead to the world and buried with Christ. Some of us do remember our early covenant with God, when we made over to him ourselves and all that we had. Oh, in life’s last hour when we bow ourselves for weakness, may it be to bless that sacred bond and to “enter into the joy of our Lord.”
And if you have taught us anything since then, if you have given us any virtue or any praise, may we hear you say, “Hold fast that what you have, that no man take your crown.”
