We come before you this morning, through Christ Jesus, to express our entire confidence in you. We believe that you are true, and that you are the rewarder of those who diligently seek you.
Lord, forgive us that death in life, in which so many of our years were spent, when we found something in the world apart from you; and were content with the things of the hour, the vile shadows, transient gusts of things which truly are not, for you alone are all-in-all.
Our Father, blessed be the grace and love which have taught us to use that dear familiar name—“Our Father, which art in heaven,” and therefore highest and most exalted, and worthy to be breathed with awe and reverence by all that draw near to you.
“Hallowed be your name.” Oh, that all the earth would ever reverence it! As for ourselves, enable us by your grace to use it with awe and trembling; and may a consideration of the glorious character which is intended by your gracious name, ever lay us in the very dust before you, and yet lift us up with holy joy, and with an unwavering confidence.
Bless other nations, we pray; and the church of God in every land. For the saints of every tongue we pray, especially for those of our own country, scattered across the ocean hither and thither.
Make the whole of your people to be full of life and vigor; and may the day come, when the missionary spirit shall be more fully caught by the church at home, and they that have gone forth shall bring tens of thousands, to be built into the temple of God.
O Lord, we wait upon you now, and ask the over-shadowing of your presence! Jesus of Nazareth, pass by just now! Divine Spirit, rest upon us now! Holy Father, look upon your children now; and make this place to be glorious at this good hour! We ask it in the name of the Well Beloved.
Amen.
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.
