Oh Savior, make us like yourself; we wish not so much to do, as to be. If you will make us to be right, we shall do right. We have often put a constraint upon ourselves to be right; but oh, that we were like you, Jesus, so that we had but to act out ourselves to act out perfect holiness.
We shall never rest until this is the case, until you have made us to be inwardly holy; and then words and actions must be holy as a matter of course. Now, here we are, Lord, and we belong to you.
Amen.
Oh for a complete conquest of self: especially render us insensible to praise, lest we be too sensitive to censure. Let us reckon that to have the approbation of God, and of our own conscience, is quite enough.
May we be content, gracious God, to hear the objections of unreasonable men; yes, and to hear the misrepresentations of own brethren. Those that we love, if they love not us, yet may we love them none the less; and if by mistake they misjudge us, let us have no hard feelings towards them: and God grant we may never misjudge one another. Does not our Judge stand at the door!
Amen.
Oh help us not to be so easily moved, even by pain: may we have much patience; and let not the prospect of death ever cause us any fear; but may the Spirit get the mastery of the body. We know nothing can hurt the true man—the inner, newborn, cannot be smitten; nor is it to die: it is wholly incorruptible, and lives and abides forever in the life that is in Christ Jesus.
Oh keep us like little children who do not know, but expect to know hereafter, and are content to believe things which they do not understand. Lord keep us humble, dependent, yet serenely joyful. May we be calm and quiet, even as a weaned child; yet may we be earnest and active.
Gracious Master, we wish to conquer self in every respect; we desire to live for the glory of God and the good of our fellow men. We would have it true of us as of our Master, “He saved others, himself he cannot save.”
Will you enable us, especially, to overcome the body with all its affections and lusts; may the flesh be kept under; let no appetite of any kind, of the grosser sort, prevail against our manhood, lest we be dishonored and unclean. And let not, even, the most refined power of the natural mind, be permitted to come so forward, as to mar the dominion of the Spirit of God within us.
Amen.
We ask this morning that we may be washed as to our feet: we trust you have bathed us once for all in the sin-removing fountain. You have also washed us in the waters of regeneration, and given us the renewing of our minds through Jesus Christ. But oh, for daily cleansing!
Do you see any fault in us?—oh, we know that you do—wash us that we may be clean. Are we deficient in any virtue? Oh, supply it, that we may exhibit a perfect character, to the glory of him who has made us new in Christ Jesus. Or, is there something that would be good, carried to excess? Be pleased to modify it, lest one virtue should slaughter another, and we should not be the image of Christ completely. Oh Lord and Master, you who washed your disciples’ feet of old, still be very patient toward us, very condescending towards our provoking faults, and go on with us, we pray, until your great work shall be completed, and we shall be brethren of the firstborn.
Amen.
Let not the church suffer dishonor at any time; but may her garments be always white. Let not such as come in among her, that are not of her, utterly despoil her. Oh Christ, as you groaned concerning Judas, so may your children cry to you concerning any that have fallen aside into crooked ways, lest the cause of Christ in the earth should be dishonored.
Oh God, we beseech you, cover with your feathers all the people of Christ; and keep your church, even until he shall come who, having loved his own that were in the world, loved them even to the end.
Amen.
We cry to you this morning, for the preservation of your church in the world, and especially for her purity. Oh Father, keep us, we beseech you, with all keeping, that the Evil One will not touch us. We shall be tempted, but let him not prevail against us. In a thousand ways he will lay snares for our feet, but, oh, deliver us as a bird from the snare of the fowler. May the snare be broken that we may escape.
“I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:9–10, CSB)
Amen.
Christ has redeemed us with blood, our hearts he has won and holds, and we are his own, though we are in the world. Holy Father, keep your people we beseech you, for Jesus’ sake: though they are in the world let them not be of it; but may there be a marked distinction between them and the rest of mankind.
Even as their Lord was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners,” so may it be with believers in Christ. May they follow him; and may they not know the voice of strangers, but come out from the rest, that they may follow him without the camp.
Amen.
O Jehovah, our God, you love your people! You have placed all the saints in the hand of Jesus; and you have given Jesus to be to them a Leader, a Commander, and a Husband. We know that you delight to hear us cry on the behalf of you church; for you care for Jesus, and you are ready to grant to him according to the covenant provisions which you have laid up in store for Christ Jesus.
Therefore would we begin this morning’s prayer, by entreating you to behold and visit the vine, and the vineyard which your right hand has planted. Look upon Zion the city of our solemnities; look upon those whom you have chosen from before the foundation of the world, whom Christ has redeemed with blood, whose hearts he has won and holds, and who are his own, though they be in the world.
Amen.
We believe the world will be brought in, when the church believes her God: the Kingdom will come, and the glory shall be made visible to all flesh, when once we have the confidence we ought to have in him, who is worthy to be praised, and to be trusted evermore.
And now, by the precious blood of Jesus, accept this feeble prayer of ours, and send down a shower of benedictions; and to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
