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We bless Thee that Thou hast gathered us together this morning, and that so many mercies have crowned our path since last we met together. Another week of blessing from Thy hand has gone over our heads. We are another week nearer the time of rest. We beseech Thee that we may be conscious of some growth in Thy grace and knowledge, and that we may be aware of some weakening in us of anything that is contrary to Thy will, and may gather together here better prepared and more desirous to receive Thy great gifts of grace and goodness.

Comfort all sad hearts, O Lord, we pray Thee. Be near us according to our different difficulties and conflicts. Guide us by Thy counsel, and make us willing to accept Thy guidance. Hear our prayers, make us more prayerful, receive our thanksgiving and deepen our gratitude, answer our petitions, and make us more earnest in asking. We pray Thee to hear us, and to grant us Thy blessing, and help now, for our Lord Christ’s sake.

We bless Thee for all Thy great mercies to us. We draw near to Thee now, laden with benefits. Thou crownest our days with Thy goodness; and we believe, though it is sometimes hard to feel it and be sure of it, that all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep His covenant. Help us to keep it. Teach us to accept Thy commandments, to believe Thy promises, to live in the light of Thy Presence, and whether present or absent to labour that we may be well-pleasing to Thee; and then do Thou help us that we may ever be compassed about with Thy favour as with a shield, and may feel that in union with Thee all our need is greatened and purified and glorified.

We thank Thee, Lord, for all Thy blessings to us. We praise Thee for daily care and nightly mercies. We beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us to offer up to Thee not only the words of thanksgiving but the sacrifice of loving, trustful, and obedient hearts, and that our characters may become more like what Thou wouldst have us to be. We have to pray for the forgiveness of many imperfections and sins. We could not lose the consciousness of our own shortcomings. We pray Thee to deliver us from all illusions as to our own strength and our own righteousness. We pray Thee for quickened consciences, enlightened by Thee; and we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst preserve us from ever losing sight of our own deep necessities, or from ever seeing them so mountainous and great as that they obscure Thy greater mercy and Thy more than sufficient supplies. May we ever hold in one grasp our own need and Thy infinite riches, our own sinfulness and Thy free blessing, our own deficiencies and Thy wealth.

When we come to Thee, O Lord, we are overwhelmed with the number of Thy mercies. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee; they can only be reckoned up in order by Thee. And yet we pray that we may have a clear perception of, and a more adequate thankfulness for, and a more entire dependence upon, Thy loving heart and Thine innumerable mercies. Draw us, we beseech Thee, to Thyself by thoughts of Thee; and when there rise up in our consciences the sins that are more than the hairs of our heads, and we feel as if we durst not look up, may the thought of Thy greater mercies, more numerous still than these, strengthen and encourage us. What should we do if the measure of Thy forgiveness did not overlap and exist far beyond the measure of any man’s or of all men’s sin? We thank Thee that we can cast ourselves on Thee, and flee to Thee from ourselves; and we beseech Thee that Thy good Spirit, which Thou dost give to them that ask Thee, may indeed dwell in our hearts, and mould us by the power of thankfulness for Thy service. May it be true of us, too, that we delight to do Thy will, and that Thy law is within our hearts. We come to Thee empty-handed, sacrifice and offering Thou dost not require; Thou hast provided it. We come to Thee to receive, not to give; we come as those for whom the great offering has already been presented which makes all ours needless, except as thank-offerings. And we pray Thee to help us to render ourselves to Thee in entire surrender and devotion, as the token of our grateful acceptance of Thy greatest gift.

We pray Thee to help us in our worship, to guide our thoughts when we meditate upon Thy truth, to keep us from wandering away in mind and imagination and fancy into the ordinary affairs of life with all its trivialities and its trials. Help us as we draw near to Thee in worship, and as we open our minds and hearts to the teaching of Thy truth. Grant that our meeting may be full of blessing and of lasting good for every one of us. We would come to Thee with humble thanksgiving for all Thy great mercies to us, and for Him Who is the sun of them all, and in Whom all the sweets of Thy giving lie compacted, even Jesus Christ our Saviour.