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I shall be saved; and that though worms may de vour this body, yet in my flesh I shall see thee, and be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.

ATHEIS M.

Great God, regard with pity the fool, who hath said in his heart, "There is no God!" Although thou hast written thy name in language of fire, on the canopy of heaven; and revealed thy being in the countless creations of air, earth, and sea-yet there are some of thy creatures, who profess to believe that thou art not! Though thou mayest be known by the judgments thou executest; and though human consciousness, in its universal consent, has been a memorial of thee, through all generationsthey would vainly persuade themselves that thou art but the empty dream of religious fancy! O Lord, let this outrage upon knowledge, and holiand hope, make me cling, with a closer grasp, to the instructive, and purifying, and hopeful truth, that thy kingdom ruleth over all. Gracious Parent, how cheerless would this earthly probation be to my spirit, if I did not know that thou art Alpha and Omega. Lord, let the fact that any could be so lost to reason and piety, as to deny thy being, be strong testimony before the world of the depravity of the carnal mind; which, in all its various degrees of sentiment, is still enmity against God! O, if it be consistent with thy justice, recover these children of disobedience to the wisdom of the just; and lead them to adore and trust in thee, as the living God.

ness,

Lord, commiserate those who, while they acknowledge thee in their judgments, deny thee in their lives: and who, in the midst of thy presence, are without God in the world! They will not re

tain thee in their knowledge, nor follow thy ways, nor seek thy favour. Give them not over to a reprobate mind, to be filled with all unrighteousness; but do thou bring them, in the living way of thy Son, to know, and love, and glorify thee as God.

O Most High, does not practical atheism leaven my own heart, and the hearts of many that call on thy name? For when we do what we know to be wrong in thy sight, and leave undone what we know thou hast commanded us to do, we virtually say, "Who is the Lord, that we should obey him?" I pray thee, rebuke this unrighteousness; and banish every vestige of it from us; until our hearts shall know, and our works shall proclaim, in all things, the power of thy life!

ATONEMENT.

God of Salvation, I thank and adore thee that in the counsels of eternity thou didst devise a plan by which rebellious, guilty, and hell-deserving man might receive thy forgiveness, be reconciled to thee, and enjoy thy favour; and that in the fulness of time thou didst finish thy decree of mercy, by sending thine only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. O it was matchless compassion that made the ruins of our apostasy the theatre on which to display the wonders of redeeming love! When we lay in the open field, and were polluted in our own blood, thou didst bid us live: yea, thou didst bid us live! Scarcely for a righteous man would one die; peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die: but thou hast commended thy love to us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Thou didst set him forth to be a propitiation, through

faith in his blood, for the remission of sins, in order that thou mightest be just, and be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Make me understand that it was his divinity that made this offering a perfect work: for Lebanon was not sufficient to burn; nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering; nor could the fruit of the body atone for the sin of the soul: but lo! the blood of Christcleanseth from all sin!

Lord, may I have an ever-present conviction that there is no other name by which I can be saved. May I seek redemption only through his blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Purge thou my conscience from dead works to serve the living God; and may I thus judge, that if Christ has died for me, I should henceforth live not unto myself, but unto him. Let the blessings of this atonement rest on me, in sins pardoned, in punishment averted, in fear pacified, in the soul reconciled, in the heart sanctified, and in the spirit made joyful in an endless hope. O Lord, grant that at last I may be found among those that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

O may there be many, who shall go into all the world, and preach this blessed gospel to every creature. May men every where learn their guilt and danger, and see the fitness of the Saviour thou hast provided for them. May multitudes thirst after righteousness, and be led to that fountain which has been opened in the house of David, where whosoever will, may take of the waters of life freely. Grant, in thy mercy, that all the ends of the earth may look unto Christ, and be saved.-[See JESUS CHRIST.]

AUTUMN.

O thou that makest the seasons, and crownest them with thy goodness, give ear to the thanksgivings and entreaties which I now offer thee in the name of Jesus. I praise thee that thou hast preserved me amid the heat and diseases of the past summer. I thank thee for the fruits of the earth which have already been gathered, and for those which still burden the fields with the promise of plenty. The whole face of nature speaks thy praise, and bears witness to thy bounty.

Lord, what is man, that thou hast been thus mindful of him; or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Instead of continuing health and sparing life, thou mightest have brought over us the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. Instead of making the earth to bring forth and bud, that it might give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, thou couldst have made it more desolate than the wilderness, until the land had fainted by reason of the famine. It is of thy mercies that we are not consumed: for thou art slow to anger and full of compassion; and thy tender mercies are over all thy works. O God, incline me to be merciful to others, even as thou hast been merciful to me. Dispose me, in my enjoyment of the abundance of the earth, to pity and relieve the wants of the needy; and deeply impress on my heart the lesson of gratitude which thou hast been striving to teach me by thy goodness.

Whilst thou art now changing the face of the declining year, and bringing over it the tokens of decay and death, O teach me that such are earthly hopes and human life. The fashion of this world

passeth away; and we all do fade as a leaf. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; and all flesh is as grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field. May these waning scenes lead me to seek that inheritance in light, where no sorrow shall wither, and no sin shall blast the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God!

Lord, instruct me that he who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and that he who soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Let my Christian experience be like the fruit of the earth, which bringeth forth first the blade, then the ear, and after that, the full corn in the ear: and then, O Lord, when thy harvest is come, put in thy sickle, and gather me, as a shock of corn cometh in his season, into thy heavenly garner. And the praise of my salvation shall be unto the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost forever.

BACKSLIDING.

O thou, who through Christ, art rich in mercy to all who call upon thee, preserve me, I pray thee, against backsliding from the ways of grace. Let not my infirmities and corruptions lead me back to the love of the world. Suffer not the temptations by which I am surrounded to draw me away from my love and allegiance to thee. Teach me to avoid the appearance of evil, and to watch against the earliest and least encroachments of sin, both in the heart and in the life. Let me not fall into the occasional nor habitual neglect of public or private duties. Permit me not to substitute formality for the spirit of devotion; nor insincerity for truth of heart; nor vain glory for good will to man; nor error for

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