pleasure against transgression; but let it be mingled with a reclaiming pity towards the transgressor; and be exercised for his good and thy glory.

APPRENTICES.

O thou, who art Lord and Master over all, bless thou our youth who are held at service as apprentices. Instead of the apathy that prevails respecting them, do thou excite in the community, and especially in the church, a strong solicitude for this class of our population; who, in the lapse of a few years, will become the muscles and sinews of society; and who are now moulding their own characters for time and eternity. Lord, bring such influences to bear on them, that they may be fitted, in mind and in morals, for usefulness to society; and that they may be prepared for thy favour both on earth and in heaven.

Heavenly Father, teach them the duties of their station. Make them contented with their circumstances; industrious in their callings; faithful, in all things, to the interests of their masters; and obedient to every requisition of lawful service. And may they be persuaded that the discharge of all these duties is demanded as much by their own welfare, as by the interests of those whom they serve.

Lord, secure for them the kindness of their masters. Let their personal comforts, their instruction in business, their mental culture, their social habits, their moral character, and their religious opportunities, be objects of constant and conscientious attention.

Set before them, I pray thee, the dangers to which they are liable, by absence from the scrutiny and protection of the parental home; by frequent

Preserve

exposure to the seductions of ungodly associates, and by the tendencies to corruption in their own hearts. O do thou throw wholesome restraints around them. If sinners entice them, let them not consent to their persuasions. Make them flee youthful lusts, that war against the soul. them from every form and degree of temptation. Dispose and qualify them to discharge their present duties incline and prepare them to fill with honour to themselves, and advantage to the public, their future positions in life: and, more than all else, give them the indenture of thine own service, in which thou makest the servant an heir, and the bondman a freeman of the Lord.

ASSURANCE.

Lord, grant me a well-grounded assurance of a personal interest in thy favour. Comfort me by the persuasion, that my many offences have been remitted. Enable me to gather satisfactory evidence from my feelings and conduct, that I have passed from death unto life; and may thy Spirit bear witness with mine, that I am numbered with thy children. Give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Christ, that I may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Cause me to feel that it is my duty to aim at the attainment of this grace, and my privilege to enjoy it, in the exercise of faith, prayer, and zeal. Enable me to say "Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away; and thou comfortest me."

Blessed God, grant me the full assurance of hope unto the end::-a hope that I am accepted before thee, for the merits of Christ; that through his grace

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.

ATHEISM.

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 holiness, and 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.

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 Christ cleanseth 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.]