["Why will ye chase the fleeting wind,
And famish an immortal mind;

While angels with regret look down,
To see you spurn a heavenly crown.

Shall God invite you from above?
Shall Jesus plead His dying love?
Shall troubled conscience give you pain?
And all these pleas unite in vain ?

Not so, your dying hours shall view
Those objects which you now pursue:
Not so shall heaven and earth appear
When the decisive hour is near."

Doddridge.

PRAYER ON BEHALF OF A GRIEVOUS SINNER, STRUCK DOWN WITH A SUDDEN AND DANGEROUS ILLNESS; AND SHOWING, AS YET, NO CONTRITION FOR SIN.

*

Blessed Jesus! Thou risen and exalted Redeemer! Thou Advocate with the Father, who hast ascended up on high to plead our cause before the Throne of God! Thou Son of Man, who didst come into the world to call sinners to repentance, and to save the lost,-hear our prayer, and let our cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from us, in this our time of trouble. Incline Thine ear unto us when we call. Hear us, Lord Jesus, and that Now: hear our prayer, and hide not Thy face from our petition. Our heart, blessed Saviour, is disquieted within us: fear

* Suitable Collects, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

NOTE.

First read the 16th Chapter of St. Luke, from the 19th verse to the end; and then read, slowly and deliberately, to the sick person, the account of the sufferings of our Blessed Redeemer, in Chap. ii., part 1 :-then use this prayer.-Editor.

Prayer on behalf of a grievous sinner, dangerously sick;

fulness and trembling are come upon us; and an horrible dread hath overwhelmed us.

O God! our brother, who has been struck down with this (sudden and) alarming illness in the midst of his sins, is in danger of being lost eternally. This night, his soul may be called upon, in all the hideous deformity, in all the leprous loathsomeness of its sins, unshielded and unsheltered, altogether unmeet for Thy presence, to appear before its God!

Oh! what shall we do for our brother, whose soul is in danger of the torments of hell, ere it be too late to seek mercy and forgiveness for him, through the shed blood of that gentle Saviour, whose love he has so often slighted,— nay, trampled under foot. O God, speak to our brother's soul! O Holy Spirit, Thou Lord and Giver of life, take possession of this sinner's soul; and, oh! leave him not, nor forsake him, until, having found peace in Jesus, he shall be for ever beyond the reach of Satan, sin, and death!

*

O, Almighty Father, who canst enlighten the darkest mind, and soften the hardest heart, be pleased to manifest the power of Thy Grace in a case so sad and deplorable as this, our brother's, is. Convince him, O Lord, of the great danger his soul is in: open, for Thy mercy's sake, the eyes of his understanding, that he may repent and be saved, before that gulf,—that deep and dreadful gulf,—be for ever fixed between him and Jesus. That gulf is not yet fixed! Our brother's condition is not, as yet, beyond redemption! He may yet escape that place of torment! He may yet be for ever safe and happy! His time is now well-nigh past; and the night cometh! But, O merciful Father, we thank Thee that our brother has been spared from sudden death; and that Thou hast given him time to flee for pardon to a compassionate Redeemer who is able and willing, even at this eleventh hour, to cleanse and to wash away all the defilements of his soul. One more

* Collect 18.

and shewing as yet no contrition.

loving warning,-one word of hope,-one whisper of mercy ;—and, yet, our brother may be safe!

*

Oh! may the Saviour's love for fallen man meet with a kindred feeling in this sinner's heart. May this, our brother, amid his sickness and suffering, and with the prospect of death and judgment before him, be led to think of that meek and lowly Saviour, who, for his sake, underwent sorrow, and pain, and suffering, and death, that he might not die eternally. Lord! enable him to breathe this heartfelt prayer, "My Heavenly Father! give me the good gift of faith in Thee.' Enable him truly to say,-Lord, I believe! I believe in Thy Son, Jesus Christ!" Lord, let him pray with a penitent and contrite heart, and make him to know and feel that, if he thus prays, his prayer will have an abundant answer,

Above all things, O merciful Father, show our brother THE WAY, the only way, to Heaven. Point this wanderer to the path, the only path, that can lead to that happy place where Jesus dwells. His time is short, and we know not how long he may have to live. Lord, wake him up from this sleep of death. O God, forgive him, and pardon him, and save him, for Christ's sake. Cause him to know and to feel that there is none other name, under Heaven, by which he can be saved but the Name of Jesus. Cause him, at last, to believe that he can only know God through Jesus, his Redeemer.

May this, our brother, notwithstanding all his guilt and all his sin, be remembered, O Lord, as was the penitent thief, when Thou comest in Thy kingdom. May he, notwithstanding all his many and grievous sins, at length be able to find peace in Him "Whose blood cleanseth from all sin."

Merciful God and Father! Thou who wouldest not the death of a sinner's soul, grant unto our brother, on his earnest prayer for pardon, a happy sense of sins forgiven, through the blood of Him who came to seek and to save

* Collects 26 and 27.

Prayer on behalf of a grievous sinner, dangerously sick;

the lost. He has been a wicked, hell-deserving sinner. He has lived without Jesus. He has fed upon a vain hope, and trusted in a false security. God grant that he may know, ere it be too late, that there is no possibility that death can be his gain, if he cannot appear before Thee with a blood-washed robe around him,—the pure and spotless robe of the righteousness of the Son of God!

*

O God! Thou righteous Judge. Open the understanding of this our brother, for the safety of whose soul we are so much concerned, that he may now see that he has been walking hitherto in the broad road that leadeth to destruction. Incline his heart, O God, to confess, and to deplore his sins; and to lay them all in time before Jesus Christ, Thy Son, "whose blood cleanseth from all sin."

Lord, our brother stands, as it were, on the confines of an eternal world. He is enfeebled and palsied by sin. He is in danger as to his immortal soul. May God, in his mercy, grant that our brother may yet be saved from future and eternal woe, through the alone merits of our precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

And, O Jesus!-the Ransom, the Friend, the Brother of all who love and serve Thee, bid this sinful creature, for whose soul we pray, to look upon Thee in the garden where Thou didst suffer,—the garden of Gethsemane. Ask the still small voice within his breast to remind him of Thine agony, when great drops of blood rolled as sweat from Thy forehead on the ground. They mocked Thee; they buffetted Thee; they spat upon Thee; they forced a crown of thorns roughly, and without mercy, on Thy tender brow. They nailed Thee to the tree; they drove spikes of iron through the bones and tendons of Thy hands, and of Thy feet! And yet, notwithstanding all this, while undergoing pain and anguish of mind and body, Thou didst bear it all with patience. Nay, even in Thy deaththroes, words of peace and of pardon for fallen man came from Thy lips,-"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

* Collects 41 and 42.

and shewing as yet no contrition.

Lord Jesus! they who reject such love as this know not what they do! And shall this our brother, for whom, as for all who here kneel before Thee, Thou did'st suffer and die, shall he hear this tale of love unmoved, even while standing on the brink of eternity! Oh! if, the terrors of the law have never made any impression on him, let the love of a dying Saviour break his hardened heart.

Lord Jesus! bid our unhappy brother to come to Thee; and give him rest according to Thy word. Bid him to come to Thee NOW,-to come, just as he is, with all his sins upon him. Bid him to come boldly to the Throne of Grace, and to ask for a full and free pardon from his maker, pleading only the merits of the Son, "whose blood cleanseth from all sin." Tell him, blessed Saviour, that Thou wilt take his prayers, if they be but breathed from the sanctuary of a contrite heart, and that Thou wilt present them with acceptance before the Throne of God. Tell him, gentle and forgiving Saviour, that the worst may go to Thee; that the worst may find acceptance. Lord! assure our brother, if he be but truly penitent and contrite, that Thou wilt not flee from him, that Thou wilt not reject him.

Jesus! bid a sinner to look up, in prayer and supplication, to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. Tell him, blessed Saviour, that there is a HOME in THY FATHER'S HOUSE "of many mansions," which Thou hast already prepared, and furnished, and made ready for those who love Thee. Tell him that this HOME is the HOME of Thy Heavenly Father, "a House not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

May God grant that, at the great day of final reckoning, when the marriage supper of the Lamb is laid, our dear brother may be among the invited and welcome guests, a redeemed, a justified and pardoned sinner, clothed in the pure and spotless robe of the righteousness of the Son of God. AMEN.

* Collects 28 and 31.