meat which endureth to life everlasting, and that they will learn to regard the favour of God as a better portion than the abundance of corn and wine? May you not hope that, while your own minds are elevated by contemplating the works of creation, providence, and redemption, and by reflecting on the dignified and endearing relation to which you have been raised in having "received the spirit of adoption, whereby you cry, Abba, Father," they who look up to you for guidance and protection will take pleasure in approaching to God, and, through the experience of the peace of walking with the wise, will be taught to abhor the enticements of sinners, and to hold fast that which is good? And even in the case of those who, through perversity of heart, and the snares of an evil world, have forsaken the path of integrity and truth, may it not be hoped that the wise counsels which they have for a season forgotten, and the devotional habits which they have long failed to imitate, will, like the bread cast upon the waters, be found after many days? Small must have been your experience of the discipline of Providence, if you have never known so much as one who had wandered so far from the way of peace as to disappoint the earnest expectations of his father, and to turn the joy of her who bare him into

bitterness, but who, after his own wickedness had corrected him, and his backslidings reproved him, has been awakened to new obedience, by recalling to his agonised mind with reverential awe the solemn image of the parental guide, in whose quiet habitation the daily exercises of prayer and praise hallowed every pursuit, lightened every care, soothed every sorrow, and seasoned every enjoyment, so as to render the voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous a lively type of the blessed conversation of heaven, and a delicious foretaste of the fellowship of the saints in light.

If ye know these things by your own experience, or by the incontrovertible testimony of them who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, happy are ye if ye do them. Nor can you have peace and safety if, knowing what is good, you leave it undone.

And while you present your supplications for yourselves and your families, forget not the eternal concerns of the families which call not on the name of God. If it be, as it ought to be, your heart's desire that they may be brought to the obedience of the gospel, brethren, pray for us, and for all the ministers of the truth, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is

with you. Such an intercession as this will assuredly prove efficacious towards the enlargement of the household of faith, if all of you, both small and great, not only in the congregations of the upright, who in heaviness of heart sigh for the abounding of iniquity and the failing of truth, but in your families apart, and in your unseen retirements, prostrate yourselves at the footstool of your Father in heaven, who seeth in secret, and pour out your desires before Him in that effectual fervent importunity which, like the long and patient waiting of the husbandman for the precious fruit of the earth, will, according to the sure word of promise, issue in plenteous showers of blessings, not confined to any favoured spot, or any privileged community, but dropping down fertility far and wide over fields coextensive with the inhabited world, filled as it shall be in that evening-time of light with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea: And thus the God of the whole earth, in remembrance of His holy covenant, and in fulfilment of the good pleasure of His goodness, will arise and have mercy not only on the mountain of holiness in which He had His dwelling in time past, but on all in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord; so that, while He clothes His priests with salvation, and makes His

people shout for joy, the ways of Sion, which have mourned because few came to the solemn feasts, shall be thronged with the multitudes who keep the holy day with thanksgiving in their hearts, and the high praises of God in their mouths,-wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of those times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, when His work shall appear before the face of His servants and His glory to their children; and they that fear the Lord, being all replenished with the riches of grace, shall take that sweet counsel together which revives the inward part, and knits the brotherhood of Christians in the unity of the faith and the holy bond of perfectness. "Then shall the offering of His people be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years." And the Lord will create upon every dwellingplace of Mount Sion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defence."

Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect; be of good comfort; be of one mind; live in peace: And the God of love and peace shall be with you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Prayers for Family Worship.

INTRODUCTORY PRAYERS.

One of these short Introductory Prayers may be used at the commencement of Family Worship, before the reading of a portion of Holy Scripture, after which may be used the longer Prayers.

O

I.

GOD, who hast promised to be present with Thy people, and to grant their requests for whatsoever things they ask of Thee in the name of Thy beloved Son, regard us, we beseech Thee, with Thy favour, and graciously fulfil Thy promise in our behalf; that, offering up our desires unto Thee for things agreeable to Thy most blessed will, we may obtain our petitions through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.