Grant that to his sacrifice offered for the sins of men, I may continually look as my atonement with God for the offences I have committed ;take away from me all refuges of lies,—and let it be the daily desire of my heart, that thou wouldst "look on me in the face of thine Anointed."

Dispose me, O God, to celebrate thy Mercy and Loving-kindness with songs of thankfulness, by night and by day;-grant me all peace and joy in committing myself to the exercise of thy boundless I be filled with humble but unmay grace,-and doubting trust amidst all the events of life, and all my own consciousness of unworthiness,—being persuaded, that "neither suffering nor reproach, nor life nor death, nor things present nor things to come, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord."

Thus, O Lord, may I be a worthy guest at the table of the Redeemer,-one of those who go through the world rejoicing in his cross, and "counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord."

If, in any respect, I am building on an insecure foundation, or have any false hope, Lord, show me my error, and " set my feet upon a rock," and

"lead me in the way everlasting." Make my heart, and understanding, and all the powers and principles of my nature, right before thee;-and disclaiming all personal title to thy favour, let me seek for acceptance only for the sake of him whom thou hast sent into the world "to save sinners."

And thus, O Lord, may my soul be nourished by the bread of life, and by the wine which thou hast prepared ;-may my spiritual advancement and growth in grace be promoted, and may I, being united to Christ by this true faith in time, be finally prepared for sitting down with him, and drinking that wine which shall be new, in the kingdom of God.

Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief,”—and do unto me far more than I am entitled to ask or think, for my Redeemer's sake. Amen.

III.

REPENTANCE, OR A JUST AND DEEP SENSE OF OUR

OWN WEAKNESS AND SINS.

PSALM CXXXIX. 23, 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart,-try me, and know my thoughts ; And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

REFLECTION.

THE term Repentance, as it is most commonly used in Scripture, is synonymous with Amendment or Reformation. But in that enumeration of the subjects of self-examination which is found in the standards of our Church, as comprising knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and new obedience, it is evidently limited to one part of the complex condition of Amendment,-that is to say, to that sense of our own infirmities and sins, which is the

first step to all true reformation, and which is always represented in Scripture as a state of mind which the Father of our spirits desires that we should cultivate.

Now it seems, at first sight, strange that so many men should live in apparently an almost utter want of consciousness of their peculiar sins ;and that it should be often a matter of considerable difficulty, even to the well-disposed, to obtain a clear view of the infirmities and follies of their own hearts.

But, in the first place, it must be recollected, that every man has what are called besetting sins, which commonly have their origin in the original structure or relative power of those very principles that constitute him what he actually is, as distinguished from other men;-and it is easy to perceive, that this identification of our peculiar sins with our individual and characteristic propensities must render it, at all times, a matter of no easy achievement for a man to gain a just and abiding sense of the frailties that, from this cause, most strongly beset him.

In the second place, so constituted is human nature, that whatever makes part of ourselves, or

originates in propensities that are essential to us, is naturally regarded by us with partiality, even when we cannot altogether venture to justify it ;and it is hence, that we are all disposed to find many apologies for whatever sins we may have committed, and to believe, that the sources from which they have proceeded, in our peculiar case, have been such, as to render them something quite different to us from what they would have been to almost any other person.

In the last place, our sins are almost always connected with some secret gratification, which prompts us to the commission of them;—or, perhaps, are but this gratification carried to an immoderate length, or used in some unbecoming way;-and it is hence, that, even when we cannot apologize for our faults, or even while we are seeming to make confession of them, we secretly "roll them as a sweet morsel under our tongue,' or brood in private over the thought of the gratification, however low or unworthy, which we have received from them.

These are some of the causes which hide from us our many failures;-yet God and our own best interests require that we should not yield to such

I