of that little, for those who are more helpless and afflicted than myself, that my alms and my prayers may come up before Thee, and plead for me, that I believe in Christ, and that I am his disciple. The more earthly blessings Thou bestowest upon me, make me the more humbled for my too unworthy use of them, the more fervent in prayer to obtain thy heavenly graces to keep me from their evil; and if I am in poverty, let me the more earnestly seek thy spiritual comforts. When I am without strength to pray and trust in Thee, incline me to come and rest from my troubles, to be still, and know that Thou art God, and then draw me to pour out my heart in supplication before Thee. Withhold not from me, O Lord my Saviour, the gifts Thou hast received for all them that love

Thee; and as Thou hast promised to give more grace the more earnestly I seek thy mercy and succour, increase my desire of thy grace according to my great need of it; enable me to follow the steps of thy most holy life, to love thee and keep thy commandments. Give me thy grace only, and thy blessing, and I shall not want. Have mercy on my dear relatives, and provide for them such things as be needful; guide and sanctify them ever by thy good Spirit, and make them partakers of thy heavenly treasure. And as thy mercies surpass all my hope, as well as all my deserving, and Thou art more merciful than I can be thankful, let thine infinite love extend to me in my last suffering and trial. When the dross of this world is as nothing, let the recollection of thy past good

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ness, which changeth not by my death, assure me that I have that goodness and love to trust in still. When I feel that my strength is decaying and gone, and my flesh as grass, and my glory as the flower of grass, enable me to remember thy truth and mercy, and venture my repenting and departing soul upon thy eternal promise, and cheerfully leave all, and follow there whither my Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

FOR SATURDAY NIGHT.

I.

Watchfulness over our thoughts is a duty of supreme moment and infinite reward. They are secret from

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mankind, and have no fear of the judgment of this world. We cannot inspire ourselves with these silent conceptions of the mind, but we can direct and order them; we can refuse the evil, and cherish those which come from God and his Holy Spirit, and not allow any imagination to dwell in our hearts, but such as we believe will have the Divine approval. He who telleth our flittings will also treasure for our account these hidden jewels, that have been precious unto Him, and which tell more than even words or prayers the constancy of our love to Him, and the sincerity of our devotion. How diligently should we keep our hearts, and pray Him, of his grace and power, to keep them, when we consider that our eternal doom depends upon that which proceedeth out of the heart; that a sinful

thought, if allowed, and dwelt upon, is sin committed already. We learn from the records of the world before the flood, that man was destroyed from the face of the earth, because God saw that " every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually "." On the other hand, how tenderly does He admonish us of the purity and sacredness of this offering of the very inmost emotions of our soul, in the words of his latest prophet.

A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Mal. iii. 16, 17.

2 Gen. vi. 5. 7.