"resist the devil, and he will flee from you."—james iv. 7.
o god, thou art from everlasting to everlasting. loving me at the beginning, thou hast promised to love me even unto the end. notwithstanding all the fitful changes of my own changing heart towards thee, there has been, and can be, no shadow of turning in thy covenant faithfulness towards me. i am at this {76} hour the monument of thy mercy—a living comment on the words, "thy ways are not as man's ways, nor thy thoughts as man's thoughts."
if i have been enabled in any degree to resist the assaults of temptation, it is all thy doing. i am "kept by the power of god." unless the lord had been my help, my soul must long ere now have dwelt in silence. by the grace of god i am what i am.
lord, indulged and cherished sin unfits me for the enjoyment of thy service and favor. i have to lament my proneness to evil, the natural bias of my heart to that which is opposed to thy pure and holy will. when i would do good, sin is too often present with me. i feel the power of my spiritual adversaries. if left to myself and my own unaided resources, i must often hopelessly resign the conflict.
but i rejoice to think that there is help and hope and strength at hand. i would look to him who is now bending upon me an eye of unchanging love from the throne. all thy ascension glories, blessed redeemer, have not obliterated the tenderness of thy humanity. thou art {77} "that same jesus;" thou, the abiding friend, art still left changeless among the changeable; and when satan often desires to have me, that he might sift me as wheat, it is thy intercessory prayer that saves me from utter ruin. thou art pleading for me, that my faith fail not! oh may i be found invincible in the hour of temptation, being made more than conqueror through him that loved me. sheltered in thee the true refuge, the wicked one will touch me not.
let me not trifle with my own soul or with the momentous interests of eternity. let me every day be living under the realizing consciousness that thy pure eye is upon me. keep me from all that is at variance with thy gracious mind. keep me from unchristian tempers, from an unholy or inconsistent or uneven walk. by a christ-like demeanor may i exhibit the sanctifying and transforming influence of the gospel on my own soul, that others may take knowledge of me that i have been with jesus.
god of bethel! do thou take under thy protecting providence all related to me by endearing ties. however far we may be separated from one another, let us never be separated from {78} thee. let us often rejoice in this our common meeting-place; that around thy mercy-seat in spirit we can assemble, and lay our evening incense in the one golden censer of our gracious high priest!
take charge of me this night, defend me from all danger; whether i wake or sleep, may i live together with thee; and all that i ask or hope for is in the name and for the sake of jesus christ, my only saviour. amen.
"let my prayer be set forth before thee as
incense: and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice."
