"the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the lord, as the waters cover the sea."—isaiah xi. 9.
o god, i desire to draw near into thy blessed presence, beseeching thee to lift upon me the light of thy countenance and grant me a father's blessing. i am utterly unworthy of thy mercies. and it is only in jesus, the son of thy love, that i dare venture to cast myself at thy footstool.
i rejoice to think that in him there is an open door of welcome; that he has by his doing and dying satisfied the demands of thy righteous law, and magnified all thy glorious attributes. i would bury all my sins in the ocean-depths of his redeeming love. oh let me now know the blessedness of living, and at last the blessedness of dying, at peace with thee, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life.
darkness is still covering the lands, and gross darkness the people. lord, do thou have mercy on a world lying in wickedness. i rejoice to {89} think of all thy glorious promises concerning the latter day. that this creation of ours, now groaning and travailing in bondage under sin, is yet to be delivered from the yoke of corruption, and to be translated into the glorious liberty of the sons of god. glorify thy great name in the salvation of sinners! hasten the period of predicted glory, when all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of god; when from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the lord's name is to be praised. may thine own omnipotent spirit brood over the darkness, as he did over chaos of old, and say, "let there be light, and there will be light." may gladsome voices soon be heard proclaiming, "arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the lord is risen upon thee."
oh may i know personally something of that compassionate yearning over ruined souls and a ruined world that my saviour had. let me be prodigal in devising means for the extension of his kingdom and the good of my fellow-men. i would pray the lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers to the harvest. stand by thy missionary servants. may they have {90} many souls for their hire. may mountains of difficulty be levelled before them; may crooked things be made straight and rough places plain, and may the glory of the lord be revealed. let them exercise simple faith in the power of thy word and the efficacy of thy grace. may they feel that these are mighty as they ever were to the pulling down of strongholds.
arouse thy churches to greater zeal. may jesus, faithfully lifted up by his servants, by the attractive power of his cross draw all men unto him. may they be the honored instruments of preparing many gems for immanuel's crown, who will be found unto praise and honor and glory at his second appearing.
lord, guard me through the silent watches of the night; be the defence and protection of my friends and relatives; may they too dwell under the shadow of thy wings and experience the sleep of thy beloved; and when the night of earth's ignorance shall vanish away, may we all wake up in glory everlasting, through jesus christ, our only lord and saviour. amen.
"let my prayer be set forth before thee as
incense: and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice."
