"yea, though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."—ps. xxiii. 4.
o god, i come to thee this night through jesus christ, the son of thy love, beseeching thee to have mercy upon me, and to impart unto me that peace of thine which passeth all understanding. blessed be thy great and glorious name for those hopes full of immortality which have been opened up to me in the gospel. i rejoice in christ as the great abolisher of death. i rejoice that the rainbow of covenant faithfulness spans the entrance to the dark valley; that all that is terrible in the last enemy is in him taken away, and that i can regard these closing hours of existence as the introduction and doorway into everlasting bliss.
give me grace, o god, to be living in constant preparation for death. let me not unprofitably squander my present golden moments. {95} let me live while i live—let me live a dying life. let me feel that life is a trust given me by thee. o thou great proprietor of my being, may this all important talent of time be more consecrated to thy glory. let it not be mine, when the hour of death arrives, to bewail, when it is too late, lost and forfeited opportunities. let me not leave till then, what best can be done and what only may be done now. may it be my earnest endeavor while it is called today to secure a saving interest in the everlasting covenant, and then i need not fear how soon the silver cord may be loosed and the golden bowl broken. through jesus the darkness has been taken from death, and to his own true people its shadows will melt and merge into the brightness of eternal day.
thou art ever giving me impressive remembrances that "at such an hour as i think not," the summons may come, "prepare to meet thy god." the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. verily every moment there may be but a step between me and death. let me be so living a life of habitual faith in {96} the son of god that this step may be changed into a step between me and glory.
lord, prepare all who may now be laid on dying couches for their great change. may their eyes be directed to jesus. pillowing their heads on his exceeding great and precious promises, may they fall asleep in the glorious hope of a joyful resurrection.
bless all in sorrow; those who have recently been bereaved of near and dear friends, who may have been called recently to the brink of the tomb, consigning their loved ones to the narrow house appointed for all living. may they be enabled to fix their sorrowing gaze on the brighter prospects beyond death and the grave, and anticipate that glorious hour when, reunited to death-divided friends, they will be able to exult together in the song, "o death, where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy victory?"
take the charge of me this night. watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep, and when i too come to the long night and slumber of death, may it be the gentle rest of thy beloved, a falling asleep in the arms of {97} everlasting love, looking forward to the joyful waking time of immortality, through 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."
