and uncleanness,-all malice,-all pride;-and humbly, and as in the sight of God, who knoweth all the secrets of my heart, let me make confession of my sins with a firm determination, in reliance on divine grace, that as I have done iniquity in times past, I will do so no more.

But let me not fall into the common delusion of supposing that God will grant an immediate Vanswer to the urgency of my requests;-for he works in his own time and in his own way,-and always by means of the causes which he has established;-and it seldom happens that either the sinner is at once encompassed with the net of destruction, or the good man rewarded with his destined exaltation, till events have slowly, though surely, prepared the way for the manifestation of the presiding counsel and righteous providence of God.

Let me, then, earnestly advance to the performance of the duties of this day,-—but also with a firm determination to wait patiently till God shall see fit to perfect his own work for my good.

PRAYER.

HEAVENLY FATHER,

On this morning of a day of humiliation and prayer, I come into thy presence with a heart deeply conscious of my manifold transgressions,— and earnestly desirous that, for Christ's sake, thou wouldst forgive mine iniquities, and grant me the peace which belongs to "the man to whom thou wilt not impute sin."

Alas! O my God, how great a blessing didst thou bestow on me when thou gavest me my place in this magnificent world, and bestowedst on me those high capacities which have constituted me one of thine intelligent and immortal offspring!and, oh! how glorious a course might I have run in life, had I been actuated at all times by a becoming desire to fulfil, in all respects, the obligations imposed on me by my place in existence, and by the glorious hopes which have been set before me.

Frail, O Lord, and sinful as is the nature which I inherit, and incapable of offering unto thee the

homage of a perfect service, I might yet have so far ordered my life aright as to have avoided much guilt which I have voluntarily contracted,-to have been free from many follies which, through my inadvertency, have cleaved to me,—to have enriched my spirit with many ornaments and graces, which would have been well-pleasing in thy sight, -and to have entertained, with more assurance than I now possess, the blessed hope of being finally admitted to a higher world, and to a more glorious station among thy intelligent offspring.

Instead of all this, O my God, I now appear before thee, as a creature laden with iniquity, and bowed down by the pressure of much voluntary guilt. I cannot look back upon the course I have run in life, without a deep consciousness of many failures; indeed, there is no moment of my life, nor any action I have performed, which can now give me, in reviewing it, unmingled satisfaction. I am afraid to look up to thee as a Father who art well pleased with the obedience of a welldisposed though frail and erring child,—and, oh! eternity presents itself to my awful anticipations, as an unending series of possible endurances, which may yet cover my spirit with hopeless dismay.

Alas! O God, what an awful state were this into which I have now fallen, if no hopes of pardon had been held out to the penitent,—and if thou hadst ordained, that those who fall from the true and perfect way of thy commandments must perish for ever! How miserable a thing would the existence which thy bounty has conferred on me then have been!-and what streams of bitterness must I not have permitted to mingle with all my affections, and to poison all my hopes,-when I thought of what I might have been, and of what, as a disobedient and fallen child, I should then have been doomed for ever to be.

And, oh! how, then, ought I to bless thy holy name with songs of fervent and sincerest gratitude, because thou hast said that "thou delightest in mercy," because it is the declaration of thy word, that "thou knowest our frame, and rememberest that we are dust,”—that as a Father rejoiceth over the return of a Prodigal Son, so the Lord looketh "with a pleased countenance" on those who look to him for pardon and grace, and that, even though our sins may have been of the deepest dye, and countless in their number, yet "thou hast no pleasure in the death of a sinner,"-" and when

the wicked man turneth from his wickedness, and doth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.”

Trusting to these gracious declarations, "I will now confess mine iniquity,-I will be sorry for my sin,"-" I will lay my hand upon my mouth, and my mouth in the dust, crying out, Unclean, unclean;" —and, oh!" do thou search my heart, and show me if there be any wicked way in me," and help me, with a true and deeply-penitent heart, but yet with humble reliance on thy promised mercy, through Christ, to spread even the most flagrant and most cherished of mine iniquities before thee, who hast promised to pardon,—and who, by thy word, hast assured us, that "he who hideth his sins shall not prosper, but he who confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall obtain mercy."

Alas! O Lord, I would fain hide from myself many of the sins of which I have been guilty,— and for many of those which press themselves on my notice, and which I cannot overlook, I am yet foolishly disposed to offer excuses, or even to regard them as but amiable follies, which cannot be offensive in thy sight. Heavenly Father, take away from me these great delusions,-show me