For Seasonable Weather. For Plenty, for Health, Peace, &c. GOD, Heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ, hast promised to all who seek thy kingdom and thy righteousness, all things needful, behold we pray thee the afflictions of thy people which for our iniquities we have justly deserved. Add one of the following clauses according to the circumstances. We humbly beseech thee, to send us such weather as that we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season; increase them by thy heavenly benediction; and give us grace to use them to thy glory and the relief of those who need. OR, Have pity upon us, save us from the hands of our enemies, and give us the blessings of peace. OR, Have compassion upon us, and save us from this pestilence and grievous sickness, with which now thou hast visited us, And end the prayer with these words, That we may glorify thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Such parts of the foregoing Prayer may be inserted in the Daily Thanksgiving, on any proper occasion, as are adapted See also pages 237 and 239. to it. THIS PRAYER MAY BE ADDED, ESPECIALLY En times of National Trouble. ALMIGHTY Lord God, who by thy wisdom guidest and orderest all things; we thy sinful people acknowledge thee to be righteous in all thy ways, and holy in all thy works and do here fall down before thee, confessing that thy judgments are right and that we have drawn down the same upon ourselves before thee, by the great and long provocations of our sins against thee. We do therefore here humble ourselves before thee; beseeching thee to deliver this nation, and to turn from us and our posterity all those judgments, which we by our sins have worthily deserved: Grant this, for the all-sufficient merits of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. National Anniversaries. Many conscientious persons have felt a difficulty in recognising the duty of observing those days, for which Services are provided, and inserted in the Prayer Book, under an authority essentially different from that from which the Church of England has received its Liturgy and Articles. Others have felt it even more difficult to adopt the language of the Prayers in those Services, as scarcely consistent with Christian humility and charity. For those who desire to acknowledge and pray for a continuance of the many national blessings which God has bestowed on us, it is suggested that they may appropriately read instead of the daily Morning Sentences the following: On the Accession. 1 Tim. ii. 1-3. 1 Pet. ii. 19-25. PROPER COLLECTS. "Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee." (5 S. after Trinity.) "O Lord, who hast taught us. (Quinquagesima.) 66 PROPER PRAYERS. Those for the Queen as follows. Almighty God," p. 31. "Blessed Lord," p. 47. Or some of the Prayers for Unity. "O God the Father," (Accession,) p. 14. For "The Church Militant," p. 86. And in the Thanksgivings for the Day may be mentioned the subject of the Anniversary. PRAYERS FOR USE IN TIMES OF DOMESTIC AFFLICTION, SICKNESS, AND DEATH. Taken chiefly from the Service for the Visitation of the Sick. ALTHOUGH IT IS THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY TO ACQUAINT THEIR PASTOR OF THE SICKNESS OF ANY OF ITS MEMBERS, AND SEEK HIS SPIRITUAL COUNSEL AND AID, WHERE IT MAY BE HAD; YET WHERE THERE IS ANY JUST IMPEDIMENT TO THIS, THE HEAD OF A FAMILY IS BOUND TO BE AS A PRIEST TO IT, ONLY REFRAINING FROM USURPING POWERS WHICH GOD HAS NOT INTRUSTED TO HIM. IN SUCH CASES MANY OF THE FOLLOWING PRAYERS WILL BE FOUND VALUABLE EITHER IN THE FAMILY OR BY THE SICK BED. DESPISE not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and Scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Heb. xii. He chasteneth us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Ib. EXHORTATION. DEARLY beloved, we know this, that Almighty God is the Lord of life and death, and of all things to them pertaining. Wherefore whatso ever our [affliction] be, know we certainly that it is God's visitation. And for what cause soever it is sent unto us; whether it be to try our patience for the example of others, and that our faith may be found in the day of the Lord laudable, glorious, and honourable, to the increase of glory, and endless felicity; or else it be sent us to correct and amend in us whatsoever doth offend the eyes of our heavenly Father: know we certainly, that if we truly repent us of our sins, and bear our [trial] patiently, trusting in God's mercy, and rendering unto him humble thanks for his fatherly visitation, submitting ourselves wholly unto his will, it shall turn to our profit, and help us forward in the right way that leadeth unto everlasting life. (See also Friday Morning.) PRAYER FOR PARDON, &c. REMEMBER not, Lord, our iniquities, nor the iniquities of our forefathers: Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever. Spare us, good Lord. INVOCATION. O thou who wast on earth a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who art touched with a feeling of our infirmities, Glory be to thee O Lord. |