September, 1831.
A NIGHTLY PRAYER. 1831.
Almighty God, by thy eternal Word my Creator Redeemer and Preserver!
who hast in thy free communicative goodness glorified me with the
capability of knowing thee, the one only absolute Good, the eternal I
Am, as the author of my being, and of desiring and seeking thee as
its ultimate end;--who, when I fell from thee into the mystery of the
false and evil will, didst not abandon me, poor self-lost creature,
but in thy condescending mercy didst provide an access and a return
to thyself, even to thee the Holy One, in thine only begotten Son,
the way and the truth from everlasting, and who took on himself
humanity, yea, became flesh, even the man Christ Jesus, that for man
he might be the life and the resurrection!--O Giver of all good
gifts, who art thyself the one only absolute Good, from whom I have
received whatever good I have, whatever capability of good there is
in me, and from thee good alone,--from myself and my own corrupted
will all evil and the consequents of evil,--with inward prostration
of will, mind, and affections I adore thy infinite majesty; I aspire
to love thy transcendent goodness!--In a deep sense of my
unworthiness, and my unfitness to present myself before thee, of eyes
too pure to behold iniquity, and whose light, the beautitude of
spirits conformed to thy will, is a consuming fire to all vanity and
corruption;--but in the name of the Lord Jesus, of the dear Son of
thy love, in whose perfect obedience thou deignest to behold as many
as have received the seed of Christ into the body of this death;--I
offer this, my bounden nightly sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving,
in humble trust that the fragrance of my Saviour's righteousness may
remove from it the taint of my mortal corruption.
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