Monday; Series 1
Morning
O LORD, our heavenly Father, who by the rest of the Sabbath, and by the peaceful slumbers of the night, hast rested and refreshed our bodies and souls, we bring Thee our hearty thanks for Thy great goodness toward us, and we gratefully acknowledge Thee as the source of all our mercies.
We would now enter upon this new day, and upon the duties of this week, in Thy fear, and with a child-like sense of our dependence on Thee.
As Thou hast ordained that we should eat bread in the sweat of our face, and work with our hands the things which are good, we beseech Thee mercifully to prosper the work of our hands. Sanctify, O Lord, the fruit of our labors and cares, to our good, to the good of others, and to Thy glory.
Help us to carry the spirit of the holy Sabbath into all the business of the week; and whilst our bodies and minds are engaged in honest and useful toil, may our hearts still live and rest in Thee. Whilst we are diligent in business, may we also be fervent in spirit; and in all our doing may we, like our adorable Saviour, be doing only good.
Save us from the spirit of worldliness. Suffer us not to seek our portion in this life; and having food and raiment, make us therewith content.
O Lord God of our fathers, who dost make and keep covenant with families, and dost include parents and children in Thy most gracious promises, bless, we beseech Thee, this household dedicated to Thy holy service. Continue to provide for all our proper wants; and together turn our hearts daily in gratitude and love to Thee, that being united in Thy service in this life, we may together attain to the felicity of the life everlasting, through infinite mercy and grace in Jesus Christ our Lord.
To Thy care, O Lord, we now commend ourselves in soul and body, for this day. Let Thy fatherly protection be over us. Keep our hearts from sin, our eyes from tears, and our souls from death; and enable us to walk before Thee in cheerful obedience to the end of life.
Hear, O Lord, our prayer; and grant us all things that we need, for this world and for that which is to come; since we ask in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Evening
MOST GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL GOD, we give Thee thanks that is has pleased Thee to add another day to the years of our life, and that none of Thy judgments, to which for our sins we are justly liable, have fallen upon us.
With deep humility, O holy Lord God, we confess our many sins. We acknowledge our infirmities, which cause us to fall short of being wholly devoted to Thee, and our remaining depravity which ever wars against Thy sanctifying grace in our souls. O God, infinite in mercy, pardon our sins of the day past, which we have committed through negligence, weakness, and frailty, whether in thought, word, or deed; and grant that they may never rise up in judgment against us.
Keep it ever in our hearts that it is and evil thing, and bitter, to forsake and offend the Lord our God. Above all things restrain us from wilful and deliberate sins, that we may never grieve Thy spirit, nor provoke Thee to give us over to our own ways.
Impress us with a due sense of the shortness of our mortal life, that we may make it a right use of our time as it passes: spending it in Thy fear and for Thy glory; and may we never abuse Thy long-suffering and patience. Especially as we know not the number of our days, nor the hour when Thou shalt call us away, help us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to redeem the present hour while the day lasts. Help us to keep in view our latter end: and in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, good Lord, deliver us.
O Thou preserver of all, have mercy on all sorts and conditions of men. From Thy fulness, provide for the destitute; by Thy power, heal the sick; by Thy Holy Spirit, comfort the suffering and sorrowing; by Thy restoring grace, raise the fallen; by Thy voice of love and mercy, call back such as have wandered from Thee. Help, O Lord, and save all who feel their need of Thy grace.
Visit, O Lord, with Thy grace this house and family. Drive far from us all snares of the enemy. Let Thy holy angels have charge over us to preserve us in peace; and let Thy blessing be upon us forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
O God, all powerful, take us this night under Thy protection. Let our weary nature be refreshed by easy and quiet sleep; and, by Thy grace and providence, bring us at last through all the trials and temptations of this world to a blessed end: that so we may die in peace, rest in hope, and rise to glory.
A Liturgy, or Order of Christian Worship Prepared and Published by the German Reformed Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857) pp. 293-295. Copyright Public Domain.