OCCASIONAL PRAYERS. OCCASIONAL PRAYERS FOR A FAMILY. I. New Year. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when is past, and as a watch in the night. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? and repent thou concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days in which thou hast afflicted us, and the years in which we have seen evil. Let thy work appear to thy servants, and thy glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. On the morning of another year, we bow ourselves before thee, O thou God of our lives, and seek thy blessing. In thy presence, which we now solemnly invoke, we consecrate ourselves renewedly to thy service. May the coming year prove a new year indeed, bringing new thoughts and better resolutions than we ever yet have formed. Happy, thrice happy will it be for us, if it lead us into a new and divine life. Should it bring us trials and sorrows, and take from us health and friends, still happy will it be if through thy grace we are enabled to use it well. Although it should strip us of our dearest earthly possessions, it will make us rich indeed if it give us wisdom and strength, and its memory will be precious forever. 0, then with one mind and heart we would pause, and pray for light, and beseech thee to give us new convictions of the priceless worth of a godly and righteous life. Send down thy Spirit from the holy heavens to write upon our hearts, to record thy will upon those living tables in eternal characters. We would no longer be in bondage to the world and its foolish and hurtful lusts. But we would have faith in God, and in the unutterable worth of our immortal souls. We would renounce the pleasures of sin and sense, and no more be led astray by the hollow promises and gaudy show of life. We know-in |