"Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."—Rom. viii. 15.

Blessed Lord! I desire to draw near this night with holy boldness to the footstool of Thy throne, rejoicing that I can look up to Thee as my Father in heaven. "Behold what manner of love is this the Father hath bestowed on me, that I should be called a child of God." Thou mightest have righteously left me orphaned, friendless, portionless for ever. But in the midst of wrath Thou hast remembered mercy: the kindness of no earthly parent, O God, could equal thine. Thou hast borne with all my obstinacy, all my perverseness, and waywardness, and ingratitude. I am at this hour the monument of a love as wondrous as it is undeserved.

{36} Oh teach me to cultivate more and more a spirit of child-like obedience to Thee; to cherish a holy fear of offending so kind and forgiving and beneficent a Father. Whilst Thou art strewing my wilderness path with unmerited blessings, may I be enabled to rise above every earthly gift and mercy to the better inheritance I have in Thee, the bountiful Bestower of all! Let me feel every created blessing to be doubly sweet, as emanating from a Father\'s hand, and being a proof and pledge of a Father\'s love. Let the hour of prayer be doubly hallowed by the thought that I am permitted to haunt a Father\'s presence, and pour my wants into a Father\'s ear. Let the season of sorrow be sweetened by the thought that the rod is in a Father\'s hand, and that the voice, though apparently rough, is the tender whispering of parental love.

Blessed Jesus! I desire to remember that it is Thou and Thou only who ............