"Sin shall not have dominion over you."—Rom. vi. 14.

O God, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Evil cannot dwell with Thee, fools cannot stand in Thy presence. Thou hast solemnly declared, "Thou canst by no means clear the guilty," and that "though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not escape unpunished."

Lord, I rejoice that I can draw near to Thee {54} in the name of Him by whom the guilty have been cleared; and through whom it is that a holy and righteous and sin-hating God can yet be holy and just, in the very act of justifying the ungodly.

I desire to adore Thee for all Thy creative and providential goodness. Thou hast loaded me with Thy benefits. The past is paved with love. I see in the retrospect of life nothing but amazing, unmerited kindness, mercy upon mercy! Amid manifold changes there has been no change in Thee, no altered looks, no fainting or weariness or estrangement. Amid the wanderings of my own fitful spirit I can write over every remembrance of the past, But "Thou art the same!"

I desire with penitence of soul to mourn my own ingratitude and sin, the desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of my own evil heart, the power of corruption, the mastery of self, the alienation of my affections from Thee their rightful Sovereign and Lord. What an easy prey have I often fallen in the hour of temptation—by thought and word and deed dishonoring Thy name and basely requiting Thy love! {55} Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy child!

Give me genuine contrition for the past, inspire me with new purposes of............