"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."—2 Cor. iii. 5.

O God! do Thou bend Thy pitying eye upon me this night, as I venture once more into Thy sacred presence. What mercy it is that, with all my great unworthiness, a throne of grace is still open, and a God of grace is still waiting to be gracious!

I come to Thee in deep creature-destitution, bringing nothing in my hands, but simply cleaving, blessed Jesus, to Thy cross; looking away from my guilty self and my guilty doings to Thee, who hast done all and suffered all for me, I rejoice to think that Thou hast broken {64} every chain of condemnation—that Thou hast satisfied the requirements of a broken law; and having overcome the sharpness of death, Thou hast opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Oh let me not continue in sin because all this wondrous grace abounds. Let me not think lightly of the accursed thing which was the cause of all Thine untold and unutterable anguish. I know, Lord, that I am apt at times to plead vain excuses for my sins. I am unwilling to think them, and to think myself, so vile as I really am, in Thy pure and holy eye.

My heart is deceitful; but "Thou art greater than my heart." Oh bring me in self-renouncing lowliness to cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Let me cling to no remnants of my own self-righteousness. Let me see that my best actions are marred with defilement and mingled with impure and unworthy motives.

Enable me to aim m............