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Can we return into it without feeling the desire “of being fellow workers with Him!" of lending our aid, feeble as it may be, in the diffusion of truth,-in the encouragement of virtue,-in the relief of suffering, or in the spreading of the "glad tidings of sal"vation among the dwellings of men." And can we permit the sun to be witness to our morning prayers, without wishing, that our course may be like his, to diffuse light and joy amid the society in which we dwell!

3. How strongly, in the third place, does the spirit of our Lord's prayer lead us to the recollection of the particular duties which we are called individually to perform. We pray that "his kingdom may come ;" not a temporal kingdom, but that mental and spiritual kingdom, which consists in the reign of Innocence, of Piety, and Virtue. Of that kingdom, the words remind us, that we are all members; that its advancement or delay depends upon our individual efforts; that the scene in which we are placed is the true scene of our fidelity; and that the humblest man who, beneath the thatch of the cottage, passes a life of obscure and patient duty, and "brings up his "children in the nurture and admonition of their "Lord," is yet no less than a " fellow worker with "God" himself in the present happiness, and in the final salvation of mankind. How well fitted are such convictions to the various and unequal conditions of men! How exalted the principle from which they summon us, whether high or low, to duty; and even to those who are called to those labours of life,

where "they are weary and heavy laden," how noble are the struggles which they are thus summoned to undergo, and how dear that "rest" in which it is promised their labours shall for ever close.

4. There is yet still a nobler reflection which these words are fitted to convey. In illustrating formerly what was meant in the words of our first address to God, I concluded by reminding you of the hope they inspired by the name of "Our Father who is in "Heaven." Let me now remind you, that the same consoling and animating doctrine is interwoven also with the general petitions we are now considering; and that, while we pray for the reign of human virtue, and human happiness under the gospel, we pray for it as the prelude to that greater happiness which reigns in heaven. Under such prospects, with what solemn joy may not the pious return into the world; with what firm eye may they not look upon the hardships they are doomed to undergo; and with what patient heart may they not receive every visitation which it pleases their Father to send !— In that concluding scene, all mysteries will be revealed,--all doubts cease, all inquietudes repose :-the pure in heart will see their God,-and "from the east and the west, from the north and "from the south," the gates of Heaven will open to receive the meek, the pious, and the good.

When from such meditations we return into the world, we often return to mark the reign of chance and time, to see the place vacant which was once filled by those we loved or esteemed, or to follow

to their graves those whom worth had dignified, or innocence had endeared:-sometimes the young who fell in the bloom of youthful promise; sometimes the mature, who have been summoned away amid all their plans of private good, or publick usefulness; and sometimes the aged, who sunk under the weight of years, and whose gray hairs have fallen into the grave, satiated with life and full of honour. In such eircumstances, what is there that can console the hearts of those who have been bereft of all they held dear, and who refuse the voice of comfort? It is the preparation of this habitual prayer. It is the blessed belief that there “is” a kingdom in Heaven, in which the spirits of departed virtue repose,-in which they meet the Saviour whose footsteps they have followed, and the Father, whose will they have studied to do. From the evils and the infirmities of life, they are removed to their "own border;" that border from which death separates us, but where there reigns Truth, and Wisdom; and Joy; that border which they have struggled to secure as their own, by deeds of goodness and benevolence while on earth; where they are received by all the just who have preceded them in the career of virtue; and where, under the influence of the Sun of Righteousness, the seeds of piety and goodness, which life has nourished, will be sown in a nobler soil, and "bring forth "fruits worthy of immortality."

1. The first of these petitions is for the present time; for the relief of those wants, and the supply of those necessities which incessantly return, and of which the return marks, to the greatest as well as to the lowest, their dependence upon a greater power:-"Give us this day our daily bread."-How many are the truths of which these simple words remind us! They remind us, in the first place, with every morning sun, "that the eyes of all wait upon “him; and that it is He alone that giveth them their "food in due season." From the hour in which we speak, they seem to carry us back, too, to the years that are past; and while they remind us, that, in every day of these innumerable years, the daily prayer of nature has been heard, they teach us to put our trust in Him, " in whom our fathers trusted "and were holpen;" and whose "Providence nei"ther slumbers nor sleeps." They remind us, in the second place, of what we owe to our brethWe begin the day with imploring the relief of our necessities, and the supply of our wants. Can we forget, amid these supplications, that there are necessities also which we can relieve, and wants which we can supply-that there are some, in every day, who depend upon our labour, or upon our love; and can we retire from the presence of God, without wishing, in our narrow day, to be “merciful, as He is merciful?"—They remind us, lastly, of what we owe to ourselves." Give us "this day our daily bread." It is the language not of possessors, but of travellers ;-not of those who

ren.

have here "a continuing city," but of those who, with a nobler ambition, "seek one that is to come." It reminds us that life itself is but a day;—that all its honours and distinctions are but the decorations of a transitory being;-that the night is at hand, in which all these distinctions will disappear;-and that the final morning is to arise," in which every "man will receive according to his works." Such are the impressions which this first petition is fitted to excite in our minds. I stop not at present any farther to illustrate them. I entreat you only to consider, how well they are adapted to the condition of human life; and how wisely every day would begin, if it begun with such meditations.

2. From the wants of the present time, we are led, by an irresistible impulse, to look back to the time which is past. When we present ourselves before the purity of Heaven, and dare, on the renewal of every day, to solicit the renewal of its care, there is a question which rises unbidden in every heart. What am I? and with what preparation do I come into the presence of God? In what manner have I employed the days that are gone?— and what claims have I to the continuance of his goodness, by the use which I have made of that which is past? It is a solemn question; and solemn are the images which memory then must bring to every heart; and the best and the wisest of us have no answer to return but the lowly petition of our prayer, Lord "forgive us our trespasses."