"Prepare to meet thy God."—Amos iv. 12.

O God, Thou art daily loading me with Thy benefits. Thou art making the outgoings of the evening and morning to rejoice over me, giving me unnumbered causes for gratitude and thankfulness. No earthly friend could have loved and cared for me like Thee. Oh may the life Thou art thus preserving by Thine unceasing bounty be unreservedly dedicated to Thy praise.

Lord, keep me mindful that I am soon to be done with this world, that I am fast borne along the stream of time to an endless futurity. {98} "It is appointed unto all once to die, and after death the judgment." May I be living in a constant state of preparedness for that solemn hour when small and great shall stand before God, and the books shall be opened. Educate me for eternity. Let me not be frittering away these fleeting but precious moments. Impress on me the solemn conviction that "as men live so do men die," that as death leaves me so will judgment find me. Oh let death leave me falling asleep in Jesus, united to Him by a living faith, that so judgment may find me seated at His right hand, listening to the joyous welcome, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Blessed Jesus, all my hope of a glorious resurrection centres in Thee. I look to Thee as the strong tower which cannot be shaken. I flee anew to the holy sanctuary of Thy covenant love. Sheltered there, amid a dissolving earth, and burn............