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 BV 260 .B7 1873 
 
 Boyd, James R. 1804-1890. 
 
 Daily communion with God 
 
DAILY 
 COMMUNION WITH GOD 
 
 ON 
 
 THE PLAN RECOMMENDED 
 
 BY EEV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M. 
 
 FOB 
 
 BEGINNING, SPENDING, CONCLUDING 
 
 EACH DAY WITH GOD. 
 
 BY JAMES E. BOYD, D. D. 
 
 AMEKICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU STKEET, NEW YOEK. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. 
 HOW TO BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD page 11 
 
 PART II. 
 HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD 35 
 
 PART III. 
 HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD 67 
 
 APPLICATION 95 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 ^ N the following pages is presented the important 
 ^^ and too much neglected subject of daily com- 
 munion with God, on the plan pursued by the 
 Rev. Matthew Henry, the celebrated commentator on 
 the Scriptures, in three discourses, dehvered at a 
 morning lecture in the year 1712. A free use has 
 been made of the thoughts, and also of the language, 
 often quaint and pithy, of that eminently practical 
 and godly writer, in the hope of tlius more certainly 
 persuading the attentive reader of these page^ to the 
 adoption and pursuit of the spiritual course of life 
 herein proposed. 
 
 The writer has also employed some pains in select- 
 ing and in disposing throughout the work, the best 
 passages of devotional poetry he has been able to 
 find, illustrative of the topics discussed, and adapted 
 
6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 to impress them upon the memory, the heart, and 
 the Hfe. 
 
 The daily life of Matthew Henry furnishes a beau- 
 tiful and instmctive commentary upon what he has 
 recommended in the discourses which form the basis 
 of the present work. The late Dr. James Hamilton 
 of London has written an admirable biographical 
 sketch of this great and good man, some extracts 
 from which, chiefly composed, however, of portions 
 of his Diary, and here subjoined, will prepare the 
 reader to regard T\ith deeper interest, and to receive 
 with greater confidence and favor, the counsels which 
 are offered ui^on the best method of passing our 
 days on earth. 
 
 "The great business of Mr. Henry's Hfe was the 
 cultivation of piety in himself and others. His reli- 
 gion was not the less profound that it was mild and 
 lowly ; nor is it the less fitted for imitation that it 
 adorned and cheered a hfe of tranquil tenor. His 
 own practice was a constant effort to 'begin, and 
 spend, and conclude each day with God, ' Besides the 
 fuU and deHberate worship of God in his family, he 
 abounded in secret prayer. It was his recourse in 
 every undertaking. His seimons were begun, his 
 books were pubhshed, his journeys were commenced, 
 and the imi)ortant steps of his history were taken with 
 prayer." 
 
 " What incomes of grace," he wrote, "yea, and out- 
 ward good things, as far as they are indeed good for 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 7 
 
 us, have we by an access to God in Christ ! Such 
 have a companion ready in all their solitudes, a coun- 
 sellor in all their doubts, a comforter in all their sor- 
 rows, a supply in all their wants, a support under all 
 their burdens, a shelter in aU their dangers, strength 
 for all their performances, and salvation insured by a 
 sweet, undeceiving earnest. What is heaven but an 
 everlasting access to God ? And present access is a 
 pledge of it." 
 
 " And as he had devout and confident recourse to 
 the throne of grace, so he was an alert and thankful 
 observer of those providences which answered prayer. 
 He could say that the good things of God's children 
 'are not dispensed out of the basket of common 
 providence, but out of the ark of the covenant ;' and 
 ' those mercies are the sweetest which are seen grow- 
 ing upon the root of a promise. ' Like his contem- 
 porary in Scotland, Thomas Boston, his diary is full 
 of recognitions of God's superintending care and 
 kind interposing hand. Gratitude for mercies was 
 constantly irradiating his path and sweetening his 
 spirit; and if he sometimes sought the prayers of 
 his fiiends, he also sought the helj) of their praises. 
 On special occasions he invited them to his house to 
 join in thanksgiving for recent deliverances or dis- 
 tinguishing favors. ' O magnify the Lord Avith me ; 
 let us exalt his name together.' 
 
 "In a prominent degree Mr. Henry possessed a 
 spiritual mind; and of that spirituality one great 
 
8 INTRODUCTOEY NOTE. 
 
 secret was his devout and delighted observance of the 
 Lord's day. On it he accumulated all the endear- 
 ment and veneration of a grateful and conscientious 
 spirit, and in it he collected j)atience and impulse for 
 the days to come. To him the Sabbath was like a 
 reservoir on the summit of a hill. He was sure that 
 if this day were filled with heavenly things, it would 
 send down its bright and refreshing streams through 
 all the week." 
 
 "The better to * fix his heart' and help hi« mem- 
 ory, he kept an occasional Journal. As affording the 
 most intimate view of his character, we may give a 
 few extracts from it : 
 
 " January 1, 1701. ' Being more and more confirm- 
 ed in my belief of the being and attributes of God, 
 of the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ between 
 God and man, and of the reahty and weight of invis- 
 ible things, and being more and more satisfied that 
 this is the true grace of God wherein I stand, I do 
 solemnly resign and give up my whole self to God in 
 Jesus Christ. I commit my soul and all the con- 
 cerns of my spiritual state to the grace of God and 
 to the word of his grace, subjecting myself to the 
 conduct and government of the blessed Spirit, and 
 to his influence and operations, which I earnestly 
 desire and depend upon for the mortifying of my 
 corruptions, the strengthening of my graces, the fur- 
 nishing me for every good word and work, and the 
 ripening of me for heaven. I commit my body and 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 9 
 
 all the concerns of my outward condition to the prov- 
 idence of God, to be ordered and disposed by the 
 Avisdom and will of my heavenly Father. Not know- 
 ing the things which may befall me this year, I refer 
 myself to God. Whether it shall be my dying year 
 or not, I do not know ; but it is my earnest expecta- 
 tion and hope that the Lord Jesus Christ shall be 
 magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death, 
 by health or sickness, by plenty or poverty, by lib- 
 erty or restraint, by j)reaching or silence, by comfort 
 or sorrow. Welcome, welcome the will of God, 
 whatever it be. ' 
 
 "January 1, 1705. 'Lord, grant that this year I 
 may be more holy, and walk more closely than ever 
 in all holy conversation. I earnestly desire to be 
 filled with holy thoughts, to be carried out in holy 
 affections, determined by holy aims and intentions, 
 and governed in all my words and actions by holy 
 principles. Oh that a golden thread of holiness may 
 run through the whole web of this year !' 
 
 "' I know it is the wiQ of God that I should be use- 
 ful, and by his grace I will be so. Lord, thou know- 
 est it is the toj) of my ambition in this world to do 
 good, and to be serviceable to the honor of Christ 
 and the welfare of precious souls. I would fain do 
 good in the pulpit and good with my pen, and, which 
 I earnestly desire to abound more in, good by my 
 common conversation.' " 
 
 Such a man has the right and the ability to instruct 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 us hoio to begin, how to spend, and how to conclude the 
 day icith God, so that we shall make the most of this 
 brief life, and render it a wise and ample prepara- 
 tion for the great hereafter. 
 Geneva, N. Y. 
 
PART I 
 
 HOW 
 
 So ^Segin the Bay 
 
 ^WITH GOD 
 
Come at the morning hour, 
 Come, let us kneel and pray ; 
 
 Prayer is the Christian pilgrim's staff 
 To walk with God all day. 
 
 ' At noon, beneath the Rock 
 Of Ages, rest and pray ; 
 Sweet is that shelter from the sun 
 In the weary heat of day. 
 
 'At evening, in thy home, 
 
 Around its altar, pray ; 
 And finding there the house of God, 
 
 With heaven then close the day. 
 
 ' When midnight veils our eyes, 
 Oh, it is sweet to say, 
 *I sleep, but my heart waketh. Lord, 
 With thee to watch and pray. ' " 
 
HOW TO BEGIN 
 
 THE 
 
 DAY WITH GOD 
 
 ed^AVID, the royal Psalmist of Israel, has set 
 ^ an^example worthy of universal imitation, 
 in respect to the proper method of entering 
 upon each day of life. In his fifth Psalm, after 
 declaring to God the pious purpose, " Unto thee 
 will I pray," he adds, "My voice shalt thou hear 
 in the morning; in the morning will I direct my 
 prayer unto thee, and will look up." We are 
 not to suppose, however, that the morning was 
 the only time which he employed in this way. 
 In another psalm he writes, "Morning, and 
 evening, and at noon, will I pray, and cry 
 aloud." Psa. 55:17. Again he writes, (Psa. 
 119: 64,) " Seven times a day will I praise thee." 
 It would thus appear that prayer and praise en- 
 
16 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. ' 
 
 tered largely into the daily life and occupation 
 of this great and good man — a man to whose 
 inspired psalms the Christian world is indebted 
 most largely for devotional feeling and expres- 
 sion, in all acts of worship and of piety. 
 
 From his example, we are to learn that it is 
 our ivisdom and duty to begin every day with God. 
 
 The expression, " My voice thou shalt hear," 
 may be understood in either of two senses : 1. 
 Thou wilt hear, attend to, regard the prayer 
 which I address to thee in the morning. Or 
 2. Every morning will I address thee in the lan- 
 guage of supplication and of praise. 
 
 In regard to the first of these senses, it is a 
 matter of great importance to believe fully that 
 God is a prayer-hearing God ; that whatever we 
 ask of him as a Father, in the name of Jesus 
 Christ the Mediator, according to the will of 
 God revealed in the Scriptures, shall be granted 
 us either in kind, or in an equivalent, according 
 to the experience of the saints in all ages, and 
 that God never said to the seed of Jacob, " Seek 
 ye me," in vain, but is " a rewarder of them who 
 diligently seek him." 
 
 In regard to the second of the above senses, 
 David declares that every day — every morning — 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 17 
 
 God should hear the voice of his prayer. We 
 may speak to our God either with or without 
 the use of the voice ; for the substance of prayer 
 consists in the lifting up of the soul to God, and 
 pouring out the sentiments of the heart before 
 him ; but the use of the voice greatly aids us in 
 fixing our thoughts and giving distinctness to 
 the feelings of devotion, and therefore should, 
 for the most part, be employed when we seek to 
 cb-aw near to God, though he needs not any 
 verbal utterances fi'om us, to understand the 
 desires and the affections of our hearts. 
 
 It should be our purpose also, daily to ap- 
 proach our God in prayer and in praise. 
 
 This he expects and requires ; not because he 
 needs our rehgious services or can be benefited 
 b}^ them ; but thereby he seeks to maintain a 
 proper sense of his sovereign authority over us, 
 iind to keep us continually in mind of our entii'e 
 dependence upon him, and of our incessant and 
 heavy obligations to honor, obey, and serve 
 him. 
 
 Thus, also, he testifies his compassion towards 
 us, and his kindly interest at all times in our 
 affairs. 
 
 We have, or ought to have, something to say 
 
 Daily Communion. 2 
 
18 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 to God every day. Multitudes there are, liow- 
 ever, who do not seem to understand, or they 
 never act upon this sentiment. Their sin and 
 their misery it is, that they live without inter- 
 course with God ; they are not sensible of their 
 dependence upon him, nor of their obHgations, 
 and hence they have nothing to say to him. He 
 never hears from them ; as the father of the 
 prodigal son heard nothing from him, for 
 months and years. They ignore the presence, 
 the rightful authority, the paramount claims, 
 the unceasing benefactions of their God and 
 Saviour. But all right-minded persons will feel 
 and acknowledge that ever}^ one should have 
 something to say to God daily. 
 
 1. As to a Friend whom ive love. The fellow- 
 ship of believers is said to be with the Father 
 and with his Son Jesus Christ ; and have we 
 nothing, then, to say to the Father and to the 
 Son ? Is there not occasion to express our ado- 
 ration of the divine attributes, and our praise of 
 the divine works, in creation, providence, and 
 redemption ? Have we not much to say in ac- 
 knowledgment of his amazing grace and boun- 
 teousness to us? Is it not proper to express 
 oiir affection and our submission to him, saying, 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 19 
 
 as did the apostle, "Lord, tliou knowest all 
 things, thou knowest that I love thee" ? 
 
 God has something to say to us, as a Friend, 
 every day, by the holy Scriptures, by his provi- 
 dences, and by our consciences ; and if we have 
 nothing to say, by way of response, do we not 
 prove ourselves to be altogether wanting in 
 friendship and love to him? When he says to 
 us, " Seek ye my face," should not our hearts 
 answer as to one we love, " Thy face. Lord, will 
 we seek?" So when he says to us, "Eeturn, ye 
 backsliding children," should we not readily re- 
 ply, "Behold we come unto thee, for thou art 
 the Lord our God" ? If he speaks to us in the 
 way of reproof, and charges us with our sins, 
 should we not answer by a penitent confession 
 of them ? If he speaks in the language of com- 
 fort and of encouragement, should we not reply 
 in the language of grateful praise V 
 
 " New every morning is the lovb 
 
 Our wakening and uprising prove ; 
 Through sleep and darkness safely brought, 
 Kestored to life, and power, and thought. 
 
 "New mercies each returning day 
 Hover around us while we pray ; 
 New perils past, new sins forgiven. 
 
 New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven. 
 
20 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 " Only, O Lord, in thy dear love, 
 Fit us for perfect rest above, 
 And keep us this and every day, 
 
 To live more nearly as we pray." keble. 
 
 2. We have, daily, something to say to God, as 
 to a Master ivhom we serve. Most numerous and 
 important are the concerns which he between 
 us and Grod- On him we are constantly depend- 
 ent, and all our just expectations are from him. 
 Our happiness is bound up in his favor and lov- 
 ing-kindness. Have we not then business to 
 transact with God — to seek that favor with all 
 our hearts, since it is the life of our souls ? and 
 to plead Christ's righteousness, as the only me- 
 dium through which we can hope to obtain 
 God's loving kindness? 
 
 Having offended God, and thus become ob- 
 noxious to his indignation, we have to confess 
 our sin and folly, to ask for pardon through the 
 blood of Christ, and to repent of our sins at the 
 foot of the cross. 
 
 Further, as we have daily work to do for God, 
 and for our own souls, we have to beg of him to 
 L^how us what he would have us to do, to dii-ect 
 us, and to strengthen us. Besides, we are in 
 continual danger. We are surrounded with dis- 
 eases and deaths, and have occasion to put our- 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 21 
 
 selves daily under the protection of God's prov- 
 idence, to be tlie charge of his holy angels. Our 
 souls also are in danger, from Satan and from 
 temptation, and we need to supphcate the aid 
 of God's Holy Spiiit, and of his providence, 
 that we ma}^ not be surprised into sin and over- 
 come by strong temptations. 
 
 Again, we are drawing near to the period 
 when our everlasting destiny shall be fixed, and 
 have we not something to say to God in respect 
 to our preparation for eternity ? 
 
 Moreover, as members of the body of Christ, 
 are we not bound to be living, active, useful 
 members ? Have we not business with God, to 
 entreat him to make us such, and to offer inter- 
 cession for the church, for its extension over the 
 whole earth, its prosperity, its puiity? Have 
 we not also business with him, as the God of 
 our national well-being, to pray for our beloved 
 land, for its rulers, and its people ? 
 
 Further, have we nothing to say to God, in 
 
 behalf of our famihes, our relations, our friends, 
 
 our community ? 
 
 " Remember all who love thee, 
 All who are loved by thee ; 
 Pray, too, for those who hate thee, 
 If any such there be ; 
 
22 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 Then for thyself in meekness 
 
 A blessing humbly claim, 
 And blend with each petition 
 
 Thy great Redeemer's name. 
 
 '* Or, if 'tis e'er denied thee 
 
 In solitude to pray. 
 Should holy thoughts come o'er thee 
 
 When friends are round thy way, 
 E'en then the silent breathing 
 
 Thy spirit lifts above 
 Will reach His throne of glory, 
 
 Where dwells eternal love." 
 
 It sliould be borne in mind, however, that if 
 we expect God to hear us, and to give a favora- 
 ble answer when we speak to him, we must give 
 attention to him when he speaks to us, as he 
 does daily in his word, in his providence, and in 
 our own consciences. 
 
 "In the morning," says David, "will I dii-ect 
 my prayer unto thee, and look up." This lan- 
 guage denotes a close apphcation of mind and 
 heart, an earnest and elevated purpose in the 
 suppHant. Not to men, nor to be heard of 
 them, do we pray, but to God. We "look up 
 to him " as dwelhng in the heavens, yet as One 
 whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain. 
 "We must also "look up" for an answer to our 
 prayers, and we must look around us to observe 
 
BEGINNING THE DA.Y. 23 
 
 how far Divine Providence operates in our favor, 
 and what obstacles are to be removed, before a 
 gracious answer may be reasonably expected. 
 
 " When, streaming from the eastern skies, 
 The moruiug light sahites my eyes, 
 
 O Sou of Kighteonsness divine, 
 On me with beams of mercy shine. 
 
 Oh, chase the clouds of guilt away. 
 
 And turn my darkness into day. 
 
 "When to heaven's great and glorious King 
 My morning sacrifice I bring. 
 And, mourning o'er my guilt and shame. 
 
 Ask mercy in my Saviour's name, 
 Then, Jesus, sprinkle with tliy blood, 
 And be my advocate with God. " sir r. grant. 
 
 The time appropriated to prayer is in the morn- 
 ing; not then only, but ^Drayer is to be one of 
 our first employments in the day. Every Chris- 
 tian should commence the day with secret prayer, 
 and every head of a family should, each morn- 
 ing, offer prayer in the presence of his family, 
 and in their behalf. For this course several 
 reasons may be mentioned : 
 
 1. The morning being the first part of the 
 day, it is fit that He who is the First, should 
 have the first, and be first served. The fii-st 
 fruits of the Hebrew fields were always to be 
 devoted to God, and so were the firstlings of 
 
24 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 the Hebrew flocks. By morning and evening 
 prayer, we pay honor to him who is the Alpha 
 and the Omega, the first and the last. It seems 
 then a most rational thing to begin and to end 
 the day with him. 
 
 2. In the morning we are in the best condi- 
 tion, both of body and mind, for the proper 
 service of God, and he is obviously entitled to 
 the best service it is in our power to render. 
 
 3. We are then, ordinarily, least encumbered 
 with the cares of hfe, the claims of business, 
 and of society, so that we may secure, if we 
 rise early enough, the time that should be em- 
 ployed in secret and also in family devotion. It 
 is for the interest of those who have much to do 
 in worldly matters, to take time in the morning, 
 before worldly business crowds upon them, 
 for the more important business of the future 
 life, that they may attend to it with the more 
 entire devotion and concentration of mind and 
 
 heart. 
 
 " Morn is the time to pray ; 
 How lovely and how meet, 
 To send our earliest thought away 
 
 Up to the mercy-seat — 
 Ambassadors for us, to claim 
 A blessing in our Master's name !" 
 
 MRS. J. L. GRAY. 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 25 
 
 4. In tlie morning it is most fitting to ac- 
 knowledge the great mercies of the night just 
 passed, the protection of life and health, the in- 
 vigoration of the body and the mind for new 
 duties and enjoyments. Have we had a good 
 night? Let us repair to the throne of grace 
 with our cheerful thanksgiving. How many 
 are the mercies involved in passing a good 
 niglit ! a comfortable house, fi-eedom from sick- 
 ness and pain, no occasion to watch with the 
 sick or the dying, exemption from all causes of 
 disturbance, refi'eshing sleep ! 
 
 " In sleep's serene oblivion laid, 
 I safely passed the silent night, 
 Again I see the breaking shade — 
 I drink again the morning light. 
 
 "New-born, I bless the waking hour, 
 Once more, with awe, rejoice to be ; 
 My conscious soul resumes her power, 
 And springs, my guardian God, to thee," 
 
 HAWKESWOKTH. 
 
 Have we a pleasant morning? Is the light 
 sweet to us, the light of the sun, the power of 
 vision ? Are we stiU surrounded with the vari- 
 ous accommodations and blessings of domestic 
 life ? Have we food and raiment in abundance? 
 Are we in the enjoyment of health and ease? 
 
26 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 Ought we not then to own, with glad hearts, 
 our obligation to the great Father of mercies 
 for all these and similar favors, which have, in 
 whole or in part, been denied to multitudes of 
 our race, and which we have ourselves forfeited 
 by our ingratitude and disobedience towards 
 Him on whom we depend for life, and breath, 
 and all things ? We know not, perhaps, to what" 
 great dangers we have been exposed during the 
 night, and which have been graciously- averted 
 by our heavenly Father. The destroying angel 
 may have been abroad in our neighborhood ; 
 the incendiary or the robber may have medita- 
 ted mischief against us and our dwelling, but 
 God has turned him aside, so that we have es- 
 caped all harm. And does such providential 
 and distinguishing care merit no recognition 
 and praise on our part? and should not the 
 first morning hour see us on our knees before 
 Him who has exerted it ? 
 
 "While Nature welcomes in the day, 
 My heart its earliest hours would pay 
 To Htm whose care has kindly kept 
 My Ufe from danger while I slept. 
 
 **Wilt Thou this day my footsteps guide 
 And kindly all I need provide ; 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 27 
 
 With strength divine my bosom ann 
 Against temptation's powerful charm? 
 
 "Where'er I am, oh, may I feel 
 That God is all around me still ; 
 That all I say, or do, or mean, 
 By his all-searching eye is seen. 
 
 "Oh, may each day my heart improve, 
 Increase ray faith, my hope, my love ; 
 And thus its shades around me close 
 More wise and holy than I rose." frisbie, 
 
 5. If during the night we have had any wake- 
 ful hours, and they have been occupied in sweet 
 meditations upon God and his good providence 
 over us, we shall be all the better fitted in the 
 morning to present to God a spiritual sacrifice 
 of a sweet-smelling savor. The word of God, 
 also, will aid us in the morning to right thoughts 
 of God, and arouse us to the exercise of pious 
 feeling. 
 
 6. On the contrary, in the morning we may 
 have occasion to recollect the indulgence of vain 
 and sinful thoughts, affections, and imagina- 
 tions during the night season, and upon that 
 account a necessity arises for going to God, in 
 the morning, with humble supplications for par- 
 don and cleansing. 
 
28 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 And dare we enter fully upon another day till 
 we have renewed our repentance for wrong- 
 doing by night as well as by day ? We cannot, 
 with propriety or safety, proceed to the business 
 of the day under the guilt of unrepented and 
 unpardoned sin. Hence, in the morning, prayer 
 for pardon becomes a necessity as well as a 
 privilege. 
 
 7. Before addressing oui'selves to the work of 
 the day, does it not concern us to ask counsel, 
 direction, assistance, and success from God, 
 whose providence may so greatly help us, and 
 without whose blessing we have no reason to 
 look for success ? 
 
 If we have families to provide for, and if we 
 desii-e to do weU for them, it is obviously our 
 duty and privilege to commend them and their 
 interests, every morning, to that God fi'om 
 whom Cometh down every good and perfect 
 gift. 
 
 In seeking opportunities of doing or of get- 
 ting good, we should look devoutly to -him for 
 skill and wisdom, patience and perseverance. 
 Every day has also its temptations, some of 
 which may be foreseen, others not. It concerns 
 us, therefore, as we learn from the prayer which 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 29 
 
 our Saviom- tauglit us daily to make use of, to 
 be earnest in supplication to be fortified against 
 temptation, or to be delivered from it. We 
 need Divine assistance also to pass unharmed, 
 and especially to do good, through all the social 
 intercourse of the day. 
 
 It should further be borne in mind, that we 
 kno\\' not in the morning what the day may 
 bring forth — what events it may unfold, deeply 
 affecting our ha23piness or sorrow, and for which 
 we need to secure preparation from above, that 
 as our day is, so also our strength may be. 
 Grace we need to furnish us thoroughly for 
 every good word and work, and in like manner 
 to preserve us fi'om those of an opposite char- 
 acter ; that we may not think, or speak, or do 
 anything in all the day which we may have cause 
 to wish unthought, unspoken, and undone at 
 night. 
 
 " Forth in thy name, O Lord, we go, 
 
 Our dailj' labor to pursue ; 
 Thee, only thee, resolved to know, 
 
 In all we think, or speak, or do. 
 Still would we bear thy easy yoke. 
 
 And every moment watch and pray ; 
 Would still to things eternal look. 
 
 And hasten to thy glorious day," c. weslet. 
 
30 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 In view of what has been said above arises 
 the question, How often has our morning wor- 
 ship been neglected on slight and insufficient 
 grounds ; or if not altogether neglected, per- 
 formed in a hasty, superficial, and unbecoming 
 manner — in a manner unbecoming our wants, 
 our dangers, responsibilities, and obligations — ■ 
 unbecoming also what we owe to the great Maj- 
 esty of heaven and earth, to Divine care and 
 beneficence ? God has not been deficient in his 
 regard for us as a Father, watching over us 
 through the defenceless hours of the night ; but 
 how sadly deficient have we been in performing 
 the duty of grateful and obedient children ! 
 How often have we brought to the altar of the 
 great God no sacrifice at all, or presented to 
 him the torn, the lame, and the diseased ! How 
 often have we robbed God of the honor, and our- 
 selves and our famihes of the benefit, of morn- 
 ing worship duly performed ! God has come to 
 our closets — he has looked in upon our families, 
 seeking this fruit ; and has often found none, or 
 that which is worthless. 
 
 Let none say that they cannot 'pv^j. If favors 
 are needed from men, we have no difficulty in 
 making knovvu our requests, and that with an 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 31 
 
 earnestness and perseverance corresponding to 
 our sense of the importance to us of securing 
 these favors. But the favors which daily we 
 need to ask from God, not only temporal, but 
 spiritual, are not only more numerous, but 
 vastly more important ; yea, indispensable. If 
 you know that you have sinned — that you have 
 strong propensities to sin — that you are prone 
 to indulge them — that you do indulge them, in 
 opposition to the law and mercy of God and 
 your own good, and that you are under condem- 
 nation as the result, and must turn to God and 
 by earnest prayer obtain pardon and renewal 
 through Christ and the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit, can you not command words to express 
 your condition, and to implore what your great 
 necessities require ? 
 
 Are you a Christian ? Never, for shame, say 
 you cannot pray, for that is as absurd as for a 
 soldier to say he knows not how to handle a 
 sword, or a carpenter an axe. What are you 
 called for into the fellowship of Christ, but that 
 you may have fellowship with God? If you 
 cannot pray so well as others, pray as well as 
 you can, and God will accept you. 
 
 Is want of time in the morning alleged as an 
 
32 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 excuse for neglecting prayer, either secret or 
 domestic ? What is time given us for, if not for 
 the care of our highest interests and the per- 
 formance of our highest duties ? "Who or what 
 has claims upon our time superior to God and 
 the welfare of the soul ? What is more needful 
 than prayer ? and what therefore is of sufficient 
 importance to set it aside? How can time be 
 spent to better advantage in the morning than 
 in ]Drayer and praise to God ? The business of 
 the day will not be hindered, but promoted, by 
 beginning it thus with God ; so that business 
 cannot wisely be j)leaded as a reason for rush- 
 ing into it without previous communion with 
 God. 
 
 " Wheu first thj' eyes unveil, give thy soul leave 
 To do the like ; our bodies but forerun 
 
 The spirit's duty ; true hearts spread and heave 
 Unto their God as flowers do to the sun ; 
 
 Give him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou keep 
 Him company all day, and in him sleep. 
 
 "Yet never sleep the sun up ; prayer should 
 
 DaA\Ti with the day ; there are set awful hours 
 
 'Twixt heaven and us ; the manna was not good 
 After sunrising ; fair day sullies flowers : 
 
 Eise to prevent the sun ; sleep doth sins glut. 
 
 And heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut. 
 
BEGINNING THE DAY. 33 
 
 "Serve God before the world ; let him not go 
 Until thou hast a blessing ; then resign 
 
 The whole uuto hira, :ind remember who 
 Prevailed by wrestling ere the sun did shine : 
 
 Pour oil upon the stones, weep for thy sin ; 
 Then journey on, and have an eye to heaven. 
 
 "When the world's up, and every swarm abroad, 
 Keep well thy temper, mix not with each clay ; 
 
 Despatch necessities ; life hath a load 
 
 Which must be carried on, and safely may ; 
 
 Yet keep those cares without thee ; let the heart 
 Be God's alone, and choose the better part." 
 
 HENRY VAUGHAJJ. 
 
 It remains to add a caution against formality 
 and want of earnestness and sincerity in our 
 devotions. It is not enough to say our prayers, 
 but we must pray our prayers — must pray in 
 praying, as Elijah did. Jas. 5 : 17. Let us 
 learn to labor fervently in prayer, as Epapliras 
 did, (Col. 4 : 12,) and we shall find that it is the 
 hand of the diligent in this duty that maketh 
 rich. It is not the length, or the rhetorical 
 beaut}^, or the appropriate phraseology of pray- 
 er, that renders it acceptable to God ; but the 
 deep sincerity, the humility, the penitence, the 
 faith, the holy love which every right prayer 
 imphes or expresses. 
 
 Having begun the day with God in the man- 
 
 Daily Communion. 3 
 
34 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 ner recommended above, the next duty, and 
 one more difficult to perform, is to spend tlie 
 day with him, which forms the subject of the 
 succeeding part. 
 
 ' ' God of the morning, at whose voice 
 The cheerful sun makes haste to rise, 
 And like a giant doth rejoice 
 
 To nin his journey through the skies; 
 
 •'Oh, like the sun may I fulfil 
 
 Th' appointed duties of the day ; 
 With ready mind and active will 
 March on, and keep my heavenly way. 
 
 " Give me thy counsel for my guide, 
 And then receive me to thy bliss ; 
 All my desires and hopes beside 
 
 Are faint and cold, compared with this." 
 
 WATT8. 
 
 '^m§s: 
 
PART II 
 
 HOW 
 
 
 fS)PEND THE iDAY 
 
 WITH GOD 
 
HOW TO SPEND 
 
 THE 
 
 DAY WITH GOD 
 
 ET will be useful and safe to adopt, as in ref- 
 erence to the early morning hour, the motto 
 of the great Hebrew king : " On Thee do I wait 
 all the day." We are to understand this ex- 
 pression as implying an expectation of favors 
 from God, and the act of seeking them so long 
 as they are deferred. David had offered the 
 prayer, "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me." 
 Being in suspense as to the course of action he 
 should pursue, he says to God : " On Thee I 
 will wait all the day." He had also called Him 
 the " God of his salvation ;" the being on whom 
 he regarded his dehverance from various dan- 
 gers and difficulties as depending; the being 
 from whom alone he expected a spiritual as well 
 
38 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 as a temporal and outward salvation. So Highly 
 did lie appreciate what he desired of God, that 
 he expresses his willingness and his purpose to 
 wait for it all the day until it should be granted. 
 
 It is not enough for us to begin the day with 
 God ; but during and throughout the day ice are to 
 wait upon him. 
 
 1. This implies a life of desire towards God — 
 not only towards the good things which are in 
 his gift, but towards God himself, the manifes- 
 tation of his glorious attributes, and the exer- 
 cise of his grace upon us. The devout man 
 waits on him as the beggar waits on his benefac- 
 tor, with earnest desires to obtain needful sup- 
 plies, or as the diseased at the pool of Bethesda 
 waited for the stirring of the water and for the 
 expected cure. The idea is most fully conveyed 
 in the psalmist's own language : " O God, thou 
 art my God ; early will I seek thee : my soul 
 thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a 
 dry and thii'sty land, where no water is." "My 
 soul foUoweth hard after thee : thy right hand 
 uphold eth me." "Thou shalt guide me with 
 thy counsel." "There is none upon earth that 
 I desire besides thee.'* "It is good for me to 
 draw near to God ; I have put my trust in the 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 39 
 
 Lord God." Thus upon the wings of holy de- 
 sire should our souls be ever soaring upwards 
 towards God, and pressing towards the attain- 
 ments — the spii-it — of heaven. We should ever 
 strive to know more of God, to become more 
 hke him, to be brought into closer fellowship, 
 and into more active and useful service. 
 
 It is not sufficient to have a season of earnest 
 worship in the morning, but that spiritual de- 
 sire, which is the soul of prayer, should be kept 
 alive through the day ; the bent or inclination 
 of the soul must tend towards God — towards 
 serving him in all that we do, and enjoying him 
 in all that he bestows. This state of mind is 
 intended in the commands given us : to pray 
 always ; to pray without ceasing ; to continue 
 in prayer. 
 
 "Oh, could I find, from day to day, 
 A nearness to my God, 
 Then would my hours glide sweet away 
 While leaning on his word. 
 
 "Lord, I desire with thee to live 
 Anew from day to day, 
 In joys the world can never give, 
 Nor ever take away." 
 
 - 2. To wait upon God is to live a life of delight in 
 God, as the lover waits on the object of his affec- 
 
40 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 tion. Desire is love in motion, as a bird on the 
 wing ; delight is love at rest, as a bird upon the 
 nest. Though our desire must still be so tow- 
 ards God that we must be wishing for more of 
 God, yet our delight must be so in God that 
 we must never msh for more than God. Re- 
 garding him as all-sufficient, we must be satis- 
 fied in him. Is it a pleasure to us to think of 
 God — of his existence, attributes, providence, 
 and glorious sovereignty? Do we look up to 
 him with conscious satisfaction ? Do we glory 
 in him as our God ? Do we value him above all 
 worldly good ? Do we expect more from him ? 
 Is the heart so full of God and Christ and grace, 
 that it now spontaneously says, "Return unto 
 thy rest, O my soul ;" here repose thyself ; here 
 alone look for thy chief and most permanent 
 happiness ? The regenerate and sanctified soul 
 dwells in God — is in him continually pleased^ 
 and whatever disturbance is felt from externa] 
 sources is more than balanced by what it finds 
 in God. 
 
 3. To wait on God is to depend on him for all 
 needful good, as the child waits on his father in 
 whom he confides, and on whom he casts all his 
 care. It is to expect all good to come to ue 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 41 
 
 fi-om God that he shall deem expedient and best 
 to bestow upon us. Thus David explains the 
 matter: "My soul, wait thou only upon God, 
 for my expectation is from him," Psa. 62 : 5 ; 
 that is, to no other (independently of him) do 
 I look for the good I need, for I know that 
 every creature is that to me, and no more than 
 he makes it to be. And our exj^ectations from 
 God, as far as they are guided by and grounded 
 upon his word, ought to be humbly confident. 
 The eyes of all wait upon him, for he is good to 
 all; but especially may his saints direct their 
 eyes to him, for he is in a peculiar manner and 
 degree good to Israel. 
 
 4. To wait upon God is to live a life of devoted- 
 ness to him, as the servant waits on his master, 
 to learn his will, and to do his work, and to 
 advance his honor and interest. To wait on 
 God is to yield ourselves cheerfully to his dis- 
 posal and guidance, and to acquiesce in his 
 arrangements respecting us. We should have 
 such supreme regard for him, such confidence in 
 his wisdom, equity, and goodness, such a sense 
 of our dependence and obligation, as to resolve 
 our own will into his, and to accommodate our 
 own will to his. As the eyes of a servant are to 
 
42 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 tlie hand of his master, and as the eyes of a 
 maiden to the hand of her mistress, so must our 
 eyes wait upon the Lord, to do what he appoints, 
 to take what he apportions to us. " Thy will be 
 done." "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 
 In like manner, the glory of God is to be con- 
 sulted ; we are to do him honor. This is the 
 part of a faithful servant. 
 
 The ivill of God, therefore, is to be our rule of 
 action every day. 
 
 We must w^ait on him to receive his com- 
 mands, as recorded in the Scriptures, with a 
 resolution to comply with them, although they 
 may contradict our corrupt inchnations, or in- 
 terfere with our secular interests. 
 
 We are to make the will of God, as shown in 
 his providence, the rule of our patience. We 
 know it is God who performs all things for us, 
 and should be assured that all he does shall be 
 made to work for good to those who love him ; 
 and in order to that, we ought to acquiesce in 
 and accommodate ourselves to the entire will of 
 God. To wait on the Lord is to say, " Let him 
 do to me as seemeth good to him ;" because we 
 know that nothing seemeth good to him that is 
 not really good. It is to say, "Not as I will, 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 43 
 
 but as thou wilt." It is to bring our mind into 
 accordance with our condition, so as to be calm 
 and serene, whatever may occur that is fitted to 
 render us uneasy. " I was dumb ; I opened not 
 my mouth ;" not because it was of no use to 
 complain, but "because Thou didst it," and 
 therefore I had no reason to complain. And 
 this sentiment, this state of mind, will reconcile 
 us to every affliction, to one as well as to an- 
 other ; because, whatever it may be, it is the 
 will of God, and that is ever determined by 
 supreme wisdom and goodness. "Whatever dis- 
 position God shall make of us or of our affairs, 
 we may be assured that as he does us no wrong, 
 so he means no injury to us. 
 
 *'Thy way, uot mine, O Lord, 
 However dark it be ! 
 Lead me by thine own faithful hand, 
 Choose out the path for me. 
 
 "Smooth let it be or rough, 
 It will be still the best. 
 Winding or straight, it matters not, 
 It leads me to thy rest. 
 
 "I dare uot choose my lot ; 
 I would not if I might ; 
 Choose thou for me, my gracious God, 
 So shall I walk aright. 
 
4:4: DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 "The kingdom that I seek 
 Is thine ; so let the way 
 That leads to it be truly thine, 
 Else I must surely stray." bonab. 
 
 The duty of waiting upon God might be illus- 
 trated by referring to various other expressions 
 of Holy Scripture that describe the homage 
 which we owe to God, and the communion which 
 it is our interest to maintain with him. 
 
 It is to set God always before us, (Psa. 16 : 8 ;) 
 to look upon him as ever near to us, as always 
 observing us and noticing what we do, as one to 
 whom we are accountable. 
 
 It is to acknowledge him in all our ways, 
 (Prov. 3:6;) to look to him, in all our under- 
 takings, for direction and success ; to commit 
 our way to him, saying, " If thy presence go not 
 up with us, carry us not up hence ;" to notice 
 his kind hand in all the comforts dispensed to 
 us, and in all the crosses laid upon us ; to bless 
 the name of the Lord, both when he gives and 
 when he takes. 
 
 Having thus explained what is to be under- 
 stood by waiting upon God, it is now to be 
 shown that this must be our practice every day, 
 and aU the day long. 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 45 
 
 We must wait on God every day ; oii Sabbath 
 days not only, but on week days. The Lord's 
 day is especially to be devoted to waiting upon 
 God, in the sanctuary, in the family, in the 
 closet ; but on all other days also it is our duty 
 and our interest to wait upon him. Every day 
 of the week, as well as on the Sabbath, we 
 stand in need of the Divine mercies that are to 
 be thus secured, and have work to do for God 
 in which his assistance is thus to be sought. 
 Indeed, our waiting upon him during the first 
 day of the week is adapted and designed to fit 
 us for communion with him during the other 
 dnjs thereof ; so that we do not really fulfil the 
 design of the Sabbath unless the spiritual im- 
 pressions then received abide with us, and reg- 
 ulate our minds and hearts in all the business 
 and trials and moral dangers of the week. Thus 
 fi'om one Sabbath to another our souls are to be 
 maintained in a proper Christian state. We 
 must be so "in the Spirit" on the Lord's day, 
 as to "walk in the Spirit" all the week. 
 
 Evei., when engaged in the details of some 
 worldly business, our hearts may be waiting 
 upon God by cherishing an habitual regard to 
 him — to his providence as our guide, and to his 
 
46 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 glory as our end ; and thus we may abide with 
 him in our ordinary worldly pursuits and voca- 
 tion. Even those who rise up early, and sit up 
 late, and eat the bread of carefulness in their 
 worldly business, owe it to their interest as well 
 as piety to wait on God, because otherwise 
 their labor may be in vain. Psa. 127 : 1, 2. 
 
 ' ' Vain were all our toil and labor, 
 Did not God that labor bless ; 
 Vain, without his gi-ace and favor, 
 Every talent we possess." lyte. 
 
 Even on those days when ordinary business is 
 laid aside, and we give ourselves to agreeable 
 recreation, this business of waiting on God must 
 not be laid aside ; for he must ever hold the first 
 place in our regard, and we require his contin- 
 ual aid to guard us against the temptations 
 which ma}^ cluster in the paths of social or of 
 personal enjoyment. 
 
 Both in daj'S of prosperity and adversity alike 
 is it our duty and our interest to wait upon our 
 God. Let our wealth be ever so increased, we 
 are not thereby rendered independent of him. 
 We are under obligations to make a proper use 
 of it as his stewards. We are to ask his bless- 
 ing on what we have, and to depend on his gra- 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 47 
 
 cious providence for the continued possession 
 and comfort of it. It is also requisite that we 
 suppKcate wisdom and grace to use our wealth, 
 or our worldly influence from all sources, for the 
 high and holy purposes which our Maker had 
 in view when he led us into our present posses- 
 sions. Aware also of the precarious tenure by 
 which we hold worldly goods of any sort, it be- 
 hooves us to wait upon our God for better 
 things than this world affords even to the most 
 favored. 
 
 And when the world frowns upon us, and dis- 
 appointments arise, and affictions assail our 
 comfort and our peace, we must not thereby be 
 tempted to withdraw ourselves from the good 
 habit of waiting upon God. One grand design, 
 we may suppose, of afflictions, is to bring us 
 more frequently and closely to the throne of 
 grace, to teach us how to pray with a more 
 childlike and humble spirit, and to make the 
 word of God more precious in our estimation 
 and more beneficial to our souls. Then we are 
 taught to approach our God with greater satis- 
 faction than ever, as the God of hope, of conso- 
 lation, and of joy. Then we are led to appreci- 
 ate our Saviour as the gi*eat High Priest who is 
 
48 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 touched witli our infirmities, and regards our 
 
 troubles and oui' griefs with godlike sympathy. 
 
 "More moulded to thy will, 
 Lord, let thy servant be. 
 Higher and higher still, 
 Liker and liker thee. 
 
 "Leave naught that is unmeet ; 
 
 Of all that is mine own 
 
 Strip me ; and so complete 
 
 My training for the throne. " bonar. 
 
 In the days of youth and in the days of old 
 age alike, it is fitting and wise to wait upon 
 God. The Scriptures set before us the beauti- 
 ful picture of the child Samuel ministering to 
 the Lord ; and they describe to us that mem- 
 orable scene near Jerusalem, when our Saviour 
 was delighted with the joyous hosannahs of the 
 children, during his triumphal entrance into 
 that devoted city. The more early in life we 
 begin to wait upon God, the more honor we put 
 upon him, and the greater benefit we procure to 
 ourselves. And when old age ajDproaches, we 
 are concerned to continue our waiting upon 
 him for support and comfort under its ever- 
 increasing infirmities, and for a more abundant 
 entrance, to be daily expected, into his everlast- 
 ing kingdom and glory. Those who have done 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 49 
 
 the will of God, and are no longer capable of 
 laborious exertion in his service, have need of a 
 graceful patience in waiting for the time of in- 
 heriting the promises ; and the nearer they 
 approach to the happiness they are waiting for, 
 the dearer to them should be that gi'acious and 
 glorious God on whom they wait, and with 
 whom shortly they hope to dwell in heaven, and 
 that for ever. 
 
 Having shown how and why we should wait 
 on our God every day, the next point is to show 
 that we are to wait upon him all the day. 
 
 From early morning to latest night we must 
 continue waiting upon God. Whatever changes 
 of employment there may be in the course of 
 the day, it must be the invariable attitude of 
 our souls to attend upon him, and to regard his 
 will and his glory in whatever we undertake and 
 pursue. 
 
 1. We must cast our daily cares upon him, be- 
 lieving that his providence extends to all our 
 affairs, and to all events in which we shall be 
 concerned, and to all the circumstances of them, 
 however minute and seemingly accidental. We 
 are to beheve his gracious promise that aU 
 
 Daily CommuQion. 4: 
 
50 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 things shall work together for good to those 
 who love him, and then to yield ourselves to him, 
 to do with us and ours as may seem good to him ; 
 and having done so, then to rest satisfied, and 
 resolve to abide calmly the result. We are to 
 bring our cares to God by prayer in the morn- 
 ing — to spread them before him ; and then to 
 make it appear all the day, by the composure 
 and cheerfulness of our minds, that we did 
 leave them with him, as Hannah did, who, when 
 she had pra3^ed, went away and did eat, and wa» 
 no more sad. 1 Sam. 1 : 18. 
 
 2. We must Ttianage our daily business for him, 
 with an eye to his i^rovidence that placed us in 
 the situation and employment to which we are 
 devoted, and with an eye to his precept, making 
 dihgence our duty ; with an eye, further, to his 
 blessing, as that which is needed to make our 
 occuj)ation comfortable and productive ; and, 
 above all, with an eye to his glory as our high- 
 est and noblest end. This dignifies our com- 
 monest actions, and brings them into a sacred 
 relation to God, and it makes them more pleas- 
 ant to ourselves. If Gains, on parting with 
 certain friends, accompanies them a short way 
 upon their journey, (3 John, ver. 6,) it is but an 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 51 
 
 instance of common civility ; but if lie manifests 
 this respect to them because they belong to 
 Christ, and for his sake, and further, that he 
 may have religious intercoui'se with them for a 
 longer period, it then becomes an act of Chris- 
 tian virtue. The apostle Paul has given us this 
 general rule, applicable to every day, and to 
 every hour of the day : *' Whatsoever ye do in 
 word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus," (Col. 3 : 17 ;) and thus, through the 
 Mediator, we wait on our God, and find accept- 
 ance with him. They who serve in households, 
 or in other capacities, are instructed how to 
 wait on the Lord in their common employments. 
 See Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3 ; 22-24. 
 
 3. We viust loait on God as our daily Benefactor, 
 look to him for our daily bread, for all the com- 
 forts and accommodations of our earthly state, 
 and for his blessing so to rest upon them that 
 our health, happiness, and usefulness may be 
 subserved. No inducement to honesty and 
 fidelity and moderation can be stronger, than 
 the habit of regarding God as the source of 
 what we possess, to whom we are strictly ac- 
 countable as stewards for the right use of all 
 that we have. It is not once a week that we 
 
52 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 are to wait upon him for our temporal blessings, 
 as people in some places go to market to buy 
 provisions for the whole week, but we must wait 
 upon him continually, as dependent on him for 
 the blessings which are conveyed to us every 
 successive hour. 
 
 4. The temptations of every day are to he resist- 
 ed, and the duties of every day are to be undertaken 
 in reliance upon divine grace for the strength which 
 is required. Our Master has taught us to pray 
 not only for our daily bread, but for deliverance 
 daily from temptation. We engage in no busi- 
 ness, we partake of no enjoyments, that have 
 not snares attending them. Not only in the 
 morning must we put ourselves under the pro- 
 tection of God's grace, but through all the day 
 we must keep ourselves under the shelter of 
 that grace, which will not suffer us to be tempt- 
 ed above our ability to resist and to overcome. 
 Only in the Lord, and in the power of his might, 
 can we be sufficiently strong. 
 
 Again, we have various duties to perform. 
 Opportunities will occur, or should be sought, 
 for speaking good words and doing good works, 
 and we must look up to God for that light and 
 fire, that wisdom and zeal which are needful for 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 63 
 
 the best improvement of such opportunities ; 
 and to the same source must we look, in order 
 to be fortified against the use of words and the 
 doing of works, that are bad and injurious. 
 
 5. Daily afflictions must he home with a pious 
 suhmission to the Divine will. Something may 
 happen each day to grieve us, something in our 
 social or domestic intercourse, something in our 
 occupations. Events relating to ourselves, or 
 to our famihes, or friends, may occasion pain 
 and sorrow; we may be called to endure the 
 visitations of bodily disease and suffering, or 
 severe disappointment in some cherished object 
 or pursuit. But Christ requires of all his disci- 
 ples to take up their cross daily. Mat. 16:24. 
 "We must take it up when God lays it in our 
 way, and not go a step out of the path of duty 
 either to meet it or to avoid it. It is not 
 enough to bear the cross ; we must acquiesce in 
 the will of God laying it upon us. * 
 
 We must see that every affliction is allotted to 
 us by our heavenly Father, and for the purpose 
 of salutary discipline and instruction ; and 
 therefore we must wait on him to learn for 
 what fault or omission of duty he is chastening 
 us, that we may fulfil the end for which the 
 
54 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 affliction lias been sent, and so be made parta- 
 kers of the holiness he would thereby produce 
 in us. 
 
 ** Oh, thou, whose gently chastening hand 
 In mercy deals the blow. 
 Make but thy servant understand 
 Wherefore thou layest me low ! 
 
 *' I ask thee not the rod to spare 
 While thus thy love I see ; 
 But oh ! let every suffering bear 
 Some message, Lord, from thee !" 
 
 We lAiist wait on God for support under the 
 burdens he imposes, and not seek to extricate 
 ourselves by any sinful methods ; but patient- 
 ly wait until God shall see fit to remove them 
 by the use on our part of proper efforts. 
 
 6. The tidings and events of every day are to 
 he awaited icith a cheerful resignation to Divine 
 Providence. "We know not what a day, or an 
 hour even, may bring forth, (Prov. 27:1,) and 
 we are too apt to spend our thoughts in fi'uit- 
 less imaginings concerning the probabihties of 
 the future in this life. Are we expecting good 
 tidings ? Let us wait on God as the giver of the 
 good we hope for, and be ready to accept it 
 gratefully from his hand. What God has prom- 
 
FIENDING THE DAY. 55 
 
 ised us, we may with assurance promise our- 
 selves, and no more. Our hopes in reference to 
 other matters must be humble and modest, and 
 regulated by his will, so that if the hope is de- 
 ferred or disapiDointed the heart will not be 
 cast down. Are we apprehending evil tidings 
 and melancholy events ? We may wait on God 
 to deliver us fi'om our fears, and from the things 
 which we fear will come upon us, (Psa. 34:4,) 
 or to support us, should our prayer in this re- 
 gard be unanswered. Are we in suspense be- 
 tween hope and fear ? Let us wait on God to 
 whom belong the issues of Hfe and of death, 
 good and evil, and thus compose our minds into 
 a calm and resigned posture, with a humble 
 pui'pose to accommodate ourselves to the event. 
 Let us humbly hope for the best, but prepare 
 for the worst, and then accept what God may 
 be pleased to send. 
 
 "Be tranquil, oh, my soul, 
 Be quiet every fear ! 
 Thy Father hath supreme control, 
 And he is ever near. 
 
 " Ne'er of thy lot complain. 
 Whatever may befall ; 
 Sickness or sorrow, care or pain, 
 T is well-appointed all. 
 
56 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 " A Father's chastening hand 
 Is leading thee along ; 
 Nor distant is the promised land, 
 Where swells th' immortal song. 
 
 •' Oh, then, my soul, be still ! 
 Await heaven's high decree ; 
 Seek but to do thy Father's will, 
 
 It shall be well with thee." Hastings. 
 
 COMMUNION WITH GOD IN VAKIOUS SITUA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 1. In the family. When we meet the members 
 of the family in the morning, we are to wait 
 upon God for the bestowment of his blessing 
 upon them, and to thank him for the mercies 
 experienced by them during the night, and to 
 implore the bestowment of what may be needful 
 in the future. In all our conversation with our 
 families, the provision we make for them, and 
 the arrangements we adopt, we must wait upon 
 God as the God of the families of Israel, and 
 have our eyes hfted to Christ as the One in 
 whom alone the famihes of the earth are 
 ble3sed. 
 
 2. In the education of a family, we need to ask 
 counsel and assistance from God, and a divine 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 57 
 
 blessing upon our efforts and upon the corre- 
 sponding efforts of our children, not only in 
 those matters which pertain to godliness and 
 salvation, but even in those which belong to the 
 present life. The members of the family, also, 
 that are in childhood or youth, should be taught 
 to wait on God in all their daily studies and ef- 
 forts at improvement, that they may fit them- 
 selves for usefulness in life, become ornaments 
 to their families, comforts to their parents, ben- 
 efactors to their country and to the world. 
 
 3. In our places of daily business, we are to 
 wait on God for his presence and blessing. Our 
 attendance on God in our several callings should 
 be as constant as our attendance upon those 
 caUings. God's providence is to be observed in 
 all the occurrences which we there meet with. 
 It should be a frequent thought, " I am now in 
 the way of my duty, and I depend upon God to 
 bless me in it." When bmdng or selHng, we 
 are to remember that God's eye is upon us, ob- 
 serving whether we are just and honest in our 
 dealings, and do no wrong to those we deal 
 with. In all business operations, it honors God 
 to look to him for that sagacity and prudence 
 which lead to success, and for that honest profit 
 
58 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 whicli may be expected in the way of honest dil- 
 igence. 
 
 4. In our reading, we are to wait on God to 
 guide us in our selection of books or periodicals, 
 and to aid us in turning them to a profitable ac- 
 count. The Holy Scriptures are of course to 
 occupy a portion of each day's reading matter, 
 both alone and with our famihes ; and we need 
 to wait upon God to assist us so to read and 
 meditate upon them and appty them, as to de- 
 rive the largest benefit m the way of rehgious 
 impression and impulse. Time is too precious, 
 and our accountability to God for the proper 
 use of it too solemn, to permit us to waste it in 
 fi'ivolous, unprofitable, or demorahzing reading. 
 When history is read, or even the daily papers, 
 so far as they report events, we are to trace the 
 hand of God's providence, and devoutly study 
 the plans and the attributes of God so far as 
 daily events serve to illustrate them. 
 
 5. At our tables, we are to recognize God's 
 bountiful hand in spreading them with various 
 articles of nourishing and agreeable food, so in- 
 dispensable to comfort, health, and even life. 
 We are to praise him for the health and social 
 happiness that pervade the little cii'cle sur- 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 59 
 
 rouudiug it. We are to restrain ourselves from 
 all undue indulgence of appetite, and are to par- 
 take of food with such moderation, prudence, and 
 caution, as a proper care for health and useful- 
 ness requires, remembering God's high com- 
 mand, that whether w^e eat or drink, or whatso- 
 ever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God. 
 
 6. In our social visits, made or received, we 
 are to wait u^^on God with thanksgiving for 
 valuable friends and for all their kind offices to 
 us, and for our opportunities to reciprocate 
 such offices ; also for comfortable dwellings, 
 with their various appointments, adapted to us 
 and to our friends. 
 
 In social circles, w^e must so regulate oui' con- 
 versation that it shall be productive of good, 
 and not of harm, to our friends and to our- 
 selves. We need wisdom from God, to render 
 our conversation edifying, and such as may 
 bring honor to God and salvation to our fellow- 
 creatures — remembering that an influence goes 
 forth from our hps of great importance, and for 
 which we must give an account to God. It is 
 painful and humiliating to think on how differ- 
 ent a plan from this social visits and conversa- 
 tion are most generally conducted. 
 
60 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 7. In acts of charity to the poor and wretched, 
 we are to wait on God, by performing those 
 acts as unto him ; not to secure praise of men, 
 but the approbation of God ; and by asking 
 God to accept what we do for the good of 
 others, as done in obedience to his will, and 
 from love to his creatures, and in imitation of 
 his benign example. We are also bound to ask 
 the divine blessing upon what we bestow in 
 charity, or in the grand oj)erations of Christian 
 benevolence, that it may promote the happiness 
 of those for whose benefit it is given. To such 
 acts the Scriptures hold out the powerful mo- 
 tive, that they shall be recompensed at the resur- 
 rection of the just ; na}^, sooner, for they speak 
 of it as bread cast upon the waters, which after 
 many days we shall find again. 
 
 8. In inquiring after or reading the public news, 
 we are to wait on God. We are to do it with 
 an eye to him as governing in the affaii's of men ; 
 we are to maintain an habitual concern for the 
 interests of his kingdom in the world, and to 
 observe its prosperity, or the reverse. We are 
 to read the news, not simply to gratify an idle 
 curiosity or to pass a pleasant hour, but that we 
 may be better prepared to direct our prayers 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 61 
 
 and our praises, and to regulate our own con- 
 duct in reference to the kingdom of God and 
 the welfare of our fellow-men. It would greatly 
 ennoble and make more highly useful the read- 
 ing of the papers, both secular and religious, if 
 we should regard them as chronicles of the 
 Divine movements in the affairs of our world. 
 They would thus bring us into communion with 
 God, and into sympathy with the grand move- 
 ments of his all-comprehensive government. If 
 public affairs are bright and pleasing, there is a 
 call for grateful acknowledgment to the Most 
 High, who ruleth in the affairs of men ; if they 
 are dark and threatening, there is a demand for 
 humble prostration before him, in the confession 
 of sin and ill-desert, and in the supphcation of 
 mercy to avert impending evils. 
 
 9. In reference to the prosecution of a journey , 
 it is proper to wait upon God, to put ourselves 
 under his protection, to depend on him to give 
 his angels charge of us, that we may be carried 
 safely through all the perils of the way. It is 
 proper also to give thanks to God for providing 
 us in this country with such uncommon facihties 
 for agreeable and expeditious travel, so different 
 fi'om what was enjoyed a third of a century ago. 
 
62 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 We must have our eyes uplifted to God in our 
 setting out and on our way, tliat we may be 
 prepared for all the events of the journey, and 
 if it reach a prosperous issue, have our hearts 
 overflomng with gratitude and praise to our 
 great Preserver. 
 
 10. In the hours of solitude, when communing 
 with our own hearts, we must still be waiting 
 upon God. AVhen we are alone, we must at the 
 same time not be alone, but we must seek to 
 have the Father with us, and we must commune 
 with him. Even in solitude we shall find temp- 
 tations that are to be guarded against. The 
 Saviour himself was most strongly tempted by 
 Satan to evil in a lonely wilderness. But in sol- 
 itude we have also the best opportunity for de- 
 vout reflection and contemplation, if we under- 
 stand the method of improving such opportu- 
 nity, so that we ma}^ never be less alone than 
 when alone. If when we sit alone, withdrawn 
 from business and conversation, we have but the 
 art, or rather perhaps the heart, to fill up these 
 vacant minutes with pious meditations upon 
 God and divine things, we then gather up the 
 fragments of time which remain, and so are we 
 found waiting on God all the day. 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 63 
 
 Such a life of communion with God is a heav- 
 en upon earth. It is doing the work of heaven 
 and the will of God as they do it who are in 
 heaven. It is a foretaste of the everlasting 
 blessedness of heaven, and a preparation for it. 
 
 " Oh, talk to me of heaven ! I love 
 To hear about my home above : 
 For there doth many a loved one dwell 
 In light and joy ineffable. 
 Oh, tell me how they shine and sing, 
 While every harp rings echoing, 
 And every glad and tearless eye 
 Beams like the bright sun gloriously. 
 Tell me of that victorious palm 
 
 Each hand in glory beareth ; 
 Tell me of that celestial calm 
 
 Each face in glory weareth. 
 
 "Oh, happy, happy country, where 
 
 There eutereth not a sin ; 
 And Death, who keeps its portals fair, 
 
 May never once come in. 
 No grief can change their day to night, 
 
 The darkness of that land is light. 
 Sorrow and sighing God has sent 
 Far thence, to endless banishment, 
 And never more may one dark tear 
 
 Bedim their burning skies ; 
 For every one they shed while here 
 
 In fearful agonies. 
 Glitters a bright and dazzling gem 
 In their immortal diadem." Caroline bowlks. 
 
64 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 SOME FUKTHEK DIKECTIONS FOR THUS WAIT- 
 ING ON GOD ALL THE DAY. 
 
 1. Observe how much may he discovered of God 
 in created objects around us : of his wisdom and 
 vower in their creation, and of his goodness in their 
 serviceableness to us. Look upon the wonders 
 and the comforts that surround you, and let 
 them all lead you to Him who is the Fountain 
 of being and the Giver of all good. All our 
 springs are in him, and from him are all our 
 streams. It is said to have been a custom with 
 the pious Jews of the olden time to give to God 
 the glory of whatever delight they took in any 
 creature. Wlien they smelled a flower, they 
 said, " Blessed be He that gave to this flower its 
 sweetness." When they took up bread, "Bless- 
 ed be He that appointed bread to strengthen 
 man's heart." Thus may we taste that God is 
 gi'acious in everything that ministers to life and 
 comfort. 
 
 2. Consider that all created objects are nothing 
 without God. The more we discern the empti- 
 ness of the world, and the insufficiency of all its 
 enjoyments to make us happy, the more closely 
 wo shall cleave to God, and the more intimately 
 
SPENDING THE DAY. 65 
 
 we shall hold converse with him, in order to find 
 in him that satisfaction which in vain we seek 
 from the objects of sense. 
 
 3. Live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We 
 cannot with any proper confidence wait upon 
 God, but in and through Jesus as our Mediator, 
 by whom alone God speaks to us and allows us 
 to speak to him. It is only by Christ that we 
 have access to God and success in prayer, and 
 therefore we must make mention of his right- 
 eousness, even of his only. We must exercise 
 an habitual dependence on him who always ap- 
 pears in the presence of God for us. 
 
 4. Be frequent and deeply serious in pious ejac- 
 ulations. In waiting upon God, we must speak 
 to him on all occasions, even briefly and when 
 there is no opportunity^ for a leng-thened prayer. 
 "Unto thee, O Lord," says David, " do I hft up 
 my soul !" or, to thee do I direct it. In a holy 
 ejaculation, we should supplicate pardon for this 
 sin, strength against this evil tendency, victory 
 over this temptation, and it shall not be in vain. 
 This is to pray always and without ceasing. It 
 is not the length, but the right sentiment and 
 emotion and purpose of the prayer, that give it 
 acceptableness and value. 
 
 Daily Coramuniou. 5 
 
66 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 5. Look upon every day as one that may be the 
 last you shall have to spend on earth. 
 
 Death will bring us all to God to be judged 
 by him ; it will bring all the saints to the frui- 
 tion of him ; and the One we are hastening to, 
 and hope to be for ever with, we are concerned 
 to wait upon and to gain an acquaintance with. 
 Communion with God here is an indispensable 
 preparation for the more intimate and bhssful 
 communion which we hope to enjoy with him 
 hereafter. 
 
 •' 'T is not for man to trifle ! lii"e is brief, 
 
 And sin is here. 
 Our age is but the falling of a leaf, 
 
 A dropping tear. 
 We have no time to sport away the hours, 
 All must be earnest in a world like ours. 
 
 *'Not many lives, but onlj' one have we — 
 
 One, only one. 
 How sacred should that one life ever be — 
 
 That narrow span ! 
 Day after day filled up with blessed toil, 
 Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil ! 
 
 " O life below ! how brief, and poor, and sad — 
 
 One heavy sigh ! 
 O life above ! how long, and fair, and glad — 
 
 An endless joy ! 
 Oh, to be done with daily dying here ; 
 Oh, to begin the living in yon sphere !" bonae. 
 
PART III 
 
 HOW 
 
 S 
 
 sgLOSE THE IBaY 
 
 WITH GOD. 
 
** Sunlight has vanished, and the weary earth 
 Lies resting from a long day's toil and pain, 
 And looking for a new dawn's early birth, 
 Seeks strength in slumber for its toil again. 
 
 " We too would rest ; but ere we close the eye 
 Upon the consciousness of waking thought, 
 Would calmly turn it to yon star-bright sky. 
 And Hft the soul to Him who slumbers not. 
 
 " Above us is thy hand wdth tender care, 
 Distilling over us the dew of sleep ; 
 Darkness seems loaded with oblivious air, 
 In deep forgetfulness each sense to steep. 
 
 " Thou hast provided midnight's hour of peace. 
 Thou stretchest over us the wing of rest ; 
 With more than all a parent's tenderness, 
 Foldest us sleeping to thy gentle breast, 
 
 " Grief flies away ; care quits our easy couch, 
 
 Till, wakened by thy hand, when breaks the day — 
 Like the lone prophet by the angel's touch — 
 We rise to tread again our j)ilgi-im-way. 
 
 *' God of our life ! God of each day and night ! 
 Oh, keep us still till life's short race is run ! 
 Until there dawns the long, long day of light, 
 That knows no night, yet needs no star nor sun." 
 
 BOXAB. 
 
HOW TO CONCLUDE 
 
 THE 
 
 DAY WITH GOD 
 
 ^T will be to our advantage to refer again to 
 % the example of the spiritually-minded psalm- 
 ist and king of Israel, one of whose psalms con- 
 tains this language : "I will both lay me down 
 in peace, and sleep ; for thou, Lord, only makest 
 me dwell in safety." Psa. 4:8. 
 
 David having finished the work and passed 
 the dangers of the day, having counselled his 
 friends around him (verses 4, 5) to commune 
 with their own hearts upon their beds, and to 
 offer the evening sacrifices of righteousness, 
 says to them on retiring, " I will lay me doxvn 
 in peace, and sleep." He concliides the day, as 
 
72 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 he had opened it, with meditations on God, and 
 sweet communion with him. 
 
 It is remarkable that the above language was 
 used at the very time when his bitter enemies 
 were seeking his destruction, and when his life 
 was eyideutly in peril ; so that the language in- 
 dicates a subhme confidence in God as his great 
 Protector and DeUverer, and also an uncommon 
 serenity of mind, and fi'eedom from anxiety and 
 dread. 
 
 These words may be adopted in reference to 
 ourselves when we retire to rest ; and we should 
 take care so to conduct ourselves all the day, 
 that we may not be unfitted for the right per- 
 formance of our evening devotions. If we fin- 
 ish well our daily work, it will be an eai-nest of 
 our finishing our life's work well. 
 
 One rule for closing the day well, is to keep 
 good hours ; to retire in good season, so that 
 we may rise early, and make the most of Hfe. 
 
 1. When ice retire to our rooms, we should lift 
 up OUT hearts to God, the God of our mercies, and 
 make him the object of our adoring and most grate- 
 ful praise. The Jewish evening sacrifice was a 
 sacrifice of praise. The mercies of the day 
 should be carefully reviewed, and unusual mer- 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 73 
 
 cies should be especially celebrated in our words 
 of praise. We are to think of the numberless 
 calamities we have been preserved or delivered 
 from, and of the various forms of disease or 
 hurtful accidents to which we might have fallen 
 victims. We are also to review the providential 
 advantages and comforts, personal and domes- 
 tic, for which we are indebted to our heavenly 
 Father. What we eat and drink, what we wear, 
 the habitation that protects us, the satisfaction 
 derived from the presence of endeared relatives, 
 all the success that may have been attained in 
 the labors and operations of the past day; these 
 and other benefits are to be considered for the 
 purpose of awakening grateful praise to our 
 Maker and Guardian before we close our eyes 
 in slumber. 
 
 Perhaps the day may not have passed \\dthout 
 some painful disappointment, some suffering or 
 affliction. If this should be the case, our hearts 
 nevertheless should not be diverted fi*om the oc- 
 casion for praise to God that is furnished in the 
 experience of the day. Moreover, it is revealed 
 to us as our duty in everything to give thanks ; 
 to bless the name of the Lord, as well when he 
 takes away, as when he gives, for our afflictions 
 
74 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 are all deserved, while, on the other hand, our 
 mercies are all forfeited on account of our sins. 
 
 *• Give me a calm and thankful heart, 
 From ever}' murmur free ; 
 The blessings of thy grace impart, 
 And make me live to thee. 
 
 •* Let the sweet hope that thou art mine 
 My life and death attend ; 
 Thy presence through my journey shine 
 And crown my journey's end." mrs. Steele. 
 
 We have reason to be as thankful for the shad- 
 ows of the evening which invite us to our re- 
 pose, as we had for the new hght of the morning 
 to favor us in the prosecution of our worldly 
 pursuits. The same wisdom, power, and good- 
 ness which make the outgoings of the morning 
 to rejoice, make those of the evening to do like- 
 wise. We have reason to be as thankful that 
 the curtains of the night are drawn about us to 
 favor our repose, as for the opening of the eye- 
 lids of the morning upon us in accommodation 
 to our business. When God divided between 
 the hght and the darkness, and allotted to both 
 their respective periods, he saw that it was good 
 it should be so. Let us therefore give thanks 
 to Him who forms the light and creates the 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 75 
 
 darkness ; and let us also believe that the dark- 
 ness of affliction may be as needful for us, in its 
 season, as the light of prosperity. 
 
 "We have reason to be thankful if, when the 
 season for repose comes, we may be permitted to 
 lie down, and are not obliged to sit up, through 
 the night. Some afflicted persons cannot lie 
 down, in consequence of painful sickness. Many 
 are prevented from lying down by sickness in 
 their famihes. Many are kept from their re- 
 pose by fear of enemies, in time of war and 
 disorder. Let us be duly thankful, then, if 
 neither personal illness, nor that of members of 
 the household, nor danger fi'om without, hinder 
 us from the needful and most delightful advan- 
 tages of undisturbed and healthful slumbers in 
 the night season. 
 
 2. When we lie doivn, it is wise to think of death, 
 and of the great change to ichich that event shall in- 
 troduce us. The conclusion of each day sug- 
 gests to us the concluding day of our Hfe on 
 earth. It is good to think of dying, as often as 
 we go to our beds. It will help to subdue in us 
 what is wrong ; it will fortify us against the 
 temptations of the world ; it will diminish our 
 regard for its possessions ; it will reconcile us 
 
76 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 to our discomforts and fatigues ; it will prepare 
 us to leave tlie world with less severe regret ; it 
 will tend to make the idea of death so familiar,^ 
 and our views of it so Christian, as to raise us 
 above the fear of that event. v. 
 
 Let us think, then, of our putting off the body at 
 death, with as much composure, and even pleas- 
 ure, as we do of putting off our clothes at night; 
 and let us comfort ourselves with this thought, 
 that if we be clothed with the grace and righte- 
 ousness of Christ, we shall, at death, be clothed 
 upon with immortahty. In due time, also, we 
 shall be invested with a glorious body like that 
 of Christ himself, as a substitute for the vile 
 body that falls a victim to death and becomes a 
 tenant of the loathsome grave. 
 
 "No, no, it is not cl3'ing 
 To go unto our God ; 
 This gloomy earth forsaking, 
 Our journey homeward taking 
 . Along the starry road. 
 
 " No, no, it is not dying 
 
 To wear a heavenly crown ; 
 Among God's people dwelling, 
 The glorious triumph swelling 
 
 Of him whose sway we own." malan. 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 77 
 
 3. When ice are about to lie doivn, it becomes us 
 to make penitent reflections upon the sins and omis- 
 sions of the past day. While we rejoice in the 
 Divine goodness that has furnished the mercies 
 of the day, we are not to overlook the inglori- 
 ous return which we have made for them, and 
 we should exercise therefore a becoming peni- 
 tence and humiliation before our God and Sav- 
 iour. Though we may have endeavored to con- 
 duct ourselves according to the rules of the 
 gospel, yet a careful review of our feelings, 
 words and deeds, will show us that we have 
 much to lament, to confess, and to forsake. It 
 will be of service, with this end in view, to ask. 
 What have I done this day? What have I done 
 amiss? What duty have I neglected? What 
 false step have I taken ? How have I conduct- 
 ed myself in my business, in my social inter- 
 course, and in my family? Have I accommo- 
 dated myself to the will of God in every event 
 of providence? By such inquiries, pursued 
 every night, we shall make, important advances 
 in self-knowledge and in Christian rectitude. 
 
 We must renew our repentance for whatever 
 we find to have been wrong and unchristian in 
 our thoughts, feelings, and actions ; we must be 
 
78 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 truly sorry for it, and humble ourselves on ac- 
 count of it, and honor God by confessing the 
 wrong of which we have been guilty, whether in 
 reference to God or to man. Even the sins of daily 
 infirmity, and the defects of our piety and mo- 
 rality, should be lamented and confessed. And 
 repentance should not be deferred, thus harden- 
 ing the heart, and hindering our spiritual growth 
 and comfort. 
 
 Eepentance must be followed by a fi-esh ap- 
 plication for pardon of the sins confessed and 
 repented of, through the blood of Christ. Not 
 only have we need of Christ for this purpose at 
 our first conversion from sin, but ever after- 
 wards, in this Hfe, we need to apply to him as 
 our Advocate, who appears for us in the presence 
 of the Father, to procure us pardon and accept- 
 ance. Not quite sufficient is it to employ the 
 general prayer of the publican, " God be mer- 
 ciful to me a sinner ;" but the specific sins that 
 rise to our remembrance should be presented in 
 our prayer for pardon. 
 
 *• Deep regret for follies past, 
 
 Talents wasted, time misspent 
 Hearts debased by ^YOlidly cares, 
 Thankless for the blessings lent 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 79 
 
 *' Foolish fears and fond desires, 
 Vain regrets for things as vain ; 
 Lips too seldom taught to praise, 
 Oft to murmur and complain ; 
 
 ** These and every secret fault, 
 
 Filled with grief and shame we own ; 
 Humbled at thy feet we he, 
 Seeking pardon from thy throne." j. taylor. 
 
 4. Before we yield ourselves to repose^ we should 
 offer supplications for the needful mercies of the 
 night before us. We must pray that our bodies 
 may enjoy the care of God's holy angels, who 
 are the ministers of his providence, for he has 
 promised that he will give his angels charge 
 concerning those who make the Most High 
 their refuge, and what he has promised we may 
 and must pray for. We are not indeed to sup- 
 pose that he needs the assistance of angels to 
 secure our well-being through the night, nor 
 that he devolves the care of us upon them ex- 
 clusively ; but the Scriptures inform us that 
 they are employed about the people of God, 
 though they are invisible, performing this ser- 
 vice as well for the honor of God, as for the 
 honor of his people. Perhaps they preserve us 
 from the mischief which otherwise we might 
 suffer from the agency of malignant spirits. 
 
80 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 We must also pray that our souls may enjoy 
 the influences of the Holy Ghost, the author 
 and fountain of all grace. We learn from Job 
 33:15, 16, that in the slumbers of the night 
 God opens the ears of men and seals instruc- 
 tion. We learn, also, that David so found it in 
 his own experience. Psa. 16:7; 17:3. He 
 found the night to be a propitious season for 
 remembering God and meditating upon him. 
 But to converse profitably with God in soli- 
 tude, we need the benign influences of the Holy 
 Spirit, to which, therefore, we should submit 
 and consign our souls when we he down. How 
 God's Spirit may work upon us when we are 
 asleep, we know not» The soul can act in a 
 state of separation fi-om the body, and how far 
 it does act independently of the body when the 
 bodily senses are inactive, we cannot say ; but 
 we are sure that the Spirit of God is not limit- 
 ed to our wakeful hours. It is reasonable to 
 pray, not only that we may be preserved from 
 disturbing or polluting dreams, (in which, for 
 aught we know, evil spirits may have an agen- 
 cy,) but that we may be favored with good 
 dreams — those which are pleasing and instruc- 
 tive. 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 81 
 
 •♦ Thus, with my thoughts composed to peace, 
 I give mine eyes to sleep ; 
 Thy hand in safety keeps my days, 
 And will my slumbers keep. " watts. 
 
 n. It must be our care and our endeavor, when 
 we lie down, to do so ^^ in peace" 
 
 1. In peace with God. If this has not been se- 
 cured, we should hasten to make our peace with 
 God in Jesus Christ, by repentance and faith. 
 There should be no delay ; for it is hazardous 
 to go to sleep in that condition in which we 
 dare not die. Sin is continually making mis- 
 chief between God and our own souls, provo- 
 king his displeasure against us, and ahenating 
 our hearts from him, so that there is need every 
 night of reestabhshing a state of peace, by the 
 agency of his Spirit upon us and by our own 
 personal reconciliation to God, that there may 
 be no conscious distance, no strangeness be- 
 tween us and God, no interposing cloud, no ob- 
 struction in our way to the mercy-seat. Being 
 justified by faith, (Eom. 5: 1,) we have this peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let 
 it be our daily care, that God have no quarrel 
 with us, nor we with him. 
 
 2. Let us lie doivn in peace with all men. It is 
 
 Dally Commauion. O 
 
82 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 our high concern to go to sleep, as well as to. 
 die, in charity. Those who have much to do 
 with the world can scarcely pass a day without 
 receiving some affront or injuiy, and when they 
 retire at night there is danger of magnifying the 
 offence by dwelling upon it, and thus of stirring 
 up one's self to undue resentment, which may 
 lead to a purpose of revenge. Now is the time, 
 therefore, for guarding against such an unhappy 
 result. If others are inchned to quarrel with 
 us, let Us resolve that we wiU not engage in a 
 quarrel with them ; but wiU subdue aU resentful 
 and malevolent feehngs, and thus avoid doing 
 VFTong to our neighbor or to ourselves. The apos- 
 toHc injunction is, "Let not the sun go down 
 upon your wrath, neither give place to the 
 devil." We cannot, therefore, lie down at peace 
 with God, unless we are at peace with men, nor 
 in faith pray to be forgiven, unless we forgive. 
 Let us, then, study the things that make for 
 peace ; for the peace of our own spirits, by liv- 
 ing, as much as in us lies, peaceably with aU 
 men. 
 
 3. Let us lie down in peace with ourselves — in a 
 quiet serenity of spirit and self- enjoyment. This 
 will be achieved, if by the grace of God we have 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 83 
 
 in some good measure performed the work of 
 the day, and filled it up with acts of duty and 
 of usefulness ; if our hearts are not, in the retro- 
 spect, obliged to exclaim, "I have lost a day," 
 or, what is worse, if they do not reproach us 
 with the spending of that time in sin which 
 should have been spent in the service of God. 
 If, on the contraiy, we have passed the day in 
 the fear of God, and waited on him all the day 
 long, we may then lie down in peace, and the 
 sleep of the laborrug man, the laboriug Chris- 
 tian, is sweet. He can say. As I am a day's 
 journey nearer my end, so I am a day's work 
 fitter for it. Nothing will make our season of 
 repose so pleasant, as the witness of the Spirit 
 of God with our spirits that we are going for- 
 ward towards heaven, and a conscience kept 
 void of offence, which will be not only a contin- 
 ual feast, but a continual rest. 
 
 "Great God, let all my hours be thine, 
 While I enjoy the light ; 
 Then shall my sun in smiles decline, 
 And bring a pleasant night." watts. 
 
 Again : if by faith and patience, and resigna- 
 tion to the Divine will, we have reconciled our- 
 selves to all the events of the day, so as to be 
 
84 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 uneasy at nothing which God has done, we may 
 then lie down in peace at night. We may have 
 met with disappointments or losses in our busi- 
 ness, or may have been otherwise tried, but we 
 should not forget that these events proceed from 
 the Lord, and that which pleases him ought not 
 to displease us. 
 
 Further : upon renewing our repentance for 
 sin, and making a fresh application to the blood 
 of Christ, we may lay us down in peace. 
 
 So also, if we have put ourselves under the 
 Divine protection for the night before us. If by 
 faith and prayer we have made the Lord our 
 refuge and our habitation, we may then speak 
 peace to ourselves, for God in his word speaks 
 peace to us. 
 
 So also, if besides we have cast all our cares 
 for the day following upon God. Indulging 
 anxious thought for the morrow is a great hin- 
 drance to peace of mind and quiet slumbers 
 dui'ing the night. Let us but learn to live with- 
 out corroding care, and to refer the issue of all 
 events to that God who may and can do what he 
 wills to do, and who wills to do what is best for 
 those who fear and trust in him, saving, "Fa- 
 ther, thy will be done!" and then our minds 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 85 
 
 shall be tranquil and happy. Our Saviour, in 
 his Sermon on the Mount, presses this subject 
 upon his disciples, counselling them to take no 
 anxious thought for to-morrow, assuring them 
 of the care which their heavenly Father exer- 
 cises over them and their daily necessities. 
 
 " Then comes the quiet and the cool of night, 
 To give me back the calm, of which the light 
 Of this gay world had sought me to bereare. 
 O gentle shadows of the tranquil eve ! 
 Eve, with thy stillness and soul-soothing balm, 
 What do I owe thee for thy solemn calm ! 
 Thou comest down like some peace-bringing dove, 
 To soothe and cheer me with thy silent love. " bonab. 
 
 III. Having laid ourselves down in peace, the 
 next thing is to compose ourselves to sleep. " I will 
 lay me down and sleep." The love of sleep for 
 the sake of sleep is the characteristic of the 
 sluggard ; but as the divinely-appointed means 
 of recruiting our physical energies — quite as 
 needful as food — we are to employ it with thank- 
 fulness to Him who "gives his beloved sleep." 
 
 With such REFLECTIONS as the following we 
 may yield ourselves to sleep : 
 
 1. What frail bodies are these, which so often call 
 for rest and relief from fatigue, and require so 
 
86 DAILY COMMUlNlON WITH GOD. 
 
 large a proportion of our time to recover their 
 strength by sleep ! 
 
 2. What a sad thing it is to be obliged to employ 
 so much precious time, so lanyge a portion of our life 
 in sleep, during which we can perform no act of 
 piety towards God, nor render any service to man ! 
 Those who consider how short our life is, and 
 what amount of work we have to do, and how 
 rapidly the day of account hastens on, cannot 
 but grudge the hours that must be spent in 
 sleep, and wish to employ as few as may suffice 
 for purposes of health and vigor. They cannot 
 avoid being urged by these considerations to re- 
 deem time when they are awake, and to long to 
 be transferred to that world where there shall 
 be no need of sleep, but where they shall be as 
 the angels of Grod, and never cease praising and 
 otherwise serving God. 
 
 3. What a gracious Master we serve, icho allows us 
 time for sleep, and furnishes its with all the requi- 
 site conveniences for it, and makes it to us so refresh- 
 ing and so grateful ! Thus kindly does he pro- 
 vide for our bodies ; and this is one good reason 
 for presenting them to him as living sacrifices. 
 It is worthy of special remark that sleep is spo- 
 ken of as given by promise to the saints : " Lo 1 
 
CONCLUDING THE DA.Y. 87 
 
 he giveth his beloved sleep." Psalm 127 : 2. 
 What a vast difference there is between the sleep 
 of an unregenerate man, who is not sensible of 
 his being within a step of hell, and the sleep of 
 a child of God, who has good hope, through 
 grace, of his being within a step of heaven. 
 That is the sleep which God gives to his be- 
 loved. 
 
 "When each day's scenes and labors close, 
 And wearied nature seeks repose, 
 
 With pardoning mercy richly blest, 
 Guard me, my Saviour, while I rest ! 
 
 And as each morning sun shall rise. 
 Oh, lead me onward to the skies ! 
 
 ♦'And at my life's last setting sun, 
 My conflicts o'er, my labors done, 
 
 Jesus ! thy heavenly radiance shed. 
 To cheer and bless my dying bed, 
 
 And from death's gloom my spirit raise, 
 To see thy face and sing thy praise." 
 
 SIR R. GRAKT. 
 
 4. How sad is the case of those from whose eyes 
 sleep departs, as the result of bodily or mental suf- 
 fering, and to whom wearisome nights are appoint- 
 ed! When we consider how earnestly nature 
 longs for sleep, and how much refreshment is 
 derived from it, we should regard with deep 
 compassion, and remember in our prayers, those 
 
88 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 to whom that and other comforts possessed by 
 ourselves are denied. 
 
 5. How ungrateful are we to the God of the night 
 and of the morning, when we so far indulge in sleep, 
 beyond our need or advantage, as to make it a hin- 
 drance to that which is good ; as when it keeps us 
 from our hour of prayer and devout reading in 
 the morning or in the evening. 
 
 6. We have now one day less to live than we had 
 in the morning. As time goes, eternity comes ; 
 we are hastening on. "What preparation have 
 we made for our last account, to be given so 
 soon ? How^ should the thought of it stimulate 
 us to the appropriate use of our time, making 
 our sleep not the less desirable, and our death 
 much the less formidable. 
 
 "One sweetly solemn thonglit 
 Comes to me oer and o'er : 
 I am nearer home to-day 
 
 Than I ever have been before ; 
 
 "Nearer my Father's house, 
 
 Where the many mansions be ; 
 Nearer the great white throne, 
 Nearer the crystal sea ; 
 
 "Nearer the bound of life, 
 
 Where we lay our burdens down ; 
 Nearer leaving the cross. 
 
 Nearer qainiug the crown." caret. 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 89 
 
 7. To thy glory, God, I now go to sleep. 
 Whether we eat, or di'ink, yea, or sleep, (for 
 that is included in " whatever we do,") it should 
 be done to the glory of God. Why should I go 
 to sleep now, but to fit my body to be the instru- 
 ment of the soul in the service of God to-mor- 
 row ? Thus common actions, when directed to 
 such an end, assume a high moral character, 
 and gain Di\ine approval and reward. 
 
 8. To thy grace, God, I now commend myself. 
 It is good to fall asleep with a fresh surrender of 
 our whole selves, body, soul, and spirit, to God, 
 saying "with joy and with gratitude, ' Eeturn to 
 God as thy rest, O my soul ; for he has dealt 
 bountifully with thee.' Sleep not only resembles 
 death, but is sometimes the introduction to it : 
 many yield themselves to sleep and never wake, 
 but pass into the sleep of death. This furnishes 
 a good reason for turning our thoughts towards 
 death, and for committing our souls to the Hv- 
 ing God, so that sudden death during the ensu- 
 ing night should be no surprise or detriment to 
 us. 
 
 9. Oh that when I awake I may be still with God ; 
 that the parenthesis of sleep, though long, may not 
 break off the thread of my communion with God, 
 
90 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 but that I may resume it as soon as I awake ! Oh 
 that, should I awake in the night, I may have 
 my mind turned to good thoughts ; may remem- 
 ber God, who then is at my right hand, and to 
 whom the darkness and the Hght are both ahke. 
 Oh that thus I may sweetly meditate upon him 
 in the night watches, so that the time may be 
 employed to the highest advantage which other- 
 wise is hable to be lost in frivolous thoughts, or 
 misspent in those which are sinful. Oh that, 
 when I awake in the morning, my first thoughts 
 may be of God, and thus my heart be prepared 
 to enter properly upon the business and trials 
 of the day ! 
 
 10. Oh that, in due time, I may he introduced 
 into a better rest than that which I am now about to 
 enjoy ! The apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, 
 (Heb. 4:3, 9,) speaks of a rest which we that 
 have believed do enter into, even in this world, 
 as weU as of a rest which, in the other world, 
 remains for the people of God ; a rest from sin 
 and from the world ; a rest in Christ and in 
 God through Christ — a satisfaction in the bless- 
 ings of the gospel and in the hopes of the here- 
 after. Oh that I may enjoy this rest while I 
 live, and at death enter into something more 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 91 
 
 than rest — into tlie joy of my Lord, and dwell at 
 his right hand, where there are pleasures for 
 evermore ! 
 
 *' Earth's joys are but a dream ; its destiny 
 Is but decay and death. Its fairest form, 
 Sunshine and shadow mixed. Its brighest day, 
 A rainbow braided on the wreaths of storm. 
 
 "Yet there is blessedness that change th not ; 
 A rest with God, a life that cannot die ; 
 A better portion and a brighter lot : 
 A home with Christ, a heritage on high. 
 
 "The tempest makes returning calm more dear ; 
 The darkest midnight makes the brightest star ; 
 Even so to us, when all is ended here, 
 Shall be the past remembered from afar. 
 
 "Then welcome change and death, since these alone 
 Can break life's fetters and dissolve its speU ; 
 Welcome all present change, which speeds us on 
 So swift to that which is unchangeable." bonar. 
 
 IV. We must do all that has now been suggested 
 and recommended in a believing dependence upon 
 God, his power, providence, and grace. Therefore 
 "I lay me down in peace," and compose myself 
 to sleep, because "thou, Lord, keepest me." 
 "Thou makest me to dwell in safety." David 
 takes notice (Psa. 139) of God's compassing his 
 path and his lying down, as his protector and 
 observer. 
 
02 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 1. It is by the power of God's providence that ive 
 are kept safe in the night, and on that providence we 
 must rely continually. He preserveth man and 
 beast, (Psa. 36 : 6,) and upholds all things by 
 the word of his power. Death would soon lay 
 all waste, if God did not shelter his creatures 
 from the arrows of death. Our bodies carry 
 about with them the seeds of disease, and a slight 
 derangement of their functions may lead to sud- 
 den death. We are exposed also at night to 
 the designs of the robber or the incendiary, and 
 to the malice of evil spirits. Unseen dangers 
 may be near us in those unconscious hours when 
 we cannot help ourselves, and when our friends, 
 alike unconscious, are unable to assist or defend 
 us. When Saul was asleep he lost his spear 
 and his cruse of w^ater, and might have lost also 
 his head, as easily as Sisera did, when he was 
 asleep, by the hand of a woman. There is a 
 special j)rotection assured to God's people, (Psa. 
 27 : 5 ;) he is round about them, as the moun- 
 tains are round about Jerusalem, (Psa. 125 : 2. ) 
 He protects their habitations, as he did the 
 tents of Israel in the wilderness. 
 
 The care of Divine providence concerning us 
 and our families we are to depend upon, so as to 
 
CONCLUDING THE DAY. 93 
 
 look upon no provision which we make for our 
 safety as adequate, without the blessing of the 
 Divine providence upon it. "Except the Lord 
 keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vam.'' 
 Be the house ever so well built, the doors and 
 -windows ever so well barred, the servants ever 
 so careful, it is all to no purpose, unless he that 
 keeps Israel, and never slumbers or sleeps, un- 
 dertake for our safety. 
 
 2. It is by God's grace that we are enabled to feel 
 ourselves safe, and on that grace we must continually 
 depend. The fear of danger, even when ground- 
 less, is equally vexatious as when well-founded. 
 And therefore it is important that by the gTace 
 of God we be dehvered from our fears, as well 
 as from the things themselves that we were 
 afraid of. 
 
 Let us he down in peace, and sleep, not in 
 the strength of a natural resolution against fear, 
 nor merely of rational arguments against it, 
 though they may be useful, but in a dependence 
 on the gxace of God to work faith in us, and to 
 fulfil in us the work of faith. This is going 
 to sleep like a Christian, under the shadow of 
 God's wings, going to sleep in faith ; and it will 
 be to us a good pledge of dying in faith, for the 
 
94 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 same faith tliat will carry us cheerfully through 
 the short death of sleep, will caiTy us through 
 the long sleep of death. 
 
 •• I close my heavy eye — 
 
 Saviour ever near ! 
 I lift my soul on high 
 
 Through the darkness drear. 
 Be thou my light, I cry, 
 
 Saviour ever dear! 
 
 •* I feel thine arms around, 
 
 Saviour ever near; 
 With thee let me be found. 
 
 So shall I never fear, 
 Whatever ill abounds — 
 
 Saviour ever dear ! 
 
 " Thine is the day and night, 
 
 Saviour ever near ; 
 Thine is the dark and light — 
 
 Be thou my covert here ; 
 Oh shield me with thy might. 
 
 Saviour ever dear ! 
 
 " And when I come to die, 
 
 Saviour ever near, 
 Receive my parting sigh ; 
 
 And, in the hour of fear, 
 Be to my spirit nigh. 
 
 Saviour ever dear !" bonar. 
 
Application. 
 
APPLICATION. 
 
 1. We discover how much it is our concern to 
 carry our religion with us wherever we go, and to 
 have it always at our right hand. At every turn 
 we have occasion for it — on lying down, when 
 rising up, going out, coming in ; and those are 
 Christians indeed who confine not their rehgion 
 to the Sabbath, or to the season of family wor- 
 ship, but bring the influences of it into all the 
 common actions and occurrences of human life. 
 We must sit down at our tables and rise from 
 them, lie down in om' beds and arise from them, 
 with an eye to God's providence and promises. 
 Thus we must live a Hfe of communion with God, 
 even while we are engaged in worldly pursuits. 
 
 In order to this, we must have in our hearts a 
 principle of grace, which, like a well of living 
 
 Dally Communion. f 
 
98 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 water, may be continually springing up to life 
 eternal. John 4:14. It is necessary, also, to 
 keep our hearts with all diligence, and to con- 
 trol our thoughts, more than Christians com- 
 monly do. 
 
 2. The life of good Christians is a hidden life ; 
 much of if does not come under the observation of 
 the ivorld. The most important part of their 
 business lies between God and their own souls, 
 in the fi-ame of their spirits and the workings of 
 their hearts even in solitude, which no eye sees 
 but his, that beholds all. Justly are the saints 
 called God's hidden ones, and his secret is spid 
 to be with them, for they have meat to eat and 
 work to do which the world knows not of, and 
 joys and cares and griefs which a stranger does 
 not intermeddle with. 
 
 It is to be feared that there are many whose 
 rehgion is external only, being strangers to this 
 secret communion with God, in which consists 
 so much of the power of godliness. On the 
 other hand, it is to be hoped there are many 
 who pass through the world without being 
 taken notice of, and yet converse much with 
 God in solitude. 
 
 3. Observe what enemies to themselves those are 
 
APPLICATION. 99 
 
 who continue under the power of a carnal mind, 
 and live without God in the world. They lie down 
 and rise up, go out and come in, constantly pur- 
 suing the profits or the pleasures of the world ; 
 and God is not in all their thoughts, nor volun- 
 tarily in any of them. They Hve upon the gifts 
 of his bounty fi'om day to day, but they feel no 
 regard to him, never own then- dependence upon 
 him, nor make any effort or self-denial to secure 
 his favor. 
 
 Those who Hve such a mere animal Hfe as this, 
 not only put great contempt on God, but do 
 great damage to themselves ; they deprive them- 
 selves of the greatest comforts that can be en- 
 joyed on this side of heaven. What peace can 
 they have who are not at peace with God? 
 What rational satisfaction can be taken in their 
 hopes, which rest on so precarious a foundation 
 as earthly good ? 
 
 4. What a pleasant life the people of God might 
 live, were it not for their own fault and folly ! 
 Some of them are gloomy, full of cares and 
 fears and complainings, because they do not 
 pursue that life of delight in God and of de- 
 pendence on him which they ought to live. God 
 has provided for theu- happiness, even here 
 
100 DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 but they neglect to use the provisions he haa 
 made for them. 
 
 Oh, that all who appear to be conscientious, 
 and are afraid of sin, would appear cheerful, 
 and be afraid of nothing else but sin ; that all 
 who call God their Father, and have a care to 
 please him, and to keep themselves in his love, 
 would learn to cast all their other care upon 
 him, and to commit their way to him, as to a 
 Father. He chooses our inheritance, and knows 
 what is best for us — ^better than we do for our- 
 selves. It is (writes Matthew Henry) what I 
 have often said, and will abide by, " That a holy, 
 heavenly life, spent in the service of God and in 
 communion with him, is the most pleasant, comfort- 
 able life anybody can live in this world.''* 
 
 * A more beautiful illustration of this thought, or of this 
 fact, can scarcely be furnished, than that which we find 
 in one of the letters of the Eev. Dr. Philip Doddridge, to 
 his much loved wife, in his absence from home in search 
 of health. Thus he writes: "My days begin, pass, and 
 end in pleasure, and seem short because they are so de- 
 lightful. It may seem strange to say it, but really so it 
 is, I hardly feel that I want anything. I often think of you, 
 and pray for you, and bless God on your account, and 
 please myself with the hope of many comfortable days 
 and weeks and years with you ; yet I am not at all anx- 
 ious about your return, or indeed anything else ; and the 
 
APPLICATION. 101 
 
 5. From all that has been said, we learn what 
 18 the best preparation we can make, for encounter- 
 ing the changes that are appointed to us in the pres- 
 ent state. It is, to keep up a constant intercourse 
 and communion with God, to converse with him 
 daily, and maintain stated devotions. Then we 
 may come to God in all times of trouble with a 
 cheerful boldness and comfort, and find in him 
 
 reason, the great and sufficient reason is, that I have more 
 of the presence of God with me than I remember ever to 
 have enjoyed in any one month of my life. He enables 
 me to live for him, and to live with him. When I awake 
 in the morning, which is always before it is light, I ad- 
 dress myself to him, and converse with him ; speak to 
 him while I am lighting my candle and putting on my 
 clothes ; and have often more delight before I come out 
 of my chamber, though it be hardly a quarter of an hour 
 after my awakening, than I have enjoyed for whole days, 
 or, perhaps, weeks, of my Ufe. He meets me in my study, 
 in secret, in family devotions. It is pleasant to read, 
 pleasant to compose, pleasant to converse with my friends 
 at home ; pleasant to visit those abroad — the poor, the 
 sick ; pleasant to write letters of necessary business, by 
 which any good can be done ; pleasant to go out and 
 preach the gospel to poor souls, of which some are thirst- 
 ing for, and others dying without it ; pleasant in the week 
 day to think how near another Sabbath is ; but oh ! much, 
 much more pleasant to think how near eternity is — how 
 short the journey through this wilderness, and that it ia 
 but a step from earth to heaven." 
 
102 COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 a Eefuge ; for we are not to expect in tliis world 
 entire exemption fi*om annoyances and afflictions. 
 But if every day be to us, as it should be, a Sab- 
 bath of rest in God and of communion with him, 
 earthly troubles will lose much of their power 
 to disturb our peace, and to render us unhappy. 
 
 " My soul, a hymn of evening praise 
 To God thy kind preserver raise, 
 Whose hand, this day, hath guarded, fed, 
 And thousand blessings round thee shed. 
 
 " Forgive my sins this day, Lord, 
 In thought or feeling, deed or word ; 
 And if in aught thy law I 've kept, 
 My feeble efforts, Lord, accept. 
 
 " While nature round is hushed to rest, 
 Let no vain thought disturb my breast ; 
 Shed o'er my soul religion's power, 
 Serenely solemn as the hour, 
 
 " Oh, bid the angels o'er me keep 
 Their watch, to shield me while I sleep. 
 Till the fresh morn shall round me break; 
 Then with new vigor may I wake; 
 
 "Yet think, my soul, another day 
 Of thy short course has rolled away ; 
 Ah, think how soon in deepening shade 
 The day of life itself shall fade !" frisbie. 
 
 6. The course of life recommended in the j^ages 
 
 of this work, indicates the best preparation we can 
 
 make for the unchangeable world before us. "We 
 
APPLICATION. 103 
 
 ]mow that God will bring us to death, and our 
 great concern should be to get ready for if. 
 The business of every day should be, to pre- 
 pare for our last day ; and what better can w< . 
 do for ourselves in anticipation of the dying 
 hour, than by frequent retirement, for holding 
 communion with God, to detach our affections 
 from that world which at death we must aban- 
 don, and to become better acquainted with that 
 other world to which at death we are to be 
 transferred? Thus may it be made, by divine 
 grace, as easy to us to close our eyes in peace 
 and die, as it is wont to be to close our eyes in 
 peace and sleep. 
 
 Certain it is, that all who shall go to heaven 
 hereafter begin their heaven now, and have 
 their hearts there now. If thus we enter into 
 spiritual rest every night, it will be a pledge of 
 our future repose in the embraces of divine love 
 in that more desirable world, where day and 
 night come to an end, and where we shall never 
 cease to pour out our praises to Him, who is, 
 and will be our Everlasting Eest. 
 
 " As, when the wearj^ traveller gains 
 
 The height of some o'erlooking hill, 
 His heart revives, if o'er the plains 
 
 He sees his home, though distant still; 
 
104 COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 ** Thus, when the Christian pilgrim views 
 By faith his mansion in the skies, 
 The sight his fainting strength renews, 
 And wings his speed to reach the prize. 
 
 " *'Tis there,' he says, 'I am to dwell 
 With Jesus in the realms of day ; 
 Then shall I bid my cares farewell. 
 And he shall wipe my tears away.' 
 
 "Jesus, on thee our hope depends, 
 To lead us on to thine abode. 
 Assured our home will make amends 
 For all our toil while on the road." newtom. 
 
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