Pulpit Prayers

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
~ Luke 21:36

The Pulpit Prayers, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following contains an excerpt from his work.

PRAYER 13. THE WINGS OF PRAYER.
Our Father, Your children who know You delight themselves in Your presence.
We are never happier than when we are near You. We have found a little heaven in prayer.
It has eased our load to tell You of its weight;
It has relieved our wound to tell You of its smart;
It has restored our spirit to confess to You its wanderings. No place like the mercy seat for us.
We thank You, Lord, that we have not only found benefit in prayer, but in the answers to it we have been greatly enriched.
You have opened Your hid treasures to the voice of prayer;
You have supplied our necessities as soon as ever we have cried unto You; yea, we have found it true:
“Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.”
We do bless You, Lord, for instituting the blessed ordinance of prayer. What could we do without it, and we take great shame to ourselves that we should use it so little.
We pray that we may be men of prayer, taken up with it, that it may take us up and bear us as on its wings towards heaven. And now at this hour will You hear the voice of our supplication. First, we ask at Your hands, great Father, complete forgiveness for all our trespasses and shortcomings.
We hope we can say with truthfulness that we do from our heart forgive all those who have in any way trespassed against us. There lies not in our heart, we hope, a thought of enmity towards any man. However we have been slandered or wronged, we would, with our inmost heart, forgive and forget it all.
We come to You and pray that, for Jesus’ sake, and through the virtue of the blood once shed for many for the remission of sins,
You would give us perfect pardon of every transgression of the past. Blot out, O God, all our sins like a cloud, and let them never be seen again.
Grant us also the peace-speaking word of promise applied by the Holy Spirit, that being justified by faith we may have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us be forgiven and know it, and may there remain no lingering question in our heart about our reconciliation with God, but by a firm, full assurance based upon faith in the finished work of Christ, may we stand as forgiven men and women against whom transgression shall be mentioned never again for ever.
And then, Lord, we have another mercy to ask which shall be the burden of our prayer. It is that You would help us to live such lives as pardoned men should live.
We have but a little time to tarry here, for our life is but a vapor; soon it vanishes away; but we are most anxious that we may spend the time of our sojourning here in holy fear, that grace may be upon us from the commencement of our Christian life even to the earthly close of it.
Lord, You know there are some that have not yet begun to live for You, and the prayer is now offered that they may today be born again. Others have been long in Your ways, and are not weary of them.
We sometimes wonder that You are not weary of us, but assuredly we delight ourselves in the ways of holiness more than ever we did.
Oh! that our ways were directed to keep Your statutes without slip or flaw. We wish we were perfectly obedient in thought, and word, and deed, entirely sanctified. We shall never be satisfied till we wake up in Christ’s likeness, the likeness of perfection itself.
Oh! work us to this self same thing, we beseech You.
May experience teach us more and more how to avoid occasions of sin.
May we grow more watchful; may we have a greater supremacy over our own spirit; may we be able to control ourselves under all circumstances, and so act that if the Master were to come at any moment we should not be ashamed to give our account into His hands.
Lord, we are not what we want to be. This is our sorrow. Oh! that You would, by Your Spirit, help us in the walks of life to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
As men of business, as work-people, as parents, as children, as servants, as masters, whatever we may be, may we be such that Christ may look upon us with pleasure. May His joy be in us, for then only can our joy be full.
Dear Savior, we are Your disciples, and You are teaching us the art of living; but we are very dull and very slow, and beside, there is such a bias in our corrupt nature, and there are such examples in the world, and the influence of an ungodly generation tells even upon those that know You.
O, dear Savior, be not impatient with us, but still school us at Your feet, till at last we shall have learned some of the sublime lessons of self-sacrifice, of meekness, humility, fervor, boldness, and love which Your life is fit to teach us.
O Lord, we beseech You mold us into Your own image. Let us live in You and live like You. Let us gaze upon Your glory till we are transformed by the sight, and become Christ-like among the sons of men.
Lord, hear the confessions of any that have back-slidden, who are rather marring Your image than perfecting it. Hear the prayers of any that are conscious of great defects during the past. Give them peace of mind by pardon, but give them strength of mind also to keep clear of such mischief in the future.
O Lord, we are sighing and crying more and more after You.
The more we have of You the more we want You; the more we grow like You; the more we perceive our defects, and the more we pine after a higher standard, to reach even unto perfection…
Oh! help us. Spirit of the living God, continue still to travail in us. Let the groanings that cannot be uttered be still within our Spirit, for these are growing pains, and we shall grow while we can sigh and cry, while we can confess and mourn; yet this is not without a blessed hopefulness that He that has begun a good work in us will perfect it in the day of Christ.
Bless, we pray You, at this time, the entire Church of God in every part of the earth. Prosper the work and service of Christian people, however they endeavor to spread the kingdom of Christ.
Convert the heathen; enlighten those that are in any form of error. Bring the entire Church back to the original form of Christianity. Make her first pure, and then she shall be united. O, Savior, let Your kingdom come. Oh! that You would reign, and Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
We pray You use every one of us according as we have ability to be used.
Take us, and let no talent lie to canker in the treasure house, but may every talent of Yours be put out in trading for You in the blessed market of soul-winning.
Oh! give us success. Increase the gifts and graces of those that are saved. Bind us in closer unity to one another than ever. Let peace reign; let holiness adorn us.
Hear us as we pray for all countries, and then for all sorts of men, from the Sovereign on the throne to the servant in the cottage.
Let the benediction of heaven descend on men, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER 14. “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL!” Lord, we are longing to draw near; May Your Spirit draw us near.
We come by the way of Christ our Mediator.
We could not approach You, O our God, if it were not for Him, but in Him we come boldly to the throne of heavenly grace.
Nor can we come without thanksgiving — thanksgiving from the heart, such as the tongue can never express.
You have chosen us from before the foundation of the world, and this well-head of mercy sends forth streams of loving-kindness never ceasing.
Because we were chosen we have been redeemed with precious blood. Bless the Lord! And we have been called by the Holy Spirit out of the world, and we have been led to obey that wondrous call which has quickened us and renewed us, and made us the people of God, given us adoption into the Divine Family. Bless the Lord!
Our hearts would pause as we remember the greatness of each one of Your favors, and we would say,
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” When we consider our utter unworthiness before conversion, and our great faultiness since, we can only admire the riches of abounding grace which God has manifested to us unworthy ones. Bless the Lord!
And when we think of all that You have promised to give, which our faith embraces as being really ours, since the covenant makes it sure, we know not how … to express Your great goodness.
We would make our praises equal to our expectations, and our expectations equal to Your promises.
We can never rise so high.
We give to You…the praise of our entire being; unto Jehovah, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the Creator of the world, the redeemed of men, unto Jehovah be glory for ever and ever, and let all His people praise Him. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
O Lord, Your works praise You, but Your saints bless You; and this shall be our heaven; yea, our heaven of heavens eternally, to praise and magnify the great and ever blessed God.
May many a maiden this day, May many a man break forth and say, with the virgin of old, “My soul does magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
May there be going up this day sweet incense, of praise laid by holy hands, privately upon the altar of God.
May this place be filled with the smoke …to the acceptance of God who shall smell a sweet savor of rest in Christ, and then in the praises of His people in Him.
But, Lord, when we have praised You we have to fold the wing; yea, we have to cover the face and cover the feet and stand before You to worship in another fashion, for we confess that we are evil, evil in our original, and though renewed by sovereign grace
Your people cannot speak of being clean, rid of sin. There is sin which dwells in us which is our daily plague. O God, we humble ourselves before You.
We ask that our faith may clearly perceive the blood of the atonement and the covering of the perfect righteousness of Christ; and
May we come afresh, depending alone on Jesus. “I, the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me.”
May this be our one hope, that Jesus died and rose again, and that for His sake we are accepted in the Beloved.
May every child of Yours have his conscience purged from dead works to serve the true and living God.
May there be no cloud between us and our Heavenly Father; nay, not even a mist, not even the morning mist that soon is gone.
May we walk in the light as God is in the light.
May our fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, be unquestionable; may it be fuel; may it fill us with joy; may it be a most real fact this day; may we enjoy it to the full, knowing whom we have believed, knowing who is our Father, knowing who it is that dwells in us, even the Holy Spirit.
Take away from us every thing which now might hinder our delighting ourselves in God. May we come to God this day with a supreme joy; may we speak of Him as “God my exceeding joy; yea, mine own God is He.” ….
May we come near to You, having no doubt and nothing whatsoever that shall spoil the beautiful simplicity of a childlike faith which looks up into the great face of God and says, “Our Father, which are in heaven.”
There are those who never repented of sin and never believed in Christ, and consequently the wrath of God abides on them. They are living without God, they are living in darkness. O God in Your great mercy look upon them. They do not look at You, but You look at them. May the sinner see his sin and mourn it; see His Savior and accept Him; see himself saved, and go on his way rejoicing. Father, do grant us this.
Once more we pray You bless Your Church. Lord quicken the spiritual life of believers. You have given to Your Church great activity, for which we thank You.
May that activity be supported by a corresponding inner life. Let us not get to be busy here and there with Martha, and forget to sit at Your feet with Mary. Lord, restore to Your Church the love of strong doctrine.
May Your truth yet prevail. Purge out from among Your Church those who would lead others away from the truth as it is in Jesus, and give back the old power and something more.
Give us Pentecost; yea, many Pentecosts in one, and may we live to see Your Church shine forth clear as the sun and fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.
God grant that we may live to see better days. But if perilous times should come in these last days make us faithful.
Raise up in our country, raise up in many other countries, men that shall hold the truth…. Raise up in every country where there has been a faithful church men that will not let the vessel drift upon the rocks.
O God of the Judges, You who raised up first one and then another when the people went astray from God; raise up for us still….our Deborahs, our Baraks, our Gideons and Jephthahs, and Samuels, that shall maintain for God His truth….
Lord look upon Your Church in these days. Lord revive us. Lord restore us. Lord give power to Your Word again that Your name may be glorified.
Remember the Church of God in this land in all its various phases and portions, and pour out Your Spirit upon it.
Remember the multitude of Your people across the sea in…, prosper them, bless them with the increase of God.
And wherever You have a people may Jesus dwell with them and reveal Himself to His own, for Christ’s sake, to whom be glory with the Father and with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever.
Amen.

PRAYER 15. THE PEACE OF GOD.
Our God, we stand not afar off as Israel did in Sinai, nor does a veil hang dark between Your face and ours; but the veil is rent by the death of our Divine Lord and Mediator, Jesus Christ, and in His name we come up to the blood sprinkled mercy seat, and here we present our prayers and our praises accepted in Him.
We do confess that we are guilty; we bow our heads and confess that we have broken Your law and the covenant of which it is a part. Did You deal with us under the covenant of works none of us could stand. We must confess that we deserve Your wrath and to be banished for ever from Your presence.
But You have made a new covenant, and we come under its divine shadow; we come in the name of Jesus. He is our High Priest; He is our righteousness; He is the well-beloved in whom You are well pleased.
Holy Spirit teach us how to pray. Let us know what we should pray for as we ought. Our first prayer is: Be You adored; reign You over the whole earth; hallowed be Your name.
We desire to see all men submit themselves to Your gracious government.
We wish especially that in the hearts of Your own there may be an intense love for You and a perfect obedience to You. Grant this to each one of us.
We would each one pray, “Lord, sanctify me; make me obedient; write Your law upon my heart and upon my mind.” Make our nature so clean that temptation cannot defile it.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.” May our course be very clean, our path be very straight; may we keep our garments unspotted from the world; and in thought and desire and imagination, in will and in purpose, may we be holy as God is holy.
O God, we pray again fulfill that covenant promise, “I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
May we be very tender towards You; may we feel Your faintest monition; may even the gentlest breath of Your Spirit suffice to move us; may we not be “as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle…,” but may we be as children obedient to a father; may we yield our members cheerfully to the instruments of righteousness; may we have a natural desire wrought in the new nature towards everything that is pure and honest, unselfish and Christly.
O, Spirit of God dwell in us. Is not this also a covenant promise, “I will put My Spirit within you, and I will make you to walk in My ways.” Dwell with us Holy Spirit; rule over us Holy Spirit; transform us to Your own likeness, O Holy Spirit!
Then shall we be clean; then shall we keep the law. We…pray…for those who are unfamiliar with the work of the Spirit of God, who have never owned their God, who have lived as if there were no God.
Open their eyes that they may see God even though that sight should make them tremble and wish to die. O! let none of us live without our God and Father.
Take away the heart of stone, take away the frivolities, the levity, the giddiness of our youth, and give us in downright earnest to seek true happiness where alone it can be found, in reconciliation to God, and in conformity to His will.
Lord save the careless, save the sinful, the drunkard…. The unholy and unjust men, deliver these from their filthiness; the dishonest and false, renew them in their lives; and any that are lovers of pleasure, dead while they live, and any that are lovers of self, whose life is bounded by the narrowness of their own being, the Lord renew them, regenerate them, make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. For this we do fervently pray.
Lord God the Holy Ghost, may faith grow in men; may they believe in Christ to the saving of their souls. May their little faith brighten into strong faith, and may their strong faith ripen into the full assurance of faith.
May we all have this last blessing; may we believe God fully; may we never waver. Resting in the Great Surety and High Priest of the New Covenant may we feel “the peace of God which passes all understanding,” and may we enter into rest.
Bless Your people that are at rest, and deepen that rest.
May the rest that You give be further enhanced by the rest which they find when they take Your yoke upon them and learn of You.
May Your Word be very sweet to them.
May there come over our spirits a deep calm, as when Christ hushed both winds and waves. May we feel not only resignation to Your will, but delight in it, feeling pleased with all the Lord provides.
May we rest in our God and be quite happy in the thought that our sins and our iniquities He will remember no more.
He has brought us into covenant with Him by a covenant which can never fail, so like David we may say this morning: “Although my house be not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.”
Lord, bless Your Word throughout the world. Prosper all missions amongst the heathen, all work among the Mohammedans; and, oh! send Your grace to the churches at home. Turn the current of thought which sets so strong in the wrong direction, and bring men to love the simplicities of the Gospel.
Remember our country in great mercy, and in all ranks and conditions of men give the blessing. May there be multitudes come to Christ from among the poorest of the poor, and let the wealthy be led away from their sin, and brought to Jesus’ feet.
Be gracious … to all that are in authority over us. May peace and order be maintained, and let not the peace of the world be broken.
But what of all this? Our heart goes far beyond all this: “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; for Yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever.”
“Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” All things are in Your hand, come quickly; the cries of Your people persuade You, “the Spirit and the bride say, come,” make no tarrying, O, our Redeemer,
and unto the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, the God of Abraham, and God of our Lord Jesus Christ be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER 16. HE EVER LIVES.
Our God, we come to You by Jesus Christ who has gone within the veil on our behalf and ever lives to make intercession for us.
Our poor prayers could never reach You were it not for Him, but His hands are full of sweet perfume which makes our pleading sweet with You. His blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat, and now we know that You do always hear those who approach You through that ever blessed name.
We have deeply felt our entire unworthiness even to lift up our eyes to the place where Your honor dwells. You have made us to die to our self-righteousness.
We pray now because we have been quickened; we have received a new life, and the breath of that life is prayer.
We have risen from the dead, and we also make intercession through the life which Christ has given us.
We plead with the living God with living hearts because He has made us to live. Our first prayer shall be for those who do not pray.
There is an ancient promise of Yours, “I am found of them that sought Me not; I said, Behold Me, behold Me, to a people that were not a people.”
Prove the sovereignty of Your grace, the priority of Your power, which runs before the will of man, by making many willing in this the day of Your power, and calling the things that are not as though they were.
May the day come in which they that are in their graves shall hear the voice of God, and they that hear shall live. How very often You show Your mighty power. O Lord, we bless You that the voice of God has called many to Christ.
Those that are hardened have felt a softness stealing over their spirits; those who were careless have been compelled to sit down and think; those that were wrapped up in earthly things have been compelled to think of eternal things; and thinking, have been disturbed, and driven to despair, but afterwards led to You, even to You, dear Savior, who was lifted high upon the cross that by Your death sinners might live.
But, Lord, we next would pray that Your own people should know somewhat of the quickening of the Spirit of God.
Lord, we thank You for the very least life to God, for the feeblest ray of faith and glimmering of hope. We are glad to see anything of Christ in any man; but You have come, O Savior, not only that we might have life, but that we might have it more abundantly, so our prayer is that there may be abundance of life.
O make Your people strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. Lord, we find when we walk close with God that we have no desire for the world.
When we get away altogether from the things that are seen and temporal, and live upon the invisible and eternal, then we shall have angels’ food; nay, better than that, the food of Christ Himself, for his flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed.
Then have we meat to eat that the world knows not of. We pray You raise all our brothers and sisters in Christ into the high and heavenly frame of mind in which they shall be in the world and not be of it.
Whether they have little or much of temporal things, may they be rich in You and full of joy in the Holy Ghost, and so be blessed men and women.
We pray for some of Your own people who seem to be doing very little for You. Lord, have mercy upon those whose strength runs towards the world, and who give but little of their strength to the spread of the Gospel and the winning of souls.
O let none of us fritter away our existence; may we begin to live since Christ has died; may we reckon that because He died, we died to all the world, and because He lives, we live in newness of life. Lord we thank You for that newness of life.
We praise Your name for a new heaven and a new earth; we bless You that we now see what we never saw before, and hear what we never heard before.
Oh! that we might enter into the very secret place of this inner life.
May we have as much grace as can be obtained; may we become perfect after the manner of Your servant Paul, but still press forward, seeking still to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ.
Lord, make us useful. Oh! let no believer live to himself.
May we be trying to bring others to Christ. May our servants, and work-people, and neighbors all know where we live; and if they do not understand the secret of that life, yet may they see the fruit of that life, and may they ask, “What is this?” and inquire their way to Christ that they may be sanctified too.
O Lord, we pray You visit Your Church. May none of us imagine that we are living aright unless we are bringing others to the cross. Oh! keep us from worldliness; keep us much in prayer; keep us with the light of God shining on our forehead. May we be a happy people, not because protected from affliction, but because we are walking in the light of God.
Again we offer prayer for the many efforts that are scattered abroad today. May they be good wherever they are. We pray for all churches; Lord, revive them all. Wherever Christ is preached, may it be proved that He draws all men unto Him.
May the preaching of Christ today be peculiarly efficacious. Oh! that You would raise up many that would preach Christ, simply, boldly, and with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Send us better days; send us days of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Lord, shake the earth with the power of God. Oh! that the heathen lands may hear the Word of God and live. But first convert the Church, and then You will convert the world. Oh! deal with those that depart from the faith and grieve Your Holy Spirit.
Bring them back again to their first love, and may Christ be fully and faithfully preached everywhere to the glory of His name.
Now forgive us every iniquity; now lift us beyond the power of every sin; now lift us to pray and praise; now make the home full of sacred power, and, last of all, come, Lord Jesus….
Even so, come quickly, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen and Amen.

PRAYER 17. TO BE LIKE CHRIST.
Blessed are You, O God; teach us Your statutes! Because
You are the infinitely blessed One, You can impart blessing, and You are infinitely willing to do so, and therefore do we approach You with great confidence, through Jesus Christ Your Son, whom You have made blessed for evermore.
Oh! hear You the voice of Your servants this day, and according to Your infinite love and wisdom answer…us; according to Your riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.
First we would confess before You, O God, the sin we have committed, mourning over it.
Touch each one’s heart now with tenderness that everyone of us may lament that You should even have a few things against us, if they be but few, for in the great love of our blessed Master He said to His churches, “Nevertheless, I have a few things against You.”
O Lord, if You have so kept us by Your grace that there have been but a few things against us, yet help us to bewail them much.
O, Infinite Love, can we sin against You at all? How debased is our nature then! Forgive, sweet Savior, forgive sins against Your love and blood, against Your wounds and death, and give us Your Spirit,
O Savior may we more fully live Your life while we are here among the sons of men, for as You are, even so also are we in this world, and we wish the parallel to become more close and perfect every day!
Forgive those who have never felt the guilt of sin, who are living in it, who are carnally minded, who are therefore dead.
O, quicken by Your divine Spirit; take away the pleasure which they feel in sin; deliver them from being the bond slaves of it. Alas! we know the sorrow of sometimes being captured by it, but still we are not yet slaves.
The Spirit, the life of God, in Jesus Christ, has made us free from the law of sin and death. O, deliver others; bring them up out of the horrible pit of sin. Deliver them from the death of their natures and save them by the Spirit of the living God, and apply the precious blood of Jesus to their hearts and consciences.
And, Lord, hear us who are Your children, in whom the Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Hear us while we bring before You our daily struggles.
Blessed be Your name; there are some sins which You have helped us to overcome, and now they are trodden beneath our feet with many a tear that we ever should have been in bondage to them.
And O! there are rebellions within our nature still. We think that we are getting holy, and behold we discover that we are under the power of pride, that we are self-conceited about ourselves. Lord help us to master pride.
And then when we try to be humble before You we find ourselves falling into inaction and indifference. Lord, slay sloth within us, and never let us find a pillow in the doctrines of grace for ease while yet a single sin remains.
…the raging lusts of the flesh will sometimes pounce upon us like wild beasts. Help us to be very watchful lest by any means we be torn and rent by them. O keep us, we beseech You, Lord, for without Your keeping we cannot keep ourselves.
Alas! we are even sometimes subject to unbelief. If trials come which we expected not, or if the body grows faint, how liable we are to begin to doubt the faithful promise, and so to grieve the Holy Spirit.
Lord, we cannot bear this; it is not enough for us that our garments are clean, and that we walk uprightly before men; we long to walk before You in such a way that there will be nothing to grieve Your Spirit, nothing to vex the tender love of our Beloved.
O, come, Divine Spirit, and exercise Your cleansing power…according to Your promise, “I will cleanse Your blood which I have not cleansed, says the Lord, that dwells in Zion.”
O that everything might help us towards purity, for we crave after it; we mind the things of the Spirit, and there is groaning within us to be utterly delivered from the things of the flesh, that we may in spirit, soul, and body, be a cleansed temple fit for the indwelling of the Holy One of Israel.
Lord help us, we pray You, in our daily life, to be as Christ was. If we are men of sorrows, may there be that luster about our sorrow which there was about His in patience and holly submission to the Divine law.
If we are men of activity may our activity be like His, for he “went about doing good.” May we seek in all ways the good of our fellow-men and the glory of our God.
We wish that the zeal of Your house would eat us up; that we should be full of sacred warmth; that our lips were touched with the live coal so that there be fire in us perpetually flaming and burning, and ourselves a living sacrifice unto God.
Bless us, we pray You, as to our example and influence. May it always be of a spiritual help; may there be sweetness and light about us which all must be obliged to perceive.
Not for our honor would we crave this, but that our light may so shine before men that they may “see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.”
The Lord grant us this! We beseech You, bless the unconverted among us; bring them in, dear Savior, bring them in. Help the living among us to compel them to come in that Your house may be filled; may something of a sacred compulsion be used that they may not be left outside to starve in the highways and hedges, but be brought in to the Gospel feast.
O, Savior, let Your kingdom come. When will this earth be delivered from…superstition and of infidelity?
O that You would hear creation’s groans and come quickly.
You great Deliverer, joy of the earth are You, the expected of the tribes of Israel still; come, we beseech You, You absent love, You dear unknown, You fairest of ten thousand fair; come a second time to earth and to the sons of men, and specially to Your Bride, the Church.
Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

PRAYER 18. O, FOR MORE GRACE!
Our Father, You do hear us when we pray.
You have provided an advocate and intercessor in heaven now; we cannot come to You unless Your Holy Spirit motivate us to pray, and help us while we plead.
We would …truly and personally know the Christ and have Him to be our all in all. We would live as He is everything to us; more than all in Him we find.
We do accept You, Lord Jesus, to be made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We will not look to any other besides You for anything, for everything is in You. Our sin is pardoned, our sinful nature is subdued; we have a perfect righteousness; we have an immortal life; we have a sure hope; we have an immovable foundation.
Why should we look beyond You? Why should we look within to ourselves, knowing that You shall be the only well from which we will draw the living water, the only foundation upon which we will be built.
We would thrust out new roots this day, and take fresh hold on the blessed soil in which grace has planted us.
O Savior, reveal Yourself anew, teach us a little more, help us to go a little deeper into the divine mystery. May we grip You and grasp You; may we suck out of You the nutriment of our spirit; may we be in You as a branch is in the stem, and may we bear fruit from You.
Without You we can do nothing.
Forgive, we pray You, Your servants, any wanderings during the past. If we have forgotten You, forget not us; if we have acted apart from You, forgive the act. Blot out the sin. Help us in the future to live only as we live in You, to speak, and even to think, as in union with our living Head.
Take away from us all life which is contrary to the life of Christ; bring us into complete subjection in Him, until for us to live shall be Christ in every single act of life. May we walk humbly with God in joyful faith in the finished work of Christ.
Savior, look on Your beloved ones, and give blessings according to our necessities. We cannot pray for…all, but You can, Great Intercessor, plead for each one, and get for each one of us the blessing wanted.
Are we depressed? Give us stronger faith. Have we become worldly? Pardon this great offense and lead us more into spiritual things. Have we become joyous, but have forgotten the Source of Joy? Lord, sweeten and savor that joy with the sweet perfume of Your own presence.
Have we to preach, and do we feel weak? Oh! be our strength. Are we engaged in the Sundayschool, and have we seen little success? Lord, teach us how to teach; give us our boys and girls to be our spiritual reward.
Are we sickly? Have we those that vex us because they are unholy and ungodly? This, indeed, is a terrible trial to many; Lord, help them, both in their personal sickness and in this great spiritual trouble.
Have we dear ones whom we love with all our hearts, who pine before our eyes? Lord, have pity upon them and restore them, and give them patience to bear pain; and give us resignation to Your will in this matter.
Whatever the trial of Your servants, make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it. Our great concern, however, is to grow in grace and to become like our Master. We struggle and we struggle, but how small our progress! Lord, help us in any matter in which we have felt defeated.
If we have been betrayed through want of watchfulness, Lord forgive and help another time. If any of Your servants have lost the brightness of their evidence, give them to come to Christ as sinners if they cannot come as saints.
And if through Satan’s temptation any are sorely put to it even to keep their feet, hold them up; and if any have fallen, help them to say, “Rejoice not against me, O, mine enemy; when I fall I shall arise.”
Now look in great mercy upon those who are unconverted; Lord save them. Some are quite careless; Lord, they are dead; come and quicken them. We cannot see, but You can. Oh! that some of the most remorseless and hardened might be softened by the touch of Your Spirit this very day; and may others who are not careless, but who are even seeking after eternal life, but who are going the wrong way to work, may they be shown their error, may they be led in the way by You, may they look, and, looking, live.
We know how many of them are wanting to be this and that before they take Christ to be all in all; may they cease their seeking by finding everything in Christ.
As You are a prayer-hearing God, and a God of pardon, issue many a pardon from Your heavenly court today, sealed with the Redeemer’s blood, signed with the Father’s name. Oh! today, Lord, ere men grow old in sin, ere they die in their sins, save them with an everlasting salvation…..
Remember all people, especially the poor, the widows and the fatherless, and any that are depressed in spirit, whose depression tends to the failure of reason; the Lord restore them, and such as are dying.
O Lord, let them not die without hope, and may Your believing people learn to pass away without even tasting the bitterness of death. May they enter into rest, each one walking in his own uprightness.
Save this age from its own intellectual pride; give back the spirit of simple faith in Christ, for we desire His glory.
“For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.”

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