Prayer for a Sick Person.

O thou great and everlasting God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being! help us at this time, to address thee in prayer in behalf of this sick person. Thou hast taught us when afflicted to pray, and hast said, Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. With thee, O Lord! are the issues of life and death. Thou makest sore, and bindest up; thou woundest, and thy hands make whole. Thou killest, and makest alive; thou bringest down to the grave, and bringest up. O Lord! rebuke not thy servant in thine anger, neither chasten him [her] in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon him [her] for he [she] is weak, O Lord! heal him [her] for his [her] bones are vexed. Bless the means used for his [her] restoration, or direct to such as shall be blessed. Raise him [her] speedily from this bed of weakness and languishing, to health and strength again. Speak the word only and thy servant shall be healed. Mitigate his [her] pains, rebuke his [her] disorder, and say unto it, Thus far shalt thou go but no further. Let thy servant recover, that he [she] may live, and glorify thee on earth, and be a blessing to those around him [her]. Put underneath him [her] thine everlasting arm, and support him [her]. Consider his [her] frame, and remember he [she] is but dust. As for his [her] days, so may his [her] strength be. Now that wearisome days and nights are appointed unto him [her] may he [she] acknowledge thee in this visitation of sickness. As thou triest him [her] in the furnace of affliction; so let him [her] come forth as gold seven times tried, and purified for his [her] Master's use. Under all his [her] trials and sorrows, may he [she] with resignation say, The cup which my Heavenly Father giveth me, shall I not drink it? O that his [her] afflictions might work together for his [her] good. Show him [her] wherefore thou dost contend with him, [her] and let him [her] receive thy chastisements as fatherly corrections. May he [she] suppress

every murmuring thought; be still and know that thou art God. Sanctify unto him [her] his [her] sickness, and restore him [her] to health, that in the end he [she] may be enabled to say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; I have learned wisdom under the corrections of my Heavenly Father; bless the Lord, O my soul! and forget not all his benefits, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness, and tender mercies. But, Lord! if this sickness is to be unto death; O! let him [her] be prepared to die. And as the time of his [her] departure draweth nigh, may he [she] be enabled to look forward to the hour of dissolution with composure and resignation. Support him [her] that he [she] may bear with tranquillity the agonies of dying nature, and leave a smile upon death itself. And when his [her] pulse shall cease to beat, and the vital spark shall go out in death, and his [her] heart and flesh shall fail, be thou the strength of his [her] heart and his [her] portion forever. (If the sick person be aged, then pray; Though his [her] outward man perish, yet may the inward man be renewed day by day. And may he [she] come to the grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in its season.) (If the sick person be a child, or youth, then pray; Regard graciously this child, or youth; may it not die in the morning of life. Give it not up to the embraces of death. But shouldest thou call it to die, wash it in the blood of the Redeemer, sanctify its heart and prepare it for the everlasting enjoyments of thy kingdom, where youth shall bloom in eternal day.) Sanctify this dispensation of thy providence to all the friends and connections of the sick, and prepare them for thy holy will, whether the sick person is to live or to die. Prepare us for health or sickness, life or death. When we come to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, may we fear no evil, having thy rod and thy staff to comfort us; and in the day of the Lord Jesus may it be found, that we died in the Lord, and are blessed in him.

Prayer on account of the bereavement of a relative or friend.

O thou eternal and righteous God! assist us on this affecting and mournful occasion, to raise our souls to thee in prayer We acknowledge, that death entered into the world by sin, and so death hath passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Thou hast determined his days, and the number of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, return, ye children of men. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep, in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed in thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale, that is told.— -In thy righteous providence, thou hast commissioned death to enter this family. thou God of consolation! pity us in our bereaved and afflicted state. Be our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. May we be still, and know that thou art God, and that the Judge of all the earth does right. May we not despise the chastenings of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction. Sanctify unto us this instance of bereavement, so that, with the Psalmist, we may say, We know, O Lord! that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted us. Make us to know our end; and the measure of our days what it is, that we may know how frail we are. Suitably may we reflect on the vanity and uncertainty of human life, and all things earthly. Let the solemn providence of mortality in our family, impress our minds with deep concern to be also ready. In the death of others, may we see as in a glass, our own mortality. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. May we humble ourselves under thy

mighty hand, and cast all our cares upon thee who carest for us. May we exercise at all times the highest confidence in God, and with holy Job, say, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. May we remember that the Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. But like, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. (If the deceased person was pious, then pray; Fill our hearts with gratitude, that in the death we mourn, we are called to sorrow not even as others, which have no hope, and that we have reason to believe, that our deceased friend and relative died in the Lord, and is blessed in him.) (If the deceased person was a child, then pray; Sanctify this providence unto those of us, who were the parents of the deceased. May we be dumb and open not our mouths, because thou didst it. And may we be enabled to feel and say with submissive Job, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.) May we always be ready and watching for the approach of the Son of man; for blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. And may we ever remember, that life at the longest is short, and that soon we must lie down in the cold and silent tomb, there to repose until waked by the trump of the archangel, when all the dead shall arise. With the apostles, may we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And when we shall be called to resign ourselves into the cold arms of death, help us to commend our departing spirit into the hands of our Almighty Redeemer saying, as did dying Stephen, Lord Jesus receive my spirit, and may we go to be forever with the Lord. Amen.

Prayer for the Monthly Concert.

Infinitely great and blessed God! help us to pray on this occasion, when such multitudes in different parts of the earth, are prostrate before thee in supplication. We thank thee, O Lord! that we are not this day bowing

down to stocks and stones, dumb idols, as are millions of the human race; but that we have the knowledge of thee the only true God, and of Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. We bless thee for the Sacred Scriptures, a preached gospel, and the overtures of mercy through the Son of thy love. Help us, we beseech thee, duly to appreciate and improve these precious privileges and mercies. May we all be the possessors of that religion, which came down from heaven, and which qualifies for an entrance into the New Jerusalem. Quicken us in the discharge of holy duties; and may we be entirely consecrated to God in all that we are, and in all that we possess; and may we do all that lies in our power for the promotion of the cause of Christ around us, and in all the earth. Pour out thy Spirit in this place in copious effusions. O Lord! revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. May all the members of this Church be alive to the things of religion, pray much, and speak often one to another on the great interests of Christ and his kingdom. May impenitent sinners be pricked in their hearts as was Saul of Tarsus, and be brought to bow to the sceptre of Jesus, and to the acknowledgment of the truth as it is in him. O, that the general inquiry may be, what shall be done to inherit eternal life. And let the noise among the dry bones wax louder and louder, till all the slain shall arise. Let the triumphs of the cross be spread all around us. Multiply converts to righteousness, as the drops of the morning dew, and let the Churches be greatly increased with those who shall be saved.- -We thank thee, O thou God of mercy! for all revivals of religion in our country, and that such numbers have been brought into the fold of Christ. Multiply such revivals until our land become emphatically Immanuel's, a mountain of holiness, and a dwelling place of peace and righteousness. Bless all parts of Christendom. May thy Spirit be poured out, and pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, be revived and flourish. May thy Churches be raised from the slumbers of centuries, understand the signs of the times, and wrestle with the Angel of the covenant, and, as a Prince, have power with God and prevail, and make in all respects the most vigorous efforts in behalf of Zion, and a world lying in wickedness. O