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PREFACE

HIS volume is designed as a book of prayers suitable for personal use, for the family altar, for the inspiration and guidance of the ministry in common worship, and for use in the religious instruction of youth and children.

These prayers, gathered from ancient and modern sources, should bring the heart of the devout reader into the prayer mood and cultivate the atmosphere of prayer in personal and family life. Not to read a prayer but to be a prayer is the chief thing. Thus the Psalmist: "My soul is silence, waiting all hushed for God," as Luther translates. Prayer is the secret of a holy life. It should lead into the joy of the Lord and reveal the secrets of his presence. Prayers such as these not only cultivate the language of prayer but set the heart a-hungering for God. The essential of a book of devotion is not to let it pray for us, but to "push the soul off into the sea of God"; to bring one into the practice of the presence of God.

The Wesley Sunday Service is included for its historical interest as well as its value as a book of devotion. It reveals the fact that our Ritual roots back into the liturgy of the early church. The text used is that edited by Professor Harrower. In making this adaptation from the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, Mr. Wesley wrote: "I believe there is no liturgy in the world either in ancient or modern languages which breathes more of solid Scriptural piety." Its occasional use may tend to enrich our form of worship.

Happily while the Methodist Episcopal Church has instituted a stated Order of Public Worship, yet it has ever encouraged the exercise of free prayer. Too often ministers, neglecting to acquire the spirit and gift of prayer, have offended devout and sensitive

souls "by mean, irregular or extravagant effusions." If in our worship we would "adorn the gospel of God our Saviour in all things," cultivate the spirit of reverence and promote piety, devout study must be given to the acquirement of noble, clear, and uplifting expression in prayer.

In this book are offered not only ancient and venerable forms of prayer such as have survived the usage of centuries, but also prayers which voice the needs and desires of worshipers in the living church of to-day with its multiplied forms of service.

While scores of books have added their treasures during many years of study and communion, the compiler would acknowledge with gratitude permission to make use of copyright material in the devotional books by Mrs. Mary W. Tileston, Little, Brown & Co.; A Book of Offices and Prayers for Priest and People, Edwin S. Gorham; A Chain of Prayers Across the Ages, by Selina F. Fox, E. P. Dutton & Co.,especially helpful in verifying the origin and fixing the dates of many prayers; A Book of Family Worship and The Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Board of Publication, which are of exceptional value, as books of devotion, and from which, with the gracious permission of the Board, most helpful material has been drawn. He would also thank the Vir Publishing Company for permission_to_use_two modern prayers from God's Minute; E. P. Dutton & Co., for the use of several prayers from W. E. Orchard's The Temple; Dodd, Mead & Co., for two prayers from Dr. McComb's A Book of Prayers; The Missionary Education Movement, for prayers from Thy Kingdom Come, by Ralph E. Diffendorfer; Charles Scribner's Sons, for several prayers by Robert Louis Stevenson; and the Pilgrim Press, for the use of three prayers from Rauschenbusch's Prayers for the Social Awakening.

WILBUR PATTERSON THIRKIELD.

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PRAYERS ANCIENT AND MODERN

A Morning Prayer

ROM the night our spirit awaketh unto thee, O God, for thy precepts are a light unto us. Teach us, O God, thy righteousness, thy commandments, and thy judgments. Enlighten the eyes of our mind, that we sleep not in sins unto death. Drive away all darkness from our hearts. Vouchsafe us the Sun of Righteousness. Guard our life from all reproach by the seal of thy Holy Spirit. Guide our steps into the way of peace. Grant us to behold the dawn and the day with joyfulness, that we may send up to thee our prayers at eventide. -Daybreak Office of Eastern Church.

For Cheerfulness

GOD, who hast folded back the mantle of the night to clothe us in the golden glory of the day, chase from our hearts all gloomy thoughts, and make us glad with the brightness of hope, that we may effectively aspire to unwon virtues, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -An Ancient Collect, A. D. 590.

To Meet the Tasks of the Day

FATHER, I thank thee for thy mercies which are

new every morning. For the gift of sleep; for health and strength; for the vision of another day with its fresh opportunities of work and service; for all these and more than these, I thank thee. Before looking on the face of men I would look on thee, who art the health of my countenance and my God. Not without thy guidance would I go forth to meet the duties and tasks of the day. Strengthen me so that in all my work I may be faithful; amid trials, cour

ageous; in suffering, patient; under disappointment, full of hope in thee. Grant this for thy goodness' sake. Amen.

"Lord, Remember Me”

-Samuel McComb.

LORD, thou knowest how busy we must be this day; if we forget thee, do not thou forget us; for Christ's sake. Amen.

-General Lord Astley, A. D. 1579, before the Battle of Edgehill.

For a Day without Stumbling and without Stain

GRANT us, O Lord, to pass this day in gladness that, reaching the eventide victorious over all temptation, we may praise thee, the eternal God, who art blessed, and dost govern all things, world without end. Amen. -Mozarabic, before A. D. 700.

Thanksgiving

WE E give thee hearty thanks for the rest of the

past night and for the gift of a new day, with its opportunities of pleasing thee. Grant that we may so pass its hours in the perfect freedom of thy service, that at eventide we may again give thanks unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE

-Daybreak Office of the Eastern Church.

Prayer for the Day

HE day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored; and grant us in the end the gift of sleep. Amen.

-Robert Louis Stevenson.

LORD, my God, what is thy will for me to-day? What task hast thou for me? What opportunity hast thou placed in my way? Open mine eyes that I

may discover thy will! Save me from wasting the new day! May I turn it into eternal profit!

For Spiritual Light

-Dr. J. H. Jowett.

ALMIGHTY GOD, in whom is no darkness at all,

grant us thy light perpetually, and when we cannot see the way before us, may we continue to put our trust in thee, that so being guided and guarded, we may be kept from falling this day, and finally, by thy mercy, enter into our rest; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Evening Prayer

TN the evening and morning and noonday we praise thee, we thank thee, and pray thee, Master of all, to direct our prayers as incense before thee. Let not our hearts turn away to words or thoughts of wickedness, but keep us from all things that might hurt us; for to thee, O Lord, our eyes look up, and our hope is in thee: confound us not, O our God; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Ámen.

-Eastern Church Vespers, Third Century.

For Thine Angels' Charge

WATCH thou, dear Lord, with those who wake,

watch, or weep to-night, and give thine angels charge over those who sleep. Tend thy sick ones, O Lord Christ. Rest thy weary ones. Bless thy dying ones. Soothe thy suffering ones. Pity thine afflicted ones. Shield thy joyous ones. And all, for thy Love's sake. Amen. -Saint Augustine, A. D. 354.

For Forgiveness

BEFORE we go to rest we would commit ourselves

to God's care through Christ, beseeching him to forgive us for all our sins of this day past, and to keep alive his grace in our hearts, and to cleanse us from all sin, pride, harshness, and selfishness, and give us the spirit of meekness, humility, firmness, and love.