THANKSGIVING ON RECOVERY FROM SICKNESS.

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, who art the author of every good and every perfect gift, we bow before Thee with the deepest gratitude. Thou healest our diseases, Thou forgivest our iniquities, Thou redeemest our lives from destruction, Thou crownest us with loving kindness, and with tender mercies. Amongst the other instances of thy goodness, we would thank Thee for this in particular, that Thou didst smooth the pillow of thy servant in his sickness, and hast raised him up by thy healing power.

We bless Thee, that in chastening us, thou hast not forgotten to be gracious; that thou hast heard our sighing, and hast delivered us from the evil that we feared. May the sense of this, thy great goodness and long-suffering kindness, abide with thy servants, and produce in them the fruits of righteous living, to the honour of thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, for whose most gracious manifestation of thy holy will we unfeignedly bless Thee.

And we fervently pray, that we may so abide in him, and so walk in his most holy

THANKSGIVING AFTER CHILD-BIRTH. 147 footsteps, that hereafter we may have an abundant and joyful entrance into his everlasting kingdom, where there shall be no more sickness or sorrow, and into which sin and death shall never enter. There may we, with all thy saints, live to thy glory, and unite in thy praise. Amen.

THANKSGIVINg after ChilD-BIRTH.

O Merciful and Gracious God, who art the giver and preserver of life and of all its joys, we thankfully acknowledge our entire dependence upon Thee, for life and breath and all things. In Thee we live and move and have our being. By Thee we are every moment sustained. In danger Thou art

our defence. In trouble Thou art our exceeding great consolation and support. We cry unto Thee, and Thou hearest the prayer of thy servants. Blessed be thy name, O God, that Thou didst hear the prayer of thy handmaid in the time of her distress. Graciously perfect what thy mercy hath begun, and enable her successfully to discharge all her maternal duties. May she faithfully and diligently bear her part in bringing up

her offspring in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let thy grace, O God, which alone enricheth, descend on every member of this family; and so govern their hearts, that they shall never fall from their steadfastness, but pursue the paths of holiness unto eternal life. May the children of thy servants be all of them children of God, and inheritors of immortal glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. May they be a precious treasure to their parents in this life, and a source of unspeakable joy and felicity in that life which is to come. We entreat it for thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom, to thy Divine Majesty, be ascribed the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for Amen.

ever.

SECOND THANKSGIVING AFTER CHILD-BIRTH.

O God, most Merciful, who delightest in the happiness of thy creatures, and who art ever rejoicing over us to do us good, we desire most unfeignedly to bless thy holy name for thy mercies vouchsafed to this family in preserving the life of thy handmaid, and making her the mother of a living and perfect

child. Complete thy mercies, O God, to this family, in the restoration of thy servant to health and strength. Spare her, Gracious Father, for many years to come. May she behold her children walking in truth, and love, and obedience to thy holy commandments. May her heart be filled with gratitude for all thy mercies. And may not one of all these children fall from grace, but may thy servants rejoice in them before thy throne, and through all eternity. And now unto thee, O God, be everlasting praise ascribed. Amen.

FOR A SICK PERSON,

When there is little Hope of Recovery.

O Father of Mercies, and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need, we flee unto Thee for succour in behalf of thy servant now lying before thee in great weakness of body look graciously upon him, O Lord; and as the outward man decayeth, strengthen him, we beseech thee, so much the more, by thy power, in the inward man. Uphold him continually by the aid of thy good Spirit, and comfort him by the powerful consolations of thy Holy Word. Give him unfeigned repentance for all the errors

of his life past, and a firm reliance on thy great mercies promised by Jesus Christ our Lord, that his sins may be forgiven, ere he go hence and be no more seen. We know, O Lord, that there is no work impossible with thee, and that if thou willest thou canst yet raise him up, and grant him a longer continuance amongst us. Yet, forasmuch as to all appearance the time of his dissolution draweth near; so fit and prepare him, we beseech thee, for the hour of death, that after his departure hence in peace, and in thy favour, he may, in thine appointed time, be received into thine everlasting kingdom. And teach us, O God, in this, and other like instances, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is, and so to number our days, that we may, while we live here, seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, which will in the end bring us to life everlasting, according to thy gracious promises by Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom, to thy Divine Majesty, be everlasting praise ascribed. Amen.