Imatges de pàgina
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nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them, for I. the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me, and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day, six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant and thy maid servant, thy cattle and the stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

Lord have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts we beseech thee.

(HYMN.)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all evermore. Amen.

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EXHORTATION.

"Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness."-JEREMIAH xiii.

"Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth. The LORD is his name."-AMOS v.

WHEN you are retiring to rest, my dear children, let every thing in your deportment and conversation be in unison with the quietness of the hour. See as the evening approaches, how all nature gradually becomes still; night draws her sable curtain over the creation; the flowers bend their heads and fold up their blossoms; the birds seek the shelter of their nests; and man suspends his labour and returns to his home; the stars slowly pierce the heavens, one by one, and take their places, the silent centinels of the night; a countless host, attesting the glory of their Creator. It is the protection of that Creator, who made the heavens and

the moon and the stars, that you have the privilege of invoking; surely, then, the last thought before you sink into repose, should be of the goodness of Him,through whose ever watchful providence you hope to wake again in health and peace. Efface therefore from your mind every anxious care, every vain imagination, every injurious feeling, and fit it for communion with your Maker by sacred meditation. "Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night," says the Psalmist; and again, "The Lord hath granted his loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night season did I sing of him, and made my prayer unto the God of my life." "I call to remembrance my song in the night; I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search!" "I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law!" "At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous judgments." Thus we may see how profitable it is at all times to offer up the worship of our hearts to the Lord; how acceptable it is to Him, with whom "the darkness and the light are both alike ;" and doubly sweet and salutary must it be for us to purify and elevate our thoughts from all worldly objects, just at the moment when we are sinking into that tranquil rest, which is an emblem of our

last repose. "Sleep," says Sir Thomas Browne, as poetically as devoutly, “is death's younger brother, and so like him, that I never dare trust him without my prayers;" but let it be remembered that if sleep be like death, death also is like sleep to those who, having learned early to number their days and incline their hearts unto wisdom, stand prepared to obey the call of their Lord whenever he shall think fit to summon them into his presence: and as "of that hour no man knoweth," let it be our care to entertain no thought on the moment of our giving ourselves up to the temporary insensibility which the weakness of our nature calls for, but such as we might venture to take with us into eternity; by this constant watch over all our thoughts and words and works, alone it is, that we may hope so to sleep the sleep of death,” as to awake again to a joyful resurrection, through the infinite mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

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