DAILY PRAYERS FOR THE SICK AND SUFFERING, ESPECIALLY SUITABLE For Bospitals and Infirmaries; TO WHICH ARE ADDED, OCCASIONAL PRAYERS, SELECT PORTIONS OF "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."-PSALM 1. 15. BODI LONDON: WERTHEIM AND MACINTOSH, 1852. 138. cl. 378. TO THE SICK AND SUFFERING, FOR WHOM THESE PAGES ARE INTENDED. My dear friends, you are in the school of suffering, and hard though it may seem, He whose name is Love has placed you there, and is himself your Teacher. "Who teacheth like him?" for He knoweth your frame, He remembereth that you are dust. (Psalm ciii. 14.) He learned "obedience by the things which He suffered" (Heb. v. 8), and now condescends to teach you the same blessed lesson. It is in the fires of affliction that you can glorify Him by patience and submission. There you taste the bitterness of the curse brought on our fallen world by sin. There you learn the preciousness of Jesus, the Brother born for adversity, who loved us and gave Himself for us. (Gal. ii. 20.) There, too, you learn to tread in the steps of Him who was made " perfect through sufferings." He has brought you into the wilderness that He may speak in the still small whispers of His Spirit to your conscience and to your heart. To the ungodly He would say "Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) To the careless sinner-"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph. v. 14.) To the wavering "No man can serve two masters." (Matt. vi. 24.) "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." (Josh. xxiv. 15.) To the backsliding, He says, "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." (Jer. iii. 22.) To His people"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” (Rev. iii. 19.) To all-"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. xi. 28.) Dear Friends, you think much of your weakness and your sufferings, and fail not to apply the remedies prescribed. Let me ask with all affection, Are you anxious about your souls? Have you gone to the Great Physician, who alone can save and heal; who "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses," and will cast out none that come? Remember, your sufferings will not save you, nor your repentance, "The blood of Jesus prayers, or tears. Christ cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John i. 7.) Is He your Saviour? There are but two classes of people in the world those who are out of Christ, and those who are in Him. To which do you belong? Who among you shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? burnings? (Isa. xxxiii. 14.) And who shall dwell on high? Rest not till you have settled the question. "Now is the day of salvation; to-morrow it may be too late. To you, beloved, to whom Christ is "precious," He is making all things to "work together for good." (Rom. viii. 28.) |