Family Prayers

Family Prayers

This, then, is how you should pray:
Family Prayers. The throne of grace
Calvary's stupendous scene!
We meekly knock at mercy's gate
As we pass along the miry paths of life
We are tied and bound by its enslaving chain!
  Our tears of penitence cannot remove one blot!
The sword of Divine justice buried in His sinless heart!
We confess with shame
It is the vile monster!
May we read the melting of Your heart towards us
Shall we, then, flaunt proudly in Your sight?
We would grope and stumble in the bewildering paths of ignorance and error!
We offer His blood to pay the debt
Your boundless stores!
Cast them into the deep ocean of His all-cleansing blood!
Our besotted faculties are dull to comprehend You!
Shall our eyes be dry?
To follow You fully is heaven—before heaven is reached!
Hold me up!
The old man yet lives!
Our hearts are Yours!
While we mourn over our many maladies
This Heavenly Visitor
Soon our last grain will fall through the hour-glass!
A little speck, a breath, a vanishing shadow, a fading flower
  May we see our sins
The chosen pleasure-ground of our souls!
Let every Agag be hewed to pieces!
The mirror of eternity!
We now hide ourselves in our great Redeemer's wounds
It would fall short of our vast debt to You!
Lest the wily serpent should sneak in!
Permit us to commend their wretchedness to You
We cling to Your saving cross!