day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is
turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my
sin. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a
time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place;
thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shall compass me about
with songs of deliverance.

The collect for to-day is a very beautiful one. There is something
musical in the sound of the very words; so musical, that it is sung
as an anthem in many churches. Let us think a little over it.
'Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people
pardon and peace; that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and
serve thee with a quiet mind, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.'
That is a noble prayer; and a prayer for each and every one of us,
every day. I say for every day. It is not like the fifty-first
psalm, the prayer of a man who has committed some black and dreadful
crime; who fears lest God should take his Holy Spirit from him, and
leave him to remorse and horror; who feels that he needs to be
utterly changed, and have a new heart created within him. It is not
a prayer of that kind. It is rather the prayer of a man who is
weary with the burden of sinful mortality; who finds it very hard
work to do his duty, even tolerably well; who is dissatisfied with
himself, and ashamed of himself, not about one great fault, but
about many little faults; and who wants to be cleansed from them;
who is tempted to be fretful, anxious, out of heart, because things
go wrong; and because he feels it partly his own fault that things
go wrong; and who, therefore, wants peace, that he may serve God
with a quiet mind. Now then, dear friends, did I not speak truth,
when I said, this is a prayer for every one of us, and for every
day? For which of us does his duty as he ought? I take for
granted, we are all trying to do our duty, better or worse: but I
take for granted, too, that the more we try to do our duty, the more
dissatisfied with ourselves we are; and the more we find we have
sins without number to be cleansed from. For the more we try to do
our duty, the higher notion we get of what our duty is; the more we
do, the more we feel we ought to do; and the more we feel t