and seek
for pardon; and to commit ourselves to the care of a covenant-keeping
God, when we retire to rest. It is also very suitable, when we suspend
our worldly employments in the middle of the day, to refresh our bodies,
to renew our visit to the fountain of life, that our souls may also be
refreshed. The twilight of the evening is also a favorable season for
devotional exercises. But, let me entreat you to be much in prayer. If
the nature of your employment will admit of it, without being unfaithful
to your engagements, retire many times in the day to pour out your soul
before God, and receive fresh communications of his grace. Our hearts
are so much affected by sensible objects, that, if we suffer them to be
engaged long at a time in worldly pursuits, we find them insensibly
clinging to earth, so that it is with great difficulty we can disengage
them. But, by all means, fix upon some stated and regular seasons, and
observe them punctually and faithfully. Remember _they are engagements
with God_.

For your devotional exercises, you should select those times and seasons
when you find your mind most vigorous, and your feelings most lively. As
the morning is in many respects most favorable, you would do well to
spend as much time as you can in your closet, before engaging in the
employments of the day. An hour spent in reading God's word, and in
prayer and praise, early in the morning, will give a heavenly tone to
your feelings; which, by proper watchfulness, and frequent draughts at
the same fountain, you may carry through all the pursuits of the day.

As already remarked, our Lord, in the pattern left us, has given a very
prominent place to the petition, "THY KINGDOM COME." This is a large
petition. It includes all the instrumentalities which the church is
putting forth for the enlargement of her borders and the salvation of
the world. All these ought to be distinctly and separately remembered;
and not, as is often the case, be crowded into one general petition at
the close of our morning and evening prayers. We are so constituted as
to be affected by a particular consideration of a subject. General
truths have very little influence upon our hearts. I would therefore
recommend the arrangement of these subjects under general heads for
every day of the week; and then divide the subjects which come under
these heads, so as to remember one or more of them at stated seasons,
through the day, separate from your own persona