we shall
live in his sight.'

"O Lord, turn us and we shall be turned, draw us and we will run
after thee. Revive us, and we shall live in thy sight. Thou must ever
be first. It is in our nature to backslide for ever: and whenever we
see a backslider restored, or a rebel lay down the weapons of
rebellion, _there_ we may trace thy footsteps, O God of grace.

"No external providence will touch our hard, our deceitful
hearts. All that goes under the name of misfortune will but drive us
_from_ thee, never _to_ thee, till thou teach us to profit,
and lead us by the way that we should go. Thou callest, 'Return, ye
backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings;' but we have
been foolish, sottish children, without understanding, wise to do
evil, but to do good having no knowledge.

"Let the days come when the children of America--the earth is the
Lord's--shall 'come with weeping, and seek the Lord their God;' when
'they shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward;' when
they shall come, saying, 'Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a
perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten.' O the Hope of Israel and
Saviour thereof, is not that day and that time come? Hast thou not
been working on the right hand and on the left? Thou hast given us
pastors according to thine own heart, who feed us with knowledge and
understanding: and thou art here and there proving thy gospel thy
power and thy wisdom, to the salvation of sinners; casting down the
imaginations of pride, and bringing all into subjection to thy Son
Jesus.

"O pour out the spirit of grace and supplication, upon thy living
members, that they may wrestle with thee, and not let thee go until
thou bless us, until thou make this 'cloud like a man's hand' cover
our heavens with blackness, and issue in a plentiful rain. O pour
water upon him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; thy
Spirit upon our seed, and thy blessing upon our offspring. O Lord,
hast thou not said that thou wilt do it, and that they shall spring up
as among the grass, and as willows by the water-courses. One shall
say, I am the Lord's, another shall call himself by the name of Jacob,
and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname
himself by the name of Israel. Amen, O our God, Amen.

"Last week the Lord's young servant, Mr. R----, received to the
communion of the church seven adults, Mrs. B---- and her two
daughters, Dr. H---- and s