O God, in the multitude of Your mercies I am again permitted to see the light of a new day. With another rising morn scatter all the clouds of sin and unbelief from my soul. Unfold to my view bright glimpses of Yourself, sweet foretastes of those joys which “eye has not seen, nor ear heard.”

Here, Lord, I have “no continuing city.” Change is my portion in this the house of my pilgrimage. I would not desire to live here always. I am “willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” Wean me from this uncertain world. Bring me to live under the powers of a world to come. I rejoice to think of the happy myriads already in glory, “clothed in white robes, with palms in their hands,” safe in the presence of the Master they love with every tear-drop wiped away.

I rejoice to know that the blood and grace to which they owe their crowns are still free as ever. Oh, may I be enabled, with some good measure of triumphant assurance, to say, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.” May the thought of that endless, sinless, sorrowless immortality reconcile me to all earth’s severest discipline. Let me not murmur under the heaviest cross in the prospect of such a crown. Let me not refuse to pass cheerfully through the hottest furnace which is to refine and purify me for this “exceeding weight of glory”; but bear with calm serenity whatever You see fit to lay upon me. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Blessed Jesus, “abide with me” for the day is “far spent.” Let me walk with You in newness of life. May I breathe Your spirit of holy submission, of cheerful obedience, of patience under injuries. May I not repine at bearing the cross so meekly borne for me; nor murmur at my trials when I think of Yours. May I be enabled to make every aspect of Your spotless character my daily study, so as gradually to be transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, looking forward to that blessed time when I shall see You without one stain of remaining sin to dim the contemplation and when I shall be permitted to bathe in the ocean of Your eternal love.

I thank You for the mercies of the past night. Allow me to consider every new day a fresh gift of Your dying grace, to regard all its hours as redeemed hours, every moment as “bought with a price.” May these days, and hours, and moments, thus stamped with the cross, be consecrated more than ever to Your praise.

Again I beseech You, “abide with me.” “Where You go I will go, and where You dwell I will dwell.” Abide with me from morning to evening, and from evening to morning again. “Without You I cannot live”; “without You I dare not die.” Living or dying, Lord, I would seek to be Yours. Forgive all my many sins, and when the feeble glimpses of a feeble love on earth are at an end, bring me at last to enjoy brighter views of You in glory everlasting. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “That I may know Him.”—Philippians 3:10

Blessed Jesus!—Sun of my soul! and Light of my life!—Shine upon me this morning with the “brightness of Your rising.”

May I enjoy this day union and communion with You. May a sense of Your favor pervade all its duties, sanctify its blessings, and lighten its trials. May it be to me the sweetest and holiest of all thoughts, that You are ever with me—that, though unseen to the eye of sense, the eye of faith can discern Your gracious presence and the manifestations of Your nearness and love. May the realized assurance that You are thus at my side, dispel every misgiving and dry every tear. May I hear You, even now, saying to me, “Lo, I am with you”—I am with you now—I shall be with you “always”—and when the world is ended “I will” that you “be with me where I am, that you may behold my glory!”

O adorable Saviour, how sadly is Your beauty obscured from my view by reason of my own sin! How feebly do I apprehend the mystery of Your love, the glories of Your person, the perfection of Your atonement! Hide me in the clefts of the rock and while there, “I beseech You, show me Your glory.” May every fresh glimpse of “the great love with which You have loved me” rebuke the lukewarmness of my heart. May I covet a closer walk with You. May my existence be one continued Emmaus journey, its hours passing joyfully by, because happy in the presence and converse of a risen Redeemer. All this I ask in my Redeemer’s name. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.”—Psalm 139:23  

Dear Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that I am nothing, and yet I know so little of my own sinful heart. I would seek to make a more entire and undivided surrender of all I am and have to You. Give me such a dreadful and affecting sense of my vileness, that I may never feel safe but when close to the atoning Fountain, drawing out of it hourly supplies. May mine be a daily heart and self and sin crucifixion, an eternal severance from those bosom traitors which have so long separated between me and my God.

Make me more zealous for Your honor and glory: “Cleanse the thoughts of my heart, by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit.” “Let no iniquity obtain dominion over me.” But may it be my daily ambition to become more like You, reflecting more of the image and imbibing more of the spirit of my divine Redeemer, that thus the atmosphere of holiness and of heaven may be diffused all around me. May my own soul be pervaded with lofty and purified aspirations. May I be enabled to exhibit to the world the felt happiness of close walking with God.

Gracious Father, “send forth Your light and Your truth” to a darkened world. May Your own ancient people be speedily gathered in with the fullness of the Gentile nations, that all ends of the earth may see the salvation of God. Bless all my dear friends, near or distant. May they have the heritage of those who fear Your name. Defend them now by Your mighty power and at last number them with Your saints in glory everlasting. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “I am a worm, and no man.”—Psalm 22:6

O eternal, everlasting God, who have once more enlightened my eyes and allowed me not to sleep the sleep of death, bestow upon me this day the riches of Your grace and love. Morning after morning is dawning upon me with new tokens of Your mercy. Oh, may these be bringing me nearer the glorious day which is to know no night, that eternal noon-tide when all shadows and darkness are forever to flee away!

Lord, I am unworthy to come into Your presence, and yet I have to mourn that I do not feel this deep unworthiness as I ought. I am unwilling to see into the unknown depths of my sin. I do not know myself. I have no depressing consciousness of the desperate wickedness of my own evil heart. I have buried many past transgressions in oblivion. I have deluded myself with the thought that many were too trivial and unimportant to incur Your disapproval. Even any imperfect good which Your grace has enabled me to perform, I have been too prone to take the merit to myself instead of ascribing all the praise to You. There has been pride in my humility. There have been mingled motives in my best services. My best resolutions have been fitful and transient. My purest and most unselfish actions could not stand the scrutiny of Your eye. The holiest day I ever spent, were I to be judged by it, would condemn me.

O You who “searches Jerusalem with lighted candles,” “search my heart.” Bring me to the publican’s place of penitential sorrow, exclaiming, in self-renouncing humility, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world”—John 17:11

O Lord, You who, in Your last prayer on earth, did so touchingly say of Your pilgrim people, “These are in the world,” still bend Your pitying eye upon me as I travel burdened with sin and sorrow through the valley of tears. So “sanctify me through Your truth,” that, though in the world, I may not be of it—not conformed to its sinful practices and lying vanities. Bring me to say, with regard to all in it that was once so fascinating, “My soul is even as a weaned child.” With my face heavenward, may I declare plainly that I seek “a better country.”

Grant that this day, in all my worldly communion, I may have the realizing sense of Your presence and nearness. May I set a watch on my heart and keep the door of my lips. May cherished feelings of love and devotion to You be intermingled with all life’s duties and engagements. May I know that a simple faith in Jesus is the great secret of victory over the world. Oh, may the trembling magnet of my vacillating affections be ever pointing to Him, and then I shall be made “more than conqueror.”

Through His all-prevailing merits and advocacy, hear my prayer. In His most precious blood, forgive all my sins. By His indwelling grace, sanctify my nature, that my whole body, soul, and spirit may be preserved blameless until His coming. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.”—1 John 5:4

O eternal, everlasting God, You are glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory. You, the almighty keeper of Israel, never slumber. There is not the moment I am away from your wakeful vigilance. In the defenceless hours of sleep, as well as amid life’s activities and toils, You are ever the same, “compassing my path and my lying down, and intimately acquainted with all my ways.”

I rejoice to think that I have the assurance of such unwearying watchfulness and care in a world “lying in wickedness.” Blessed Jesus, in the world You have forewarned me to expect tribulation, but, nevertheless, I will “be of good cheer, for you have overcome the world.” You have traversed its wilderness depths. You have passed through the shadow of its darkest valley. I cannot dread what You have trodden and conquered for me.

But, alas! I have to mourn that the world which crucified You should be so much loved by me, that its pleasures should be so fascinating, its pursuits so engrossing. Wean me from it. Break its spell. Show me its hollowness, the fleeting nature of its most enduring friendship. The world has deceived me, but You never have. Guide me by Your counsel. Saviour-God, let me come up from the wilderness leaning on Your arm, exulting, amid its legion-foes, that greater is He who is with me than all those who can be against me. This I ask for the glory of my Great Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”—Luke 22:32

O blessed Advocate within the veil, I come again this morning with a grateful heart that You are even now interceding for Your tried and tempted saints “that their faith fail not.” Impart to me, Lord, a constant supply of Your promised grace.

Not only sprinkle my heart with Your blood, but conquer it by Your love. Fill me with deep contrition for an erring past; inspire me with purposes of new obedience for the future. May I know, in my sweet experience, that “Your yoke is easy and Your burden light,” that, growing in holiness, I am growing in happiness too. Give me an increasing tenderness of conscience about sin. Lead me, with more filial devotedness, to cultivate a holy fear of offending so gracious a Father. Habitually realizing my new covenant relationship to You, may I ever be ready to exclaim with joyful sincerity, “O Lord, truly I am Your servant!”

Revive, blessed God, Your own work everywhere. “Take to Yourself Your great power, and reign.” Remove all hardness and blindness of heart, all contempt of Your Word. May it have free course and be glorified.

Bless my dear friends. However far separated from one another, we can ever meet at the same throne of the heavenly grace, pleading the same “exceeding great and precious promises.” May we all be following the same path of grace now and meet amid the endless joys of glory hereafter. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “Grow in grace.”—2 Peter 3:18

O God, draw near to me in fullness in Your great mercy. Another peaceful morning has dawned upon me. May it be mine to know the happiness of those who walk all the day in the light of Your countenance.

O best and kindest of Beings, teach me to know, amid the smiles and the frowns, the joys and the sorrows of an ever-changing world, what it is to have an unchanging refuge and portion in You. I can mourn no blank, I can feel no solitude, when I have Your presence and love. If I have nothing beside—stripped and divested of every other blessing—I have the richest of all, if I am at peace with God.

I desire to dwell with devout contemplation on the infinite loveliness of Your moral nature. Lord, I long to have this guilty, erring soul, molded and fashioned in increasing conformity to Your blessed mind and will. Let my great concern from now be to love, serve, and please You more and more. May all Your dealings with me, of whatever kind they be, contribute in promoting this growth in holiness.

May prosperity draw forth a perpetual thank-offering of praise for unmerited mercies. May adversity purify away the dross of worldliness and sin. May every day be finding the power of sin weaker and weaker and the dominion of grace stronger and stronger. Living under the powers of a world to come, may I look forward with joyful expectation to the time when sin shall no longer impede my spiritual growth, when every faculty of a glorified and exalted nature shall be enlisted in Your service in a world of eternal joy.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

Reading: “I die daily.”—1 Corinthians 15:31

Lord, You know my besetting sin, the plague of my heart, which so often leads to a guilty estrangement. Lord, cut down this root of bitterness. Let me nail it to Your cross. Let me be ever on the watchtower, ready to resist the first assault of the enemy. Let it be to me at once a precept and a promise: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” Oh show me that my strength to repel temptation is in Jesus alone. Put me in the cleft of the rock when the hurricane is passing by. May I be as willing to surrender all for my Saviour—my heart sins and life sins—as He willingly surrendered His all for me. May I be enabled to say, “Lord, I am Yours.”

Every idol I utterly abolish. Save me, blessed Saviour from a deceitful heart and a seductive world. Let me see more and more the beauties of holiness. Let me ever be basking in the rays of Your love, approaching nearer and nearer You, the “Sun of my soul.” May Your loveliness and glory eclipse all created beams and may I look forward with bounding heart to that time when all that helps to lighten up earth’s pathway shall be obscured in the shadow of death, and I shall be ushered into the glories of that better and brighter scene, where “the sun shall no more go down … where the Lord my God shall be my everlasting light.”

And what I ask for myself, I desire in behalf of those near and dear to me. “Sanctify them wholly.” May they, too, crucify sin and “die daily.” May this be the happy history of all of us: “Being made free from sin, and having become the servants of God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.