Watch over me during the unconscious hours of sleep; and when all my days and nights on earth are finished, may it be mine to enjoy Thy presence in a cloudless, nightless Heaven; through Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen. "LET MY PRAYER BE SET FORTH BEFORE THEE AS INCENSE: AND THE LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS AS THE EVENING SACRIFICE." SIXTEENTH EVENING. FOR VICTORY OVER SIN. "Sin shall not have dominion over you."--Rom. vi. 14. O God, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Evil cannot dwell with Thee, fools cannot stand in Thy presence. Thou hast solemnly declared, "Thou canst by no means clear the guilty," and that "though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not escape unpunished." Lord, I rejoice that I can draw near to Thee in the name of Him by whom the guilty _have_ been cleared; and through whom it is that a holy and righteous and sin-hating God can yet be holy and just, in the very act of justifying the ungodly. I desire to adore Thee for all Thy creative and providential goodness. Thou hast loaded me with Thy benefits. The past is paved with love. I see in the retrospect of life nothing but amazing, unmerited kindness, mercy upon mercy! Amid manifold changes there has been no change in _Thee_, no altered looks, no fainting or weariness or estrangement. Amid the wanderings of my own fitful spirit I can write over every remembrance of the past, _But_ "_Thou_ art the same!" I desire with penitence of soul to mourn my own ingratitude and sin, the desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of my own evil heart, the power of corruption, the mastery of self, the alienation of my affections from Thee their rightful Sovereign and Lord. What an easy prey have I often fallen in the hour of temptation--by thought and word and deed dishonoring Thy name and basely requiting Thy love! Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy child! Give me genuine contrition for the past, inspire me with new purposes of obedience for the future. Without Thy favor and reconciliation, in peace I cannot live, in peace I dare not die! My cry would be, "More grace, more grace!" Let me be gaining every day fresh victories over sin; may my soul be daily nurtured by the influence of heaven-born principles. May I know the expulsive power of the new implanted affection of love to Thee. Dethrone the world. Subjugate the power of sin. Give me greater tenderness of conscience; may I jealously guard every avenue to temptation, and be ready ever with the reply to the seductions of the tempter, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"