FEBRUARY 18

MORNING

HERE be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.--I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.

      In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. . . . Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.

      For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.--Sorrow shall be turned into joy.--Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

EVENING

HO can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?--Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

      Dead in trespasses and sins; . . . by nature the children of wrath, even as others.--I am carnal, sold under sin. That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.

      By one man sin entered into the world, . . . by one man's disobedience many were made sinners.--If through the offence of one many are dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many.

      The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

      Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.