Hark! the morning prayers ascending
From the homes where God is known,
Children, too, their voices lending,
As they worthy Jesus own.
“Let Thy gracious care protect us;
Guide us safely through the day;
May the Spirit’s grace direct us,
‘Abba Father’ thus to say.”
Day by day we seek Thy blessing;
Day by day we need Thy care;
Day by day Thy love possessing,
We would raise our morning prayer.
Soon “the Morning Star” appearing―
Every saint will join our lays;
Hallelujah! word endearing;
Hallelujah! endless praise!
There are three places, now that the Lord Jesus is absent from the earth, where He can, in Spirit, still find a welcome down here.
First, in the midst of two or three gathered to His Name―his can give His presence to such, and find His delight in being present with them.
Secondly, in the houses of those that love Him. We find in Acts 16 that the house of Lydia, and also of the Philippian jailer, were open to Paul and Silas, the servants of the Lord, when once their houses were in the confession of the Lord Jesus―and it is still so.
The above verses seek to record how, in the midst of a world that pursues its own way of sin and folly, grateful to the ear of the God of grace must be the sound of morning prayer and thanks-giving day by day ―I speak as one who for nearly seventy years has sought thus to engage the ear of God with that which pleases Him. Is your house, dear reader, redolent with daily praises?
Thirdly, the Christian’s heart is pointed out in Ephesians 3 by the apostle, when he prayed “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.”
T. H. R.