Reflection 56

On turning breaks “to the best advantage,” beginning with a prayer for restoration… 

       The ensuing Christmas and the recess were now approaching, and he was as usual anxious to turn it to the best advantage. “Who knows but that it may be my last preparation for eternity.” “My heart is in a sad state. O heal my backslidings. Bring me back to Thee. Take away the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh. Blessed be God that I am not now about to plunge immediately into the bustle and hurry of London and parliamentary business, but that a recess is before me, in which I may have the means of some privacy, and opportunities of meditation and devotional abstraction. O Lord, do Thou vouchsafe me Thy quickening Spirit; without Thee I can do nothing. Mortify in me all ambition, vanity, vain glory, worldliness, pride, selfishness, and aversation [aversion] from God, and fill me with love, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit.”

Date: December 18, 1803

Volume 3: Page 143

Posted: 20250827