Morning Watches and Night Watches

My all time favorite devotional is this little treasure- Morning Watches and Night Watches authored by the Rev. J.R. Macduff. I discovered it in a Virginia barn- gloriously filled with antique books.  I have always been enamored with personal inscriptions, so was thrilled to opened its cover to find this:

It reads, "This book given to my mother Dorah Wise Clayton by her mother.  Anna Harnsberger Wise when a small girl.  Dorah Wise Clayton born in April 1863...By- Ethelyn Clayton Miller." 

Morning Watches 

and 

Night Watches

by JR. MacDuff

1876

Today's Snippet-

Pg. 9-10

"O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee."

For Renewal of Heart

Almighty God, who hast mercifully preserved me during the unconscious hours of slumber, I desire to dedicate my waking moments and thoughts to Thee.  Do Thou pre-occupy my mind with hallowed and heavenly things.  May I be enabled throughout this day, by the help of Thy Holy Spirit, to exclude all that is vain and frivolous and sinful, and to have my affections centered on Thee, as my best portion al chiefest joy.  As Thy Spirit of old did brood over the face of the waters, may that same blessed Spirit descend in all the plenitude of His heavenly graces, that the gloom of a deeper moral chaos may be dispersed, and that mine may be the beauty and happiness and gladness of a soul that has been transformed "from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan unto God."