Good morning. We will have a sermon this morning written by Charles Spurgeon. And the text is from Deuteronomy 11. And to give some context, I'll be reading verses seven through 15. But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong and go in and possess the land, whether ye go to possess it. And that ye may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed a land that floweth with milk and honey. For the land whither thou goest in to possess it is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed and waterest it with thy foot as a garden of herbs. But the land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord thy God careth for The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if ye hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil, and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. This sermon, titled Good Cheer for the New Year, was first preached by Charles Spurgeon on January 6th of 1867. The text being Deuteronomy 11 verse 12. I have edited this sermon for brevity and clarity. And the text, I will read it one more time. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the year even into the end of the year. Deuteronomy 11 verse 12. And here we are at the first Sabbath day of the new year. The Israelites had sojourned for a while in Egypt. a land which only produces food for its inhabitants by the laborious process of irrigating its fields. They had mingled with the sons of Ham as they watched with anxious eyes the swelling of the river Nile, and they had shared in the incessant labors by which the waters were preserved in reservoirs, and afterwards eked out by slow degrees to nourish the various crops. Moses tells them in this chapter that the land of Palestine was not at all like Egypt. It was a land which did not so much depend on the labor of the inhabitants as upon the goodwill of the God of heaven. And he calls it a land of hills and valleys, a land of springs and rivers, a land dependent not upon the rivers of earth but upon the rain of heaven. And he styles it in conclusion a land which the Lord thy God careth for, the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. Observe here a type of the condition of the natural and the spiritual man. In this world, in temporals and in all other respects, the carnal man has to be his own providence and to look to himself for all his needs. And so his cares are always many, and frequently they become so heavy that they drive him to desperation. He lives a life of care, anxiety, sorrow, fretfulness, and disappointment. He dwells in Egypt. And he knows that there is no joy or comfort or provision if it doesn't wear out his soul in winning it. But the spiritual man dwells in another country. His faith makes him a citizen of another land. It is true he endures the same toils and experiences the same afflictions as the ungodly, but they deal with him after another fashion, for they come as a gracious father's appointments. and they go at the bidding of loving wisdom. By faith, the godly man casts his care upon God who cares for him, and he walks without worry because he knows himself to be the child of heaven's loving kindness, for whom all things work together for good. God is his great guardian and friend, and all his concerns are safe in the hands of infinite grace, Even in the year of drought, the believer dwells in green pastures and lies down beside the still waters. But as for the ungodly, he abides in the wilderness and hears the mutterings of that curse. Cursed is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm. He shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when good cometh. Do you question my assertion that Canaan is a fitting type of the present condition of the Christian? that Canaan is a fitting type of the present condition of the Christian. We have frequently insisted upon it that it is a far better type of the militant believer here than of the glorified saint in the New Jerusalem. Canaan is sometimes used by us in our hymns as the picture of heaven, but it is rarely so. A moment's reflection will show that it is far more distinctly the picture of the present state of every believer. While we are under the conviction of sin, we are like Israel in the wilderness. We have no rest for our foot. But when we put our trust in Jesus, we do, as it were, cross the river and leave the wilderness behind. We that have believed do enter into rest, for there remains a rest for the people of God. Believers have entered into the finished salvation which is provided for us in Christ Jesus. The blessings of our inheritance are in a great measure already in our possession. The state of salvation is no longer a land of promise, but it is a land possessed and enjoyed. We have peace with God. We are even now justified by faith. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Covenant blessings are at this moment actually ours. Just as the portion of the land of Canaan became actually in the possession of the various tribes, it's true there is an enemy in Canaan, an enemy to be driven out, indwelling sin, which is entrenched in our hearts as in walled cities, fleshly lusts, which are like the chariots of iron against which we have to do war. But the land is ours. We have the covenanted heritage at this moment in our possession, and the foes who would rob us of it shall by the sword of faith and the weapon of prayer be utterly rooted out. The Christian, like Israel in Canaan, is not under the government of Moses now. He is done with Moses once and for all. Moses was magnified and made honorable as he climbed to the top of the hill and with a kiss from God's lips was carried into heaven. Even so, the law has been magnified and made honorable in the person of Christ and has ceased to reign over the believer. And as Joshua was the leader of the Israelites when they came into Canaan, so is Jesus, our leader now. He it is who leads us on from victory to victory, and he will not sheathe his sword till he has taken unto himself and given unto us, his followers, the full possession of all the holiness and happiness which covenant engagements have secured to us. For these and many other reasons, it's clear that the children of Israel in Canaan were typically in the same condition as we are now, who, having believed in Jesus, have our citizenship in heaven. Beloved, those of you who are in such a state will relish the text. It is to such persons that the text is addressed. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon thee, O believer, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. You who trust in Jesus are under the guidance of the great Joshua, you are fighting sin, you have obtained salvation, you have left the wilderness of conviction and fear behind you, come into the Canaan of faith, and now the eyes of God are upon you and upon your state from the opening of the year to its close. May the Holy Spirit bless us, and we shall, first, take the text as we find it, secondly, we shall turn the text over, Thirdly, we shall blot the text out. And then fourthly, we shall distill practical lessons from the text. Mike, you can click the slide. First, we will consider the text as we find it. The first word that glitters before us is like a jewel in a crown. And it is that word, eyes, the eyes of the Lord. What is meant here? Surely not mere omniscience. In that sense, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. God sees Hagar as well as Sarah and beholds Judas when he gives the traitorous kiss, quite as surely as he beholds the holy woman when she washes the feet of the Savior with her tears. No, there is love in the text to sweeten observation. The Lord knoweth the righteous. With a knowledge which is over and above that of omniscience, The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, not merely to see them, but to view them with complacency and delight. Not barely to observe them, but to observe them with affectionate care and interest. The meaning of the text then is first, that God's love is always upon his people. O Christian, think of this, that God loves us. The big heart of deity is set upon us, poor, insignificant, undeserving, worthless beings. God loves us. Loves us always. Never thinks of us without loving thoughts, never regards us, nor speaks of us, nor acts towards us except in love. God is love in a certain sense toward all, for he is full of benevolence to all his creatures. Love is indeed his essence, but there is a depth unfathomable when that word is used in reference to his elect ones, who are the objects of distinguishing grace, redeemed by blood, enfranchised by power, adopted by condescension, and preserved by faithfulness. Beloved, do not ask me to speak of this love, but implore God the Holy Ghost to speak of it to your inmost souls. The loving eyes of God are always upon you, the poorest and most obscure of his people, from the beginning of the year, even to the end of the year. The expression of the text teaches us that God takes a personal interest in us. It's not here that God says, It is not here said that God loves us and therefore sends an angel to protect and watch over us, but the Lord does it himself. The eyes that observe us are God's own eyes. The guardian under whose protection we are placed is God himself. Some mothers put out their children to nurse, but God never. All his babes hang upon his own breast and are carried in his own arms. It is little that we could do if we had to perform everything personally, and therefore most things are done by proxy. The captain, when the vessel is to be steered across the deep, must have his hour of sleep, and then the second in command or some other must manage the vessel. But you will observe that in times of emergency, the captain is called up and takes upon himself personal responsibility. See him as he himself anxiously heaves the lead and stands at the helm or at the lookout, for he can trust no one else in perilous moments. It seems from the text that it is always a time of emergency with God's people. For their great Lord always exercises a personal care over them. He has never said to his angels, I'll dispense with my own watching and you shall guard my saints. But while he gives them charge concerning his people, still he himself is personally their keeper and their shield. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. You've sometimes, when you've been very sick, sent for a physician, and it may be that he's been engaged somewhere else, but he has an assistant who probably is quite as skillful as he himself, but as soon as that assistant comes up, so great has been your confidence in the man that you sent for that you feel quite disappointed. You wanted to see the man who you had tried in days gone by. There's no fear of our being put off with any substitute for our God. Oh beloved, when I think of the text, I feel of the same mind as Moses when God said, I will send my angel before thee. No, Moses in effect said, that will not suffice. If thy presence will not go with us, carry us not up hence. My Lord, I cannot be put off with Gabriel or Michael. I cannot be content with the brightest of the seraphs who stand before thy throne. It is thy presence I want, and blessed be thy name. It is thy presence which the text promises to give. The anxious mother is glad to have a careful nurse upon which he may rely. But in the crisis of disease, when the little one's life trembles in the balance, she says, nurse, I must sit up myself with the child tonight. And though it is the third or perhaps the fourth night since the mother has had sleep, yet her eyes will not close so long as that particular point of danger is still in view. See, my brethren, see the loving tenderness of our gracious God. Never, never, never does he delegate to others, however good or kind, or to any secondary agents, however active or powerful, the care of his people. But his own eyes, without a substitute, must watch over us. Further, the text reminds us of the unwearied power of God towards his people. What? Can his eyes be always upon us? This were not possible if he were not God. To be always upon one object, man can rarely do that. But here, there are 10,000 times 10,000 objects. How can the same eyes always be upon everyone among so many? I know what unbelief has said to you. It has whispered. He brings forth the stars. He calls them by their names. How can he notice so small an insect as you are? Then we have said, my way has passed over from God. God has forgotten me. My God has forsaken me. But here comes the text. Not only has he not forgotten you, but he has never once taken his eyes off you. And though you are one among so many, yet he has observed you as narrowly, as carefully, as tenderly, as if there were not another child in the divine family, nor another one whose prayers were to be heard or whose cares were to be relieved. What would you think if you yourself knew that you are the only saved soul in the whole world, only elect one of God, the only one purchased on the bloody tree. Why, you'd feel, how must God care for me? How he must watch over me? Surely he will never take his eyes off such an especial favorite. But it is the same with you, beloved, though the family is so large as if you were the only one. The eyes of the Lord never grow weary. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, both by day and night he observes each one of his people. If you put these things together, intense affection, personal interest, and unweary power, and then if you remember that all this time God's heart is moved by unchanging purposes of grace towards you, Surely there will be enough to make you lose yourself in wonder, love, and praise. You've sinned in the past, but your sin has never made him love you less, because he never wept upon you as you are, nakedly and abstractly, in yourself. But he saw you and loved you in Christ, in the eternal power Even when you were dead in trespasses and sins, He has seen you in Christ ever since, and has never ceased to love you. It's true, you have been very faulty. What tears this ought to cost you. But He has never loved you for your good works. He has never cast you away for your bad works. He has held you as washed in the atoning blood of Jesus till you were whiter than snow and he has seen you clothed in the perfect righteousness of your surety and therefore looked upon you and regarded you as though you were without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Grace has always set before you the Lord's eyes as being in his dear son all fair and lovely. a pleasing prospect for him to look upon. He gazed upon you, beloved, but never with anger, looked upon you when your infirmities, nay, your willful wickedness, had made you hate yourself. And yet, though he has seen you in this woeful state, he had such a regard for your relationship to Christ that you have still been accepted in the beloved. I wish it were in the power of mortal speech to convey the full glory of that thought, but it is not. You must eat this small morsel alone. You must take it like a wafer made with honey and put it under your tongue and suck the essential sweetness out of it. The eyes of God, my God, are always upon his chosen as eyes of affection, delight, complacency, unwearied power, immutable wisdom, and unchanging love. Last year, perhaps, was the most gloomy of our lives. All the newspaper summaries of 2023 are like the prophetic roll which was written within and without with lamentations. The year has gone, and everybody is glad to think that we've entered into a new one. Yet, who knows, but that 2024 might be worse. Who can tell? Well, brethren, let it be what God chooses it shall be. Let it be what he appoints. For there is this comfort in the assurance that not a moment from this Sabbath on to the 31st of December, 2024, shall be without the tender care of heaven. Not even for a second will the Lord remove his eyes from any one of his people. Here is good cheer for us. We will march boldly into this wilderness, for the pillar of fire and cloud will never leave us, the manna will never cease to drop, and the rock that followed us will never cease to flow with living streams. Onward, onward, let us go, joyfully confident in our God. The next word that springs from the text is the great word Jehovah. It's a pity that our translators did not give us the names of God as they found them in the original. The word Lord in capitals is well enough, but the grand and glorious name of Jehovah should have been retained. In this case we read, the eyes of Jehovah are always upon it. He who surveys us with love and care is none other than the one and indivisible God, so that we may conclude if we have eyes to view us, we have his heart to love us. And if we have his heart, we have his wings to cover us. We have his hands to bear us up. We have the everlasting arms of God to be underneath us. We have all the attributes of deity at our command. O Christian, when God says that he always looks at you, he means this, that he is always yours. There is nothing which is necessary for you which he will refuse to do. There is no wisdom stored up in him that he will not use for you. There is no one attribute of all that great mass of splendor which makes up the deity which will be withheld from you in any measure. but all that God is shall be yours. He shall be your God forever and ever. He will give you grace and glory and be your guide even unto death. Perhaps the sweetest word of the text is that next one. The eyes of Jehovah thy God. Ours in covenant, our God. For He chose us to be His portion, and by His grace He has made us choose Him to be our portion. We are His, and He is ours. Thy God. Blessed be the Lord, we have learned to view Him not as another man's God, but as our God. Christian, can you claim a property in God this day? Has your hand by faith grasped Him? Has your heart by love twisted its tendrils around Him? Do you feel him to be the greatest possession that you have, that all the creatures are but a dream, an empty show, but that God is your substantial treasure, your all in all? Oh then, it is not an absolute God whose eyes are upon you, but God who is in covenant relationship regards you. Thy God. What word is this? He who is watching me is my shepherd. He who cares for me is my father. not my God alone by way of power, but my Father by way of relationship, one who though he be so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, yet deign to visit this poor earth robed in mortal flesh that he might become like unto us, and he is now our God, the God of his people by near and dear relationship. In ties of blood, Jesus is with sinners one, our husband, our head, our all in all, and we are his fullness, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Thus the eyes of God as the covenant God of Israel are upon his people from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. I must now leave the text to talk to you alone by itself. Much more may be said, but better unsaid, by me, if you let the text say it to you. Talk to the text, I pray you. Let it journey with you till you can say of it as the disciples said of Christ, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way? We are now to turn the text over. That is to say, we will misread it, yet read it rightly. Suppose the text were to say this, the eyes of the Lord's people are always upon him from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Dear friends, we like the text as it stands, but I do not believe we shall ever comprehend the fullness of it until we receive it as I have now altered it. For we only understand God's sight of us when we get a sight of him. God is our protector, but we must discern him by the eyes of faith, or else the mercy, though given by God, is not spiritually enjoyed in our hearts. Beloved, if God looks at us, how much more ought we to look at him? When God sees us, what does he see? Nothing. If he looks at us ourselves, but that which is unworthy to be looked at. On the contrary, when we look at him, what do we see? Oh, such a sight that I don't wonder that Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. What a vision will it be? Will it not be heaven's own vision to see God? Is not it the peculiar prerogative of the pure in heart that they shall see God? And yet, I cannot make it out Some of us have had the right to see God for years, and we have occasionally seen him face to face as a man speaketh to his friend. By faith we have seen God, but, beloved, what I cannot make out is that we see so little of him. Do you never find yourself living all day without God? Not perhaps absolutely so, for you would not like to go to work without a little prayer in the morning. But do you not sometimes get through that morning's prayer without seeing God at all? I mean, is it not just a form of kneeling down and saying good words and getting up again? And all through the day, have you not lived away from God? This is a strange world to live in. There are not many things to make one happy, and yet somehow we forget the very things that could give us happiness and keep our eyes upon the frivolous cares and teasing troubles which distract us And so we also close our night. No taste of his love, no kiss of his lips that is better than wine. And our evening prayer, poor moaning it is, hardly a prayer. I fear it is possible to live not only days but months at this dying rate. And it is horrible living. Such horrible living that I would infinitely prefer to be locked up in the moldiest dungeon which a man of God ever rotted and have the Lord's presence, then I would care to live in the noblest palace in which a sinner ever sported himself without God. After all, that which makes life life is the enjoyment of the presence of God. It's not so with a worldling. He can live without God, like the swine, who being contented with her husks, lie down and sleep and wake again to feed. But the Christian cannot live on husks. He has a stomach above them. And if he does not get his God, he must be miserable. God has ordained it so that a spiritual man is wretched without the love of God in his heart. If you and I want present happiness without God, we had better be sinners outright and live upon this world than try to be happy in religion without communion with Jesus. Present happiness for a genuine Christian in the absence of Christ is an absolute impossibility. We must have God or we are of all men most miserable. Suppose that in this year we were at any rate filled with the desire to have our eyes always upon God from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. to be always conscious that He is seeing us, to be always sensible of His presence, and more than that, to be always longing to be obedient to His commands, always wanting to win souls for His dear Son from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. What a happy thing would this be! If we could abide in the spirit of prayerfulness or thankfulness, devout, consecrated, loving, tender, it would be a high thing to attain to. Brethren, we believe in a great God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think. So why not expect great things from him? I do think of this blessing and I dare to ask for it. Surely then he is able to give it. Do not let us stand back because of unbelief. Let us ask that as God's eyes will be upon us, our eyes may be upon him. What a blessed meeting of eyes when the Lord looks us full in the face and we look at him through the mediator Christ Jesus and the Lord declares, I love thee. And we answer, we also love thee, O our God. Oh, that we may be in harmony with the Lord our God and find ourselves drawn upwards and bound to him. May the Lord be the sun and we the dew drops which sparkle in his rays and are exhaled and drawn aloft by the heat of his love. May God look down from heaven and we look up to heaven and both of us be happy in the sight of each other, delighting and rejoicing in mutual affection. This is what communion means. I've taken a long while to bring it to that one word, but that is what it means. Daily communion, let me prove with thee, blessed object of my love. That was Toplady's desire, but I'm afraid I would express my own experience, that to express my own experience, I must close with the other two lines of the verse where Toplady says, but oh, for this, no strength have I. My strength is at thy feet to lie. Now we're on to point number three. We will imagine that we blot the text out altogether. Not that we can blot it out, or would if we could, but we are to suppose that it is blotted out. To imagine that you and I have to live all the whole year without the eyes of God upon us. Not finding a moment from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in which we perceive the Lord to be caring for us or to be waiting to be gracious to us. Imagine that there is none to whom we may appeal beyond our own fellow creatures for help. Oh, miserable supposition. We have come to the opening of the year, and we have to get through it somehow. We must stumble through January, go muddling through the winter, groaning through the spring, sweating through the summer, fainting through the autumn, and groveling on to another Christmas. And no God to help us, no prayer when God is gone, no promise when God is no more. There could be no promise, no spiritual succor, no comfort, no help for us if there were no God. I will suppose this to be the case with any one of us here, but I hear you cry out Don't imagine such a thing, for I would be like an orphan child without a father. I would be helpless, a tree with no water to its roots. Well, I suppose this is the case for you sinners. You know you've been living for 20 or 30 or 40 years without God, without prayer, without trust, without hope. Yet I should not wonder that if I were solemnly to tell you that God would not let you pray during the next year, and would not help you if you did pray, I should not wonder if you were greatly startled by that. Though I believe that the Lord will hear you from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, though I believe that he will watch over you and bless you if you seek him, yet I fear that most of you are despising his care, living without fellowship with him. and so you're without God, without Christ, without hope, and will be so from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. There's a story told of a most eccentric minister that walking out one morning saw a man going to work and said to him, what a lovely morning, how grateful we ought to be to God for all his mercies. The man said he didn't know much about it. Why? Said the minister, I suppose you always pray to God for your wife and family, for your children, don't you? No, said he, I do not know that I do. What, said the minister, do you never pray? No. Then I'll give you $5 if you promise me you never will as long as you live. Oh, says he, I'll be very glad for $5 to get me a drop of beer. He took the $5 and promised never to pray as long as he lived. He went to his work. And when he'd been digging for a little while, he thought to himself, that was a strange thing I've done this morning, a very strange thing. I've taken money and promised never to pray as long as I live. He thought it over, and it made him feel wretched. He went home to his wife and told her of it. Well, John, said she, you may depend upon it, that it was the devil. You've sold yourself to the devil for $5. This so bowed the poor wretched down that he did not know what to do with himself. This was all he thought, that he had sold himself to the devil for money, and would soon be carried off to hell. He commenced attending places of worship, conscious that it was of no use, for he'd already sold himself to the devil. But he was really ill, bodily ill, through the fear and trembling which had come down upon him. One night, he recognized the preacher, the very man who'd given him the $5, and probably the preacher recognized him, for the text was, What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? The preacher remarked that he knew a man who had sold his soul for $5. The poor man rushed forward and said, take it back, take it back. You said you would never pray, said the minister, if I gave you $5. Do you want to pray? Oh yes, I would give the world to be allowed to pray. That man was a great fool to sell his soul for $5. But some of you are greater fools still, for you never even got $5 and yet you still do not pray. I dare say and never will, but will go down to hell never having sought God. Perhaps if I could negative this text and say to you, the eyes of God will not be upon you from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and God will not hear and bless you, it might alarm and awaken you. But though I suggest the thought, I would rather you say, oh let not such a curse rest upon me, for I may die this year, and I may die this day, oh God hear me now. Oh, dear hearer, if such a desire be in your heart, the Lord will hear you and bless you with his salvation. Let us close now with using the text. The way to use it is this. If the eyes of the Lord will be upon his people from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, what will we do? Why, let us be as happy as we can during the year. You have your trials and troubles to come. Do not expect that you will be free from them. The devil's not dead and sparks still fly. Herein is your joy. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. Up with your flag and march boldly on. In the name of the Lord, set up your banner and begin to sing, away with worry, God cares for me. The sparrows are fed and shall not the children be? The little lilies bloom and shall not the saints be clothed? Let us roll all our burdens upon the burden bearer. You will have enough to care for if you care for his cause as you should. Do not spoil your power to care for God by caring for yourself. This year, let your motto be, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. By taking thought, you cannot add a cubit to your stature, nor turn one hair white or black. Take then no anxious thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Lean upon God. Remember his promise that as your day is, so shall your strength be. I would have you, says the apostle, I would have you without carefulness. He does not mean I would have you without economy, without prudence, and without discretion, but he means I would have you without fretfulness, without distrustful care, I would have you be without care for yourself because the Lord's eyes will be upon you. Further, dear friends, I would have you use the text by the way of seeking greater blessings and richer mercies than you've ever enjoyed. Blessed be God for his merciful kindness toward this church. His loving kindnesses have been very many. His favors new every morning and fresh every evening. But we want more. Let us not be content with a February blessing, though that is generally the month in which we have had our refreshings. Let us seek to get a blessing today. I hope you will get it this afternoon in this Sunday school, and I hope you will obtain it in the senior classes from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Let there be no dullness, lethargy, and lukewarmness in the classes this afternoon. The brother who has to address the school will, I hope, speak to you with fervor and earnestness. There must be no coldness there. And I hope you who are preaching in the street, if it will be possible in such a weather, are going from house to house with tracts, or doing anything else, that you will have a blessing on this first Sunday of the year. But then, shall we grow cold next Sunday? Not at all. It's from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Shall we endeavor to get up a little excitement and have a revival for five or six weeks? No. Blessed be God, we must have it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Will we have a spring which never grows dry? Oh, while we have a spring which never grows dry, why should the pitcher be empty? Surely gratitude can find us fuel enough in the forests of memory to keep the fire of love always flaming. Why should we be weary when the glorious prize is worthy of our constant exertion? When the great crowd of witnesses holds us in full survey, May our Lord, by his Spirit, bring you and me to a high pitch of prayerfulness, and then let us continue in prayer from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. May God bring you and me to a high degree of generosity, and then may we always be giving from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, every week, from the first to the last, always laying by in store as God has prospered us for his cause. May we be always active, always industrious, always hopeful, always spiritual, always heavenly, and always raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. So may our gracious God deal with us from the beginning of the year to the end of the year through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Pray. Lord, we come before you, our great God, whose eyes are upon us always, who knows us through and through. Lord, may our eyes be always upon you, especially this coming year. May week in and week out, we have our eyes on you and see how great you are and take comfort in how great you are, and take comfort in seeing your eyes upon us, caring for us. May we have a coming year of little worry, little concern, but to do your will. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.