The scripture reading this afternoon is Psalm 81. Psalm 81. To the chief musician, upon Gittith, a psalm of Azeth. Sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel and the law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt, when I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots. Thou callest in trouble, and I delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of Meribah, Sila. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, There shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. and they walked in their own councils. Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him, but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." So far the scripture reading. Congregation, we are to reflect upon Lord's Day 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Last time we did that, we saw question and answer 72 and 73, and now we consider infant baptism. That's question and answer 74. And there we read, our infants also to be baptized, yes, for since they as well as the adult are included in the covenant and church of God. And since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult. They must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian Church, and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Covenant or Testament, by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted in the New Covenant so far. Beloved congregation, The Heidelberg Catechism has been explaining the sacraments to us. And when we look at the sacraments, we can make a mistake. And that is that we consider the sacraments to be very important, to such an extent that they are important even beside God's Word. Some people lay much emphasis upon the sacraments while they neglect God's Word. As long as I'm baptized, although I've taken communion, then it's okay. But we must remember that the sacraments without the Word of God are nothing, meaningless, and that the Word without the sacraments is still everything. Because the sacraments, we saw that on another occasion, they are like a seal. Now, when you graduate from Rehoboth Christian School, you get a diploma, and on that diploma there's a seal. And that seal is some wax, and there's an impression made upon it of Rehoboth Christian School. and that makes the document you receive, your diploma, authentic. Not something you put together behind your computer and claim that's your diploma. No, this is an authentic matter. Now, if you take that seal off and you hold up that seal, it has no value because it's just an emblem of RCS printed on some material. It means nothing. But if you put it on top of your diploma, then it has every significance, because it underscores and it emphasizes the truth, the reality, the validity of your diploma. And that's what a sacrament is. A sacrament in itself is nothing, but it is a seal attached to the Word of God and to the promises of God, so that we may know that His promises are real and true, and that they are valid for you. You were baptized in the name of the triune God, and in baptism the Lord declares that He adopts us and our children to be His people. And in baptism, the Lord Jesus declares that He washes us from all our sins. And the Holy Spirit declares that He is willing to apply these matters which we have in Christ to our life and heart and soul. So the sacrament highlights the promises of God's Word. So it's not about a sacrament. It is about the Word of God. The Word of God is fully true. But now, by giving a sacrament, it becomes clear that the Word of God is indeed true. It's because we can doubt so often, and we wonder, would it be true? Would the Lord be willing to hear me? Are all His promises, will they be valid for me? But then, you look at the sacrament. He said, yes, it is true, because the Lord sealed His word to my life, to my person, that He has no pleasure in your death, but therein has the Lord pleasure that you would turn to Him, that you would forsake your sin, and you would be saved. The sacraments are very blessed, full of rich comfort. We must understand them correctly. And now the catechism refers especially to children, and especially the matter should children be baptized. It was always the case within the Christian church that children were baptized. That dates back to the days of the apostles, and that continued on right into the 16th century, until they were in Switzerland, A few who had initially followed Ulrich Zwingli there in Switzerland in his work of reformation, but they said he didn't go far enough. We also should not baptize children. That's also some Romish invention, they said. So around 1525, there were several men, Manns, Blaurock, and a few others who claimed that they had special insight. And they claim we should not baptize children anymore, because they claim that baptism is a sign and seal of our faith, of our regeneration. But in reality, baptism is not a sign of anything of us. It's a sign of what God declares in His Word. And it's so easily stated even in the larger catechism from Westminster. You can read there, a few weeks ago my wife and I happened to read that, that baptism is a sign of our regeneration. Well, that's not true, with all respect for the documents of Westminster. But baptism does not say anything of us. It's a sign and seal God's promises, and they are also valid for children. Why? Why should we baptize children? Because since those days of the 16th century, Baptists came up, and they are still around now, and there are quite a few who say you need to be baptized as an adult, as a sign of your faith, of your confession, that you then be baptized. You let yourself be baptized. But that's not how it is. God comes to you and wants you to be baptized as a child. And why is it? Well, the catechism explains to us that also children are sinners, and they also need the blood of Christ. They also need redemption. And that's being pictured in baptism. And especially, children belong to the covenant of grace, and God establishes His covenant with the believers and their children, with all those who outwardly wish to conform to the Christian church and their children. It doesn't mean that we should look, are the parents truly converted when they had their children baptized? That's not the idea. When you join the church, you wish to adhere to Christian discipline and to the Word of God, and you wish to obey God's Word, and you wish to place your neck under the yoke of Christ. Now, some who do confession of faith may not have a true saving faith, but others will. But regardless of that, if we outwardly adhere to the Christian church and wish to belong to it, then we and our children are incorporated in the covenant of grace. And because the Lord ordained a sign for the covenant, then all those who belong to the covenant should receive that sign. In the Old Testament, the Lord spoke to his people, I am the Lord, thy God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And there God, on his own initiative, declared, I am your God, I take you to be my people, and I require of you to be obedient to me. But what you cannot do, but you cannot obey me, I am willing to give you strength and grace that you will be obedient to me. So it's not our choice, it's God's choice upon our lives. But especially in our days and in recent centuries, started up in the 19th through the 20th century that Baptists were very much growing and increasing. Why is it? Would it have something to do especially here in North America? Would it have something to do with individualism or something to do with being independent and that you want to make your choice for yourself? That's why their Baptist churches are around us. But in reality, the Lord wants children to be baptized. The Lord Jesus received children who were brought to him. They were little children. And the Lord blessed them, laid his hands upon them. And the Lord Jesus was very upset when disciples said, you know, the Lord is too busy. for children. The Lord Jesus said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. So this is an encouragement for parents that when you receive children or you hope to receive a child, you may know that your child, even before its birth, is incorporated into God's covenant. And that's why they should be baptized. Let's look again at that question and answer. 74, are infants also to be baptized? Yes. For since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God, and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them, no less than to the adult, They must therefore be, by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian church, and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Testament, by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted in the new covenant. The Lord Jesus instituted baptism just before he returned to heaven. And there was a baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so you see in the book of Acts that when people moved over from Judaism into Christianity, or from paganism into Christianity, the demarcation was baptism. You see, Cornelius in Acts 10, he was a Roman centurion, he feared God, but he was outside of Jewish faith, but he feared God. And then Peter speaks to him, and the Holy Spirit comes upon Cornelius and those who are with him. And then he wants to be incorporated in the Christian church, and no one speaks anymore about circumcision, but they speak about baptism. He must be baptized. Because baptism was a sign that you were included in Christianity. When someone in the New Testament was led to faith, he and his family were brought into a new relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not because all those members of the family believed, because that's not what you read in Scripture. When Lydia came to faith, she and her house, means her family, were all baptized. It doesn't say anything about faith in the children or members of the household. When the Philippian jailer was converted, it says there in the Greek in the singular form that he came to faith, he believed. But then it says, they together, there's a family, they rejoiced. But it does not say in the original Greek, in the grammar you can read it, it does not say that the family, all the members, believed. It only says the Philippian jailer believed. But they were all baptized, they were included in the covenant, because God wants to have the children included in the church. And then it's not the issue that a child should realize this is my father or my mother, and that he confesses that, then he would be allowed to be a child of that family, no one, no parent would ever say that. And likewise in church, The Lord does not wait until a child can say, yes, I want to belong to the Lord, and that then he would be baptized. No, it's from the very outset. They belong to the covenant, and that's a great comfort. And that covenant, that's the same covenant. It's a covenant from the Old into the New Testament. They are not two different covenants. When Jeremiah 31 speaks about the days will come that I will establish a new covenant with Israel, then the Lord says, that will not be like the covenant that I established with them when they came out of Egypt. Because then there was a covenant with laws. But then the Lord says, in the days of the new covenant, I will inscribe my laws into their hearts. So it's not just an outward list of commands published as it was in the days coming out of Egypt, but it will be a new covenant in the sense that the Lord will instruct his people inwardly to follow the Lord. But the covenant of grace in itself is one covenant from the Old Testament into the New Testament. It's a covenant with Abraham and even with Adam, you can say. And when old Zechariah understands that his son John will become the herald to proclaim the coming of Messiah, then he sings in Luke 1.72 that the Lord has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and he is remembering his holy covenant. He is fulfilling now his covenant that he had promised to our forefathers. It's the same covenant. And that's why Peter says in Acts 2.39 that the promises are for you and for your children, because children belong to the covenant. That's how it was under the Old Testament, and that's how it is under the New Testament. Calvin says the New Testament is much richer than the Old Testament. The Old Testament was a place of shadows, but in the New Testament the Lord Jesus has come, has shed His blood, has risen from the dead, His Spirit is poured out, and Gentiles are included in the Church. It's much richer. Would then God not include children in the New Covenant while He did include them in the Old Covenant? It can't be, because Calvin says, because the new covenant is richer. In the Old Testament, they had to bring signs of sacrifices, and blood would be shed. Blood was needed for the reconciliation. But in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus has shed His blood, and now there's no longer shedding of blood necessary. So when the Lord includes children to the covenant, then it has an outworking. It has an outworking in the sense that it stimulates faith and love and hope. It stimulates faith because by looking at God's Word and by remembering I, had been baptized. God united His three times holy name to my name personally. He spoke to me in baptism. That becomes a great comfort and a stimulants for faith. Because redemption, the catechism says, from sin by the blood of Christ and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult. Promised. Now, it's very important to realize in the covenant, God promises. But those are not absolute promises. It's not everyone who is included in the covenant will actually be saved. Faith is necessary. And God is willing to work that faith. But there's no automatism. It's not an automatic relationship. When the Lord promises that He will be with His people in time of need, that is an absolute promise. When the Lord says, I will return to judge the living and the dead, that's not dependent upon whether we believe that or not. He will return. But when the Lord gives promises in the covenant of grace, it's not an absolute declaration, what the Lord shall do regardless. No, it's an implicit call to faith, to flee to the Lord with all your lack and everything you don't have, When you say, I don't have faith, and I don't have love, and I don't understand the Scriptures, and I do have a sinful heart, and I can't control my passions, and so on and so on, with all your need, all your impossibilities, you come to the Lord, and you may plead upon your baptism. and a child, a young man, a young person struggling with certain things, you may plead that God would take you by the hand and be your guide through life, that He would keep you from stumbling and falling, that He would bless you and invigorate you and teach you to look continually to the Lord Jesus. That's what God promises. And He will do that when you turn to Him. That's not an automatic promise, but He will fulfill that when people come to the Lord. That's faith. And so God demands faith, but He works that faith. And how does the Lord work that faith then? How does the Holy Spirit work faith in your heart? By reading the Word of God. If you don't have faith, and you don't believe But the Lord is telling us, what should you do? You should listen to His voice. You listen to so many people who will do you no good, but listen to His voice. Listen to His Word. He is speaking to you in His Word. And as you read Scripture, the Holy Spirit works faith in your heart, It changes you, that you realize God's Word is true, and His promises are true. And so, you flee to the Lord in faith. You need Him. You can do nothing without Him. And then you start to live no longer for yourself, but for God. And you see that without the Lord you have no rest in your life, no perspective. But God's Spirit works in your life. And then you start to confess your unwillingness and your sinfulness. And you cry to the Lord. And you confess that you always wanted to live for yourself. You always wanted to have things your own way. But then it becomes different. Then you say, Lord, will Thou take over my life? Will Thou be my God? Lead me. And that's faith. But there's also love. Because when the Lord has dealings with you, that you realize who the Lord is, then there will also be love, love to Him. You desire to walk in His ways. You can't explain it, but there's a longing in your life to know Him, and to live with Him, and to belong to Him, and to obey Him. That's propelled by love, love that the Holy Spirit works in the heart. You long for Him. You see, God's Word that you read is like seed. It's scattered in your heart. It's sown in your heart. And that Word starts to germinate. And it brings forth not only faith, but also love to the Lord. And there will also be hope. Hope based on God's Word and the promises of God's Word. There is hope upon the living God. You know that He lives and He will provide for me. He will take care of me. You live in this trust. And it's all reflected in the covenant in baptism, in the promises of God's Word. Then it becomes such a miracle to you that God is willing to look down at you as sinner, although you have struggled against Him, that He is still patient with you. You have hope upon the living God. You learn to trust in Him. And you know, the promises of baptism are so rich and valid and real that they last till all eternity. You can't undo that covenant. The rich man and the poor Lazarus. Father Abraham spoke to the rich man and says, Child, when you were on earth, you had a very luxurious life. and Lazarus was in misery. Now Lazarus is in glory, and you are now suffering misery." But what does he say? He says, child. Pidos, I think it is. Child. Because that rich man was a Jew. He was a covenant child. And the Lord Jesus speaks about, they will come from north and south and east and west, and they will sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. But the children of the kingdom cast out into outer darkness, because they did not pay attention to their baptism. They took it for granted. They received parchment with a stamp on it and an inheritance of everlasting life, and they put it aside and just went on in this world with no perspective. And they will be cast into outer darkness, having no other way, but refuse to walk on it. You see, these promises of baptism are so valid, they last. The reality of a covenant remains even in eternity, even in hell. It will make hell worse. But even in this life on earth, for the man in America, you can still see his gravestone. He was an immigrant. came in the late 17th century to America. I forget his name, but it's historical. As a boy, he had heard John Flavel preach, and that sermon somehow stuck with him. But then he went to America and led a godless life, and when he was, I believe, in his 70s, He remembered still that sermon from the Puritan John Flavel he had heard in his youth. And he was led to conversion. And he was saved. And on his gravestone, there's that inscription of what happened to him. I saw a picture of that in some book. That is a reality. That's an example. that the promises of God, His covenant, and His offer of grace is valid your life long. Maybe you are older. Maybe you're wondering, what's going to happen to me? And I don't have assurance of salvation. And do I really know that the Lord is my God? So you can be alarmed. You can even be in distress. But you may remember what happened to you as a little child. You probably won't remember it because you were baptized as an infant. But you know you were baptized. You may plead those promises because they are valid throughout your life. You are still in the time of grace, and you may look away from everything you lack and what you are not, what you should be, and you may just focus upon Him, and upon His Word, His truth, His promises, His ability, and that's what you stare at. And even if you think you have nothing, you still look at Him, and He will never, never cast you out, because His promises are valid and true. That's the truth of God's Word. So we are to baptize children. How or how are we to bring our children to baptism? Well, we know that from the form for infant baptism, not through superstition. Sad to say there are people who say the sacrament is wonderful in itself, and they do not see the connection with God's Word. As long as the child is baptized, oh, then it's saved. There are quite a few people who think that. At least he's baptized. But that's wrong. That's superstition. It can also be that you bring your child to baptism because, yeah, we all do it. It's a custom. It's a Christian duty, we do it. So you have your child baptized, and after that you forget about baptism. You never talk to your child about baptism, never talk about the claims God laid upon your child, and that it was your task to explain these claims to your child. You see, then you're baptizing by custom and not out of faith. And so, boys and girls, your parents should explain to you what baptism is. And when you come home, you can even ask them, Mom, Dad, I was baptized, right? Yes. But why did you have me baptized? Why was I baptized? You can ask that to your mom and dad. It's a very good question. And then your mom and dad will explain to you. It will be an opening for your mom and dad to explain why they wanted to have you baptized. It's a good thing to ask that. And you know, how should your parents answer that? Well, they can use a lot of words. It can be good. It does not necessarily have to be good to use a whole lot of words. But what is especially important is that you as a boy and girl can look to your mom and dad, and you know that they truly love and fear God. But you also know, as a child, you look to your mom and dad, and you wonder, I don't know if they really love God. They never talk about God. They never really show sorrow for sin. They're not sorrow when they do something bad. Children see that. You saw that too when you were a child. I did too. And that's now most important, that when we explain to our children about baptism, that not so much even by our words what we say, but by our action, by our demeanor, that children know Mom and Dad, they fear the Lord. And then half of all your questions are answered. And boys and girls, the Lord wanted you to be baptized. And the Lord wants you to learn many things. That's why you go to Sunday school. That's why you go to catechism. You learn questions. You learn them by heart. And it's good to do that. Because when you learn a Bible text or you learn a question of the catechism by heart, first you must understand the question and the answer. Don't learn a couple of words that mean nothing to you. You must understand it and think about it. And when you understand it and think about it, then it's much easier to learn, because it makes sense what you're learning. And then as you're learning it, what happens then is that God's Spirit applies these words that you're learning to your heart. That's how the Lord works in hearts of children, that you're learning things by heart. You start to understand slowly but steadily how important the Lord is. Maybe you would not rather learn those questions. It's easier not to do it. But imagine if you never went to school. Oh, I'd much rather stay home and help mom and dad or do my own thing or play around. It's possible when there's a day off or a PA day, oh great, we could stay home. Of course, you would rather stay at home. But imagine if you would be staying at home all those years. Well, you couldn't write, you couldn't read, you couldn't really add things up, you knew nothing about the world, and there are children today in other countries who never go to school. They can't go there. You can't even read or write. How terrible would that be? That's why it's good that you go to school. It's a blessing the Lord gives you. And so it's also a blessing that you learn things at Sunday school. If you don't learn that, or you don't attend Sunday school or catechism, then you stay rather dumb and uneducated. You know, in baptism, the Lord says to you, boys and girls, He says, you belong to Me. And now you must learn to indeed live for Me. That's what baptism is about. The Lord wants you to belong to Him with your heart. So, boys and girls, I trust when you go to bed at night that you pray, that you pray to the Lord, that you will pray yourself and nobody hears you. I hope you do that, and I trust you will do that. Have you ever said to the Lord, Lord, I thank Thee that I'm baptized? Have you ever thanked the Lord for that? And have you ever prayed, Lord, those promises given in baptism, that I am to be thy child? Will thou teach me these things? Will thou grant in me a heart that loves thee, that has faith in thee, that hopes upon thee? Will thou teach me how to live in this life? Make me thy child. because I am baptized. It's something good, boys and girls, to pray to the Lord, because the Lord is willing to deliver you from all kinds of misery and sin. There are quite a few people who live in this world in misery, even around us, and that's because they do not know God in their lives. That's a cause of misery. Sin is always a cause of misery. No one is glad with sin, and the Lord wants to keep you from sin, and wants to protect you, and to fill you with love for Him. And that's what you may pray to God for, that you say, Lord, teach me to follow Thee. And what a privilege, fathers and mothers, that your children are baptized. What an encouragement for you to pray daily for your children, even when they may have gone astray, when they say farewell to God. You can't convert them. All your words will probably not really help. There's only one who can bring your child back into the living true faith, that's God Himself. And you may pray for that, and you may know that God hears prayer. Now, that does not take away the responsibility that every person has in his or her own life, but your prayers are heard, and they make a difference. and therefore pray for your children when they have gone astray. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, Adoniram Judson? His godly parents were praying for him while he went into the world. And then they didn't convert him, but God converted him. Do you remember? In that inn where he stayed during the night. and the Lord can do mighty workings. Pray, and continue to pray. I heard of an occasion in the Netherlands where a man had several sons who had left the ways of the Lord, and then their father became very ill, and the father had real struggles on his deathbed. And he was praying for his sons. And then he died. And then the funeral took place. And the sons realized what a struggle their dad had. And they looked at each other and they said, well, if dad, who feared God, had such struggles, what's going to happen to us? We don't fear God. We live for this world. And there was apparently the cause of their own conversion. They returned to church because of what their father had endured. The Lord is able to do far above what we imagine or think, because He alone is God Almighty. But when you raise your little children, you do that in hope and in anticipation. You don't raise them in fear of what's going to happen to them when they get older. No, you immerse them in the Word of God with love, and you shield your family from worldly influences that poison people's hearts and minds. You make your family an oasis. Television is a dangerous thing. It's full of worldly stuff. We should not have televisions. It infiltrates your home and all the modern media, all that's out there. We have to be very, very cautious. It's your duty to shield your children and at the same time to foster an atmosphere of love and of care and that you have consideration and you have proper attention to your children, that you take time for your children, to be with them, to help them with their homework or whatever it is. It's a big offense to a child to say, I've no time for you. You mean to say, you're not important enough. And a child would never say it, but he will feel it. It's sad. We should make time for our children. and raise them in love and in hope, trusting that the Lord will work through the generations, also the lives of our children, because of baptism, because of His promises. And then finally, congregation, we see Psalm 81, verse 10, I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt, Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Isn't that wonderful? The needs you or I may have in life, the daily needs, the needs that change when life progresses, the needs in various stages of your life, so many needs, So many things you need, but you can't do wisdom and grace and perseverance and love and hope and faith and trust and devotion and dedication and self-denial. So much we need. Open your mouth wide. I will fill it. That's true. That's glorious. That's how good God is. And then you learn to walk in God's ways, and you learn to listen to His precepts. You learn, you're taught it. But what also can happen is, in that same Psalm 81, that the Lord says, But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust, and they walked in their own counsels." That's terrible. If a person resists God and continues doing that, and refuses to listen, refuses to bow down, refuses to take time to listen to what the Lord has to say to him, then there comes a stage that the Lord just gives him up. Okay, you want to do that, then you do that, and you will perish forever. But remember, the Lord is willing verse 17, even to give not only water out of the rock, but if you would need it, He will give you honey out of the rock. It's true. People here who have received things of the Lord they needed and did not have the ability to arranged that themselves, but by guidance in life it was presented to them, because the Lord guides and knows your needs, and He fulfills them, because I am the Lord thy God." Thy God, singular. Not, I'm the Lord your God. That's in general. Your is a plural. Thy, singular, every single one. You in your situation, the Lord is willing to give more than you ever expect. How blessed that we would seek this Lord and live for Him. Amen. Shall we close with prayer and thanksgiving? Truly, Lord, how good Thou art to have such compassion upon the children of men, to have initiated Thy covenant with them and their children. We think of our forefather Noah and his sons and their children. They were all included in the covenant, but it didn't take long before Mankind went astray from Thee and wanted nothing of Thee. And that's when all the misery started again. But, Lord, Thou hast continued Thy work in continually drawing people unto Thyself, and that we also may belong to Thy covenant, we and our children. And we thank Thee for this rich privilege that Thou hast so much care and compassion upon us, and that Thou art heartily inviting us and sincerely offering to us these rich promises of deliverance and grace. O Lord, may we indeed pay attention to these promises, and may we not live on without Thee, But may our boys and girls earnestly seek Thee, that they may realize the privilege that they are baptized, that the everlasting, eternal, all-powerful God declares that He is their God, and so they must learn to become His children, and that they need faith and repentance as fruit of regeneration in their lives, O Lord, wilt Thou renew our children? Wilt Thou grant them a new heart, a new perspective, new desires, new longings? And may we, as parents, seek to raise these children in an atmosphere of love and godliness. Wilt Thou be present in our homes? Give grace to fathers to be a prophet, priest, and king in their households. and that their mothers may be examples of virtue and godliness, and that our children may learn to love Thee at a young age. O Lord, we pray Thee for children who may have gone astray, that Thou strengthen such parents in continually praying for their loved ones. And Lord, if it be that Thou has not deemed it right to make us to be parents, that we would yet be a blessing to the congregation. For we are yet one body, and we are, in a certain extent, also responsible for each other. And so that we would yet be a blessing to the upcoming generation, and so that we will be a blessing to other children. O Lord God, wilt thou look upon us all in mercy. Regardless of our station in life, may we be a light in this world, and wilt thou pour out thy Holy Spirit upon us, that moved by the love of Christ, we may graciously live as thou dost call us to live. give peace in the inward parts, grant a heartfelt love to Thee, and give us true, firm hope upon the living God. And wilt Thou work graciously in our hearts. Go with us in the week to come. Wilt Thou bless the male membership meeting tomorrow? Wilt Thou gladden us? By thy guidance wilt thou remember the consistory, and look upon us in mercy. For Jesus' sake, amen.