My dear Lord
I depend wholly upon thee,
wean me from all
other dependences.
Thou art my all,
thou dost overrule all
and delight in me.
Thou art the
foundation of goodness,
how can I distrust thee?
how be anxious about what happens
to me?
In the light of thy
preciousness
the world and all its enjoyments
are
infinitely poor:
I value the favour
of men no more than pebbles.
Amid the blessings I
receive from thee
may I never lose the
heart of a stranger.
May I love thee, my
Benefactor, in all my benefits,
not forgetting that my greatest
danger
arises from my
advantages.
Produce in me self-despair
that will
make Jesus precious to me,
delightful in all his
offices,
pleasurable in all
his ways,
and may I love his commands
as well as his
promises.
Help me to discern
between true and false love,
the one consisting of supreme
love to thee,
the other not,
the former uniting thy glory and
man’s happiness
that they may become
one common interest,
the latter disjointing and
separating them both,
seeking the latter
with neglect of the former.
Teach me that
genuine love is different in kind
from that wrought by rational
arguments
or the motive of
self-interest,
that such love is a pleasing
passion affording
joy to the mind where
it is.
Grant me grace to
distinguish
between the genuine
and the false,
and to
rest in thee who art all love.