PRAYER 
AT 
OPENING OF THE APRIL MEETING OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE, 
APRIL 1, 1844. 
BY THE REV. CLEMENT M. BUTLER, OF GEORGETOWN, D. C, 
Almighty and everlasting God, our Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, continual and 
bountiful Benefactor, we would approach thy footstool, with an awful sense of thy 
majesty and glory, and with a contrite and humble confession of our sinfulness 
and of our dependence upon thee. Though thou art exalted above all praise; 
though thou inhabitest eternity; though thou art glorious in holiness and of 
purer eyes than to behold iniquity; yet, in thine infinite compassion, thou hast per- 
milled and encouraged us to draw nigh unto thee in prayer, and, through Christ our 
Redeemer, to have access to thee with filial confidence through the faith of Him. 
Through Him we come to thee, acknowledging our dependence, confessing our 
manifold transgressions of thy righteous laws, appealing to thee for forgiveness,, 
adoring thee for thy greatness, blessing and magnifying thy glorious name for thy 
unspeakable goodness to the children of men. 
We beseech thee, Almighty God, to let thy blessing rest upon the Institution 5 
whose members are here and now assembled. Grant that the purpose for which it 
was established may bo accomplished ; and that it may be made to promote the 
welfare of man and the glory of thy great name. We would lay its foundations 
in prayer, that its superstructure may rise in praise to thee. We would acknow¬ 
ledge thee as the Father of our spirits. In the search for truth, we would look up 
to and depend on thee as the essential truth—-as the light and life of the souls of 
all thy creatures. We confess in humility that, because of sin, our minds are short¬ 
sighted, erring, and benighted. Left to ourselves in search of truth, we grope in 
the noonday as in the night; we look for light, but behold obscurity ; for brightness, 
but behold darkness. It is only as the illuminating ray of thy divine intelligence 
lights up our dark spirits that we can see aright. Thou art light, and in thee is no 
darkness at all. In thy light let us see light. Illumine what in us is dark, and 
remove whatever in us obstructs the reception and the love of truth, that we may 
see the realities of things in nature, in providence, and in redemption. And, oh 
Father of Lights, as in the proceedings of this Institution the manifold marvels of 
science and of nature are made to pass before our minds, enable us to rise from the 
contemplation of what thou doest and enabiest man to do, to what thou art; that 
we may not only exclaim in wonder “ How manifold are thy works !” but may add, 
“in wisdom,” in goodness and mercy, “hast thou made them all.” Let not the 
minds of any of us rest in the so enamoured contemplation of the wonder and beau¬ 
ties which are manifest in thy works, as to be unable to soar to the perception and 
enjoyment of the higher loveliness that is in thyself. Oh, let not Philosophy, with 
hor eye and heart fixed upon the earth, prone and grovelling, worship and serve the 
creature more than the Creator ; but baptize her in the pure fountain of eternal 
