Our Father, we know not what we should pray for as we ought. We are like little children, whose capricious questions and desires continually obtrude into the wisdom and love of fathers and mothers. Teach us, O God, and lead us by wise hands to the perfect life. So we rest in Thee. May comfort come this morning to those that are of sorrowful heart, and peace to those that are troubled, and a sense of friendship in this great house of God to those that are lonely; a welcome to the stranger, and sweet, clustering memories of past times to those to whom the present is sorrowful and dark; bright hopes, always standing at the threshold, winning the children and youth on and on. Oh, Thou wilt keep Thy promise with us, the promise of the better and larger life, and no one shall lose his way. It is a long path to that perfect life, from one's own house to the house of God, and it may be many shall fall and many shall stray, but at last we shall come, not one missing, to the house of God and the enjoyment of the perfect life. Our pity and our sympathy is for the ignorance of those who know not the way to God; it is for those that are broken and troubled, those that are debarred by human weakness and ignorance and selfishness from their share in life. We would fain that all might share in the bounty and beauty of God, and it is for us to coöperate with Thee and see that no one, through our neglect or selfishness, lacks the share he might have had. It lies in the power of the weak, ignorant and selfish to obstruct the development of a little child's mind and to check the outflowing forces of some man's thought and heart. Oh, help us wisely to order our own life and the laws of the land, so that each may have his chance in this great opportunity of God. May thy blessing be upon our word and may the weight of the word sink by its force into every heart. Give it the power of a seed, that it bring forth its result in stronger thought and clearer vision. And let us know that all truth is good; that truth is truth since God is God; that there is a piety of the intellect, as there is a piety of the affection, and a piety of the conscience. Let us welcome everything that comes and seek to adjust it to our previous conceptions and traditional beliefs, and all these things shall find their place at last, inasmuch as they are but syllables of the great unspeakable word which we try to call God and can not yet speak. Now, may the peace of God come to all, blessing all with joy and happiness and pleasant thoughts, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. |