A New Year of Trust and Quiet Toil
Gives thanks for the past year’s beauty and kindness, then seeks peace and faithful work amid uncertainty and mortality.
Historical edition. Historical claims and instructions are preserved as historical context.
O LORD, we thank Thee that again we have seen the glory of the changing year, the sweet promise of the spring, the glow of summer, the wealth of autumn, the warmth and tenderness of the winter’s home. We thank Thee for all the glorious show that Thou hast unfolded before us; for hours of communion with Nature, when, through this fair veil of earthly things, we have seen Thy great glory shining in upon us.
We bless Thee for quiet hours, when the soul in solitude has been filled full with Thee; for sweet thoughts which none but ourselves have known; for songs in the night, when Thou hast held our eyes waking. We bless Thee for the good that others have done to us; for that which we have been enabled to do for others; for the tenderness and love we have received; for that which we have given; for sin conquered; for wrongs which we have forgiven.
And now we stand upon the threshold of another year, and we know not what may be the end thereof unto us. It may be in sadness and loneliness, in bitterness aub desolateness; we cannot tell. But, having Thee with us, all will assuredly be well. Our child-hand held in Thy strong and loving grasp, what can even the weakest of us fear?
We know that, for some of us, our last year has this day dawned. Some feet, now standing here, must pass through the dark valley before its close. Almighty! in that hour let Thy love be our strength. Let us remember that, as is Thy greatness, so is Thy tenderness; as is Thy strength, so is Thy pitifulness and so Thy mercy.
Grant unto us that peace which passeth understanding; the peace of God, Who, in that He seeth the end from the beginning, possesseth that which flees from us who trouble our hearts about the things whereof we know so little,—those things whose issues, because they are unknown to us, do cause us to fear.
But, knowing so surely that all things work together for good to them that love Thee, may we wait patiently and toil quietly, though the waiting be long and the toil be hard. For Thou art our Guide, and Heaven is our home.
Grant that our death may be the peaceful ending of a noble story, the quiet Amen to life’s long prayer.—AMEN.