Comfort and Thanksgiving at Year’s End

WE give Thee humble and hearty thanks, Almighty God, that in the same want and weariness that they of old did know, we have the same comfort and consolation that they of old did feel. “Comfort ye my people!” is still the need of our souls, and by Thy unwearying love we would be comforted. Earthly comfort is short, and passeth away as the clouds: the clouds come again after the rain, and come so soon! But when we look unto Thee, Thou failest never, Thou faintest not, we cannot out-weary Thy patience, we cannot overtax Thy strength. O Lord God! we comfort ourselves in Thee: Thou watchest whilst we sleep, Thou sleepest never, and as Thine eye watcheth all things, so Thine unsleeping love cares for all. So we comfort ourselves that whether the days be few or many that we have yet to run, the years of our life are all within Thy mercy, all within Thy care. We beseech Thee, let Thy people be comforted. Look upon those who specially need Thy comfort, because they are greatly sad; look upon those who mourn that death hath come, or who look for his nigh approach; look upon those who mourn beside the grave; look upon those who grieve over a faithless love; those who weep for the sunshine never returning; those who mourn with a grief that saps the mind. Comfort Thy people, O God! Comfort us with the great hope that Thou wilt wipe away all tears from our eyes; comfort us with the good hope that we shall see that wondrous day, when all evil shall be worked out, when all sin shall be purged away, when the world shall become regenerate, Paradise come back, and God shall be all and in all. That this may be so in us, fill Thou us with Thyself, that in lowly loving and longing we may pass the days of this our earthly state, looking forward to the good day when we shall pass beyond the gates of death, safe into eternal life.

For all that Thou hast done for us during the year that is now fast closing, we bless Thee. For all that we have left undone that should have been done, we ask Thy mercy. For all the things that we have done that should not have been done, hear our ashamèd cry—“Have mercy upon us, miserable offenders!” For whatsoever there has been in us that was comely and lovely and of good report, we bless Thee. For all the beauty that we have beholden, we bless Thee. For all the riches of human love that we have gathered, we bless Thee. For all the sweetnesses of life that we have had, we give Thee thanks. For the sorrows and troubles that have come to us, we bless Thee, for, through those sorrows, blessings have come to us; and pain and trouble have taught us to sing the Lord’s song in the night. We beseech Thee to let Thy blessing go with us, as it ever hath done, restraining us more than it hath done, and filling us more with Thy Spirit than before; that so, those of us who are going down the hill toward the west, may find our last days to be our best days; and though the glory of youth is over, let the beauty of age be ours, the palm-branch of victory, the white stone of those whom Thou hast chosen.

And now we are approaching another year, let us enter it with gladness, as into a time when God may be known, as into a place where God may be met without fear and without trembling. Fill us with hope; give us the Comforter; feed us with the bread of the soul; give us the manna by which the body may be sustained, and give us also of the manna, the hidden manna, that only the secret soul can know. Love us all, and bring us all at last, when all the wearinesses and all the blessings of this life are past, not of our merit, but of Thy mercy, safe into our desired haven. We ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord.—AMEN.