The Spirit’s Comfort and True Riches

ALMIGHTY GOD, by Thy Spirit teach us what is wise and what is foolish; what is noble and what is mean; what is eternal and what is passing. And if Thou findest in Thy search of us, that not Thy greatest things are our greatest, that not the sweetest things of Thy world are sweetest to us; have mercy. Ill-born, ill-trained, diseased, suffering from sickness of soul and feebleness of body; made of the dust, cut down like the grass; short our life, dim our eyes, troubled our spirits, how, Lord! shall we always go right? And yet Thou art patient, and teachest us.

Send us Thy comforting Spirit, that we, first being comforted, and our tears dried, and our sad hearts cheered, may give the open ear of a child unto Thy sweet teaching, and learn that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Almighty God, look upon our timidity. We dare not claim that we are Thine, and yet, teach us that in Christ Thou didst take possession of humanity, and that by the inspiration of Thy Spirit, we may take unto ourselves Divinity. When Thou didst send to us Thy Son, Thou tookest us to Thyself. Now we ask Thee for Thy Spirit, that we may take Thee to ourselves; that so, God descending, and man ascending, Thou our Father, and we Thy children, we may learn peace and purity, lovingkindness and patience, and mercy, in that these are the sweet things of God; these are the highest gifts; these the most glorious graces; the perfect things of heaven, here given to us in time.

Make us wise to know what we would soonest part with; whether, if the choice were given to us, we would rather be impure than poor; whether we would rather part with truth than wealth; whether we desire more the honours of this world, than the hidden manna, and the Name written in the book of life. Have mercy when the world creeps and crawls upon us, and its foolish greatness and gilded idleness seduce us.

Lord God! if we must carry the palm-branch, and cry Hosanna! let it be to him that “cometh in the name of the Lord.” Make small to us the great things of the world. Make foolish to us the wisdom of the wise. Let Thy wise foolishness be ours. May we prefer goodness to greatness; pureness to pride; worthiness to wealth; the doing of one good thing to the hearing many great ones; rather to be of Thine unknown known ones, written in Thy book of Life, than to have our names written in the book of earthly fame. Teach us the wisdom of the foolishness of God; how Christ crucified is redemption and sanctification; how by suffering and self-denial, and giving up the lower life, the higher life is reached. May these things, that sound so strange, become to us so dear and so familiar, that whatsoever other things we may know or not know, the heavenly tongue, the Divine speech, the words of the Comforter, may be ours.

Let all things be suggestive of the thoughts of God. Let us walk in a world filled with the Spirit of God; filled with joy and peace in believing.

Almighty God! grant, we beseech Thee, that Thy word may still be preached in the earth, until all nations shall have heard the glorious truth of the one living and true God; no more priests, no sacrifices, no blood-streaming altar, no mortification of the flesh alone, no matter called unclean, no sweet affection trampled upon, no lovely thing of mortal life crushed; the intellect no longer degraded; the reason no longer offered up; but Man, body, soul, and spirit, Thine; Thy child, Thy sheep;—Thy wandered child, Thy strayed sheep, it may be, but called by Thy sweet love back to Thyself. Until at last the wide, wide world shall know the Father—God, and there shall be but one fold and one Shepherd; one God and Father of us all.

Towards that
“far-off divine event”
may we after our measure strive; and in the increase of knowledge, the strength of love, and the constant light of truth, may we see the old things pass away as baubles, toys, and playthings, and Man learning to live in the sweet lawlessness of love, because ever doing the eternal Will of God.

Hear us of Thy mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.—AMEN.