Rest in God Amid Universal Change

ALMIGHTY GOD, we rejoice in Thy fixèd will, Thy stable purpose, Thine unshaken power, Thine enduring mercy. And we rejoice more and more in these things, for we suffer change. The body changes, and the soul within us undergoeth strange changes. And the world changes. The eternal hills are passing away, and the deep sea is filling up, and all things suffer change. And we ourselves are not as we were; the fancies of our youth, and the dreams of other days are gone. Those we love are not where they were; their places are empty, and the old familiar faces become fewer, and all is changed. The old order, in all things, passeth away, and the unaccustomed new cometh in its place.

O Lord, we would rest in Thee; in Thee alone is the true Rest, for Thou knowest all things from the beginning, and Thy ways are without restlessness or change. Teach us what it is to rest in God. And when the order of the world seems to us cruel; when the constant destruction of beauty and of life seems to us hard; when we look grudgingly at the falling leaf; when we see the fair little child bowed down in death, and behold man in his prime go to his long home; when we mark the slaughter, the tyranny, the cruelty of man, and when we watch Nature, and see how seemingly regardless she is of all this;—what can we do but turn to Thee, Whose law underlieth all, and Who art the End of all?

All this is Thine; Thou seest it all, Thou hast seen it ever. And because we know Thee, and trust Thy love, though blind as to vision, yet far-seeing as to faith, help us to say, “It is well,” and rest in God. When the heart sigheth after the things that are gone, and is weary for the longing that it hath that we might touch once more the old familiar hands, help us to say, “They are in God; it is well.” And when heavy clouds are over us, and the veil is thick, and all is dark to us beyond the grave, and we can neither see nor hope, help us to be quiet in God. Thou madest life; Thou madest death. It is well.

When we hear of the mighty things that man discovers, and then stand by the open grave, pondering upon the awful and hidden ways by which Thou hast led man; when we think of the dim ages that are passed, and of the long procession of years that are to come; when we know that this poor little world, upon which we live, must sometime go its way, and be no more, or pass into some condemned region of coldness and of death; and we feel ourselves nothing: yet even then, may we rest in the Lord.

O God, to Thee there is no great, and no small, to Thee the ages are but as sands on the sea-shore, and the nations but as a drop in a bucket. We rest in God. And when all our care and toil seem to give to us little; when our vexed lives seem to be to us so little worth; we rest in God. They are Thine, Thou madest them; Thou knowest we are but dust; it is in Thy care.

So, Lord God! help us to be very quiet, and very patient; to rest lowly in Thee, to leave high things, and seek not for unfathomable things; but learn Thy lovingkindness, and show our true believing of it, by doing like unto it. May we hear Christ say, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Do Thou give us true uprightness and lovingkindness, that we may care little for the other things, and caring little for them, care little whether they be added or no. Should they not come, may the higher life within us make us careless for the lack of them, that we, living in love and in truth, and, thanks to Thy wondrous works, in beauty, may be content to let this vain world go its way, disturbing ourselves not about it; but, as little children, leaving all to God. So, looking with a quiet smile upon the vanities of life, abjuring its pomps, declining its ambitions, may ours be the life of the true man. Upright, fearless, just, quiet, patient, pure, lovers of Thy works, and of all Thy wondrous ways, may ours be the life of the true beauty of God. Then when we come to die, let it be without fear. Death is Thine, Thou madest it, Thou knowest it, we submit to it, we rest in God.

Thus, till the few more sands of life shall have run out, may we know the calm of God; and may the peace that passeth understanding keep our hearts and minds, through Jesus Christ our Lord.—AMEN.