The Liberty of Love

ALMIGHTY GOD! in Thy mercy look upon every one of us according to our needs, that we may all be able to go in the way of Thy commandments. We bless Thee for the large liberty whereby we walk, no man daring to make us afraid. Teach us that deepest, strangest obedience, the liberty of love that looks up and adores; that so, being bound, we may be free, and being under authority, we may be above all power, and being under Christ, we may be safe in God.

Thus do Thou increase the liberty of our lives, that, having the inward law written upon our hearts, we may look forward to, and even for a moment touch, that blest estate in which all struggle shall cease, and our passions shall but lend fire to the purposes of the heart; where all shall sing the same sweet song, and the words and music shall be all as one; where the spirit shall need to war no more against the flesh, and the body shall need no more to be trampled or kept down; where there shall be no rule and no law, for all shall live in the light of God; where love shall be the law of life, and life shall be Divine.

And though this fair prospect seems yet so distant, and the Holy Land so far away, still let us strive for it, and let the strife be unto the end. And, Lord God! if the days of this our mortal life be not long enough for this high endeavour, for the victory of the spirit, for the full mastery of the higher over the lower, let the long days of the eternal years be ours, that in them we may still go on in endless progress towards perfection. Lift us to the knowledge of the freedom of God: and may the things passing around us have no power to shake our steadfast souls, striving ever towards that blessed end when peace shall be in the earth, and knowledge shall cover it, for all shall know the Lord. And when our patience is scant because the years of God are long, and we look at the dial of life and see how fast the shadow moves, or watch its sands and see how low they run, or count the friends of our youth and see how they be thinning; then let us hear Thy servant say, “A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.” Confiding in Thy love, may we lay down our little life, and commend our souls in sure trust unto Thy strength, knowing that from Thee all things come, and to Thee all things go, and that one day Thou wilt cause all evil to pass out of being and wilt Thyself be all and in all.

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