One Prayer Across the Ages of Life

O LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! help every one of us to remember into Whose presence we would now come; by what ear these poor few words are to be heard; unto what Throne these petitions are to be presented. Lord God! Thou hast fire which can consume our impure thoughts, our unholy things; which can make of our poor sacrifice a sweet incense, and cause to arise a heavenly savour in the which Thou wilt delight. O Lord God, hear our poor prayers, and when Thou hearest, forgive their weakness, accept their intention, strengthen their feeling, make their expression strong. Thou canst take all the various things of our many hearts, and make them one. Accept, then, our one prayer.

Let the little child lift up its little heart in simplicity to Thee, knowing little, questioning little, but receiving in sweet faith the words it has been taught. Let the young join in this prayer, knowing they can only have true beauty so far as they have true goodness, and true goodness so far only as they have true godliness. Let those on whose shoulders is the burden of life, whose toil is much and whose leisure is little, join in this prayer; that during the heat and burden of the day, they may rest in Thee, as in the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a refreshment to them when the world proves vain.

Look on them that are much in the world’s ways. The child in its simple faith is upheld by Thee, and Thy comfort is ever with the trustful old; but for us, doing the world’s work, tempted by what others do; tempted to sell truth for opinion; choosing to take the poor standard of this world, instead of that of Christ;— none need Thy care so much as we. Look on us! hardworked, toiling much, and gaining perhaps but little; tempted to think that all is vanity and vexation of spirit, and covering ourselves with dread lest after all they be fools that sacrifice outward things for inward.

If we have become blind to honour, and the beauty of holiness, and the power of truth; if we have taken up our abode in this life, forgetting that it is a pilgrimage to a better,—open out for us a bright light, that amidst our crooked ways we may see once more God, and the soul, and the Life that is to come; the depths of the mystery in which the world rests, the awful future before us. Lord! love us much that bear the heat and burden of the day; watch us with Thy great care.

Look also that the aged join in this prayer. May it be their delight to look back on the way Thou hast led them. Give them Thy tender forbearance, pour on them Thy pity, give them the consolations of Thy Holy Spirit, and the bright hope of the World-to-come. And as that world comes nearer, as strength begins to fail, as the things of the earth begin to fade, and the heavenly things look brighter, may they say, with the saint of old, “It is better to depart, and be with Christ.”

So let us all lift one great prayer to Thee, and let the good desires of our one heart be heard, and blessed.

O Lord God! Thou alone canst read all our hearts; what can one teach so many? Strangers as we are, we know not the joys in one another’s hearts, the bitterness of each other’s sorrow. How shall one man teach so many, and pray with so many? But it is Thine to carry Thy word into many hearts, to bring forth blessing, and make to spring from all these spirits one great song of thanksgiving. So let one this day speak to the hearts of all, that they may serve God, love righteousness, hate the devil, and flee from the lusts and vanities of the world, that war against the soul.

Almighty God! make us all to be men in earnest; that we may know the way of the Lord our God, and walk in it.

Accept the thanks of those that have felt Thy great goodness. And though there be some here, the delight of whose heart, and the light of whose eyes has been taken from them, make them remember the blessed time that draweth near. When the Master had tasted the bitterness of death, make us to remember the bright morning light that came after; the cry amid the tears, “Christ is risen!” and the victory is gained over death.

Fit us all for that day; fill us with immortal hopes. Make that death to show us that immortality is near; and though its image is unwelcome, an intruder, a sorrow, yet let us remember that death, only, can lead by the hand that most blessed gift, the Immortal Life; and if we will not have Thy sad messenger, how shall we receive Thy blessed angel that follows? May we be well content to see Thy sad angel, because he is ever followed to the gate of Thy Rest, by the messenger that speaks of the Life Everlasting, and takes by the hand them that believe in Christ.

Teach us to ask ourselves, what we shall be, when Death comes. If fashion and pomp, if guilty pleasures and wealth, and work, begin to tyrannize over the soul, let us be wise to see what Death can do. It can touch pomp, and make it dust; put its hand upon wealth, and make it dross; breathe upon guilt, and make it corruption; touch work, and make it vain. Let us see what Death can do; lowering kings, touching men whose word was good against the world but yesterday, and making them vain, idle, Dust!

Let us see what Death cannot do. Let us see it lift up its great dread finger, and the power, the grandeur, and the beauty of this world pass away as a dream; but let it try to touch the Lord Christ! the immortal soul! Let us, then, with joy and thanks, see the finger of Death fall harmless; unable to wipe away a single promise of the Lord. Let our desire be, to be surrounded by Thy goodness, by the brightness of Thy glory, that death cannot dim; to have part in Thy beauty, and portion in Thy holiness, that death cannot efface. So fill us, Lord, with Thy deathless beauty and the glory of Thy truth.

Of ourselves we are nothing; through Christ we are much. Through Thee the sinful become holy, immortal through Christ. Comfort us with these great truths; we ask it in Christ’s name.—AMEN.