Inner Peace and Justice in Wartime

ALMIGHTY GOD! we seem to live in two worlds, and these worlds are so strangely unlike! Round us Thou hast put all beauty, all fairness and fruitfulness. Generations of men have looked upon the glories of this world of Thine with eyes of love and wonder. And the world fades not, and grows not old. Above, Thou hast put the lights of heaven: how marvellous bright they be! Below are the mighty hills, the glorious sea. Thou hast filled the air with music, the world with treasures. This world of Thine seems fit for Thine own tread, as in the early days, when man did not mar its beauties, and Thou didst walk in the Garden, and lovedst Thy works. Thou didst place men upon it, great in life, great in deed. What words they sang! what works they taught! Beside them Thou makest us feel humble, poor, and pitiful. How great their tongue in praise, how lovely in their might, how exalted in their glory!

We look, then, O Lord, upon this world and the great men Thou hast put upon it in the olden time; great in words, great in deeds, mighty in holy things; and then we look upon ourselves; how poor and downfallen we be! We look among ourselves. There are many of us here, whose thoughts wander to every new-comer; who come to Thy house to gaze and to be gazed upon, rather than marvellously to adore. We watch ourselves; and see how little a thing can take the heart from God. There are some, through whose minds, even during Thy glorious praises, have flitted all foolishness, levity, and frivolity.

Hear our confession with shame, that it is hard to look upon the heavens for even one brief hour. Cure us, O Lord, by showing us the awful beauty of life, the dread significance of death. May the brightness of heaven tell us of life; the blackness of storm prophesy of the grave. Look on us, Lord God, in mercy, and save us. See us with laggard feet, slow to come to the house of God; with wandering eyes, thoughts far off, tongues dumb, taking no part in Thy praise, with cold hearts, unquickened by the warm words of the men of old. Take us, O Lord! in our feebleness, bear with us in our coldness, reclaim us from wandering, and help us to cry to Thee.

We cry to Thee for the inward blessing. Without it, what can we do? What is all the world's beauty, what its glories, but food to one that hath no hunger, beauty to the blind, music to the heavy-hearted, the merry laughter of the child to the man cast down in spirit? These give no joy.

But do Thou give the inward peace that maketh the outward things more fair, our life more beautiful, and death less sad; that taketh away our many cares, the vexations that are so little yet provoke us so much, the thorns in the flesh that trouble us, the sand in our eyes which are blinded by the pettinesses of life.

Show us how great men have walked in hostile places, how nobly they suffered, how boldly they died. Show us Paul, troubled with thorns, with humiliation, with pain and weakness, holding steadily on his way to God; lifting up the wondrous cross of Jesus Christ.

Teach us how great men have languished in prison, what wondrous thoughts have come from behind prison-walls. Let us hear David from Mizar's hill, crying unto God; and Samuel serving Thee, though but a servant in a king's house. Show us all the great souls fighting for God; the mighty men dying like true soldiers of Christ; Peter the fisherman, Paul the tent-maker, Matthew the receiver of taxes.

Give us, then, the inward peace that maketh men mighty. O Lord God! look upon all of us in time of trouble, whether national or individual. We have heard of terrible things. We mourn this day over the many of our countrymen who have fallen in battle, whose bones will never come back to the dear old land. If these things must be, fill our hearts with calmness, fortitude, and power. O Lord! if it be Thy Will, still we cry:—Give us peace, in Thy good time; but still we cry, as before, Give us righteousness and justice first, and then peace. We pray not Thy blessing for the wrong. Let the good cause flourish. Continue Thy mighty war against the tyrant, the proud, and ungodly of the earth; humble the oppressor, bring low the unjust. Let liberty, true liberty, govern the world.

In Thy might arise, O God! bring down the mighty lies of the time. Look on those to whose hearts the fall of countrymen brings no pang; who hear the sad story and have no tear. Pardon those that feel no righteous wrath, when treachery, sinfulness, cruelty, and brutality are done in the world; that can feel no indignation for the doings of a king, because he is a king; that can bring one criminal to punishment for a single crime, but has no justice for him who commits many, and that give him, instead, feasting and flattery.

Fill us with a passionate love for right against wrong, for truth against a lie. Measure our patriotism by our love of right. Make us full of Thy love, that so we may be soldiers of light, love, liberty, and truth; fighters against all that would oppose Thee.

Bless this earth, O Lord! Look upon those that suffer. Restore liberty to the world. Bless the exile, bless the sad, bless the prisoner.

Look on those in sickness and sadness, whether sad in soul, body, or estate. Accept the thanksgiving of those that have, by Thy goodness, cause to rejoice; and let them and all of us ever feel and say, "God is great, His Will be done, His name be praised, now and for evermore."—AMEN.