Providence and Comfort in Loss

LOVING Father, our hearts are moved to gratitude and trust when we look up to Thee. We rejoice that through our fleeting days there runs Thy gracious purpose. We praise Thee that we are not the creatures of chance, nor the victims of iron fate, but that out from Thee we have come and into Thy bosom we shall return. We would not, even if we could, escape Thee. Thou alone art good, and to escape from Thee is to fall into infinite evil. Thy hand is upon us moving us on to some far-off spiritual event, where the meaning and the mystery of life shall be made plain and Thy glory shall be revealed. Look in pity upon our ignorance and childishness. Forgive us our small understanding of Thy purpose of good concerning us. Be not angry with us, but draw us from the things of this world which cannot satisfy our foolish hearts. Fill us with Thyself, that we may no longer be a burden to ourselves. So glorify the face of goodness that evil shall have no more dominion over us.

The strength of Thy love, O Lord, we would have all men share. Let it go forth to all who feel themselves neglected, or despised, or forgotten. Be Thou their great Companion, who understands all, whose sympathy is wider and deeper than all their need. Look in compassion upon the bereaved and broken-hearted. Help them to take up afresh the duties of life with a deeper devotion to Thee, that so they may pass into that world of experience, where sorrow alone can lead the way. Lift them above themselves so that their tears may bring forth fruit in tender ministry to those afflicted with like suffering, that they may comfort others with the comfort wherewith they themselves are comforted by Thee. For those who despair because of moral weakness and failure, we pray. May they throw themselves on Thy truth and mercy, and hear Thy voice of power and reassurance, "Be still and know that I am thy God, thy salvation." Let the doubter see his doubts dissolve away in the vision of Thyself. Let the restless and discontented pass into Thy peace, which the world cannot give and cannot take away. Let the miserable and ill at ease, the fretful and the careworn, come forth from their cabined world into the larger places of Thy blessedness and Thy rest.

O God, Thou hast been our fathers' God. They trusted in Thee, and were not ashamed. Be our God and our Fortress, even unto death, for Thy mercies' sake. Amen.