Christ's Compassion for the Suffering

O GOD, most holy and most gracious, never could we climb up to Thee by any ladder of our own making; therefore in pity Thou hast sent Thy Son into the world to show us the way to Thee. Thou hast set the glory of Thine omnipotence in Heaven and earth. And yet wert Thou only an infinitude of might, our hearts would faint within us. But now in Jesus Christ Thou hast veiled Thy power, hast come forth in the strength of Thy gentleness to live our life and die our death, that Thou mightest win us to sonship and eternal life. O God, we know not the meaning of Gethsemane and the Cross. If we seek to grasp it, too often we but darken counsel with words of ignorance. We can only praise Thee for Thy grace, and lift up a cry of penitence and of trust.

Living Father! We thank Thee for our life with its unspeakable privilege and dread responsibility. Thou hast given it to us that through it may throb the mighty tide of Thy love, that in it may be revealed some aspect of Thy being and beauty. Thou hast beset us behind and before. Thou makest us to sorrow for our sins. Thou dost stir us with a divine discontent, and we forget the things that are behind and reach forth unto the things that are before. We rejoice that Thou hast set our life amid gracious opportunities, whereby Thou wouldst train us to truer vision and larger understanding of Thee and of ourselves. We bless Thee for the Church as the school of virtue and godly living; for the sacred Scriptures that bring to us the story of Thy redeeming will; for all the wise and saintly men of the past and of the present; for the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the noble army of the martyrs; for the great cloud of witnesses from whose faith and hope we would take courage in our struggles and trials. We rejoice to believe that Thou art always overruling trouble and temptation and sin and disappointment, and out of them art making stepping-stones to bring us nearer to Thee. Forbid that we should know Thy grace in vain. Rather may Thy goodness bind us anew to loyalty and to faith, and constrain us to a life separate from evil, made consecrate to goodness.

We would not be selfish in our prayers. We cannot come into Thy presence without bringing in our hearts the tears, the pain, the longing of our brothers. O God, our sympathy with them is but the broken reflection of Thine. Come Thou to the burdened, the wretched, the grief-stricken, those who have been made sad by others, and those who have brought sadness upon themselves. May they hear, by faith, the still voice of Thy sympathy! May they feel the beating of Thy great heart of compassion! May they take comfort in the assurance that Thou dost suffer in and with them, and yet abidest in everlasting blessedness! Hear our prayers in behalf of all those who are struggling against the power of evil. Have pity upon the drunkard. Restore to him the power of self-control. Enable him to obey the behests of reason and conscience. Lay Thy healing and soothing hand upon the victims of nervous tension, of sleepless nights, and fruitless days. Give them rest of soul that the body, too, may be at rest. Relieve those who are in pain. Grant them patience and courage, and let them not doubt Thy goodness or love. Call the sinning and the suffering into fellowship with Christ that they may find in Him the secret of victory over the evil of the world; that He may rise in their souls, a star burning brightly through the long night unto Thy perfect day. These blessings we beg, in His name, and for His sake. Amen.