Fellowship and a More Righteous Society

O LIVING God, we thank Thee that Thou hast not left us to ourselves. Thou hast been our Teacher. All through the past we can trace Thy self-unveiling. Through law and sacrifice and prophecy Thou hast sought to keep alive within the minds of men the knowledge of Thyself. And in the fulness of time Thou didst send Thy Son, that in Him Thou mightest declare Thine inmost heart, Thy love, which triumphs over sin and pain and death. By the glory of Thy manifested life, let us rejoice in the sense of sins forgiven, in the assurance that one day the tangled skein of our lives shall be unravelled and their mystery made plain. In times past we have not been willing to take all Thy love, nor enter into all Thy joy. We have often wandered from Thee into wastes wherein is no refreshment for our thirst, no rest for our weariness. But now we would be led by the green pastures and the still waters. Now we would lay aside our self-will, and freely surrender ourselves to the guiding of Thy hand. Allay our fears; quicken our better hopes; and so work in us that we may will what Thou willest, and because Thou willest it.

We cannot come into Thy presence without bringing with us all our brothers. Are we not all Thy children, and hast Thou not a purpose of good for us all? Give us a large and a nobler outlook. Give us more interest in each other, more zeal for each other's happiness, more willingness to share each other's pain. Take from us all miserable aims that end in self. May we, in the power of Christ's spirit, help the weak and neglected; comfort the afflicted and sorrow-laden; and bring a sense of fellowship to those who are friendless and lonely. We pray for the advancement of Christ's cause and Kingdom. We believe that it is the cause of goodness and truth, of all that makes life worth living. Awake, O Most Mighty, and scatter the banded powers of evil that delay the coming of Thy Kingdom, the victory of the Crucified. May all the ills that work ruin in our social and civic life be banished from our midst. Cleanse our hearts and lips, that we may be made meet for Thy service, mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, and to the building up of the City of God, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And this we ask, for Thy Name's sake. Amen.