For Judges

O GOD, who art the author and giver of law, from whom alone all just designs and righteous judgments proceed, give unto all those who frame, interpret, or administer human law the counsel of thy Holy Spirit, that they may know themselves thy ministers. Remove from them all pride and vainglory of class, all prejudice of birth and training, all narrowness of place and power, and grant them to know that only in loving sympathy with all their fellow-men is there the possibility of clear understanding and righteous decision. Enable them so to receive the precepts and examples of the past that they build upon the heritage of the fathers a just and adequate edifice of law for the present.

As they deduce the principles which underlie the customary laws of men, give unto them the larger vision of the reign of law and the ordered universe, of the precedents of nature and providence, and suffer them not to forget or to be ignorant of those inevitable laws of thine which outlive the lives of men. O Thou who hast given to man the will to conquer the earth, the power to serve his fellows and the heart to love thee, may the rule of the market-place never be suffered to obscure thine eternal justice, but grant to all these the ministers of human justice the will and ability to pacify the passions and adjust the disputes of men. Suffer them neither to be swayed by the prejudices nor to appeal to the weaknesses of others, but to deal fairly, counsel wisely, and quit themselves manfully in all matters; to be the servants of all men, but the hirelings of none, and so to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth, for which we pray.