For Those Without Knowledge

O THOU Eternal One, we adore thee who in all ages hast been the great companion and teacher of mankind; for thou hast lifted our race from the depths, and hast made us to share in thy conscious intelligence and thy will that makes for righteousness and love. Thou alone art our Redeemer, for thy lifting arms were about us and thy persistent voice was in our hearts as we slowly climbed up from savage darkness and cruelty. Thou knowest how often we have resisted thee and loved the easy ways of sin rather than the toilsome gain of self-control and the divine irritation of thy truth.

O God, visit not upon us the guilt of the past, for our fathers have slain thy prophets. They silenced the voices that spoke thine onward thought, and generations have perished in soddenness and misery because the strong once quenched the light of truth. Do thou free humanity at last from the blood-rusted chains with which the past still binds us. Multiply the God-conquered souls who open their hearts gladly to the light that makes us free, for all creation shall be in travail till these sons of God attain their glory.

We pray thee for those who amid all the knowledge of our day are still without knowledge; for those who hear not the sighs of the children that toil, nor the sobs of such as are wounded because others have made haste to be rich; for those who have never felt the hot tears of the mothers of the poor that struggle vainly against poverty and vice. Arouse them, we beseech thee, from their selfish comfort and grant them the grace of social repentance. Smite us all with the conviction that for us ignorance is sin, and that we are indeed our brother’s keeper if our own hand has helped to lay him low. Though increase of knowledge bring increase of sorrow, may we turn without flinching to the light and offer ourselves as instruments of thy spirit in bringing order and beauty out of disorder and darkness.