66 Thy will be done." Why always bow the head When unto Him we pray, "Thy will be done"? On just and unjust shines His blessed sun. "Thy will be done." Is there no other way If aught we know, we know that joy reigns there; O Master of the thorn-strewn way! Thou hast journeyed with unfaltering step over the road where we so often falter. Thou didst not escape the thornthrusts; the stones of stumbling were not removed from Thy path. Through all these Thou madest Thy way unerring to the crown by patient perseverance and gracious yielding to the Father's will. We can know no sorrow to which Thou art a stranger, no heart-longing to Thee unknown. Teach us Thy secret. Walk with us in the way we take and hearten us in the trying hours. Amen. CHARLES HOWARD TAYLOR. Who seeks success Must look for it in paths untrod before, Must journey on, though weary and footsore; EDGAR A. GUEST. Our Father, we love Thee for the paths we have already trod and for the untrodden paths of a new day. We remember Thy loving kindness in the night watches, Thy tender mercies in hard marches and Thy protecting presence in journeys of great dangers. Again our trust is in Thee. We would welcome the valleys and the hills, the dusty road of the common day or the steep challenge of the mount of vision, for life and joy is to do our work, the work Thou hast given us to do. We rejoice that in light or darkness it is glorious, for on all our paths there falls the shadows of the spires of a city whose maker and builder is God. Amen. ARCHEY D. BALL. The life that counts must toil and fight; The life that counts must aim to rise The life that counts must helpful be; The life that counts must helpful be, CHRISTIAN CYNOSURE. O Lord, help us to realize that the life Thou givest us is not called eternal simply because it is long, but also because it is deep and broad and high. Make us thoughtful and fraternal and prayerful that the dimensions of our souls may be so stretched that we may hold an abundance of the life that is life indeed. O Christ, source of life and light and love, help us to live on such intimate terms with Thee that such a life may be as natural to us as for morning glories to open in the quiet dark of early summer morning. Amen. RAYMOND H. HASE. We speak with awed tenderness of our guardian angels; but have we not all had our guiding angels, who came to us in visible form, and recognized or unknown, kept beside us on our difficult path until they had done for us all that they could? LUCY LARCOM. Somebody did a golden deed; ANONYMOUS. O Thou, who art our Guardian and our Guide, we bless Thee for the souls whom Thou hast joined with Thyself, to be our guides and helpers by day, and our sentinels by night. We thank Thee for those who watch over us, who ease our burdens, lighten our cares, smooth our paths, and stand between us and evil. Our guardian angels are of Thine own, Thy gracious care and love. Give us a due sense of their unselfish service, and help us, in turn, to be watchers over all who are weak, untaught, or wayward. Help us to give even as we are receiving. Amen. JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS. A smile is quite a funny thing; And, when it's gone, you never find But far more wonderful it is To see what smiles can do: He smiles at some one, since you smiled, *And, since a smile can do great good Let's smile and smile, and not forget ARTHUR WALLACE PEACH. Our Father, we thank Thee for the light of Thy face dispersing the gloom of a darkened world. O Light of life, Thou shinest on the cradles of our newborn and over the graves of our dead, and lightest all the way our feet must tread from one to the other. Shine in the hearts of the poor until they shall see the infinite value of the soul. Shine in the hearts of the rich until they shall see the poverty of things. Shine health into sickness, joy into sorrow, life into death and in that glad to-morrow, O, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. Amen. ORVILLE C. POLAND. |