Prayer CXII
O Lord, most gracious. Who art very near to us to know, and knowing to pity, and pitying to help, help us now, we beseech Thee; for the more we need Thee the less we feel after Thee, and the further away from Thee we are the more we need Thy drawing hand. Strengthen us, we beseech Thee, that we may yield ourselves to the outward associations, and to the memories of this day; and may find that for once the things seen do help us to a firmer and a more peaceful possession of the things unseen. We praise Thee, O Lord, that Thou dost thus appoint our gathering together that our many weaknesses may unite to bring some strength, and the dying embers drawn together may break into a flame. We thank Thee for all the blessings which Thou art wont to give to those who in secret seek Thy face. We thank Thee for the blessings which Thou art wont to give to those who, in company with their brethren, draw near to Thee; and as Thou hast permitted us to assemble thus may we not be without the consciousness of that presence in the midst of us which moulds all our coldness, which lifts us up into the fellowship of Christ’s own ascended life, and causes us to sit together in heavenly places with Him. May we, this morning, be able to shake off from ourselves chains and hindrances, and to draw near to Thee.
And grant, O Lord, that we may not merely feel after Thee, if haply we may find Thee, but seek, as those do who know where that which they seek for is, and in seeking do find.
We pray Thee to apply Thy manifold grace to us in the fashion which we may severally most need. Some of us have brought sluggish and heavy hearts into Thy presence. Quicken us, O Lord, that we may call upon Thy Name, and that we may run after Thee, and find Thee. Some of us have come in outward form, with no real approach of heart to Thee. Mayest Thou be found of them that seek Thee not, and manifest Thyself even to careless eyes, that they may turn aside to see this great sight, dimly beheld before them, and half understood. Some of us have brought into Thy presence sorrowful souls; comfort Thou such, and may all our troubles always bring us nearer Thee, and never, as they so often do, drive us away from Thee. We have all come with deep needs, and the deepest of all is the need for Thyself. O help us to understand ourselves, in the depths of our beings, and to be sure that nothing will satisfy us except God. And may that conviction rule in our lives, and not only dawn upon us now and then, and then be swallowed up again in the clouds.
O may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide Thee from Thy servant’s eyes.
May we live near to Thee, and may our worship of this morning help us to permanent and stable fellowship with Thyself, which shall not be broken but rather increased by the necessity of going out into the world; because there we go to do Thy will, and find Thee manifesting Thyself at sundry times and in divers manners.
Help us, we pray Thee, that thus this day may not be so much an exception to the ordinary course of our thoughts and endeavours and desires, as that it may be a reservoir of strength from which there shall come the power that shall assimilate the other days to itself, and make all our work worship.
O Lord! cleanse our hearts, we beseech Thee. Prepare us now for an hour of true devotion and communion with Thyself. May earth’s noises be silenced, and the chains that so often bind us down to this present scene be relaxed, and we set free to soar and to come near to God. Mercifully accept our thanks for all Thy great mercies to us. We know not their number; we thank Thee for their unbroken stream, many-coloured, and with many an apparent crosscurrent in it which all flows from Thyself, and is all meant to bear us on its course towards Thee. Accept our praise, and help us to live our praise, and to use all the things which Thou dost send — the changes of condition, the stages of growth and progress, our sorrows and our joys, our achievements and our failures, our hopes fulfilled and our hopes disappointed — to use them all that they may bring us nearer to God, and make us in fuller measure partakers of His holiness.
We beseech Thee to hear us, and in Thy grace accept and answer us, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.