Prayers of Frank W. Gunsaulus

Front matter

Book_lZ_

jftank M» (Buneaulus

New York Chicago

Preface

THESE prayers uttered in Central Church, Chicago, between the years 1913-1918, are gathered together in the knowledge that having been helpful to those who for many years heard Dr. Gunsaulus on Sunday mornings, they will be even more precious now that his voice among us is stilled. They were taken verbatim, during the service, interwoven as they were with the hymns, anthems and sermon into what he always strove to make, a unified thought running throughout the order of service. He preached through his choir almost as much as through the spoken word, and in the case of the prayers used in the service it has been thought well to mention the line referred to of the hymn, song or anthem which preceded his prayer which so often was a continuance and completing of the thought expressed in the music. The titles and composers of the music are listed, in the order of their quotation, on a page at the end of this volume.

The prayers are grouped under four head-

S

6 PREFACE ings: those offered at the opening of Service, those used during the Service, prayers in Wartime, and prayers for Special Occasions, such as New Year, Easter and Christmas. This was done with the thought that they might be more easily referred to by those who would be comforted, strengthened, and inspired by them.

Helen C. Gunsaulus.

Chicago^ March //, 1922.

Contents

Prayers Used at the Opening of Service 7

Prayers Used During Service . . 49

Prayers Offered on Special Occasions . 119

II

OGOD, who art the Father of all and who alone makest men to be of one mind in a house, we beseech Thee at this time of strife to grant us by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit a fuller realization of our brotherhood, man with man in Thee. Allay our anger and bitterness and deepen in us a sense of truth and equity in our dealings one with another, for the sake of Thy Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ill

OGOD, who hast made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, who in Thy Holy Word hast taught us that One is our Father, that we all are brethren, we pray Thee in this dark hour of international strife that Thou wilt open the eyes of Thy people, those who in Thy Name are entrusted with the authority of government to see and understand their right and true relation to Thee and through Thee to one another. Teach them that hatred and violence are not strength, but weakness; that the true safeguarding of a nation is not to be found in weapons of war, but in these eternal principles which make for truth and brotherhood. Give to those who shall suffer in the war which is now raging the consolations of Thy Grace; heal the sick and comfort the wounded ; minister to the dying and bind up the broken heart. Bring, we pray Thee, to a speedy end this international battle, and hasten, we pray Thee, the time when peace shall flourish out of the earth and all shall dwell together in vmity and love and war shall be no more. We ask it in the Name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. .

IV

OLORD God of infinite Peace, we humbly beseech Thee to look down upon the nations now engaged in war. Reckon not against Thy people their many iniquities, for from the lusts of our own hearts comes fighting, and war is among us. Look, we pray Thee, in mercy upon those immediately exposed to peril, conflict, sickness and death; comfort the prisoners, relieve the sufferings of the wounded, and show mercy to the dying. Remove in Thy good providence, we beseech Thee, all the causes, all the occasions for war ; dispose the hearts of those engaged therein to moderation, and in Thy great goodness, restore peace among the nations, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY Love, Thou who alone art mighty because Thou art love, we thank Thee for the religion of benediction and that no music in this world or in any other world can make the music of malediction otherwise than sad and dark and noisesome and wrong. We thank Thee, as we hear this old Hebraic song with its revenges, for Him who took the little children into His arms and blessed them and did not ask for their heredity, but out of His outpouring soul of love gave His blessing to humanity.

We pray to-day that as the shadow stretches across this world and darkness and woe and weariness are all about, that all revenge may die away and that the sweeter and holier qualities may come forth in all these embattled hosts. Forgive us. Lord, if we, as a nation, appeal from Christian sentiments to sentiments of revenge. We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OGOD, in these moments of great trial, in these hours when nations are plunging with havoc of war against nations; when the earth shakes beneath the feet of armies, we look to Thee. We pray Thee, in Christ's Name, that Thou wilt show us to the establishment of our faith the attack of all these, the earth's afiflictions, to be of Thine own hand, to be of Thine own grace. Stay, we pray Thee, the progress of everything save the progress of truth and righteousness. Answer, we beseech Thee, the prayers of those that mourn, the widowed and orphaned of the world. O Lord, establish righteousness. May we know how much everything costs which is worthy to be a banner for our civilization. May we know that this is Calvary again, and may we stand reverently and may we as a race, if the darkest hour shall come, say as He said, " For this cause came I unto this hour." Father, glorify Thy Name. And O Lord, when the voice in the midnight speaks may something be done worth all this cost. We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all humanity, we bring to Thee this morning tears of sorrow and a race afflicted, and we pray Thee to turn aside the wrath of man for the chariots of the Almighty. We beseech Thee, at this time, O Lord, especially, to bless the President of the United States and all others associated with him in authoritative government. Grant to the people of this country, we beseech Thee, the calm that befits an hour of such importance in the history of the world. Give to our beloved United States such union of sentiment in prayer as will dispose us to proper procedure in the light of law and liberty and justice and truth before the throne of Almighty God. We devoutly pray in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD, we are conscious of our sins ; we are conscious of our weaknesses ; we are conscious of dehberate wrong-doing. Each one of us is conscious here this morning of the possibilities of such mistakes in life as come only from wrong-heartedness. Cleanse our hearts, we beseech Thee. Bind us, we pray Thee, to the cross of Jesus; tether us, we who are wandering, tether us, we beseech Thee with all the intimacy of all the love of Almighty grace to the one thing in the world which our poor old world has distrusted — the one thing which in the midst of all the clash of arms we have despised; the cross of Christ, self-sacrifice. O for one moment of world self-sacrifice, for one moment in which selfishness, self-conceit, self-appreciation may fade from our thoughts. We pray for this in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD, while we pray for others in the midst of battle, we pray for the sake of others and for the world, for the United States of America, for our President and Congress assembled, for all the officers who guide and enforce public opinion. But above all we pray for any who may affect the opinions and ideals of the American people, that we may be so guided and kept within the bounds of order and law, and especially of unaffected devotion unto Thee, that we may serve the cause of peace and hope of the world, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

WE turn our thoughts this morning from these fields of faith, these fields of love, these fields of opportunity and grace, to fields trampled with hoofs of steel, furrowed with cannon and broken in the agony of a great contest. Almighty God, Thou art the Ruler of the Universe. May we be calm and in the hush of our faith may we know that the maps of the earth are not made upon the earth; may we know that above all the shriek of shell and storm of battle is our God. O Lord, pierce the gloom with Thy Spirit and comfort. Bless the homeless and the orphan ; we beseech Thee, staunch the wounds of this poor, blundering world of ours, and grant us peace in our time. We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

LORD God Almighty, in whose hands are the balances of justice and in whose heart are the sympathies of the eternal, we pray Thee again this morning that peace may come into our hearts, first of all to abide there and to send all warring and contentious things from our minds, to prepare us for the life of constructive and beautiful progress, to make our lives, lives so white, so pure, and so strong that in our battles there shall be no residue of blood, no aching wounds but that the wounds that have been made shall be staunched and cease bleeding and hearts that are broken may be mended as by the Divine Hand of Love. So we pray Thee over the earth to stretch the sceptre of Thy reign and out of all confusion and blood bring safety and peace to the nations. We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD, when such a canvas is stretched before our hearts as day by day exhausts our interest and attracts our attention, we fail unless Thou art with us in the little duties of life and all the employments and demands that come to children and to the weak folk of the world. We pray Thee that nothing may take from us the consent of our minds with Jesus Christ our Lord to make every path of life a place in which the lame may walk and every way a Highway for the blind in their weakness, and all our life a life of such response to Thy Spirit that wherever we are there may be a Gospel, an Epistle, known and read of all men. We ask this in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OTHOU Author of all things good, Thou to whom evil is but the shadow of goodness, we pray Thee that in these present conflicts men with men, empires with empires, we may know there is but one contest in which we are worthily engaged, and that is against evil in behalf of good. Gird us until like soldiers of the Almighty we shall march under the Captain of our Salvation to a mighty victory. We pray in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

WE lift our voices and our hearts to Thee, O God, for any and all that are in perplexity, from him whom we have chosen as President of the United States to the least conspicuous and perhaps most sorrowful of mankind. Lord, we thank Thee that even the hairs of our head are numbered, we thank Thee that Thou dost put our tears into Thy bottle, we thank Thee that nothing escapes Thee. So we pray for those whom we love and those whom we do not love because we have not known them, those whom Thou lovest largely because they have no other lover in the world. May they have the guidance of the Holy Spirit. May they walk after Him who has gone through the deepest of darknesses and most sorrowful of tribulations, even our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

WE pray Thee this morning, Heavenly Father, that our faith may soar even above the battle-fields while Thou dost give Thy comfort, while Thou dost help us to minister with our abundance to the want of the world. O, wilt Thou create throughout the world an anticipation of a welcome for the Prince of Peace! Wilt Thou bring speedily to an end, we pray Thee, the sorrow and the pain of these distracted times ? We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OGOD of Peace, as we approach Thy throne, we see upon the throne the slain Lamb, and we know that this sacrifice is the vast expense paid and the cost of liberty and justice and peace. We pray Thee that if we must be reconciled to the shedding of blood we may also be assured that out of it all there shall come a better day. But we pray Thee that we may know Thy truth when with lips divine it is spoken. " It must be that offenses shall come. Woe unto him by whom the offense cometh." May our skirts be clear; may our hands be white; may the shield of this our Nation be spotless; may we all be without blame. O God, we pray Thee to stay the dreadful tide of battle and blood and death. We beseech Thee to restore peace to our world, in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD God of men and of nations. Thou hast not only Said unto us, " Bow thee in the dust, and I will answer thee; kneel

100 PRAYERS IN TIME OF WAH

before me, all ye peoples of the earth and I will bless you/' but Thou hast said, " Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee." We come after the Easter Day in the glory of the first week of our risen Lord's influence on the earth to stand upon our feet in the self-respect, in the joy and anticipations of the new life, but we bring to Thee especially. Heavenly Father, as we stand, the prayer for national truthfulness, a national patience, as well as a national self-respect. We pray for Thy blessing upon those who may be so soon our enemies in war. We pray that Thou shouldst guide them as well as us; that Thou subdue passion and pour upon the too much and well-nigh explosive elements of revolution the waters of peace. Let the fires die down as we realize in both nations the work of our own humanity, the work of creating international peace and international honor. We ask this, our first prayer ; we ask this in the Name of the Prince of Peace. Amen.

OTHOU God of Peace, we bring to Thee again in this place the regrets, the self-reproach, the sorrow, yea, the doubt that haunts us with regard to humanity and ourselves in the presence of this doleful war. And we bring to Thee the prayers of our sincerest souls that Thou in Thine own might and in Thine own time shalt show us what Thou wouldst have us do. Bring the day of the great peace. Comfort, we beseech Thee, the stricken, the sad, the broken-hearted ; be Thou near the wounded and give courage, we beseech Thee, to those who are losing faith it may be in the main things of life: in justice in generosity, in truth, in virtue, and in peace. We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

FAR from the field of conflict which amazes our poor world and shakes the earth, we bring to Thee our own battles. We ask Thee to make it entirely sure in our souls that when we are fighting we are fighting for the right. We ask Thee to make it entirely certain to us that we are of the sword bathed in heaven, moving on to the larger conquest of ourselves. May we know that He who ruleth with His Spirit is greater than he that taketh the city. May we so follow the lead of our Saviour that more and more we may become Christlike in the mighty forgiveness which comes through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

OTHOU God of all peace, who art our salvation because Thou art love eternal, enfolding love, hear our prayer as we come to Thee with the world in the agony of a new birth as we believe, paying the eternal cost, as we beheve, of progress and yet humbled because of the wickedness that Thou art turning into strength and righteousness by a Providence we do not understand. Lord, as we stand to-day in the afternoon, it may be, of history, looking upon the pillar of cloud in the daAtime and the pillar of fire in the night, strengthen our belief that Thou dost know whither Thou goest with us, and that, knowing that Thou knowest, it shall be all in all to us. We ask Thee in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

FATHER in Heaven, when heaven seems so far away, we bring to Thee the prayers of the stricken and the sad, and especially those that are in battle arrayed for righteousness, they that are struggling for personal purity or personal self-control. We offer the prayers that are coming to us in the feebleness of our words, but we oft'er these prayers to Him who is strong. We know that the hands out of which these prayers go are poor and ignorant and weak, but we know that the hands into which these prayers go are the hands of Omnipotence. We pray for those who have sent their w^ord of beseeching here that Thou mayest answer their prayers and our prayers, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

OGOD, our Father, we pray for the Government of the United States of America in these times of great peril. We beseech Thee, Thou God of all nations, to give us sobriety of judgment, and a love for righteousness. Take away all fear that we may have for anything except that we may come short of Thy glory and Thy purpose. Let us fear Thee, O Lord, and help us to fear nothing else. Father, we pray Thee that in these moments when the children of men seem to be sundered one from another that some word may be spoken by Thy Good Spirit in the silence between the battle shouts that shall grant unto all the world a new and lasting peace. We pray in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

WE are thankful to Thee, Almighty Father, we who are in the dark, that '' joy cometh in the morning." We are grateful to Thee for any experience of darkness or gloom that shall bring us into the freshness and glory of the dawn light, and we come bringing to Thee upon our hearts our nation, the President of these United States, and the whole weary and stricken world, thanking Thee that Thine own mighty hand clasps all the tragedy of our situation, and that " joy cometh in the morning." We pray Thee that we may know and understand that divine power is greater than ours, that no accident or incident of time must negative the calm eternity of our Father. Lord God, v^e leave all in Thine own hands excepting the doing of our duty, and we pray Thee that every one in all our world of sorrow and anguish may look up unto Thee and be ready for Thine own word spoken out of the midst of the storm and tempest, so that when peace shall come to the world, it shall be the peace of God that passeth all understanding. We ask in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OGOD, what we are most concerned about in the presence of these dire forces that work with such malady and distress is our own part and our own position, our own sin. God of mercy, forgive us; forgive us if we have sinned against the order that makes society safe; forgive us if we have been against Thee and Thy Holy Spirit, and if in the midst of the tempest we have yielded and have done as we wished to do and not as we ought to have done, and if our wills have come to be supreme in their contempt of Thy law, if we have trampled upon the ordinances of duty as we have, and as we all confess. O God help us to see that it is this in our personal lives that provides for the storms and the revolutions and the blood and the sorrows of love. Forgive us, we pray Thee, restore unto us the joy of Thy salvation.

Some o£ us are in great temptation even this morning. This is a place of refuge. Our boats have come in out of the terrible storm. We are frightened even at ourselves. We are unable to guide in the darkness and tempest. God of Mercy, Christ of Heaven, be Thou our guide, that the divine power throughout all the world manifested in Jesus Christ may save us, rescue us, hold us, hold us against our own will, if it must be. We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

OGOD of Peace and of Love, how can we sufficiently thank Thee for this sweet disposing of our minds by the truth from above! How real is the ideal; how practical is the poetical, when Thou dost shed upon us the light of the ideal in the midst of what else were sordid and heavy and burdensome in life and when Thou art the great poet making Thine own numbers to be solved, filling the minds of Thy children in the days and hours of worship and adoration with Thine own presence of calm ! Great God, it is Thy greatness in which we nestle. Thy gentleness hath made us great. Thou art so tender and kind. Thou dost come in such softness of light; Thou dost woo us by such sweet persuasion; Thou dost come to us with such an appeal — ^half silent, half revealed and half concealed — that Thou wouldst not break our wills, but lead them; Thou wouldst not crush our personalities, but Thou wouldst unfold them as Thou hast unfolded the bud of May in the days of July into the mossy rose of these days, as Thou hast led the grape bursting now in all its purple fullness under the touch of life all the way through the whitening foam of Springtime in the arbors, as Thou art now leading us.

We thank Thee for the calming power of immortal ideas. We glorify Thee, Heavenly Father, for the oceanic calm in which our noisy little cataracts run. We thank Thee for the mass, the magnitude and grandeur and depth of the sky above us. Over all the fields that are noisy and bloody stretches Thy peace. Forgive us, forgive us that we have not been true to it all ! Forgive us, we pray Thee, this morning that we have been ourselves tumultuous. Help us now to receive the deepest and best blessing from Thee — the blessing of the peace that passeth all understanding. Give Thy peace to the world through giving Thy peace to each human child of Thine. We ask in the Name of Him whom we call the Prince of Peace — even Jesus. Amen.

OLORD our Father from whom we receive the gift of faith, we believe that even in the torn and distracted world of to^

PRAYERS IN TIME OF WAR lOt

day, with its bleeding and its wound, with its heart of agony and its feeling of shame, the world is yet in the making: Thou art creating a new world. We pray that we may look upon the cross of Jesus Christ to know the value of suffering in the re-creation of everything. May we, as a nation, refuse to receive anything save the blessing that shall lead us where our Master was led when He said, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Fill us with the spirit of self-sacrifice; dethrone our national greed and boastf ulness ; give us the spirit that shall make us brotherly and true, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

TO Thee, unto Thy holiness, we bring our unholy world, strayed away, broken-hearted, divided and in the midst of the toils and tumults of war. O, for Christ's sake. Heavenly Father, restore unto us the peace that is of righteousness and give unto Thy servants everywhere, those in presidencies, in offices of influence, the leadership of Thy Holy Spirit, that the world may be Thy world, dedicated to the uses of humanity through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

WE beseech Thee this morning, O Lord, that in the midst of the turmoil of a world of strife, we may hear the voices of peace and righteousness. O Lord, make us vigorous as a nation, strong in our faith that without righteousness no peace is worthy. We pray Thee, O God, that we may understand the meaning of all the events which throng upon the canvas to the bewilderment of our poor eyesight, that we may understand it by faith — faith in the bleeding Lamb of Calvary, symbol of all progress, where all the atonements in the world are guaranteed by Him, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD, with no such voice of praise and with no such marching of melody do we continue to come before Thee. We cannot come always with words which have fallen from inspired lips, but we come with uninspired lips for inspiration this morning and our call is the call of a great need. The poverty of our soul comes upon us as a great famine; we realize we are in the midst of great possibilities with hands too weak to touch them, and we are in the midst of commanding realities of time and eternity and our hearts fail us and our minds are bewildered. We are in great need. We are in great need because we are asking of men in the midst of these times that they shall be close unto the sources of power. So we are coming together these mornings to find how greatness has cast its crown at the feet of the Redeemer; and may we be led in all the events of our lives to the loyal worship of that which is good and true and beautiful, as Thou hast manifested all of these in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD our God, we pray that every influence of goodness and every power of Thy grace and every kingly tribute of truth and justice may be enshrined in these days of trembling and trial. The Lord grant to our own nation especially the grace to be true, the power to be just. May we be fearless in the truth; may we know that our God hath been from the beginning the God of justice and righteousness. Father, may we not ask for an easy path and ask to avoid any great duty, and, having earnestly pleaded in this place for the peace that shall cover the world with a garment of a mother's love, and having found in these times the warring elements of our nature still at work, we pray nov/ that the peace which may come to the world may be a lasting one, because it may be the peace of righteousness, in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

ALMIGHTY Father, within the circuit of whose loving power are stormy billows, we rejoice in the safety of the universe in which we live, In the security of law, and in the providence of Thy goodness. '' How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. . . .'* Such is our song always and especially, Father, as we try to be true to the facts of life and really see the stormy billows and their fury and know that there are untoward and rebellious forces in the world. Then it is we look to Thee. And then we know that no billow is as deep as God and no height of ocean's spray is as lofty as God and we take to ourselves the word of the prophet " But the Lord God, but the Lord God, He is mighty.'' We bring our halting spirits, our lame thoughts, our imaginations w^hich are often appealed to by that which is unworthy, and we ask that the thought of God shall restore our thought from lameness to soundness and strength and shall fill our imagination with the majesty, the calm, the awe, the greatness that is more than of earth and heaven. We ask this great blessing through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

OLORD, we pray a prayer unto Thee and offer a petition that might in some way answer in itself our own desires ; we pray Thee that Thou shalt lead us in these times of great distress. We do not ask Thee to send others, but to send us. We do not ask Thee to influence from afar so much as to influence right here and now our gifts, our symbols, our prayers in their direction. Surely Thou dost see a stricken world; surely the pain of the time touches some great note of response in eternity. O Lord, are we not Thy body? Didst Thou not say when some one had asked Thee how the human brethren may come to Thee when Thou art gone : " He that hath done it unto the least of these, my brethren, hath done it unto me" ? Lord, show us the least of these and help us with willing feet and open hands to discharge the obligations of our love to Thee, in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.