Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/88

84 A NATION'S PRAYER FOR STRENGTH TO SERVE

Make bare thy mighty arm, O God, and lead this people on.

Day by day, month after month, we have prayed that the cup of war might pass from us, for we have not been able to say thy will, not ours, be done.

We have gazed with awe upon the horrors of the battlefields of Europe. There we have seen suffering and death such as the angels of heaven never looked down upon before; while here we have enjoyed the peace and prosperity which have flooded our land, and we have prayed that we might not have to give up our comfort and our ease and face the awful realities of war. We have said to our souls, thou hast much goods laid up, eat, drink and be merry and think not of duty, but of pleasure.

We have not prayed, O God, that thou wouldst show us our duty and give us strength to follow wherever thou mightst lead, but we have prayed that our will might be thy will. We have prayed that thou wouldst save us from suffering, not that thou wouldst give us strength to meet and bear suffering if called by thee to do our part in saving civilization from destruction.