Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/293

 larger growth and richer yield, so Thou shiftest our destinies from these narrow, nooks below into the ample fields above. But we fondly fancy that for ever shall last our term here below, only to grieve for the lost touch of many a vanished hand. Oh, pardon this enormity of iniquity, in Thy all-forgetting grace. Do Thou lay it bare to our hearts, do Thou bring it home to our bosoms, that what is Withdrawn from our physical eye is resumed into Thy embracing heart; that every earthly winter, by Thy wonderful transforming grace, changes into an everlasting heavenly spring, where not the sense but the soul constitutes the vinculum of comradeship. O Thou beloved God! How thou dost teach us to ennoble ourselves even by the translation thereinto of our kith and kin! We revolt against Thy noble purpose—worse than crass folly, pitiable ignorance, lamentable illusion this! Do Thou pardon us by shielding, protecting and safeguarding us against this materialism of the world and the flesh, O Thou all-merciful God! Even