Thee.

_Before a Temporary Separation_

To-day we go forth separate, some of us to pleasure, some of us to
worship, some upon duty. Go with us, our guide and angel; hold Thou
before us in our divided paths the mark of our low calling, still to be
true to what small best we can attain to. Help us in that, our maker,
the dispenser of events--Thou, of the vast designs, in which we blindly
labour, suffer us to be so far constant to ourselves and our beloved.

_For Friends_

For our absent loved ones we implore Thy loving-kindness. Keep them in
life, keep them in growing honour; and for us, grant that we remain
worthy of their love. For Christ's sake, let not our beloved blush for
us, nor we for them. Grant us but that, and grant us courage to endure
lesser ills unshaken, and to accept death, loss, and disappointment as
it were straws upon the tide of life.

_For the Family_

Aid us, if it be Thy will, in our concerns. Have mercy on this land and
innocent people. Help them who this day contend in disappointment with
their frailties. Bless our family, bless our forest house, bless our
island helpers. Thou who hast made for us this place of ease and hope,
accept and inflame our gratitude; help us to repay, in service one to
another, the debt of Thine unmerited benefits and mercies, so that when
the period of our stewardship draws to a conclusion, when the windows
begin to be darkened, when the bond of the family is to be loosed, there
shall be no bitterness of remorse in our farewells.

Help us to look back on the long way that Thou hast brought us, on the
long days in which we have been served not according to our deserts but
our desires; on the pit and the miry clay, the blackness of despair, the
horror of misconduct, from which our feet have been plucked out. For
our sins forgiven or prevented, for our shame unpublished, we bless and
thank Thee, O God. Help us yet again and ever. So order events, so
strengthen our frailty, as that day by day we shall come before Thee
with this song of gratitude, and in the end we be dismissed with honour.
In their weakness and their fear, the vessels of Thy handiwork so pray
to Thee, so praise Thee. Amen.

_Sunday_

We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favour, folk of many families
and nations gathered together in the peace of this roof, weak men and
women subsisting under the covert of Thy patience. Be patient still;
suffer us yet a while longer;--with our b