“Now unto thee, O heavenly Father, be all praise and glory that by day Thou dost richly fill my life with various blessings:

A home to share, kindred love, and friends to cherish;
A place to fill and a work to do;
A green world to live in, blue skies above me, and pure air to breathe;
Healthy exercise and simple pleasures;
My race’s long history to remember and its great men to follow;
Good books to read and many arts and crafts to delight in;
So much that is worth knowing and the skill and science to know it;
Those high thoughts that sometimes fill my mind and come I not know whence;
Many happy days, and that inward calm that Thou givest me in days of gloom;
The peace, passing understanding, that comes from thine indwelling in my soul;
The faith that looks through death and the hope of a larger life beyond the grave.

I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered Thy blessings upon our human kind, yet in Jesus Christ Thou hast done greater things for us than ever didst before;

Making home sweeter and friends dearer;
Turning sorrow into gladness and pain into the soul’s victory;
Robbing death its sting;
Robbing sin its power;
Making peace more peaceful and and joy more joyful and
   faith and hope more secure. Amen”

*Words borrowed from A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie.