The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-07
PRAYER


(At the Funeral of a Little Girl.)
Gracious God, thou art our creator,
our loving Father, our unchanging and
infinite friend. We come to thee in
this hour Of our sorrow, for there is
none other to whom We can come. Thou
art the measureless and changeless
fountain of ali comfort and consolation
to the souls of thy sorrowing children;
thou hast the words Of eternal life. We
know, but how much better thou
knowest, our Father, how the tendrlls
of beautiful and holy love have
reached out from the hearts of these
parents, and have twined themselves
about the soul of this dear little child.
And now, although the love still abides
with them, these pleasant and beautiful
earthly relations are severed by death.
o Father, help them now to interpret
thee out of their own hearths-not to
believe that thou art less than they, but
that thou art infinitely more; to know
that thy love is infinitely greater than
any human love, and that all the yearn-
ing, sorrOwing, love and tenderness Of
their own souls, is but shadow, faint
image, single drop, cut of thine over
flowing fullness-out of the infinite
ocean of thine unchanging Fatherly
love and tenderness toward each and all
of thy children.
In the presence of this sorrow, and
of all earthly bereavements, we bless
thee that we are permitted so firmly to
believe that death is the gate to endless
joys-the golden doorway to heavenly
habitations; and that every tie Of love
sundered here shall be knit again, and
that all broken families shall be made
whole, when thy great purpose of infn-
ite love and grace in Jesus Christ is
fully wrought.
In the presence of this sorrow, and
yet in the midst of the beauty and
glory of these summer days of June,
we thank thee that thou hast enabled
us SO firmly to believe that the pure
spirit of this dear child, is but a flower
transplanted from these earthly ana
mortal gardens, to bloom in immortal
beauty and fragrance in the gardens of
God.
We thank thee that We can so firmly
believe that death is gain, death is
deiveranee, death is but birth into
higher life, higher relationships, higher
opportunities that death is but
entrance into the nearer presence of
the loving God, the tender and gracious
Redeemer, the pure and loving spirits of
the holy and happy angels. We thank
thee that we can believe with such
fullness Of faith that such is the eternal
home and the beautiful and blessed and
endless companionship of the loving and
stainless soul Of this dear child. And
SO we bless thee that these sorrowing
hearts may see her even now as light
set in the windows of heaven and reach
ing out her white hands to father and
mother and sister and friends, and beck
oning them from 1.-The battlements of
the blessed" to 'c0me up higher" and
so at last all shall be united again in the
blessed fruitioD of thine unchanging
and infinite love, land SO be forever
with the Lord an unbroken family IN
heaven.
And now, Father, we pray thee in all
things to keep, and guide, and comfort,
and bless, the souls of these sorrowing
ones.
And as we remember the pure, lov-
ing, trusting soul of this dear child,
may we also remember that Jesus mas
said that "of such is the kingdom of
heaven; and may this childlike spirit of
purity, love and trust, SO abide in US
that we may be thy true children, enter
into thy heavenly kingdom here, and
abide in that kingdom forever, through
the riches of that grace which thou
hast revealed in Jesus Christ Amen.