Prayers Written at Vailima | Page 4

I hastened after him, fearing some
sudden illness. 'What is it?' I asked. 'It is this,' was the reply; 'I am not
yet fit to say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us."'
It is with natural reluctance that I touch upon the last prayer of my
husband's life. Many have supposed that he showed, in the wording of
this prayer, that he had some premonition of his approaching death. I
am sure he had no such premonition. It was I who told the assembled
family that I felt an impending disaster approaching nearer and nearer.
Any Scot will understand that my statement was received seriously. It
could not be, we thought, that danger threatened any one within the
house; but Mr. Graham Balfour, my husband's cousin, very near and
dear to us, was away on a perilous cruise. Our fears followed the
various vessels, more or less unseaworthy, in which he was making his
way from island to island to the atoll where the exiled king, Mataafa,
was at that time imprisoned. In my husband's last prayer, the night
before his death, he asked that we should be given strength to bear the
loss of this dear friend, should such a sorrow befall us.
Contents
For Success
For Grace
At Morning
Evening
Another For
Evening
In Time of Rain
Another in Time of Rain
Before a
Temporary Separation
For Friends
For the Family
Sunday
For
Self-Blame
For Self-Forgetfulness
For Renewal of Joy
FOR SUCCESS
LORD, behold our family here assembled. We thank Thee for this
place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace
accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow;
for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies, that make our

lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth, and our friendly
helpers in this foreign isle. Let peace abound in our small company.
Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength
to forbear and to persevere. Offenders, give us the grace to accept and
to forgive offenders. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the
forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be,
in all our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the strength to
encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in
tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and, down
to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another. As the clay to the
potter, as the windmill to the wind, as children of their sire, we beseech
of Thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake.
FOR GRACE
GRANT that we here before Thee may be set free from the fear of
vicissitude and the fear of death, may finish what remains before us of
our course without dishonour to ourselves or hurt to others, and, when
the day comes, may die in peace. Deliver us from fear and favour: from
mean hopes and cheap pleasures. Have mercy on each in his deficiency;
let him be not cast down; support the stumbling on the way, and give at
last rest to the weary.
AT MORNING
THE day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns
and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with
laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us
to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds
weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the gift
of sleep.
EVENING
WE come before Thee, O Lord, in the end of thy day with

thanksgiving.

Our beloved in the far parts of the earth, those who are now beginning
the labours of the day what time we end them, and those with whom
the sun now stands at the point of noon, bless, help, console, and
prosper them.
Our guard is relieved, the service of the day is over, and the hour come
to rest. We resign into thy hands our sleeping bodies, our cold hearths,
and open doors. Give us to awake with smiles, give us to labour
smiling. As the sun returns in the east, so let our patience be renewed
with dawn; as the sun lightens the world, so let our loving-kindness
make bright this house of our habitation.
ANOTHER FOR EVENING
LORD, receive our supplications for this house, family, and country.
Protect the innocent, restrain the greedy and the treacherous, lead us out
of our tribulation into a quiet land.
Look down upon ourselves and upon our absent dear ones. Help us and
them; prolong our days in peace and honour. Give us health,