Ephemeris III. — The Prayer

Almighty One, whom through the worship of my heart alone I know, to the wicked unknown, yet known to every devout soul, thou art without beginning and without end, more ancient than time past and time to come: thy fashion and extent no mind can ever grasp, nor tongue express. He only may behold thee and, face to face, hear thy bidding and sit at thy fatherly right-hand who is himself the Maker of all things, himself the Cause of all created things, himself the Word of God, the Word which is God, who was before the world which he was to make, begotten at that time when Time was not yet, who came into being before the Sun's beams and the bright Morning-Star enlightened the sky. Without him was nothing made, and through him were all things made: his throne is in Heaven; and beneath his seat lie Earth and the Sea and the invincible Chaos of darkling Night: unresting, he is the very mover of all things, the quickener of the lifeless. He is God, the begotten of the unbegotten, who being provoked by the guile of his scornful people, called the nations into his kingdom — the worthier offshoots of an ingrafted stock to worship him. To our forefathers it was granted to behold him; and whoso discerned his Godhead, to him it was given to have seen the Father also. He bare our sinful stains and suffered a death with mockery, thus teaching us that there is a road to lead back to eternal life, and that the soul returns not alone, but with the body complete enters the realms of Heaven and leaves the secret chamber of the grave empty, covered with earth which cannot hold it.

Son of the all-highest Father Bringer of salvation to our race thou unto whom thy Begetter has committed all the powers of his Fatherhood keeping none back in envy but giving freely, open a way for these my prayers and safely waft them to thy Father's ears.

Grant me a heart, O Father, to hold out against all deeds of wrong, and deliver me from the Serpent's deadly venom, sin. Let it suffice that the Serpent did beguile our old mother Eve and involved Adam also in his deceit: let us, their late-born progeny once foretold by sooth-speaking Prophets, escape the snares which the death-dealing Serpent weaves.

Prepare a road that I, being freed from the fetters of this frail body, may be led up on high, where in the clear heaven the Milky Way stretches above the wandering clouds of the wind-vexed moon — that road by which the holy men of old departed from the earth; by which Elias, caught up in the chariot, once made his way alive above our lower air; and Enoch, too, who went before his end without change of body.

Grant me, O Father, the effluence of everlasting light for which I yearn, if I swear not by gods of stone, and, looking up to one altar of awful sacrifice alone, bring there the offering of a stainless life; if Thee I recognize as Father of the Only-Begotten, our Lord and God, and, joined with both, the Spirit who brooded over the waters' face.

Grant me thy pardon, Father, and relieve my anguished breast, if I seek thee not with the bodies of slain beasts nor with blood poured forth, nor divine heaven's will from the secrets of their entrails: if J, though prone to stray, hold off from wrong, and if I long, rather than trust, to be approved upright and pure. Accept a soul which makes its confession, if I abhor these my frail limbs, if I repent me inwardly, and if deep-seated dread racks all my nerves and foretastes the final torments of Gehenna, and the stricken mind suffers its own ghostly doom.

Grant, then, O Father, that these petitions may be fulfilled as I pray. Naught let me fear, and naught desire: let me feel that to be enough which is enough; let me seek nothing vile, nor be the cause of my own shame; let me not do to any that which at the same time I would not have done to me. May no real crime bring me to ruin, nor suspicion tarnish my name: small difference there seems between the real and supposed guilt. Keep thou from me the means to do ill deeds, and let me ever have the calm power to do well. Let me be moderate in food and dress, dear to my friends, and ever careful to do naught to shame the name of father. In mind and body let me be free from pain: let all my limbs perform their wonted functions, and let not crippled habit mourn the loss of any part. Let me enjoy peace and live quietly, counting as nothing all that astounds on earth. And when the hour of my last day shall come, grant that the conscience of a life well spent suffer me not to fear death, nor yet long for it. When, through thy mercy, I shall appear cleansed from my secret faults, let me despise all else, and let my one delight be to await in hope thy judgment. And if that season tarries and the day delays keep far from me that fierce tempter the Serpent with his false allurements.

These prayers of a soul devout albeit trembling with dark sense of guilt, claim for thine own before the eternal Father thou Son of God who mayest be entreated. Saviour, God and Lord, Mind, Glory, Word and Son, Very God of Very God, Light of Light, who remainest with the eternal Father, reigning throughout all ages, whose praise the harmonious songs of tuneful David echo forth, until respondent voices rend the air with "Amen."