Prayers Written At Vailima, And A Lowden Sabbath Morn - free ebook by Robert Louis Stevenson

PRAYERS WRITTEN AT VAILIMA and A LOWDEN SABBATH MORN

by Robert Louis Stevenson BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MRS. STEVENSON Decorative Chatto &amp; Windus graphic LONDON CHATTO &amp; WINDUS MDCCCCXVI...

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INTRODUCTION

In every Samoan household the day is closed with prayer and the singing of hymns . The omission of this sacred duty would indicate , not only a lack of religious training in the house chief , but a shameless disregard of all that is reputable in Samoan social life . No doubt , to many , the evening service is no more than a duty fulfilled . The child who says his prayer at his mother’s knee can have no real conception of the meaning of the words he lisps so readily , yet he goes to his little

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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 fo

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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....

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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....

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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

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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, food, bright weather, and light hearts. In what we meditate of evil, frustrate our will; in what of good, further our endeavours. Cause injuries to be forgot and benefits to be remembe

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IN TIME OF RAIN

We thank Thee, Lord, for the glory of the late days and the excellent face of thy sun. We thank Thee for good news received. We thank Thee for the pleasures we have enjoyed and for those we have been able to confer. And now, when the clouds gather and the rain impends over the forest and our house, permit us not to be cast down; let us not lose the savour of past mercies and past pleasures; but, like the voice of a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memory survive in the hour of darkness.

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ANOTHER IN TIME OF RAIN

Lord , Thou sendest down rain upon the uncounted millions of the forest, and givest the trees to drink exceedingly. We are here upon this isle a few handfuls of men, and how many myriads upon myriads of stalwart trees! Teach us the lesson of the trees. The sea around us, which this rain recruits, teems with the race of fish; teach us, Lord, the meaning of the fishes. Let us see ourselves for what we are, one out of the countless number of the clans of thy handiwork. When we would despair, l

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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....

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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....

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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

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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 awhile longer;—with our broken purposes of good, with our idle endeavours against evil, suffer us awhile longer to endure, and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, brace us to play the man unde

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FOR SELF-BLAME

Lord , enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye, and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s. Let us feel our offences with our hands, make them great and bright before us like the sun, make us eat them and drink them for our diet. Blind us to the offences of our beloved, cleanse them from our memories, take them out of our mouths for ever. Let all here before Thee carry and measure with the false balances of love, and be in their own eyes and in all conjunctures the most gui

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FOR SELF-FORGETFULNESS

Lord , the creatures of thy hand, thy disinherited children, come before Thee with their incoherent wishes and regrets: Children we are, children we shall be, till our mother the earth hath fed upon our bones. Accept us, correct us, guide us, thy guilty innocents. Dry our vain tears, wipe out our vain resentments, help our yet vainer efforts. If there be any here, sulking as children will, deal with and enlighten him. Make it day about that person, so that he shall see himself and be ashamed

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FOR RENEWAL OF JOY

We are evil, O God, and help us to see it and amend. We are good, and help us to be better. Look down upon thy servants with a patient eye, even as Thou sendest sun and rain; look down, call upon the dry bones, quicken, enliven; recreate in us the soul of service, the spirit of peace; renew in us the sense of joy. BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON...

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I

The clinkum-clank o’ Sabbath bells Noo to the hoastin’ rookery swells, Noo faintin’ laigh in shady dells, Sounds far an’ near, An’ through the simmer kintry tells Its tale o’ cheer....

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II

An’ noo, to that melodious play, A deidly awn the quiet sway— A’ ken their solemn holiday, Bestial an’ human, The singin’ lintie on the brae, The restin’ plou’man....

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III

He, mair than a’ the lave o’ men, His week completit joys to ken; Half-dressed, he daunders out an’ in, Perplext wi’ leisure; An’ his raxt limbs he’ll rax again Wi’ painfü’ pleesure....

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IV

The steerin’ mither strang afit Noo shoos the bairnies but a bit; Noo cries them ben, their Sinday shüit To scart upon them, Or sweeties in their pouch to pit, Wi’ blessin’s on them....

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V

The lasses, clean frae tap to taes, Are busked in crunklin’ underclaes; The gartened hose, the weel-filled stays, The nakit shift, A’ bleached on bonny greens for days, An’ white’s the drift....

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VI

An’ noo to face the kirkward mile The guidman’s hat o’ dacent style, The blackit shoon, we noon maun fyle As white’s the miller: A waefü’ peety tae, to spile The warth o’ siller....

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VII

Our Marg’et, aye sae keen to crack, Douce-stappin’ in the stoury track, Her emeralt goun a’ kiltit back Frae snawy coats, White-ankled, leads the kirkward pack Wi’ Dauvit Groats....

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VIII

A thocht ahint, in runkled breeks, A’ spiled wi’ lyin’ by for weeks, The guidman follows closs, an’ cleiks The sonsie misses; His sarious face at aince bespeaks The day that this is....

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IX

And aye an’ while we nearer draw To whaur the kirkton lies alaw, Mair neebours, comin’ saft an’ slaw Frae here an’ there, The thicker thrang the gate, an’ caw The stour in air....

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X

But hark! the bells frae nearer clang To rowst the slaw, their sides they bang An’ see! black coats a’ready thrang The green kirkyaird; And at the yett, the chestnuts spang That brocht the laird....

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XI

The solemn elders at the plate Stand drinkin’ deep the pride o’ state: The practised hands as gash an’ great As Lords o’ Session; The later named, a wee thing blate In their expression....

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XII

The prentit stanes that mark the deid, Wi’ lengthened lip, the sarious read; Syne way a moraleesin’ heid, An then an’ there Their hirplin’ practice an’ their creed Try hard to square....

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XIII

It’s here our Merren lang has lain, A wee bewast the table-stane; An’ yon’s the grave o’ Sandy Blane; An’ further ower, The mither’s brithers, dacent men! Lie a’ the fower....

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XIV

Here the guidman sall bide awee To dwall amang the deid; to see Auld faces clear in fancy’s e’e; Belike to hear Auld voices fa’in saft an’ slee On fancy’s ear....

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XV

Thus, on the day o’ solemn things, The bell that in the steeple swings To fauld a scaittered faim’ly rings Its walcome screed; An’ just a wee thing nearer brings The quick an’ deid....

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XVI

But noo the bell is ringin’ in; To tak their places, folk begin; The minister himsel’ will shüne Be up the gate, Filled fu’ wi’ clavers about sin An’ man’s estate....

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XVII

The tünes are up— French , to be shüre, The faithfü’ French , an’ twa-three mair; The auld prezentor, hoastin’ sair, Wales out the portions, An’ yirks the tüne into the air Wi’ queer contortions....

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XVIII

Follows the prayer, the readin’ next, An’ than the fisslin’ for the text— The twa-three last to find it, vext But kind o’ proud; An’ than the peppermints are raxed, An’ southernwood....

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XIX

For noo’s the time whan pows are seen Nid-noddin’ like a mandareen; When tenty mithers stap a preen In sleepin’ weans; An’ nearly half the parochine Forget their pains....

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XX

There’s just a waukrif’ twa or three: Thrawn commentautors sweer to ’gree, Weans glowrin’ at the bumlin’ bee On windie-glasses, Or lads that tak a keek a-glee At sonsie lasses....

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XXI

Himsel’, meanwhile, frae whaur he cocks An’ bobs belaw the soundin’-box, The treesures of his words unlocks Wi’ prodigality, An’ deals some unco dingin’ knocks To infidality....

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XXII

Wi’ snappy unction, hoo he burkes The hopes o’ men that trust in works, Expounds the fau’ts o’ ither kirks, An’ shaws the best o’ them No muckle better than mere Turks, When a’s confessed o’ them....

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XXIII

Bethankit! what a bonny creed! What mair would ony Christian need?— The braw words rumm’le ower his heid, Nor steer the sleeper; And in their restin’ graves, the deid Sleep aye the deeper....

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AUTHOR’S NOTE

It may be guessed by some that I had a certain parish in my eye, and this makes it proper I should add a word of disclamation. In my time there have been two ministers in that parish. Of the first I have a special reason to speak well, even had there been any to think ill. The second I have often met in private and long (in the due phrase) “sat under” in his church, and neither here nor there have I heard an unkind or ugly word upon his lips. The preacher of the text had thus no original in

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