Since I’ve been posting selections from the Mercersburg liturgies, and since it’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., I thought I’d post a prayer of thanksgiving from the 1866 Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States.
THANKSGIVING FOR HARVEST
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, we yield Thee hearty thanks for all thy goodness, and especially for this thy bounty again bestowed upon us, who, through thy providence and tender mercy, have now reaped the fruits of the earth in due season, and gathered them into our garners. Give us power to use the same to thy glory, to the relief of those that are needy, and to our own comfort. Continue, we beseech Thee, thy loving-kindness toward us, that year by year our land may yield her increase, filling our hearts with joy and gladness; and so dispose us by thy special grace that we, thy servants, may never sow only to the flesh, lest of the flesh we reap corruption, but may sow spiritually to life everlasting, and reap the same in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.