A CRISTMAS PRAYER FOR CHILDREN WHO WORK
Rauschenbusch, Walter
A CHRISTMAS PRAYER FOR CHILDREN WHO WORK By WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH OTHOU great Father of the weak, lay Thy hand tenderly on all the little children on earth and bless them. Bless our own children...
...By the holy Child that nestled in Mary's bosom, by the memories of our own childhood joys and sorrows, by the sacred possibilities that slumber in every child, we beseech Thee to save us from killing the sweetness of young life by the greed of gain.—One of a series of prayers being published in the American Magazine...
...We have all jointly deserved the mile-stone of Thy wrath for making these little ones to stumble and fall...
...Let not their little bodies be utterly sapped, and their minds given over to stupidity and the vices of an empty soul...
...Help us to realize that every child in our nation is in very truth our child, a member of our great family...
...Bless our own children who are the life of our life, and who have become the heart of our heart...
...But bless with a three-fold blessing the young lives whose slender shoulders are already bowed beneath the yoke of toil, and whose glad growth is being stunted forever...
...Bless every little child-friend who has leaned against our knee and refreshed our soul by its smiling trustfulness...
...Grant all employers of labor stout hearts to refuse enrichment at such a price...
...Be good to all children who crave in vain for human love, or for flowers and water, and the sweet breast of nature...
...Grant to all the citizens and officers of states which now permit this wrong the grace of holy anger...
Vol. 1 • December 1909 • No. 51
