PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 383, 25 October 1946, Page 11

PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES

There is a little prayer which I wrote to conclude a programme celebrating victory in Zurope; and I am rash enough to think that tonight, some 400-odd days. since the end of the war, it might still be valid. ~-NORMAN CORWIN, speaking from 1ZB, October 6, 1946. [LORD God of trajectory and blast, Whose terrible sword has laid open the serpent, So it withers in the sun for the just to see, Sheathe now the swift avenging blade with the names of nations writ on it, And assist in the preparation of the ploughshare. ORD God of fresh bread and tranquil mornings, Who walks in the circuit of heaven among the worthy, Deliver notice to the fallen young man . That tokens of orange juice and a whole egg appear now before the hungry children; . : That night again falls cooling on the earth as quietly as when it leaves Your ' Hand; That freedom has withstood the tyrant like a Malta in a hostile see, And that the soul of man is surely a Sebastopol that goes down hard and leaps from ruin quickly. ORD God of the topcoat and the living wage Who hes furred the fox against the time of winter And stored provender of bees in summer’s brightest places, _Do bring sweet influences to bear upon the assembly line; Accept the smoke of the milltown among the accredited cloutis of the sky. Fend from the wind with a house and a hedge him whom You made in Your image And permit him to pick of the tree and the flock That he may eat to-day without fear of to-morrow And clothe himself with dignity in Winter. [ORD God of test tube and blueprint, Who jointed molecules of dust and shook them till their name was Adam, Who taught worms and stars how they could live together Appear now among the parliaments of conquerors And give instruction to their schemes: Measure out new liberties so none shall suffer for his father’s colour or the credo of his choice: Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit by postponing it pretend: Sit at the treaty table and convoy the hopes of little peoples through expected straits, And press into the final seal a sign that peace will come for longer than posterities can see ahead, That man unto his fellow man shall be a friend forever.