Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings): Jeremiah 17.5-10 | Psalm 1 | Luke 16.19-31

God of my forebears, I cry unto you. You have been the refuge of the good and wise in every generation. When history began, you were the first enlightener of human minds, and your was the Spirit that first led them out of their brutish estate and made them men and women. Through all the ages you has been the Lord and giver of life, the source of all knowledge, the fountain of all goodness.

The patriarchs trusted you and were not put to shame:
the prophets sought you and you committed your word to their lips:
the psalmists rejoiced in you and you were present in their song:
the apostles waited upon you and they were filled with your Holy Spirit:
the martyrs called upon you and you were with them in the midst of the flame:
this poor one cried, and the Lord heard me, and saved me out of all my troubles.

O you who were, and are, and are to come, I thank you that this Christian way whereon I walk is no untried or uncharted road, but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. I thank you for the finger-posts and danger-signals with which it is marked at every turning and which may be known to me through the study of the Bible, and of all history, and of all the great literature of the world. Beyond all I give you devout and humble thanks for the great gift of Jesus Christ, the pioneer of our faith. I praise you that you have caused me to be born in an age and in a land which has known his name, and that I am not called upon to face any temptation or trial which he did not first endure.

Forbid it, holy Lord, that I should fail to profit by these great memories of the ages that are gone by, or to enter into the glorious inheritance which you have prepared for me; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

—John Baillie. A Diary of Private Prayer (Oxford, 1936)