Daily Reading for March 27 • Charles Henry Brent, Bishop of the Philippines, and of Western New York, 1929
The kind of a night we spend is in a large degree for us to determine. The Christian should at times leave everything in God’s hands, and do nothing but lie back on God’s bosom. The opportunity comes every night when we go to sleep. This is the season when the mind and soul should rest not less than the body. We can train ourselves to shed our cares into God’s arms if we try. So far from gaining anything, we lose much by submitting to wakefulness begotten of anxiety. Anxiety gnaws at the cords of good judgment and leaves us with a warped mind when the day dawns after a troubled night. Sweet sleep delights to respond to the invitation of a peaceful conscience and a mind whose last thoughts sway to and fro in the cradle of God’s love. A trustful consideration of God’s care of our concerns is frequently the only sleep-giving medicine necessary for distraught nerves.
O God, who hast drawn over weary day the restful veil of night, wrap our consciences in heavenly peace. Lift from our hands our tasks, and all through the night bear in Thy bosom the full weight of our burdens and sorrows, that in untroubled slumber we may press our weakness close to Thy strength, and win new power for the morrow’s duty from Thee who givest Thy beloved sleep. Amen.
Peace comes when we are assured that there is no earth-born cloud between our lives and God. Peace is the consequence of forgiveness, which in turn is God’s removal of that which hides or obscures His face, and breaks union with Him. The happy sequence culminating in fellowship with God is penitence, pardon, peace—the first of which we offer, the second we accept, and the third we inherit.
From “In the Evening,” part 3 of With God in Prayer by the Right Rev. Charles H. Brent (Philadelphia and London: George W. Jacobs and Co, 1907). http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/brent/withgod1907/03.html