Robert Louis Stevenson
"Lord, give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us grace to accept and to forgive offenders.
Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors . . . If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath . . . and in all changes of fortune . . . and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another.
We beseech of Thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake."
