Ex corde

I recently received as a gift a very old copy of H. J. Wotherspoon's Kyrie Eleison, A Manual of Private Prayers, copyright 1904. This is not a Lutheran prayerbook. I think Mr. Wotherspoon was Presbyterian? Yes, I think so. However, I have found his little book to be of great value as an annex to the beautiful, deeply Scriptural prayers found in Starck's prayer book, and in Loehe's. 

For instance, consider this, from Wotherspoon: 

Most merciful God, who hast wonderfully made the tie of parent and child in the likeness of Thine own Divine Fatherhood: I beseech Thee for help in regard to those whom Thou hast given me. Enable me so to be with them that it may be possible for them to obey Thy commandment, and to honour fatherhood in me. Give me a wise spirit of rule, and them a holy spirit of obedience. Make me just as well as kind, patient as well as strong. Teach me to understand them, that I may teach them, and to love them in Christ as well as with natural affection. 

Save me from dealing with them as if they were mine for pleasure. Save me from injustice to their ignorance, from cruelty to their weakness, from impatience with their faults. Save me from slothfulness to teach them, and from selfish unwillingness to correct their errors. Save me from growing worldly for them. I fear the temptation to seek their advantage as I would not have sought my own. Help me to trust Thee in what concerns them, as I have trusted Thee for myself. And may Thy Holy Spirit incline their hearts to good: to obey what is right, and to believe what is true, and to see what is excellent. For without Thee I can do nothing. 

O God, be merciful to me in them, and suffer not that my sins rise up to judge me, or my faults to rebuke me, in these the offspring of my body and my soul. For Thy pity which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

For an ePub or Kindle-ready version of Kyrie Eleison, see here.