Daily Reading for February 5 • The Martyrs of Japan

Gather us in, Thou love that fillest all;
Gather our rival faiths within thy fold.
Rend each man’s temple-veil and bid it fall,
That we may know that Thou hast been of old;
Gather us in.

Gather us in: we worship only Thee;
In varied names we stretch a common hand;
In diverse forms a common soul we see;
In many ships we seek one spirit-land;
Gather us in.

Each one sees one colour of thy rainbow-light,
Each looks upon one tint and calls it heaven;
Thou art the fullness of our partial sight;
We are not perfect till we find the seven;
Gather us in.

Prayer by G. D. Matheson (1842-1906), quoted in The Oxford Book of Prayer, edited by George Appleton (Oxford, 1985).