Great God, the God of our fathers and of their children, accept our heartfelt worship and gratitude. We bless Thy holy name for that wonderful providence of bountiful love and inspiring benevolence by which Thou hast made us a great and mighty nation out of an insignificant, struggling, and sorrow-laden beginning. We render willing and adoring worship to Thee for that divine guidance and wisdom so admirably exhibited in the wide-visioned policy in the nation's most inspired leaders a hundred years ago, and to-day the policy which in one brief century has created an empire of a dozen magnificent Commonwealths of an unknown expanse of uninhabited wilderness and desert. Vouchsafe ever to us as a people leaders of prophetic understanding, who in an uncertain present fathom the true inwardness of conditions pregnated with the greatest possibilities for a future of ever increasing proportions and realizations. We thank Thee for the wealth of hope and promise implied in the dedication and completion of this unparalleled congress of peace, good will, and universal fraternity, made possible not only by the enterprise, patriotism, and gratitude of this splendid Commonwealth and our own entire people, but also by the responsive, generous, and helpful cooperation of the nations of the whole world. We pray for Thy blessing, guidance, and love upon every national life here represented. May, in Thy beneficent providence, the inspiring competitions and tournaments so necessary between one people and another become an ennobling race for a higher culture of the human heart and mind; a more universal usage of the forces of nature for the best interests of man and for the full fruition for each and every one of the unexampled industrial and commercial activities which has taken possession of the civilized world. We pray Thee that the forces ever jointly employed in producing the advance of a free people may learn better to understand their mutual relationship. Liberate and save capital from every alleged and real form of a grasping, destructive, and disloyal selfishness, which may turn even the present midday of national prosperity and contentment into the threatening deepening gloom of an advancing cyclone of unavoidable loss and destruction. Give to the possessors of our fabulous wealth an ever-increasing philanthropy, devoting a surplus of possessions unheard of by our fathers to education, literature, arts, and mercy, thereby making themselves the beloved and blessed favorites of a happy and grateful people. We pray Thee that labor and toil may ever be held in due honor and respect in our broad land. Help us to realize that labor, be it of hand or brains, is the sinews and backbone alike of our past, present, and future as a free people.