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I conclude by remarking that, if what I have said is at all correct, perhaps the most appropriate prayer for the present tough times, as for any other times, is the so-called serenity prayer commonly attributed to the great American theologian of the last century, Reinhold Niebuhr:

On which I comment only that, if faith is what I've interpreted it to be – namely, the "obedient faith" of unreseved trust in God's love and unqualified loyalty to it – then it is, in its essence, submission to God as God. But if Niebuhr is right in assuming, as I judge him to be, that there are "things that should be changed" as well as "things that cannot be changed," then, clearly, to obey God, and thus to submit to God as God, cannot be singular, but only duaL To act courageously and loyally to change the things that should be changed is no less to obey God, and so to submit to God as God, than to act serenely and trustfully to accept thethings that cannot be changed.

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