I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’

Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957), read by King George VI in his Christmas broadcast, 1939

Through every minute of this day
Be with me, Lord!
Through every day of this week,
Be with me, Lord!
Through every week of all this year,
Be with me, Lord!
Through all the years of this life,
Be with me, Lord!
So shall the days and weeks and years
Be threaded on a golden cord.
And all draw on with sweet accord
Unto thy fulness, Lord,
That so, when time is past,
By grace I may, at last,
Be with thee, Lord.

John Oxenham (1853-1941), from ‘Bees in Amber’