III.

THE PRAYER OF TOBIT FOR DEATH.

"O Lord, thou art just, and all thy works and all thy ways are mercy and truth, and thou judgest truly and justly forever.

"Remember me and look on me; punish me not for my sins and ignorance, and the sins of my fathers who have sinned before thee.

"For they obeyed not thy commandments: wherefore thou hast delivered us for a spoil, and unto captivity and unto death, and for a proverb of reproach to all the nations among whom we are dispersed.

"And now thy judgments are many and true; deal with me according to my sins and my

fathers' because we have not kept thy commandments, neither have walked in truth before thee.

"Now, therefore deal with me as seemeth best unto thee, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved and become earth; for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live, because I have I have heard false reproaches, and have much sorrow; command, therefore, that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place: turn not thy face away from me." [SEE APOCRYPHA. Tobit, Chap. iii.]

IV.

PSALM XXXI : 5.

[As repeated in history.]

"Into thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth."

These words, in part repeated by our Lord in his expiring agony, and by Stephen in the supreme moment of his martyrdom, are associated with some of the most solemn and impressive events of biography and Christian history; and have been the dying prayer of many of the saints and martyrs of the church.

The prayer was among the last words of Polycarp and Basil, of Bernard, of Huss, Luther and Melancthon. It was the dying petition of

Columbus and Silvio Pellico. The Princess of

Conti prayed "Entre tes mains, Seigneur, je

recommande mon ame."

"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," prayed Knox.

"O Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed my soul, O Lord God of truth,” prayed the young Scottish martyr, Hugh M'Kail.

"O Lord, what does man come to ?" said John of Barneveld, on his way to execution. "O God, my heavenly Father, receive my spirit!" he prayed at the block.

"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," prayed Bishop Hooper.

Cranmer, putting his right hand, that had signed the recantation, into the flame, and saying, "This unworthy right hand," uttered Stephen's prayer, as did Latimer, Patrick Hamilton and Rowland Taylor in the flames.

Margaret Wilson, bound to the stake at the low water mark in the bay of Wigten, saw the advancing tide. It reached her throat, and she prayed"Lord Jesus receive my spirit."

"Hanc animam in flammis offero, Christe,