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XXV.

FOR A FRIEND WHO IS SICK.

ALMIGHTY GOD, most merciful Father,

Who sendest forth thy Spirit, and we are created;
Who hidest thy face, and we are troubled;

Who takest away our breath, and we die:
With thee are the issues of all things;

And health and sickness, life and death,
Are the messengers of thy will.

We offer our supplications unto thee
For our friend who is sick;

That this sickness may not be unto death,
But for the glory of God.

O thou, who art our life and our health,
Bless the means used for recovery;
Stay the progress of wasting disease;
Bring back strength to the feeble;
Give our friend many years to see good,

And to devote restored life to thy service.

Father, not our will, but thine, be done.
If this sickness is to be the last sickness,
And this bed to be the bed of death,

O God, prepare all hearts for thy will.
Give us the supports of submission and trust;
May we find the balm in Gilead,

And know that there is a Physician there,
Who, though the outward man perish,
Can renew the inward man day by day.
Impart that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Which triumphs over the decays of mortality,
And by which death is swallowed up in life.
Father, may the remembrance of our frailty
Call us to begin, without delay,

Our preparation for days of weakness and decline,
Which shall surely come to us also.

And at last, through thy grace in Jesus Christ, Reunite us in peace, in that world

Where there is no sickness, nor sorrowing, nor

death. Amen.

XXVI.

ON THE DEATH OF AN ELDER SCHOLAR,
OR TEACHER.

O LORD, our Heavenly Father,

The Giver of Life, and the Disposer of Death. Since, in thine infinite wisdom,

It hath pleased thee to remove from us our friend, We bow with humble submission,

And adore thee, the greatest and best of beings. Even in our tears, our prayer shall be,

Father, not our will, but thine be done.

We thank thee for the life our friend here lived, For the happy hours which memory brings to mind. We bless thee that we have often been permitted To engage in thy worship with the departed. That voice will no more be heard by us; That smile will no more be seen by us;

Yet thou lovest us who are still left,

And thou lovest those who have been taken :

Thou art God of the spirits of the departed,

As much as of thy children in this visible world.
Comfort us, we beseech thee, in our affliction;
And in the bereavement which we endure,

Exalt our minds, that, with a true faith,
Our hearts may follow after the absent
To the world to which they have gone.
May we receive with tender hearts

The lessons death is designed to give.
May it seem like putting off the perishable,
So that nothing but life may remain.

May it seem like a new birth,

To a world where death is unknown.

Teach us to live as those who are about to die;
Teach us to live as those who shall live for ever,
In the blessedness of thy heavenly presence,
With Christ and the holy angels,

And with all whom we have truly loved on earth.
Merciful Father, forgive our sins;
Strengthen us in all goodness,

In meekness, humility, faith, and patience.
And unto thee who lovest us,

Through Christ who died for us,

Be all praise and glory for ever.

Amen.

XXVII.

ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNGER SCHOLAR.

ALMIGHTY GOD, we humbly adore thee:

Thou art the author and the giver of life.
We thank thee, that as in love thou dost create us,
And in love thou dost watch over and preserve us,
In equal love thou appointest the day of our death.
We bless thee for the life of the little child
Whom thy wise providence hath taken from us;
We thank thee for its innocence,

For its sweetness of temper,

And the fulness of its love.

We shall see it no more in this world,

But it dwells with thee.

We rejoice in the assurance of Jesus,

That its angel doth always behold the face
Of our Father who is in heaven.

And now help us, Almighty God,

To bear our sorrow with a cheerful trust.

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