Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/299

Rh "Lord Jesus, thou Son of God and Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon me! Pardon my offences, and teach me the error of my ways; give me a new heart and a right mind. Teach me and all mine to do Thy will, and in all things to keep Thy law. Teach me also to ask those things necessary for eternal life. Lord, pardon me for all my sins, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

He had composed this prayer for himself thirty-four years before, when his leg was broken, and had repeated it every night since. At another time he prayed, "Lord, touch my lips with hallowed fire, like Isaiah's of old, that I may testify to Thy love and mercy to me, who am but as a little child in all but wickedness."

After we had sung the last hymn he ever heard on earth—"Christ is risen"—the evening before his death, he extended both hands, and said slowly and distinctly, "The peace of God which passeth all understanding be with you all—all!" As the supreme hour drew near, he said to his eldest son. Colonel Richard L. Maury, who had been his constant and devoted nurse, "Are my feet growing cold? Do I drag my anchors?" On being answered in the affirmative, lie faintly exclaimed, "All's well." About fifteen minutes before death he said lie wished his wife and daughters to leave the room that they might not be needlessly distressed by witnessing his last struggle. Notwithstanding this, I lingered where I could see and hear without being seen, and observed him in the last moments lift his hands toward Heaven like a little child who wants to be taken up. He breathed his last at 12.40 on Saturday, February 1st, 1873.

The simplicity and fervour of his Christian faith, the completeness and child-like humility of his trust in God, and his entire resignation to the Divine will, were alike remarkable. All of these, owing to the length of his last illness, were allowed unusual scope for development, and the remembrance of them constitutes a precious heritage to his family. His