He grew more
and more silent, yet I never thought he was tired or faint. I gave him a
glass of water, but he just wet his lips, and told me not to go away.
Then he asked me to bring the Presbyterian 'Book of Public Prayer,'
which lay there, and said, with a smile, that it would open at the
right, place,--and so it did. There was his double red mark down the
page; and I knelt down and read, and he repeated with me,--'For
ourselves and our country, O gracious God, we thank Thee, that,
notwithstanding our manifold transgressions of Thy holy laws, Thou hast
continued to us Thy marvellous kindness,'--and so to the end of that
thanksgiving. Then he turned to the end of the same book, and I read the
words more familiar to me,--'Most heartily we beseech Thee with Thy
favor to behold and bless Thy servant, the President of the United
States, and all others in authority,'--and the rest of the Episcopal
collect. 'Danforth,' said he, 'I have repeated those prayers night and
morning, it is now fifty-five years.' And then he said he would go to
sleep. He bent me down over him and kissed me; and he said, 'Look in my
Bible, Danforth, when I am gone.
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