Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

am come to see you, my brethren, for the last time;
for, save this once, I shall never sit again at table.'
Then he offered prayer, but not without difficulty,
and ate a little, "endeavoring," says Beza. "to
enliven us." "But," he continues, "before the end of
the meal, he requested to be carried back to his
chamber, which was close by, saying these words
with as cheerful a face as he could--"A partition
between us will not prevent me, though absent in
body, being present with you in spirit.'" He had
spoken truly. From the bed to which he had been
carried he was to rise no more.
There remained yet eight days to the Reformer
on earth. These were almost one uninterrupted
prayer. The fervency of his supplications was
indicated not so much by his voice, now scarcely
audible, as by his eye, which, says Beza, "retained
its brightness to the last," and testified to the faith
and hope with which he was animated. He had not
yet left earth, and yet he had left it: for of earthly
bread he ate not; with men he had ceased to
converse; he halted here, at the portal of the
invisible world, to calm, to elevate, and to
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