"My father," said one of them, bending over him, "your sons will have no father. In you we lose the light of life. And now forgive those present and those absent for all the sins they have committed. Bless them once more."

"My son," said Francis, "God is calling me! I forgive my brethren, those present and those absent, all their sins and faults. I absolve them as much as I can. Tell them so, and bless them in my name."

He then asked them to read him the history of the Passion in St. John's Gospel, and then a part of the one hundred and forty-second Psalm. As they were reading the seventh verse:

"Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise Thy name," he closed his eyes and slept peacefully in Jesus.

His glorious death took place just a few days before he entered his forty-sixth year, twenty years since he received his call to repair the Church, and eighteen since he founded the Order of Friars Minor.

The Salvation Army Printing Works,
St. Albans


SALVATION ARMY PUBLICATIONS

BY GENERAL BOOTH