When the singing ended the clergyman read from the fifteenth chapter of the First Corinthians. All had risen as he began and remained standing through the remainder of the service. Again the voices rose with the words of “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” the words President McKinley had repeated at intervals of consciousness during the day of agony before he died. As the music died away the pastor spoke again.
“Let us pray,” he said, and every head fell upon its breast. He began his invocation with a stanza from a hymn sung in the Methodist Church. His prayer was as follows:
“O, God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast
And our eternal home.
“We, thy servants, humbly beseech thee for manifestations of thy favor as we come into thy presence. We laud and magnify thy holy name and praise thee for all thy goodness. Be merciful unto us and bless us, as, stricken with overwhelming sorrow, we come to thee. Forgive us for our doubts and fears and faltering faith; pardon all our sins and shortcomings and help us to say, ‘Thy will be done.’
“In this dark night of grief abide with us till the dawning. Speak to our troubled souls, O God, and give to us in this hour of unutterable grief the peace and quiet which thy presence only can afford. We thank thee that thou answerest the sobbing sigh of the heart, and dost assure us that if a man die he shall live again. We praise thee for Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Savior and elder brother; that he came ‘to bring life and immortality to light,’ and because he lives we shall live also. We thank thee that death is victory, that ‘to die is gain.’
“Have mercy upon us in this dispensation of thy providence. We believe in thee, we trust thee, our God of love—‘the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.’ We thank thee for the unsullied life of thy servant, our martyred President, whom thou hast taken to his coronation, and we pray for the final triumph of all the divine principles of pure character and free government for which he stood while he lived and which were baptized by his blood in his death.
“Hear our prayer for blessings of consolation upon all those who were associated with him in the administration of the affairs of the government; especially vouchsafe thy presence to thy servant who has been suddenly called to assume the holy responsibility of our Chief Magistrate.