Christianity, was in many respects very like his
Master, and in his martyrdom closely imitated Him. Thus on the field
of death he repeated Christ's prayer for His enemies--"Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge." Also, he imitated this final word, but he
put it in a new form, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;" that is, he
addressed to Christ the dying prayer which Christ Himself addressed to
the Father.[2] The other alteration which Jesus made was the omission
of the words, "for Thou hast redeemed me." It would not have been
fitting for Him to employ them. But we will not omit them; and if,
like Stephen, we address the prayer to Christ, how much richer and more
pathetic are the words to us than they were even to him who first
penned them.

III.

It was about His spirit that the dying Saviour prayed.

Dying persons are sometimes much taken up with their bodies. Their
pain and trouble may occasion this, and the prescriptions of the
physician may require close attention. Some display a peculiar anxiety
even about what is to happen to the body after the life has left it,
giving the minutest instructions as to their own obsequies. Not
infrequently the minds of the dying are painfully occupied with their
worldly affairs: they have their property to dispose of, and they are
distracted with anxieties about their families. The example of Jesus
shows that it is not wrong to bestow attention on these things even on
a deathbed; for His fifth word, "I thirst," had reference to His own
bodily necessities; and, whilst hanging on the cross, He made provision
for His mother's future comfort. But His supreme concern was His
spirit; to the interests of which He devoted His final prayer.

What is the spirit? It is the finest, highest, sacredest part of our
being. In modern and ordinary language we call it the soul, when we
speak of man as composed of body and soul; but in the language of
Scripture it is distinguished even from the soul as the most lofty and
exquisite part of the inner man. It is to the rest of our nature what
the flower is to the plant or what the pearl is to the shell. It is
that within us which is specially allied to God and eternity. It is
also, however, that which sin seeks to corrupt and our spiritual
enemies seek to destroy. No doubt these are specially active in the
article of death; it is their last chance; and fain would they seize
the spirit as it parts from the body and, dragging it down, ro