ding us of sleep and her sister death
and the solemn petition made to God to be our guardian and defence in
the solemn hour of death, are simply and solemnly set out in this daily
hymn. How beautiful it reads in Father Caswall's translation:--

"Now with the fast departing light,
Maker of all, we ask of Thee
Of Thy great mercy, through the night,
Our guardian and defence to be.

Far off let idle visions fly,
No phantom of the night molest:
Curb Thou our raging enemy,
That we in chaste repose may rest.

Father of mercies! hear our cry;
Hear us, O sole-begotten Son!
Who, with the Holy Ghost most high,
Reignest while endless ages run."

In Passiontide, the Breviary gives us the last verse, Deo Patri, and the
translation renders it:--

"To Thee, Who dead again dost live,
All glory, Jesus, ever be,
Praise to the Father, infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally."

_Little Chapter_. This is a beautiful call to our Lord to remind Him, as
it were, that we are His own, that we bear His name. In this invocation
we express our confidence in Him and ask Him not to abandon us, but to
dwell with us. "But Thou, O Lord, art among us, and Thy holy name is
invoked upon us; forsake us not, O Lord our God"; and for past
protection the Church adds to their invocation, taken from the prophet
Jeremias, the words of gratitude, "Thanks be to God."

_The Response_. "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum... nos."
"Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Into Thy hands I commend
my spirit. For Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord God of Truth. I commend my
spirit. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Keep us, O Lord, as the
apple of Thine eye. Protect us under the shadow of Thy wings." No more
sublime prayer exists in the liturgy than this response, which the
Church orders us to say nightly. She wishes, in its daily recital, to
prepare us for death, by reminding us of the sentiments and words of our
dying Lord on the cross, "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit" (Ps. 30,
v. 6), and by asking Him Who redeemed us on the bitter tree, to keep us
safe as the apple of His eye and to protect us "under the shadow of His
wings" (Ps. 40, v, 6). These solemn words of our dying Saviour have
been, in all ages, and in all lands, the death prayer of many of those
whom He redeemed, with the gr