The Burial of the Dead
Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Man that is born of a woman is of few days; he cometh forth Kke a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. I know that thou will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all the living. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth; are not his days cast as the days of an hireling? We are strangers and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days upon earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. Behold, our days are as an handbreath, and our age is as nothing; verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.
“Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil! For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever!
O thou who art the Lord of the living and the dead, and the God of the spirits of all flesh! Thou, O Lord, turnest man to destruction, and sayest, return ye children of men. A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. We have sinned against heaven and before thee, and are not worthy to be called thy children. It is but the just judgment of thy pure and holy law, that we die and return to the dust. When thou, O Lord, dost rebuke man for his iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like the moth. Thou changest the fashion of his countenance, and sendeth him away. But thou, O Lord, art from everlasting to everlasting, and of thy years there is no end. The Lord liveth, and blessed be our Rock, and let the God of our salvation be exalted!
We thank thee, O most merciful God, for the revelation of thy truth and grace in the Gospel of thy Son, in whose name alone we approach thee, in this, the day of thy rebuke and our calamity. For his sake, we pray thee, blot out all our sins, and remember them not against us. Cast them behind thy back, and drown them as in the midst of the sea. Create within us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us. Grant us the influence of thy good Spirit to guide and sanctify us, that, while we live, we may live sober and godly lives; that when we die, we may die the death of the righteous; and when we stand before thy bar, we may be accepted in him who liveth and was dead, and is alive for evermore. Amen!
Since it has pleased Almighty God, in his holy providence, to remove one of our ship’s company by death, we now commit his body to the deep. Here let the corpse he launched over hoard.’] There to rest until the earth and the sea shall give up their dead. The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it, there to be judged, every man according to his works, whether they be good or bad.
Do thou grant, O Lord, that we thy servants, may make a wise improvement of this solemn and affecting event, and henceforth learn so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. May we know whom we have believed, and be persuaded that he is able to keep that we have committed to him until the day of his coming. We bless thee that he has said to all his true disciples, “Because I live, ye shall live also!” May the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us! Through him who is the resurrection and the life, and in whom, if a man believe, though he were dead yet he shall live, do thou grant that we may all at last hear those blessed words, “Come ye children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” O Lord, hear us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lamb of God who takest away the sin of the world, regard our prayers!
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Ghost be with us all! Amen!