Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/35

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THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER DOCK
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of Peter Jansen, of Skippack. The death of his wife and the marriage of his daughters left him alone in his old age. He then made his home with Heinrich Kassel, a Mennonite farmer on the Skippack. It was Dock's custom each evening after dismissing his pupils to remain in his schoolroom to pray. With the roll of his pupils spread before him, he would kneel and ask God to forgive him for any act of injustice or of neglect toward any pupil in his school. He also asked, as he pronounced each pupil's name, that God would help him on the morrow to do the best things for each one.

One evening in the autumn of 1771, he did not return from his school at the usual time. A search was made and he was found in his schoolroom on his knees — dead. Thus ended in prayer for his pupils a life singularly sweet and unselfishly given to the welfare of those whom he believed God had divinely appointed him to teach.

M. G. BRUMBAUGH.

Philadelphia, Jan. 18, 1907.