The sermon by Paul Carrington focuses on the life of Lady Jane Grey, a young Protestant martyr who lived during the turbulent times of the Reformation in England. Despite being used as a pawn by her family and living a life devoid of parental love, Lady Jane Grey became deeply rooted in Reformed Christian faith through the influence of Catherine Parr, the last wife of King Henry VIII. Her intellectual prowess and understanding of scripture were evident in her debates, particularly with Dr. Feckenham, a Catholic apologist. Lady Jane's unwavering faith led to her execution at the age of 16, but she remains a symbol of faithfulness and conviction. The sermon emphasizes the importance of looking beyond Lady Jane's life to the faith in Jesus Christ that sustained her, urging listeners to embrace the love of God, prepare for eternal life, and deeply engage with the Word of God.

Great, well this morning I have the honor of speaking to you on the subject or the person of Lady Jane Grey. Last night we were in Germany with Katie Luther and then we skipped over to France. And now we're crossing the channel almost following the path of the Reformation itself as it spread, and we're gonna be talking about Lady Jane Grey. And I just wanna start off by reading just one verse of scripture here in Hebrews chapter 11. You don't have to turn to it, but the author of Hebrews, he's wanting to communicate what faith actually is and rather than going on a long didactic talk on what that is, he identifies it upfront by saying Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

And then in verse four it says, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead still speaks. And I think, you know, this woman that we're gonna be dealing with this morning, you know, the question is, what can we learn from a young lady, 16 years old when she died, who lived over 450 years ago. And you would consider her perhaps a failure by the standards of man in the sense that she only reigned as a queen for about nine days. And then the crown was taken from her. And not only that, but throughout her whole life, she was used by her own family, and then she was unloved by everyone around her.

And by the age of 16, she was actually martyred. And so, is this a life really worth looking into? Well, Calvin says it like this. He says that she was a lady whose example is worthy of everlasting remembrance. And so I'm gonna just be walking us through different sections of her life, just starting first of all, we're gonna look at the time in which she lived, and then we're gonna look at her early life, and then we'll take a look at how she came to know the Lord, her conversion, and then her coronation when she became queen, and then finally, on the heels of that, almost immediately, we'll talk about how she came to kind of end off her days in very, very short order.

That's probably where we'll spend the most of our time. But like one of the authors, I think it was Charles Dickens, he said, it was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. She lived in a time of tremendous turbulence. And I don't know how many of the young ladies here have actually been on a plane before but oftentimes when you're flying all of a sudden the captain might come over the the PA system and say that we're entering a period of turbulence please be seated and buckle up your seatbelts because the air is going to get very rough, the plane is going to shake, there's going to be all sorts of different problems. Well, that's a perfect description of the time in which Lady Jane actually lived.

The Reformation was already in full swing in Europe, and it was making its way into the land of England. And so you got men like Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. You might have heard of men like that. Both of those men were killed a little later on by Bloody Mary. You had people like Little Thomas Bilney, who was an amazing man, who was responsible for converting men like Hugh Latimer, but himself was very, very meek and demure.

But he ended up at one point denying the faith and then asking to be martyred later on. And you get men like that, John Hooper and Miles Coverdale. And these men were all meeting to discuss the doctrines of the Reformation. They would meet at a place called the White Horse Inn, which became a real hub for a Reformation right in England. But when you come to the Royal Court of England, This is more to do with Jane's scene.

Here she was, it was a full of drama. I mean at every turn there was drama. There was a king reigning at the time, his name was King Henry, and he had run afoul of the Catholic Church because he had married a woman, Catherine of Aragon, and that woman could not give him a son. She bore a daughter, Bloody Mary, which we'll talk about later. That wasn't her name, by the way, at birth, but That was her name later on.

Mary was one of her daughters, but she couldn't bear a son. And so he wanted to annul the marriage. And so what do you do when you're the King of England and you can't get your way with the Catholic Church? Well, you start your own church. So he started his own church called the Anglican Church.

And so he annulled and exiled his first wife and then he married a woman by the name of Anne Boleyn. And that woman couldn't give him a son. That's what a king wants, is a son to take the crown when he's gone. So what does he do? He had her beheaded.

Then he got a third wife. Finally, this third wife was able to give him a son by the name of Edward. And so Edward was born, but he would have three more wives after that. So just, you know, absolute debacle in terms of what he was actually doing, six wives in total. But his last wife, his last wife was actually a godly woman by the name of Catherine Parr.

This woman was a beautiful woman, had a major, major impact on King Edward, who actually became king at nine years old. So can you imagine, here you are, you've grown up in the palace, you've been really, really confined, and now you're nine years old and you're crowned the King of England. But because you're so young, you're surrounded by vice regents, people that will help you govern. Unfortunately, the people who were surrounding him were pretty much scoundrels. They weren't people of character at all.

And so this is the scene that she's there, but as I said, that last woman, Catherine Parr, was a very, very godly woman. So you can imagine in this particular time, it was a real time of scheming, plots, people trying to climb the ladder, trying to pull each other down. All of this is swirling right within the palace and everywhere in and around England. And so that's really the timeframe that our Lady Jane was born. In talking about her early life, I mentioned the turbulence, but unfortunately, in her life, there was nothing at all to cushion that turbulence.

She was the daughter of Henry and Francis. And This husband and wife were what you would call kind of wannabe aristocrats. They were kind of on the outside of the aristocracy, but they were always plotting and scheming themselves. How can we get just one more rung up the social ladder? How can we become more than what we are?

And so they really had absolutely no love for her. She describes her life in a very, very harsh way. And these are the words of Lady Jane in a letter growing up. And so her parents, because they were constantly trying to prune her and make her and shape her into something that was unnatural because of their poor ambitions. This is what she said, I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently sometimes with pinches, nips, bobs, and other ways, which I will not name for the honor that I bear my parents, that I think myself in hell.

And so her parents had created this atmosphere in the home that was totally godless in every single way. Their only interest for her was that they that she marry well so that their interests could be advanced. And they were always trying to trying to do that, trying to get up again one one rung up the ladder. They were really preoccupied. They had delusions of grandeur.

That was always in their minds. And here's the thing, right? What if we could get our daughter, Lady Jane or Jane, to marry King Edward? What would that do for us? That would be something to really, really help us in ways that we had never imagined before.

It would elevate them to the highest social position in the land. And so at a very early age, Jane was really being groomed. She was being tutored to be the Queen of England, and she was super really, Really really highly educated, but little loved you know you look at a life like this She received a largely humanist education by the age of six. She was fluent in Latin and by seven she was reading Plato in the original Greek. Not only that, but along with these types of things she was fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, and she was constantly reading her Tyndale Bible.

So you can imagine this life, right? Being groomed, being pressed to be something somewhere down the road. And so at nine years old, her parents look at her and say, well, you seem ready. We're going to send you off to court. So she leaves her home in the country, And she's sent away to court with the hopes that she'll be able to perhaps win over King Henry, who, by the way, is her distant.

Sorry, not King Henry, Prince Edward or King Edward, who really is her distant cousin, to somehow get a match and they'll be married. But in the midst of all this, you see all this turbulence in her life. And in the midst of all this, she ends up under the care of King Henry VIII's sixth wife. King Henry is now dead, but Catherine Parr is still alive. And she's a very godly woman.

And what she's doing, she really treated Lady Jane like a daughter and she truly loved her and what she would do every single day was she would hold Bible studies in her court. She would invite some of her maids and ladies in waiting and they would gather together. Even King Henry himself would gather and they would sit down and go through the scriptures and say, you know, what saith the scriptures. Her actual, her chaplain was Miles Coverdale. If you've heard of the Coverdale Bible, that's Miles Coverdale, the one who actually took Tyndals in English and actually finished the Bible.

Well somewhere along the line, and there's nothing specific, but Lady Jane became a citizen of heaven. She got converted under this teaching day in and day out. What happened as she got converted was her vain affections for music and fashion began to diminish as her love for God and her love for the things of God began to grow and she became very very deeply rooted in reformed teaching. You know, Catherine Parr was one of these women, and there's probably not enough written about her, but she was one of the first and one of the most godliest women in England to really take hold of Reformation doctrine and make it her own and spread it abroad. And so Here you are, if you can picture it, amidst a brood of vipers in this court where Lady Jane was.

Faith was flourishing under the care of the only person who probably ever loved her, this Lady Catherine Parr. And so, While her parents were back at home plotting on how they could elevate themselves in the kingdom, she had been discovered to a new kingdom, a kingdom not made with hands, and she had discovered a new king, King Jesus himself, and grew to love him. And so It's really just a question, asking ourselves, is it possible in a culture like this that is full of gossip, slander, intrigue, lies, betrayal, plotting, and even murder, that the Word of God can prosper? And of course we know the answer is absolutely yes. The Apostle Paul says it like this, that when he ends his letter to the Philippians, he's writing to the Philippians from a Roman prison, and he says this, all the saints greet you, but especially those who are Caesar's household.

Can you imagine that even in those days, there the gospel is going forth right underneath the nose of the Caesar? Because God is not bound, He's never bound. And so in the midst of all this garbage, all this turbulence, all this terror going on right within the courts. There's faith that's making its way to the surface, and people are actually being saved right there, it's wonderful. But tragedy struck, tragedy struck, and Jane's caregiver, Katherine Parr, was lost.

She ended up dying, and she died from complications of childbirth. In those days it was almost very very frequently that a woman would die after giving birth or during the birth and infections and all these other things would come to pass. And so Jane was sent back home to her parents, but now she's going back home as a believer, but she's also going back as a young believer, which means oftentimes when you're a young believer, you're very, very opinionated. You have your own strong stance. There's not a lot of finesse, and it's this way or no way at all.

And so she kind of went back very and thoroughly convinced of Reformed teaching, and she was somewhat off-putting with her parents. But this led to many, many beatings, and beatings that would sometimes even end off in unconsciousness. I mean it wasn't like kind of just a little slap, but it was pretty bad at times and she was she was abused in that way, but her faith continued to grow. She would continue to just read her Bible. That was her main sustenance, her main food, And then she would communicate with people like Heinrich Bullinger and Martin Busser.

So she had this ability, she would write letters as a young lady. I don't know exactly the age, maybe 13 to 15. She would take up a pen and then write letters about Reformation doctrine or encouragements to these reformers in distant lands and they would write back to her. Well all this while, unfortunately, the godly and young King Edward VI, he was dying. He was suffering with tuberculosis, which is one of the most horrible diseases.

And as I mentioned earlier, he was surrounded by scoundrels. Well, one of the scoundrels surrounding him was a man by the name of John Dudley. And so John Dudley came up with this plan. He concocted a plan to say, Edward, when you die, you do not want your Catholic sister Mary, later to be known as Bloody Mary, to become Queen of England, because then she'll make all of England Catholic. And so he convinced Edward to make Jane, who's a distant relative, the Queen of England.

And guess what he had? He had a young son, a foolish senseless son by the name of Guilford. And he plotted with Jane's parents, look, I'll get Jane to be the queen, and we'll get Guilford to be her husband, and then king. Does that make sense? It's almost like a sale, is pretty much how some of the books had described it.

She was being sold on auction to see if she could help elevate her parents. And this, of course, was the dream. This was the time to cash in for her parents. And this is what was happening in her life. And so she's basically forced to marry Guilford.

She refuses, and her mother takes her and beats her literally to unconsciousness. And so she succumbs, she says, okay I'll marry Guilford and she's about 15, 16 at this time. And Edward, by the way, here's Edward, he's suffering so badly and he's on the brink of death. They don't know how many hours or days he has. And in order to preserve his life, there's something called arsenic.

Have you heard of what arsenic is? Arsenic is poison, and it will attack the tuberculosis, But at the same time, what it'll do, it's like a torture chamber going on inside your body. But the guy John Dudley could care less. He just wanted Edward to be able to name Jane. And because he wasn't totally decided, he needed a few more weeks.

So he kept them alive by feeding them a steady dose of arsenic. Can you imagine the utter torment this young man died under? I mean, it's one of the most horrific kinds of deaths you can ever imagine, but it was so self-interested that this guy, John Dudley, was simply just one track mind. I need my son to be married to the Queen so that he can become the King. Well finally, before he dies, King Edward VI, as a young man, about 16 himself, he appoints Jane as his successor.

And four days after Henry Edward's death, Jane's transported to London, and she has no knowledge at all of her cousin's death. And by this way, by the way, they're friends. They love each other, King Henry VI and Lady Jane, and All of this is kept completely silent from her. And so she goes to London, she gets off, they take her down the river, and she gets off of this boat, and all of a sudden everyone starts bowing to her. They're bowing down to her, and she thinks she's being mocked.

She thinks, you know, you live in a home where there's just constant abuse and so on, so she just thinks she's being laughed at and mocked. And she walks in and then she sees her mother-in-law and she bows down to her. She sees all these people when she enters in bowing down to her and she's wondering what in the world is happening and they tell her that she's now the Queen of England. Well she's totally reluctant to become the Queen. She doesn't want to become the Queen.

She says Mary is the rightful Queen. I should not be the Queen at all and she backs away and they force her. They continue to, she actually ends up fainting, falls on the ground, not one person comes to her aid. She comes to and she begins to pray. Well, when she comes to and begins to pray, Guilford, you remember Guilford, who's her young husband, maybe 16 years old, comes up to her and he demands that she name him King, which she refuses flatly.

Well, this young man's not used to being told no, he's not used to having his way thwarted. He says, I will be made King by and by an act of parliament. And she refuses. And so if you think of a millennial of our day, like a poor chap, he bursts into tears right there, starts screaming, and runs off and goes and gets his mommy. Well, his mommy comes back, and she gives Jane the third degree, runs up one side of him, her down the other, just totally abuses her.

This is the scene of Jane's coronation. And so a very, very uneasy beginning, and it starts day one. Well now we get to her final days on this earth because while Jane is being crowned the Queen of England, Mary, who was Edward's older sister, who is a Catholic living elsewhere, she's amassing troops to come and take what she believes to be her crown, rightfully so. And so she gathers the forces that she has and she rides into London to claim the crown and because much of the army is out in other places, there's really no one there to guard the new queen and her husband. And so the panicked dad, Jane's dad, comes running up the tower and he opens the door, he says, you're no longer queen.

And she doesn't know what's happening, she looks at her dad and says, can we please go home now? She didn't want to be the queen. But her dad is just this total, I mean, he's the worst thing you could ever imagine. Well, the troops enter the tower, and her dad cries out, long live Queen Mary, right? Her daughter, his daughter's sitting right there to show that he has nothing to do with her whatsoever.

He says long live Queen Mary. He runs out of town and effectively he disowns his daughter. He never actually sees her again. Never even comes to her trial, which we'll talk about in a little bit later on. But they become good Catholics once again.

They were Protestants, but when the wind blows the other way, it's time to go back and become a Catholic. They had never had a change of heart at all. And so Jane, this 16-year-old young lady, she's arrested and She's confined in the Tower of London with her young husband who's in the cell next door, and they're confined for about six months. Well, during this confinement she wrote her father a letter, and just get a sense of this. She writes a letter, by the way, he never actually replied to her at all, but she says this, Father, although it has pleased God to hasten my death by you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened, yet I can so patiently take it that I yield God more hearty thanks for shortening my woeful days, that if all the world had been given into my possession with life lengthened at my own will, I would refuse it.

And thus, good father, I have opened unto you the state wherein I presently stand, my death at hand, although to you perhaps it may seem woeful, yet to me there is nothing that can be more welcome than from this veil of misery to aspire to that heavenly throne of all joy and pleasure with Christ as my Savior." And so there she was sitting in this prison. Well, three days before she was going to be killed, murdered, there was a doctor, a priest by the name of Dr. Feckingham, who was the chaplain of Queen Mary. And so he came to Queen Mary and says, hey, give me an opportunity to try and convert this young girl back to the fold. It would be something pretty glorious.

And here's a man who was a debater. He would often overthrow the arguments of Protestants. He would be called upon and debate very, very regularly. He was like an apologist in a way. And so he was very, very confident that he would win this deceived lass back to the fold.

How hard could it be, a 16-year-old girl up against an apologist for the Catholic faith. Well, she didn't prove to be very easy prey for him whatsoever. And so he arranges in those three days a semi-public debate. And what he finds, though, is a young lady who actually knows what she believes. And this is hopefully very instructive for all of us here this morning.

And so after dialoguing with her about the justification by faith, the doctrine of justification by faith, he turns the discussion to the sacraments. And I want to read you this interaction because it was recorded because it was semi-public. And so Feckenheim says this, how many sacraments are there? She says two. The one, the sacrament of baptism, and the other, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

No, there are seven. By what scripture find you that? As she hands him her Bible. Well we will talk of that hereafter. But what is significant by you, by your two sacraments?

She says, by the sacrament of baptism I am washed with water and regenerated by the Spirit. And that washing is a token to me that I am the child of God. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper offered unto me is a sure seal and testimony that I am by the blood of Christ, which he shed for me on the cross, made partaker of the everlasting kingdom." So Feckenham jumps on this he says, why doth not Christ speak these words take eat this is my body require you any plainer words does he not say it is his body and Lady Jane says I grant he says so and so he says I am the vine I am the door But he is never more the door nor the vine. Doth not St. Paul say he calleth things that are not as though they were?

God forbid that I should say that I eat the very natural body and blood of Christ, for then I should pluck away my redemption, or else there were two bodies, or two Christs. One body was tormented on the cross, And if they did eat another body, then had he two bodies? Or if his body were eaten, then was it not broken on the cross? Or if it were broken on the cross, it was not eaten by his disciples. And so, he can't say anything.

I mean, What do you say to a young lady who actually knows the Bible when he doesn't know the Bible? So he gets flustered, and he ends up declaring, I am sure that we too shall never meet. And she says to him, true it is that we shall never meet, except God turn your heart. For I am assured unless you repent and turn to God, you are in an evil way. And I pray God in the bowels of his mercy to send you his Holy Spirit, for he has given you his great gift of utterance, if it pleased him also to open the eyes of your heart." And so of course, he never saw her get converted, but it really registers a question.

How could a young lady like this have such strong conviction? You know, when I was looking at her life, the only way her life makes sense is one thing, that there is a resurrection. The only way her life makes sense. Otherwise, she's of all people most to be pitied. And so here she was making these bold declarations, literally on the precipice of death.

Well, she didn't waste her time. Here she is just days away, and she's not squandering her time. She's not weeping and mourning, but she's spending her time in communion with God. And so she wrote a lot of evangelistic letters to her family back home while she was awaiting that final knock at the door, which would come any minute. And this is what she says to her little sister, Desire, sister, to understand the law of the Lord your God.

Live to die, that by death you may enter into eternal life, and then enjoy the life that Christ has gained for you by his death. Don't think that just because you are now young, your life will be long. Because young and old die as God wills. Deny the world, defy the devil. Despise the flesh and delight yourself only in the Lord.

Repent of your sins and don't despair. Be strong in faith and yet don't presume. With St. Paul desire to die and to be with Christ with whom even in death there is life." And so This is what she's spending her last days reaching out, calling on others to come to know the Lord, live to die. If you remember one thing about Lady Jane, remember that.

And think about that as an older sister, as you communicate with your younger sisters or siblings. Well finally, That knock came and it was time for Jane to go out to meet her death. And as mercy for someone in her position, instead of being burned at the stake, she was going to receive a swift death with the axe, with her head being cut off. And so she was taken out of her cell. And I want you to just use your imagination and put yourself there for a moment.

Imagine this is the crowd that's come to watch Lady Jane breathe her last breaths. Well, she got up onto the scaffold, she climbed up the steps, and as she got up the steps she recited in English Psalm 51, which is the one David David wrote after his repentance, after his sin with Bathsheba. It starts off with, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness. And so she recited that whole psalm before everyone. And then there was a five minute wait.

Imagine five minutes of silence. That might seem like an utter eternity when you're there waiting for the axe to come down. And so she stood there. The hope was perhaps she might under the pressure recant in that five minutes of silence or something might happen to save her because all she had to do was renounce the doctrines of the faith, of the Reformed faith. Not even mean it with her heart and just become a Catholic and she would be spared entirely.

Well after the five minutes and there's no bending of the knee, the executioner, he comes up to her and he asks her for forgiveness, which is what they would do in those days. And she asks as she's standing there, can you please kill me quickly? And he says that he will. And she says, can you kill me where I stand? He says, unfortunately, I can't.

And what happens is they remove her scarf. So you imagine these final moments. Take off her scarf. She removes her gloves. She was a lady.

She takes off her gloves. And then they had these high collars. So they loosened her collar to move it away from her neck where the axe is going to come down and then the executioner he says can you can you come over here and kneel down upon the straw that's been spread out to cat catch all the blood when when your head is cut off to soak up all the blood well she she's receives a blindfold they her friend she had a friend a couple ladies up there, her servants that couldn't tie the blindfold, so she takes the blindfold. She ties her own blindfold around her head. And there she is, totally blindfolded, and panic begins to set in.

And she's there, she can't see, and she doesn't know where the block is. And she says, what shall I do? Where is it? Where is it?" She just momentary fear just takes over her for a moment, and no one, no one will come up and help her. And there she is on the scaffold with no one coming to her aid.

Finally someone from the crowd jumps up and guides her hands to kneel down before the block. And there she is. And her last words were, Lord, into your hands I command my spirit and the axe came down and that was the end of Lady Jane's life on this earth but not the end of Lady Jane. She died exactly the way the Apostle Paul died as Thousands of others have died. She kept the faith.

She was faithful unto death. And while she lost her crown on earth, she received one in glory, one that will never be taken away. And so all of the turbulence of a life being unloved, never really, except for one lady given a hug or just a sign of affection. Now she was in the arms of her Savior forever and ever. And so that's why I opened up with Abel's account, though he being dead, he yet speaks, and so does Our Lady Jane Grey.

And so I just want to leave with a few thoughts here in conclusion. You know, what does her life really say as a 16 year old young lady who kept the faith? Well the one thing I got from this, and I was humbled when I was going through her life, because you get people, men, grown men, who would not have done what she did, but she clung to Christ when no one else was there to support her. When devils were there trying to pull her back into darkness, she did not bow the knee. Well, her life declares one thing, worthy is the land.

There is a resurrection. And what I want you to do though, here's the temptation. Your temptation is to just basically admire Lady Jane, but I don't want you to do that. I want you to look past Lady Jane to where she was looking. The object of her affection, the thing that kept her going was not herself, but she was looking unto Jesus.

And if there's any way any young lady any father here is gonna ever overcome It is because we look unto Jesus and so we need to do that don't admire her only but look past her And there's just four things. I want to leave you with Know God's all excelling love While she was despised of her parents and used by her caregivers, never had a true friend, what she did know was the inestimable worth of being in Christ. Its height, its depth, its breadth, it's all of these things, it's length. These are the things that kept her. Do you know that love?

Is that yours? Think about that for a moment. And then I want you to also think about this. Don't equate your youth with frivolity. What does our time say?

Not just out in the world, but even our times today, even in our churches. The primary theme is this, enjoy, relax. Just entertainment must be your chief pursuit. That's what our world says, and that's what the religious world says. That's even what your heart might be saying or the church that you're in might be saying.

Well remember that you are becoming the woman that you will be. Take her advice. Live to die. Are you preparing for the day that you'll meet your King? There's thousands of people who have denied their faith just to hold on to this world, just for a few more days, a few more trinkets.

Her dad, by the way, was one of those people. He became a Catholic. He ended up himself denying the faith and so on. Well, he just preserved his life just for a period. Ended up losing everything.

But is it really worth it? She could have been saved. All she had to do was renounce the faith. And I just want to ask you young ladies and even fathers, will it be said of your life the only way that that dad lived to make sense of it, the only way that young lady's life makes sense is that there is a resurrection from the dead. And then finally know the Word, not only the printed Word, but the living Word.

Her Greek New Testament was her companion through all tribulation. It was her solid rock. It was what she fed her soul on. She knew what it taught, as you could see with that interaction with Dr. Feckenham.

But not only was she an apologist in the sense of knowing it, but she meditated on it. She loved the Word of God. She wasn't spoon-fed. And so it's a question to ask yourself, does your knowledge of God and His Word lie just upon the surface? Does it rest in your parents?

Well, my counsel today is grab hold of the faith for yourself, grab hold of the Word of God for yourself, and I just want to close with this quote, if in this life we have hope, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are humbled when we Look at the account of your workings in a life of a 16-year-old young lady, 450 years ago, who kept the faith. Oh Lord, that we would be instructed. Oh Father, that we would have the same affections.

Lord, that we would look to the same Christ and whatever the world brings, Lord, whatever sufferings come our way, that we would have our houses built on that solid rock of your word. Put it in the hearts of each one of us as fathers, Lord, and stir the hearts of our daughters, from the youngest to the oldest. O God, may they all be saved and come to know you in the same way. Lord, we do thank you. Amen.