But he said to them, "These things are without avail, yet for love of you I do whatever you bid me." For he knew that _the time_ of his departure was at hand.[856] 71. And when the brothers who had come with him[857] urged him more boldly, saying that it behoved him not to despair of life, for that no signs of death appeared in him,[858] he said, "It behoves Malachy to leave the body this year."[859] And he added, "See, the day is drawing near which, as you very well know, I have always desired to be the day of _my dissolution_.[860] _I know whom I have believed and am persuaded_;[861] I shall _not be disappointed of_ the rest of _my desire_,[862] since I already have part of it. He who by his mercy has led me to the place which I sought, will not deny me the time for which I wished no less. As regards this mean body, _here is my rest_;[863] as regards my soul, the Lord will provide, _who saveth them that put their trust in Him_.[864] And _there is_ no small hope _laid up for me at that day_[865] in which so great benefits are bestowed by the living on the dead."[866] Not far away was that day when he spoke thus. Meanwhile he ordered that he should be anointed with the sacred oil. When the convent of brothers was going out that it might be done solemnly,[867] he would not permit them to come up to him; he went down to them. For he was lying in the balcony[868] of the upper house. He was anointed; and when he had received the viaticum, he commended himself to the prayers of the brothers, and the brothers to God,[869] and went back to bed. He went down from the high balcony[870] on his feet, and again, as if that were not enough, he went up on his feet; yet he said that death _was at the doors_.[871] Who should believe that this man was dying? Himself alone and God could know it. His face did not seem to have become pallid or wasted. His brow was not wrinkled, his eyes were not sunken, his nostrils were not thin, his lips were not contracted, his teeth were not brown, his neck was not gaunt and lean, his shoulders were not bowed, the flesh on the rest of his body had not failed. Such was the grace of his body, and such the _glory of his countenance which was_ not _to be done away_,[872] even in death. As he appeared in life so was he also in death, more like to one alive.