Calvin's Last Letter

This being calvin 500 I have probably read five biographies about John Calvin this year.  All different and with a fresh approach. The one I am finishing up currently is by Williston Walker, John Calvin, Revolutionary, Theologian, Pastor.  Yet, which ever biography I find it is, when it comes to Calvin's last days, I find I weep with the picture he cuts, maybe because I feel I know the physical struggle day in and day out, and the deep loss he felt at friends additionally, though for him it was the parting of death. But the biography by Walker, includes an excerpt of Calvin's last letter which went as thus:

Farewell, best and truest brother. If God wills that you remain the survivor, live mindful of our union, which has been useful to the Church of God, so that its fruit abides for us in heaven. I am unwilling that you weary yourself for my sake, for I draw breath with difficulty, and constantly await its failing me. It is enough that I live and die unto Christ, who is gain to those who are His in life and in death. Again farewell [to you] together with the brethren.

And these were the last personal written words of the man who has exerted the greatest influence on the world in the last 1000 years.  The last letter, was to William Farel. The man who had so humbly stood aside and got Calvin in Geneva against the younger man's will, but Farel knew that Calvin was better disposed for the job at hand than he himself was. The church of God was their priority, not personal greatness, the way Farel stood aside demonstrates that.