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Death
& Funeral Related
Believer’s Response to Death
The
inevitable tomb is not a period at the end of the sentence of life, but a
conjunction connecting us with the life to com.
Believer’s Response to Death
A
father gave this counsel to his married daughter on the first anniversary of
her mother’s death:
“I
had forty wonderful years with your Mom,” he said, “the best years of my life,
But that part of my life is over. Finished!”
“But
Dad…” “No buts, listen to me.” His clear blue eyes stared intensely into mine.
I couldn’t turn away from him as much as I wanted to. “They were the best years
of my life,” he repeated. “Your mother is no longer with me; this truth has to
be faced. But I am alive and must live the time allotted me until she and I are
together again.” His voice trembled, but it was not uncertain. “She is gone,
but no one can take away the wonderful memories. They are part of me, the happy
memories and the sad ones. But only a part. I can’t let them possess me or I
couldn’t get through my days. Every day is a gift from God. It must be lived
with joy. It is just a taste of the joy to come when we will all be together
again.” I kissed him then, not realizing that our conversation would one day be
one of my fondest memories. Recalling that day has always been a great strength
to me, particularly today—the first anniversary of my dear father’s death.
Believer’s Response to Death
Dr.
Donald Grey Barnhouse told of the occasion when his first wife had died. He,
with his children, had been to the funeral service for her. As he was driving
his motherless children home, they were naturally overcome with grief at the
parting. Dr. Barnhouse said that he was trying to think of some word of comfort
that he could give them. Just then, a huge moving van passed them. As it
passed, the shadow of the truck swept over the car. And as the truck pulled on
in front of them, an inspiration came to Dr. Barnhouse. He said, “Children,
would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow?” The children said,
“Well, of course, Dad, we’d much rather be run over by the shadow! That can’t
hurt us at all.” Dr. Barnhouse said, “Did you know that two thousand years ago
the truck of death ran over the Lord Jesus…in order that only its shadow might
run over us?”
Believer’s Response to Death
I
am standing on a seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the
morning breeze and starts for the ocean blue. She is an object of beauty and
strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of
white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to meet each other. Then
someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.” Gone where? Gone from my sight,
that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she
left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living weights to its place
of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her, and just at the
moment when someone say, “There she is gone,” on that distant shore there are
other eyes watching for her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout, “Here she comes,” and such is dying. ──《Immortality》Loraine Boettner
Believer’s Response to Death
A
little girl whose father had just died asked her mother where her father had
gone. “To be with Jesus,” replied the mother.
A few
days later, talking to a friend, the mother said, “I am so grieved to have lost
my husband.”
The
little girl heard her and, remembering what she had told her, asked, “Mother,
is a thing lost when you know where it is?”
“No,
of course not,” said her mom.
“Well,
then, how can Daddy be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?”
Believer’s Response to Death
Years
ago, Dr. Arthur John Gossip preached a sermon titled “When Life Tumbles In,
What Then?” on the day after his beloved wife had died suddenly. He closed with
these words:
“I
don’t think you need to be afraid of life. Our hearts are very frail, and there
are places where the road is ery steep and very lonely, but we have a wonderful
God. And as Paul puts it, ‘What can separate us from His love? Not death,’ he
writes immediately. No, not death, for standing in the roaring of the Jordan,
cold with its dreadful chill and very conscious of its terror, of its rushing,
I, too, like Hopeful in 《Pilgrim’s Progress》, can call back to you who one day in your turn will have to cross
it, ‘Be of good cheer, my brother, for I feel the bottom and it is sound.’”
Believer’s Response to Death
As
the great Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson lay sick and about to die, he
said, “I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet when
Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from
his school. Perhaps I feel something like the young bride when she contemplates
resigning the pleasant association of her childhood for a yet dearer
home—though only a little like her, for there is no doubt resting on my
future.”
Believer’s Response to Death
When
Martin Luther’s daughter, Magdelena, was fourteen years old, she was taken sick
and lay dying. Luther prayed, “O God, I love her so, but nevertheless, Thy will
be done.”
Then
he turned to his daughter and said, “Magdelena, would you rather be with me, or
would you rather go and be with your Father in heaven?” And the girl said, “Father,
as God wills.” Luther held her in his arms as she passed away, and as they laid
her to rest, he said, “Oh my dear Magdelenachen, you will rise and shine like
the stars in the sun. How strange to be so sorrowful and yet to know that all
is at peace, that all is well.”
It is
this hope in the hour of death that the resurrection gives to us.
Believer’s Response to Death
There
are many instances of those whose faith has triumphed in the hour of death.
D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of the past century, said on his deathbed,
“Earth is receding; heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day!”
Believer’s Response to Death
This
incident illustrates how the child of God can face the last enemy with
confidence and courage:
Many
years ago, the ship known as the Empress of Ireland went down with 130
Salvation Army officers on board, along with many other passengers. Only 21 of
those Christian workers’ lives were spare—an unusually small number. Of the 109
workers who drowned, not one body had on a life preserver! Many of the
survivors told how those brave people, seeing that there were not enough
lifebelts, took off their own and strapped them onto others, saying, “I know
Jesus, so I can die better than you can.” Their supreme sacrifice and faithful
words set a beautiful example, which for many years has inspired the Salvation
Army to carry on courageously for God. Millions have come to recognize that
born-again individuals can face death fearlessly.
Death
for someone who has not come to know God is a frightening prospect. And indeed
it should be, for when one passes from this life, there is no longer the
possibility of coming right with God. In contrast, the dark door of death for a
Christian is only the other sie of the shining gate of life.
Believer’s Response to Death
The
dedicated missionary Jim Elliot once said: “I must not think it strange if God
takes in youth those whom I would have kept on earth until they were older. God
is peopling eternity, and I must not restrict Him to old men and women.”
Believer’s Response to Death
Samuel
Rutherford, a seventeenth-century Scottish pastor and theologian, wrote the
following to a woman when her young daughter died: “Remember what age your
daughter was, and that just so long was your lease of her…your lease (has) run
out, and you can no more justly quarrel against your great Superior for taking
His own, at His just term-day, than a poor farmer can complain that his master
taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired.”
Enoch’s Translation to Heaven
Enoch
lived to be 365 years old. The Bible says that he walked with God and God took
him away. A little girl described this experience to her mother. “Mamma,” she
said, “one day Enoch and God took a walk together. They walked and they talked,
and they talked and they walked, until Enoch finally said, ‘Oh, my, dear Lord,
it’s getting late. I’d better go home.’ And the Lord said, ‘Why, Enoch, we’ve
been walking so long together, I believe we’re closer to my home than yours.
Why don’t you come home with me tonight?’” So Enoch went home with God.
Fear of Death
A
dying man was fearful, even though he was a born-again Christian. He expressed
his feelings to his Christian doctor. The physician was silent, not knowing
what to say. Just then a whining and scratching was heard at the door. When the
doctor opened it, in bounded his big beautiful dog, who often went with him as
he made house calls. The dog was glad to see his master. Sensing an opportunity
to comfort his troubled patient, the doctor said, “My dog has never been in
your room before, so he didn’t know what it was like in here. But he knew I was
in here, and that was enough. In the same way, I’m looking forward to heaven. I
don’t know much about it, but I know my Savior is there. And that’s all I need
to know!”
Fear of Death
John
Wayne, at age 71, explained that he sometimes had difficult moments watching
his old movies: “It’s kind of irritating to see I was a good-looking
40-year-old and suddenly I can look over and see this 71-year-old…I’m not squawking…I
just want to be around for a long time.”
Last Words of a Dying Person
In
Shakespeare’s 《Richard II》, the dying Duke of
Lancaster tells the Duke of York: “O, but they say the tongues of dying men
enforce attention like deep harmony; Where words are scarce they are seldom
spent in vain, for they breathe their words in pain.”
Preparation for Death
Many
people sleep under an electric blanket during winter. The only problem with
this wonderful invention is that it is too good at what it does. That is, an
electric blanket makes a bed so warm and comfortable that on cold mornings it
is very hard to get up. Some people have found that the only thing that works
for them is to turn off their electric blanket so that the bed becomes much
less comfortable and thus it is easier to leave their cozy spot. Perhaps God
lets us deteriorate physically in our late years so that we will be more
willing to leave our ailing bodies for the unexplored future that he sets
before us.
Preparation for Death
When
Corrie ten Boom was a girl, her first realization of death came afer a visit to
the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed her that someday her parents
would die. Corrie’s father comforted her. “Corrie, when you and I go to
Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?” he asked.
Corrie
answered, “Why, just before we get on the train.”
“Exactly,”
responded her father, “and our wise Father in heaven knows exactly when we’re
going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of him, Corrie. When the time
comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find
the strength you need—just in time.”
Death
of the Righteous
In Sacramento, California, Rita and Jack were in high school
together and one day she asked him to walk her home. That was 68 years ago; 65 years ago they
were married. They built a home in
Sacramento together. Jack Urbine
drove a truck for Shell Oil for more than 40 years. They were active in their church and
several Christian organizations.
They had three children, nine grandchildren, two great
grandchildren. The other morning at
9:
The family has found her diary. Actually it was a family history she was
writing. In it they found these
words: "If the Lord takes Dad
first, I wish that He would let me follow very closely behind."
--Associated Press,
Funerals
In Britain a butcher specified in his will that he be cremated and
he specified that at his memorial service the organ was to play Cole Porter's
song "Every Time We Say Goodbye". Such was the the deceased man's
wish. He got half of his wish, but
the musician brought the wrong Cole Porter Sheet Music. At the cremation ceremony he played
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes!" --Associated Press,
Believer’s
Response to Death
A father gave this counsel
to his married daughter on the first anniversary of her mother’s death:
“I had forty wonderful
years with your Mom,” he said, “the best years of my life, But that part of my
life is over. Finished!”
“But Dad…” “No buts, listen
to me.” His clear blue eyes stared intensely into mine. I couldn’t turn away
from him as much as I wanted to. “They were the best years of my life,” he
repeated. “Your mother is no longer with me; this truth has to be faced. But I
am alive and must live the time allotted me until she and I are together
again.” His voice trembled, but it was not uncertain. “She is gone, but no one
can take away the wonderful memories. They are part of me, the happy memories
and the sad ones. But only a part. I can’t let them possess me or I couldn’t
get through my days. Every day is a gift from God. It must be lived with joy.
It is just a taste of the joy to come when we will all be together again.” I
kissed him then, not realizing that our conversation would one day be one of my
fondest memories. Recalling that day has always been a great strength to me,
particularly today—the first anniversary of my dear father’s death. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse
told of the occasion when his first wife had died. He, with his children, had
been to the funeral service for her. As he was driving his motherless children
home, they were naturally overcome with grief at the parting. Dr. Barnhouse
said that he was trying to think of some word of comfort that he could give
them. Just then, a huge moving van passed them. As it passed, the shadow of the
truck swept over the car. And as the truck pulled on in front of them, an
inspiration came to Dr. Barnhouse. He said, “Children, would you rather be run
over by a truck or by its shadow?” The children said, “Well, of course, Dad,
we’d much rather be run over by the shadow! That can’t hurt us at all.” Dr.
Barnhouse said, “Did you know that two thousand years ago the truck of death
ran over the Lord Jesus…in order that only its shadow might run over us?” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
I am standing on a seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for
the ocean blue. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch
her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea
and sky come down to meet each other. Then someone at my side says, “There, she
is gone.” Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in
mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to
bear her load of living weights to its place of destination. Her diminished
size is in me, not in her, and just at the moment when someone say, “There she
is gone,” on that distant shore there are other eyes watching for her coming
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes,” and such is
dying. ──《Immortality》Loraine Boettner
Believer’s
Response to Death
A little girl whose father
had just died asked her mother where her father had gone. “To be with Jesus,”
replied the mother.
A few days later, talking
to a friend, the mother said, “I am so grieved to have lost my husband.”
The little girl heard her
and, remembering what she had told her, asked, “Mother, is a thing lost when
you know where it is?”
“No, of course not,” said
her mom.
“Well, then, how can Daddy
be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?” ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
Years ago, Dr. Arthur John
Gossip preached a sermon titled “When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” on the day
after his beloved wife had died suddenly. He closed with these words:
“I don’t think you need to
be afraid of life. Our hearts are very frail, and there are places where the
road is ery steep and very lonely, but we have a wonderful God. And as Paul
puts it, ‘What can separate us from His love? Not death,’ he writes immediately.
No, not death, for standing in the roaring of the Jordan, cold with its
dreadful chill and very conscious of its terror, of its rushing, I, too, like
Hopeful in 《Pilgrim’s Progress》, can call back to you who one day in your turn will have
to cross it, ‘Be of good cheer, my brother, for I feel the bottom and it is
sound.’” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
As the great Baptist
missionary Adoniram Judson lay sick and about to die, he said, “I am not tired
of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet when Christ calls me home, I
shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from his school. Perhaps I
feel something like the young bride when she contemplates resigning the
pleasant association of her childhood for a yet dearer home—though only a
little like her, for there is no doubt resting on my future.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
When Martin Luther’s
daughter, Magdelena, was fourteen years old, she was taken sick and lay dying.
Luther prayed, “O God, I love her so, but nevertheless, Thy will be done.”
Then he turned to his
daughter and said, “Magdelena, would you rather be with me, or would you rather
go and be with your Father in heaven?” And the girl said, “Father, as God
wills.” Luther held her in his arms as she passed away, and as they laid her to
rest, he said, “Oh my dear Magdelenachen, you will rise and shine like the
stars in the sun. How strange to be so sorrowful and yet to know that all is at
peace, that all is well.”
It is this hope in the hour
of death that the resurrection gives to us. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
There are many instances of
those whose faith has triumphed in the hour of death. D.L. Moody, the great
evangelist of the past century, said on his deathbed, “Earth is receding;
heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day!” ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
This incident illustrates
how the child of God can face the last enemy with confidence and courage:
Many years ago, the ship
known as the Empress of Ireland went down with 130 Salvation Army officers on
board, along with many other passengers. Only 21 of those Christian workers’
lives were spare—an unusually small number. Of the 109 workers who drowned, not
one body had on a life preserver! Many of the survivors told how those brave
people, seeing that there were not enough lifebelts, took off their own and
strapped them onto others, saying, “I know Jesus, so I can die better than you
can.” Their supreme sacrifice and faithful words set a beautiful example, which
for many years has inspired the Salvation Army to carry on courageously for
God. Millions have come to recognize that born-again individuals can face death
fearlessly.
Death for someone who has
not come to know God is a frightening prospect. And indeed it should be, for
when one passes from this life, there is no longer the possibility of coming
right with God. In contrast, the dark door of death for a Christian is only the
other sie of the shining gate of life. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
The dedicated missionary
Jim Elliot once said: “I must not think it strange if God takes in youth those
whom I would have kept on earth until they were older. God is peopling
eternity, and I must not restrict Him to old men and women.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Believer’s
Response to Death
Samuel Rutherford, a
seventeenth-century Scottish pastor and theologian, wrote the following to a
woman when her young daughter died: “Remember what age your daughter was, and
that just so long was your lease of her…your lease (has) run out, and you can
no more justly quarrel against your great Superior for taking His own, at His
just term-day, than a poor farmer can complain that his master taketh a portion
of his own land to himself when his lease is expired.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Enoch’s
Translation to Heaven
Enoch lived to be 365 years
old. The Bible says that he walked with God and God took him away. A little
girl described this experience to her mother. “Mamma,” she said, “one day Enoch
and God took a walk together. They walked and they talked, and they talked and
they walked, until Enoch finally said, ‘Oh, my, dear Lord, it’s getting late.
I’d better go home.’ And the Lord said, ‘Why, Enoch, we’ve been walking so long
together, I believe we’re closer to my home than yours. Why don’t you come home
with me tonight?’” So Enoch went home with God. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Fear
of Death
A dying man was fearful,
even though he was a born-again Christian. He expressed his feelings to his
Christian doctor. The physician was silent, not knowing what to say. Just then
a whining and scratching was heard at the door. When the doctor opened it, in
bounded his big beautiful dog, who often went with him as he made house calls.
The dog was glad to see his master. Sensing an opportunity to comfort his
troubled patient, the doctor said, “My dog has never been in your room before,
so he didn’t know what it was like in here. But he knew I was in here, and that
was enough. In the same way, I’m looking forward to heaven. I don’t know much
about it, but I know my Savior is there. And that’s all I need to know!” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Fear
of Death
John Wayne, at age 71,
explained that he sometimes had difficult moments watching his old movies:
“It’s kind of irritating to see I was a good-looking 40-year-old and suddenly I
can look over and see this 71-year-old…I’m not squawking…I just want to be
around for a long time.” ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Last
Words of a Dying Person
In Shakespeare’s 《Richard II》, the
dying Duke of Lancaster tells the Duke of York: “O, but they say the tongues of
dying men enforce attention like deep harmony; Where words are scarce they are
seldom spent in vain, for they breathe their words in pain.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Preparation
for Death
Many people sleep under an
electric blanket during winter. The only problem with this wonderful invention
is that it is too good at what it does. That is, an electric blanket makes a
bed so warm and comfortable that on cold mornings it is very hard to get up.
Some people have found that the only thing that works for them is to turn off
their electric blanket so that the bed becomes much less comfortable and thus
it is easier to leave their cozy spot. Perhaps God lets us deteriorate
physically in our late years so that we will be more willing to leave our
ailing bodies for the unexplored future that he sets before us. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Preparation
for Death
When Corrie ten Boom was a
girl, her first realization of death came afer a visit to the home of a
neighbor who had died. It impressed her that someday her parents would die. Corrie’s
father comforted her. “Corrie, when you and I go to
Corrie answered, “Why, just
before we get on the train.”
“Exactly,” responded her
father, “and our wise Father in heaven knows exactly when we’re going to need
things too. Don’t run out ahead of him, Corrie. When the time comes that some
of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you
need—just in time.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Death
of the Righteous
In
Sacramento, California, Rita and Jack were in high school together and one day
she asked him to walk her home.
That was 68 years ago; 65 years ago they were married. They built a home in
The
family has found her diary. Actually
it was a family history she was writing.
In it they found these words:
"If the Lord takes Dad first, I wish that He would let me follow
very closely behind." -- Associated Press,
Funerals
In
Britain a butcher specified in his will that he be cremated and he specified
that at his memorial service the organ was to play Cole Porter's song
"Every Time We Say Goodbye". Such was the the deceased man's
wish. He got half of his wish, but
the musician brought the wrong Cole Porter Sheet Music. At the cremation ceremony he played
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes!" -- Associated Press,
In Valladolid, Spain,
where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the
great discoverer. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memorial is a
statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of
Spain's motto for centuries. Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards
thought they had reached the outer limits of earth. Thus their motto was
"Ne Plus Ultra," which means "No More Beyond." The word
being torn away by the lion is "Ne" or "no," making it read
"Plus Ultra." Columbus had proven that there was indeed "more
beyond." ── Source Unknown.
On his deathbed, British
preacher Charles Simeon smiled brightly and asked the people gathered in his
room, "What do you think especially gives me comfort at this time?"
When they all remained silent, he exclaimed, "The creation! I ask myself,
'Did Jehovah create the world or did I?' He did! Now if He made the world and
all the rolling spheres of the universe, He certainly can take care of me. Into
Jesus' hands I can safely commit my spirit!"
Hudson Taylor, founder of
China Inland Mission, in the closing months of his life said to a friend,
"I am so weak. I can't read my Bible. I can't even pray. I can only lie
still in God's arms like a little child and trust." ── Our Daily Bread,
January 1, 1994.
In 1846 former president
John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke. Although he returned to Congress the
following year, his health was clearly failing. Daniel Webster described his
last meeting with Adams: "Someone, a friend of his, came in and made
particular inquiry of his health. Adams answered, 'I inhabit a weak, frail,
decayed tenement; battered by the winds and broken in upon by the storms, and
from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend to repair.'" ── Today in the Word,
April 11, 1992.
Mark Twain, became morose
and weary of life. Shortly before his death, he wrote, "A myriad of men
are born; they labor and sweat and struggle;...they squabble and scold and
fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps
upon them; infirmities follow; ...those they love are taken from them, and the
joy of life is turned to aching grief. It (the release) comes at last--the only
unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them--and they vanish from a world where
they were of no consequence,...a world which will lament them a day and forget
them forever." ── Mark Twain.
Gen. William Nelson, a
Union general in the Civil War, was consumed with the battles in Kentucky when
a brawl ended up in his being shot, mortally, in the chest. He had faced many
battles, but the fatal blow came while he was relaxing with his men. As such,
he was caught fully unprepared. As men ran up the stairs to help him, the
general had just one phrase, "Send for a clergyman; I wish to be
baptized." He never had time as an adolescent or young man. He never had
time as a private or after he became a general. And his wound did not stop or
slow down the war. Everything around him was left virtually unchanged--except
for the general's priorities. With only minutes left before he entered
eternity, the one thing he cared about was preparing for eternity. He wanted to
be baptized. Thirty minutes later he was dead. ── Christian Times,
October 3, 1994, p. 26.
Alexander the Great,
seeing Diogenes looking attentively at a parcel of human bones, asked the
philosopher what he was looking for. Diogenes' reply: "That which I cannot
find--the difference between your father's bones and those of his
slaves." ── Plutarch.
"Here lies Jamie
Smith, wife of Thomas Smith, marble cutter. This monument was erected by her
husband as a tribute to her memory and a specimen of his work. Monuments of the
same style 350 dollars."── from
Springdale, Ohio.
I was driving with my
children to my wife's funeral where I was to preach the sermon. As we came into
one small town there strode down in front of us a truck that came to stop
before a red light. It was the biggest truck I ever saw in my life, and the sun
was shining on it at just the right angle that took its shadow and spread it
across the snow on the field beside it. As the shadow covered that field, I
said, "Look children at that truck, and look at its shadow. If you had to
be run over, which would you rather be run over by? Would you rather be run
over by the truck or by the shadow?" My youngest child said, "The
shadow couldn't hurt anybody." "That's right," I continued,
"and death is a truck, but the shadow is all that ever touches the
Christian. The truck ran over the Lord Jesus. Only the shadow is gone over
mother." ── Donald Grey Barnhouse.
Peter Kreeft tells us that
in the Latin rite for the burial of an Austrian emperor, the people carry the
corpse to the door of the great monastic church. They strike the door and say:
"Open." The abbot inside says: "Who is there."
"Emperor Karl, the king of..." The response from inside: "We know
of no such person here." So the people strike the door again. "Who is
there?" asks the abbot. "Emperor Karl." "We know of no such
person here." So they strike a third time. "Who is there?" asks
the abbot again. "Karl," say the people. And the door is opened. ── One World, May,
1982.
"You don't go look at
where it happened," said Scott Goodyear, who starts 33rd [speaking of
race-car drivers who have been killed in crashes at the Indianapolis 500].
"You don't watch the films of it on television. You don't deal with it.
You pretend it never happened." The Speedway operation itself encourages
this approach. As soon as the track closes the day of an accident, a crew heads
out to paint over the spot where the car hit the wall. Through the years, a
driver has never been pronounced dead at the race track. A trip to the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval,
has no memorial to the 40 drivers who have lost their lives here. Nowhere is
there even a mention.── Source
Unknown.
Sarah Winchester's husband
had acquired a fortune by manufacturing and selling rifles. After he died of
influenza in 1918, she moved to San Jose, California. Because of her grief and
her long time interest in spiritism, Sarah sought out a medium to contact her
dead husband. The medium told her, "As long as you keep building your
home, you will never face death."
Sarah believed the
spiritist, so she bought an unfinished 17-room mansion and started to expand
it. The project continued until she died at the age of 85. It cost 5 million
dollars at a time when workmen earned 50 cents a day. The mansion had 150
rooms, 13 bathrooms, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, and 10,000 windows. And Mrs.
Winchester left enough materials so that they could have continued building for
another 80 years.
Today that house stands as
more than a tourist attraction. It is a silent witness to the dread of death
that holds millions of people in bondage (Heb. 2:15). ── Our Daily Bread,
April 2, 1994.
Thursday, December 21,
1899, after cutting short a Kansas City crusade and returning home in ill
health, D. L. Moody told his family, "I'm not discouraged. I want to live
as long as I am useful, but when my work is done I want to be up and off."
The next day Moody awakened after a restless night. In careful, measured words
he said, "Earth recedes, Heaven opens before me!" His son, Will,
concluded his father was dreaming. "No, this is no dream, Will. It is
beautiful. It is like a trance. If this is death, it is sweet. There is no
valley here. God is calling me, and I must go." ── Moody, December,
1993, p. 70.
In one of his books, A.M.
Hunter, the New Testament scholar, relates the story of a dying man who asked
his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was
going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door,
and he had his answer. "Do you hear that?" he asked his patient.
"It's my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has
come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he
knows that I am here. Isn't it the same with you? You don't know what lies
beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there." ── Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 208.
A few days before his
death, Dr. F. B. Meyer wrote a very dear friend these words: "I have just
heard, to my great surprise, that I have but a few days to live. It may be that
before this reaches you, I shall have entered the palace. Don't trouble to
write. We shall meet in the morning." ── Quoted
in Consolation, by Mrs. C. Cowman, p. 70.
I read that when a
terrible plague came to ancient Athens, people there committed every horrible
crime and engaged in every lustful pleasure they could because they believed
that life was short and they would never have to pay any penalty. In one of the
world's most famous poems, the Latin poet Catullus wrote, "Let us live and
let us love, and let us value the tales of austere old men at a single
halfpenny. Suns can set and then return again, but for us, when once our brief
light sets, there is but one perpetual night through which we must
sleep." ── Morning Glory, January 29, 1994.
The bitter news of Dawson
Trotman's drowning swept like cold wind across Schroon Lake to the shoreline.
Eyewitnesses tell of the profound anxiety, the tears, the helpless disbelief in
the faces of those who now looked out across the deep blue water. Everyone's
face except one -- Lila Trotman, Dawson's widow. As she suddenly walked upon
the scene a close friend shouted, "Oh, Lila ... He's gone. Dawson's
gone!" To that she replied in calm assurance the words of Psalm 115:3:
But our God is in the
heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
All of the anguish, the
sudden loneliness that normally consumes and cripples those who survive did not
invade that woman's heart. Instead, she leaned hard upon her sovereign Lord,
who had once again done what He pleased. ── Charles
R. Swindoll, Starting Over, Multnomah Press, 1977, p. 67.
Before his death in 1981,
American writer William Saroyan telephoned in to the Associated Press this
final, very Saroyan-like observation: "Everybody has got to die, but I
have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now
what?" ── Today in the Word, April 11, 1993.
Edith Rockefeller
McCormick, the daughter of John D. Rockefeller, maintained a large household
staff. She applied one rule to every servant without exception: They were not
permitted to speak to her. The rule was broken only once, when word arrived at
the family's country retreat that their young son had died of scarlet fever.
The McCormicks were hosting a dinner party, but following a discussion in the
servants' quarters it was decided that Mrs. McCormick needed to know right
away. When the tragic news was whispered to her, she merely nodded her head and
the party continued without interruption.── Today
in the Word, September 29, 1992.
When you have had a loved
one go to be with the Lord, do not feel like you're the only person who has had
this experience. There is an Eastern legend about a Hindu woman whose only
child had died. She went to a prophet to ask for her child back. The prophet
told her to go and obtain a handful of rice from a house into which death had
not come. If she could obtain the rice in this way, he promised to give her the
child back. From door to door she asked the question, "Are you all here
around the table -- father, mother, children -- none missing?" But always
the answer came back that there were empty chairs in each house. As she
continued on, her grief and sorrow softened as she found that death had visited
all families. Yes, death is universal; our painful experience is not the only
one of its kind. Because God is faithful, because Jesus Christ is alive, so is
your loved one and mine. ── Hugh
Salisbury, Through Sorrow Into Joy, p. 58.
John Bacon, once a famous
sculptor, left this inscription on his tomb in Westminster Abbey: "What I
was as an artist seemed of some importance to me while I lived; but what I was
as a believer in Jesus Christ is the only thing of importance to me now." ── John Bacon.
Howard Hughes: Worth 2.5
billion dollars at his death, he was the richest man in the United States. He
owned a private fleet of jets, hotels and casinos. When asked to claim his
body, his nearest relative, a distant cousin, exclaimed, "Is this Mr. Hughes?"
He had spent the last 15 years of his life a drug addict, too weak in the end
to even administer the shots to himself. His 6'4" frame had shrunk to
6'1" and he weighed only 90 lbs. Not a single acquaintance or relative
mourned his death. The only honor he received was a moment of silence in his
Las Vegas casinos. Time magazine put it this way: "Howard Hughes' death
was commemorated in Las Vegas by a minute of silence. Casinos fell silent.
Housewives stood uncomfortable clutching their paper cups full of coins at the
slot machines, the blackjack games paused, and at the crap tables the stickmen
cradled the dice in the crook of their wooden wands. Then a pit boss looked at
his watch, leaned forward and whispered, "O.K., roll the dice. He's had
his minute." ── Time, December 13, 1976.
Napoleon Bonaparte:
Responsible for the death of 500,000 French men in battle, approximately 1/6 of
the population. Was exiled by the British for the last 6 years of his life on
the Island of St. Helena. His wife Marie Louise never wrote him and married
another man while he was still living. He never heard from his son again. he
was confined to the house and grounds, needing the escort of a British soldier
whenever he ventured anywhere on the island. The tombstone on his grave read
simply, "here lies."── Source
Unknown.
Adolph Hitler: Lived the
last 4 months of his life in Berlin. It is believed that he went prematurely
senile or insane. On April 29 he married Eva Braum and dictated his political
testament in defense of his actions. On April 30 he said farewell to a few
remaining military men, retired to his suite and shot himself while his wife
took poison. Their bodies were burned in accordance with their
instructions. ── Encyclopedia Britannica.
The last days of British
statesman and colonial leader Cecil Rhodes were marked by grave disappointment.
He died from heart disease at a time when he was beset by personal scandals and
discredited by unwise political decisions. Lewis Mitchel, who was at Rhodes's
bedside in his cottage near Cape Town, South Africa heard the dying man murmur,
"So little done, so much to do." Yet there's more than this to the
story of Cecil Rhodes. He migrated to South Africa from Britain for health
reasons. It was there that Rhodes made a vast fortune in gold and diamond
mining. Even though he died feeling he had much more to do, he has left a
lasting legacy because he used part of his fortune to endow the famous Rhodes
scholarship program. ── Today
in the Word, July 28, 1992.
A young soldier, while
dying very happily, broke out in singing the following stanza: "Great
Jehovah, we adore thee, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, joined in
glory on the same eternal throne: Endless praised to Jehovah, three in
one." The chaplain then asked if he had any message to send his friends.
"Yes," said he. "Tell my father that I have tried to eat my
meals with thanksgiving." "Tell him that Christ is now all my hope,
all my trust, and that he is precious to my soul." "Tell him that I
am not afraid to die--all is calm" "Tell him that I believe Christ
will take me to himself, and to my dear sister who is in heaven." The
voice of the dying boy faltered in the intervals between these precious
sentences. When the hymn commencing, "Nearer, my God to thee," was
read to him, at the end of each stanza he exclaimed, with striking energy,
"Oh Lord Jesus, thou are coming nearer to me." Also at the end of
each stanza of the hymn (which was also read to him) commencing, "Just as
I am--without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou
bid'st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come," he exclaimed, "I
Come! O Lamb of God, I Come!" Speaking again of his friends, he said,
"Tell my father that I died happy." His last words were,
"Father, I'm coming to thee!" Then the Christian soldier sweetly and
calmly "fell asleep in Jesus." ── Anonymous
Confederate soldier--1861-65/died in battle in the War Between the States.
Margaret Wilson, a
Scottish girl of eighteen, was tied to a stake where the tide was due to come
in. The water covered her while she was engaged in prayer; but before life was
gone, they pulled her up till she recovered the power of speech, when she was
asked by Major Windram, who commanded, if she would pray for the king. She
replied that "She wished the salvation of all men, and the damnation of
none." "Dear Margaret," said one of the by-standers, deeply
affected, "say God save the king." She answered with great
steadiness, "God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation I
desire." "Sir, they cried to the major, "she has said it; she
has said it!" The major, approaching her on hearing this, offered her the
abjuration oath, charging her instantly to swear it, otherwise to return to the
water. The poor young woman...firmly replied, "I will not; I am one of
Christ's children! Let me go." Upon which she was again thrust into the
water, and drowned. ── Margaret
Wilson--Early 1680's--drowned for faithfulness to the Reformation.
According to an old fable,
a man made an unusual agreement with Death. He told the Grim Reaper that he
would willingly accompany him when it came time to die, but only on one
condition--that Death would send a messenger well in advance to warn him. Weeks
winged away into months, and months into years. Then one bitter winter evening,
as the man sat thinking about all his possessions, Death suddenly entered the
room and tapped him on the shoulder. Startled, the man cried out, "You're
here so soon and without warning! I thought we had an agreement." Death
replied, "I've more than kept my part. I've sent you many messengers. Look
in the mirror and you'll see some of them." As the man complied, Death
whispered, "Notice your hair! Once it was full and black, now it is thin
and white. Look at the way you cock your head to listen to me because you can't
hear very well. Observe how close to the mirror you must stand to see yourself clearly.
Yes, I've sent many messengers through the years. I'm sorry you're not ready,
but the time has come to leave." ── Daily
Bread, February 29, 1991.
When Corrie Ten Boom of
The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland, her first realization of
death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed
her that some day her parents would also die. Corrie's father comforted her
with words of wisdom. "Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I
give you your ticket?" "Why, just before we get on the train,"
she replied. "Exactly," her father said, "and our wise Father in
heaven knows when we're going to need things too. Don't run out ahead of Him,
Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look
into your heart and find the strength you need--just in time." ── Today in the Word,
MBI, October, 1991, p. 30.
In the 18th century,
Archibald Boyle was the leading member of an association of wild and wicked men
known as "The Hell Club" in Glasgow, Scotland. After one night of
carousing at the Club's notorious annual meeting, Boyle deemed he was riding
home on his black horse. In the darkness, someone seized the reins, shouting,
"You must go with me!" As Boyle desperately tried to force the reins
from the hands of the unknown guide, the horse reared. Boyle fell down, down,
down with increasing speed. "Where are you taking me?" The cold voice
replied, "To hell!" The echoes of the groans and yells of frantic
revelry assaulted their ears. At the entrance to hell, Boyle saw the inmates
chasing the same pleasures they had pursued in life. There was a lady he'd
known playing her favorite vulgar game. Boyle relaxed, thinking hell must be a
pleasurable place after all. When he asked her to rest a moment and show him
through the pleasures of hell, she shrieked. "There is no rest in
hell!" She unclasped the vest of her robe and displayed a coil of living
snakes writhing about her midsection. Others revealed different forms of pain
in their hearts. "Take me from this place!" Boyle demanded. "By
the living God whose name I have so often outraged, I beg you, let me go!"
His guide replied, "Go then--but in a year and a day we meet to part no
more."
At this, Boyle awoke,
feeling that these last words were as letters of fire burned into his heart.
Despite a resolution never to attend the Hell Club again, he soon was drawn
back. He found no comfort there. He grew haggard and gray under the weight of
his conscience and fear of the future. He dreaded attending the Club's annual
meeting, but his companions forced him to attend. Every nerve of his body
writhed in agony at the first sentence of the president's opening address:
"Gentlemen, this is leap year; therefore it is a year and a day since our
last annual meeting." After the meeting, he mounted his house to ride
home. Next morning, his horse was found grazing quietly by the roadside. A few
yards away lay the corpse of Archibald Boyle. The strange guide had claimed him
at the appointed time. ── Paul Lee
Tan.
The story is told of a
nobleman who had a lovely floral garden. The gardener who tended it took great
pains to make the estate a veritable paradise. One morning he went into the
garden to inspect his favorite flowers. To his dismay he discovered that one of
his choice beauties had been cut from its stem. Soon he saw that the most
magnificent flowers from each bed were missing. Filled with anxiety and anger,
he hurried to his fellow employees and demanded, "Who stole my treasures?"
One of his helpers replied, "The nobleman came into his garden this
morning, picked those flowers himself, and took them into his house. I guess he
wanted to enjoy their beauty." The gardener then realized that he had no
reason to be concerned because it was perfectly right for his master to pick
some of his own prize blossoms.── Source
Unknown.
On a bitterly cold January
day several years ago, five-year-old Jimmy Tonglewicz chased a sled onto the
glazed ice of Lake Michigan. In a blink of the eye he disappeared beneath the
ice. The last words his dad heard were: "Save me, Dad!" Jimmy's
panic-stricken father plunged into the freezing water, but the cold quickly
rendered him helpless and he left the scene in an ambulance. For over twenty minutes
Jimmy remained submerged beneath the icy waters. When his limp, lifeless body
was pulled from the lake by divers, he had no pulse. But he had a lot going for
him--especially the cold water! Scientists call what happened the
"mammalian diving reflex." The shock of the cold water allowed Jimmy
to live without breathing an abnormally long time. Slowly he came around, and
today Jimmy lives a normal life.── Today
in the Word, May, 1990, MBI, p. 9.
The courage of Civil War
leader Stonewall Jackson in the midst of conflict can be a lesson for the
believer. Historian Mark Brinsley wrote: A battlefield is a deadly place, even
for generals; and it would be naive to suppose Jackson never felt the animal
fear of all beings exposed to wounds and death. But invariably he displayed
extraordinary calm under fire, a calm too deep and masterful to be mere
pretense. His apparent obliviousness to danger attracted notice, and after the
first Manassas battle someone asked him how he managed it. "My religious
belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed." Jackson explained,
"God (knows the) time for my death. I do not concern myself about that,
but to be always ready, no matter where it may overtake me." He added
pointedly, 'That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally
brave." ── Mark Brinsley.
Victoria Principal, a star
of the Dallas, television program was nearly killed in an automobile accident
when 19 year old. Upon recovering she said she had a new sense of her
mortality, and rather than turning her thoughts to eternity, she abandoned
herself to hedonistic living for the next two to three years. She didn't want
to die having missed any of life's experiences.── Source
Unknown.
When I moved to the U.S. I
was impressed with the number of total strangers who visited my home to wish me
well...they all sold insurance! One day my visitor was talking about the
necessity to be prudent in the preparation for all possibilities. "If
something should happen to you, Mr. Briscoe--" he started to say, but I
interrupted with, "Please don't say that. It upsets me." He was a
little startled, but tried again, "But with all due respects, sir, we must
be ready if something should happen to us." "Don't say that," I
insisted. He looked totally bewildered and said, "I don't understand what
I said to upset you." "Then I'll tell you," I replied. "It
upsets me that you talk about (Life's) only certainty as if it's a possibility.
Death isn't a possibility, it's a certainty. You don't say "if," you
say "When," whenever death is the subject." ── D. Stuart Briscoe, Spirit Life.
George McDonald wrote to
his sorrowing wife when their daughter died. He began by telling her that she
wouldn't find consolation in lovely but empty sentiments that he called
"pleasant fancies of a half-held creed." He then pointed out that the
Great Shepherd had gone before and prepared the way for their daughter.
McDonald reminded her that they were both moving along day by day toward that
same destination. In closing, he said, "We seek not death, but still we climb
the stairs where death is one wide landing to the rooms above." ── George McDonald.
A Christian railroad
engineer was speaking to a group of fellow workers about heaven. He said,
"I can't begin to tell you what the Lord Jesus means to me. In Him I have
a hope that is very precious. Let me explain. Many years ago as each night I
neared the end of my run, I would always let out a long blast with the whistle
just as I'd come around the last curve. Then I'd look up at the familiar little
cottage on top of the hill. My mother and father would be standing in the doorway
waving to me. After I had passed, they'd go back inside and say, 'Thank God,
Benny is home safe again tonight.' Well, they are gone now, and no one is there
to welcome me. But someday when I have finished my 'earthly run' and I draw
near to heaven's gate, I believe I'll see my precious mother and dad waiting
there for me. And the one will turn to the other and say, 'Thank God, Benny is
home safe at last.'"── Source
Unknown.
In one of his lighter
moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph. He didn't profess to be a
born-again Christian, but it seems that he must have been influenced by Paul's
teaching of the resurrection of the body. Here's what he wrote: The Body of B.
Franklin, Printer: Like the Cover of an old Book Its contents torn out, And
stript of its Lettering and Guilding, Lies here, Food for Worms, But the Work
shall not be wholy lost: For it will, as he believ'd, Appear once more In a new
& more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended by the Author.── Benjamin Franklin.
The hymn writer Fanny
Crosby gave us more than 6,000 gospel songs. Although blinded by an illness at
the age of 6 weeks, she never became bitter. One time a preacher
sympathetically remarked, "I think it is a great pity that the Master did
not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you." She
replied quickly, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one
petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?"
"Why?" asked the surprised clergyman. "Because when I get to
heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my
Savior!" One of Miss Crosby's hymns was so personal that for years she
kept it to herself.
Kenneth Osbeck, author of
several books on hymnology, says its revelation to the public came about this
way: "One day at the Bible conference in Northfield, Massachusetts, Miss
Crosby was asked by D.L. Moody to give a personal testimony. At first she
hesitated, then quietly rose and said, 'There is one hymn I have written which
has never been published. I call it my soul's poem. Sometimes when I am
troubled, I repeat it to myself, for it brings comfort to my heart.' She then
recited while many wept, 'Someday the silver cord will break, and I no more as
now shall sing; but oh, the joy when I shall wake within the palace of the
King! And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story--saved by
grace!'" At the age of 95 Fanny Crosby passed into glory and saw the face
of Jesus.── Source Unknown.
A bank in Binghamton, New
York, had some flowers sent to a competitor who had recently moved into a new
building. There was a mix up at the flower shop, and the card sent with the
arrangement read, "With our deepest sympathy." The florist, who was
greatly embarrassed, apologized. But he was even more embarrassed when he
realized that the card intended for the bank was attached to a floral
arrangement sent to a funeral home in honor of a deceased person. That card
read, "Congratulations on you new location!" ── Our Daily Bread,
May 25, 1992.
A young business owner was
opening a new branch office, and a friend decided to send a floral arrangement
for the grand opening. When the friend arrived at the opening, he was appalled
to find that his wreath bore the inscription: "Rest in peace." Angry,
he complained to the florist. After apologizing, the florist said, "Look
at it this way -- somewhere a man was buried under a wreath today that said,
'Good luck in your new location.'" ── Bits
& Pieces, June 23, 1994, p. 4.
An evangelist asked all
who wanted to go to heaven to raise their hands. Everyone in the audience did
so, except one elderly man sitting near the front of the auditorium. The
preacher pointed his finger at him and said, 'Sir, do you mean to tell us that
you don't want to go to heaven?' 'Sure I want to go, but the way you put the
question, I figured you were getting up a busload for tonight!' ── Source Unknown.
When John Todd, a
nineteenth-century clergyman, was six years old, both his parents died. A
kind-hearted aunt raised him until he left home to study for the ministry.
Later, this aunt became seriously ill, and in distress she wrote Todd a letter.
Would death mean the end of everything, or could she hope for something beyond?
Here, condensed from The Autobiography of John Todd, is the letter he
sent in reply: "It is now thirty-five years since I, as a boy of six, was
left quite alone in the world. You sent me word you would give me a home and be
a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day I made the long journey to
your house. I can still recall my disappointment when, instead of coming for me
yourself, you sent your servant, Caesar, to fetch me.
"I remember my tears
and anxiety as, perched high on your horse and clinging tight to Caesar, I rode
off to my new home. Night fell before we finished the journey, and I became
lonely and afraid. 'Do you think she'll go to bed before we get there?' I asked
Caesar. 'Oh no!' he said reassuringly, 'She'll stay up for you. When we get out
o' these here woods, you'll see her candle shinin' in the window.'
"Presently we did
ride out into the clearing, and there, sure enough, was your candle. I remember
you were waiting at the door, that you put your arms close about me--a tired
and bewildered little boy. You had a fire burning on the hearth, a hot supper
waiting on the stove. After supper you took me to my new room, heard me say my
prayers, and then sat beside me till I fell asleep.
"Some day soon God
will send for you, to take you to a new home. Don't fear the summons, the
strange journey, or the messenger of death. God can be trusted to do as much
for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago. At the end of
the road you will find love and a welcome awaiting, and you will be safe in
God's care." ── Vernon Grounds.
Believer’s
Response to Death
The inevitable tomb is not
a period at the end of the sentence of life, but a conjunction connecting us
with the life to come. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Let us endeavor so to live
that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. ── Mark Twain.
Last words:
"Our God is the God from whom cometh salvation: God is the Lord by whom we
escape death." ── Martin Luther
"Live in Christ, live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death." ── John Knox
"Thou, Lord, bruisest me; but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from
Thy hand."── John Calvin
"The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell! Farewell!" ── John Wesley
"I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness--satisfied, satisfied!" ── Charles Wesley
It is a poor thing to fear
that which is inevitable. ── Tertullian,
third-century church father, speaking about death.
It is possible to live
under a delusion. You think you are kind, considerate and gracious when you are
really not. You think you are building positive stuff into your children when
in reality, if you could check with them twenty years later, you really didn't.
What if you could read your own obituary? How do people really see you? Here is
the story of a man who did.
One morning in 1888 Alfred
Nobel, inventor of dynamite, awoke to read his own obituary. The obituary was
printed as a result of a simple journalistic error. You see, it was Alfred's
brother that had died and the reporter carelessly reported the death of the
wrong brother. Any man would be disturbed under the circumstances, but to
Alfred the shock was overwhelming because he saw himself as the world saw him.
The "Dynamite King," the great industrialist who had made an immense
fortune from explosives. This, as far as the general public was concerned, was
the entire purpose of Alfred's life. None of his true intentions to break down
the barriers that separated men and ideas for peace were recognized or given
serious consideration. He was simply a merchant of death. And for that alone he
would be remembered. As he read the obituary with horror, he resolved to make
clear to the world the true meaning and purpose of his life. This could be done
through the final disposition of his fortune. His last will and testament--an
endowment of five annual prizes for outstanding contributions in physics,
chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace (the sixth category of
economics was added later)--would be the expression of his life's ideals and
ultimately would be why we would remember him. The result was the most valuable
of prizes given to those who had done the most for the cause of world peace. It
is called today, the "Nobel Peace Prize." ── Source Unknown.
John Wesley preached his
last sermon of Feb 17, 1791, in Lambeth on the text "Seek ye the Lord
while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near" (Isa 55:6). The
following day, a very sick man, he was put to bed in his home on City Road.
During the days of his illness, he often repeated the words from one of his
brother's hymns: I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me! His last
words were, "The best of all is, God is with us!" He died March 2,
1791.── W. Wiersbe, Wycliffe
Handbook of Preaching and Preachers, p. 245.
Death is not extinguishing
the light from the Christian; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has
come.
When you're old as I am,
there are all sorts of extremely pleasant things that happen to you...the
pleasantest of all is that you wake up in the night and you find that you are
half in and half out of your battered old carcass. It seems quite a tossup
whether you go back and resume full occupancy of your mortal body, or make off
toward the bright glow you see in the sky, the lights of the city of God. ── Malcolm Muggeridge, Christian Times,
September 3, 1982.
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has
happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and
the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever
we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your
tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at
the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken
without an effort, without a ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it
ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken
continuity. What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of
mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well. ── from the book September.
Thou oughtest so to order
thyself in all thy thoughts and actions, as if today thou wert about to die.
Labor now to live so, that at the hour of death thou mayest rather rejoice than
fear. ── Thomas a Kempis, Imitation
of Christ.
Around 125 A.D., a Greek
by the name of Aristeides wrote to one of his friends, trying to explain the
extraordinary success of the new religion, Christianity. In his letter he said,
"If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they
rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they accompany his body with songs and
thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another
nearby." ── Today in the Word, April 10, 1993.
God buries His workmen,
but not His work. ── Henrietta
Mears.
Before British actor
Robert Morley died, he asked that his credit cards be buried with him. Since
his funeral, the London Times's letters pages have been filled with the
thoughts of readers pondering their own deaths and their perpetual needs.
-Wrote M.L. Evans of Chester: "In the unfortunate event of the miscarriage
of justice and several thousand years ensuing before my sentence is quashed, I
will take a fire extinguisher."
-Heather Tanner of Woodbridge specified a good map. "I have immense
trouble finding my way in this life," she said, "so am extremely
worried about the next."
-A pair of earplugs would accompany Sir David Wilcocks of Cambridge "in
case the heavenly choirs, singing everlastingly, are not in tune."
-Maurice Godbold of Hindhead would take a crowbar, "in case the affair
proved premature." Even in the hereafter, there will always be an
England. ── U.S. News & World
Report, June 22, 1992, p. 26.
I am not come hither to
deny my Lord and Master. ── Anne
Askew--July 16, 1545--burned at the stake after torture on the rack, at the age
of 25.
Let me pass over the river
and rest under the shade of the trees. ── General T.J.
"Stonewall" Jackson--wounded by his own men, he died shortly after.
Neil Simon, who wrote The
Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, was asked on the Dick Cavett
Show whether making a lot of money concerned him. The studio went dead silent
when Simon answered, "No...what does concern me is the fear of
dying." ── Leighton Ford, Good News
is For Sharing, p. 31.
Many accidental deaths
result from taking risks. That's the conclusion of an organization in Canada
that is seeking to decrease accidents between cars and trains. Roger Cyr,
national director of Operation Lifesaver, puts most of the blame for fatalities
on drivers who are risk-takers. "Studies have shown that when people hear
a train whistle their minds tell them to accelerate their speed," says
Cyr. About 43 percent of the accidents occur at crossings equipped with
flashing lights and bells or gates. Cyr also said that many drivers "even
have the audacity to drive around or under gates." They take the risk,
thinking they can beat the train and somehow miss the collision--but with
tragic consequences! ── Daily
Bread, April 6, 1991.
When John Owen, the great
Puritan, lay on his deathbed his secretary wrote (in his name) to a friend,
"I am still in the land of the living." "Stop," said Owen.
"Change that and say, I am yet in the land of the dying, but I hope soon
to be in the land of the living." ── John M.
Drescher.
We owe a deep debt of
gratitude to Adam, the first great benefactor of the human race: he brought
death into the world. ── Mark
Twain.
The bodies of those that
made such a noise and tumult when alive, when dead, lie as quietly among the
graves of their neighbors as any others. ── Jonathan
Edwards.
Our civilization is
founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely
spasm of helpless agony.── William
James.
All ends with the
cancellation of forces and comes to nothing; and our universe thus ends in one
vast, silent, unappreciated joke. ── Stephen
Leacock, Canadian humorist, writer, professor.
In his excellent little
book When Loved Ones Are Taken in Death, Lehman Strauss made some
interesting comments about the Greek word translated "departure." He
wrote, "It is used metaphorically in a nautical way as when a vessel pulls
up anchor to loose from its moorings and set sail, or in a military way as when
an army breaks encampment to move on. In the ancient Greek world this term was
used also for freeing someone from chains and for the severing of a piece of
goods from the loom. This is what death is as described in the Bible. Here, we
are anchored to the hardships and heartaches of this life. In death, the
gangway is raised, the anchor is weighed, and we set sail for the golden shore.
In death, we break camp here to start for heaven."── Lehman Strauss, When Loved Ones Are Taken in
Death.
John Climacus, a
seventh-century ascetic who wrote "Ladder of Divine Ascent", urged
Christians to use the reality of earth to their benefit: "You cannot pass
a day devoutly unless you think of it as your last," he wrote. He called
the thought of death the "most essential of all works" and a gift
from God. "The man who lives daily with the thought of death is to be
admired, and the man who gives himself to it by the hour is surely a
saint." "A man who has heard himself sentenced to death will not
worry about the way theatres are run."── Gary
Thomas, in Christian Times, October 3, 1994, p. 26.
Late faith is unavailing.
There's little use accepting arks once the rain begins to fall. Death is such
an instant storm that by the time you reach for an umbrella, you already need
your water wings.── Calvin Miller, The
Valiant Papers, p. 20.
Every hour 5417 people
die.
"It's not that I'm
afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens." ── Woody Allen.
I have no wit, no words,
no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.
My life is like a faded
leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk;
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall--the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.
My life is like a broken
bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perished thing,
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.
── Christina
G. Rossetti.
The poet, James Whitcomb
Riley, has a poem in which he tells of the death of a worker in a shop. He
pictures his fellow workmen standing around on the day of his funeral talking
about him. One man, tears in his eyes after saying some complimentary things,
added, "When God made him, I bet He didn't do anything else that day just
set around and feel good."── Morning
Glory, January 8, 1994.
Keep us, Lord, so awake in
the duties of our calling that we may sleep in thy peace and wake up in thy
glory.── John Donne.
When you're old as I am,
there are all sorts of extremely pleasant things that happen to you...the
pleasantest of all is that you wake up in the night and you find that you are
half in and half out of your battered old carcass. It seems quite a tossup
whether you go back and resume full occupancy of your mortal body, or make off
toward the bright glow you see in the sky, the lights of the city of God.── Malcolm Muggeridge, Christianity Today,
Sept 3, 1982.
Funerals of pastors are
solemn affairs. At times when I attend one, however, I am struck by a strange
kind of irony. After a lifetime of ministry supposedly focused on grace, we
bring the poor soul to his grave with eloquent eulogies and high tributes that
give the lie to it all. All the deceased's good works are magnificent and, of
course, all shortcomings passed over. I am often reminded at such times of
Lincoln's remark at the burial of one of his generals: "If he had known
he'd get a funeral like this, he'd have died much sooner." It is our
vexing temptation, isn't it, not only in death but throughout life. We think we
are a gift to God himself instead of remembering that ordained ministry is a
gift to us.── Herbert Chilstrom.
God buries His workmen,
but not His work.── Henrietta Mears.
A few days before his
death, Dr. F. B. Meyer wrote a very dear friend these words: "I have just
heard, to my great surprise, that I have but a few days to live. It may be that
before this reaches you, I shall have entered the palace. Don't trouble to
write. We shall meet in the morning." ── Mrs. C.
Cowman, "Consolation," p. 70.
C.H. Spurgeon poignantly
stated it this way: "A good character is the best tombstone. Those who
loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you. So carve you name on
hearts, and not on marble."── Steve
Farrar, Family Survival in the American Jungle, Multnomah Press, 1991,
p. 48.
TO DIE IS GAIN
Paul might be expected to feel thus; for
he was a prisoner of Nero. Life was growing burdensome, and friends were few.
Incurable sufferers might be expected to
feel thus; and those whose hearts are bowed down with continuous sorrow.
The aged might be expected to feel thus.
But death is not gain to all. The
atheist cannot say this; nor the worldling, whose treasure is here.
To the Christian only “to die is gain.”
I. Because it secures to us unfading
joys
II. Because it puts an end to toil and
weariness
III. Because it frees us from the
possibility of pain and sorrow
IV. Because it delivers us from the
assaults of the evil one
V. Because it united us to the great and
good of every age
VI. Because it introduces us into the
immediate presence of Christ
How
can we ensure these important blessings?
“For
me to live is Christ.”
The
word of Christ must be the rule of life.
The
grace of Christ must be the principle of life.
The
glory of Christ must be the object of life
── Seeds and Saplings
THE DEATH OF GOD’S SAINTS
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
(Psalm 116:15)
God regards the death of His saints with special interest.
I. Because of the cost of their redemption
II. Because of the blessed change that it produces in them
III. Because it adds to the number of the glorified
IV. Because it exerts a beneficial influence upon the living
── Seeds and Saplings
"REFLECTIONS ON THE LOSS OF A LOVED ONE"
INTRODUCTION
1. The loss of loved one is a difficult burden to bear... a. Only those who die young and before others escape this burden b. All others will bear this burden at some point in their life 2. The Lord certainly knows our grief... a. He wept when as He saw those weeping over the loss of a loved one - Jn 11:33-35 b. He sought to prepare His own disciples for when they would lose Him - Jn 14:1-3 3. Indeed, God can be a wonderful source of comfort... a. In the here and now - cf. 2 Co 1:3-5 b. In the hereafter - cf. Re 21:4 4. In the death of my mother... a. I found God to be the God of all comfort b. Indeed, I found that He provided many avenues of comfort [As I reflected on my mother's passing, I found myself thankful for Hismany comforts. Perhaps you might find my thoughts helpful should youfind yourself losing a loved one...] I. SOURCES OF COMFORT DEFINED
A. HOPE IN CHRIST... 1. As Christians, we grieve, but not as those with no hope - 1 Th4:13
2. In Christ, we have the hope of resurrection and reunion - 1 Th4:14-17
3. This hope is a wonderful source of comfort - 1 Th 4:18 -- I was comforted to have a mother who died in Christ B. PRECIOUS MEMORIES... 1. Memories can be a source of comfort - e.g., Ph 1:3 2. Especially when they involve one's faithful service to Christ - Ph 1:4-5 3. Such memories add to the confidence of our hope - Ph 1:6 -- I was comforted to have a mother who was a faithful Christian C. LOVE OF FAMILY, BRETHREN, FRIENDS... 1. One way that God comforts us is through other people 2. Who comfort us with comfort they have received from God - 2 Co1:4
3. In times of loss and suffering, it often brings out the best in people -- I was comforted by many expressions of love and kindness fromothers
D. THE WORD OF GOD... 1. The Word of God is a source of peace and strength - Psa 119:165; 1:1-3
2. If such was true of the Law, how much more the words of Jesus and His apostles! -- I was comforted by God's words of peace, love and hope E. PRAYER... 1. Prayer is likewise a source of peace and strength - Ph 4:6-7 2. It is an avenue in which to find grace and help in time of need - He 4:14-16 3. Many people wrote to tell me that I was in their prayers -- I was comforted by both personal and public prayers, offered byso many
F. SONGS... 1. Songs of joy, faith, and hope were sung at the funeral 2. Later, a congregation devoted an entire service to song in memory of my mother 3. With hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, singing both praises God and edifies one another - Ep 5:19; Co 3:16 -- I was comforted (and moved most, providing an outlet for mygrief) by songs of hope and faith that we have in Christ
[With so many sources of comfort, I found the loss of my mother to be areminder of how richly blessed I am, and how kind God has been to me.Yet I am aware that not all enjoy such blessings during the time oftheir loss. Which leads me to say a few words about the following...] II. SOURCES OF COMFORT DEVELOPED
A. HOPE IN CHRIST... 1. Our wonderful hope is for those who are faithful to Christ till death - Re 2:10 2. If we desire to have this hope, and to leave it as a legacy for those left behind, we must be faithful servants of Christ -- Do not wait until it is too late; you will only add to thegrief of your loved ones
B. PRECIOUS MEMORIES... 1. Now is the time to be making memories 2. Especially memories of your faithful service to God, your kindness to others, etc. -- What kind of memories have you been creating lately? C. LOVE OF FAMILY, BRETHREN, FRIENDS... 1. Loving relationships take time to develop 2. Don't think only of family, you might outlive all of yours; remember brethren and friends -- What kind of relationships with people are you developing now? D. THE WORD OF GOD... 1. It also takes time to become familiar with the Word of God 2. To learn where to turn to find comfort, peace, and strength -- Are you familiarizing yourself with the Bible so it can helpyou in your grief?
E. PRAYER... 1. Prayer is of value only if we are right relationship with God - 1 Pe 3:12 2. Prayer is comforting only if we are already close to God -- Are you drawing closer to God by frequently talking to Him inprayer?
F. SONGS... 1. Like the Word of God, songs comfort us when they are familiar to us 2. When we've had time to reflect, to understand what we are singing about -- Do you sing spiritual songs enough to find comfort in them now? CONCLUSION
1. The death of a loved one has been made easier to bear because of God's grace... a. Jesus died to deliver us from the fear of death - He 2:14-15 b. The death of a righteous person is precious in God's sight - Psa116:15
c. The loved one has finally gone home; if we remain faithful, the separation will be temporary 2. The blessings that God affords His children in time of death are so many... a. But they must be received and acted upon b. We must act now to benefit from them in the future Are you preparing for the reality of death? Are you doing things todaythat will make the "death-day" of your loved ones (and your own) easierto bear, even a cause for celebration...?
－－《Executable
Outlines》