SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

(especially for atheists, infidels, and skeptics)

By Vance Ferrell

Section 2 of 4

John Huss, Bohemian reformer and martyr, asked at the last moment by the Duke of Bavaria to recant: "What I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood."
Lady Powerscourt (1800: "One needs a great many Scriptures to live by, but the only Scripture that a person needs to die by is 1 John 1:7, and that verse never was sweeter to me than at this moment."
Sir Walter Scott (1832). The famous author was taking with his son-in-law: "What shall I read?" said Lockhart. "Can you ask?" The dying man replied, "There is only one Book."
David Brainerd (1747), pioneer missionary to the American Indians: "I do not go to heaven to be advanced, but to give honour to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high or low seat there, but to live and please and glorify God. My heaven is to please God and glorify Him, and give all to Him, and to be wholly devoted to His glory."
John Pawson, minister: "I know I am dying, but my death bed is a bed of roses. I have no thorns planted upon my dying pillow. In Chrsit, heaven is alrady begun!"
William Wilberforce (1833), member of Parliment who helped eliminate slavery in England: "My affections are so much in heaven that I can leave you all without a regret; yet I do not love you less, but God more."
Adoniram Judson (1850), American missionary to Burma: "I go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school. I feel so strong in Christ."
Captain Hedly Vicars (1855): "The Lord has kept me in perfect peace and make me glad with the light of His countenance. IN the Lord Jesus I find all I want of happiness and enjoyment."
Sir Henry Havelock (1857), when felled by an attack of malignant cholera and told that he could not survive, calmly replied: "I have prepared for this for forty years," and then he added to those around him" "Prepare to meet thy God!"
The Apostle Paul (A.D. 66): "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Longfellow: "For the Christian, the grave itself is but a covered bridge leading from light to light, through a brief darkness."
Polycarp (A.D. 155), disciple of the Apostle John, at his own martyrdom: "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me nothing but good. How could I curse Him. My Lord and Saviour?"
Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesly: "Children, when I am gone, sing a song of praise to God."
George Whitefield (1770), English evandelist "Lord Jeus, I am weary in Thy work, but no of Thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, seal the trutyh, and come home to die."
Philipp Melancthon (1560), after several passages of Scripture were read to him by his son-in-law, he was asked if he would have anything else; "Nothing else but heaven!"
Preston: "Blessed by God! Though I change my place, I shall not change my company."
Samuel Rutherford (1615): "Mine eyes shall see my Redeemer. He has pardoned, loved, and washed me, and given me joy unspeakable and full of glory. I fee on manna. Glory, glory, glory to my Creator and Redeemer forever!"
Francis Bacon (1626), lrd chancellor of England: "The sweetest life in this world is piety, virtue, and honesty."
John Bunyan (1688), authour of Pilgrim's Progress: "Weep not for me, but for yourselves. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, through the mediation of His blessed Son, receives me, though a sinner. We shall meet to sing the new song and remain ever lastingly happy."
Richard Baxter (1691), the English martyr: "I have pain, but have peace. I have peace!"
Ann Hasseltine Judson (1826), missionary to Burma and wife of Adoniram Judson: "Oh, the happy day will soon come when we shall meet all our friends who are now scattered-- we meet to part no more in our heavenly Father's house."
Abbot: "Glory to God! After the grave, heaven will open before me!"
John Knox: "Live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death."
Everett: Glory, glory, glory!" His expression was repeated for 25 minutes, and only ceased with life itself.
John A. Lyth: "Can this be death? Why, it is better than living! Tell them I die happy in Jesus!"
Martin Luther: "Our God is the God from whom cometh salvation. God is the Lord by whom we escape death! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit. God of truth, Thou hast redeemed me."
Margaret Prior: "Eternity rolls before me L\like a sea of glory!"
Goodwin: ""Ah! Is this dying? How have I dreaded, as an enemy, this smiling friend!"
Martha McCrackin: "How bright the room! How full of angels!"
Mary Frances: "Oh, that I could tell you what joy I possess! The Lord doth shine with such power upon my soul!"
Sir David Brewster (1868), sicentist and inventor of the kaleidoscope: "I will see Jesus; I shall see Him as He is! I have had the light for many years. Oh how bright it is! I feel so safe and satisfied!"
Michael Faraday (1867), chemist, electrical engineer, and leading Britsh scientist, as he neared death, replied to a scientist who asked him what he would do in heaven: "'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him.' I shall be with Christ, and that is enough." When a journalist interjected and questioned him as to his pseculations about a life after death, he said, "Speculations! I know nothing about speculations. I'm resting on certainties. 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' and because He lives, I shall live also."
David Brainerd (1747, a well-known issionary in the American Colonies? "I am going into eternity, and it is sweet to me to think of eternity; the endlessness of it makes it sweet. But oh! What shall I say of the future of the wicked! The thought is too dreadful!"
Daniel Webster (1852), the well-known orator and legislator, had William Cowper's hymn read to him: "There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawon from Immanuel's veins." Then he read the last stanza: "Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing Thy power to save. When this poor lisping, stam'ring tongue lies silent in the grave. ." At this, Webster, one of the most powerful speakers in American history, replied, "Amen! Amen! Amen!"
Owen, the Puritan, lay on his deathbed, and his secretary was writing a letter, in his name, to a friend: "I am still in the land of lthe living," he wrote, and read what he had written to Owen. "No, please do not write that," Owen said. "I am yet in the land of the dying; but later, I will be in the land of the living!"
On November 20, 1847, in Nice, France, Henry Frances Lyte, a retired pastor of the Church of England died. He had spent his life working in the slums of London, helping people. After his death, his faily found a paper he had written during these last days. it is now a hymn sung around the world:
"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide.
"The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
"When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
"Help of the helpless, O abide with me."

Benjamin Franklin (1790) wrote the following epitaph for his own tomb. It is there today: "The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the ocver of an Old Book, Its Contents Torn Out and Stripped of Its Lettering and Gilding, Lies Here, Food for Worms. Yet the Work Itself Shall Not Be Lost; for It wil, as He Believed, Appear Once More in a New and More Beautiful Edition, Corrected and Amended by the Author."
The epitaph on the grave in Canterbury, England, of Henry Alford (1861), the hymn writer is this: "The inn of a pilgrim journeying to Jerusalem."
A 22-year-old Dutch patriot wrote the following letter to his parents before he was executed by a Nazi firing squad, for the crime of trying to escape with his three companions to England:

"In a little while at five o'clock it is going to happen, and that is not so terrible.....On the contrary, it is beautiful to be in God's strength. God has told us that He will not forsake us if only we pray to Him for support. I feel so strongly my nearness to God; I am fully prepared to die...I have confessed all my sins to Him and have become very quiet. Therefore do not mourn, but trust in God and pray for strenght...Give me a firm handshake. God's will be done...We are courageous. Be the same. They can only take our bodies. Our souls are in God's hands...May God bless you all. Have no hate. I die without hatred. God rules everything."
Pilgrim's Progress is generally considered one of the greatest books ever written by a follower of Chrlst. In it, the two pilgrims, Christian and Hopeful, finally received their summons and came down to the river. But, when they saw how deep, wide, swift, and dark were its waters, they were stunned.
Then they were told, "You must go through or you cannot come at the gate." Then they asked if the waters were all of a depth, and the answer was given: "you shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe the King of the place."
Then they went into the water and Christian began to sink, and said: "I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head; all His waves go over me."
But Hopeful answered, "Be of good cheer, my brother: I feel the bottom, and it is good."
And with that Christian broke out with a loud voice, "Oh, I see him again; and he tells me, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee."
Then they both took courage, and the enemy was, after that, as still as a stone until they were gone over.
They had passed through the grave to the glorious resurrection day beyond.
Continued here.

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