Dying Well
Ecclesiastes 7:1
(For the born again)...the day of death (when we are "born" to eternal life in heaven) is better than the day of one’s birth.
John Wesley "Our people die well."
A.W. Tozer
I heard a Methodist bishop tell of being called to the bedside of an elderly dying woman in his early ministry. He said he was frightened; but the old saint was radiantly happy. When he tried to express the sorrow he felt about her illness, she would not hear it. "Why, God bless you young man," she said cheerfully, "there is nothing to be scared about. I am just going to cross over Jordan, where my Father owns the land on both sides of the river!"
C.H. Spurgeon
To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live; to be ready for eternity is in the best sense to be ready for time. Who is so fit to live on earth as the man who is fit to live in heaven?
Richard Sibbes "Of The Providence Of God"
A good death is prepared for in a good life.
Thomas Watson The Lord's Prayer "Hallowed Be Thy Name"
It will be a great comfort to us when we come to die if we have hallowed God's name in our life: if we have loved him with out hearts, praised him with our lips, and honoured him with our lives.
Jeremy Taylor The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying, 1651
https://books.google.com/books?id=lWpHAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Samuel Rutherford The Loveliness of Christ
Our fair morning is at hand, the day star is near the rising, and we are not many miles from home; what does it matter if we are ill-treated in the smoky inns of this miserable life? One year's time in heaven shall swallow up all sorrows beyond all comparison. Christ Jesus is the end of your journey; there is no fear, you may look death in the face with joy.
Octavius Winslow Daily Walking With God on John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also."
When heart and flesh are fast failing, and the trembling feet descend into the dark valley of the shadow of death, to whom shall we then look but unto Jesus? The world is now receding, and all creatures are fading upon the sight; one object alone remains, arrests and fixes the believer's eye–it is Jesus, the Savior; it is Emmanuel, the Incarnate and now-present God; it is the Captain of our salvation, the Conqueror of death, and the Spoiler of the grave; it is our friend, our brother, loving and faithful, and present to the last. Jesus is there to vanquish death again. Jesus is there to remind His departing one that the grave can wear no gloom, and can boast of no victory, since He himself passed through its portal, rose and revived, and lives for evermore.
Louis Berkhof’s closing words in the last article he wrote for De Wachter
In the hour of death it is the forgiving grace of God which enables us to rest our heads in confidence, fills our hearts with the hope of eternal life, and causes us to look forward with holy joy to the eternal mansions which God has prepared for his own.
F.B. Meyer "Our Daily Walk"
The moment comes when the post will present us with a letter like that received by Christiana: "The Master expecteth thee to stand in His Presence, in clothes of immortality, within ten days." The same summons will come to Mr. Honest and Mr. Ready-to-halt; to Mr. Despondency and to Miss Much-afraid; to Mr. Stand-fast and Mr. Valiant-for-truth.
But in each ease there will be the accompanying knock of Jesus, saying: "Fear not, I will be with you. I have called you by your name, you are Mine." (Isaiah 43:1).
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, unable to speak, wrote a note to his family immediately before his death March 1st, 1981
“Do not pray for healing. Do not hold me back from glory.”
Richard Baxter, “Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care”, to “St. Bernard”, 1681
Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.
Christ leads me through no darker rooms
than he went through before;
he that into God's kingdom comes
must enter by this door.
Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet
thy blessed face to see;
for if thy work on earth be sweet,
what will thy glory be!
Then shall I end my sad complaints
and weary, sinful days,
and join with the triumphant saints
that sing my Saviour's praise.
My knowledge of that life is small,
the eye of faith is dim;
but 'tis enough that Christ knows all,
and I shall be with him.
Lauchlan MacLean Watt
Minister of St. Stephen’s, Edinburgh (1911-23), and chaplain with the Gordon Highlanders during the First World War.
Carry me over the last long mile,
Man of Nazareth, Christ for me,
Weary I wait by Death's dark stile,
In the wild and waste, where the winds blow free;
And the shadows and sorrows come out of the past,
Look keen through my heart. And will not depart.
Now that my poor world has come to its last.
Lord, is it long that my spirit must wait,
Man of Nazareth, Christ for me.
Deep is the stream, and the night is late,
And grief blinds my soul that I cannot see.
Speak to me, out of the silences, Lord,
That my spirit may know, As forward I go,
That Thy pierced hands are lifting me over the ford.