• I am standing on the seashore. A ship spreads her white sails to the morning breeze & starts for the ocean. I stand watching her until she fades on the horizon, & someone at my side says, "She is gone." Gone where? The loss of sight is in me, not in her. Just at the moment when someone says, "She is gone," there are others who are watching her coming. Other voices take up the glad shout, "Here she comes," & that is dying.--Henry Scott Holland.
• Realizing that he would soon be gone from this world one day, Moody said to a friend, "Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of Northfield is dead. Don't you believe a word of it.
  "At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone higher, that is all--out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like His glorious body. I was born in the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die; that which is born of the Spirit will live forever."
• Dr. Werner von Braun, well-known for his part in the U.S. space program, says he has "essentially scientific" reasons for believing in life after death. He explained: "Science has found that nothing can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. If God applies the fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of the universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that He applies it to the masterpiece of His creation--the human soul? I think it does."
• So live that when the preacher has ended his remarks over your grave, those present will not think they have attended the wrong funeral.
• When we die we leave behind us all that we have & take with us all that we are.
• So live that when death comes the mourners will outnumber the cheering section.
• He whose head is in Heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.
• When Benjamin Franklin was about to die, he asked that a picture of Christ on the Cross should be so placed in his bedroom that he could look, as he said, "upon the form of the Silent Sufferer."
• He wrote in advance the epitaph to be on his gravestone: "The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here...Yet the Work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author."
• An elderly Christian was in much distress as he lay dying. "Oh, Pastor," he said, "for years I have relied upon the promises of God, but now in the hour of death I can't remember a single one to comfort me." Knowing that Satan was disturbing him, the preacher said, "My brother, do you think that GOD will forget any of His promises?" A smile came over the face of the dying believer as he exclaimed joyfully, "No, no! He won't! Praise the Lord, now I can fall asleep in Jesus and trust Him to remember them all and bring me safely to Heaven." Peace flooded his soul, and a short time later he was ushered by the angels into the light of God's eternal day.
• For those who have to repeat the dying words of a noted infidel: "I'm taking a leap in the dark."
  Now for the contrast. A lad lay dying. Said his mother tenderly: "Is Jesus with you in the dark valley?"
  "Dark valley!" he whispered, "it's not dark, it's getting brighter and brighter, Mother. Oh," he murmured, "it's so bright now, that I have to shut my eyes!"
  And so he passed away to be with Jesus, who said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
• In ancient Rome a guard felt sorry for a Christian prisoner, who was soon to die because of his faith in Christ. He secretly allowed his daughter to visit him. After she was gone the guard stared at his prisoner. "Why do you gaze at me? "he asked. "Because you do not seem worried," was the answer. "You are to die tomorrow. Tonight you saw your daughter for the last time." "Oh, but you are wrong," exclaimed the prisoner. "I shall see her again. My daughter is a Christian, too. She will soon follow me. Christians never see one another for the last time. They meet in heaven, there to live forever. Now do you understand why I am happy and why I am ready to die for my Christian faith?"
• My happiest moment will be when God puts His hand on my heart & stops it beating.
• Death for the Christian is an honourable discharge from the battles of life.
• Death is but a physical incident in an immortal career.
• Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
• When death becomes the property of the believer it receives a new name & is called sleep.
• The following is a quotation from the words of Dr. W. B. Hinson, speaking from the pulpit a year after the commencement of the illness from which he ultimately died: "I remember a year ago when a doctor in this city said, 'You are going to die, Walt.'
  " I walked out to where I live, five miles out of this city, and I looked across at that mountain that I love, and I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul.
  "Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting his lamps, and I said: 'I may not see you many more times, but, Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and, River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and, Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down-pulling of the material universe!"' This is the confidence of one who knew the Saviour. Is it yours?
• Be sure to celebrate my funeral scripturally & send "Hallelujahs" all around. It is a better day than one's wedding day.--C.T. Studd
• A dying man is a balloon throwing down its ballast.
• Death is the funeral of all our sorrows.
• We are not here to stay; we are here to go.
• When death strikes the Christian down, he falls into Heaven.
• Death to a saint is nothing but the taking of a sweet flower out of this wilderness, & planting of it in the garden of paradise.
• A believer's last day is his best day.
• Dying saints my be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied.
• Death is the foreshadowing of life. We die that we may die no more.
• Death is not so much something which happens to the Christian as something God works for him.
• It is no credit to your Heavenly Father for you to be loath to go Home.
• It's a lot easier to die than it is to live in case you don't know it, if you're a Christian! Death is the easy way out! That's your graduation, your work is done & the Lord has released you & relieved you of your responsibility & you've gone home to your reward. But there's often this question that comes up as you face death, "I wonder have I done my best for Jesus?"
• As we face the prospect of our ministry & life's work coming to an end we kind of evaluate what we've accomplished. We look over the books. We keep books, we look backward & we wonder if we've accomplished what we were supposed to accomplish & if we have left anything undone, if there's anything yet that we ought to do, & if we're going home prematurely not having accomplished all that the Lord wants us to accomplish & being called home prematurely because of failure or disobedience or stubborness or refusal to do all that God wants us to do.
• After all, if we are no longer a faithful servant or we refuse to do what He wants us to do, we become a pretty useless servant & either we're tossed in the scrap pile as Saul was eventually, or we are completely taken out of this life, relieved of our commission, relieved of our duties, & sometimes given a somewhat dishonourable discharge. All these things we think about & we wonder if we have accomplished all that we were supposed to accomplish.--David Brand Berg
• Two old sisters came up to Dr. Moody & asked him after the church service one night. They said, "Dr. Moody, do you have dying grace?" He said, "No, dear sisters, I don't." And they looked shocked! "Why, Dr. Moody! You don't have dying grace?" He said, "No, I'm not dying yet!"
• Death mingles sceptres with spades.
• Satan may chase him to the gates of death, but he cannot pursue the Christian THROUGH the gates.
• If men are prepared to die they are ready for anything.
• There is nothing more certain than death, nothing more uncertain than the time of dying. I will therefore be prepared at all times for that which may come at any time.
• It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.
• Death is but a passage out of a prison into a palace.
• The belief that we shall never die is the foundation of our dying well.
• Death & what is beyond it will show who is wise & who is a fool.
• Were it not for sin, death had never had a beginning, & were it not for death, sin would never have had an ending.
• Death is not part of the natural process, but is the judgement of God on sin.
• "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away." (Song of Solomon 2:17)
• The fear of doom is part of the judgements of God on the guilty & those who deserve it, "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Heb.2:15)
• And yet they have an evil fascination for death! That's why they ride these motorcycles at breakneck speed & love these fast car races & dangerous sports, anything that dares death, defies death, these stunt men doing death-defying stunts, dangerous mountain climbs & dangerous feats of all kinds. It's like they have an evil fascination for death! It reminds me again of that Scripture: "Them that love death!" (Pro.8:36) They are fascinated by death! They act like they really want to die, like they're daring the Devil to kill them! But when it comes right down to it, then they don't want to!--David Brandt Berg
• My Mother was with lots of dying sinners & some doctors have had to go through it. It's a horrible traumatic experience! One doctor said, "No matter how many times I've been through it, to have to sit through the death of a patient is still a terrific traumatic experience for me." Some of them scream, some of them writhe in agony, some of them act like they're already in the torments of Hell, & some of them cry out about flames & demons & Hell, sinners who die. You don't hear many stories like that. They hush that stuff up because they don't want to scare you!--David Brandt Berg
• "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 7:17)
• The marks on the grave of a guide who died while climbing the Alps were; "He died climbing."
• On the tomb of a Christian astronomer were these words (by his partner); "We have gazed too long at the stars together to be afraid of the night."
• While some friends were talking about death, one old lady said, "I am not looking for the undertaker, but for the Uptaker."
• Where you die, when you die, or by what means, is scarcely worth a thought, if you do but die in Christ.
• How many Christians live their lives packed up & ready to go?
• Live so that when death comes you may embrace like friends, not encounter like enemies.
• Take care of your life & the Lord will take care of your death.
• No Christian has ever been known to recant on his deathbed.
• Charles Dillingham and Florenz Ziegfeld, both eminent producers and both now deceased, were pall-bearers at the funeral of the great escape artist, Houdini. As they lifted the beautiful and heavy casket to their shoulders, Dillingham whispered to Ziegfeld, "Suppose he isn't here."
• "Earth recedes, Heaven opens!--This is my Coronation Day!" is the famous quote. It's what my Grandmother said the day she died. As she was dying she pulled the rings off her fingers & put them in my Grandfather's hand. Then she raised both arms to Heaven & said, "I hear singing, the angels are singing!"--David Brandt Berg.
• "Houdini nearly lost his life under the ice when he lost the hole & couldn't find it. But he heard his mother's voice calling him & he swam in the direction of her voice & there was the hole. When he got home to his hotel there was a telegram saying that his mother just passed away a few minutes before he was trying to find that hole. The Lord took her just in time to save his life. Don't tell me they don't work for us on the Other Side!--David Brandt Berg
• Those who have welcomed Christ may welcome death.
• How pleasantly does the good man speak of dying; as if it were only undressing & going to bed!
• Death is never sudden to a saint; no guest comes unawares to him who keeps a constant table.
• The wheels of death's chariot may rattle & make a noise, but they are to carry a believer to Christ.
• He that would not die when he must, & he that would die when he must not are both of them cowards alike.
• Death stung himself to death when he stung Christ.
• No man must let the tenant out of the tenement till God the landlord calls for it.
• We must cast the World out of our hearts, not cast ourselves out of the World.
• News came that you were dead. I did not believe a word of it.
• I knew that at that moment you were more alive than I am now.
• For there is no death. No. Not for the Christian!
  There is only an honourable discharge from the battles of life,
  A promotion to Heavenly officership,
  That glorious moment to step forward
  And hear the Great Commander-in-Chief say,
  "Well done, good and faithful soldier!
  Come, enter into your Eternal reward"!
  There is no death. Not for the Christian.
  Only the soul's blessed release from dark prison.
  Only a passage out of that prison into a palace.
  Only a golden key that unlocks the treasures of Eternity.
  No, my friend, you are not dead.
  You will be alive when the mountains are gone.
  --Alive when the rivers cease their running toward the sea!
  You have gone higher, that is all.
  Out of this old mud shack, into a house that is immortal,
  A body that no enemy can attack!
  "Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return"
  Was not spoken of the spirit.
  You don't really die, you just keep on living,
  And go straight into the presence of the Lord!
  I weep, dear friend, because I miss you.
  If I were unselfish I would be rejoicing with you,
  Thanking God that you are with Him!
  Thanking God that your troubles are over!
  No more crying, no more pain, no more sorrow,
  Nothing but eternal happiness in Heaven forever!
  Yes, we are so selfish about death,
  We count our grief far more than your joy!
  We go to the grave of a friend, saying, "A man is dead".
  But angels throng about him saying, "A man is born!"
  So for now, farewell, my friend!
  We shall meet again!

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