The world hates virtue; it cannot bear perfection; it might endure benevolence, but
absolute purity and righteousness it cannot, away with. Its native instincts are
wrong; it is not towards the light that men are going, their backs are to the sun, they
are journeying into the thick darkness. 2338.590

It is strange, but it is true, that there are many who love darkness. I said just now
that this was contrary to nature, and so it is in one sense. Unfallen nature could not
bear darkness, but fallen nature loves it. Hear what God says about it, “Men love
darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” Night is the time of the
world’s merriment. Then the thief steals out to do his deeds of ill. “They that be
drunken, be drunken in the night,” and then is the time for “wantonness and
chambering.” As the apostle saith, it is the hour of evil. Darkness seems to be
attractive to some men. Strange is it, but it is so. The fascinating power of sin is just
like the fascinating power of darkness. 3366.378

Can you see Jesus in the dark? Yes. We sometimes see him better in the dark than in
the light. If you will go outside in the daytime and look up, you will not be able to see
a single star; but if you will get into the bucket of a well, and go down into the
darkness, very soon you will behold the stars. To descend may sometimes be the
shortest way to ascend. 3370.420

Our Lord here on earth may be said to have been always in the dark, in comparison
with the glories which he left, in contrast with the bliss that he has reassumed. To
be here at all, was to him to be in the dark. 3370.423

We are all like trees marked for the axe, and the fall of one should remind us that for
every one, whether great as the cedar, or humble as the fir, the appointed hour is
stealing on apace. ME541

May we regard death as the most weighty of all events, and be sobered by its
approach. ME541

We talk of death too lightly. It is solemn work to the best of men. It would be no
child’s play to an apostle to die. WC137

Now, I believe the sight of a funeral is a very healthful thing for the soul. 200.281

When you are in good health any form of religion may satisfy, but a dying soul wants
more than sand to rest upon. You will want the Rock of Ages. Then let me assure you,
that in light of the grave, all confidence, except confidence in the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ, is a clear delusion. 667.724

The young may die: the old must. 787.718

Men have usually shown us what lies at the bottom of their heart when they have
come to die. 989.253

Now, recollect there is no pain in death, the pain is in life: when a man dies there is
an end of life’s pain: death is the pain killer, not the pain maker. 1110.262

I never yet heard regrets from dying men that they had done too much for Christ, or
lived too earnestly for him, or won too many souls, or given too much of their
substance to the cause of God: but the regrets all lie the other way, God save us from
them for his mercy’s sake. 1296.310

And now last of all, and the word “last” sounds fitly in this case, death is to be
destroyed last. Because he came in last he must go out last. Death was not the first
of our foes: first came the devil, then sin, then death. Death is not the worst of
enemies; death is an enemy, but he is much to be preferred to our other adversaries.
It were better to die a thousand times than to sin. To be tried by death is nothing
compared with being tempted by the devil. 1329.706

Archbishop Leighton one morning was asked by a friend, “Have you heard a
sermon?” He said, “No, but I met a sermon, for I met a dead man carried out to be
buried.” 1373.510

Soon you may lie on a sick bed gazing into eternity, and then your estimate of most
things will undergo a great change. I know what that solemn outlook means, for I
have been called several times to lie in spirit upon the brink of eternity, and I can
assure you it is no child’s play. 1930.633

Where death finds you eternity will leave you. 1946.74

Some look with intense delight to the prospect of the Saviour’s coming, as a means of
escape from death. I confess I have but slender sympathy with them. If I might have
my choice, I would prefer, of the two, to die. Let it be as the Lord wills; but there is a
point of fellowship with Christ in death which they will miss who shall not sleep; and
it seems to me to have some sweetness in it to follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth, even though he descend into the sepulchre. 2017.199

The Lord will give dying grace in dying moments. 2039.461

Some of us know what it is to lie for days and weeks, looking into eternity, until our
eyes have been able to gaze steadily on death and all the future, and we have grown
so used to the prospect, and so peaceful in reference to it, that we have almost been
sorry to come back again to life and its trials and sins. 2164.511

Oh, if we could not die, it would be indeed horrible! Who wants to be chained to this
poor life for a century or longer? 2659.42

“But we must live.” I am not sure of that; I am sure of another thing, you must die.
Oh, that you would think rather of dying than of living! 2766.77

There are some who are comforted much by the belief that Christ will come, and they
shall not die. I do not profess to be among the number. I would as soon die as not, and
rather, I think, if I might have my choice, for herein would be a greater conformity to
the sufferings of Christ, in actually passing through the grave and rising again, than
will fall to the lot of those who do not die. 3493.7

To “die daily” is the business of Christians. It is greatly wise to talk with our last
hours, to make ourselves familiar with the grave. Our venerable forefathers had a
queer habit of placing on the dressing-table a death’s head, as a memento mori—
either a real skull, or else an ornament fashioned in the form of it—to remind them
of their end; yet, so far as I can gather, they were happy men and women, and none
the less so because they familiarised themselves with death. A genuine Puritan,
perhaps, never lived a day without considering the time when he should put off the
garments of clay, and enter into rest; and these were the happiest and holiest of
people, while this thoughtless generation, which banishes the thought of dying, is
wretched amid all its hollow pretence of mirth. 764.439

Those who die daily will die easily. Those who make themselves familiar with the
tomb will find it transfigured into a bed: the charnel will become a couch. 1922.533

The best way to live above all fear of death is to die every morning before you leave
your bedroom. The apostle said, “I die daily.” When you have got into the habit of
daily dying, it will come easy for you to die for the last time. 2205.286

It would be well if we were all so familiar with death that we could say as one old
saint did, “Dying? Why, I have been dying daily for the last twenty years, so I am not
afraid to die now;” or, as another said, “I dip my foot in Jordan’s stream every
morning before I take my breakfast, so I shall not be afraid to go down into the
stream whenever my Lord bids me enter it.” May that be your experience and mine,
beloved, and then we shall have no fear of death. 3287.45

To die as to the first death is the separation of the body from the soul; it is the
resolution of our nature into its component elements; and to die the second death is
to separate the man, soul and body, from his God, who is the life and joy of our
manhood. WCo133

Dying does not mean ceasing to exist, for Adam did not cease to exist, nor do those
who die. 1868.602

Burckhardt states, that although the Arabs are strict predestinarians, yet when the
plague visited Medina, many of the townsmen fled to the desert, alleging as an excuse
that although the distemper was a messenger from heaven sent to call them to a better
world, yet being conscious of their own unworthiness, and that they did not merit this
special mark of grace, they thought it more advisable to decline it for the present, and
make their escape from the town. If it really came to the point with those of us who talk
of longing for death as a great deliverance, should we not cling to life? It is a question
perhaps more easily asked than answered. FA55

All we can lose is the frail tent of this poor body. By no possibility can we lose more.
When a man knows the limit of his risk it greatly tends to calm his mind. 1719.262

“What!” cries one, “is there not a terrible amount of pain connected with death?” I
answer—No. It is life that has the pain; death is the finis of all pain. You blame
death for a disease of which he is the cure. 2039.467

We feel a thousand deaths in fearing one. 2264.330

Are you afraid of dying? Oh! never be afraid of that; be afraid of living. Living is the
only thing which can do any mischief; dying never can hurt a Christian. 2625.275

Do not be afraid to die, beloved, but rather look at death as an experience to be
desired. I have not the slightest wish to escape it. 2723.189

If you dwell near to God, you will not be afraid of dying; you will rather dread to
remain here than to be taken away. 2795.430

It is a very natural thing that man should fear to die, for man was not originally
created to die. 3125.1

I may say to myself, “Do I feel now that I could die calmly or even triumphantly?” I
may put the question if I like, but it is hardly a fair one, for I am not yet called to die;
yet my experience and observation of others lead me to believe that very remarkable
grace is often given to believers in their last hours. 3125.7

It is well that there should be such a thing as the fear of death in the world; but for
it, sinners would be more outrageously wicked than they are already. 3286.38

He who does not prepare for death is more than an ordinary fool, he is a madman.
ME541

You may do anything which you would not be ashamed to be doing when Christ shall
come. You may do anything which you would not blush to be found doing if the hand
of death should smite you; but if you would dread to die in any spot, go not there; if
you would not wish to enter the presence of your God with such-and-such a word
upon your lip, utter not that word; or if there would be a thought that would be
uncongenial to the judgment-day, seek not to think that thought. So act that you
may feel you can take your shroud with you wherever you go. 349.13

Brethren, saints are prepared to go before they go. Our Lord does not pluck his fruit
unwisely. Foolish people may tear the green apples from the tree with a pull and a
wrench, and bruise them as they throw them into the basket; but our Lord values his
fruit, and so he waits until it is quite ripe, and then he gathers it tenderly. When he
puts forth his hand, the fruit bows down to it, and parts from the bough without a
strain. When the believer comes to die, it will not be to an end which he feared, but
to an end which he expected. 1965.311

We are wise to talk of our last hours, to be familiar with the thought of our departure
from this world. 3125.9

My brother said to me, the other day, what Charles Wesley said to John Wesley,
“Brother, our people die well!” I answered, “Assuredly they do!” I have never been to
the sick-bed of any one of our people without feeling strengthened in faith. AM361

The late venerable and godly Dr. Archibald Alexander, of Princeton, United
States, had been a preacher of Christ for sixty years, and a professor of divinity for
forty. He died on the 22nd October, 1851. On his death-bed, he was heard to say to a
friend, “All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass—Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners.” FA29

I am never so happy amidst all the shouts of youthful merriment as on the day when
I hear the dying testimony of one who is resting on the everlasting gospel of the grace
of God. The ultimate issue, as seen upon a dying-bed, is a true test, as it is an
inevitable one. GF17

The distance between glorified spirits in heaven and militant saints on earth seems
great; but it is not so. We are not far from home—a moment will bring us there. ME222

Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they
tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they
are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles;
else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure
of trial. ME246

The dark flood must soon roll between thee and all thou hast; then wed thine heart
to Him who will never leave thee; trust thyself with Him who will go with thee
through the black and surging current of death’s stream, and who will land thee
safely on the celestial shore, and make thee sit with Him in heavenly places for ever. ME264

Never, never did we know a Christian who repented of his Christianity. We have
seen Christians so sick, that we wondered that they lived—so poor, that we wondered
at their misery; we have seen them so full of doubts, that we pitied their unbelief; but
we never heard them say, even then, “I regret that I gave myself to Christ.” No; with
the dying clasp, when heart and flesh were failing, we have seen them hug this
treasure to their breast, and press it to their heart, still feeling that this was their
life, their joy, their all. 196.255

When Baxter lay a dying, and his friends came to see him, almost the last word he
said was in answer to the question, “Dear Mr. Baxter, how are you?” “Almost well,”
said he, and so it is. 1036.101

I remember a man’s tombstone on which was inscribed “Here lies one who died a
child three years old at the age of eighty.” You are only as old as the number of years
you have lived unto God. 1092.41

We wept when we were born though all around us smiled; so shall we smile when we
die while all around us weep. 1175.304

Yea, the Father himself is here, for he is never away from the death-beds of his
children. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” 1212.34

I have heard dying children speak like doctors of divinity about the things of God. I
have heard dying women, who were quite uneducated, speak of the world unseen in
a style of inspiration which has struck me with awe. 1213.40

A dying believer, who was attended by an apothecary who was also a child of God,
was observed to be whispering to himself while dying, and his good attendant,
wishing to know what were his last words, placed his ear against the dying man’s
lips, and heard him repeating to himself again and again the words, “For ever with
the Lord, For ever with the Lord.” 1374.520

For my own part, I had rather that the Lord Jesus should keep the keys of death
than that he should lend them to me. It would be too dreadful a privilege to be
empowered to rob heaven of the perfected merely to give pleasure to imperfect ones
below. 1799.498

When I read in our Lord’s testament the words, “Father, I will that they be with me,”
I ask, “Who is to hold them back?” They must in due time be with him, for the will of
the ever-blessed Saviour must be carried out: there can be no standing against a
force of that kind. 1892.174

Will you quarrel with God because some of your dearest ones are promoted to the
skies? The thought of their amazing bliss greatly moderates our natural grief.
1892.177

Death is no punishment to the believer: it is the gate of endless joy. 1905.332

Nothing upon earth ever gives me so much establishment in the faith as to visit
members of this church when they are about to die. 2084.262

I am not aware that I have gained anything at the wedding, but I have gained much
at the dying bed, as I have seen the joy and peace and rapture of girls and youths,
and men and women, passing away joyfully to be “for ever with the Lord.” 2243.83

Oh! let us not live in this world as if we thought of staying here for ever; but let us try
to be like a pious Scotch minister, who was very ill, and, being asked by a friend
whether he thought himself dying, answered, “Really, friend, I care not whether I
am or not; for if I die, I shall be with God; and if I live, he will be with me.” 2659.43

It is a calamity for the Church of Christ when her best men, whether ministers or
deacons, are called home; yet, dear friends, it often is the case that God takes his
servants home just when they are most useful. When would you have him take them
home? When they are least useful? 2948.391

The Christian who contemplates death with joy is a living sermon. 3125.2

But how often you and I have prayed to be rid of troubles! Well, we shall be rid of
them then. How often we have prayed to be rid of sin! We shall be rid of it then. We
have prayed to be delivered from temptation; and we shall be, then. We have asked
to be like Jesus; and we shall be, then. We have prayed for a clearer vision of him,
and we shall have it then. 3125.7

Our dear ones were lent to us, and what a blessing they have been to us! The lamps
of our house, have they not been the joy of our day? The Master says, “I want them
back again;” and do we clutch at them, and say, “No, Master, thou shalt not have
them”? Oh, it must not be so. Our dear ones were never half as much ours as they
were Christ’s. We did not make them, but he did; we never bought them with our
blood, but he did; we never sweat a bloody sweat for them, nor had our hands and
feet pierced for them, but he did. They were lent to us, but they belonged to him. Your
prayer was, “Father, let them be with me where I am,” but Christ’s prayer was,
“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.”
Your prayer pulled one way, and Christ’s pulled another. Be not envious that Christ
won the suit. 3129.52

My observation warrants me in remarking that the most of Christians, when they
die, are either in a deep calm or else triumphant in an ecstasy of delight. 3286.42

I do not think our heavenly Father often puts his children to bed in the dark; but if
he does, they will wake up in the light of the morning. This man of God said to the
minister who visited him, “O sir, although I have trusted Christ for years, and have
served his cause, I have lost him now. What will become of a man who dies feeling
that God has deserted him?” The wise pastor answered him, “What did become
of the man who, just before his death, cried, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?’ Is he not on the highest throne of glory even now?” The sick man’s
mind was lightened in a moment. He began to say, as the Lord Jesus did after the
dark sentence, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”; and he died in peace. 3370.427

Some persons on their dying beds just wake up in time to see their danger, but not to
escape from it: they are carried right over the cataract of judgment and wrath. 996.348

Now, how do you find Christians of that kind when you have attended their dying
beds, if you have had the privilege of doing so? Did you ever find a Christian stayed
up with pillows in his bed boasting of what he had done? When Augustus, the Roman
Emperor, was dying, he asked those who were around him whether he had acted well
his part; and they said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Clap me as I go off the stage.” 1193.526

It is hard, very hard, to maintain a lie in the presence of the last solemnities; the end
of life is usually the close of self-deception. There is a mimic faith, a false assurance,
which lasts under all ordinary heats of trial, but this evaporates when the fires of
death surround it. 1401.121

I have known some few hardened wretches, who passed out of the world, as they had
lived, in open rebellion against God, and who to the last, therefore, despised religion;
but, generally, I have found that the scoffer changes his tone when death approaches.
“Send for someone to visit me,” is his cry then. “For whom shall we send? Shall it be
John, the swearer?” “Oh no! send for John, the praying man; I should like him to
pray over me. Or send for the minister.” “But why don’t you ask for your old
companions? You used to say that they were the jolliest fellows, they were the
merriest men you ever met. You know there is no such place as heaven or hell, for
you often said so when in their company. Many a glass have you quaffed with them;
why not have another before you die?” Ah! such companions as these will not do for
him now; and that fact proves the honour which such a man, at last, puts upon the
Christian. 2651.581

Perhaps you do not even believe in any hereafter; if so, just listen to this little
narrative. Some time ago, there lived in a certain market town a watchmaker, an
honest, sober, and industrious man, but he was an infidel. He did not believe in the
Bible, he said that it was a book that was only fit for old women. As for what some
said concerning the terrors of hell, they never alarmed him; and as for what they said
concerning the glories of heaven, he reckoned they were only fancies or dreams.
Suddenly, in the midst of life, he was stricken down, and it was soon manifest that he
was dying, and dying rapidly. On the day of his death, early in the morning, he
began to say, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where;” and then, as rapidly as he
could speak, he continued, for the space of twelve or thirteen hours, to say the same
words over and over and over again, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where; I’m
going, I’m going,—I don’t know where.” As his strength failed him, his voice became
more weak and tremulous, but still his utterance was just the same, “I’m going, I’m
going,—I don’t know where;” and, at last, he died with those words upon his lips, “I’m
going, I’m going,—I don’t know where.” 3216.464

I remember once being at the bedside of a man who alternately cursed and asked me
to pray. I could not pray as I would desire. I did what I could, and then he would tell
me it was no good; his sins would never be forgiven him; and then he would turn
again to blasphemy. It was a dread sight. I never saw—and I have seen many
ungodly people die—I never saw one die of whom I could say, “Let me die the death
of this sinner, and let my last end be like his”; nor do I think such sights are ever or
anywhere to be seen. 3512.233

The Puritans tell a story of a woman convinced of sin on her death-bed, who lived
near Cambridge, who was visited by several ministers, all of whom had great skill in
comforting seeking souls. When five or six of them had spoken gently and
comfortingly to her, she opened her eyes upon them with a glare, and all she said was
this, “Call back the time, call back the time, for otherwise I am damned.” And so she
died. 3557.149

John once wished for Gaius, that his body might prosper and be in health even as his
soul prospered. Now, suppose our bodies were to prosper just as our souls do! Why,
there would sit in one place a living woman, and side by side with her a dead
husband; further on, a living child, and then a dead grey-headed grandsire. Oh! what
a sight this place would be! We should hasten to gather up our skirts, those of us who
are alive, and say, “Let us begone! How can we sit side by side with corpses?” The
effect would be startling to the last degree, and yet, most probably, the spiritual fact
does not disturb us at all; we know it to be true, but we take it as a matter of course,
and we go our way with scarce a prayer for our poor dead neighbors. 755.335

You and I hear of sudden deaths, and yet we imagine we shall not die suddenly. 260.286

We have heard of one who, when the morning paper brought him news that a friend
in business had died, was drawing on his boots to go to his counting-house, and
observed with a laugh that as far as he was concerned, he was so busy he had no time
to die. Yet, ere the words were finished, he fell forward and was a corpse. 1329.702

As for peace in the hour of death, he who is not pardoned living is not likely to be
pardoned dying. Nine out of ten, perhaps nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every
thousand of professed death-bed salvations are a delusion. We have good facts to
prove that. A certain physician collected notes of several hundreds of cases of persons
who professed conversion who were supposed to be dying. These persons did not die
but lived, and in the case of all but one they lived just as they had lived before,
though when they were thought to be dying they appeared as if they were truly
converted. Do not look forward to that, it is a mere snare of Satan. 676.105

But it is a sorrowful fact that those which seemed to be death-bed repentances have
seldom turned out to be worth anything when the men have recovered. In fact, I do
not remember a case in which the person who recovered has been at all what he said
he would be when he thought that he was on the borders of the grave. 2054.647
We once read, in Scripture, of one who was saved at the last,—the dying thief on the
cross; and it has been well said that there was one that none might despair, but only
one that none might presume. 2993.308

Put no trust in death-bed repentances; they are of all things the most deceitful. Every
thief repents when he comes to the prison, and every murderer will leave a word of
repentance on his pathway to the gallows. It is no sign of the heart being set right to
cry and groan when you are coming near your punishment. 3317.415

Some, but oh! how few, have witnessed the good confession in the hour of death. A
soldier in the army of the Potomac, of whom I somewhere read, was taken to the rear
to die. He was badly wounded; he was also suffering from fever. Someone had told
him, just before the fever came on, of a soldier found asleep at his post who was
condemned to die. The poor fellow, in his delirium imagining that he was that soldier,
cried out to the doctor who was attending him, “Sir, I am to be shot to-morrow
morning; and as I wish to have all right, I want you to send for the chaplain at once.
I want to see him.” The doctor, to calm his fears, said “No, no; you are not to be shot
to-morrow morning; it’s a mistake.” “Oh! but I am,” he said; “I know I shall.” “But I
will be here,” said the doctor, “and if anyone comes to touch you, I will have him
arrested. I will take care you shall not die.” “Is it so, doctor?” said he, in calmer
accents, “then you need not send for the chaplain; I shall not want him just yet.” So
the truth came out that fear, not faith, animated him, though it was but spoken in a
feverish dream. 3450.129

Are ye mad enough to imagine that, whether ye have an interest in Christ or not, is
a question that may be solved in a few minutes in a fearful emergency upon a dying
bed? 3546.15

Little hope have I for deathbed repentances. Never trust to them, I beseech you. Such
a vestibule as a deathbed you may never have. To die in the street may be your lot.
Should you have a deathbed, you will have something else to think about besides
religion. 3560.188

Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible. PT78

If you want to sleep soundly, buy a bed of a man who is in debt; surely it must be a
very soft one, or he never could have rested so easy on it. PT82

Scripture says, “Owe no man anything,” which does not mean pay your debts, but
never have any to pay. PT83

Many men turn aside from religion, where their interest would be compromised. If I
see two men walking together, I cannot tell who is the master of the dog that is
behind, but I shall discover directly; one of them will turn to the right and the other
to the left; now I shall know who is the master of the dog, for when it comes to the
turning point the dog will go with its master and leave the stranger. You cannot
always tell whether it is God or Mammon that a man is serving when virtue is
profitable; but when it comes to the turning point, and the man has to be a loser for
Christ, in what he gives up for Christ’s sake, then sincerity is tried. Turning points
are places where we may judge ourselves, for they are the only true criterions of our
real character. 685.210

But if it be your duty, my dear brother and sister, thus to do the right, do it if the
skies fall. 796.101

A balloon cannot go up into the sky until the last rope is cut. Oh, for that sharp,
decisive step, by which, like Abraham, you come out from your father’s house that
you may be a sojourner with God in the land which his grace will show you. 2086.285

Brethren, we are generally too fast with our tongues when anybody accuses us. I am
afraid we are not always so quick to defend our Master, as we are to defend
ourselves. 3327.535

So far as man could pierce his God, and slay his God, he went about to commit the
hideous crime; for man slew the Lord Christ, and pierced him with a spear, and
therein showed what he would do with the Eternal himself, if he could come at him.
Man is, at heart, a deicide. He would be glad if there were no God: he says in his
heart, “No God”; and, if his hand could go as far as his heart, God would not exist
another hour. This it is which invests the piercing of our Lord with such intensity of
sin; it meant the piercing of God. 1983.523

Jesus Christ was God, and he came to this earth; and wicked men, though they could
not kill God, went as near to it as they could by killing Christ, who was God as well
as man. We use the word “regicide” when we speak of a man who kills a king, and we
rightly use the word “Deicide” in speaking of the crime of which the world made
itself guilty when it put Christ to death. 2901.451

Very little is done right when it is left to other people. PP124

Well, dear friend, it goes without saying that if you managed things, they would be
managed perfectly; but, you see, you cannot do everything, and therefore you must
trust somebody. 2264.327

Satan is not inside our heart now; he entered into Judas, but he cannot enter into us;
for our soul is filled by another who is well able to hold His own. GS116

There are grades in devilry as there are in human sin. All men are evil, but all men
are not alike evil. All devils are full of sin, but they are not all sinful to the same
degree. Do we not read in Scripture, “Then goeth he and taketh unto him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself?” It may be there is a gradation in the wickedness
of devils, and perhaps, also, in their power to fulfil their wicked impulses. 549.27