My brother Stephen passed away last Friday of complications of pneumonia. He was a good friend and brother. We went to grammar school together at different grades and the same for high school. He was a brother in Christ and he repented of his sins. He goes to join my dad who passed away last year. Here are some quotes that may help comfort people who have lost love ones.
Octavius Winslow wrote, “All is shadow here below! The world is a shadow; and it passes away! The creature is a shadow; and the loveliest and the fondest may be the first to die! Health is a shadow; fading, and in a moment gone! Wealth is a shadow; today upon the summit of affluence, tomorrow at its base, plunged into poverty and dependence! Human friendships and creature affections are but shadows; sweet and pleasant while they last, but, with a worm feeding at the root of all created good, the sheltering gourd soon withers, exposing us to the sun's burning heat by day, and to the frost's cold chill by night! Oh, yes! “Passing Away” is indelibly inscribed upon everything here below! Yet how slow are we to realize the solemn lesson: “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!” Unconverted reader, what is your life but a vapor that passes away?and what are its pursuits but shadows; unreal, unsatisfying, evanescent? Your rank, your wealth, your honors, your pleasures, are but phantoms which appear but for a little while, and then are lost in the deeper shadow of the grave, and the still deeper and longer shadow of eternity! Oh, turn from these dreams and hallucinations, and, as a rational, accountable, immortal being, on your way to judgment, fix your mind upon your solemn, endless future! You are going to die! And, oh, when that dread hour comes, so real and appalling, how will your past life appear?”
John Owen author of Meditation on the Glory of Christ wrote, “We cannot enjoy peace in this world unless we are ready to yield to the will of God in respect of death. Our times are in His hand, at His sovereign disposal. We must accept that as best.”
William Mason wrote, “Christian! Death cannot hurt you! Death is your best friend – who is commissioned by Christ to summon you from the world of vanity and woe, and from a body of sin and death – to the blissful regions of glory and immortality, to meet your Lord, and to be forever with Him!”
CH Spurgeon wrote, “The very happiest persons I have ever met with have been departing believers. The only people for whom I have felt any envy have been dying members of this very church, whose hands I have grasped in their passing away. Almost without exception I have seen in them holy delight and triumph. And in the exceptions to this exceeding joy I have seen deep peace, exhibited in a calm and deliberate readiness to enter into the presence of their God.”
John Owen wrote, “Some may not fear death but may dread the way they might die. Long illness, great pain, or some form of violence could be the means of bringing our earthly life to an end. We shall be wise if we are always ready for any experience which God may allow us to pass through. Is it not right that He should do what He will with His own? Is not His will infinitely holy, wise, just and good in all things? Does He not know what is best for us and what will bring most glory to Himself? Very many people have found they have been able to endure the things they have dreaded most because much more strength and peace of mind have been given them than they could ever have expected.”
CH Spurgeon, “Never fear dying, beloved. Dying is the last, but the least matter that a Christian has to be anxious about. Fear living – that is a hard battle to fight, a stern discipline to endure, a rough voyage to undergo.”
JC Ryle wrote, “Let all true Christians remember, that their best things are yet to come. Let us count it no strange thing, if we have sufferings in this present time. It is a season of probation. We are yet at school. We are learning patience, gentleness, and meekness, which we could hardly learn if we had our good things now. But there is an eternal holiday yet to begin. For this let us wait quietly. It will make amends for all. “Our light affliction which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17).”
RC Sproul wrote, “There is, however, a crucial difference between a profession of faith and the possession of faith… It is not the mere claim to faith that makes us Christians. We must have what we claim to have to be truly in Christ. Jesus somberly warned about those who say, “Lord, Lord,” who are not His (Matthew 7:21). He made it clear that people can honor Him with their lips while their hearts are far from Him.”
We are called to "...repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15 NASB).
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:18
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:36
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 10:28
and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:29
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
I conclude with Spurgeon who said, “I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour. It is only such who in the ministry shall be saved.”
Heaven is the presence of mercy and grace personified, but hell is a place of the absence of God’s mercy and grace but the presence of God’s wrath. We read in the London Confession of Faith about….
Chapter 31: Of the State of Man after Death and Of the Resurrection of the Dead
1._____ The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies;
