A gentleman went into a solicitor’s office in the City to transact some business. He was asked to take away with him some deeds in respect of which a payment had to be made.
“No,” he said, “I won’t take them until I have paid the money. I don’t know what might happen. I might be with the Lord tonight.”
“O!” said the man to whom he spoke, “you need not look on the gloomy side of things.”
“The gloomy side!” he exclaimed, “I am looking at the bright side. If I were to be run over and killed tonight I should go immediately to be with the Lord.”
And so he would have done, for he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of God says of such that to depart and be with Christ “is far better.”
But do not forget that Christians should not be looking for death, but for the return of the Lord Jesus. Should we be called upon to die, Scripture says,
“We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1.
But those who believe in Jesus may not die at all; for the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian saints,
“We which are alive and remain (unto the coming of the Lord) shall be caught up together with them (the raised ones) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17.