ONE Sunday, when staying in the town of A—, I was asked to visit a dying man, who lay in a little cottage nearby. This I gladly consented to do, and a few minutes’ walk brought myself and a companion to the sick man’s door. We do not naturally like to look upon death, or even to think of it, but in the school of Christ, who robbed it of its sting, we learn to take a deep interest in those who are going down into the valley of death. I was anxious to learn what were the feelings of this dying man, and, if possible, to cheer him with the hope of a home beyond the grave. Entering the house, we found his wife weeping by the bedside; and it needed no special knowledge to see that the life of the sick man was fast ebbing away. Taking his thin, wasted hand into mine, and bending over the bed, I asked him as simply and affectionately as I could, what were his hopes as to the world beyond. Speaking as one who had experience of His power, I told him of Jesus, the Mighty to save, and said at parting, “Shall we meet again? I am going to heaven; shall we not meet there?”
Slowly raising his eyes to mine, he replied painfully, and with a sigh, “I’ll be there—or somewhere else! very soon.”
It was a solemn answer, solemnly given and I could see that the poor sufferer, by the emphasis he laid on his last words, was uncertain as to where he was to spend the eternity into which he passed a short time afterwards.
Consider carefully the dying man’s reply, “In heaven—or somewhere else!”
Why are men so averse to using the word hell? Is it not that the very name of a place so terrible is terrible? And is it not, in the case of thousands, from a shuddering horror of what conscience whispers is the impending doom?
“It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9: 47, 48).
Solemn fact! The only way to escape it is to flee to Christ at once; take refuge in Him, the Saviour of sinners.
ML 12/31/1916