I have but a moment to speak to you, my dear. Be a good man; be virtuous; be religious. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to be here.”
Robert Burns the Scottish poet (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796)
“The best of all: God is with us!”
John Wesley (1703-1791) English evangelical clergyman, preacher and was the founder of Methodism.
John Bacon, eminent English sculptor, whose monument of Lord Chatham stands in Westminster Abbey:
“What I was as an artist seemed to be of some importance while I lived; but what I really was as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing of importance to me now.”
John Bacon (1740–1799) Sculptor.
Francis Ridley Havergal, songwriter. After requesting a friend to read to her Isaiah 42, she uttered these nine words after verse 6-and died:
(“I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee.”): called-held-kept! I can go home on that!”
Frances Ridley Havergal (December 14, 1836 – June 3, 1879) was an English religious poet and hymn writer.
Captain Hedley Vicars, “The Lord has kept me in perfect peace and made me glad with the light of His countenance. In the Lord Jesus I find all I want of happiness and enjoyment.”
Hedley Shafto Johnstone Vicars (1826–1855) was a British Army officer and evangelical who was killed in action during the Crimean War.
Sir Henry Havelock, when felled by an attack of malignant cholera and told that he could not survive, calmly replied: “I have prepared for this for forty years,” and then he added to those around him:
“Prepare to meet thy God!”
Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, KCB (Apr 5, 1795 – Nov 29, 1857) was a British general who is particularly associated with India. He was noted for his recapture of Cawnpore from rebels during Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The Apostle Paul (A.D. 66) -(2 Timothy 4:7-8).
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.”
Paul of Tarsus, also called the Apostle Paul. Paul’s death is commonly dated to c 60-62 or c 62-65, or c 65-67.
“For the Christian, the grave itself is but a covered bridge leading from light to light, through a brief darkness.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American educator and poet.
Polycarp, disciple of the Apostle John, at his own martyrdom:
“Leave me as I am, the one who gives me strength to endure the fire will also give me strength to stay quite still on the pyre., even without the precaution of your nails…. For eighty and six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong, and how can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
Polycarp (ca. 69 – ca. 155) Second century bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, he died a martyr when he was stabbed.
“Children, when I am gone, sing a song of praise to God.”
Susanna Wesley (1669-1742), Mother of John and Charles Wesley.
“Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of Thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, seal the truth, and come home to die.”
George Whitefield, English evangelist (December 16, 1714 – September 30, 1770), was an Anglican itinerant minister who helped spread the Great Awakening in Great Britain and, especially, in the British North American colonies. His ministry had tremendous impact on American ideology.
Philip Melanchthon, after several passages of Scripture were read to him by his son-in-law, he was asked if he would have anything else:
“Nothing else but heaven!”
Philipp Melanchthon (born Philipp Schwartzerd) (February 16, 1497 – April 19, 1560) was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, theologian of the Protestant and Lutheran Reformation.
“I am in the happiest pass to which man ever came. Christ is mine, and I am His; and there is nothing now between me and resurrection, except—Paradise.”
Samuel Rutherford (1600? – 1661) was a Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author.
“Oh, the happy day will soon come when we shall meet all our friends who are now scattered–meet to part no more in our heavenly Father’s house.”
Ann Hasseltine Judson (1789-1826) American missionary to Burma and wife of Rev. Adoniram Judson.
John Huss, Bohemian Czech reformer and martyr, asked at the last moment by the Duke of Bavaria to recant:
“What I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood.”
Johannes (John) Huss of Bohemia, Czech reformist burned by the Roman Catholic Church. Died July 6, 1415 in Constance.
“One needs a great many Scriptures to live by, but the only Scripture that a person needs to die by is 1 John 1:7, and that verse never was sweeter to me than at this moment.” (“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”)
Theodosia Anne Howard (1800-1836) was the daughter of Col. and Mrs. Hugh Howard of County Wicklow ,Ireland. She was converted to God in 1819. A staunch evangelical clergyman, Robert Daly, the rector of Powerscourt, led her to Christ. Daly wrote, “I can testify that a great change took place in her views, in her tastes, in her life, in her conversation.”
John Knox – Bloody Queen Mary once said, she feared the prayers of John Knox more than all of the armies of Scotland.
“Live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.”
John Knox (c. 1510- 1572) Scottish clergyman and leader of the Protestant Reformation who is considered the founder of the Presbyterian.
“Our God is the God from whom cometh salvation. God is the Lord by whom we escape death! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit; God of truth, Thou hast redeemed me!”
Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) Priest and theology professor initiated the Protestant Reformation.
Daniel Webster the well-known orator and legislator, had William Cowper’s hymn read to him:
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
“Drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”
Then he read the last stanza:
“Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
“I’ll sing Thy power to save.
“When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
“Lies silent in the grave.”
At this, Webster, one of the most powerful speakers in American history, replied, “Amen! Amen! Amen!”
Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) American statesman was an attorney, and served as legal counsel in several cases that established important constitutional - precedents that bolstered the authority of the Federal government.
John Owen, the Puritan, lay on his deathbed, and his secretary was writing a letter, in his name, to a friend:
“I am still in the land of the living,” he wrote and read what he had written to Owen.
“No, please do not write that, ”Owen said “I am yet in the land of the dying, but later I will be in the land of the living!”
John Owen (1616 -August 24, 1683) was an English Nonconformist church leader and theologian.
On November 20, 1847, in Nice, France, Henry Frances Lyte, a retired pastor of the Church of England died. He had spent his life working in the slums of London helping people. After his death, his family found a paper he had written during those last days. It is now a hymn sung around the world:
“Abide with me: fast falls the eventide.
“The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
“When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
“Help of the helpless, 0 abide with me.”
Henry Francis Lyte (June 1, 1793 – November 20, 1847) was an Anglican divine and hymn-writer.
John Newton, originally a slaver trader, he had a dramatic mid-ocean change of heart that led him to turn his slave ship around and take the people back to their homeland. He became a Presbyterian minister and preached against the slave-trade. He is most famous for having authored the words to the hymn “Amazing Grace”. As he neared his end, exclaimed,
“I am still in the land of the dying; I shall be in the land of the living soon.”
John Henry Newton (July 24, 1725 – December 21, 1807) was an English Anglican clergyman and former slave-ship captain. He was the author of many hymns.
“Thou, Lord, bruisest me, but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy hand.”
John Calvin (1509-1564) the French Protestant Reformer at Geneva.
Dying words of Salmasius
Claudius Salmasius (1588-1653), one of the most consummate scholars of his time, saw cause to exclaim bitterly against himself. "Oh!” said he, “I have lost a world of time –time, the most precious thing in the world! Had I but one year more, it should be spent in perusing David’s Psalms and Paul’s Epistles. Oh! sirs,” said he, addressing those abut him, “Mind the world less and God more.”
- Moral and Religious Anecdotes, Rev. George Cheever, 1870
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