A man’s last words are perhaps his most famous,
and the wicked have had some of the lamest:
Like Bing Crosby, “That was a great game of golf.”;
Or Karl Marx, “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.”
Some I find funny, like King Louis*1,
“I have something to tell you…”;
or like H.G. Wells, ironic,
“Go away: I’m alright.”.
But the righteous have spoken again and again
confident in a God faithful to the golden chain*2:
Spurgeon expressed his entire theology
when he said, “Jesus died for me.”
D.L. Moody at his greatest,
“I am not dreaming. I have been within the gates.
This is my triumph; this is my coronation day! It is glorious!”
Owen said, “I am going to Him whom my soul loveth,
or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love,
which is the sole ground of all my consolation.”
“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!”*3 .
“I am going into eternity; and it is sweet to me to think of eternity;
the endlessness of it makes it sweet.
But oh! What shall I say of the future of the wicked!
The thought is too dreadful!”*4
John Wesley, “The best of all;
God is with us!”.
“I am feeding on a few great thoughts.”*5
“I could, if God please, lay my head back and die without terror this afternoon.”*6
“If this is dying, it is the pleasantest thing imaginable.”*7
“Glory to God in the heights of His divinity!
Glory to God in the depths of His humanity!
Glory to God in His all-sufficiency!
Into His hands I commend my spirit.”*8
Daniel Webster, “I still live.”
At his execution Sir Walter Raleigh replied,
“So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth”
and then at last, “Strike, man, strike!”
“I throw myself on the mercy of God through the merits of Christ.”*9
O sinner, prepare to meet your God!
You’ll go if you’re ready or not!
Flee for refuge in the Crucified!
Leave all the world and pleasure behind!
O saint, prepare to meet your God!
It is not based on what you’ve wrought!
Free to be slaves of the Crucified!
Leave the world then be raised to life!
“See in what peace a Christian can die.”*10
*1 King Louis XV11
*2 Romans 8:29-31
*3 Martin Luther
*4 David Brainerd
*5 J.B. Lightfoot
*6 Isaac Watts
*7 Willielma Campbell
*8 Edward Perronet
*9 William Pitt
*10 Joseph Addison
