I was called to see a young lady die who was all ready to go, and what a privilege it was to witness such a scene! She had disposed of the various articles that she called her own, and with a clear, bright evidence that she was Christ's child, she awaited the time of her departure.
As I entered the room, she looked up, her face radiant with the love of God, and said: "If any one had told me a month ago I would be as happy as this in death, I could not have believed it. I would not change places with a king."
As the supreme moment arrived (her father, a physician, bending over her), she asked: "How long before I can go?"
"About three minutes, my daughter, and you will be gone," was the answer.
She extended her limbs, placed her hands across her breast, as she wished them to remain when cold and stiff; a heavenly smile covered her face, as if, like Stephen, she saw heaven open, and the bright ones waiting to welcome her. In this way she passed away.
We all could say, as never before: "Ah, lovely appearance of death, No sight upon earth is so fair."
About this time another young lady sent for a minister with whom I was
holding meetings. He went in great haste to her home. As he went into her room, he found the young lady's mother wringing her hands in great distress.
She cried out: "Do, Mr. Purintan, pray for Jerusha; she is dying."
He kneeled near her bed, and tried and tried again to utter words in prayer, and could not. After struggling for awhile with this strange feeling, he rose from his knees. God has said, "There is a sin unto death; I do not say you shall pray for it." He could not pray for her.
Said the young lady: "Mr. Purintan, I knew you could not pray for me. It is too late. I did not send for you to pray for me, but that I might send a message of solemn warning to certain friends," whom she named.
After delivering this terrible message, she turned her face toward the wall, and continued to repeat the words, "Too late! Too late!" until she was dead.
I mention these two cases to ask you, dear friends, for a candid answer to the question: "Which of these two deaths would you prefer to die?"
"Can you not honestly say, with one of old, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his?'"
If so, why not begin today, if you have not already, to live the life of a true Christian? If you live as a faithful Christian, you surely will die the death of the righteous.
A. B. Earle, From: Incidents Used … In His Meetings, published in 1888.
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