(*ADAPTED FROM: Life’s Choices by John Lawrence, Pages 54-59)
Non-Believers:
Talleyrand Perigord (1754–1838), achieved distinction as a French statesman and diplomat): “I am suffering the pangs of the damned!”
Victor de Riqueti, Marquis de Mirabeau (October 5, 1715, Pertuis – July 13, 1789, Argenteuil; was a French economist of the Physiocratic school): “Give me laudanum that I may not think of eternity.”
Francis Newport (1st Earl of Bradford, February 23, 1620 – September 19, 1708): “Oh, that I was to lie a thousand years upon the fire that never is quenched, to purchase the favor of God, and be united to Him again! But it is a fruitless wish. Millions of millions of years would bring me no nearer to the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity! forever and forever! Oh the insufferable pangs of hell!”
Thomas Hobbs (1588–1679, English philosopher): “If I had the whole world, I would give it to live one day. I shall be glad to find a hole to creep out of the world at. About to take a leap into the dark!”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809, English American political writer. His pamphlet Common Sense [1776] called for American independence, and The Rights of Man [1791] defended the French Revolution. His radical views prompted the British government to indict him for treason, and he fled to France. He also wrote The Age of Reason [1794]): “I would give words if I had them, that The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? But there is no God! But if there should be, what will become of me hereafter? Stay with me, for God’s sake! Send even a child to stay with me, for it is hell to be alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.”
Francois Voltaire (French writer, philosopher, historian; November 21, 1694-May 30, 1778): He was one of the most fertile and talented writers and strove to retard and demolish Christianity. His cry in health concerning Christ was, ‘Curse the wretch!’ He once said, ‘In twenty years, Christianity will be no more. My single handshake destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.’ Some years after his death, his very printing press was employed in the printing of New Testaments.
The Christian physician who attended Voltaire during his last illness, has left a testimony concerning the departure of this poor lost soul. He wrote to a friend as follows: “When I compare the death of a righteous man, which is like the close of a beautiful day, with that of Voltaire, I see the difference between bright, serene weather and a black thunderstorm. It was my lot that this man should die under my hands. Often did I tell him the truth.
‘Yes, my friend,’ he would often say to me, ‘you are the only one who has given me good advice. Had I but followed it I would not be in this horrible condition in which I now am. I have swallowed nothing but smoke. I have intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. You can do nothing for me. Send me a mad doctor! Have compassion on me—I am mad!”
The physician goes on to say: I cannot think of it without shuddering. As soon as he saw that all the means he had employed to increase his strength had just the opposite effect, death was constantly before his eyes. From this moment, madness took possession of his soul. He expired under the torments of the furies.”
At another time his doctor quoted Voltaire as saying: “I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I’m worth if you will give me six months’ life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. O Christ! O Jesus Christ!”
Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574, was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the House of Valois): This cruel monarch urged by his inhumane mother, gave the order for the massacre of the Huguenots in which 15,000 souls were slaughtered in Paris alone, and 100,000 in other sections of France, for no other reason than that they owned Christ as their master. He died bathed in his own blood bursting from his own veins. To his physicians he said in his last hours: “Asleep or wake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. They drip with blood. They point at their open wounds. Oh! that I had spared at least the little infants at the breast! What blood! I know not where I am. How will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever! I know it. Oh, I have done wrong. God pardon me!”
David Friedrich Strauss (January 27,1808 – February 8, 1874)was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the “historical Jesus”, whose divine nature he denied. His work was connected to the Tübingen School, which revolutionized study of the New Testament, early Christianity, and ancient religions. Strauss was a pioneer in the historical investigation of Jesus. After spending years trying to dispense with his belief in God wrote: “My philosophy leaves me utterly forlorn!I feel like one caught in the merciless jaws of an automatic machine, not knowing at what time one of its great hammers may crush me!”
Sir Thomas Scott: “Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”
M.F. Rich (an atheist): “I would rather lie on a stove and broil for a million years than go into eternity with eternal horrors that hand over my soul!I have given my immortality for gold; and its weight sinks me into an endless, hopeless helpless hell.”
Believers:
Notice the huge contrast between non-believers and believers. Here are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who have accepted the grace of God for salvation.
Jordan Antie: “The chariot has come, and I am ready to step in.”
Margaret Prior (1773 – April 7, 1842) was an American humanitarian, urban missionary, moral reform worker, and writer who established a school and a soup kitchen in New York City): “Eternity rolls up before me like a sea of glory.”
Martha McCracken: “How bright the room! How full of angels!”
Dr. Culen: “I wish I had the power of writing: I would describe how pleasant it is to die.”
B.S. Bangs: “The sun is setting: mine is rising. I go from this bed to a crown. Farewell.”
John Arthur Lyth: “Can this be death? Why, it is better than living! Tell themI die happy in Jesus.”
Trotter: “I am in perfect peace, resting alone on the blood of Christ. I find this amply sufficient with which to enter the presence of God.”
Mary Frances: “Oh, that I can tell you what joy I possess! I am full of rapture. The Lord doth shine with such power on my soul. He is come! He is come!
Philip Heck: “How beautiful! The opening heavens around me shine!”
Sir David Brewster (December 11, 1781- February 10, 1868, was a Scottish scientist, inventor of the kaleidoscope, author, and academic administrator): “I will see Jesus: I shall see Him as He is. I have had the light for many years. Oh how bright it is! I feel so safe and satisfied!”
Charles Wesley (December 18, 1707 – March 29, 1788, was an English leader of the Methodist Movement and the prolific writer of over 6500 hymns including “And Can It Be” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”): “I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness. Satisfied!”
John Wesley (June 28, 1703 – March 2, 1791, was an English evangelist and pastor who was mightily used to bring about revival in Europe and America and found the Methodist movement): “The best of all, is God is with me.”
Abbott: “Glory to God! I see heaven sweetly opened before me.”
Augustus Montague Toplady (November 4, 1740 – August 11, 1778, was an English Anglican pastor and hymn writer. He is best known for his hymn “Rock of Ages): “The consolations of God to such an unworthy wretch are so abundant that He leaves me nothing to pray for but a continuance of them. I enjoy heaven already in my soul.”
John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848, served as the sixth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825): When he was eighty years of age a friend said to him: ‘Wel, how is John Quincy Adams?’ ‘Thank you,’ he said, ‘John Quincy Adams is quite well. But the house where he lives is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it, and it is becoming quite uninhabitable. I shall have to move out soon. But John Quincy Adams is quite well, thank you.’ At death he said, ‘This is the last of earth. I am content.”
Elizabeth B Browning (March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861, was an English poet): She sated about her writing: “We want the touch of Christ’s hand upon our literature.” At death’s door, she said: “It is beautiful.”
John Bunyan (November 30, 1628 – August 31, 1688, was an English Pastor and the author who is most remembered for his outstanding allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress): “Weep not for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will, through the mediation of His blessed Son, receive me, though a sinner, where I hope we shall meet to sing a new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world without end.”
John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564, was a French Theologian and Pastor famous for his reforming work in Geneva and his outstanding classic Theological work Institutes of the Christian Religion and commentaries on almost every book of the Bible): “Thou, Lord, bruising me, but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy hand.”
Adoniram Judson (August 9, 1788 – April 12, 1850, was the first American Missionary to go overseas [Burma – He translated the Bible into Burmese]): “I go with the gladness of a boy bounding from school. I feel so strong in Christ.”
A.J. Gordon (1836-1895 was an American Baptist preacher who was named after Adoniram Judson [above]): “Victory, Victory!” and then he breathed his last and went home to Heaven.
Dr. William Anderson: of Dallas, Texas. He seemed better though still very ill. His mother was sitting in the room with him. He gently called her, “Come over here a minute.” As she approached his bed, he said, “I want to tell you something. I am going to beat you to heaven.” And with a smile he shut his eyes and was gone.
Dr. Sewall (An Old Methodist Doctor): When dying shouted the praises of God. His friends said, “Dr. Sewall, do not exert yourself, whisper, doctor, whisper.” “Let the angels whisper,” he said, “but the soul cleansed from death and hell, just on the threshold of eternal glory—oh, if I had a voice that would reach from pole to pole, I would proclaim it to all the world: Victory! Victory! through the blood of the Lamb!”
Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661, was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian and one of the Scottish commissioners to the the Westminster Assembly): When he was dying said: “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.”