Famous Last Words

 
I don’t want to die!

            Reported as Hugo Chaves’ last words.  

While not definitive as to one’s life, last words give us an insight to a person’s state of mind at their end. If it says anything as to their whole life, I will leave that for others to decide. However, last words do seem to indicate a person’s readiness to finish out their earthly life and to take the leap of faith into the infinite. Is it fear, or a sense of unfinished business here? I cannot say.

Other famous last words include:

See in what peace a Christian can die.

 Joseph Addison, publisher of The Spectator.

Oh God, here I go.  .  .

Max Baer, American boxer.  

Now comes the mystery.

Henry Ward Beecher, Pastor, Social Reformer, Abolitionist.

I am about to – or I am going to – die; either expression is permissible.

Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian.

Let us pass over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, He had inadvertently been shot by his own men.

Oh, wifie, I shall have such a blessed time with my Lord!

Charles Spurgeon, Baptist preacher

My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.

John Newton, converted slave trader, composer of Amazing Grace

It seems that those who know their Savior best are least tied to this earth at the end. They can rejoice in all that God has given them in this life. They may feel some sadness at events for which they will not be physically present. However, they seem to be able to rejoice in the midst of this sadness, to rejoice as the last page of their earthly life’s story is read, and to look expectantly toward the new thing they will experience and become.
 

Pastor Craig