26. Prepare to Die

Prepare to Die

REMINDERS OF DEATH.—The ancient Egyptians, it is said, had a skeleton present at their feasts, in reverence for the angel of death. Prester John kept a death’s-head upon his table; and the King of Macedonia had a boy to call to him daily, Philip, thou art mortal.

TOO BUSY TO DIE.—A wealthy English manufacturer, after a busy day, once said to his confidential clerk, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die; not that I have any thought of dying for some years to come. For my part, I am so engaged in business that I could not find time to die.” Uttering these words, he passed into another room, and fell down a corpse.

LEFT IT ALL.—At a business meeting of wealthy railroad officials in New York, the announcement was made that one of their associates had suddenly died. “How much did he leave?” was asked. “He left it all,” was answered.

BORGIA’S DYING LAMENT.—In his closing moments, the great Borgia cried: “I have provided for everything except death; and now, alas! I am to die unprepared.”

STOP THAT CLOCK.—A dying man, whose eye rested intently upon a clock which hung opposite his bed cried out: “Stop that clock!” He knew he was dying, and he was not ready. He had the impression that he was to die at midnight. He heard the constant ticking of the clock. He saw the hands approaching the dreaded hour, and he had no hope.

PLACE IS SO DARK.—A lady in a meeting had been convicted of her sins, yet with tearful eyes refused to yield. Soon after she was taken ill, and in her last moments, cried: “The place where I am going is so dark.”

DEATH AT THE THEATER.—At Sadler’s Wells, in 1807, when twenty-three people were trodden to death, owing to a false alarm of fire, Grimaldi met with a singular adventure. Running back to the theater, he found the crowd of people collected round it so dense as to render approach by the usual path impossible. Finding the parlor window open and a light at the other end of the room, he threw up the sash and jumped in. What was his horror, on looking round, to discover that there lay stretched in the apartment no fewer than nine dead bodies! These were the remains of nine human beings, lifeless and scarcely yet cold, whom a few hours back he had been himself exciting to shouts of laughter.

DEATH’S MARK.—George Moir, an eminently godly man, after having been worn out by a long and painful illness, was told by his wife that the change of his countenance indicated the speedy approach of death. “Does it?” he replied. “Bring me a glass.” On looking at himself in the mirror, he was struck with the resemblance to a corpse which he saw in his countenance. Giving the glass back he said, with calm satisfaction, “Death has set his mark upon my body, Christ has set His mark upon my soul.”

ALEXANDER’S THEOLOGY.—When dying, Alexander said: “My theology is reduced to this: ‘Christ came into the world to save sinners.’“

PAYSON’S LAST APPEAL.—Dr. Payson directed a label to be placed on his breast when he should be dead, by which he might speak to those who might come to look upon his corpse: “Remember the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you.”