Faith in The Face of Death
Elijah suffered in his early years from violent attacks of inflammatory rheumatism. He became seriously ill in 1848, but continued to work. He said, "I hope for, and expect to receive, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."
His last illness was protracted and severe. Nevertheless, his mental powers were preserved clear and vigorous to the last. About ten days before his death he said (once more, quoted by Bishop Simpson):
- With the stroke God gave me wonderful grace, and it has been with me ever since. Not a day, not an hour, not a moment have I had any doubt or tormenting fear of death. I have been times so that it was doubtful whether I would live five minutes, but all was bright and glorious. But to-day I have been wonderfully blessed.
- I was reflecting upon the wonder of God's mercy,--how a just and infinite and holy God could take such vile creatures to dwell with Him in so holy a place; so unworthy, so sinful, so polluted. I thought of His great mercy to me,--how much He had done for me,--and I had such glorious views of the atonement of Christ,--His sufferings and the glory that should follow,--that my soul was filled in a wonderful manner.
- I have served God more than fifty years. I have generally had peace, but I never saw such glory before, such light, and such gloriousness, such beauty! Oh, I want to tell it to all the world! Oh, had I a trumpet voice,
After a protracted illness, he died 9 April 1852 in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was buried in a rural cemetery on the east side of the Hudson, below Poughkeepsie.
In 1862, a decade after his death, a Methodist Campmeeting ground in Epping, NH was named in his honor. http://heddingcampground.com/
Read more about this topic: Elijah Hedding
Famous quotes containing the words faith in the, faith in, faith, face and/or death:
“He rejected, if he did not despise, democratic principles; advocated a government as strong, almost, as a monarchy.... He believed in authority, and he had no faith in the aggregate wisdom of masses of men.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 3:7-9.
“It is time to provide a smashing answer for those cynical men who say that a democracy cannot be honest, cannot be efficient.... We have in the darkest moments of our national trials retained our faith in our own ability to master our own destiny.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“A society which allows an abominable event to burgeon from its dungheap and grow on its surface is like a man who lets a fly crawl unheeded across his face or saliva dribble unstemmed from his mouth—either epileptic or dead.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“The dignity to be sought in death is the appreciation by others of what one has been in life,... that proceeds from a life well lived and from the acceptance of one’s own death as a necessary process of nature.... It is also the recognition that the real event taking place at the end of our life is our death, not the attempts to prevent it.”
—Sherwin B. Nuland (b. 1930)