[Granville-Hough] 25 Jan 2010 - Passing Away

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:05:19 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Passing Away - 25 Jan 2010


Passing Away.

You cannot find in the New Testament any of those fateful 
representations of dying which men have invented, by which death is 
portrayed as a ghastly skeleton, with a scythe, or something equally 
revolting. The figures by which death is represented in the New 
Testament are very different. There are two of them which I think to be 
exquisitely beautiful. One is that of falling asleep in Jesus. When a 
little child has played all day long, and becomes tired out, and the 
twilight has sent it in weariness to its motherÆs knee, where it thinks 
it has come for more excitement, then, almost in the midst of it 
frolicking, and not knowing what inflluence is creeping over it, it 
falls back in the motherÆs arms, and nestles close to the sweetest and 
softest couch that ever cheek pressed, and with lengthening breath, 
sleeps; and she smiles and is glad, and sits humming unheard joy over 
its head. So we fall asleep in Jesus. We have played long enough at the 
games of life, and at last we feel the approach of death. We are tired 
out, and we lay our head back on the bosom of Christ and quietly fall 
asleep. (H. W. Beecher.)
--------------------------------------------------
As we think about passing away, there may be some useful Polonius Type 
advice: "What to remember û what to forget- that is the question. It 
seems to me that the good things, the heavenly guidance, the help that 
others have given us to keep the right path, are the things to remember. 
The mistakes, the false leads, the devilish influences, are the things 
to forget." Grandpa Hough