C.H. Spurgeon Quotes

Some persons on their dying beds just wake up in time to see their danger, but not to escape from it: they are carried right over the cataract of judgment and wrath. 996.348 Now, how do you find Christians of that kind when you have attended their dying beds, if you have had the privilege of doing so? Did you ever find a Christian stayed up with pillows in his bed boasting of what he had done? When Augustus, the Roman Emperor, was dying, he asked those who were around him whether he had acted well his part; and they said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Clap me as I go off the stage.” 1193.526 It is hard, very hard, to maintain a lie in the presence of the last solemnities; the end of life is usually the close of self-deception. There is a mimic faith, a false assurance, which lasts under all ordinary heats of trial, but this evaporates when the fires of death surround it. 1401.121 I have known some few hardened wretches, who passed out of the world, as they had lived, in open rebellion against God, and who to the last, therefore, despised religion; but, generally, I have found that the scoffer changes his tone when death approaches. “Send for someone to visit me,” is his cry then. “For whom shall we send? Shall it be John, the swearer?” “Oh no! send for John, the praying man; I should like him to pray over me. Or send for the minister.” “But why don’t you ask for your old companions? You used to say that they were the jolliest fellows, they were the merriest men you ever met. You know there is no such place as heaven or hell, for you often said so when in their company. Many a glass have you quaffed with them; why not have another before you die?” Ah! such companions as these will not do for him now; and that fact proves the honour which such a man, at last, puts upon the Christian. 2651.581 Perhaps you do not even believe in any hereafter; if so, just listen to this little narrative. Some time ago, there lived in a certain market town a watchmaker, an honest, sober, and industrious man, but he was an infidel. He did not believe in the Bible, he said that it was a book that was only fit for old women. As for what some said concerning the terrors of hell, they never alarmed him; and as for what they said concerning the glories of heaven, he reckoned they were only fancies or dreams. Suddenly, in the midst of life, he was stricken down, and it was soon manifest that he was dying, and dying rapidly. On the day of his death, early in the morning, he began to say, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where;” and then, as rapidly as he could speak, he continued, for the space of twelve or thirteen hours, to say the same words over and over and over again, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where; I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where.” As his strength failed him, his voice became more weak and tremulous, but still his utterance was just the same, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where;” and, at last, he died with those words upon his lips, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where.” 3216.464 I remember once being at the bedside of a man who alternately cursed and asked me to pray. I could not pray as I would desire. I did what I could, and then he would tell me it was no good; his sins would never be forgiven him; and then he would turn again to blasphemy. It was a dread sight. I never saw—and I have seen many ungodly people die—I never saw one die of whom I could say, “Let me die the death of this sinner, and let my last end be like his”; nor do I think such sights are ever or anywhere to be seen. 3512.233 The Puritans tell a story of a woman convinced of sin on her death-bed, who lived near Cambridge, who was visited by several ministers, all of whom had great skill in comforting seeking souls. When five or six of them had spoken gently and comfortingly to her, she opened her eyes upon them with a glare, and all she said was this, “Call back the time, call back the time, for otherwise I am damned.” And so she died. 3557.149