Chapter 10
Individual Ideas Related to Death and Life Eternal
The first group of quotations are the words of individuals who are facing immediate execution by the Hitler regime in Germany during World War II. The death penalty was carried out against these individuals because they were opposed to the brutal policies of the Nazis.
The following ten quotations are only a few of the many quotations to be found in the book, Dying We Live, edited by Helmut Gollitzer, K. Kuhn, and R. Schneider, published by Pantheon Press in 1956
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, age 39. "Lord, I wait for Thy salvation and for Thy kingdom."
Nikolas Gross, age 47. "In the love of Christ is our salvation ..."
Christoph Probst, age 24. "Never forget that life is nothing but a growing in love and a preparation for eternity."
Mrs. Harro Schuulze-Boysen, age 29. "Tell everyone ... I live on."
Alexander Schmorell, age 26. "In a few hours I shall be in a better world."
Count Von Wartenenburg, age 40. "I confidently hope to find in God a merciful judge."
Ewalk Von Kleist, age 56. "I see more and more clearly what happiness on earth consists of. It consists of God and man, of unselfishness, kindness, and friendliness."
Hurmen Van Der Liek, age unknown. "Now I await nothing more than God's mercy."
Herbert Simolect, age 36. "Farewell until we meet again in the presence of our heavenly Father."
Count von Schwanenfeld, age 41. He asked for an inscription over his grave in Sartowitz cemetery to read as follows: "Here lie 1500 Christians and Jews. May God have mercy on their souls and on their murderers."
Throughout history we find many examples of individuals expressing their belief in eternal life:
In the brief time that the executioner's ax was being raised and then swung downward to cut off her head, Anne Boleyn was saying:
"O God, have pity on my soul.
O God, have pity on my soul.
O God, have pity ..."
Henry George: "What then is the meaning of life? To me it seems intelligible only as the avenue to another life."
Rene Descartes: "I cannot conceive for those who die anything else but that they go to a life more peaceful and sweet than ours, and that we are going to rejoin them someday."
Fyodor Dostoevsky: "My life is drawing to a close... The anticipation of future life sets my soul trembling with rapture and my mind glowing, and my heart weeping with joy."
Egyptian king about 2,000 B.C.: "A man remains after death, and his deeds are placed beside him in heaps."
Thomas Hobbes: "God that could give life to a piece of clay, hath the same power to give life again to a dead man."
Toyohiko Kagawa: "Death is the pathway to God."
Immanuel Kant: "I inevitably believe in the existence of God and in a future life, and I am certain that nothing can shake that belief."
The Koran: "When a man dies, they who survive him ask what property he has left behind. The angel who bends over the dying man asks what good deeds he has sent before him."
Corliss Lamont: "By immortality is meant personal immortality, that is the literal survival of the individual personality after death ... That is the meaning that has so moved mankind in ancient as well as modern times."
Gabriel Marcel: "I am of the world and, at the same time, transcend the world. Death is not annihilation."
Plato: "Of all things which a man has, next to God, his soul is the most divine and most truly his own."
Jean Jacques Rousseau: "All the subtleties of metaphysics will not make me doubt for a minute the immortality of the soul ... I know it, I believe it, I hope it, and I will uphold it to my last breath."
Katherine Mansfield: "I believe in immortality."
Henri Bergson: "The more we become accustomed to the idea of a consciousness which overflows the organism, the more natural and probable we find the hypothesis that the soul survives the body."
Blaise Pascal: "It is impossible that the portion of us that thinks can be other than spiritual."
Seneca: "Look forward without fear so that appointed hour -- the last hour of the body, but not of the soul ... That day which you fear being the end of all things in the birthday of your eternity."
Rabbi Bunam: "Failure to repent is much worse than sin. A man may have sinned but a moment, but he may fail to repent for moments without number."
Henri-Frederic Amiel: "Death would be like the traveler's arrival at the summit of a great mountain ... suddenly, a glorious panorama of immense perspectives unrolls before our dazzled eyes."
Philippe Aries: "Earthly life is a preparation for eternal life, just as the nine months of gestation are a preparation for this life."
Rudolph Berlinger. "Through death we withdraw from all that is temporal and rejoin all that is eternal."
Louis Evely: "Our age is the first time in history to live without two fundamental values of preceding centuries: God and future life."
James S. Stewart: "God judges a person not by the point he has reached but by the way he is facing; not by distance, but by direction."
Oscar Collman: "We live in an interim period between Jesus' Resurrection which has already taken place, and our own resurrection which will not take place until the End."
John Newton: "If ever I reach heaven I expect to find three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and third, the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there."
Ronald Knox: "Everything we have loved or enjoyed here is only the imperfect foreshadowing of that which will one day be revealed."
Edmund Spenser: "Death is the end of woes."
William Shakespeare: "Hereafter is a better world than this."
Thomas Brown: "Sleep is so like death, I dare not trust it without my prayers."
Francis Bacon. "Old men go to death, and death comes to young men."
Thomas Traherne: "Souls are God's jewels."
Jose Abin: "The day of death is when two worlds meet."
Arthur Warwick: "Each night is but the past day's funeral, and the morning his resurrection: why then should our funeral sleep be otherwise than our sleep at night?"
Samuel Johnson: "It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives."
Adrien Emanuel Roquette: "Death would be terrifying if there were not alongside it, resplendent immortality."
Charles Fox: "I die happy."
George MacDonald: "I came from God, and I'm going back to God."
Edwin Arnold: "The end of birth is death; the end of death is birth."
King Louis IX: "Take care not consciously to do or say anything which, if all the world were to know it, you could not acknowledge and say,'Yes, that was what I did or that was what I said.'"
Jean Helle: "After individuals die, their whole life is spread out before their profound spiritual gaze like a marvelous film .. in a flash they see all, the important moments of their lives -- the landmarks."
Chapter 11
Poets Speak of Death and Life After Death
"Dust thou art, to dust returneth
Was not spoken of the soul."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
"Tis true, 'tis certain; man though dead retains
Part of himself; the immortal soul remains."
"My God, my Father, and my Friend
Do not forsake me in my end."
"Immortal Hope dispels the gloom!
An angel sits beside the tomb."
"Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,
And press with vigor on;
A heavenly race demands the zeal,
And an immortal crown."
"For when the morn came dim and sad --
And chill with early showers,
Her quiet eyelids closed -- she had
Another morn than ours."
"There is no Death! What seems so is transition
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian
Whose portal we call Death."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Prayer is not artful monologue
Of voice uplifted from the sod;
It is Love's tender dialogue
Between the soul and God."
"Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come.
'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home."
"Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me."
"My soul, sit thou a patient looker on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot has many clearer changes every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play."
"But from this earth, this grave, this dust
My God shall raise me up, I trust."
"Death lays his icy hand on kings,
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down."
"This life is but the passage of a day,
This life is but a pang and all is over;
But in the life to come which fades not away
Ever love shall abide and every lover."
"If none can 'scape death's dreadful dart,
If rich and poor his beck obey,
If strong, if wise, if all do smart,
Then I to 'scape shall have no way.
Oh! grant me grace, O God, that I
My life may mend, since I must die."
"What have I sought that I should have shun?
What duty have I left undone,
Or into what new follies run?
These self-inquiries are the road
That leads to virtue and to God."
"I never spoke to God
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given."
"One short sleep passed, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more.
Death thou shalt die."
"He prayeth best, who loveth best,
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
"May you go safe, my friend, across the dizzy way
No wider than a hair, by which your people go
From earth to paradise; may you go safe today
With stars and space above, and time and stars below."
"And he who flagg'd not in the earthly strife,
From strength to strength advancing -- only he,
His soul well knit, and all his battles won,
Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life."
"I cast one look at the fields
Then set my face to the town;
He said 'My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for a crown?
Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He,
And I walk in a light divine
The path I had feared to see."
"O World invisible, we view thee,
O World intangible, we touch thee,
O World unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!"
"Weep awhile, if ye are fain --
Sunshine still must follow rain;
Only not at death -- for death,
We know, is the first breath
Which our souls draw when we enter
Life, which is of all life center."
"You bone, oh Virgin and Princess,
Jesus, whose Kingdom never ends --
Our Lord took on our littleness,
And walked the world to save his friends --
He gave his lovely youth to death,
That is why I say to my last breath
In this faith let me live and die."
"What is left for us, save, in growth
Of soul, to rise up, far past both.
From the gift looking to the giver,
And from the cistern to the river
And from the finite to infinity,
And from man's dust to God's divinity."
Last Voyage
I thought to visit him an hour
And talk of voyages we’d made
To Bouganville, Tonga, Adelaide,
Osaka, Ceram, and Oro Bay,
Tornate, Sydney, Mandelay.
But then the pallor in his face
Made clear to me
That he was standing out
Into a deeper, vaster sea
Than ever we had sailed before.
Farther than Guam or Singapore
Farther than Kiska, farther far
Than Teamor, Malabar.
I saw that now the time had come
For final words.
Softly, I gave them for him
Whispered low:
“Nothing to starboard, nothing to port
Steady, my Captain, as you go.”
"O never star
Was lost; here
We all aspire to heaven and there is heaven
Above us.
If I stoop
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud,
It is but for a time; I press God's lamp
Close to my breast; its splendor soon or late
Will pierce the gloom.
I shall emerge some day."
"Through all eternity to Thee
A joyful Song I'll raise,
For oh! Eternity's too short
To utter all thy Praise."
"The Lord my Pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a Shepherd's Care;
His Presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye."
"Four angels to my bed,
Four angels round my head,
One to watch, and one to pray,
And two to bear my soul away."
"Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us
O'er the world's tempestuous sea;
Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us,
For we have no help but Thee."
"The will is free;
Strong is the soul, and wise, and beautiful;
The seeds of godlike power are in us still;
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes,
if we will!"
"A few more years shall roll,
A few more seasons come,
And we shall be with those that rest,
Asleep within the tomb."
"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face."
"Since ev'ry man who lives is born to die,
And none can boast sincere felicity,
With equal mind, what happens, let us bear,
Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend;
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end."
"And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even,
That checks each fault, that calms each fear,
And speaks of heaven."
"Whether we be young or old,
our destiny, our being's heart and home,
Is with infinitude, and only there;
With hope it is, hope that can never die,
Effort and expectation, and desire,
And something evermore about to be."
"Servant of God, well done, well hast thou fought
The better fight, who singly hast maintained
Against revolted multitudes the cause
Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms."
"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become,
As they draw near to their eternal home."
"No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailities from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose),
The bosom of his Father and his God."
"Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed."
"Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me."
"She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!"
"No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glory shine,
And faith shine equal, arming me from fear."
"How many are you, then," said I,
"If there are two in heaven?"
Quick was the little maid's reply:
"O Master! we are seven."
"But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!" --
'Twas throwing words away, for still
The little maid would have her will,
And said,"Nay, we are seven."
"And ever near us, though unseen,
The dear immortal spirits tread;
For all the boundless universe
In life -- there is no dead."
"Still memory to a gray-haired man
That sweet child-face is showing.
Dear girl! the grasses on her grave
Have forty years been growing."
"Good and great God, can I not think of thee ...
"As thou are all, so be thou all to me
First, midst, and last, converted one, and three;
My faith, my hope, my love: and in this state,
My judge, my witness, and my advocate.
Where have I been this while exiled from thee?"
"They are not dead; life's flag is never furled;
They passed from world to world."
"Haste, therefore each degree,
To welcome destiny.
Heaven is our heritage,
Earth but a player's stage;
Mount we into the sky
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!"
"When summoned hence to thine eternal sleep,
Oh, mayst thou smile while all around thee weep."
"Preserve our souls, O Lord, this day from ill;
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy still:
As we have hoped, do thou reward, our pain;
We've hoped in thee -- let not our hope be vain."
"Dear Lord, receive my son, whose winning love
To me was like a friendship, far above
The course of nature or his tender age;
Whose looks could all my bitter griefs assuage;
Let his pure soul, ordain'd seven years to be
In that frail body which was part of me,
Remain my pledge to Heav'n, as sent to show
How to this port at every step I go."
"My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
All skilful in the wars:
There above the noise and danger,
Sweet peace is crown'd with smiles,
And one born in a manger
Commands the beauteous files."
The End
About the Author
Lawrence E. Rogers was born in St. Louis, Missouri on May 2, 1920. He had two brothers and three sisters. His parents owned a small grocery store near Sportsman’s Park (the baseball stadium). The family lived above the store.
Larry attended CBC High School and then went to St. Louis University where he earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in History and Government. For most of his career, he worked as a training coordinator for the St. Louis City Personnel Department. Larry taught supervision and management classes to city department officials and to fire department captains.
In 1958, Larry married Ann Catherine Kearns, a grade school teacher. In 1959, their only child, Joseph, was born.
After his retirement, Larry established a small bookstore that specialized in children’s books. He wrote a workbook called Clarity in Handwriting that has been used by students at many schools.
Larry also wrote some short stories. The Perils of a Cautious Man and The Stalker are posted on this website. His non-fiction book entitled Fifty Geniuses is also on this website. This work contains short profiles of historical persons who are worth knowing better.