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."

Thomas Gray

"Tis true, 'tis certain; man though dead retains

Part of himself; the immortal soul remains."

Homer

"My God, my Father, and my Friend

Do not forsake me in my end."

Wentworth Dillon

"Immortal Hope dispels the gloom!

An angel sits beside the tomb."

Sarah Flower Adams

"Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,

And press with vigor on;

A heavenly race demands the zeal,

And an immortal crown."

Philip Doddridge

"For when the morn came dim and sad --

And chill with early showers,

Her quiet eyelids closed -- she had

Another morn than ours."

Thomas Hood

"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."

John Richard Morehead

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares

I have already come.

'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far

And grace will lead me home."

John Newton

"Teach me to feel another's woe,

To hide the fault I see;

That mercy I to others show,

That mercy show to me."

Alexander Pope

"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."

Francis Quarles

"But from this earth, this grave, this dust

My God shall raise me up, I trust."

Sir Walter Raleigh

"Death lays his icy hand on kings,

Scepter and crown

Must tumble down."

James Shirley

"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."

Christiana Rossette

"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."

Robert Southey

"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."

Isaac Watts

"I never spoke to God

Nor visited in heaven;

Yet certain am I of the spot

As if the chart were given."

Emily Dickinson

"One short sleep passed, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more.

  Death thou shalt die."

John Donne

"He prayeth best, who loveth best,

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"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."

Lord Dunsany

"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."

Matthew Arnold

"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."

George MacDonald

"O World invisible, we view thee,

O World intangible, we touch thee,

O World unknowable, we know thee,

Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!"

Francis Thompson

"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."

Edwin Arnold

"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."

Francois Villon

"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."

Robert Browning

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.”

Joseph Aloysius Rogers

"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."

Robert Browning

"Through all eternity to Thee

A joyful Song I'll raise,

For oh!  Eternity's too short

To utter all thy Praise."

Joseph Addison

"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."

Joseph Addison

"Four angels to my bed,

Four angels round my head,

One to watch, and one to pray,

And two to bear my soul away."

Thomas Ady

"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."

James Edmeston

"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!"

Matthew Arnold

"A few more years shall roll,

A few more seasons come,

And we shall be with those that rest,

Asleep within the tomb."

Horatius Bonar

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face."

William Cowper

"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."

John Dryden

"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."

Harriet Auber

"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."

William Wordsworth

"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."

John Milton

"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."

Edmund Waller

"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."

Thomas Gray

"Teach me to live, that I may dread

  The grave as little as my bed."

Thomas Ken

"Teach me to feel another's woe,

To hide the fault I see;

That mercy I to others show,

That mercy show to me."

Alexander Pope

"She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!"

William Wordsworth

"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."

Emily Bronte

"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."

William Wordsworth

"And ever near us, though unseen,

The dear immortal spirits tread;

For all the boundless universe

In life -- there is no dead."

John McCreary

"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."

John Greenleaf Whittier

"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?"

Ben Jonson

"They are not dead; life's flag is never furled;

They passed from world to world."

Edwin Markham

"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!"

Thomas Nashe

"When summoned hence to thine eternal sleep,

Oh, mayst thou smile while all around thee weep."

Charles Wesley

"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."

John Dryden

"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."

Sir John Beaumont

"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."

Henry Vaughn

The End

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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.

Click here to go to Joe Rogers homepage

This page was last updated: May 8, 2009