******"I CAN'T DIE! I WON'T DIE!"

063 -- "I CAN'T DIE! I WON'T DIE!"
Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, the noted and devoted holiness evangelist, is the authority for the following:
E____ had a friend who did not believe that the injunctions, "Come out from among them and be ye separate," "Be not conformed to the world," and kindred passages, have anything to do with the external appearance of the Christian. She was united in church fellowship with a denomination which does not recognize these things as important, and she had been heard to speak contemptuously of those contracted views that would induce one, in coming out in a religious profession, to make such a change in external appearance as to excite observation.
We should be far from favoring an intimation that E 's friend was hypocritical; she was only what would be termed a liberal-minded professor, and was no more insincere than thousands who stand on what would be termed an ordinary eminence in religious profession. The wasting consumption gradually preyed upon the vitals of this friend, and E____, who lives in a distant city, went to see her. E____, though not at the time as fully devoted as she might have been, was concerned to find her friend as much engaged with the vanities of the world and as much interested about conforming to its customs as ever, and she ventured to say, "I did not suppose you would think so much about these things now."
Her friend felt somewhat indignant at the remark, and observed, "I do not know that I am more conformed to the world than yourself, and the denomination to which you belong regards these things as wrong, but our people do not think that religion has anything to do with these little matters."
The hand of withering disease continued relentlessly laid on E 's friend, and as she drew nearer eternity her blissful hopes of immortality and eternal life seemed to gather yet greater brightness. Her friends felt that her piety was more elevated than that of ordinary attainment. Again and yet again her friends gathered around her dying couch to hear her last glowing expressions and to witness her peaceful departure. Such was her composure that she desired her shroud might be in readiness so that she might, before the mirror, behold her body arrayed for its peaceful resting place.
Her friend E____ was forced to leave the city a day or two before her dissolution, and called to take her final farewell. "We shall not meet again on earth," said the dying one, "but doubtless we shall meet in heaven. On my own part I have no more doubt than if I were already there, and I cannot but hope that you will be faithful unto death. We shall then meet." They then bade each other a last adieu.
The moment at last came when death was permitted to do his fearful work. The devoted friends had again gathered around the bed of the dying fair one to witness her peaceful exit. Respiration grew shorter and shorter and at last ceased, and they deemed the spirit already in the embrace of blissful messengers who were winging it to paradise. A fearful shriek! and in a moment they beheld her that they had looked upon as the departed sitting upright before them with every feature distorted.
Horror and disappointment had transformed that placid countenance so that it exhibited an expression indescribably fiendish. "I can't die!" vociferated the terrified, disappointed one. "I won't die!" At that moment the door opened and her minister entered. "Out of the door, thou deceiver of men!" she again vociferated, fell back and was no more.
"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Mat. 7:21.)

Last Words of Samuel Rutherford

172 -- LAST WORDS OF SAMUEL RUTHERFORD -- "I SHALL SOON BE WHERE FEW OF YOU SHALL ENTER."
This eminent Scotch Presbyterian divine was born in 1600, and died in 1661. He was commissioner to the Westminster General Assembly in 1643, and was for some time principal of St. Andrews College. When on his death-bed he was summoned to appear before Parliament for trial, for having preached Liberty arid Religion. He sent word with the messenger to tell Parliament "That I have received a summons to a higher bar -- I must needs answer that first; and when the day you name shall come, I shall be where few of you shall eater."

Sobering and Terrifying Testimony from Testimonys of Saved and Unsaved

113 -- "O MARTHA, MARTHA, YOU HAVE SEALED MY EVERLASTING DAMNATION!"
Rev. Thomas Graham, the noted revivalist preacher of the Erie Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, relates the following sad experience:
A man who lived in Westmoreland county, Pa., had strong religious feelings and had commenced a religious life. About this time he married a woman who was decidedly irreligious and who opposed him. She forced him to omit family worship; she forced him from his closet and followed him with her opposition until he finally, discouraged, gave it up. The Spirit of God left him. He told Rev. Mr. Potter, a Presbyterian minister that he was lost forever and that he knew the very time and place the Spirit took its final departure; that he was going to hell but cared nothing about it. He lived some ten years after this and then died in the most awful agonies. He asked his wife to give him a glass of water for he would obtain none where he was going. He drank it greedily; then, looking his wife in the face, exclaimed, "O Martha, Martha, you have sealed my everlasting damnation!" and died.

"I am in the flames--Pull me out, pull me out!"

045 -- "I AM IN THE FLAMES -- PULL ME OUT, PULL ME OUT!"
Mr. W____, the subject of this narrative, died in J____, New York, about the year 1883, at the age of seventy-four. He was an avowed infidel. He was a good neighbor in some respects, yet he was very wicked and made a scoff of Christianity. About seven years previous to his death he passed through a revival. The Spirit strove with him, but he resisted to the last.
One Sabbath after this, Mr. N -, who relates this sketch, was on his way to church and passed Mr. W 's house, who was standing by the gate. He said, "Come with me to church, Mr. W____." The infidel, holding out his hand, replied, "Show me a hair on the palm of my hand and I will show you a Christian." During his last sickness, Mr. N called on him often and sat up with him several nights, and was with him when he died. The infidel was conscious of his near approaching end and of the terrors of his lost condition. He said once to Mr. N____, who, as a local worker, held meetings in school houses around, "Warn the world not to live as I have lived, and escape my woe." At another time when visited by a doctor, he was groaning and making demonstrations of great agony. The doctor said, "Why do you groan, your disease is not painful?" "O, doctor," said he, "it is not the body but the soul that troubles me." On the evening of his death, Mr. N -came at ten o'clock. A friend of his was there also. As he entered the room he felt that it was filled with an awful presence as if he were near the region of the damned. The dying man cried out, "O God, deliver me from that awful pit!" It was not a penitential prayer, but the wail of a lost soul. About fifteen minutes before his death, which was at twelve, he exclaimed, "I am in the flames -- pull me out, pull me out!" He kept repeating this until the breath left his body. As the bodily strength failed his words became more faint. At last Mr. N___ put his ear down close to catch his departing whispers, and the last words he could hear were, "Pull me out, pull me out!" "It was an awful scene," said he. "It made an impression on me that I can never forget. I never want to witness such a scene again." I was talking with my friend years after, and he said those words, "I am in the flames -- pull me out, pull me out!" were still ringing in his ears. -- Written for this book by Rev. C. A. Balch, Cloverville, N. Y.

Dreadful Martyrdom of Romanus

043 -- DREADFUL MARTYRDOM OF ROMANUS
Romanus, a native of Palestine, was deacon of the church of Caesarea, at the time of the commencement of Diocletian's persecution, in the fourth century. He was at Antioch when the imperial order came for sacrificing to idols, and was much grieved to see many Christians, through fear, submit to the idolatrous command, and deny their faith in order to preserve their lives.
While reproving some of them for their weakness, Romanus was informed against, and soon after arrested. Being brought to the tribunal, he confessed himself a Christian, and said he was willing to suffer anything they could inflict upon him for his confession. When condemned, he was scourged, put to the rack, and his body torn with hooks. While thus cruelly mangled, he turned to the governor and thanked him for having opened for him so many mouths with which to preach Christianity; "for," he said, "every wound, is a mouth to sing the praises of the Lord." He was soon after slain by being strangled. -- Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

THE GREAT DANGER IN NOT SEEKING THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND

060 -- THE GREAT DANGER IN NOT SEEKING THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND
At one time during a prayer-meeting in about the year 1890, my attention was directed towards an unsaved lady who was present, who appeared to be trifling. The pastor in charge of the meeting made the remark that as a watchman upon the walls of Zion, he felt that there was danger for someone there; he could not understand why he was impressed with this thought, and repeated that he felt drawn out to say that there was danger and someone there ought to get saved, then and there.
This irreligious lady appeared unconcerned and oblivious to his remarks, and laughed when the minister shook hands with her at the close of the meeting. Just as she was preparing to leave the church she was taken very ill, so ill that she could not go home, neither could she be taken home by friends. Everything that could be done for her relief was done, but in less than one short hour she passed into eternity. Before she died, she tore her hair, cast aside the trashy gew-gaws that adorned her person and of which heretofore she had been very fond, and throwing up her hands she cried aloud for mercy, exclaiming "Oh, Lord, have mercy on me! Oh, Lord, help me!" In this distress of body and soul she passed into the great eternity without leaving any hope to those that stood round her dying bed. This sad experience shows the danger of putting off the day and hour of salvation. "For in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. " -- Written for this book by Julia E. Strait, Portlandville, N. Y. 
(From Dying Testimonies of Saved and Unsaved)

To The King

Jesus would you near me be, I cannot settle on less
Lead not me into temptation here in this wilderness
Please give me strength for this race
Lest I faint and lose my pace
Lift my feeble hands when no strength remains
Oh that Thou alone would bear me maintain

To strive, to press til the crown I might win
To be used of Thee to plead men leave their sin
I, my life, will lie down for Thee
If Thou will give me grace to flee,
This wicked flesh full with sin
Thou must crucify this day and again 

Let me not be taken for a fool
To be allured by this world's deceit
Let me instead be of righteousness a tool
To be alone in thee used of thee complete
Keep thy own seal upon me dear King
To be Thine, my all and everything to thee I bring

Oh the vexation of soul
To behold this world of woe
Seeing those who make vanity their goal
And holiness their foe
Oh that it be not so

To behold the corruption 
Of blind men leading the same
To an eternity of torment and destruction
All the while these men are of Christ they claim
My soul can find no peace nor rest
Not anywhere but in my Saviour's breast

How depths of darkness and death
Did surround my soul
With nothing but my latest breath
Even this in which He did hold
I knew Him not who sought me
For His own for eternity His face to see

While I was in my sin and grief He did
Save this wretch and make her free
And under His shadow how I hid
That from sin and death I might flee
What a cross I did behold 
With new eyes and wonders untold

I once did play games and mock eternity
Living as though time did stand still
But then a glimpse of Thee did I see
And knew my frame would whither as a flower will
Time now I know is fleeting
Everlasting life or death is soon coming

Oh to be found spotless by Thee
May I blameless under thy judgment be
Only in Christ may I be found
Only charity and purity be seen to abound
Not one spot blemish nor wrinkle or blot
That the wife made ready to Him be brought

Oh Lord God that Thou wouldst save Thy remnant 
to be brought out of this world of grief 
That Thou might establish Thy people in Thy Covenant
Out of Thy mercy to give relief
To the captives, To the sheep that be Thine 
To have a thankful people to call "Mine"

To have a people, what a rarity,
Who would not for their own praise 
But for Thy praise alone have hearts full of charity,
With one desire to only upon thy face gaze
A people who murmur not at the bitter water
But their good Shepherd be all that matter

My cup, I know, is held by Thy hand
Oh would my heart Thou enlarge and expand
That I might love Thee more fervant
To burn with more passionate flame as thy servant
That I might become more nothing
For Thee to be everything

the rebel's surrender to grace.

The rebel’s surrender to grace.
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? 

Lord, thou hast won, at length I yield, My heart, by mighty grace compelled, Surrenders all to thee; Against thy terrors long I strove, But who can stand against thy love? Love conquers even me.

All that a wretch could do, I tried, Thy patience scorned, thy pow’r defied, And trampled on thy laws; Scarcely thy martyrs at the stake, Could stand more steadfast for thy sake, Than I in Satan’s cause.

But since thou hast thy love revealed, And shown my soul a pardon sealed, I can resist no more: Couldst thou for such a sinner bleed? Canst thou for such a rebel plead? I wonder and adore!

If thou hadst bid thy thunders roll, And lightnings flash to blast my soul, I still had stubborn been: But mercy has my heart subdued, A bleeding Savior I have viewed, And now, I hate my sin.

Now, Lord, I would be thine alone, Come take possession of thine own, For thou hast set me free Released from Satan’s hard commands See all my powers waiting stand, To be employed by thee.

My will conformed to thine would move, On thee my hope, desire, and love, In fixed attention join; My hands, my eyes, my ears, my tongue, Have Satan’s servants been too long, But now they shall be thine.

And can I be the very same,

Who lately durst blaspheme thy name;

And on thy gospel tread?

Surely each one, who hears my case,

Will praise thee, and confess thy grace

Invincible indeed!