Famous Last Words
by Richard Cravy

WHEN MEN face death and what is beyond, they no longer can put off dealing with one of the most perplexing (and perhaps terrifying), questions of life: "Where am I going?" This is especially true for those who have been enemies of Jesus Christ and the Bible, who have denied the reality of Heaven, Hell, and God. Following is a collection of reported last words from the lips of some such  men. Remember that these men spent their lives attempting to destroy the faith and hope of others.
	"While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die and am unprepared to die." Cesare Borgia (1475 -1507), ruler of Italy, hero of Machiavelli. He helped to bring a new extreme in worldliness to the Catholic Church. To him religion was only a means of personal gain.
	"I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark." Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was one of the greatest British political philosophers and an agnostic.
	"Give me more laudanum (opiate) that I may not think of eternity and what is to come." Honore Gabriel Raqueti Mirabeau (1749-1791) was a political leader in the French Revolution and an atheist.
	"Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty." Sir Thomas Scott (1808-1878) wrote over 200 books and booklets against Christianity.
	"I am abandoned by God and man; I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months' life. (His doctor replied that it could not be done.) Then I shall die and go to hell!" Voltaire (1694-1778) taught that man will find happiness in the blessings of the arts and sciences and not in a right relation to his God.
	"O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!" Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) was an orator, politician, and lawyer who popularized destructive criticism of the Bible in America and championed Darwinian evolution.
	"What a fool I have been!" Charles Churchill (1731-1764) was a poet and satirist who once even served as a clergyman "through need not choice," even though he was an avowed agnostic.
	Can you not hear the fear and the doubt? Where were their former philosophies to bring cheer and comfort? Can we detect an admission of error on their part?
	Now hear how a Christian might die: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." Stated by Paul, a Christian. Or, again: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." This was said by Stephen, the first Christian to die for his faith.
	Are you ready to die and meet your God? Or are you unprepared to meet your judge? If you are, then become a follower of Jesus, a Christian – then you know your future!

Quotations are taken from Last Words of Saints and Sinners, by Herbert Lockyer.

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