What Death Really Means

The following is an excerpt from a letter written in Philadelphia in the year 1756 by Benjamin Franklin to a family friend concerning the death of his brother, John Franklin.

 

"We have lost a dear and valuable relation. But it is the will of God and nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside when the soul of man is ready to enter into the eternal realm.

 

We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us whle they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or in doing good to our fellow creatures is a kind and benevolent act of God.

 

When these bodies become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided for us to be delivered from the suffering of thsee bodies. Death is that way.

 

So we can either look morbidly at death or we can accept the reality of the facts that these old bodies of clay, flesh, dust of the earth, just simply cannot last forever.

 

Dust returns to dust, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it."

 

Rest assured, the Almighty God never makes mistakes. He knows when our bodies and minds and spirits have run thier course, and when it is best for us to go.

 

Pastor Philip D. Walmer