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You cannot find in the New Testament any of those
hateful representations of dying which humankind has invented, by which death is portrayed as a ghastly skeleton with a scythe
and black hood.
The representations of death in the New Testament are very different. There are two of them which
I think are exquisitely beautiful. One is that of falling asleep in Jesus. When a little child has played all day long and
becomes tired out, and the twilight has sent him in weariness to his mother's knee, where he thinks he has come for further
games, then, almost in the midst of their frolicking, the little boy falls back into his mother's arms and nestles close to
the sweetest and softest couch that ever a cheek has pressed. In no time at all sleep overtakes him and she wraps her arms
around him.
So we fall asleep in Jesus. We have played long enough at the games of life. We become tired out and
we lay our head back on the bosom of Christ and quietly fall asleep. Friend in Christ, this is your hope.
- -Henry
Ward Beecher
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