Death
On September 6, 1919, when Paul was on his deathbed, Zhang Lingsheng and Liang Qinming were at this side; Paul laid hands on both of them, blessing them and telling them to continue the good work. As Paul laid down to take a rest, Berntsen arrived by bicycle to pay him one last visit. He spoke to Paul in Chinese, saying:
| “ | You sleep peacefully now. Although you still owe me some outstanding interest on debt yet to be repaid, I no longer require them from you. Because the Lord had once mentioned, "You will not get out until you have paid the last penny. It is such a coincidence, because the Holy Spirit instructed me to visit you today - may we see each other again in heaven then!" | ” |
Paul pleaded with him, "Elder Berntsen, please come one step closer, if you are willing to believe in Jesus and receive baptism with head facing-downwards and obey all the commands that had been revealed to me, then you may enter the Holy of Holies." Berntsen, still standing on his feet, replied, "Let us wait till the Holy Spirit enables me to understand it." After shaking hands with Paul, Berntsen then departed.
At four in the afternoon, while Paul was laughing out loudly, he shouted, "Behold, the Angel has come" and died whilst he was still laughing. He was buried in his hometown. His son Isaac Wei continued the missionary work in Northern China.
Read more about this topic: Paul Wei
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“if thou slip thy troth and do not come at all.
As minutes in the clock do strike so call for death I shall:
To please both thy false heart, and rid myself from woe,
That rather had to die in troth than live forsaken so.”
—Unknown. The Lady Prayeth the Return of Her Lover Abiding on the Seas (l. 19–22)
“For the bright side of the painting I had a limited sympathy. My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among barbarian hordes; of a lifetime dragged out in sorrow and tears, upon some gray and desolate rock, in an ocean unapproachable and unknown.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“‘Tis no great valor to perish sword in hand, and bravado on lip; cased all in panoply complete. For even the alligator dies in his mail, and the swordfish never surrenders. To expire, mild-eyed, in one’s bed, transcends the death of Epaminondas.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)