Safe, Home

In 1892 B. B. Warfield's Princeton colleague Charles Aiken died. Preaching at the memorial service on 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, Warfield reminded those present of every Christian's certain future, and how that changes the way we say goodbye to beloved friends here.

While yet our farewell to them on this side of the separating gulf was sounding in their ears, the glad "Hail!" of their Lord was welcoming them there.

May God grant to each of us to follow them. May he give us his Holy Spirit to sanctify us wholly and enable us when we close our eyes in our long sleep to open them at once, not in terrified pain in torment, but in the soft, sweet light of Paradise, safe in the arms of Jesus.

--quoted in Fred Zaspel, Warfield on the Christian Life: Living Life in the Light of the Gospel (Crossway, 2012), 225