Brought Home by the Angels (2)

Angels and God’s Children in Their Dying Hour

The angels bring the souls of God’s children to heaven. Sometimes a dying child of God speaks about this service performed by the angels. Occasionally this service by the angels is revealed in an exceptional manner. Several examples follow,

Rev. M. Hofman (1873-1945) writes about the liberal and roomy departure of a child of God: “Did you think that the angels stood ready only by the deathbed of poor Lazarus when he fell asleep and not by others who were bought with the same precious blood of Jesus? We may not only suppose but certainly believe that these godly servants also waited at the cross of the penitent thief when he gave up the ghost after his bones were broken by the executioners. Then he entered into eternal sleep; all of his suffering was behind him, and the angels carried his soul into the promised Paradise where Jesus was.

“I recall once standing at the deathbed of a child of God who had here upon earth a troublesome journey. The Lord gave her some relief upon her deathbed. As death drew near, she continually said, “I have a feeling as if I am waiting for something.” No one else came to her home. Shortly thereafter she died with a smile on her face. A visible and clear token of joy and gladness at the removal of the soul from the body. The Lord then directed my thoughts to how the angels had waited for her last breath, and she had waited for that sweet company that would carry her on their wings to the eternal glory.” Taken from Lazarus, kom uit (Lazarus, come forth), page 56.

“Jenneke, the angels, the angels!”

Egbert de Goede (1773-1852) had a daughter with bodily deformities. He wrote that at the age of eleven she was brought under deep convictions about her sins and her lost condition. Shortly thereafter she received a lively insight of the Lord Jesus as Surety and Mediator. She had much light upon her way which was to the wonderment of all of God’s people. Ten days before her death it was as if she were drawn up into heaven; continually it seemed as if she were dead, but then she again revived and she spoke heavenly language. One time she called our servant girl and said, “Jenneke, the angels, the angels!” One time she called me and said, “Father, there is no why, but an eternal therefore; eternal love.” She died in 1831 at the age of thirteen years.

Witnesses of the service of angels

The God-fearing Leendert Potappel (1882-1953) from Stavenisse told of twice being a witness of the service of angels at a deathbed. The first time it was with the dying of his old friend Cornelis van Oeveren (1829-1908). He was forty-five years old when he was touched in his heart under a sermon by Rev. D. Bakker.

When this friend laid upon his deathbed, all was peace. He lay in quiet expectation, looking for that moment when he would leave this earthly tabernacle, for he was assured that his anchor held fast. Just before he died, he lifted up his arms and called out with wonderment in his voice, “Angels, angels, angels!” Potappel said that it was evidence of spiritual life that the blessed soul of this old friend was carried away by the spirits who stand before the throne.

The second time was with the dying of Kee van de Polder as she was called. Potappel had learned to know her in his years of service in the congregation. The fear and the right of the last enemy with which she had so much to do in her lifetime had been taken away. The friends who stood around her deathbed noted that the time of her departure was near. When no one expected it, she raised her eyes to heaven with blessed joy and she spoke with a clear voice, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). The friends could feel something of the fact that now her soul was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham.

“Don’t you hear that singing?”

The Lord had become too strong for Albert Hofman (1909-1969)—a son of Rev. M. Hofman—already as a young boy. When he was twenty years old, the Lord continued His work in him. Albert was able and willing to die, but it was made known unto him that he must spend another forty years traveling through this wilderness. When he turned sixty, he knew that the end of the narrow way was near. Seriously ill, he became bedridden. Albert, who had remained unmarried, lived at the end of his life by his sister Marie Melis-Hofman in Krabbendijke. While lying on his deathbed, he heard the angels singing.

“I hear singing” he said to Marie, “Don’t you hear it?” Marie answered him, “I do not hear anything.”

(To be continued)

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