I saw my deathbed surrounded with angels.

It is past―

The sand of life is run and I am free from earthly toils and cares.

Permitted by the Most High, I now address the friend whom on earth I loved the most―

It is so true that death does not extinguish affection and that friendship and love acquire new vigour in the presence of him from whom they flow.

We have often talked of a future state, but our ideas were confined and grovelling!

We never conceived, nor could the brightest Seraph describe the wonders and the glory of heaven!

The height―the extent of the bliss we enjoy―vast, boundless, as eternity itself.

Here every desire is fulfilled, every wish accomplished―

Sorrow never enters these blessed habitations, but seraphic peace and unmixed felicity dwell in every breast.

You, my Lord, were with me in my last moments―

You saw my soul's anguish and terror, standing on the awful verge of eternity and ready to take the final plunge, uncertain what was its approaching fate―

Looking back with fond regret on those smiling scenes about to close forever!

How many fond recollections and endearing ties twined about my heart!

A circle of weeping friends surrounded me―

My tender wife, dearer to me than existence, seemed the image of unutterable woe.

At length, the film was removed from my mental sight, and surprised at the infatuation, which had enchained my senses, my soul panted to be free.

When the last pangs of expiring nature agonised every limb, the vision of futurity―bright, dazzling, glorious―refreshed the fainting spirit.

I saw my deathbed surrounded with angels who beckoned me away, and when the last feeble struggle unloosed my fetters, what happiness called me to the skies―

What glory surrounded me!

Looking back on those who mourned over my cold remains, O, my loved relatives, I cried, a moment ago I struggled with death, now I am equal to the angels and now the realms of endless light receive me.

Swifter than the wind we mounted the ethereal height―

We passed thousands of worlds similar to that I had just left, and blazing suns, which lightened the vast expanse.

With the rapidity of thought, we traversed the boundless ether and stood before the presence of Infinite Goodness.

Penetrated with awe, I adored the Omnipotent.

How ignorant are the inhabitants of the earth―

How confined all their conceptions and most enlightened ideas!

What was formerly incomprehensible and inscrutable appears now clear and easily understood. 

The mysteries of the Holy Trinity, and the existence of an all-powerful Being who had no beginning are now revealed to me but no words can instruct you in those sacred truths―

The language of heaven can alone reveal them. 

In our sight, your world is as a grain of sand on the seashore―of little note in the grand scale of the universe, but the eye of Omnipotence sees with complacency, the meanest object in the immensity of space. 

I have visited all the planetary worlds, many of which are so far removed from your system that no learned researches will ever discover them. 

I have seen all the wonders of the creation, but all are insignificant compared to the heaven where dwells the Most High!