A Bit Late...

A dear sister sent this to me on Wednesday, but in the wild and crazy this week I haven't gotten to post it until now. Perhaps we'll miss Fitness Friday this week in favor of just this?

Good morning beloved,

Thought of you and wanted to celebrate the anniversary of this saint's passing into glory. A day like this do we all long for; when we shall see him as he is!

The day before his death, Owen wrote to a friend...

I am going to Him whom my soul has loved, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love—which is the whole ground of my consolation…I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm; but whilst the great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable. Live, and pray, and hope, and wait patiently, and do not despond; the promise stands invincible, that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.

The next day, William Payne, a Puritan minister of Saffron Waldon, arrived to tell Owen that the first sheets of Meditations on the Glory of Christ had passed through the press. With uplifted eyes and hands, Owen replied...

I am glad to hear it; but, oh brother Payne, the long wished for day is come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing, in this world.

328 years ago today, (August 24, 1683) John Owen met his Savior face to Face. He was buried in Bunhill Fields beside many of his Puritan contemporaries.

Few there are that die so well.