How Pink left

THE LIFE OF ARTHUR PINK  

His illness, which was a form of anemia, "was a painful one" MacLean writes, "but almost until the end he refused to take any drug which might dull his mind and hinder him from completing his work." Vera wrote, “Several months before the end I saw he was failing and it worried me very much. Each time I made a reference to it he would always say, 'It‘s old age, my dear. Thank the Lord it is so. ***I am thankful I am so near the end, and not just beginning life. The times are so dark and will get much darker but the Lord will keep his own.'*** Many times he appeared so weary and exhausted as he was losing his energy he would say, 'We must work while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. I desire to be found at my post when the call comes.' He would not stop working on his writings, which he continued until three weeks before his death. And he never ceased to praise the Lord."

Vera continues, "One night in May he had a seizure which lasted several minutes. After it passed he said, 'I shall soon be home in glory, I cannot go soon enough. I am so happy, I feel like singing through the psalm, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name." He observed I was weeping and asked, 'My dear, why do you weep? You should be rejoicing that I shall soon be home.' I told him I was weeping for myself at being left behind. I knew it was good for him, but I dreaded the separation. He gently said, 'The Lord has been so wondrously good to us all these years and brought us safely through until now. He will not desert you in your hour of greatest need. Only trust him with all your heart. He will not fail you.' After that night he was making plans and getting all things in order for his departure as if he was going on a long journey. 

On the Wednesday morning before his death while still in bed he began to speak: 'The darkness is past and the true light now shines.' Lifting his hand toward the ceiling he said, 'All is glory before me. I am leaving the darkness behind to you who have still to finish your pilgrimage. My work is finished. My race is run. I am ready to go. I cannot go soon enough.’ He never rose after that, but still remained happy and praising the Lord. The 23rd Psalm was almost constantly on his lips, spoken both to myself and the Christian nurse, and many other wonderful things he said to us, among them being, 'Not one good thing has failed of all the good things he has promised.' Another time we heard him say, 'He hath not dealt with me after my sins, nor rewarded me according to my iniquities.' Again, 'Wearisome nights are appointed me, but I have nothing to say, for the Lord has so wondrously spared me bodily pain all my life through till now.' Once in great agony he said, 'O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusts in him.' We beheld his face radiant many times, and we felt sure he was having visions of glory. Then we heard him say, which were his last words, 'The Scriptures explain themselves,' showing us what was on his mind. So having finished his course, and completed his work, he has gone to be with Him whom he loved and served for so many years."

-- Iain H. Murray, The Life of Arthur Pink

(Photo: A.W. Pink and his wife Vera, 1924)