The Infidel's Own Funeral Request

An old minister in Massachusetts visited a dying infidel, and found him in despair, from which nothing could release him. Before leaving, the infidel made the following strange request: “I want to preach at my own funeral; and when you have closed the other parts of the service, I want you to come down from the pulpit and place your two fore-fingers on my lips, and say, ‘This soul is sealed for hell!’” “You must spare me from such a commission.

It will frighten the people,” said the minister, “It is my dying request, and I feel that you must do it. t others take warning by my death. I cannot excuse you.” The minister complied. At his funeral, after he had finished the sermon, he came down from the pulpit, and, approaching the coffin, laid the tips of his fingers on those marble lips, and with tears streaming from his eyes, stated the man’s dying request, and pronounced the words, “ This soul is sealed for hell!”