Abraham Kuyper — In the Shadow of Death: Meditations for the Sick-Room and at the Death-Bed, translated from the Dutch by John Hendrik de Vries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1929). Published in 1929, it is in the public domain in the United States (the 95-year term ended in 2025); it may still be in copyright elsewhere.
Forty-eight meditations, In de schaduwe des doods (1893), written for De Heraut first for others on whose way Kuyper saw that death had cast its shadow, and finished, as his preface says, after he had wept at the grave of a child of his own. They go from divine chastisement, the body and the physician, through the sick-bed, sleepless nights, the dying-bed and the last hour, to the widow, the grave, the seeing again of those who have died, and being “clothed upon”. Each meditation is headed by its text of Scripture.
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Contents (50)
- Translator’s Dedication
- Preface
- 1. If Ye Be Without Chastisement (Divine Chastisement)
- 2. He Keepeth All His Bones (Also Your Body in God’s Hand)
- 3. The Strength of My Life (The Strength of Your Life)
- 4. The Soul of Man Is a Candle of the Lord (Soul and Body)
- 5. Neither Could Be Healed of Any (The Lord Our Healer)
- 6. A Lump of Figs (Healing by Means)
- 7. She Suffered Many Things of Many Physicians (Our Physicians)
- 8. Like a Weaver His Web (Sudden Death)
- 9. Going as He Came (Is Your Task Done?)
- 10. Drawn Near unto the Gates of Death (The Plague of God)
- 11. The Time of My Dissolution Is at Hand (Conceal Nothing)
- 12. Carry Him to His Mother (The Sick Child)
- 13. She Had Hard Labor (Hard in Her Labor)
- 14. Evil That Brings Disease (Sickness and Sin)
- 15. Consume Away Like a Moth (Pining Away)
- 16. A Testament Is of Force After Men Are Dead (Your Testament)
- 17. Seek Ye the Lord, While He May Be Found (Sick-Bed Conversion)
- 18. Thou Hast Turned for Me My Mourning Into Dancing (Recovered Again)
- 19. The Lord Is Good to All (Resting in God’s Appointment)
- 20. Thou Holdest Mine Eyes Waking (Sleepless Nights)
- 21. The Spirit of a Man Will Sustain His Sickness (Strength of Spirit)
- 22. Miserable Comforters
- 23. A Sharp Thorn in the Flesh (Satan in Our Suffering)
- 24. Looking unto the Chief Leader (Suffering and the Man of Sorrows)
- 25. Who Giveth Psalms in the Night (Watching)
- 26. Sick, and Ye Visited Me (Nursing Our Sick)
- 27. Thou Changest All His Bed in His Sickness (In His Sickness Thou Changest His Bed)
- 28. That I May Refresh Myself Before I Go Hence (A Last Conscious Moment)
- 29. What Is the Measure of My Days? (Thou Too Must Die)
- 30. Behold, the Judge Standeth Before the Door (The Judge Standeth Before the Door)
- 31. Made an End of Commanding His Sons (Around Our Deathbed)
- 32. Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (The Sting of Death)
- 33. At an Hour When Ye Think Not (Sudden Death)
- 34. Thrust in Thy Sickle and Reap
- 35. He Gathered Up His Feet Into the Bed (The Dyingbed)
- 36. Their Strength in the Time of Trouble (Victory Through Faith)
- 37. He Yielded Up the Ghost (Yielding Up the Ghost)
- 38. To Die Is Gain (Dying Is Gain)
- 39. The End of That Man Is Peace (The End of That Man Was Peace)
- 40. To-Day With Me in Paradise (Is He Saved?)
- 41. As a Flower of the Field (A Flower of the Field)
- 42. He Bindeth Up Their Wounds (The Lord Bindeth Up Your Wounds)
- 43. Moved With Compassion (Our Tears)
- 44. A Judge of the Widows (The Widow)
- 45. Sown in Corruption
- 46. In the Choice of Our Graves (Our Own Grave)
- 47. As the Angels of God (The Seeing Again)
- 48. To Be Clothed Upon