p. 9 | Strindberg’s Will

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 2, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 34.

Strindberg’s Will

MORE bitter, more violent than Ibsen, was the Swedish writer Strindberg, who died during this last twelve-month. He had long rabidly attacked Christianity and its system of morals, and assailed it from every point. Never was there a more determined foe of the gospel. But in his last illness, when friends endeavored to talk to him about spiritual things, they found, to their surprise, that he was hungering after the words of the Saviour. He began to read the Bible, and the day before he died, he called his nearest relative to him.

“I have settled with life. My accounts are closed,” he said, taking up the Bible from the table by the bedside. “This is the only true guide,” and he pressed the book to his heart. In his will, he directed that his Bible should be placed on his breast in the coffin, and that a cross, which he had worn for some time on his neck, should also be buried with him. At his funeral, a specially written transcription of “Nearer, my God, to Thee” was sung by a great choir.

Strindberg’s life had been as bitter and ugly as his writings. He came to Christ not too late for forgiveness, but too late for any joy or peace in his earthly career. His accounts were closed with a loss on the ledger as far as this life was concerned. Even genius could not help him. Out of his unhappy years, he spoke truth indeed when he cried out at last that the word of God was the only true guide.

But if he had only seen that at first, instead of at last — and others are making the same mistake to-day.— Forward.