" [A] faith which promotes a good life insures also a good death; . . . he who lives well always dies well. Yes; let the lightning’s vivid flash; let storm, or poison, the gleaming dagger, the noon-day pestilence— let any of them be the instrument by which the spirit is disrobed of its fleshly clothing; let death come in slowly wasting years, or in but one moment’s agony; in calm consciousness or in delirious dream, death is good and welcome, if man has passed existence and probation wisely; for a better life is hid with Christ, and the freed spirit does but go home to be with God. "
― John Matteson , A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
![John Matteson quote : [A] faith which promotes a good life insures also a good death; . . . he who lives well always dies well. Yes; let the lightning’s vivid flash; let storm, or poison, the gleaming dagger, the noon-day pestilence— let any of them be the instrument by which the spirit is disrobed of its fleshly clothing; let death come in slowly wasting years, or in but one moment’s agony; in calm consciousness or in delirious dream, death is good and welcome, if man has passed existence and probation wisely; for a better life is hid with Christ, and the freed spirit does but go home to be with God.](/image/1366520.jpg)