A good name is better than precious ointment;
and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
Ecclesiastes 7:1

A believer’s last day is his best day!
His dying-day is better than his birthday!
This is a very sweet and useful truth to all believers.

Death is a change of place. When a believer dies, he does but change his place. He changes . . . earth for heaven, a wilderness for a Canaan, an Egypt for a land of Goshen, a dunghill for a palace!

As it is said of Judas, that he went to his place (Acts 1:25). An unbeliever is not yet in his place—hell is his place.

Just so, when a believer dies—he goes to his place. Heaven, the bosom of Christ—is his place.

A believer is not at present, in his place. His soul is still working and warring, and he cannot rest until he comes to center in the bosom of Christ. This Paul understood well, when he said, “having a desire to depart, and to be  with Christ; which is far better:” (Philippians 1:23)

We are not yet in our place, and therefore we groan to be at home—that is, to be in heaven, to be in the bosom of Christ—which is our proper place, our most desirable home!

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21

For in this we groan,
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon
with our house which is from heaven:
2 Corinthians 5:2

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8

From A Believer’s Last Day, His Best Day  A sermon preached at the funeral of Mrs. Martha Randall at Christ’s Church, London, June 28, 1651, by Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), minister of the Gospel.