He was always well enough to be in church. I visited him frequently at the hospital, during his last illness. At each visit, we prayed together. A man is usually honest on his death bed. He realized the great meaning of sin and grace.
All earthly distinctions are only earthly.
And while we insist that some of these are the fruit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are not, in themselves, any kind of merit which saves a man's soul from sin. No man can sit under a Lutheran pulpit for nearly a life time and escape knowing these gospel truths. None of us can judge how much of appropriation there is in some of our brethren who retire with their inner thoughts. He had worshipped in season and out of season in the church of his choice. He who accepts that truth, in penitence and faith, in word and sacrament, in obedience and in life, will escape the world of the lost to live forever with Christ in His eternal glory.