Many people have had close brushes with death. This would be traumatic anywhere, but to approach the gates of eternity on a foreign shore is surely a supreme fear. J.W. McGarvey experienced such during his six-month excursion to the Middle East in 1879. The journey’s purpose centered on McGarvey writing a book about the places he visited. The book, Lands of the Bible<\/em>, was published the following year. More than a third of the volume consists of “Letters of Travel.” These were originally published concurrently in three weekly journals\u00a0while he was abroad:\u00a0The Christian Standard<\/em>,\u00a0The Apostolic Times<\/em>, and\u00a0The Christian<\/em>. Letter XV concerns his journey from Tyre to Sidon, in which he relates what he called “my death and restoration.”<\/p>\n “We left Tyre on the morning of the 14th of June and rode to Sidon, the city so intimately associated with it in sacred history, the same day.” Midway between the cities, the party passed Zarapheth, where a widow gave refuge to the prophet Elijah. A little north of Zarapheth, McGarvey’s party stopped for lunch at an Arab cafe. A small artificial pool shaded by two tamarisk trees and an arbor of boughs was nearby. “In this luxuriant shade, seated on the broad wall around the pool, and cheered by the lively babble of the water as it flowed into the pool on one side and out of the other, we ate our bread in peace and laid ourselves quietly down to sleep.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n After the blissful siesta, McGarvey and his companions resumed the journey.<\/p>\n “In the afternoon, as we drew near to Sidon, and were about to close a long and hot day’s ride, we dismounted on the beach, about two miles south of the city, to refresh ourselves with a sea bath. The waves were rolling in with a majestic swell, and as we met them and bounded o’er them, we were filled with boyish glee. In a short time, we began to meet them swimming, and, finding this more exhilarating, we continued it until our limbs grew weary. Touching then for the bottom, we found that we had unconsciously swum, or had been drifted, beyond our depth. Almost simultaneously, we turned and swam for the shallow water. After making a few strokes in that direction, I saw that we drifted backward almost as fast as we swam forward, and that if we had far to go, we were in imminent peril.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n His strength failing, McGarvey knew he could not last long. Escape seemed impossible, and he was seized “with paralyzing effort” that two companions who were further out would certainly perish. One of the group made it to shallow water. McGarvey called out to him, but knew he could not help. He also “called earnestly on God to deliver me.” One of the others in danger managed to swim close to McGarvey and tried to help, but he also failed.<\/p>\n “At that moment, the thrilling question arose in my mind: Shall my life, my labors, and my present expedition end here, and in this manner? The thought was repugnant to me, and it gave me a fresh impulse. But it was in vain.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n McGarvey became so exhausted that his arms and feet “refused to make another stroke.” All hope of rescue was gone. “I folded my aching arms across my breast, offered the prayer, ‘O God, bless my family; sustain them under this blow, and take me to heaven,’ and then sank beneath the waves.” After describing the crushing weight on his head and chest and the aching cramps of his limbs, he said:\u00a0“I knew that my torture could not last long, and I watched and waited for the experience of leaving the body.” He thus committed himself to the watery grave, but his mission on earth was not yet done. “The next sensation that I remember was that of the hot sun shining in my face.”<\/p>\n The others had made it to shore, and one rode a horse into the sea to provide his “marvelous rescue.” Even so, it was with great difficulty that McGarvey was carried unconscious to the shore.<\/p>\n With McGarvey were his cousin Frank Thomson, W.B. Taylor, a former student, and Henry S. Earl, a former American preacher who had joined the party in England. It was mainly Earl to whom McGarvey attributed his redemption. “I owe chiefly to Brother Earl the preservation of my life, and probably of that of my cousin Frank. But for him, Frank’s mother might have been a childless widow, and my wife the widowed mother of a dependent family.” Reflecting, he wrote, “And if I am thus indebted to my faithful brethren and fellow-travelers, what shall I say of the debt I owe to Him without whose help they could have done nothing….I had passed through all the conscious experience of dying, and God drew me back out of the very jaws of death. I feel the remnant of my days, whatever it shall be, is a special gift of his providence.” (J.W. McGarvey, Lands of the Bible<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Those who yet profit from the biblical works of McGarvey are also grateful to his friends, but especially to God, who sustained this faithful scholar in his “death and restoration.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Earl Kimbrough via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 14 No. 8, August 2014 Many people have had close brushes with death. This would be traumatic anywhere, but to approach the gates of eternity on a foreign shore is surely a supreme fear. J.W. McGarvey experienced such during his six-month excursion to the Middle East in 1879. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[726,109],"class_list":["post-96576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church-history","tag-death"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48876,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-restoration-movement-imply-that-the-church-was-destroyed\/","url_meta":{"origin":96576,"position":0},"title":"Does the “restoration movement” imply that the church was destroyed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to thank you guys once more for the Question and Answer section of your website. It is a great format! My question has to do with the \"restoration movement.\" I recently noticed that a local church of Christ referred to itself as a restored church of Christ\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17978,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-before-the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":96576,"position":1},"title":"What happened before the Restoration movement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been discussing with a lady about the importance of worshiping God in \"spirit and in truth.\" I told her that the seed was planted in America according to the biblical pattern.\u00a0\u00a0Her question is \"what happened to all the people between the time of the early church and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23781,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-have-sex-with-my-ex-husband-before-our-reconciliation\/","url_meta":{"origin":96576,"position":2},"title":"Can I have sex with my ex-husband before our reconciliation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband divorced me, but not for biblical reasons. We are working on restoration. Neither of us has had an adulterous relationship. My question is can we have a sexual relationship before remarrying each other through the court? Answer: \"Now to the married I command, yet not I but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15210,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-god-promise-a-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":96576,"position":3},"title":"Where does God promise a husband?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If one is expected to wait for sex until marriage, where does God promise a husband? I'm tired of waiting for 37 years. I just had to fend off a married, now divorced, minister. He is still in the pulpit. He was separated, which I understood was meant for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94258,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/whither-our-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":96576,"position":4},"title":"Whither Our Children","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gary Henry via WordPoints.com \"And I will take every care so that you may have a clear memory of these things after my death\" (II Peter 1:15 BBE). In regard to the principle of restoration, what about our legacy? 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