The Healing Journey

April 4, 2025

Henry Scott Holland, who lived more than a century ago, was a professor of divinity at the University of Oxford and a canon of Christ Church. While history recalls him for many things, among them is a sermon he delivered in 1910 after King Edward VII of England died. The sermon was titled “Death, the King of Terrors.” His most famous work, titled “Death Is Nothing at All” is derived from that sermon. A poetic portion of it, commonly called “All Is Well,” is often used at memorial services. Here is the original excerpt, which offers profound hope for all of us who are grieving. Hope for the future, and equally important, hope for the present:

“Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!”

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