The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and WomenMarvin, Frederic Rowland
History
The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women
Marvin, Frederic Rowland
Last words
RICHMOND (Leigh, a clergyman of the English Church, and author of
"Annals of the Poor" and "The Fathers of the English Church"),
1772-1827. "_Brother, brother, strong evidences, nothing but strong
evidences will do in such an hour as this. I have looked here and looked
there for them, and all have failed me, and so I cast myself on the
sovereign, free and full grace of God in the covenant by Jesus Christ;
and there, brother, there I have found peace._"
RICHTER (Jean Paul Frederich, German author), 1763-1825. "_My beautiful
flowers, my lovely flowers!_"
His wife brought him a wreath of flowers that a lady had sent him, for
every one wished to add some charm to his last days. As he touched them
carefully, for he could neither see nor smell them, he seemed to rejoice
in the images of the flowers in his mind, for he said repeatedly, "My
beautiful flowers, my lovely flowers!"
Although his friends sat around the bed, as he imagined it was night,
they conversed no longer; he arranged his arms as if preparing for
repose, which was to be to him the repose of death, and soon sank into a
tranquil sleep.... At length his respiration became less regular, but
his features always calmer, more heavenly. A slight convulsion passed
over the face; the physician cried out, "That is death!" and all was
quiet. The spirit had departed.
ROBERTSON (Frederick William, an English clergyman of singular purity
and depth of religious feeling, and of great ability), 1816-1853. "_I
cannot bear it; let me rest. I must die. Let God do his work._"
A member of his congregation, a chemist, asked him to look at his
galvanic apparatus. He took the ends of the wire, completed the circuit,
experiencing the tingling. He then held the end of the wire to the back
of the head and neck, without a single sensation being elicited. Then he
touched his forehead for a second. "Instantly a crashing pain shot
through, as if my skull was stove in, and a bolt of fire were burning
through and through." In the same letter he writes, "My work is done."
Some hope might have been entertained if he could have had a curate to
help him with his work. But the then Vicar of Brighton, rather an
unsympathetic man, refused to let him have the curate on whom his heart
was set. So he sank, unrelieved, into death. The dark secrets of the
hospital of torture hardly reveal greater suffering than Robertson
endured in those last hours. When they sought to change his position, he
said, "I cannot bear it; let me rest. I must die. Let God do his work."
These were his last words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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