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
TILDEN (Samuel Jones, distinguished American lawyer and politician. He
was twice a representative in the Legislature of the State of New York,
a member of two Constitutional Conventions, Governor of the State of New
York for two years, and a candidate for the Presidency of the United
States), 1814-1886. "_Water._"
During the closing hours of life he suffered greatly from thirst.
TIMROD (Henry, American poet), 1829-1867. "_Never mind, I shall soon
drink of the river of Eternal Life_," on finding that he could no longer
swallow water.
"An unquenchable thirst consumed him. Nothing could allay that dreadful
torture. He whispered as I placed the water to his lips, 'Don't you
remember that passage I once quoted to you from "King John?" I had
always such a horror of quenchless thirst, and now I suffer it!' He
alluded to the passage:--
And none of you will let the Winter come,
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw!
"Just a day or two before he left on a visit to you at 'Copse Hill,' in
one of our evening rambles he had repeated the passage to me with a
remark on the extraordinary force of the words.
"Katie took my place by him at five o'clock (in the morning), and never
again left his side. The last spoonful of water she gave him he could
not swallow. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I shall soon drink of the river of
eternal Life.'
"Shortly after he slept peacefully in Christ."
_From a letter by Timrod's sister._
TINDAL (Matthew, celebrated author and infidel), 1657-1733. "_O God--if
there be a God--I desire Thee to have mercy on me._"
Tindal is particularly celebrated for two publications, the first,
issued in 1706, being entitled, "The Rights of the Christian Church
Asserted against the Romish and all other Priests;" and the other,
published in 1730, called, "Christianity as Old as the Creation, or the
Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature."
TITUS (Flavius Vespasianus, Roman Emperor. He was called by his
subjects, "The love and delight of the human race"), 40-81. "_My life is
taken from me, though I have done nothing to deserve it; for there is no
action of mine of which I should repent, but one._" What that one action
was he did not say.
TOPLADY (Rev. Augustus Montague, English Calvinistic clergyman and vicar
of Broad Henbury, Devonshire. He was the author of several
controversial works and of a number of beautiful hymns, chief among
which is "Rock of Ages"), 1740-1778. "_No mortal man can live after the
glories which God has manifested to my soul._"[50]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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