The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 32

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 Const.i.tutional 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage:--

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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d--if there be a G.o.d--I desire Thee to have mercy on me._"

Tindal is particularly celebrated for two publications, the first, issued in 1706, being ent.i.tled, "The Rights of the Christian Church a.s.serted 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."

t.i.tUS (Flavius Vespasia.n.u.s, 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, Devons.h.i.+re. 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 G.o.d has manifested to my soul._"[50]

[50] Dr. Moore states that when the vital flame was flickering, the heart was faltering with every pulse, and every breath was a convulsion, he said to a dying believer, who had not long before been talking in broken words of undying love, "Are you in pain?" and the reply, with apparently the last breath, was, "It is delightful!"

In another person, in whom a gradual disease had so nearly exhausted the physical powers that the darkness of death had already produced blindness, the sense of G.o.d's love was so overpowering, that every expression for many hours referred to it in rapturous words, such as, "This is life--this is heaven--G.o.d is love--I need not faith--I have the promise." It is easy to attribute such expressions to delirium; but this does not alter their character, nor the reality of the state of the soul which produces them. Whether a dying man can maintain any continued attention to things through his senses, we need not inquire. It is enough for him, if, in the spirit, he possesses the peace and joy of believing.--_The Use of the Body in Relation to the Mind._

TURENNE (Henry de la, Vicomte, famous French general, killed at Salzbach in July, 1675), 1611-1675. "_I do not mean to be killed to-day._" Said just before he was struck by a cannon-ball.

TYNDALE, or TINDALE (William, the venerable martyr and translator of the Bible), 1484-1536. "_Lord, open the eyes of the King of England._" He was first strangled and afterward burnt.

The merits of Tyndale must ever be recognized and honored by all who enjoy the English Bible, for their authorized version of the New Testament has his for its basis. He made good his early boast, that plough-boys should have the Word of G.o.d. His friends speak of his great simplicity of heart, and commend his abstemious habits, his zeal and his industry; while even the imperial procurator who prosecuted him styles him "h.o.m.o, doctus, pius et bonus."

TYNDALL (John, English physicist, author of many scientific books, chief among which are "Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion," "Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and Glaciers," and "Floating Matter in the Air"), 1820-. It is uncertain what were the last words of Prof. Tyndall, but the last words which he wrote for publication were in response to a request from an American syndicate for a Christmas message to his American friends. The message closed with these words: "I choose the n.o.bler part of Emerson, when, after various disenchantments, he exclaims, 'I covet truth!' The gladness of true heroism visits the heart of him who is really competent to say that."

TYNG (Dudley A., a young and gifted clergyman whose last words furnished the inspiration for Rev. Dr. Duffield's popular hymn, "Stand up for Jesus"). "_Know Him? He is my Saviour--my all. Father, stand up for Jesus!_"

Leaving his study for a moment, he went to the barn floor, where a mule was at work on a horse-power, sh.e.l.ling corn. Patting him on the neck, the sleeve of his silk study gown caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was torn out by the roots. His death occurred in a few hours.

When he was dying his father said to him, "Dudley, your mother has your hand in hers, can you press it a little that she may know you recognize her?" The young man made no response. Later his father said, "Dudley, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?" He started, and said, "Know Him? He is my Saviour--my all. Father, stand up for Jesus!"

USHER (James, Archbishop), 1580-1656. "_Lord, forgive my sins; especially my sins of omission._" His last words are sometimes given thus, "G.o.d be merciful to me, a sinner."

VALDES (Gabriel de la Concepcion, commonly known as Placido),--1844.

"_Here! fire here!_"

Valdes was a full-blooded negro. He was executed with twenty other persons, for conspiracy to liberate the black population, the slaves of the Spanish inhabitants of Cuba. The execution took place at Havana, July, 1844. Seated on a bench, with his back turned, as ordered, to the soldiers appointed to shoot him, he said: "Adios, mundo; no hay piedad para mi. Soldados, fuego." "Adieu, O world; here is no pity for me.

Soldiers, fire." Five b.a.l.l.s entered his body. He arose, turned to the soldiers, and said, his face wearing an expression of superhuman courage:--"Will no one have pity on me? Here!" pointing to his heart, "fire here!" At that instant two b.a.l.l.s pierced his heart and he fell dead. Little is known of him but his death, which was described in the _Heraldo_, of Madrid. "The Poems of a Cuban Slave," edited by Dr.

Madden, are believed to have been the composition of the gifted Valdes.

VANDERBILT (Cornelius "Commodore," President of New York Central Railroad under whose management that road was consolidated with the Hudson River Railroad. He laid the foundation of an extensive railroad system and of an immense family fortune), 1794-1877. "_Yes, yes, sing that for me. I am poor and needy_," to one who was singing to him the familiar hymn, "Come, ye sinners, poor and needy."

VANE (Sir Henry), 1612-1662. "_Blessed be G.o.d, I have kept a conscience void of offence to this day, and have not deserted the righteous cause for which I suffer._"

Vane was condemned for treason, and beheaded June 14, 1662.

Vane, young in years, but in sage counsels old, Than whom a better senator ne'er held The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled The fierce Epirat and the African bold, Both spiritual power and civil thou hast learned: Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.--_Milton._

VANINI (Lucilio), 1585-1619. "_Illi in extremis prae timore imbellis sudor; ego imperturbatus morior._" See _Grammond, Hist. Gal. iii._ 211.

After travelling through Germany, Holland and England, he went to Toulouse, where he was arrested and condemned by the parliament to be burned alive. He wrote "Amphitheatrum aeternae Providentiae," and "De Admirandis Naturae Arcanis," for which latter work he suffered in 1619.

VESPASIAN (t.i.tus Flavius, Roman Emperor), 9-79. "_An Emperor ought to die standing._" A short time before this he said in attending to the apotheosis of the emperors, "I suppose I shall soon be a G.o.d."

VEUSTER DE (Joseph, the "Leper-Priest of Molokai." When he became "religious" he took the name of Damien, after the second of two brothers, Cosmos and Damien, both physicians, martyrs and saints in the Roman Catholic Church. He is commonly known as "Father Damien").--1889.

"_Well! G.o.d's will be done. He knows best. My work with all its faults and failures, is in His hands, and before Easter I shall see my Saviour._"

There has been much discussion with regard to the character and work of Damien. The Rev. C. M. Hyde. D. D., of Honolulu, a missionary of high repute, and who had personal knowledge of the leper-priest, wrote a letter to the Rev. H. B. Gage, which was published in "The Sydney Presbyterian" of October 26, 1889. In that letter he said:

"The simple truth is, he (Father Damien) was a coa.r.s.e, dirty man, headstrong and bigoted. He was not sent to Molokai, but went there without orders; did not stay at the leper settlement (before he became himself a leper), but circulated freely over the whole island (less than half the island is devoted to the lepers), and he came often to Honolulu. He had no hand in the reforms and improvements inaugurated, which were the work of our Board of Health, as occasion required and means were provided. He was not a pure man in his relations with women, and the leprosy of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness. Others have done much for the lepers, our own ministers, the government physicians, and so forth, but never with the Catholic idea of meriting eternal life."

To the statements of Dr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson replied in most violent language, of which the following is a sample:

"You remember that you have done me several courtesies for which I was prepared to be grateful. But there are duties which come before grat.i.tude, and offences which justly divide friends, far more acquaintances. Your letter to the Rev. H. B. Gage is a doc.u.ment which, in my sight, if you had filled me with bread when I was starving, if you had set up to nurse my father when he lay a-dying, would yet absolve me from the bonds of grat.i.tude."

After this and more vituperation follows an a.n.a.lysis of Dr. Hyde's letter, and an elaborate defense of Father Damien. Men will differ in their opinions of the leper-priest, and, no doubt, much may be said on both sides of the case; but to the compiler of this work, who, in his own home, heard the story in all its details from the lips of Dr. Hyde, the beatification of Damien is, to say the least, a grotesque absurdity.

VICTORIA (Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of England and Ireland and Empress of India), 1819-1901. It is said, though upon what authority the compiler is unable to discover, that the last words of Queen Victoria were, "_Oh, that peace may come._" It is understood that the Queen was opposed to the war in South Africa, and her last words would seem to indicate that her thoughts, even in the hour of death, were busy with the unhappy conflict.