The Central Presbyterian

Dying Words of Distinguished Men.

It is refreshing to find some evidence of deep consciousness of the vast solemnity befitting a dying hour among men endowed beyond the average of their race with intellectual strength, as in the case of Grotius, who, on being asked for his dying admonition, exclaimed, "Be serious!" All his vast learning did not allow him to think lightly of the paramount claims of those things which make for our eternal peace. Sir William Jones, one of the most brilliant geniuses that ever lived, affords similar evidence of the right estimate of human learning, compared with the more important concerns of the future world. "It matters not," says Johnson, "how a man dies, but how he lives." And even skeptical Rousseau observes, "The great error is placing such an estimate on this life, as if our being depended on it. and we were nothing after death. To attach ourselves but slightly to human affairs, is the best method of learning to die." When Garrick showed Dr. Johnson his fine house and gardens, at Hampton Court, instead of his replying in the language of flattery, he exclaimed. "Ah! David. David these are the things which make a death-bed terrible!"

Grotius cried out, "Oh! I have consumed my days in laborious trifling!" Dr. Johnson lamented many things in his past career, but when the light of evangelical truth broke in upon his mind, he obtained Christian peace, in which he died. Baron Haller died expressing his renewed confidence in God's mercy, through Jesus Christ.

The deist Hobbes said. with horror, ir his last moments, "I am taking a fearful leap in the dark." Cardinal Mazarine said, "Oh. my poor soul, what is to become of thee? whither wilt thou go?"

The following affords a brilliant contrast to some of the foregoing instances:

The aged Simeon, as he took the young Saviour in his arms, said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." When the martyr Stephen fell beneath the missiles of his enemies, he exclaimed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!" When the chain was placed on the neck of John Huss, he exclaimed, with a smile, "Welcome this chain, for Christ's sake!" The fagots having been piled up to his neck, the Duke of Bavaria, in a brutal manner, called on him to abjure. "No, no!" cried the martyr, "I take God to witness that I preached none but his pure doctrines, and what I taught I am ready to seal with my blood." Jerome, of Prague, who followed Huss to the stake after a few months. said to the executioner. who was about to kindle the fire behind him, "Bring thy torch hither; do thine office before my face. Had I feared death, I might have avoided it." The last words Luther was heard to utter were, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." "Nothing but heaven." said the mild Melancthon, when asked by his friends if he wanted any thing; and then he gently fell asleep in Christ. George Wishart cried out at the stake, "For the sake of the true gospel given me by the grace of God, I suffer this day with a glad heart. Behold and consider my visage; ye shall not see me change color—I fear not this fire." The last prayer offered by Tindall, who translated the Bible and suffered martyrdom in 1536, was, "O Lord, open the eyes of the King of England." Lawrence Saunders who suffer martyrdom during the reign of Queen Mary, kissed the stake to which he was bound, exclaiming, "Welcome the cross of Christ; welcome life everlasting!" "Be of good heart, brother," cried Ridley to Latimer, "for our God will either assuage this flame, or enable us to abide it." Latimer replied, "Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall this day light such a candle in England, as, by God's grace, shall never be put out." Bergerus, councillor of the Emperor Maximilian, said on his dying bed, "Farewell, oh farewell, all earthly things, and welcome heaven." George Buchanan, the ornament of Scottish literature, could write Latin verse with a purity almost worthy the Augustan age, was taken with his last illness when in the country. To the message of King James, who summoned him to be at court in twenty days, be sent this reply, "Before the days mentioned by your majesty shall be expired, I shall be in that place where few kings enter." The Marquis of Argyle. when advancing to the scaffold, said, "I would die like a Christian."

Among the last words of Claude were these: "I am so oppressed that I can attend only to the great truths of religion, namely, the mercy of God and the gracious aids of the Holy Ghost."—Pittsburgh Ch'n Advocate.