Death-bed scenes : or, Dying with and without religion ...

Preface

This volume ernes its origin to a season of calamity. While the cholera was raging in the city of New- York during the summer of 1849, the author was called to witness a great variety of " death-bed scenes." At the same time his own health was too much shaken to admit of any severe literary pursuit. Under those circumstance^ the work was suggested to his mind as one likely to subserve a useful purpose; and during that season most of the material for the work was collected and arranged. Since then, it has occupied the hours of respite from more imperious duties, in revision and preparation for the press. In now presenting it to the public, the author would express the hope that it may promote the great interests of true religion.

The selection of examples has been made with great care, from a wide range, so far as age, place, avocation, condition, character, and opinions are concerned. It has been the aim of the author to give a condensed view of the character and life of each individual, as preparatory to the delineation of the closing scene. Everything extraneous has been carefully excluded. The subjects naturally range themselves into two classes ; and to correspond with this, the work has been divided into two

6 PREFACE.

parts, one picture exhibiting the close of a life of righteousness, the other of a life of sin. Part first — The Dying Christian — comprises six sections under the following heads: — Christian Martyrs — Christian Ministers — Christian Men — Christian Women — Christian Children and Youth — Dying Regrets of Worldly-minded Professors. Part second — Dying Without Religion — comprises five sections, as follows: — The Dying Sinner — The Dying Backslider — The Dying Persecutor — The Dying Infidel — Insensibility in the Hour of Death. Under each of these heads the most striking and instructive examples that have occurred are presented ; the whole forming the most complete array of facts ever embodied in any one work, on a subject of universal and most weighty concern.

D. W. Clark.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.,

Section I. — The Christian Martyrs. Christian Martyrs Page 25

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ 27

2. St. Stephen 33

3. Ignatius 36

4. Symphorsa and her Sons 37

5. Polycarp 38

6. Justin Martyr 39

7. Epipodius and Alexander 40

8. Vivia Perpetua 42

9. Blandina 45

10. Laurentius 47

11. Julian of Cilicia 48

12. Cyprian of Carthage 49

13. John Huss 51

14. Jerome of Prague 56

15. Esch and Voes 60

16. Henry Zuphten 63

17., The two Wirths 66

18. John Leclerc 70

19. Schuch 73

20. The Hermit of Livry 75

21. John Lambert 77

22. Ann Askew ; 80

23. Adam Wallace 84

24. Hugh Laverick and John Aprice 86

25. Bishops Ridley and Latimer 87

26. Archbishop Cranmer 91

27. John Rogers Page 97

28. Lawrence Saunders KM

29. John Hooper, Bishop of Worcester and Gloucester 105

30. Dr, Rowland Taylor 108

31. Mr. Thomas Tomkins 112

32. Mr. Thomas Haukes 113

33/Mr. Christopher Waid 114

34. Mr. Dirick Carver 115

35. Mr. Robert Glover 116

36. Mr. John Philpot 117

37. Mrs. Cicely Ormes 120

38. Mr. Thomas Hudson 120

39. Lord Viscount Winceslaus 122

40. Lord Harant 122

41. Sir Gasper Kaplitz 123

42. Mr. Christopher Chober 124

43. Rev. George Wishart 124

44. Hugh McKail 129

45. Monsieur Homel 130

46. A Negro Martyr 132

Section II. — Ministers of the Gospel

1. Risdon Darracott 133

2. Edward Payson, D. D 140

3. Richard Baxter 148

4. Dr. Doddridge 150

5. John Wesley 157

6. Richard Watson 167

7. Rev. W. Day 170

8. Mr. M'Laren, of Edinburgh 171

9. Dr. Henry Peckwell 171

10. Bernard Gilpin 172

11. Henry Martyn 175

12. Rev. Thomas Scott 181

13. Richard Cecil 186

14. Claudius Buchanan 189

15. Rev. R. Hall 195

16. Rev. John Ely 197

17. Rev. Dr. Hamilton 199

18. Rev. David Simpson 200

19. Dr. Wilbur Fisk 205

20. Rev. S. B. Bangs 211

21. John Fletcher Page 213

22. Dr. Isaac Watts 218

23. Rev. Charles Wesley 220

24. The Venerable Bede 222

25. Rev. Charles Simeon 224

26. Matthew Henry 225

27. Rev. A. M. Toplady 226

28. Ziegenbalg 228

29. John Elliot 230

30. Thomas Tregoss 232

31. Joseph Alleine 233

32. James Hervey 238

33. Dr. Donne 243

34. Christian F. Swartz 243

35. Jeremiah Evarts 245

37. Bishop Bedell 248

38. John Knox 253

39. Robert Bruce 253

40. Samuel Rutherford 254

41. Dr. Wm. P. Chandler 255

42. Wm. Romaine 257

43. An Aged Minister 257

Section III. — Christian Men

1. Robert Boyle 258

2. John Howard 260

3. Curaens, a German Physician 263

4. Sir William Jones 264

5. Sir Philip Sidney 265

6. Lord Teignmouth 267

7. Joseph Addison 270

8. George Moir 273

9. John Holland 273

10. Boerhaave 275

11. Sir Matthew Hale 277

12. John Locke 279

13. Joseph Hardcastle 282

14. Sir Walter Raleigh .• 284

15. Louis IX., King of France 288

16. Blaise Pascal 290

17. Louis, Duke of Orleans 291

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18. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton Page 293

19. Sir Isaac Newton 294

20. Dr. James Hope 297

21. Lord Harrington 298

22. Petumber 299

23. Ferrao 300

24. " Me," a Blind Warrior 301

25. Donald Morrison 304

26. Lord William Russell 307

27. Lord Bacon 307

28. John Welch 308

29. Bergerus 308

30. Zuniger 309

31. Lieut. Daniel Murray 309

32. Col. David Mack 313

33. Dr. T. W. Cowgill 314

Section IV. — Christian Women

1. Harriet Newell... 319

2. Hannah More 331

3. Felicia Hemans 334

4. Charlotte Elizabeth 337

5. Mrs. Elizabeth Fry 339

6. Elizabeth Mortimer 341

7. Hannah Housman 349

8. Elizabeth Rowe 353

9. JaneRatcliff 356

10. Lady Rachel Russell 359

11. Queen Mary 361

12. Lady Jane Grey 364

13. Jane, Queen of Navarre 368

14. Countess of Huntingdon 369

15. Mrs. Legare 372

16. Lady Elizabeth Hastings 373

17. Margaretta Klopstock 375

18. Mrs. Fletcher 384

19. Mrs. Would 387

20. Catharine Bretterg 388

21. Mrs. Elizabeth James 389

22. Agnes Morris, a poor Negro Woman 391

23. A Negro Slave in Antigua 392

24. Anna Maria Schurman 394

25. A Young Woman Page 396

26. Isabella Graham 397

27. Mrs. Mary Francis 399

Section V. — Christian Children and Youth

1. Wilberforce Richmond 402

2. Eliza M 408

3. Eliza Cunningham 412

4. Ellen Foulds 419

5. Sophia Trentham 422

6. The Little Boy's Last Prayer 423

7. Mary Frances Right 424

8. "I have a Great High Priest " 425

9. Son of the Duke of Hamilton 426

10. The Dying Miner Boy 427

11. The Mountain Boy 428

12. Spiritual Recognitions 429

Section VI. — Dying Regrets of Worldly-Minded Professors

1. Cardinal Richelieu 434

2. Cardinal Wolsey 435

3. Csesar Borgia 437

4. Hugo Grotius 437

5. Sir John Mason 438

6. Salmasius 439

7. Pope Eugenius 440

8. Cardinal Beaufort 441

10. A Dying Nobleman 443

Section I. — The Dying Sinner

1. Louis XV., of France Page 449

2. A Dying Follower of the World 450

3. Lord Chesterfield 453

4. Philip III., King of Spain 456

5. Terrors of Death 457

6. Sir Thomas Smith 460

7. Duke of Buckingham 461

8. A Sceptical Physician 463

9. A Young Lady 464

11. Talleyrand 467

12. John Nisbet 467

13. Sir Thomas Scott 468

14. William Emmerson 469

15. Dying Without Hope 469

16. Dying Regrets 473

17. A Rich Man 474

18. Louisa 475

19. Madame De Pompadour 481

Section II. — The Dying Backslider

1. William Pope 483

2. The Mother of David Hume 493

3. Death of an Aged Backslider 494

4. The Apostate 498

5. Peter Dean 503

6. Francis Spira 504

7. A Young Woman 507

Section III. — The Dying Persecutor

1. Some of the Early Persecutors 510

2. Death of several Persecutors in the Reign of Mary 511

3. Maximin 514

4. Galerius Page 515

5. Julian the Apostate 517

6. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester 518

7. George John Jeffreys 518

8. Antiochus IV 519

9. Philip II, of Spain 519

10. Alexander Campbell 519

11. Charles IX., of France 520

12. Rockwood 521

13. Bishop Bramble 522

Section IV. — The Dying Infidel

1. Voltaire 523

2. Thomas Paine 526

3. Francis Newport .«. 529

4. Servin 533

5. Edward Gibbon 535

6. Hobbes 536

7. Diderot 537

8. D'Alembert 537

9. Madame Du Defiant 538

10. A Dying Infidel _. 539

11. Altamont 540

12. Antitheus 542

Section V. — Insensibility in the Hour of Death

1. David Hume 546

2. Eousseau 552

3. Horace Walpole 554

4. Frederic of Prussia 555

5. Cardinal Mazarine 555

6. Lord Byron 557

7. Robert Burns 559

8. Mirabeau 559

Introduction

From the earliest ages the dying expressions of men have excited peculiar attention, and been preserved with peculiar care. Even the sacred Scriptures give their sanction to that feeling which would hallow the last words of the departed. How emphatic the record of the dying expressions of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph ; of David, Elijah, and Elisha ; of Simeon, Stephen, and Paul ; and, above all, the dying expressions of our Lord himself! From whatever cause this desire to receive and to treasure up these dying expressions may arise, whether from the promptings of natural sympathy, from a simple desire to know their state of mind at the last moment, or from a presentiment that the dying receive a clearer revelation of truth and a supernatural insight into the future, it is scarcely necessary for us to inquire. Certain it is, that the patriarchs at that season were gifted with the divine power of prophecy, and foretold the destinies of their posterity. It seems, indeed, to have been a sentiment prevalent from the earliest antiquity, that the nearer men approach to their dissolution, the more spiritual do they become, and the greater insight do they have into the future. Thus the dying Socrates is represented as saying, that he is desirous of prophesying to the Athenians what should afterwards happen ; "For," says he, "I am now arrived at that state in which men prophesy most, viz., when they are about to die." Xenophon, the Grecian historian, also represents

Cyrus as declaring, when at the point of death, " That the soul of man at that moment appears most divine, and then also foresees something of future events." Diodorus declares this to have been the opinion of the wise men of his, and of preceding ages. He also says, that " Pythagoras, the Samian, and others of the ancient naturalists, have demonstrated that the souls of men are immortal, and, in consequence of this opinion, that they also foreknow future events, at the time they are making their separation in death." Shakspeare, in the language he ascribes to the dying Percy, gives utterance to the same sentiment : —

" 0, 1 could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies heavy on my tongue."

Schiller, a little before his death, with a reviving look, said, "Many things are becoming to me plainer and clearer."

The idea that departing spirits, and especially the spirits of good men, receive supernatural manifestations, must often occur to those who are called to witness dying scenes, and who are accustomed to meditate thoughtfully upon them. Nor does any high improbability attach itself to this idea. The dying linger for a moment upon the confines of both worlds ; and why may they not, when just leaving the one, catch some glimpses of the other ?

" Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view Who stand upon the threshold of the new."

In death the natural and the supernatural meet. The two worlds here bound upon each other. The saints of God are divinely prepared for their exit. Heaven was opened to the vision of the dying Stephen. Angels gathered around the dying Lazarus. It was divinely revealed to Peter, that he was shortly to put off the mortal tabernacle ; and to Paul, that he was shortly to be offered up, and that the time of his departure was at hand. And is there not a large class of facts — some of which are recorded in this volume — which have a most obvious connexion with this general thought, and a most distinct and impressive bearing upon the relation that exists between the present and the eternal world and the revelations that may be made to the soul while in its transition state? Said a dying Sunday-school scholar from my flock, while in the very article of death, but with perceptive and reasoning powers still unimpaired, " The angels have come." The pious Blumhardt exclaimed, " Light breaks in ! Hallelujah !" and expired. Dr. McLain said, " I can now contemplate clearly the grand scene to which I am going." Sargent, the biographer of Martin, with his countenance kindled into a holy fervour, and his eye beaming with unearthly lustre, fixed his gaze as upon a definite object, and exclaimed, " That bright light !" and when asked what light, answered, " The light of the Sun of righteousness." The Lady Elizabeth Hastings, a little before she expired, cried out, with a beaming countenance and enraptured voice, "Lord, what is it that I see?" and Olympia Morata, an exile for her faith, as she sank in death, exclaimed, " I distinctly behold a place filled with ineflable light!"

Dr. Bateman, a distinguished physician and philosopher, died exclaiming, " What glory ! the angels are waiting for me !" In the midst of delirium, Bishop Wilson was transported with the vision of angels. Not unfrequently the mind is filled with the most striking conceptions of the presence of departed friends. A most affecting instance of such " spiritual recognitions " is given in the subsequent pages of this volume. Most touching is the story of Carnaval, who was long known as a lunatic wandering about the streets of Paris. His reason had been unsettled by the early death of the object of his tender and most devoted affection. He could never be made to comprehend that she was dead; but spent his life in the vain search for the lost object of his love. In most affecting terms he would mourn her absence, and chide her long delay. Thus life wore away ; and when its ebbing tide was almost exhausted, starting as from a long and unbroken revery, the countenance of the dying man was overspread with sudden joy, and stretching forth his arms, as if he would clasp some object before him, he uttered the name of his long- lost love, and exclaiming, " Ah, there thou art at last!" expired. The aged Hannah More, in her dying agony, stretching out her arms as though she would grasp some object, uttered the name of a much-loved deceased sister, cried "Joy!" and then sank down into the arms of death.

We are far, however, from thinking, with the poet philosopher, Young, that

" Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."

For instances are not wanting which afford striking illustrations of Pope's " ruling passion strong in death." Thus the dying warrior, when life and animation are almost extinct, may exclaim, " One charge more, my braves," and then sink in the conflict with his last foe. The cold speculatist, whose very heart has become seared and frozen by the ungenial abstractions that have puzzled and bewildered the intellect, dying, may still be absorbed in the thought, " I am now going to satisfy my curiosity on the principle of things, on space, on infinity, on being, on nothing." The drunkard, brought by dissipation to life's last hour, may resolve with his latest breath to " curse God and die drunk." The miser — who can better describe his " ruling passion " than Pope, himself?

" ' I give and 1 devise/ old Enclio said, And sigh'd, ' my lands and tenements to Ned.'

* Your money, sir V ' My money, sir, what, all ? Why, if I must/ then wept, ' I give to Paul.' ' The manor, sir V ' The manor ! hold V he cried, ' Xot that — I cannot part with that V — and died."

The " ruling passion strong in death " is drawn in another picture, equally true and graphic, by the same master hand : —

" ' Odious ! in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke V Were the last words that poor Xarcipsa spoke. 4 Xo ! let a charming chintz and brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face. One need not, sure, be frightful, though one's dead ; And, Betty, give my cheek a little red/ ;;

The poor, frivolous, sceptical Rabelais, on his death-bed, said, "I am going to try the great Perhaps!" Anne Boleyn, the mistress of Henry VIII., vain of her finelyturned and beautiful neck, just before her execution said to the lieutenant of the Tower, " I hear that the executioner is very good, and I have a little neck ;" at the same time clasping it with her hands and laughing. Sir Thomas More, equally vain of his beard, when he had laid his head upon the block, and the executioner was about to aim the blow of death, said to him, " Stay, friend, till I put aside my beard, for that never committed treason." Fabre d'Eglantine, when preparing for the guillotine, only regretted that he was compelled to leave unpublished a comedy which he had written, and which he apprehended Vananes would publish as his own. Talma, the French tragedian, during his dying moments, continually called on the name of Voltaire, as if he knew no other divinity. It is certainly possible, then, to hug one's delusion even in a dying hour — to die i; as dieth the fool." Nor, on the other hand, can we fully receive — though the exceptions are still more unfrequent — that expression of Augustine — "Non potest male mori, qui bene vixerit" — No man can die ill who has lived well. For we believe it possible, from some idiosyncrasy of the individual, some peculiarity of temperament, some peculiar effect of the physical malady, or even from some morbid state of the moral and religious feelings, for one who has lived well to die gloomy and wretched. The poet Cowper, though once possessed of the consolations of religion, afterwards became subject to despondency, which at length deepened into despair. He believed himself forsaken of God and destined to eternal ruin. This lamentable state of mind cast a gloomy shade over his later years, and it was hardly lifted up even at the closing scene of his life. When a friend sought to encourage him with the prospect of a speedy release from suffering, and of an entrance upon the glorified state, he besought him to desist; and the night of death as it was gathering around him seemed only to deepen the darkness of that delusion that had embittered his life. Yet no one could doubt the genuineness of his piety, or the security of his future state.

These statements are not made to lessen in the mind the importance of the spiritual phenomena exhibited while in the dying state; but to guard against undue and improper reliance upon them, and to prepare the way for an inquiry into their true value. But to pass from these facts to the general conclusion, that the dying scene is unaffected by the moral and religious character, the past history, or the future prospects of the individual, would be unwarranted either by reason or facts. We might say that the state of the mind in the hour of death is not an infallible test of truth ; and even that it is not an infallible test of the religious state of the individual. The Hindoo widow will sit down with tranquil composure upon the funeral pyre ; and the Indian savage, while the fire of his enemies is kindling and burning around him, will hurl a frenzied exulting triumph in their teeth. But these were instances of minds acted upon by some mighty impulse — a height of enthusiasm or an excitement of passion, that for the moment held in check every other instinct or impulse. A sublime exhibition of this was given in the Girondists who went forth to execution chanting their national hymn, and as one after another continued to fall under the blade of death, the others continued their song till the last victim was heard alone. Seneca truthfully said, that "Not only the brave and wretched, but even the fastidious can wish to die." And Lord Bacon, also, said, " Revenge triumphs over death ; love slights it ; honour aspires to it ; grief flies to it ; fear preoccupates it." But widely different are all these from the scenes of triumph exhibited by the Christian in the hour of death ; or, on the other hand, from those scenes of despair and woe exhibited by the dying sinner, from whose eye no rank delusion or frenzied enthusiasm has shut out the light of God's truth, and the appalling retributions of the future state.

The Holy Scriptures do unquestionably make an emphatic distinction between the death of the righteous and that of the wicked ; and human experience is found in strict . accordance with divine revelation. " The sting of death is sin ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Of the righteous it is said, "he hath hope in his death," and that his end is " peace ;" but of the wicked, that he " is driven away in his wickedness." The righteous is represented as "in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ ;" while again it is said that " when the wicked man dieth, his expectations shall perish." The dying saint is heard to exclaim, " We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord ;" — " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me ;" — " My flesh and my heart faileth. but

God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever :" but of the wicked it is said, " Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away," and " he would fain flee out of God's hand." With these facts of revelation before us, who can doubt but that there is a moral and religious significance in the phenomena of life's closing scene ! It is here, in the light of revealed truth, that we learn why the righteous, " with heaven full in view," can meet death with the song of triumph —

" The festal morn, my God, is come, That calls me to thy hallow'd home."

While, on the other hand, the mental agonies of the wicked, stung with remorse, wrought up to desperation by " a fearful looking-for of judgment," consciencesmitten and dismayed,

" Tell what lesson may he read Beside a sinner's dying bed."

These death-bed scenes constitute a part of "the portable evidence of Christianity." It is the concentrated light of earthly experience reflected from the future back upon the disc of time. It is at this moment that the dying sinner seems to anticipate the horrors of the damned — the dying saint to receive a foretaste of the felicities of the redeemed.

fkrt 5xr0t,

THE DYING CHRISTIAN.

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THE DYING CHRISTIAN.