In this week’s confession of a highly caffeinated Christian, I bring you the last sip from Fresh from the Brewer and I hope it’s good til the last drop. It’s the last column for the 9th year of our latest century and I think it’s important to always finish well.
The Fat Lady Sings
Being the self professed weirdo that I am, I tend to pay attention to otherwise strange things. About ten years ago I started collecting the last words of famous fictional characters and paying attention to the last things said in my Favorite movies and books.
A river runs through it, ends like this, "I am haunted by waters." Tombstone: “Tom Mix wept.” John Wayne in True Grit: “Come and visit a fat old man sometime." Captain Ahab in Moby Dick: "Thus, I give up the spear!" Another Captain named James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek Generations: "Well it was fun, …oh my." I bet some of you have some favorites too and you’re welcomed to send them to me.
That’s all folks
Then there are famous last words of real people; a very odd but delightful field of study in it’s very nature consists of nothing but conclusions. Despite the basic graveness, pardon the pun, of the situation people face at the moment of their death, there have been some who have decided to spring a joke in that final moment. Some of them really good ones.
King Louis the 14th told his wife he regretted leaving her but at her age he expected to see her shortly again. Then he died before she could slap him.
William Palmer, a man convicted in 1920 of poisoning his friend was silent when they put the noose around his neck. The hangman instructed him to step up onto the trap door and Palmer asked, "Are you sure it’s safe?"
James Rodgers, a convicted murderer executed in 1960 in Nevada, was asked by the rifle squad commander if he had any last request. "Why yes...a bullet proof vest, please!”
Oscar Wilde, the famous writer, died November 30, 1900 saying, “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” W.C. Fields, after falling to the floor and in terrible pain, calmed down, looked at the person trying to help him and said, "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
Douglas Fairbanks died in 1939. When he fell down someone asked him if he was Ok. "I never felt better," he said with his last breath.
Georges Jacques Danton was a French radical who, following the storming of the Bastille in 1789, became the acknowledged leader of the revolution. Eventually out-radicaled, by someone else, he was sentenced to death. When Danton was asked to place his neck in the guillotine, he gave his final instructions to the executioner. "Show my head to the people. It really is worth looking at.” Typically French I think.
The Curtains fall
One of my all time favorites are the last words of Wilson Mizner who died in 1933. Wilson Mizner was a U.S. writer, gambler and someone who put his trust in Jesus Christ at the very end of his life. On his deathbed, he briefly regained consciousness before dying and found a priest standing over him. Mizner waved the priest away saying, "Why should I talk to you? I've just been talking to your boss."
Many times the words that a Christian speaks as he faces eternity are a wonderful testimony.
Solomon foot, the senator and master of parliamentary law, died in his bed in 1866 with these last words. “What? Can this be death, has it come already? I see it, I see it! The gates are wide open it’s beautiful! It’s beautiful!"
William Tyndale, the famous reformer and martyr has an awesome testimony. The king of England hated him so much for daring to defy the church and print the bible in a common language for common people that he sent a scribe to write down Tyndale’s last words. It is said that the idea was to frame and hang up his enemy’s dying plea for mercy for all to read. Mere seconds before he died, Tyndale cried out with his last breath, "Lord, open the king of England’s eyes!" Hang that in your palace, king.
Robert Bruce, King of Scotland who lived from 1274 to 1329 said, "Now, God be with you, my dear children. I have breakfasted with you and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ."
Last call
There are a lot of different ways we could end the last word for this year. But let me do so the same way the bible ends. There are 31,175 verses in the old King James and the very last verse is a great word and my personal prayer for you and yours. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Revelation 22:21
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