In the nineteenth century, biographers were anxious to tell their readers what the “last words” of their subjects were just prior to his/her death. This was not a morbid fascination with death and dying but a recognition that the Christian religion played a vital part in their expressions of hope and the future life.

In Robert Richardson’s remarkable Memoirs of Alexander Campbell there are references to both the death of Alexander Campbell and the death of his father, Thomas, some 11 years before. According to Richardson the elder Campbell spent the last days of his years at his son’s home. Though blind, he would often “request his visitors or Mrs. Alexander Campbell, whose attentions were unwearied, to read to him certain hymns and Scriptures which he desired to hear or memorize”(Memoirs, Vol. 3, p. 605). He delivered his “farewell address, June 1, 1851 -a discourse on the two great commandments, love to God and love to our neighbor. Even though he lived almost three years after this discourse, he grew weaker and, as Richardson says, ‘he manifested the same calm confidence in God and humble reliance on his Divine Redeemer which had ever characterized his life’.” (ibid, p. 675).

The death of Alexander Campbell is given even more attention by Mr. Richardson. “It was beautiful to see …