Farewell To Me, by Benjamin Franklin
Here is the American Ben Franklin’s own witty epitaph written in 1728…
“The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer / Like the cover of an old book / Its contents worn out / And stript of its lettering and gilding / Lies here, food for the worms / Yet the work shall not be lost / For it will (as he believed) appear once more / In a new and more beautiful edition / Corrected and amended By the Author.” (Benjamin Franklin, American, Christian and Mason)
He died in 1790, at 84.
Btw, I am somewhat knowledgeable about the ideas of Franklin’s so-called ideas of Christianity. He, with Jefferson were certainly not Evangelicals. But he was raised by and with both Puritan parents, and he was close to a sense of Christian morals. So the religion of Ben Franklin, was a thing of certain intellectual and personal Deism foremost. Thus he was a “Christian” only in the most broad sense, i.e. in Christian morals and ideas ethical. See his letters and writings of religion in the link below.
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=1&page=101a
I really like this post. I needed that to cheer me up. Thanks, Fr. Robert.
Todd: I am glad it could be helpful somehow, certainly Ben Franklin was a profound American. However, his Christian faith was just moral and ethical it appears. And yet now today, Christianity often lacks true morality, and loses real “godliness”, for supposed social doctrine. One can see this in Obama’s so-called Christianity. But this exists too in much of British so-called Christianity, also. Here I think of St. Paul’s statement in 2 Tim. 3:5…”holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” The latter is now getting much harder!..i.e. to avoid!
I agree. That’s why I keep saying we need revival, another Great Awakening. There are lots of churches and church-like organizations (the equivalent of a porno store that hangs a ‘Jesus’ sign out front), but the Living Church – the body of Christ – is dwindling.
Regarding Ben Franklin, it was his statement that cheered me up, not his character witness or personal testimony. When something is true, it is true. And his true statement (as it applies in the Biblical sense) made me forget about my difficult day. It reminded me that one awesome day, I will trade this fallen self and its dying body for a complete, fully transformed glorified person. I will become literally remade in the image of Christ, and I will be that way forever. That gives me so much hope.
Amen!