Franklin's (Unused) Epitaph
Most people familiar with the story of Benjamin Franklin know that he wrote an epitaph which he desired to be placed on his tomb. The epitaph was not used, however, for reasons with which we are not familiar. As prepared by Franklin it has been copied into many an essay, and repeated in many a sermon. Here is how it reads:
The Body of Benjamin Franklin printer (Like the cover of an old book Its contents torn out And stript of its lettering and gilding) Lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost For it will (as he believed) appear once more In a new and more elegant edition Revised and corrected by The Author
Whatever Franklin's own personal beliefs as to immortality (and his life was scandalously immoral), there can be little fault found with his theology as expressed in the above few lines. But Franklin's life, like that of so vast a multitude who have shared his belief in immortality, was in many ways a practical denial of the affirmations of his epitaph. Suave in manner, urbane and sophisticated in all his contacts with others, the wise and witty statesman preeminently a man of this world. His thoughts of God, and his meditations about the meaning of life somehow became submerged in the overwhelming urgency of the present world. He was simply engulfed in the awtul demands of the here and now. It is a common weakness, a common failing. Many of us who hold far humbler positions in life than did Franklin are still not immune to the strident claims of the hour.
The faithful child of God, however, is ever aware that he is a creature of eternity. Nothing can ever completely blot this from his mind. Every action of his life, every decision, is made in view not only of the immediate consequences, but in view of eternity. Every word that he speaks is measured in terms of eternity, not merely of the moment.
As the years begin to accumulate and the shadows start to lengthen in the life of any man, he is usually prone to think more and more seriously of what lies beyond. In the exciting years of childhood, the growing, aggressive and hardworking years of adulthood, thoughts of eternity are often crowded out. But when the demands of life begin to lessen when children are grown and away from home, and the evening of life approaches, the average man begins to realize that this world for him will soon end. He longs for the comfort, the consolation, the blessed assurance which he sees in the lives of faithful Christians, and which he finds so fully manifested in the pages of Holy Writ. He wishes he could have the same calm certainty of a home beyond the grave that moved the great apostle Paul to write, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day."
But, alas! no matter how strong and ardent may be the wish for such a faith, no matter how passionately he may desire such bold certainty, he finds he simply does not have it, and cannot achieve it by any act of the mind or will. For this kind of confidence is the result of growth; it can come in no other way. It is the possession only of the man who has walked with God through the long years of earthly living. It is the fruit of a lifetime friendship, not the over-night product of a swift and hurried interest as the flame of life begins to flicker towards its close. Brother T. B. Larimore near the close of his life was talking with a younger gospel preacher, and commented: "To a man who has walked with God all his life, as the end approaches, God vouchsafes a faith that amounts to certainty. I have not the shade of a shadow of a doubt as to what awaits me beyond the grave. I dread the cold loneliness of the tomb, but I am superbly confident of what lies beyond it."
This points up a truth that many have missed, viz., the thoughts, emotions, convictions, and feelings that a man possesses grow out of his life; they are not developed in one brilliant flash of insight. That is why (one reason why, at least) it is so tremendously important that the right teaching, the right convictions, the right attitudes be started in the tender and formative years of youth.
Benjamin Franklin's epitaph stated (in printer's idiom) the profoundest and most awesome truth of human existence — the immortality of the soul. But a statement of the truth is not enough; that statement can have meaning only if it is the reflection of a life that is lived each day "with an eye cocked to eternity."