EPITAPH

Go my friends and shed no tears,

I must lie here till Christ appears

Anonymous epitaph

Here Lie

The earthly remains of

JOHN BERRIDGE,

Late vicar of Everton,

And an itinerant servant of Jesus Christ,

Who loved His Master and His work,

And after running on His errands many

 years

Was called to wait on Him above.

READER,

No Salvation without new birth!

I was born in sin, February 1716.

Remained ignorant of my fallen state till

 1730.

Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1754.

Was admitted to Everton Vicarage, 1755.

Fled to Jesus alone for refuge, 1756.

Fell asleep in Christ, January 22, 1793.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

John Bradshaw (1602–59), English lawyer, regicide. Inscription at Bradshaw’s final burial place near Martha Bay. He presided at the trial of Charles I. Buried in Westminster Abbey, his body was exhumed at the Restoration and hanged in public, like that of Cromwell.

Morning breaks upon the tomb,

Jesus scatters all its gloom.

Day of triumph through the skies –

See the glorious Savior rise.

Christians! Dry your flowing tears,

Chase those unbelieving fears;

Look on his deserted grave,

Doubt no more his power to save.

Ye who are of death afraid,

Triumph in the scattered shade:

Drive your anxious cares away,

See the place where Jesus lay.

Collyer

O Lord, the faith thou didst give to St Paul, I cannot ask; the mercy thou didst show to St Peter; I dare not ask; but Lord, the grace thou didst show unto the dying robber, that, Lord, show to me.

Copernicus, epitaph of his own composition

“Called Back”

West Cemetery; Amherst, Massachusetts, self-written, Emily Dickinson

The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped 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.

Self-written, Epitaph on Benjamin Franklin’s grave

FREE AT LAST,

FREE AT LAST

THANK GOD ALMIGHTY

I’M FREE AT LAST.

Martin Luther King’s tombstone

Man must endure his going hence.

Headington Quarry Churchyard; Oxfordshire, England, C.S. Lewis

For thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize.

The inscription over David Livingstone’s burial place in Westminster Abbey

“John Newton, Clerk,

Once an infidel and libertine,

A servant of slaves in Africa:

Was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ,

Preserved, restored, pardoned,

And appointed to preach the Faith

He had long labored to destroy.

Near sixteen years at Olney in Bucks:

And twenty-seven years in this Church.”

John Newton, self-written

“I look upon all the world as my parish.” “God buries his workmen but carries on his work.”

On the monument to John and Charles Wesley in Westminster Abbey