Benjamin Franklin

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Visited July 2004

To live in Philadelphia is to be surrounded by Ben Franklin. Streets, banks, stadiums, bridges, malls, museums all carry his name. And the man wasn’t even born here. Ben Franklin was actually born in Boston, January 1706, however there is no hint he ever rooted for the Red Sox.

The basics of Franklin’s life are rattling around the brain of anyone who ever took American History. The fifteenth of seventeen children, he ran away from home to Philadelphia at age 17, where he fell into the printing trade and gradually built a business as a publisher. His colorful life included a common law marriage that lasted 44 years, an illegitimate son who would grow up to be a British governor of New Jersey during the Revolutionary War (and thus Ben’s enemy), a legacy of scientific discoveries, and a key role in drafting the Declaration of Independence.  As a diplomat he represented the Colonies in the courts of both England and France. Franklin’s significance as a founding father is evident in the simple fact that he was a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Probably my favorite Franklin story is told by David McCullough in his book John Adams, where Franklin and Adams were sent by the Continental Congress to meet with the British commander Lord Howe. Stopping overnight at an inn, the two rotund statesmen found themselves sharing a bed in a room with only one small window. They spent the evening arguing over whether keeping the window open or shut would provide greater risk for sickness; debating two equally wrong personal theories of germ spread. (McCullough, 154-55)

Grant and I on the Penn campus in serious debate with the good doctor on whether McNabb should have been traded by the Eagles.  Ben was against the deal.   

Benjamin Franklin was known for his wit, maybe even more than for his wisdom. Here are five of Franklin’s comments that I find pretty funny.

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.

Religious belief had a curious place in Benjamin Franklin's life. His theology may be best summed up in the phrase he coined – "God helps those who help themselves." Franklin seemed to spend his entire life in an internal religious debate. He was raised by Puritan parents, but while he kept many of the moral principles of their religious life, he largely abandoned any biblically recognizable Christianity. In his middle years he became close friends with the evangelist George Whitefield, even publishing his sermons to promote the revival known as The Great Awakening. Franklin had a large hall built for Whitefield to preach in when he was in Philadelphia. Together they converted the hall into what would become the University of Pennsylvania. Yet he never seriously considered the implications of the Gospel Whitefield preached as relevant for his own soul.






Franklin lived to a ripe old age of 84, dying April 17, 1790, from a number of ailments at his home in Philadelphia. His last known words were reported to be, "A dying man can do nothing easy," which seemed to be a reference to his discomfort in his final moments. His funeral in Philadelphia drew a crowd of twenty thousand people. Franklin is buried in the cemetery of Christ Church, which is in the historic section of Philadelphia, a couple of blocks from Independence Hall.

 Franklin’s tombstone is a simple slab that contains his name along with the name of his wife Deborah. But early in life he seemed to have a bit more vision for what would take place as he left this mortal coil.

The body of B. 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 Believ'd) Appear once More

In a New and More Elegant Edition

Revised and Corrected

By the Author.

Ben Franklin's grave - people throw pennies on it for good luck - something to do with 'a penny saved...' That's my nephew Ben (coincidentally named) looking to acquire some pocket change - about 6 years ago.

Michelangelo

Florence, Italy.  Visited June 2010

This is a brand new grave sighting from my trip to Europe with my daughter Kelsey and her friend Sarah while visiting my brother John in Switzerland. We spent a few days in Florence and stopped in on Michelangelo. Michelangelo is buried along with some other notable Italians (sure to show up here someday) in the Cathedral of Santa Croce.

Not this guy

Michelangelo (1475-1564) lived almost 90 years - a remarkable feat in itself at the time – split between his home city of Florence and Rome, where he died hard at work on his final sculpture. At the time of his death he was renowned as the greatest artist of his era. He considered himself first of all a sculptor (His David is an extraordinary must see in Florence) but his best known work is the massive painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He was also a renowned architect (St. Peter’s Basilica is his design) and an accomplished poet. During one of its many wars, the city of Florence drafted him for his creativity to design a defense for the city which included saving the campanile (church tower) of San Miniato by covering it with mattresses.

Michelangelo remained single for his entire life, which wasn’t that unusual for great artists of his time. He seemed to live his life struggling with the weight of his gift, remarking late in his life, "I am a poor man and of little worth, who is laboring in that art that God has given me in order to extend my life as long as possible." By all accounts he was a difficult genius, largely indifferent to relationships and prone to melancholy.



Michaelangelo statue at the Uffizi
Gallery in Florence

This Guy

For you reformatics, there is an interesting thread of Michelangelo’s life that points to a growing awareness of salvation by faith alone. The artist was at work on the Sistine Chapel when Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg door. In the years that followed he seemed to have involved himself in a group of Italians drawn toward the dawning Reformation even though he was in the immediate employment of the Vatican. While Michelangelo never left the world of the Catholic Church, late in his life he appears to have been coming to the conviction that only the atoning sacrifice of Christ was sufficient to cover his sins. This is noted in a short description of his death in Santa Croce, which talks about his wrestling with trust in works or in faith alone. It is also evident in a sonnet written in his eighties.

The thorns and nails of both your palms

with your benign, humble and merciful face,

promise the grace of repenting much

and hope of salvation to my sad soul …

May your blood wash and cleanse my sins,

and the older I grow, the more may it abound

with prompt help and complete pardon.

Michelangelo’s final known words are a verbal last will and testament made to his friends at his deathbed, “My soul I resign to God, my body to the earth, and my worldly possessions to my relations.”

The great artist was initially buried in Rome, but his nephew soon had him dug up and carried to Florence in a wagon covered by bales of hay. There he was buried in Santa Croce in a crypt carved by his friend and fellow sculptor Vasari. In addition to the bust of Michelangelo, three statues were included in the tomb design representing his three artistic disciplines – sculpture, painting and architecture. Don’t ask me to identify which is which.

Kelsey was kind to let me use this pic of her.  My shot ended up being fuzzy.  The scaffolding is from renovations they were doing in the church.

 

 

Other blog subjects buried at Santa Croce: 

 

Galileo

Jonathan Edwards

Princeton, New Jersey.  Visited May 2008

I'm kicking off I See Dead People with one of my spiritual heroes - Jonathan Edwards. Edwards lived from 1703 to 1758. He was a pastor/theologian who ministered most of his life in New England. Edwards is closely associated with the Great Awakening, a wide-spread spiritual revival which occurred during his pastorate in Northampton, MA 1734-35. He wrote about the experience of revival, and wise understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in his book A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (common title).

The only remnant of the church in Northampton where
Jonathan Edwards served as pastor - the stone step
leading into the meeting house. 

One of the things I appreciate about JE was that he understood his weaknesses and worked against them his whole life. For example, he wasn’t what you’d call a people person, which is a problem for a guy trying to pastor a church. But he fought that tendency by opening up his home and life to others, even folks who didn’t always see things his way.  Edwards was a man who wanted to live out the faith as if God is really who He says He is.

Jonathan Edwards was named first president of the College of New Jersey (which became Princeton University) in 1758, but died that same year after contracting small pox from a small pox vaccine. His daughter, who was with him at the time also contracted the disease and died about the same time, leaving small children orphaned. Edward's wife Sarah, who was preparing to move to New Jersey at the time, came down to care for her grandchildren. Sadly, she too fell ill and died in Princeton a few months after her husband and is buried with him.

Andy and fellow JE fan John Shaw with
Edwards at Old Princeton

 
Edwards final known words: "Trust in God and you need not fear."



Jonathan Edwards is buried at Old Princeton Cemetery (not to be confused with Princeton Seminary), among a number of great Princeton theologians (maybe to appear here in the future). Well worth a visit.

If you want to read a great bio of Jonathan Edwards, check out George Marsden's Jonathan Edwards - A Life.  If you want a great place to start reading Edwards (not an easy task, the man was thick with ideas!) I suggest his Charity and Its Fruits, an exposition of 1 Corinthians 13. Here's a favorite quote from that book:



Church history buffs on a Great Awakening tour August 2012

 

 

 

 

Sarah Edwards plaque on the Edwards crypt

 

"As you have not made yourself, so you were not made for yourself. You are neither the author nor the end of your own being. Nor is it you that uphold yourself in being, or that provide for yourself, or that are dependent on yourself. There is Another that hath made you, and preserves you, and provides for you, and on whom you are dependent; and He hath made you for Himself, and for the good of your fellow creatures, and not only for yourself. He has placed before you higher and nobler ends than self, even the welfare of your fellowmen, and of society, and the interests of His kingdom; and for these you ought to labor and live, not only in time, but for eternity." (180-81)

Others blog subjects buried at Princeton Cemetery:
Benjamin B Warfield