Graves Stones

Have you ever thought about what you would like to have carved or inscribed on your tombstone? How about what the preacher will say during the eulogy at your graveside? What would you like written in your obituary? Reflecting on his impending departure, W. C. Fields remarked, "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." Ernest Hemingway asked that a simple phrase be put on his marker: "Pardon me for not getting up." And Casey Stengel had written on his funeral plaque his immortal words, "There comes a time in every man's life, and I've had plenty of them."

When Robert Murray McCheyne, the well known Scots' pastor, died at the youthful age of 29 in the mid-19th century, many people came forth to give eulogies regarding his life. One London pastor said, "McCheyne was altogether one of the loveliest specimens of the Holy Spirit's workmanship." The Dundee newspaper, Dundee being the city of McCheyne's pastorate, stated, "His mind was so full of Christ that he sought to introduce the glorious subject that was always most uppermost with him." Alexander McLeod, another famous Scots' pastor, had two inscriptions carved in his grave marker: "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord" and "A great man has fallen in Israel."

J. Gresham Machen, the founder of Westminster Theological Seminary, desired that the following words be inscribed on his tombstone:

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."