The motto, inscribed on the grave stone, “Gone, but not lost.”
The dearest Lord of heaven gave
Himself an offering once for me:
The dearest thing on earth I have,
Now, Lord, I’ll offer unto Thee.
I see my best enjoyments here,
Are loans, and flowers, and vanities;
Ere well enjoy’d they disappear:
Vain smoke, they prick and leave our eyes.
But I believe, O glorious Lord,
That when I seem to lose these toys,
What ’s lost will fully be restor’d
In glory, with eternal joys.
I do believe, that I and mine,
Shall come to everlasting rest;
Because, blest Jesus, we are Thine,
And with thy promises are blest.
I do believe that every bird
Of mine, which to the ground shall fall,
Does fall at thy kind will and word;
Nor I, nor it, is hurt at all.
From: http://www.bartleby.com/96/3.html
Date: 1693
By: Cotton Mather (1663-1728)
From Troubles of The World 