Emphasis Preaching Journal

When John Milton was a young man, he wrote this poem in honor of Shakespeare, who had died when Milton was only eight years old. Even in those few years since his death, Milton realized William Shakespeare would need no monument to keep alive his memory. He would continually live through the witness of the ideas which he had left to the world.

"What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones
The labor of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a starry pointed pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?

There is, likewise, no need for monuments in mortar to keep alive the memory and message of Jesus. He told his followers, in the first chapter of Acts, they and, in turn, we are to be his witnesses ... "even to the ends of the earth."

Jesus left no permanent burial site for us to go and worship. He took his honored bones with him in the ascension back to the Father.

Christians can say, of our Lord and Master, what Milton said of Shakespeare. He is our "dear son of memory and great heir of fame," and each of us, by our faith and quality of life, are living witnesses of his name.