"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess."

     Martin Luther, Letter no. 1610 to Justus Jonas the Elder, written from V/Feste Koburg (Fort Coburg) on 29 June (?) 1530, WA Briefe V, p. 409, ll. 21-23 (in Luther's usual mixture of German and Latin):

Ich hab ihr viel in manu mea gehabt, und all verloren, nicht eine behalten.  Quas vero extra manus meas in illum reiicere hactenus potui, adhuc habeo salvas et integras.

[Steve Perisho:]  I have had much in it (in my hand), and lost [it] all, retained not one [thing].  [Those things] which I have so far truly been able to throw back out of [(extra)] my hands upon Him [(in illum)] I possess thus far safe and sound.

[Dr. Mark Glen Bilby:]  I've held onto much in my hands and lost it all, kept not one thing. But whatever I've thus far been able to cast out of my hands upon Him, I've held onto safe and entire/sound.

A few (of the probably innumerable) variants:

• "I have tried to keep things in my hands and lost them all, but what I have given into God’s hands I still possess."
• "I have had many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have been able to place in God’s hands I still possess."
• "I have had many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have been able to place in God’s, I still possess" (J.H. Merle D’Aubigné, History of the great Reformation of the sixteenth century in Germany, Switzerland, &c., trans. H. White, vol. 4 (New York:  RobertCarter, 1846), 183).