As I wrote in my August 2nd post, I have taken up some of my genealogical research again. I actually ran across a very, very distant relative who had some information on my family that spanned 5 previous generations. She asked that I check the family Bible for some information on my branch of our shared branch. While looking through the Bible, I came across a letter I’d not read for a long period of time and had actually forgotten was in the Bible. The letter was from my Great Great grandfather to his daughter, my great grandmother. It appears that my Great Great Grandmother had moved some distance away from him and she wasn’t able to see him often. I thought I post this beautiful letter written by Benjamin Franklin Layton. As you’ll read in the letter, he’s reached the end of his life and is in a great deal of pain. He’s bedridden for the most part and has a great deal of time to augment his letter with artwork and block letters resemble the Castellar font. Rather than writing the word “Cross” he’s drawn the cross and he has inserted a Bible and other books in various parts of the letter.
Stratford Dec. 30th, 1896
Dear Children: I feel as though it was my duty to write you a few lines. I hope when you receive them, you all will be well. We are usually well. Your mother suffers a great amount from overwork. My sickness has added a great deal more. The boys are busy about their work, and plenty of mud. My condition is on the decline very fast; I realise it very much and can hardly bear my weight on my feet. I keep my bed, and am very tired of it. O’ how sweet to pass away from this sufferings, and be forever at rest. My assurance has been my light. I see nothing now in death but the beginning of real life. No dread of an angry judge , but a sweet rest and peace which is of God.
New Year’s Day 1897.
The (cross) should be in view. Our faith must rest in him the victim of our sins. A large percent of mankind doubt and will not believe. But I do know the manifestation of himself to me, has satisfied, and is a reality. My peace is secure. I hope dear children, you will be ready at anytime you are called and not fail. Do meet me there. We never part again. Remember it is an eternity. This is New Year day, and I am feeling quite comfortable today. Jan 5th “/97. Since I began this letter I have suffered a great amount of pain. I am happy in soul, a feeling of readiness to go or stay as God sees fit. All the care for my comfort is manifested, I could ask for. All is done that can be done. I love my family, and I wish I could see all of them every week. I can hardly realise now that you was here last fall. Oh if it were possible to see you all again.
Grandfather Layton had a strong faith in Christ and an enviable peace in his heart as his life on this earth draws to a close. He died the following month, February 10, 1897, in Stratford, Hamilton County, Iowa. I feel a strong spiritual connection, through my faith in Christ, to this grandfather I’ve never met. In his New Year’s Day letter, he writes, “I hope dear children, you will be ready at anytime you are called and not fail.” Subsequent generations would drift slightly away from the Lord, but in his grace, the Father would draw them back and into the faith. His granddaughter, my grandmother, accepted Christ on her deathbed, and received the “Assurance” Grandfather Layton writes of in his December 30th letter. Attending church and Bible study were not encouraged or discourage in my mother’s family and yet, my mother, his great granddaughter, accepted Christ as a young girl, after she started attending church at the invitation of a classmate. I had the blessing of knowing Christ through my mother’s teaching and prayers. The Bible tells us that we do not teach our children the ways of our Lord in vain:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. ~ Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD. ~ Psalm 34:11
I had fellow believers share their despair that their children have drifted away from their faith in Christ. To them I would offer the following encouragement, never give up, continue to pray for them, asking the Lord to continually called to their children and seek them out, draw them near, and encourage their hearts to return to him.
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
Stratford Dec. 30th, 1896
Dear Children: I feel as though it was my duty to write you a few lines. I hope when you receive them, you all will be well. We are usually well. Your mother suffers a great amount from overwork. My sickness has added a great deal more. The boys are busy about their work, and plenty of mud. My condition is on the decline very fast; I realise it very much and can hardly bear my weight on my feet. I keep my bed, and am very tired of it. O’ how sweet to pass away from this sufferings, and be forever at rest. My assurance has been my light. I see nothing now in death but the beginning of real life. No dread of an angry judge , but a sweet rest and peace which is of God.
New Year’s Day 1897.
The (cross) should be in view. Our faith must rest in him the victim of our sins. A large percent of mankind doubt and will not believe. But I do know the manifestation of himself to me, has satisfied, and is a reality. My peace is secure. I hope dear children, you will be ready at anytime you are called and not fail. Do meet me there. We never part again. Remember it is an eternity. This is New Year day, and I am feeling quite comfortable today. Jan 5th “/97. Since I began this letter I have suffered a great amount of pain. I am happy in soul, a feeling of readiness to go or stay as God sees fit. All the care for my comfort is manifested, I could ask for. All is done that can be done. I love my family, and I wish I could see all of them every week. I can hardly realise now that you was here last fall. Oh if it were possible to see you all again.
Grandfather Layton had a strong faith in Christ and an enviable peace in his heart as his life on this earth draws to a close. He died the following month, February 10, 1897, in Stratford, Hamilton County, Iowa. I feel a strong spiritual connection, through my faith in Christ, to this grandfather I’ve never met. In his New Year’s Day letter, he writes, “I hope dear children, you will be ready at anytime you are called and not fail.” Subsequent generations would drift slightly away from the Lord, but in his grace, the Father would draw them back and into the faith. His granddaughter, my grandmother, accepted Christ on her deathbed, and received the “Assurance” Grandfather Layton writes of in his December 30th letter. Attending church and Bible study were not encouraged or discourage in my mother’s family and yet, my mother, his great granddaughter, accepted Christ as a young girl, after she started attending church at the invitation of a classmate. I had the blessing of knowing Christ through my mother’s teaching and prayers. The Bible tells us that we do not teach our children the ways of our Lord in vain:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. ~ Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD. ~ Psalm 34:11
I had fellow believers share their despair that their children have drifted away from their faith in Christ. To them I would offer the following encouragement, never give up, continue to pray for them, asking the Lord to continually called to their children and seek them out, draw them near, and encourage their hearts to return to him.
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
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