We are reminded daily of the uncertainty of human life: for the
young and the old, the gay and the grave, the good and the wicked, are
subject to death. Young people do not realize this, but it is
nevertheless true, and before you are old enough, my children, to
understand and lay to heart all that your mother would tell you of her
dearly beloved father, she may be asleep with grandma, close beside him
in Bellefontaine. An earthly inheritance is highly esteemed among men.
For this reason great efforts are made by them to lay up treasures for
their children. They know not, however, who shall gather them, for
riches take to themselves wings and fly away. But a good man leaveth
an inheritance to his children, and to his childrens children, which
is as stable as the throne of the Most High. Like the stream that
gathers strength from every rivulet, and grows deeper, and broader, and
more majestic, until the myriads of crystal drops are received into the
bosom of the mighty deep, so likewise is the legacy of a good man. It
descends to his child by birthright, and through the rich mercy of a
covenant-keeping God, widens and extends its life-giving power, flowing
on and on, as rivers of water, into the boundless ocean of Gods love.
Your grandfather, my beloved children, was a great man. Not as a
warrior, nor as a statesman, nor in any sense which is simply of the
earth, earthy. But he was great by being the possessor of a rare
combination of moral worth and Christian excellence, which made him a
blessing to his race. In other words, he was great because he was
truly good. In the midst of his days of usefulness he was cut off from
the land of the living. His precious remains rest quietly in the fresh
made grave; his immortal spirit has winged its flight to the mansions
of the blessed, for blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they
rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.
While endeavoring, in much weakness, to put together for your perusal such
facts as may present to your minds a faithful likeness of the noble man
from whom you have descended, I sincerely pray that you may be stimulated,
by the grace of God, to follow him even as he followed Christ.
Affectionately yours, GRANDMA.