Mar 20, 2019
By Gary Wade Coats
I was sitting in church last Sunday (I attend an Independent Baptist Church as there are no Seventh Day Baptist Churches near where I live in South Carolina.) listening to the Youth Choir singing: “I have a Goodly Heritage, I’m blessed with things you can’t see. I have a Goodly Heritage, and that is worth far more to me.”
These words got me thinking about my Goodly Heritage. Most, but not all, of my Goodly Heritage is Seventh Day Baptist. In the book “The first 100 years of the Pawcatuck Seventh Day Baptist Church 1840- 1940,” I find so many of my Seventh Day Baptist direct ancestors. There are Babcocks, Burdicks, Clarkes, Crandalls, Greenes, Greenmans, Hubbards, Langworthys, Maxsons, Potters, Rogers and Witters.
I started with my great-grandmother, Edith Green Hubbard, and went back 11 generations to Samuel and Tacy Cooper Hubbard. I am a direct descendant of 105 people who were Seventh Day Baptists. This does not include their brothers and sisters and their families that were Seventh Day Baptists. From the 4th to the 10th generation, I have 10 or more direct ancestors in each generation. In the case of Rev. John Maxson, Sr.,
I am related to him on both my mother’s and father’s side of my family.
When I look at obituaries taken from the Sabbath Recorder I am excited by what I read.
5th great grandfather, Augustus Kenyon: “The meritorious
atonement of Christ supported him in sickness and death.”
5th great grandfather, Weeden Witter: “He was a devoted and
faithful Christian.”
4th great grandfather, Ambrose Coats Jr.: “Left evidence of his
acceptance with God.”
4th great grandmother, Mary Kenyon Coats: “Died Trusting
the Saviour.’’
3rd great grandmother, Polly Maxson Kenyon: “Respected as
one of a good heart and strong faith in God.”
I look forward to meeting them in Heaven.
Thinking about my Goodly Heritage I know that I am saved because I accepted Christ as my personal savior. I often wonder if God gave me the opportunity to be saved because of the prayers of these saints for their future generations.
Do you have a Goodly Heritage? If not, why not start one today? If you do, then generations from now your grandchildren down to the 11th generation can talk with pride about how they had relatives who showed the right path to follow for a true relationship with God.