Rev. John C. Ley was born in Burke County, Georgia,
December 20, 1822; "was born again" August 25, 1837; was
licensed to preach December 16, 1843, in his twenty-first year.
He was admitted on trial by the Georgia Conference in January, 1845, and was transferred to the Florida Conference the
same year. The holy hands of the Apostolic B!shop Capers
were laid upon his head after he had assumed the solemn
vows, setting him apart for the work and office of deacon and
elder in the Church of God. He was happily married in July,
1855, to Miss Martha C. Pottle, of St. Marys, Georgia, who
survives him.
Brother Ley was an active and useful member of the
Florida Conference for more than fifty years, serving faithfully, circuits, stations and districts, filling with great acceptability some of the most important appointments. One who
knew him well, has written the following just tribute. He was
a preacher of unusual ability, a diligent student, an able theologian, and a guileless Christian minister and friend, admired,
he went in and out as a Christian minister and friend, admired,
reverenced and loved him. As a presiding elder, he magnified
his office and was loved and honored by his preachers and people. Simplicity, sincerity and gentleness were among the leading traits of his character.
"He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of
faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. He did the
work of an evangelist and gave full proof of his ministry, in
the pioneer days, that tried the souls of men. Before the days
of steam and electric railways and of other conveniences and
comforts, while the red men were here, hostile to the whites,
he went forward in his great and self-sacrificing labors, in painfulness and weariness, saying with St. Paul, "None of these
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so
that I might finish my course with joy and the minstry which
I have received· of the Lord Jesus Chrlst to testify the gospel
of the grace of God." His successors in the ministry are entering into his labors while the whole state is a beneficiary of his
life and toils. The world's and Church's richest asset is not in
towering mountains and beautiful valleys, not in the wealth of
mines and fields and forests, not in literature and art and
sc·ence, not in steamships and railroads and cities, but in the
apostolic lives and labors, of holy men and the purity and
gentleness of holy women. Brother Ley made a large contribution to the weal of the world. "He served his own generation by the will of God."
He has left the impress of a large and generous character
upon many who live today. The good that he did has not been
interred with h's bones. The spiritual forces projected by him
upon the lives of many are imperishable. -The immortality of
his holy life is secure. Though no monument of marble or
brass marks, as yet, the spot where his sacred ashes rest, his
memory is enshrined in the hearts of his brethren and friends.
We shall not forget him nor cease to feel the helpful forces and
influences of his character. It was in his home, however, that
his virtues shown most brightly and his best work was done.
It would have been pathetic indeed if he had failed there. His
son, Rev. John B. Ley, says: "The words 'my father' fill the
periphery of my little world. When a little boy of six years, 1
stood in the garden with him, helping to plant seeds. I looked
up into his face while faith prompted the question, 'Papa, ain't
you the biggest man in the world?' I thought he was. He
never grew less. I measured him by every man I ever knew.
Love saw him stand well the test and love was not wholly
blind. He was a large man intellectually. He did not know
everything but he knew many things, and he knew some things
thoroughly. He knew history and poetry. Milton, Byron,
Shakespeare and latterly Tennyson were familiar to him. But
he knew something of more value. If his intellectual perceptions were clear, his moral perceptions were cloudless, "Homo
unius libre" was a familiar quotation with him, and he was indeed a man of one book. An omniverous reader, possessed of
a retentive memory, he read many authors, but invariably
squared conclusions and theories by the Word. He knew his
Bible. It was the man of his counsel. He was a concordance
of Bible texts and an encyclpedia of Bible truth. On an average of once a month, for years before his death, he read his
Bible through, not as a fetish, but as an act of intelligent appreciation. Notes in his own hand only a few weeks before his
death ind'cate his patient re-search. He was always rewarded
by finding new depths of meaning and new heights of anticipation and new revelations of divine glory. My father filled my
little childhood world with love; he has filled my manhood
with much of its lofty purpose and of reverence-for holy things.
H!s faith has inspired my own. His confidence in men has held
mine, when it was rudely shocked by misplaced friendship. His
heroic self-forgetfulness has shamed me into silence when
speech would hove munded self-laudatory . He was brave without boasting, gentle without effeminacy, firm without hardness,
a precious father, a devoted husband and a faithful friend. We
know where to find him and follow on.
Rev. Edward F. Ley, another son, who labors with us in
the gospel says: When the call of God to preach became so
insistent, that I felt it impossible to resist it any longer, I took
my father into my confidence and the obstacles that appeared
in surmountable were entirely removed when he said, "If thd
call be of God, which I do not doubt, some way will be opened,
my dear boy, for you as it has been opened for me through many
years. It was not the words but •the strong faith and unselfish
devotion that prompted them that brought comfort and assurance. A closer companionship followed as the years passed on
until he was translated a few months ago, and even now I can
almost feel his presence and his hands in holy benediction
resting on me. There were no favorities in the home, but all
shared alike in his love and solitude. I can now get inspiration by looking back to the Christian home of my childhood,·
and by looking forward to our future home which by faith,
I can see will be unbroken. His gentle and loving companion of
many years, writes, my dear husband lived in reference to the
reward that "awaited him in the skies"-to him to live was
Christ and to die was gain.
One morning, about daybreak, as I sat alone with him, he
said: "glory to God," and afterward when far down the valley
of the shadow of death, he repeated the hymn.
"Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep,
From which none ever awake to weep;
A calm and undisturbed repose
Unbroken by the last of foes."
He lived well and died as he lived. It is with sadness that
we give up our father in the ministry. We would have retained
him longer. We stand in awe, in the presence of his ascending
cha,.iot, and cry, "My father! My father! the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof." God help us to take of his mantle
and do the work of our ascended Elijah.
Submitted by: B. K. THROWER.