Grave Message: Farlam Church

St Thomas a Becket’s church at Farlam in Cumberland is historically dull, architecturally modest and geographically curious: it is evidently built on, or close to, a much older site, and named after that most questionable of English saints, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. It holds a service but once a month, so perhaps the populace isn’t terribly enamoured of it, either. And for all that, it is kept locked inbetween.

We promptly took our leave, having quickly spent what little enthusiasm we could muster. Yet a gravestone on the path up to the church caught our attention. It belonged to the Dodd family, who clearly got their money’s worth from the plot, considering the number of ‘Alsos’ used to indicate additional occupants. Six Dodds lie buried here, after which the grave was presumbly bursting at the seams. On the reverse, however, is a scriptural text:

2 Timothy 2:19: Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.

Indeed He does. The Dodds are unknown to me, but not to Him. The state of their souls are a mystery to us, but not the Triune God before whom they shall appear, one way or another. Curiously, the second half of the verse is omitted from the text:

And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

That is a message for you.