Resolution 63:2 – Memorial Resolution Albert Rule

Deacon Albert Rule of the Bible Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN went home to be with the Lord on January 19, 1999. Deacon Rule was a unique servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and a man of uncommon gifts. Though he was a perennial nominee for the office of elder, he consistently refused as a maffer of personal conviction relating to his bachelorhood. Despite this, Mr. Rule served the church body as a deacon, minister of music, and as a faithful host, friend and counselor to all.

His home-going has left a yawning gap in the life of the local church, but Mr. Rule was also renowned throughout the whole denomination as a faithful and godly servant of the Lord. As a final token of his love for the Bible Presbyterian Church, he bequeathed his home, Bent Pine Lodge, to the denominafion to be a continuing place of rest and hospitality to the pastors and missionaries of the Bible Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Rule’s will states, as a final testament of his Christian faith,

As God has given me increase by His goodness and mercy, I give Him thanks and point to Him as the giver of every good and perfect gift. The “good” gifts include things that I leave, the perfect gift-that which I take: salvation unto eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Even though I have enjoyed much of this world’s goods, none can compare with that for which I hope. When I am gone from this earth to enjoy a richer inheritance than that which I leave, I leave these temporal things with the confidence and hope that they will remind those who receive them of peace, joy, love, faith, hope, longsuffering, kindness, forgive ness, patience, purity, beauty, and Godliness. In fulfilling my desires in the execution of this will, it is my desire that God be begged for counsel and that His honor be the chief aim in its completion.I insist that in all these temporal “things” I leave, that to whomsoever they are left, it will be remembered that they are still temporal. As most of my possessions came by the godly love of many friends and relatives through the years, and carry with them some treasures of remembrance, I take leave of them gladly, grateful for the joy they brought me and pray that they will be valued for the testimony they carry.

I want to assure my heirs that I believe in and am dependent only on Almighty God as the author and provident sustainer of all life and being here, and for my eternal existence on the blessed hope of the resurrection-all by undeserved mercy and grace.

Anticipating a great and glorious gathering of the saints in the glorious presence of Jesus Christ… May God bless you.

Adopted by the 63rd General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church,
meeting in Orchard Park, NY August 5-10, 1999.