HAROLD PRIMROSE BARKER was born on the loth August, 1869. He was the son of Mr. William Barker, an evangelist and teacher, whose preaching of the Gospel and spoken and written ministry were greatly blessed. H.P.B. was intended for the medical profession, but deafness, which became more serious as time went on, prevented the continuance of his studies. On the death of his father in 1915, Mr. Barker took over the editorship of a monthly magazine known as Simple Testimony, and continued until 1925, when he joined the present writer in editing Marching Orders for Young Soldiers, which happy partnership was maintained until 1936, when Mr. Barker was invited by the Editor of The Harvester to undertake the giving of Answers to Questions in that magazine. This valuable service continued until his death on the 18th April, 1952, shortly after his arrival in Jamaica.
During the sixty years of his public ministry, many hundreds of helpful articles from his pen have appeared in magazines published on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as several volumes of an expository character, the best-known being Christ in the Minor Prophets, Review and Reward, and Christ’s Vicar, a singularly helpful volume on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.
With Mr. Barker’s devotion to his Lord and Master, there was profound reverence for the Holy Scriptures and a great love for the Lord’s people. His preaching and ministry were characterized by clearness of thought and utterance and a remarkable gift of apt illustration. A few notes upon this gift, and the subject and purpose of this volume, may not be out of place here.
Some years ago, a few Christian men, well-known as preachers of the Gospel and ministers of the Word, found themselves discussing the methods and characteristics of some of their comrades in the holy warfare. One member of the group seemed to be able to express in a word or two the special quality which seemed to him to characterize the man under discussion. “What would you say is the special characteristic of X. and his preaching?” “Dauntless courage,” replied Mr. A., as we will call him. “And what of Y. and his preaching?” “I should say, Graciousness,” replied Mr. A. “And Z. and his ministry?” “Profundity,” was the reply. “And what of Harold Barker and his preaching and ministry?” “I would say, Luminousness.” One of the friends, anxious to have a fuller description inquired: “You mean lucidity in thought and expression, I presume?” “No,” replied Mr. A. “There is certainly that in his preaching; but there is much more. He, by his method of exposition and apt illustration, illumines the subject and makes its meaning unmistakably clear to the hearer. No! ‘luminousness’ is the word.”
Perhaps it was this quality which endeared H.P.B. to the thousands, young and old, in many countries of the world, who heard him and received help and blessing through his ministry and who will remember a story, told perhaps in a few sentences, which threw light upon some perplexing problem or some Scripture “hard to be understood.”
And this, perhaps, is the reason which has prompted a friend—to whom we are all greatly indebted—to collect and arrange in helpful fashion some notes which H.P.B. left and which are now available in this Volume.
Our Lord and Master, in His public ministry and in conversation with individuals, used many illustrations, similitudes and parables. Indeed, we read in Matthew 13:3434All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: (Matthew 13:34) and Mark 4:3434But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. (Mark 4:34) that “without a parable spake He not unto them.” A parable, we have been taught from our childhood, is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning or, if you prefer, a story or similitude which illustrates and illuminates spiritual truth.
The Christian man or woman who is desirous of winning others for Christ and of helping and encouraging fellow-believers, will do well to note with care and follow with diligence the method of the Master in dealing with individuals and companies. If our Lord illustrated His teaching by the narration of a story or a parable, the servant cannot do better. “It is enough for the servant that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord” (Matt. 10:2525It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? (Matthew 10:25)).
It is to be hoped that the readers of this book will regard it, not only as a conveniently accessible store of useful illustrations, but as a helpful guide to them in seeing and noting in the happenings of everyday life, illustrations of things in the spiritual realm, which illustrations will give lucidity to their thinking, their preaching and their teaching. When H.P.B. was walking through a Liverpool street one evening, he saw outside some business premises a notice which ran something like this:
John Brown,
Builder and Decorator.
Residence above.
He noted it with gladness as he thought of our “residence above,” the Home prepared by our Lord Himself for His own, to which we shall be translated when our work down here is done and He comes to call us Home.
How blest a home! the Father’s house!
There love divine doth rest;
What else could satisfy the hearts
Of those in Jesus blest?
Oh, what a home! But such His love
That He must bring us there,
To fill that home, to be with Him,
And all His glory share.
The Father’s house, the Father’s heart,
All that the Son is given
Made ours—the objects of His love,
And He, our joy in heaven.
“Residence above” indeed! Mrs. Trench’s grand hymn, part of which we have quoted, enables us, in some measure, to anticipate the rest, peace and joy of the Home above.
P. T. SHOREY BRENTWOOD, ESSEX, ENGLAND, October, 1953.