Gathered to the Lord’s Name
Hymns #320, 321.
This energetic worker for the Lord was born in the year 1818 and was saved when he was but 12, in 1830. He learned and found peace with God by the ministry of William Dawson, a Methodist preacher. He began to preach Christ when he was 14 years old! At 19 he was ordained as a Methodist minister and was used much in a revival at Halifax, England. Later at York the Lord further blessed his ministry to the salvation of many souls. He was then sent by the “Conference” of the church to London where his work was greatly hampered. He began to see that this was man’s arrangement and not according to Scripture. He was also led to see that the Church was one, and that the names set up for churches were of man and not God. He took his place outside the religious camp in accordance with Heb. 13:10-16 and was gathered by the Spirit to the Name of the Lord Jesus in keeping with Matt. 18:18-20. He left the titles, the music, the ritual, the order set up by man and was content to go on with those that “call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:20-21). His helpful book “Eight Lectures on Prophecy” is still extant and in use.
In 1848 when some gave up the ground of the one body and claimed that each assembly had a right to judge for itself and that fellowship with evil did not defile, he stood firm for the truth and wrote then “The Whole Case of Plymouth and Bethesda” showing the principles involved. It has been said that inhis 47 years of life he did the work of three lives! The Lord took him home in 1865. His hymn #320 directs our hearts away from the Christ-rejecting world and its attractions to a glorified Christ in heaven. Hymn 321 includes:
“Behold the Lamb whose precious blood
Drawn from His riven side
Had power to make our peace with God,
Nor lets one spot abide.”