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The Tract That Sent the Gospel to China

5/3/2016

The best thing I can do is enjoy the pleasures of this world, for there’s no hope for me beyond the grave.” Young James had been raised in a devout Christian home. Frequently he found himself deeply troubled about his soul and asked himself many times where he would go when he died. He had tried to make himself a Christian by doing the right things and associating with the right people—but he still failed. Again and again he “tried” to become a Christian, but failed so often that he concluded there was no use in him even “trying” anymore. He had listened to many sermons about Christ and salvation. “For some reason,” he concluded, “I cannot be saved.”

One day while looking through books in his father’s study he came across a small Gospel tract. Almost out of boredom he lifted it and began to read. Unknown to James, on that same afternoon, his mother was on her knees seventy miles away praying for his salvation. She had been staying with friends whom she was visiting when she suddenly came under a deep burden of prayer for James’ eternal soul. She excused herself from her friends, went to her bedroom, turned the key and locked the door, and fell upon her knees. She was determined that she would not leave that room until she got an answer from God. For many hours she continued wrestling in fervent prayer until suddenly she felt the terrible burden lift and she instantly received the assurance that he had been saved.

Back in the study James came to a phrase in the tract that puzzled him, “The finished work of Christ.” “What was finished?” he asked himself; “…a full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin was made, and the debt was paid,” he mentally replied to himself. “Then,” he thought, “If the work of atonement is finished, if the mighty debt of sin is paid, what is there left for me to do?” In that very moment for the first time he truly saw; he believed; he received. With great joy he was saved on the spot and received the forgiveness of sins. When his mother returned home he immediately told her the good news of his salvation but was more surprised when his mother shared her news of answered prayer.

The young man’s full name was James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905). Several years later he received the call of God to go as a missionary to China. As the years of missionary work passed by in this strange and dangerous eastern land the Lord used him to train, and then send, over 1000 other missionaries into every province of China. He became God’s apostle to reach multitudes of souls in that great land. All over the world in every generation since then Christians have been encouraged by his life and testimony to believe God in prayer and to share the wonderful Gospel of Jesus with others.

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My Last Tract

27/2/2016

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On Sunday afternoons, the Pastor and his eleven-year old son usually went out to hand out Gospel tracts. This particular Sunday, it was very cold outside and pouring down with rain. The young lad dressed up in his warmest clothes said, “Father, I’m ready.” To which his father replied, “Ready for what?”

“Dad, you know it is time we gather our tracts together and go out.”

Father responded by saying, “Son, it is a very cold day and pouring down with rain!”

The lad gave a very surprised look, saying “But father, are not people still going to Hell, even though it is raining?” “Son, we cannot go out in this weather.” Despondently the boy asked, “May I go, please?” His father hesitated for a moment then said, “Son, you may go, here are some tracts, but do be careful son.”

“Thank you, father!” And with that he was off and out into the rain.

The eleven-year old boy walked the streets of the town, going from door to door, handing a Gospel tract to all he met. Two hours later he was soaked, bone-chilled, wet and down to his very last tract. He stopped on the street corner and looked for someone to whom he could pass on this very last one, but the streets were totally deserted.

He then turned toward the first home he saw, went up to the front door and rang the bell. Nobody answered. He rang it again and again but still no answer. He waited and still no answer. Finally he turned to leave but something stopped him. Again he turned to face the door, he rang the bell, and also knocked loudly on the door. He waited, something was holding him there at the front door. He rang once again and this time the door slowly opened.

Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She asked softly, “What can I do for you, son?”

With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, the little boy said, “Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that God really does love you and I came to give you this my very last Gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus, His great sacrifice and love. With that he handed her his last tract and turned to leave. She called out to him as he departed – “Thank you son and may God bless you.”

The following Sunday morning the Pastor—his father—was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, “Does anybody have a testimony they would like to give?”

Quietly and slowly in the back row an elderly lady stood up. As she began to speak a look of glorious radiance was upon her face.

She said, “No one in his meeting knows me. I’ve never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a believer. My husband passed away some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world.

Last Sunday being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so cold in my heart, for I had come to the end of all hope – I could no longer go on. I had no desire nor will to live. So, I took a rope and chair and ascended the stairway into the attic. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood upon the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing upon that chair, so lonely and miserable, I was about to leap off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, I’ll wait a minute and whoever it is will go away. I waited and waited but the ringing of the doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent. Then the person ringing the doorbell began to also knock loudly. I thought to myself, who on earth can this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or come to see me.

I loosened the rope from my neck and headed for the front door as the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked, I could hardly believe my eyes. For there was the most radiant and angelic-faced little boy that I had ever seen in my life. His smile, oh I could never describe it to you! And the words that came from his mouth, caused my heart that had so long been so dead, to leap to life, as he exclaimed with an angel-like voice, ‘Ma’am, I just came to tell you that God really does love you!’ Then he gave me this Gospel tract that I now hold in my hand and the Angel-boy disappeared out into the cold and rain. I closed the door and read slowly every word of this tract. I then went up to my attic to get that rope and chair. I would not be needing them anymore, for you see, I believed and became a happy child of God. Since the address of your place was on the back of this tract, I have come here to personally say ‘thank-you’ to God, for His little messenger came ‘in just the nick of time’ and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity of separation from God, in Hell.”

By this time there were now no dry eyes, and shouts of praise and thanksgiving resounded to the very rafters of the building. Pastor-dad descended from the pulpit to the front seat where the little lad was seated. He took his son up in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

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National REVIVAL (Pt. 4)

13/2/2016

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The 1859 Ulster Revival spread out across the whole land family by family, village by village, and town by town. Within weeks 10,000 were converted. When this Revival hit Ballymena it was dramatic and sudden. One minister who was away for only two days from the town returned to find a great stir. Many families had not gone to bed for two or three days. Everything seemed at a standstill and the noise of people crying for mercy or the singing of praise came from many homes night and day. One Minister said that "The difficulty used to be to get the people into the church, but the difficulty now is to get them out." Large open air meetings were held everywhere. God was raising up a humble army of new converts ablaze with His Spirit to witness again to Christ's resurrection.

In Derry a daily prayer meeting of 5,000 was held and at least several meetings daily. In Coleraine united meetings of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Independents and Baptists were held, working together with one heart and soul. One said of this place "For the last three weeks it has been one continual Pentecost." Almost every street in Belfast brought forth repentant sinners. The most notorious sinners, drunkards and prostitutes in the city were saved. Large open-air meetings of about 25,000 people were held in Belfast at which the Dublin Evangelist, H.G. Guinness, was the most greatly used in preaching.

One unusual physical manifestation was the prostrations, when men and women, sometimes as great multitudes, would be struck down under the conviction and power of God crying out in agony of soul and would rise up again born of the Spirit, redeemed and forgiven. As well some fell into trances and others had visions. The testimonies of the reaper overtaking the sower in the towns of Ulster would need a great volume but this is a partial witness of Gods great visitation in that year of grace to just a few places.

The life changing and society changing results were very evident. A great blow came to the drinking houses of the land as drunkards were convicted and saved. Even whole distilleries were closed. Crime dropped by half within months as the land came under the influences of Gods workings.

Those opposed to the Revival called it "The Year of Delusion" and "a corrupt revival." The Catholic Church sold Holy Water to protect their people from this strange work or as they called it a "revival Devil...new work of the Devil...an alarming contagious disease." But they did warn their people that even this holy water could not protect them if they dared to venture into any of these meetings.

One Catholic journalist in a Dublin Newspaper said he would accept the movement as from God if the Boyne Celebration passed without trouble in Durham Street, Belfast. This Protestant street each year would indulge in drink and a party spirit which culminated in riots and bloodshed. But this year under the influence of the revival such things gave way to prayer and praise and no trouble came forth. A minister in Dromara, Co.Down reporting the effects of the revival said "There is no party spirit; no Orange parade; no beating of drums; no exclamations, 'to hell with the pope' no wickedness towards the Roman Catholics." Reliable eyewitnesses testified that more Catholics were converted in 1859 than in the previous 50 years.

The Revival of 1859 brought 100,000 converts into the churches across the land. One minister said "It were worth living ten thousand ages in obscurity and reproach to be permitted to engage in the glorious work of the last six months of 1859." Wales also saw 100,000 converts added to the church (one tenth of the total population). In Scotland a harvest of 300,000 souls came in. Then in England a greater harvest still. Across Britain God raised up out of this harvest soul winners, evangelists and missionaries to carry forth the Gospel both at home and abroad.

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The Revival (Pt.3)

25/1/2016

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Within weeks 10,000 people were converted to Christ in the 1859, Ulster Revival, in the north of Ireland.

Rev. Hamilton Moore, minister of the local Presbyterian Church in Connor to which most of the praying men belonged encouraged the prayer meetings. His own preaching was simple, direct, lacking great eloquence but certainly having spiritual power in the conversion of sinners. He preached both the terrors of the Lord against sin as well as the mercy of God towards sinners. He preached Hell as well as Heaven. His was not half a message as most today. His grasp of God’s truth was full and solid; his voice loud and clear; his heart soft and warm. He never talked about numbers but only the souls of men. He sought not after ministry or fame, but only sought to honour God and reach hearts.

He was destined to be a leading light in this forward Movement of God in the land. His local efforts to stir his people to prayer over previous years seemed almost futile. The lowest point of his ministry was reached when only two could be found attending regular united prayer.

But then came the stirring. The prayer meeting was full, other prayer meetings were started; the people realised a hunger for prayer and the power of prayer as lives were changed.

Reports of a stirring in this area began to spread and so that same year at the General Assembly he was asked to bring a report to the other ministers of this work of the Spirit of God.
At the same time reports were being received from America that a great stirring was taking place there. The Assembly appointed two ministers, Dr. William Gibson and Rev. William McClure to go to America and to report back. Amazingly it had also started there in September 1857 with one man, then a few, then many, praying for revival. This did not begin with preachers but the normal rank and file of believers most of whom were business men. By this time there were 12,000 men praying in New York City for a move of God.

Reports began to be heard from other ministers in the land who had laboured long and hard without seeing any results who now had packed congregations and full prayer meetings.

Believers in Ulster did not flood to America for a blessing but turned to God in prayer.

Back in the church at Connor by the beginning of 1859 there were about 100 separate prayer meetings a week. These were held in homes, barns, schoolrooms and work places. These were mostly run by normal church members, one being a butcher who was only saved two years before but was now on fire for God. Another prayer meeting was held in a mill made up of about 500 people with the local farmers being the preachers. The church was never empty and the 1,000 families that made up the local community who attended the church were seeking God earnestly, and souls were being saved on every side. The meetings were solemn, the people earnest with many being moved to tears.

This was Revival. (To be Continued)

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Vessels of Revival

16/1/2016

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The beginning of the 1859 revival in Ulster, can be traced to the parish of Connor in Co. Antrim. Here not far from Ballymena is a small village called Kells. God found Himself four weak, foolish sinners, that He saved, filled with faith, and a spirit of prayer for revival. The first was James McQuilkin who one day overheard a conversation between two ladies, one being Mrs Colville, a Baptist missionary from England. Mrs Colville spoke to a lady about assurance of salvation. James, feeling that there was a lack of theological understanding asked Mrs Colville if she was a Calvinist. She responded by saying, "I do not care to talk on mere points of doctrine. I would rather speak of the experience of salvation in the soul. If one were to tell me what he knows of the state of his heart towards God, I think I could tell him whether he knows the Lord Jesus savingly." This conversation led to James falling under deep conviction of sin. He was cut to the heart and led into long weeks of agony as he wrestled over his spiritual condition before God. Finally he came through to salvation, peace, and forgiveness. Immediately he began to witness to others around him and the news spread in Kells that this man who was once known for his love of the world, now loved Christ and His Word.

One of McQuilkin’s friends, Jeremiah Meneely (or Jerry as he was well known) was a faithful church goer but lacked a sure knowledge that his sins were forgiven. Having heard about his friend’s transformation, he sought for him. After a long conversation with James, Jerry found himself in a state of seeking God. As he read the Bible one day wrestling over these things and confused in mind, the Spirit spoke a scripture clearly to his heart. He slapped his knee exclaiming, "I see it now" and arose assured of his sins forgiven and of his name written in Heaven. Around the same time McQuilkin led two other young men to Christ, Robert Carlisle and John Wallace. These four new converts were God’s raw material.

James McQuilkin sent off for George Muller’s book, a narrative of his life and labours called, Life of Trust and this had a profound effect upon him in starting the prayer meetings. He also read, The Life of McCheyne and Finney's, Lectures on Revivals sowed deep seeds of hunger for genuine Heaven-sent revival.

Beginning in September 1857, these four banded together in a bond of fellowship to meet weekly for prayer and Bible study. Their sole desire was their own edification and the salvation of others around them. The simple place they chose to meet was the Schoolhouse at Kells. "During the long winter of 1857-1858 every Friday evening, these young men gathered an armful of peat each, and taking their Bibles made their way to the old schoolhouse. There they read and meditated upon the Scriptures of truth and with hearts aflame with a pure first love, poured out their prayers to the God of heaven." Everything that they steadfastly held to over the next year centred around three great fundamental truths of scripture, these were "the Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, the Sufficiency of the Holy Scripture, and the Secret of Holy Supplication." This not only marked those small fervent prayer meetings but soon covered the whole land in living manifestation as God stepped down and marched through the land.

These prayer meetings continued with no visible results for three months, but on New Year’s day, 1858 the first convert was brought in. After that others were born from above and now joined the prayer meetings. By the end of 1858 about 50 men were meeting with them to wrestle and prevail in prayer. The one cry and burden of all their prayers was for an outpouring of the Spirit upon themselves and the surrounding area. They were hungry and determined to pray through to God. Many of the local church people ridiculed, mocked and opposed this type of praying. They were happy to rest back and do nothing. They believed that 'the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost so we don't need to pray for the Holy Ghost.' Such a stagnant attitude never brings Revival.

But the small band prayed on determinedly, unmoved by the theories and theologies of man. The women did not attend these initial despised meetings because of the reproach. Soon they were holding cottage meetings until no cottage was big enough. Then they held open-air meetings, and slowly and quietly the work of God was carried on.

TO BE CONTINUED…

READ NEXT WEEK of a revival which spread out across the whole land, family by family, village by village, and town by town...

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THE NEED FOR REVIVAL

9/1/2016

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—"There seemed, great coldness and deadness. I had preached the gospel faithfully, earnestly, and plainly, for eleven years; yet it was not known to me that a single individual had been converted."

—"The congregation, was in a most unsatisfactory state; in fact, altogether Laodicean."

One would not be surprised if the above two comments were quotes by ministers labouring in the year 2015–2016, but they are in fact comments made by two individual ministers in the years 1858–1859, in Ulster, Ireland.

A third able minister said:

—"Hitherto, our condition was deplorable. The congregation seemed dead to God, formal, cold, prayerless, worldly, and stingy in religious things. Twice I tried a prayer-meeting of my elders, but failed; for after the fifth or sixth night I was left alone. All along I believed that the faithful use of the means of grace would be followed by their effects, as certainly as the tillage of a field is followed by a good crop, or as diligence in any profession is attended with success; and great was my disappointment, as year after year passed, yet still no fruit; no outpouring of the Spirit. I wondered and was grieved at what seemed so mysterious. What alarmed me most was the indisposition, almost hostility, of the people to meetings for prayer. They seemed mostly to think that they were well enough, and that I was unnecessarily disturbing them. I had never been so desponding or distressed as during the weeks immediately preceding the awakening. I had almost ceased to hope. I felt as if I was almost alone, no one mourning or praying with me; and I told my people I was appalled at their determination to have no prayer-meetings, and that we would not have a drop of the shower of grace which was going round, but would be left utterly reprobate."

This paints a depressing and hopeless picture of the spiritual state of the land. BUT amidst such darkness there were those scattered across the land who prayed faithfully for a mighty work of the Holy Ghost.

The famed Methodist preacher William Arthur wrote a book in 1856, called, The Tongue of Fire which was about the true power of primitive Christianity. In its first three years it went through 18 re-printings which shows that there was a real hunger for true powerful New Testament Christianity.

As we scan the spiritual condition of the late 1850's we see that there was little to encourage genuine believers who had prayed and laboured hard for many years with little result or change to the spiritual condition. Many ministers, like the three quoted above, were discouraged with a seeming fruitless ministry.

It is at times like this, when all things spiritual are at the lowest of low ebbs, that the hungry believers cry out to God to send Revival and He in His faithfulness comes in power, sweeping souls into the Kingdom of God.

Not far from Ballymena, in county Antrim, is a small village called Kells. Here in 1859, God found Himself four weak, foolish, despised vessels through whom to work. God bypassed the great religious establishments as well as the ministers of religion and found four sinners that He saved and filled with faith and a spirit of prayer for revival.

Through the work of God in the hearts of these four new converts who were moved to seek God in prayer, 100,000 souls came to Christ in one year. This is the extraordinary story of this stirring, reviving and outpouring of the Spirit of God that came to be known as 'The 1859 Ulster Revival.' [TO BE CONTINUED]

NEXT WEEK Read about these four new converts who were used to see the beginning of the 'The 1859 Ulster Revival' as God's vessel.

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Amy Carmichael - Irish Missionary Pt.2

2/8/2015

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Amy Carmichael, (1867 – 1951), had left Belfast thinking that she would be in China soon; she had said goodbye to the Belfast ‘Shawlies’ and the Tin Tabernacle meetings, and had gone to London to train and be prepared for life in China. But having being turned down by the China Inland Mission’s doctor, on the grounds of ill health, she was asked to move up to Keswick in England to help with the very busy Administration of a very dear old family friend, Robert Wilson, who played a major role in the meetings held at Keswick to which preachers, missionaries and believers travelled from far and wide. During this time of waiting back in the England, Amy read and heard about mission work in Japan. The Japanese mission did not have the stringent health regulations of the Chinese mission and maybe this was the place. Arrangements were made and Amy headed out to Japan. Amy got ‘stuck in’ right away and it was not long before she was wearing a kimono and blending in with the Japanese women. She preached the Gospel from village to village and saw one, then two, then three, and then four saved at each meeting she held, but her poor health rose once more to conquer her and the doctor’s diagnoses was, “Get out of Japan as soon as possible!” Once again it seemed that her missionary dreams were shattered. Her voyage home took her through Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where kind missionaries took her in and nursed her back to health. Nothing could stop Amy from getting back in to outreach work as soon as she could. Just when she thought Ceylon might be a great place to stay a letter came from England, from her beloved Robert Wilson, asking if she could haste home to help him as he was in bad health. After all that this godly old man had done for her, Amy could not refuse, so she took the next possible voyage to England. It was during this time back there that she received a letter from a nursing friend who was working in a Mission station hospital in Bangalore, South India, where, as the friend put it, the climate was mild and gentle yet warm and dry enough for Amy’s ill health. Amy wondered if it was ‘right’ to suit her own health needs when looking for a missionary post, but she was desperate to be back in mission work and after doing all the interviews, she was accepted immediately, and one last time Amy Carmichael made an ocean voyage in the direction of Asia, only this time it would be the last time she ever saw the British Isles, as she would never return from India.

Amy’s first experience of meeting other missionaries in India, was a shocking one to her. A group of missionaries sat in their starched English clothes, eating cucumber sandwiches, whilst being served their tea, bemoaning the fact that they could not find any local volunteers to assist them with outreach work. Amy felt like a fish out of water. She knew exactly why these men and women had not succeeded in the mission field. Just as in Belfast where she had donned a shawl and lived in the slums, and as in Japan where she donned a Kimono, Amy knew that if she could live as an Indian, like an Indian, with Indians, learning to speak their language, she would immediately have more success than the cucumber sandwich missionaries. She was right, and it wasn’t long before Amy, now wearing a Sari, had a group of God-fearing women who travelled with her from village to village sharing the Gospel. There were far more challenges in India than Chinese or Japanese culture, as the complex caste system of India meant that they could get themselves in serious trouble for talking or even looking at someone of a different caste. Amy had to use wisdom to know which lady should share the Gospel with which inquirer, according to the caste system.

After some years of travelling and sharing the Gospel, God gave Amy a new direction as very suddenly a young girl was put in her charge, and this young girl was followed by another and then a baby, and then more. These girls were rescued from being Hindu temple prostitutes (sold to the temples by their families), or from families where they had been sold as child brides. Soon Amy had reason to set up a permanent compound with houses for her growing family and the missionaries. Although never married, Amy was mother to hundreds of girls, and later boys too, who were raised in the Lord and protected from the evils of their culture and religion. Many of her ‘children’ were raised up as missionaries and greatly affected the nation of India.

Buried in India in her late 80’s, Amy, though from Belfast, is regarded as one of the most important ‘Indians’ of her time.

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Amy Carmichael- Irish Missionary Pt.1

1/8/2015

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“I am afraid you are not fit to survive in the Chinese climate. I am sorry but I shall be signing a report to forbid your travel to China.” Having already packed her tin chest with clothes and supplies for her life in China, the young lady looked at the doctor shocked—she was devastated. She begged the doctor to consider that she might get stronger once out in China, but he was certain; her previous illnesses, suffered as a result of over-work amongst the squalid, vermin and lice–infested Belfast slums, had left her body too weakened. Turmoil rose up within her as she wondered whether she had misheard God, because she was certain that God had shown her that she was to go as a missionary to China. How was she to return to her native Belfast now having bid farewell to her loved ones and mission work she had left behind? Such are the trials of one who is to be used mightily for God, and certainly this young lady could never have imagined what God had in store for her. She had not misheard Him, for in not being permitted to join the missionary work in China, God was able to direct her to where she would remain for all her adult life—India!

Amy Carmichael (1867 – 1951), was born the eldest child to wealthy Mill owners in Belfast, who were devout and sincere Christians. Amy attended church and took part in prayers and devotions at home, but was very protected from the ‘real’ life of the majority of those ‘slaving’ to make Irish linen and Irish flour famous. One day when walking home from church, Amy and two of her siblings were moved to help a very elderly lady carry her burden of sticks back to her home. The ragged, old woman smelled and people whom Amy knew, crossed the road to the other side of the street to avoid the strange foursome. As Amy was walking with the old lady a scripture she had heard time and again came back to her with such life, it was as if someone was reading it aloud to her: “Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” (I Cor3:12-15)

This marked Amy’s life and although just a teenager, she began to do everything she could to share the Gospel. She held children’s meetings in the back garden and wrote tracts and classes for them. Hungry for more outreach work, she began to go with older brethren in to the Belfast slums to share the Gospel. One day, she was shocked to find that a woman she had mistaken for a very old woman, was in fact a girl the same age as herself. She learnt that these young women laboured so hard in the mills that their bodies were bent and beaten from physical wear. They were known as the ‘Shawlies’ because they could not afford hats, so they pulled their shawls up over their heads to bring some warmth against the bitter Belfast winds. Within a year of going to the slums, Amy had around 400 ‘Shawlies’ attending her Gospel meetings. The church hall in which she was meeting was growing too small and Amy began to pray for their own meeting house. Without asking for the finances, money came to Amy within a very short period of time to buy a piece of land and erect a ‘Tin Tabernacle’ which accommodated meetings everyday for the ‘Shawlies’. This principle of not making her needs known to anyone but God was one she continued all her life. After around two years of working night and day—and even living in the slums—Amy became very ill and weak. It was this illness which weakened her and resulted in the devastating diagnoses some years later. BUT GOD had other plans for Amy. She could never have planned the years ahead, and all the work she had done in the Belfast slums prepared her for the more than 50 years on the mission field.

(to be continued…)

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A Testimony from 19th Century Paris

8/6/2015

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“Have you understood what I have been saying” asked Katie Booth-Clibborn of the tall, dark man with a worn and hardened face. He alone remained behind after one of the earliest Salvation Army meetings in Paris, (1881), where Katie had preached the Gospel.

“Have you time to listen to me?” came the man’s bitter response. “Yes, certainly,” responded The Maréchale

“I had the happiest home in Paris,” began Emile, “I married the woman I loved, and after twelve months a little boy came to our home. Three weeks after, my wife lost her reason, and now she is in an asylum. But there was still my little boy. He was a beautiful child. We ate together, slept together, walked and talked together. He was all the world to me. He was the first to greet me in the morning, and the first to welcome me in the evening when I came home from work. This went on till the sixth year struck, and then…” Emile’s lips twitched, and he turned his face away. His hearer softly said, “He died.” He gave a scarcely perceptible nod, and smothered a groan. “Then”, he continued, “I went to the devil. Before the open grave, with hundreds of my comrades about me, I lifted my hand to heaven and cried, ‘If there be a God, let Him strike me dead!”

“But He did not strike you dead, for He is very gentle and patient with us all. And now you have come here tonight, Does it not seem to you a strange things that you out of all the millions of France, and I out of all the millions of England should be here at midnight? How do you account for it? Isn’t it because God thought of you, and loves you?...Do you ever pray?”

“Never,”was Emile’s reply.

“Oh, but I pray,” said The Maréchale, and kneeling down she prayed a double prayer for herself as well as for him. She wanted this man’s salvation for her own sake and the work’s sake. For weeks she had been fighting and praying for a break, and she felt as if on the issue of this wrestling for a single soul depended the whole future of the work in France. While she prayed for his salvation from sin she was silently praying for her own deliverance from doubt and fear and discouragement. Both prayers were heard!

When she opened her eyes, she saw the face bathed in tears. She knew that his heart was melted, and she spoke to him of the love of God.

“But I have hated Him. I have hated religion; I have come here to mock you; I have called you Jesuits!”

“Yet God loves you.”

“But why did He allow my wife to lose her reason? Why did He take my child if He is love?”

“I cannot answer these questions. You will know why one day. But I know He loves you.”

“Is it possible that He can forgive a poor sinner like me?”

“It is certain.”

Emile was won. Some nights afterward he gave his testimony, and for seven years he stood by The Maréchale.

Whenever Emile got up to speak and address the crowd, there was immediate attention. “Citizens,” he would say, “you all know me. You have heard me many times. This God whom I once hated I now love, and I want to speak to you about Him.”

Excerpt from the book,
The Maréchale, by James Strahan

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James McKeown – Irish Pioneer to Africa

2/6/2015

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This weekend is AFRICA weekend in Limerick

James McKeown’s (1900-1989) parents were from Northern Ireland, but they ran off to Scotland in order to get married. They settled in the village of Glenboig, near Glasgow. It was here that James was born, the second of nine children. His parents were strict Presbyterians. His father had no book but the Bible. When James was just eight, a man from their Church travelled to Sunderland where the Pentecostal movement began in Britain, in the Anglican church of A.A. Boddy. This man returned speaking in tongues. James' parents attended meetings at which both were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues. He was eleven when his family moved back to Portglenone, N. Ireland and not long after their return, James left school to help his dad on the new farm.

It was in 1916 that George Jeffreys held a five week tent campaign in Ballymena near their farm. The tent held less than 300 people but during that time 120 were won to Christ. A great many consecrated themselves afresh unto God, and 23 were baptized in the Holy Ghost. Every night the tent was filled to capacity. On Sunday nights the side of the tent was let down to allow all those gathered outside the tent to participate. One of the favourite hymns of this mission was 'Ireland for Christ.' The McKeown home became something of a centre for Pentecostal meetings especially on Sunday nights when they would continue to the early hours of the morning.

At a house meeting in a friend’s home as the preacher told of the love and suffering of Christ, James lost all sight of the preacher and was overcome by a revelation of Jesus Christ. He was gripped by the Gospel and wept at this new revelation. From then on he loved the Lord and had a great love and appetite for His Word. He next sought for the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Others were filled but nothing happened to him. One night, James became very desperate—he had to have this filling, so kneeling at the bench he was emptied of all, and filled with the Spirit of God, speaking in tongues.

Some years later, a call came for James to go to Africa as a missionary and though from a boy he had read many missionary testimonies he refused to go, on the grounds of his poor education. Later amidst pleadings from his wife he reconsidered, and in 1937 he left for Africa with the vision of planting the Apostolic Church in the Gold Coast.

The only white man amongst 5,000 Africans in a town called Asamankese, James helped the believers there to build a mission house. That a white man would do such won over their hearts. He ate their food, worshipped with them and would walk 40 miles through the bush to outlying groups where he preached in the open-air.

When his wife arrived from Scotland, in June 1938, they stepped out by themselves to a place called Winneba to start from scratch again. Throughout their years in Africa they rarely ever got ill. Everywhere they went God confirmed his word with mighty signs and wonders following the preaching of the Gospel. James always played this down and taught the believers to rather rejoice that their names were written in the Lamb’s book of life. The emphasis was always changed lives. He would send out young evangelists who would stand against the witch doctors, who saw the lame walk, the blind see and even the dead raised. Through this means large numbers of people began to believe in Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

James believed in the Biblical pattern of training local believers to lead new fellowships and by this method, The Church of Pentecost in Ghana was built strong and sure, so that by 1969 at their General convention 35,000 people gathered; 100 leaders sat on the platform as James ministered the Word for 75 minutes.

By 1974 the life in Ghana was too much for his wife Sofia so they moved back to N.Ireland and bought a two-bedroomed cottage in Ballymena. Every year James would return to Ghana for three to four months at convention time until 1982. He slowly withdrew from his responsibilities leaving the full responsibilities on the shoulders of the Africans. James and Sofia lived out their last days very quietly and humbly in Ballymena, never boasting for one minute on the great and mighty way they had been used of God in Africa. Fittingly a biography is written on his life and is called, GIANT IN AFRICA.