Of whom the world was not worthy Part III

Accounts from the church book at Hope Chapel, Rochdale, of the church members during the early years of John Kershaw’s ministry.

JAMES SHARPLES (29)

James Sharpies of Simpson Clough died in the month of May 1833, leaving a wife and six or seven children to mourn the loss of one of the most kind husbands and tenderest of fathers. As a member of the church he was very useful, being of a meek and quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great price, and clothed with the beautiful garment of humility which so much adorns the Christian’s character. He was well established in the truth as it is in Christ Jesus and died rejoicing in Christ Jesus, putting no confidence in the flesh. He was a member nearly nine years.

ABRAM EARNSHAW (30)

Abram Earnshaw of Slack [or Stack] near Bacup. He was an old man when he was baptized, though he had been a hearer of old Mr. Hirst of Bacup until Mr. Hirst died, and after the death of Mr. Hirst he could not feed upon the yea and nay gospel that his successors preached. For when Mr. Hirst died it might be truly said that the candlestick of divine truth was removed from Bacup. Abram Earnshaw was baptized February 1st, 1829, and died in the month of December 1833.

BETTY ASHWORTH (31)

Betty Ashworth of Spotland Bridge [a part of Rochdale] departed this life July 2nd, 1835, having been a member nearly ten years, during which time she was a very constant attender upon the means of grace, always very early in the morning at chapel. Her death was very sudden. She was at the chapel one Lord’s day and the Lord’s day following she was buried.

ANNE HOLT (32)

Anne Holt was a member with us nearly eight years. She was a poor, tried woman who had brought up a large family and was years a widow indeed. She had little to say but, like Mary, she pondered things in her heart. She was much put about in her circumstances in her latter days. She lived several years in Regent Street but died at Busel Head, July 1835.

THOMAS NIVEN (33)

Thomas Niven died in the Lord August 8th, 1835, having been a member of this church twenty-three years. He was a North Briton being born and brought up in Dumfriesshire. When a young man he came to England and commenced travelling, as many of his countrymen do to this day. In this employment he continued upwards of forty years and afterwards became an importer of Irish linen. But as the intention of this church record is not to give an account of its members as men of worldly business, but of them as the saints of the most high God and as the followers of the Lamb, I proceed to say something of the great things God did for him and by him. He was led to remember his Creator in the days of his youth. The work of conviction, commonly called a law work, was very keen and continued for many months, so that he was brought in his feelings to the gates of gaping hell. He had resolved and vowed again and again that he would depart from evil and keep the law of Moses, who often, as he was wont to say, took him by the throat and said, “Pay me what thou owest.” At length he was led to see and feel that, notwithstanding all his resolutions and promises, he continually came short, and had not one mite to call his own, but was doomed to lie in prison shut up under the fiery law of God, with the awful thunderings of Mount Sinai in his soul, saying, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

Such was the distress of his mind that he was tempted to believe he could not be more miserable if he were in hell. The enemy of souls tried hard to persuade him to put an end to his existence and know the worst. Accordingly, on a certain Lord’s day morning, he came to the awful determination of drowning himself. The place he fixed upon to do this dreadful deed was between some deep rocks, through which a river ran, concluding that if he jumped in, it would be impossible to get out. But behold the wonders of God’s grace and mercy! When he came to the top of the rocks and looked down into the river, ready in his feelings to sink into hell under the weight of sin and guilt and the terrors of God in His law, harassed with the fiery darts of the devil, he heard the still, small, peaceful voice of the Lord saying unto him, “Poor distressed soul, it is not for anything that thou hast done, or can do, that thou art to be saved, but for what My beloved Son has done and suffered for thee.” He saw Jesus in the river by the eye of faith, and the blessed Spirit led him to the River Jordan, and the Garden of Gethsemane, and Calvary’s cross. He saw the Holy Ghost descend and light upon Him like a dove and lo a voice from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He had a view by faith of the glory of Immanuel’s Person and of His perfect obedience to the divine law, being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. He saw Jesus in the garden sweating great drops of blood and upon the accursed tree bleeding, groaning and dying, the just for the unjust. He, like Manoah and his wife, looked on while the Spirit of the Lord showed him that a divine atonement was made, sin put away, everlasting righteousness brought in, law and justice satisfied, and the way to heaven opened up by the blood of the cross. Like Bunyan’s Christian pilgrim, he here lost his burden of sin, his soul was lifted up out of the horrible pit, and his feet fixed upon the Rock of ages and a new song of praise and thanksgiving was in his mouth, and heart too. He was so taken up with a precious Christ and His finished salvation, all of grace from first to last, and with his safety and security in Christ, that he spent all the morning by the side of the river blessing and praising the Lord for the great things He had done for his soul. No tongue can tell nor pen describe the joy that is felt in such a soul when brought out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the gospel.

Being thus taught of God the necessity of salvation all of grace from first to last, he could no longer receive a yea and nay gospel. Nothing would do for him but the laying low of the sinner and the exalting of Christ Jesus and Him crucified upon the pole of the gospel and in the hearts of His people by the power of the Spirit. For many years after our friend came to England, he could meet with but few whose ministry met his case and whose views of divine truth were agreeable to his own. Amongst these may be mentioned the late Charles Bamford who for several years laboured in word and doctrine at Hey Barn, near Rochdale, but ended his life and useful labours at Pole Moor, near Huddersfield [1793-1804]. With this man Thomas Niven was intimately acquainted. He lodged with him for several years in the course of his business; they were of one heart and soul in the great things of God. The late venerable John Hirst of Bacup was another of the Lord’s faithful witnesses that he was accustomed to hear with great profit and delight. But though so well acquainted with these eminent men of God, Bamford and Hirst, he never joined either of the churches over which they presided as pastors. When it pleased the Lord in His providence to bring William Gadsby of Manchester into this neighbourhood, reports of him spread far and wide. Some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “Nay, he is a deceiver of the people.” Thomas Niven, hearing in the course of his travels some of his Christian friends speak evilly of William, formed for a time, through the reports that he heard, a very unfavourable opinion of him — till one day, in the course of his business, he called upon a good old woman (this woman was the mother of Mr. Heap, minister of Bury Street Chapel, London, with whom he was very familiar, and she lent him a pamphlet called “A Dream,” written by this Gadsby against whom he was so prejudiced. He read it and found his own character and experience so sweetly described that from that very moment he felt that union of soul to its author which eternity can never dissolve; and, consequently he became one of the warmest of his friends and supporters as a minister of the gospel of God our Saviour. Some time after this, through the above reasons, he attended Hope Chapel under the ministry of John Warburton, the church meeting at which place he joined. He was greatly united to John’s ministry but shortly after he joined the church, the pastor was removed to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, where he has now laboured upwards of twenty years with great acceptance to the Lord’s family, having been greatly honoured of God in that place.

The church at Hope Chapel, being destitute of a pastor to go in and out before them, some of the leading men at the place, because they could not have everything their own way, became the church’s enemies and did all they could to upset the interest. But the Lord, who in His goodness placed Esther at the head of the Jews that she might be the means of their deliverance when they were threatened with destruction (Esther 4. 14), placed Thomas Niven in His church at Hope Chapel that he might be the means in His hands of preserving it from the power of its enemies. When Thomas saw the plot of the enemy to overthrow the church, he took the pecuniary affairs thereof into his own hands and, being possessed of property, he met all the demands that came against it, supported the ministry, and took charge of the little the poor friends were able to give, and though the burden was heavy in consequence of the debt that was upon the chapel, yet he was never heard to murmur or complain. Thus the Lord honoured good Humilius, defeated the enemies of Zion, and made good His word, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” From this time the cause began to prosper and the hand of the Lord went out against the church’s enemies and they came to nought. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”

Though Thomas Niven was a man of property, and did so very much for the cause, there was no one more humble. He never attempted to lord it over God’s heritage nor to carry things in opposition to the wishes of the friends. He would attend church meeting after church meeting, and never utter a syllable except when asked, or unless something unpleasant took place amongst the brethren causing warmth of spirit and angry words, when he would begin to weep and say, “We are surrounded with enemies who would be glad to hear of our halting. We are of one family, loved with the same love, bought with the same precious blood, called by the same grace, and heirs to the same inheritance. As Christian pilgrims we are travelling through this vale of tears to a better country, where we hope to spend a never-ending eternity together. And shall we fall out by the way, and be as pricking thorns in each other’s eyes and sides, and embitter each other’s cup of woe? Good God forbid! Let us follow after the things that make for peace and edification; be kind and affectionate one to another, with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another, with all boldness and meekness, with long suffering and forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; bearing and forbearing with each other, considering that we are all liable to temptations and are the like subjects of infirmity, and comforting and edifying one another, weeping with them that weep.” Thus did the old Scotsman talk and weep in the church when anything unpleasant took place so that it may be truly said of him, he was a peacemaker. Flattery he could not give to anyone, nor could he take it himself. Kindness, honesty, and faithfulness shone in him and what he was, he was by the grace of God.