The Gospel’s Progress
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bringeth good tidings”
These short few pages are a collection of a number of stories that have been told by the friends (particularly the older friends) many times over, and have been recorded here. These have come by way of notes, letters, conversation and other such communication and are simply rewritten in order of chronology, that they may be read and understood more readily.
Stephen: the disciple Stephen was the first of the workers to be ill-treated for preaching the word of God, and the first to suffer death for the Lord. As we read in the book of The Acts, his earnest preaching of the Gospel occasioned his terrible death. So powerful and sincere his words, that they incited the Jewish authorities to a madness that resulted in them casting this gentle man out of the city, and stoning him to death, where, in a beautiful imitation of the example of Christ on the cross, he freely forgave them, and “he fell asleep”.
James the son of Zebedee: James was, according to The Acts, the second worker of the word who expired for the sake of the faith. This happened about ten years after Stephen’s death. As the authorities were taking James away to be slain, it is recorded that the very accuser who condemned James to this fate became overwhelmed at his conduct, and the gentle spirit of forgiveness that James demonstrated toward the brutes who mishandled him. The accuser fell at James’ feet in repentance and thereby received the faith also. Hence James the Apostle died alongside his accuser, both formerly enemies, but then reconciled before death through a common faith in Jesus.
Philip: Born in Galilee and the first worker to be called “disciple”, mentioned in John’s gospel as being that one whom Jesus saw beneath a fig tree; and the worker who preached the gospel to the Ethiopian proselyte. Philip laboured in Upper Asia and was employed in several important missions in that region before being slain by the authorities at Helipolis in Phrygia. Like the Lord, he was scourged, thrown into prison and then crucified. This gives great meaning to the words of Jesus when He said, “if the world hates you, know that it hated Me first”.
Matthew: This worker wrote the first gospel in the Bible, which goes by his name. He was a tax-gatherer by trade, born in Nazareth, and was employed by occupation in the town of Capernaum. Matthew was apparently sitting at his public accounts when Jesus called him into the ministry. He left immediately at this call. He was employed in a mission in Judea for nine years, before being sent to the gentiles. In fulfilling his commission, he laboured in Parthia, and Ethiopia in Africa, the latter country of which was the place of his death. He was run through with a spear in the town of Nadabah, after thirty years in the work.
James the brother of the Lord: Author of the epistle that goes under his name, he was the elder brother worker in Jerusalem. He laboured for many years to win the Jews to the truth, but the hatred of the Jews never diminished. At last, when he was ninety-four, a mob of rabid Jews beat the elderly worker, stoned him, and at the end of their cruelty, dashed him over the head with a sort of club then commonly used by laundrymen. Thus died this faithful elder brother.
Matthias: This worker occupied the room left empty by the traitor Judas Iscariot, and who was taken into the ministry by a prayer and a ballot (as Luke writes in The Acts). He laboured in Jerusalem, and was stoned and beheaded at an uncertain date.
Andrew: The apostle who infrequently appears in the gospel message, and is the quiet disciple. His mention in the gospel usually records him leading someone to Jesus. He laboured in many of the Asian nations, however he suffered death for the gospel when he arrived in Edessa. He was crucified on a cross shaped like an X. It is recorded that he rejoiced as he was being led to die, exclaiming that he had known the inevitability of that moment from the time he entered the work. He was apparently bound to his cross by cords rather than nails in order to prolong his agony. Andrew preached from his cross for two days to the assembled mob, before he at last expired.
Mark: A Jew of the tribe of Levi, who received the faith, entered the work, and was the companion of Peter. He was author of the second gospel that goes by his name. The heathen people of Alexandria, in honour of their idol, dragged Mark through their streets, left him bruised in a dungeon for a night, and then burned him to death the following day. Thus he expired beneath their merciless hands for the sake of the truth.
Peter: The author of two epistles that go by his name, and the elder brother of the church. He denied Christ before the crucifixion, but his sincere repentance afterward was confirmed by Jesus’ instructions to him to feed both lambs and sheep. He was arrested by the Roman Emperor during one of his missions, and converted many in the emperor’s household during the nine months he was imprisoned. He was crucified upside down by his own request, explaining that he was not worthy to die in similitude of the Lord Jesus. It should be noted that Peter’s wife also died for the faith, and as she was being led away to her own death, Peter exhorted her to remember her Saviour.
Jude: The author of the epistle that goes by his name, though he is more commonly called Thaddaeus. He too was sent on a mission to Edessa, however his preaching excited the hatred of the authorities and he was crucified after forty years in the work.
Luke: Companion worker of Paul, a physician by vocation (the “beloved physician”), and an intelligent man who is considered a “historian of the first class” for the detail in his writings. Luke wrote both the gospel by his name and The Acts. He was originally of the city of Antioch, and he was a gentile. He companioned with Paul to Rome, and was present at all of the great missions of Paul. He preached in the barbarous nations, especially in Greece with Paul, until the heathen priests of Greece, excited to a violent madness by the truth, hanged this worker on an olive tree.
John: Called the “beloved disciple”, he was a worker with a very loving disposition. He laboured in Asia and founded the churches in all the places mentioned in The Revelation. He wrote a gospel, three epistles to the friends that are preserved for us in scripture, and The Revelation. He was punished for the preaching of the gospel by being exiled to the isle of Patmos to labour in the mines there, and it was at Patmos that he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. He was eventually released and continued to labour until his death. He lived almost to one-hundred years of age, and was the only apostle to escape a violent death.
Paul: Paul at first persecuted the church with overwhelming violence and anger, being as he was, a militant Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was suddenly arrested in his fierce temper by the appearance of the glorified Lord on the road to Damascus. He was smitten blind, and eventually recovered his sight after a visitation by a faithful friend in the city, called Ananias, whom had been given guidance by the Lord.
After his conversion, Paul became one of the most earnest and sincere of the workers, pouring all his energies into his missions. He was not able to properly preach until a long sojourn in Arabia, in which he meditated to understand the magnificence of his new calling. He was to “suffer great things” for the name of the Lord.
Paul’s first attempts to preach the gospel ended in riot. At Iconium Paul was almost stoned to death with his companion Barnabus by maddened Jews. They were forced to flee to the city of Lyconia. Later Paul was stoned in Lystra, and dragged out of the city and left for dead. At Philippi, Paul and his companion Silas were whipped and imprisoned, but were freed by a miracle when they sung praises at midnight. They were persecuted again in Thessalonica.
Paul preached to the churches in France, Spain and Greece, but eventually was condemned for his preaching by the authorities, being arrested in Jerusalem. A plot to assassinate him was thwarted, after which he made a fateful appeal to the courts in Rome and was at last beheaded, shortly after writing the second epistle to Timothy, in which he finished by writing, “my departure is at hand”.
Australia presently has twenty-three conventions and many friends. In some regions there are so many friends, that the fellowship has become part of civic life. It has even been documented and commented on in a televised documentary by a film crew from Italy. On Kangaroo Island, for example, there are some streets and buildings in the township that are named after the activities of the workers, and once a premier and his aides visited the island and inquired of the elders concerning the faith.
Sam Jones: Sam Jones is Australia’s apostle Paul. He came to Australia in 1907, and in his original bible – handed on to another worker now – he had written before his departure the line of psalm xxvii which reads, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord [in the land of the living]”.
This certainly gives some indication of the struggles Sam and other workers faced, as they turned from lands and friends and kindred, and trudged far from familiar customs and habits to the uttermost parts of the earth. It is said that the first workers, the apostles, took the gospel along the roads of the Roman Empire, and that the workers of our age have taken the gospel along the trading routes of the British Empire. But even so, whether it has been borne along Roman roads or British trading routes, the struggle of the workers is doubtless the same.
It is no exaggeration to say that Sam Jones is a psalmist of our own time, and it is therefore little surprising to learn that during these early years, Sam wrote on one of his photographs the words of a poem that also give us insight to his battles:
The Spirit to continue with Him in His temptations; [for so it is titled]:
“This is the Grace and Virtue that I crave.
So much would draw me backward-
So much would pull me downward,
And hinder me from being strong and brave.”
One of the things that would have drawn them backward and pulled them downward was the fact they had little food, and no place to stay. Often camping in haystacks was the best alternative to slumbering in the chill – contrary to common belief, the Australian night is frigid, even in low summer. The workers preaching in Melbourne, for instance, would walking along roads that trafficked grocers carts, and if they happened to find a stray piece of fruit that had fallen from the carts, they would count it as the Lord’s for them. In this way they continued preaching the truth, as strangers and as pilgrims in a distant land.
1908 was a particularly rough time for Sam. He was very unwell, and his companion had deserted him, like that erstwhile companion of Paul recorded in scripture that deserted him at Rome having “loved the present world”. Sam gave to him all the money he had left, and so the younger companion exited the ministry to return to familiar shores, and to be a pilgrim and stranger no more.
Eventually Sam could go no further and he lay down in a dry creek bed, where he was fortunately found by wandering gypsies, who showed him “no little kindness”, just as the barbarous people demonstrated toward Paul when he was shipwrecked so many hundreds of years before. These gypsies nursed Sam back to health, and it was after this experience that Sam wrote our present hymn 346: “I cannot now go back”, a verse of which runs:
“Thy vows are binding, Lord on me,
My heart is purposed I will be,
A living sacrifice for thee,
I cannot now go back.”
These few lines give great insight into Sam’s state of heart at this point. There is much significance in these lines, showing what it really is to be a “living sacrifice” for the Lord Jesus, who gave His life for us all. The year after his recovery, 1909, he wrote another hymn, which is our present number 241, “The truth of God so precious”. Having little to encourage him gives those phrases great significance: “anointed eyes see always, Jesus ahead”. Such words seem very real and powerful, and serve to indicate the state of heart of those who are pilgrims, and have left the world behind, showing plainly that they “seek a country”. Another time Sam was walking along a road with his feet bleeding. This prompted another of Sam’s hymns, “Thy bleeding feet, Lord Jesus I will follow”.
Sam and his companion spent many weeks walking a line, preaching in each small town, and camping by night in haystacks. This would have been summer, and the cold would not probably have been as grievous as in winter, but the situation would have been neither comfortable, nor welcoming. Nevertheless, during this missionary journey, they were directed by the Spirit to a small town called Bethel, about five miles walking from the place they had been in.
In this particular town there had been two churches which had merged together, however there was some undercurrents still within the congregations of both churches, not all of which were pleasant or healthy. One of the people in this congregation was a man called Herman Geue who was a leader within the church and a bandmaster. When Sam and his companion entered the town, they came across Mr Geue raking straw, and they inquired of him if there was a hall where they might be able to hold a gospel meeting. Mr Geue suggested they find another man, known as Mr Schmidt for a hall, however if he was unwilling to loan them the hall, they should come back again to see him. It so turned out that they did return to see Mr Geue and they started meetings in Mr Geue’s home.
Sam’s companion at this time was Jimmy Vallence who had been called from out of New Zealand to help in Australia. He never intended to be a worker, but the ministry – as it has been said – chose him, and so he preached also. He was often prone to become tongue-tied, and when this happened, Sam would say, “We’ll just sing another hymn while he gathers his thoughts.” It was said later, by Mr Geue that it was Jimmy’s struggling, sweating and sincerity that helped him the most.
Mr Geue professed, and was immediately excommunicated from his former church, discarded from among them, having lost his former reputation for the gospel’s sake.
It was this thought that prompted Sam Jones to write in 1914 the hymn “No Reputation, with Jesus I go”, whilst staying with Mr Geue. It was Mr Geue himself who set the words to music.
The minister in this particular town church became so completely enraged by Sam Jones and his companion, that he spoke out (or “preached out”) against the workers, resulting in twenty-four of the congregation leaving that church because they had heard more from Sam than they had ever heard from the minister there.
-Jason