The Great Acceptance: The Life Story of F. N. Charrington — John Shaqi
The Great Acceptance: The Life Story of F. N. CharringtonThorne, Guy
History
The Great Acceptance: The Life Story of F. N. Charrington
Thorne, Guy
Charrington, Fredk. N. (Frederick Nicholas), 1850-1936; Poor -- England -- London
Mr. Campbell and Mr. Kerwin conducted their Evangelistic work in a
hayloft over a stable. It was all the shelter that they had, it was
all they could afford, and yet from Mr. Charrington's association with
it has sprung a mission so wide-reaching in its effects, so
world-embracing in the influence that has radiated from it, that we
may well marvel at such results from a beginning so humble.
Not long ago I was telling the story of these early days to a lady
whose life has been passed in works of charity. She smiled when I
spoke of the little hayloft, and she said, "The Light of the World
streamed forth from the manger at Bethlehem."
One evening Mr. Charrington visited his new friends and made personal
experience of their efforts.
He found the entrance to the stable guarded by a small boy, who showed
him up a terribly rickety staircase of open boards to a long room
lighted with cheap paraffin lamps which hung from the rafters.
There was a platform, none too elaborately constructed, at one end of
the loft, and the floor was covered with rude benches.
The odour of the stable below ascended in all its pristine richness
and mingled with the smell of the crude oil lamps, while the
atmosphere was still further complicated by the fact that the roof of
the hayloft was a low one, and the ventilation almost non-existent.
Yet, on that night, with a congregation of the roughest and most
untaught lads to be found in that part of the East End, in such
unpropitious surroundings, the guest nevertheless heard addresses to
the lads about the love of Christ for them, which made a lasting
impression on his mind.
As he stood at the end of the hall and watched, something must have
come to him to tell of the mighty work that, under God's blessing, he
himself was destined to do in the future. New and unaccustomed as was
the scene, strange as some of the methods must have been to him, yet,
at that moment, some hinting, some prophetic vision, came to him. He
had arrived at last upon the field. He was present at a mere skirmish
with the forces of evil, but it was a foretaste of the great battle to
come. He had arrived at the front.
He has told me that as he watched and listened he thought, "This is
far more like real work for the Lord than my own more secular
night-school work," and when the service was nearly over, as the lads
sang--
Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod;
With its crystal tide for ever
Flowing by the throne of God?
such an impression was made upon his mind that within another night or
two he was again present at the service. He proposed at once that he
should join forces with his friends, and brought immediately a fresh
and burning enthusiasm, a fierce energy, a daring originality, which
almost at once began to alter the whole character of the little
mission.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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