Thomas Cook's early ministry : with incidents and suggestions concerning Christian work

Preface

T71K0M the commencement of Mr. Cook's ministry as a Lay Evangelist, I have been familiar with his work, and taken a deep interest in it. It has been my lot to be associated with him in several missions. I have also had the privilege of occasionally receiving him into my house as a welcome guest.

The result has been, that a somewhat close intimacy has sprung up between Mr. Cook and myself ; and during recent years we have been in the habit of conversing together in private about the subjects in which we are both profoundly interested, and which are treated upon in the following pages.

The idea of my writing an account of Mr. Cook's early ministry did not first occur to me ; but when it was suggested, I was, for several reasons, not unwilling to entertain it. I knew myself to be in the fullest accord with the spirit, aims, and views of the Evangelist. I had the deepest sense of the imvi PREFACE.

portance of the blessed work which God has permitted him to do during the last ten years. And I was disposed to think that, if such a narrative were written, it might, by the Divine blessing, encourage God's people, and stimulate evangelists and lay preachers, and perhaps even the rising ministry of Methodism, — if I may say all that is in my heart, — to emulate the Evangelist's singleness of purpose and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that the task is done, I can only hope that he who reads may share the blessing which has come to him who writes, as the result of this fellowship with Mr. Cook.

I wish to add, that in many instances I have given the names of the authorities for the statements I have made about the various missions. In other cases I have obtained the information either from Mr. Cook, or from his correspondence, or from friends who were connected with the work they describe. I have sometimes been able to write of Mr. Cook's missions from personal knowledge.

Care has been taken to insure perfect accuracy ; and I venture to hope that it will be found by the candid reader, that the use of inflated language has been avoided ; and that, however imperfect the style of the book may be when considered from the point of view of the literary man, the language is not

PREFACE.

vn unworthy of the writer's purpose, which is to narrate a real work of God.

The opinions expressed in the book are my own. They are the result of twenty-one years' experience in the AVesleyan-Methodist ministry, and of much meditation, not of yesterday- They are also fully shared by Mr. Cook ; and therefore, whatever may be their worth, they may be accepted as the deliberate views of a Circuit minister and a Connexional Evangelist. For all personal references to Mr. Cook, I am alone responsible. It has been no part of my intention to increase his fame. I have simply wished to make it appear that an Evangelist is amongst us whose labours it has pleased God to bless in a remarkable manner.

I may add that the work is innocent of all literary pretence. It has been written during an active ministry in a London Circuit, amid many distractions ; and it must therefore be judged accordingly

May the blessing of our gracious God rest upon this imperfect attempt to describe, for His glory, the special work which He has enabled His servant to do !

HENRY T. SMART.

Tottenham, Middlesex.

CONTEXTS.

CHAP.

I. INTRODUCTION II. EARLY DAYS AND CONVERSION .

III. PREPARATION FOR WORK

IV. A LAY EVANGELIST

V. CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST VI. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK VII. HOLINESS-MEETINGS VIII. men's MEETINGS .

IX. SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP .

X. CORNISH REVIVALS XI. FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN XII. RESULTS OF THE WORK .

PAGE

CHAP TEE I.

Introduction

THE Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers have been widely read, and very useful in stimulating the faith and zeal of successive generations. Those biographies show how God raised up men from amongst the multitude, and sent them to preach to the masses of the people, and how He confirmed the Word by signs and wonders. But Methodism cannot live upon the achievements of the past, how great soever those achievements may have been. God has buried all the workmen who, thanks to the diligence of the late Thomas Jackson, have been immortalised in those volumes ; and buried their successors also. The great Methodist evangelists of whom we heard in our youth with amazement — Stoner, Carvosso, Bramwell, Smith — are undoubtedly dead. So are the illustrious scythesmen of a later generation. Robert Young, Peter M'Owen, Rattenbury, Vasey, Romilly Hall, Nightingale, and M'Aulay, whose bows, like the bow of Jonathan, never returned empty, are all gone hence. Is God carrying on His work ?

A

The career of Thomas Cook is good proof that God is carrying on His work, and for that reason it is worthy of being published to the world. I do not hesitate to say that if competent and candid persons will examine the evidence which they will find herein, they will be convinced that no Methodist preacher of Mr. Wesley's time, or of any subsequent period, has had a more remarkable course than Thomas Cook ; indeed, it may be said without exaggeration, that when all the circumstances of his ministry are considered, his work has been unique even in the romantic history of Methodism. So far as congregations are concerned, it may be said with truth that few Methodist preachers have attracted larger crowds. Within recent years popular ministers have gathered immense audiences in Methodist chapels ; but the appearances of these gifted meji have been rare, and the people have only had an occasional opportunity of hearing them. But in the case of Mr. Cook it has been otherwise. Night after night during two, and sometimes nearly three weeks, the largest chapels in the Connexion have proved too small to accommodate the numbers of hearers who have sought admission in order to hear Mr. Cook's message. Occasionally he has been obliged to hold two services in the same chapel on one evening, that disappointed hearers might have the opportunity, after waiting in the chapel-yard for more than an hour, until the first service was closed, of listening to the Word of Life. Whatever the multitudes went out into the wilderness to see, and whatever they mav have seen, there can be no question that during the last ten years the multitudes have gone out " to see " Mr. Cook, and I am of opinion that it may be instruct-

INTRODUCTION. 3

ive to know what it was that the multitudes saw and heard.

If regard be had to the results of Mr. Cook's ministry, I believe it will be seen that no ministry in the history of Methodism has been more signally blessed of God. Certainly few Methodist preachers have been permitted to beget more souls in Christ Jesus through the gospel in ten years than Thomas Cook.

Possibly, however, this may be doubted by some excellent people. When Mr. Wesley laid the foundation-stone of City Eoad Chapel in 1777, he preached a sermon from the text, " What hath God wrought ? " In the second paragraph of that sermon Mr. Wesley told his hearers that the then Bishop of London, in one of his charges, had flatly denied that God had wrought any special work in England during that century. During fifty years Mr. Wesley and his fellow-labourers had been going through the three kingdoms preaching repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, with the result that many thousands had been turned " to the wisdom of the just ; " yet it seemed that the Bishop of London, who from the office he held might have been supposed to be interested in such a movement, had either not heard of what we now call " the Evangelical Revival" or, if he had heard of it, had refused to give credence to it. But the tablet in Westminster Abbey, and especially the Methodist Churches, with their twenty- five millions of adherents, abundantly prove that as " God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul," so He wrought a special work in the British Isles in the eighteenth century by means of John Wesley.

There is not the least intention of instituting a comparison between the apostolic labours of Wesley and the brief work of Thomas Cook ; all that is meant is, that if good people — aye, and even if ministers of religion — make light of the results of Mr. Cook's evangelistic labours, it will still be true that it has seemed good in the sight of God that he should be largely used to promote the edification of the body of Christ and the conversion of sinners.

The way in which Mr. Cook has been led, the work he has already done, although he is only a little more than thirty years of age, the extraordinary blessing that has rested upon his ministry, all this, it should seem, is worthy of patient and devout attention.

When Thomas Cook was thrust out by the Lord of the harvest, " he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fail? countenance." He was of obscure parentage, without friends, without influence, without learning, endowed only with two talents, and as little likely to do " exploits for God " as David was likely to slay Goliath when he approached him with his sling and stones. For a time the Wesleyan Methodist Conference declined to accept him as a minister on trial, and he was therefore obliged to begin his career in the capacity of a lay evangelist, and without the status of a minister. It should also be remembered that he had not enjoyed the advantages of a collegiate course. Xo university conferred upon him a degree ; no higher court than a local preachers' meeting authorised him to preach ; and yet, as soon as he began his work, crowds nocked to hear him, and sinners were converted under his ministry.

The writer himself was travelling in the Halifax

INTRODUCTION. 5

and Bradford district when Mr. Cook accepted the invitation of the Home Mission Sub-Committee of that district to labour there as a lay evangelist, and he remembers distinctly the great success which from the first Mr. Cook enjoyed. It mattered nothing whether he was sent to what was regarded as unfruitful ground, like St. John's Chapel, Manningham, or to fruitful ground, like the Halifax Circuit ; we only heard one report, which was gloriously monotonous, and was to the effect that God was causing His servant always to triumph, and was making manifest by him the savour of His knowledge in every place. The only explanation that I can offer of this circumstance — which may be said to be unprecedented in the history of Methodism, if regard is had to the preacher's extreme youth and position — is this : —

" It pleased God, who separated " Thomas Cook " from [his] mother's womb, and called [him] by His grace, to reveal His Son in [him], that [he] might preach Christ among the Gentiles."

That appears to be an adequate explanation of all that Mr. Cook has done, and it seems to be the only possible explanation that is adequate. " But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And He gave some apostles,

and some, prophets, <tntl some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ."

Can our ascended Lord bestow upon men any gift of greater value than that which He imparts when

He gives them evangelists who, being filled with the Holy Ghost and with faith, turn many people to the Lord their God ? 1 And seeing that we are surrounded by large numbers of people who are without God and without hope in the world, and that we are convinced that there is a dreadful future for those who have been brought face to face with Christ in this world, and have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, ought we not to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers to reap as well as to sow, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together 1

In the earnest hope that the publication of this book will prompt those who read it to offer such a prayer, and also do something to secure an answer to the petition, the writer sends it on its mission, craving pardon for its defects, and a blessing for all who shall make its acquaintance.

1 See a fine sermon in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for December, by the Rev. G. G. Findlay, B.A., on "The Measure of the Gift of Christ." Mr. Findlay says, "In these gifts [of men like Wesley], for which the Church must render continued thanks, the riches of His bounty, the depth of His wisdom, and the completeness of His sovereignty are displayed to all mankind and to the end of time."

CHAPTEE II.

EAELY DAYS AND CONVERSION.

THOMAS COOK was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, on the 20th of August 1859. His mother was, at the time of his birth, a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Society — or Church, as we are now permitted by the resolution of the Nottingham Conference to say ; but, owing to the claims of a family of little children, she was unable to attend class. It is one of the disadvantages of our most admirable ecclesiastical system, that mothers of families whose circumstances are straitened cannot possibly qualify themselves for membership with us, because it is not within their power to attend the weekly class-meeting. The same may be said of some sections of the industrial community. Omnibus and tram-car men, for example, are unable, however willing they may be, to conform to the regulations of our Church in this respect; and therefore, unless some special indulgence is shown them, they are excluded from the Society, and that through no fault of their own. As a matter of fact, a considerable number of labouring men are unavoidably shut out of our classes ; and so are many mothers, whose hearts are witli us, but whose maternal duties oblige them to stop at home.

We do not propose #ny exceptional legislation to meet the peculiar circumstances of these individuals, but we desire to commend them to the special pastoral care of the younger ministers and leaders who may not have discovered the disabilities of those for whom we plead.

When Thomas was ten years old, his parents removed into the country ; and there being no Wesleyan chapel in the locality, the family attended the services of the Church of England, he and one of his brothers joining the church choir. During this time it should seem that no definite religious impressions were made upon the mind of Thomas, who, like thousands more, offered to God attendance upon religious services as a commutation for religion itself. He was, however, preserved during these and subsequent days from gross sin, and was kept by the mercy of God not far from His kingdom. It is a mistake to suppose that none but " chief " sinners become eminently useful in the Christian Church. John the Baptist, the Apostle John, Timothy, Wesley, Adam Clarke, Samuel Coley, and many other men of God, never were " chief " sinners, except in their own estimation, and yet they were " great in the sight of the Lord ; " and they turned many to righteousness. We have all heard sermons on the Prodigal Son and the Elder Brother, in which the latter was condemned much more severely than the former. It is the glory of the gospel, that he who has " lien among the pots " may become " as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." But it is utterly false to say that hideous sin is essential to holiness, and that, after salvation has been received, such sin is as if it had never been. X thoughtful writer has lately said : " It is a great thing to have lived a pure youth, — to have yielded to no degrading vice ; to have no foul, festering secret at the heart of life. It is a great thing when we have not consciously stooped to evil, — when all men know the worst of us that is to be known, when we can die and have every drawer rummaged, and every letter read, and all the poor secrets of our history exposed, and still remain to those who loved us what we used to be. True, most true, these things will not save us. But they will make all the way of our redeemed years different. Let the young live so that when men go back to their past, and piece the divided life together, they will find all the record clean. These words of an old minister might be a talisman for the young in hours of passion and temptation : ' It is a great thing to be able to go out of this world into the other, fearless of meeting any spirit there. I can say that there is no spirit I should blush to meet.' "

In these days, when to have been a drunkard or gambler or prize-fighter is to possess a passport to the confidence of some who have charge of mission-work, it is well to remember that the Christian Church owes more to those who entered the vineyard early in the day than to those who entered later, and that some who are " first " shall continue " first," and some who are " last " shall remain " last." There is nothing contrary to this in our Lord's words.

After three years' residence in the country, Thomas Cook returned to the Middlesbrough Circuit, and joined the congregation which worshipped in the South Lank Wesleyan Chapel. Methodist preaching soon io THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY.

began to impress the youth, old impressions were revived, the good Spirit worked graciously in his heart, and he was led to turn wistful eyes towards the " Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." It may here be said, that when Thomas was a child of seven years of age he heard the late Eev. James Nance preach from the text, " And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps," and received impressions which he never lost, and which must be included amongst the various causes which led to his early and thorough conversion. From the day he heard that sermon, eternal things were to him, to use his own language, " tremendously real." Nor need we be surprised at this. At five years of age Samuel Coley enjoyed a distinct consciousness of God's favour, and never did he lose the blessing. And yet most of us are indisposed to believe in the conversion of children, as though foolishness were so bound up in the heart of a child that not even the grace of God could eradicate it.

Perhaps it is owing to this unbelief that there is a tendency just now to withdraw the scholars of our Sunday schools from the services in the chapel, and to provide for them short services in the school-room, which, it is supposed, will be better adapted to their capacity. We believe this to be a mistake, excepting in the case of very young children ; and even concerning them we have our doubts. Children should be trained in the habit of attending the house of God. Suitable seats — not too high — should be given them, and the expectation should be cherished, that the services will benefit them as much as other worshippers. Preachers themselves will judge whether or not they should give a brief address to the children before commencing to preach; but if this is not done, care should be taken to let a few crumbs fall from the pulpit for the children at every service. The writer has seen this done with great effect by Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. Parker, to whom children often listen with almost as much pleasure as do adults.

Thomas Cook joined the Sunday school about this time, and was there brought under influences that contributed largely to promote his conversion. His Sunday-school teacher may be described as the Eev. John M'Neill described himself in an appeal which he circulated a while ago in the London workshops, namely, as " a railway man." He was, as a matter of fact, a porter at a railway station, with no better education than men of his class usuallv have ; but he was a tender, patient, loving, Christ-like man, and. withal a man of good sense, whose consistent and winsome life perhaps did more to bring the future Evangelist to Christ than all the sermons he heard in those days. Not that the preaching of the Word of Cod is to be disparaged. We have already seen that a profound and permanent impression was made upon the mind of Thomas Cook when he was but a child by the preaching of the Word, and we desire to magnify the preacher's office. There is an absurd disposition manifested now-a-days, — and that sometimes in quarters from which better things might be looked for, — to speak lightly of sermons, as though they were as much out of date as spinning-wheels. When preachers raise or join in this outcry against preaching, it may be supposed that they arc led to do so by reflecting upon the qnnlity and effects of their own sermons, and that they are measuring other ministers' corn with their own bushel. Whether the preaching of the gospel be appreciated or not, it is true to say that, until the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, it will please God " by the foolishness of preaching " to save them that believe. These words are a quotation from the New Testament ; but when they are cited for the purpose of discrediting God's appointed means for bringing men to a knowledge of the truth, they are misapplied. St. Paul never intended to suggest that preaching is a foolish employment; what he meant to say was, that the subject - matter of evangelical preaching appears to men to be foolishness. These observations seem necessary, lest it should be supposed that we wish to detract from the honour which belongs to the preached Word when we affirm that the railway porter's beautiful Christian life more deeply impressed Thomas Cook than^ did the sermons which he heard. All honour to this Sunday-school teacher, and to the order of Christian workers which he represents. It is not known that this labouring man was the means of the conversion of any one beside Mr. Cook ; nor is it true to say that he was the sole cause of his conversion, since Thomas Cook was the child of many prayers. But this railway porter had more to do with effecting the immediate decision of the youth than any one else excepting his praying mother.

" There was a little city, and few men within it ; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city ; yet no man remembered that same poor man." The Sunday-school teacher is

" that same poor man ; " for, by his " wisdom," he has delivered this kingdom from many evils. Not many years ago there came to this country a distinguished publicist to investigate the condition of the people, and the way in which they are affected by our laws, especially by our land laws. When he had fulfilled his mission he put on record his impressions of England. He expressed dissatisfaction with some of our laws, and proceeded to ask how it was that, notwithstanding what appeared to him to be oppressive customs, the English people were law-abiding and prosperous. He found the answer to his question in the practical character of our religion, and especially in the circumstance that that religion is inculcated in the minds of some millions of young people every Sunday by more than six hundred thousand Sunday-school teachers. This witness is true. Yet who remembers this " same poor man " ? Not the British Government, which rewards with a coronet the successful brewer, and ignores the services of all Sunday-school teachers. Nor does the typical Mayor remember this " poor man ; " for while many Mayors are willing to do honour to fillibusters whose proceedings abroad have sullied the honour of the English nation, few are ready publicly to recognise the disinterested labours of Sunday-school teachers who are endeavouring to train up the children that come streaming into England, in the faith and fear of God, and to make them Christian men and women. P>ut it is written, " And they that be teachers (margin) shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever," Dan. xii. 3.

In 1875, Mr. 13ook, being then sixteen years old, was " powerfully " converted, as our American friends term it. The circumstances were as follows.

The local preachers of the Middlesbrough Circuit were holding a series of special services. Thomas Cook had long been waiting for an opportunity publicly to avow himself as a disciple of Christ, and he resolved that he would embrace the opportunity which this mission afforded for carrying out his purpose. He had not that deep sense of personal sinfulness which many penitents have, who cry to God out of the depths to make the bones which He has broken to rejoice. This, however, need excite no surprise, for prevenient grace had kept him from presumptuous sins, and he was innocent of the great transgression. But he had a profound sense of the paramount claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the crisis through which he jiassed took the form of a deliberate response to those claims, as in the case of him who said, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " He was under the influence of considerations, such as are advanced by the Rev. W L. Watkinson in the first chapter of his useful book, The Beginning of the Christian Life. That chapter is entitled " Begin Early," and it is devoted to a number of cogent reasons for commencing the Christian life in the days of youth. Therein we read : " The best that a man has is himself, and his young undebauched life is himself at his best." God be praised, that Thomas Cook's life never was debauched, and that it was dedicated to God when it was " no mean sacrifice."

During the mission of which we are writing, Thomas Cook accepted the invitation that was given by the preacher to penitents, and went forward to the communion rail, aud with dry eyes solemnly espoused himself to Christ. The consciousness of his acceptance with God came to him gradually rather than suddenly, which is an instructive circumstance for those who have to do with new-born souls.

During that same year a young minister, who had been used by God during his probation, and who since then has been permitted to do much blessed work for Christ, stood by the writer's side at the Sheffield Conference, and gave, as is customary, a brief account of his conversion and call to the ministry. He remarked that he was not sure of the hour when his chains fell off, and he added that he believed that his chains wore off; but of this one thing he was sure — they were, off. The name of that young minister was Edward Smith, and his experience may fittingly be recorded here because it tallied exactly with that of Mr. Cook. True, most true it is, that God does not impart the forgiveness of sins to any in a piecemeal fashion, remitting some sins to-day and others to-morrow ; and equally true it is that He sometimes overwhelms the penitent with an instant and unmistakeable assurance of His favour, which causes him to exclaim, —

" U 'tis more than I can bear, Tlie sense of pardoning love."

But that gracious Spirit, who is as the wind which bloweth as it listeth, is pleased gradually to convince some persons of sin, and gradually to assure them that they are accepted in the Beloved. This was Mr. Cook's experience. Day by day the Lord Jesus

Christ became more real to him, and day by day his enthusiastic love for his Saviour increased.

There was no great rejoicing amongst the mission workers at South Bank that night, for only one conversion had taken place, and the solitary convert was but a lad. But "things are not what they seem." There was joy in the presence of the angels of God, however, over the repentance of one sinner ; and there was joy in a mother's heart because a son had been brought to Christ, and especially because the son was the one child of the family whose conversion seemed to her most improbable. The parents of Jabez called him by that name because it signified " sorrow," and it was with special sorrow that his mother bore him. Yet he became " more honourable than his brethren," and his " ways " and his " doings " were such, that when his parents saw them, the son " comforted " his parents, as we read in the Book of Ezekiel. So it was in the case of Thomas Cook, who, like many other lads, has become a better man than his mother ever dreamed he would become.