As a son, Jonathan was expected to work on the farm from April to November, in addition to his studies at school. This required tremendous diligence on the part of the young man, especially when at just 15 years of age his father put him in charge of their second farm, which was all of 20 miles from the home farm. It is a tribute to the young Goforth’s determination and sheer capacity for hard work that he managed to bring the ‘harvest’ in, not just on the farm, but also in the schoolroom.
This tremendous capacity for hard work would later be featured on the mission field, but it was at the age of 18 that Jonathan dedicated his life and talents to God’s service.
That particular day he was so challenged by the ministry of a preacher named Rev Lachlan Cameron that he yielded his all to Christ. “Henceforth,” he said, “my life belongs to him who gave his life for me.”
Jonathan immediately became a zealous soul winner, startling the rather staid elders in his Presbyterian church by standing at the church door on Sundays, giving each person a tract. Soon he was running a Sunday evening service in an old schoolhouse about a mile from where he lived. And at home he instituted family worship, in the process leading his own father to Christ.
As a young Christian Jonathan was an avid reader of books, with authors like Bunyan, Baxter, M’Cheyne and Spurgeon providing him with both instruction and inspiration. But the mainstay of his spiritual life was always the Bible. In fact, he rose two hours earlier each morning in order to have unhurried time for the study of the Word before going to work or to school.
Denne historien er fra October - December 2019-utgaven av Heroes of the Faith.
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Denne historien er fra October - December 2019-utgaven av Heroes of the Faith.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Telling Tales About Canterbury
How those tall stories of pig's bones and gospel heroes contain more than a hint of reality.
Sophie Scholl
The Young Woman Who Defied Hitler
Jonathan Goforth Revivalist Apostle To China
Jonathan Goforth was born, the seventh of eleven children, in February 1859 near London, Ontario, in Canada. His parents were hard-working farmers and, if the young Jonathan learned about the things of God through his devout mother, he also learned hard work from his father, who once went to Hamilton for food and walked all the way back through the bush – a distance of 70 miles – with a sack of flour on his back!
John Wycliffe
Morning Star of the English Reformation.
Billy Nicholson The Irish Whitefield
William Patteson Nicholson (1876-1959) was a Presbyterian preacher and evangelist born in Bangor, Co Down. Nicknamed ‘The Tornado of the Pulpit’, Nicholson spent his early years on his father’s cargo ship, but began to preach in 1899 at the age of 23. He was known for his ‘men-only’ meetings and straightforward language. In the Belfast shipyard of Harland & Wolff, a ‘Nicholson shed’ was erected to house stolen tools that newly converted workers returned as a result of Nicholson’s preaching!
Wth Richards - Pentecostal Statesman
During the ’60s and early ’70s, a dynamic Welsh preacher achieved what many of his peers at that time thought impossible: he was able to be fully Pentecostal in outlook, pastor a thriving and growing church, and yet also command the deepest respect of christians from many different denominations.
The Parachute Padre
An unlikely war hero who volunteered to serve miles behind enemy lines alongside one of the most ferocious fighting units of the British Army
Time To Reform Our View Of The Reformation?
Five hundred years ago a cataclysmic change was begun in the Western church when a renegade monk nailed 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg.
The Big Picture
The much-acclaimed film ‘Hidden Figures’ is the heart-warming real life story of three African-American women who worked on the space programme in Virginia in the 1950s.
The Cambridge Seven
How a move of God among Britain’s students answered the desperate prayer of a missionary on the other side of the world.
