A Developing Work (pp. 35-49)

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>For The Believers In The Body Of Christ</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="For The Believers In The Body Of Christ"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id103.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Love (pp.1315)"><U>Love (pp.13-15)</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id464.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Growing Up (pp. 1722)"><U>Growing Up (pp. 17-22)</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id546.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A New Life (pp. 2331)"><U>A New Life (pp. 23-31)</U></A><B>   |   </B><B>A Developing Work (pp. 35-49)</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="02ad2c00dkelyh.gif"> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Food"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Spiritual Food</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Psalms, Hymns Spiritual Songs"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gospel Outreach"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Gospel Outreach</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id159.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"About Us"</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id186.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id187.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Related Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id639.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JESUS IS LORD!"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899330000.gif" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">JESUS IS LORD!</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  </div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>A Developing Work (pp. 35-49)</I></div> <div> <B>Another man who had an impact on Robert Chapman indirectly was Robert Gribble, a local evangelist who eventually worked with Chapman.  Gribble was born into a poor family and received a minimal education.  He started his own drapery business, which became substantial enough to support his growing family.  Sometime during this period he experience a spiritual conversion ... in 1815 Gribble began setting up Sunday schools in several nearby villages.  Gribble was not satisfied with just preaching a simple gospel message.  Although he had been fruitful, converting many people, several of whom became missionaries.  He paid little attention to Biblical doctrines apart from salvation and had accepted Congregationalist traditions without much consideration.  Another brother in Christ, William Hake, challenged Gribble on subjects ranging from the theological (such as the meaning of baptism) to the practical (such as propriety of per rents, which were then commonly used to pay the pastor's salary).  </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#00BF00" FACE="Arial" ><B>Gribble later wrote:  "This was a new thing to me, having been accustomed, as many I fear still are, to receive what I had been taught, without taking the pains to examine whether it was in accordance with the Scriptures, the only infallible standard of truth."  (pp. 35-36)</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Anthony Norris Groves had enormously impacted many lives.  Born in 1795, Groves a longtime friend of William Hake, had been a dentist with a thriving business in Exeter, but eventually his wealth began making him uncomfortable.  After much prayer and contemplation, he and his wife Mary agreed that they should spend the rest of their lives spreading the gospel as missionaries and that they would live in complete dependence on God's provision. ... Chapman must have been profoundly influenced by Grove's story because although he had established a successful law practice, he was quite uncertain that he wanted to continue in his profession.  (pp. 38-39)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Chapman had decided to make the entire town his parish rather than just pastoring Ebenezer Chapel while at Barnstaple.  The pockets of poverty reminded him of the London slums and his heart went out to their residents.  But he had yet another goal.  In London he had seen and heard about many missionaries and preachers who had become weary and discouraged from overwork, yet had no place to flee to for rest and temporary relief from their responsibilities.  Chapman wanted to make his home a resting place for such missionaries and other servants of the Lord.  Like Barnabas of the New Testament, Chapman had a gift of encouragement.  If he could pray with these workers, talk to them, listen to them, and provide them with a retreat, perhaps they could return to their tasks with renewed enthusiasm.  (p. 45)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Chapman lived in a poor section of town and he stayed there for the next seventy years.  He wanted to live where even the poorest person could come to him without hesitation.  Almost as soon as he moved to Barnstaple, Chapman began his tireless work of visitation and evangelization.  He talked with people on the streets and at their houses or rooms.  He frequently held gospel meetings in the workhouses and talked individually with the homeless and destitute inmates.  He often walked great distances to visit and preach in the small villages near Barnstaple, sometimes teaming up with Gribble and Pugsley.  (p. 46)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Many people today are offended by the preaching of the gospel in public places.  They would prefer that such preaching be confined to a  church building.  But much of Jesus' ministry took place in the open, where the people were. ... It may be difficult for many of us to identify with Chapman.  A man of culture and high intelligence from a family of wealth and influence, he now poured himself into the hearts and souls of poor and ignorant people.  Having built a successful career and developed stimulating friendships, and being accustomed to the comforts of life, he now ate the food and shared the discomforts of the poverty-stricken.  Even some of his colleagues in the work felt that he had gone to unnecessary, even senseless, extremes.  But the imitation of Christ was Chapman's chosen way of life.  (pp. 47-48)</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Quotes from Church History"><U><B>MORE QUOTES FROM OUR HERITAGE</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>