All Sermons

Given at the Sovereign Grace Family Conference Newcastle NSW

1988-04-02

The Life and Labours of John Bunyan McCure By Julian Bull

Allow me to welcome you to this Sovereign Grace Family Conference for this, the second day of the conference. And if you were here yesterday, you'll know that my task is to bring two addresses on Lessons from Baptist History in New South Wales. That is the title that appears on your program, but I'm deviating slightly from that because it's a family conference and I want to make what I say as interesting and as relevant and as applicable as possible.
I thought I might do something this morning of a biographical nature, give you some insight into the kind of life and ministry, the kind of difficulties you faced if you came out and preached the gospel in the colony of New South Wales in the last century. And so I simply want to focus your attention on one man's life, one minister's life. You'll find his name on those printed sheets that you have. His name is a good Baptist name, I suppose, John Bunyan Macure, John Bunyan Macure. And this man, Macure, he was pastor at Castle Ray Street from 1861 to 1871. You'll notice that he appears on both sheets. He was really the founding pastor of Castle Ray Street Baptist Church. So this is the man we're thinking about. I want to pay particular attention to certain aspects of his life, things that I think will interest you and edify you, challenge you and encourage you. I want to look at his conversion, at his labours in Australia, generally, at his ministry in Sydney, in particular, and then a particular circumstance towards the end of his ministry, where he made a journey to England, and the death of his wife. So if you need a title for this, it's something like this, The Life and Labours of John Bunyan Macure. Now many people, you talk to many Baptists and they'll say, without hesitation, if they know something of the history of Baptists, that they think John Saunders was probably the most attractive man, and the most influential and sort of the father of Baptists in New South Wales. Well, I think that John Bunyan Macure deserves to be ranked alongside Saunders, most certainly as, as one of the outstanding men involved in the Baptist work in Sydney in those 1860s, 1870s. So let me begin first of all then by telling you a little about his beginnings, and particularly about his conversion to Christ. John Bunyan Macure was born in London in the year 1822. He grew up as an unconverted young man, and by the time he was a teenager, he was more interested in the stage and life on the stage and acting and everything that went with it than anything else in life. He was greatly attracted to, to that, and to being an actor. But at times as he tried to pursue that desire to be on the stage and to become an actor, at times he was powerfully convicted of sin. For example, at times because of his upbringing and his
teaching when he was a child, he became conscious that he was a Sabbath breaker. He learned a little about the sanctity of God's day, and he knew the way Christians regarded the stage and acting in those days. And sometimes he says he felt conviction of sin was almost an audible voice. It was so strong. There was an incident early on in his life where in the midst of a fierce thunderstorm, he feared for his life, and he feared the power and the strength and the sovereignty of God. He tried to pray. He felt it was fruitless.
So he took up the Bible, and he read the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And yet he was so ignorant he thought there was a fourfold Lord Jesus. He was reading four different accounts of some mysterious fourfold Lord Jesus. He laboured under an increasing sense of his own lostness and his own sinful state. But then quite close together two incidents happened in his life which began to be used of God to open his eyes to the truth of the Bible. First of all, one day he was walking through the streets of London, and he came across a young lady who was well known in certain parts of London in those days, a young lady called Blind Mary. Now Blind Mary was a radiant Christian, and she would sing and testify to the saving grace of God and to the power of the Lord Jesus, and she'd do it quite publicly on the streets of London. And he came along one day and he watched her and heard her, and he heard her sing how sweet the name of Jesus sounds. And she sung so sweetly and beautifully. But he says it was no good to him. He said he saw his sin stands against him like a mountain reaching to the heavens. That was his own words. A little while later he was walking past a second-hand bookshop and displayed on the pavement were some old books. He stopped to look, and he happened to pick up one of the books. And by this time he was despairing of ever being saved. He felt so wretched, he felt so lost, he felt so sinful. But the book he picked up was a copy of George Whitefield's Hymns.
Didn't realise that when he opened the book, but he just opened it and began to read. And to his great astonishment, he read these words. His eyes lighted upon the words of the hymn. And this is what the words said. The first verse said, come ye sinners poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus in his love will save you, full of pity joined with power. He is able, he is willing, doubt no more. And he says it was as if God was calling him by name from heaven. He thought about the words, but his immediate and spontaneous response to them was, but Lord I'm not fit to come. I'm not fit to come. But he read on. He read the next verse, and the next verse said this. Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness you require is to feel your need of him.
This he gives you, it is the Spirit's rising beam. How precious and comforting were these words to him. And so he began to attend a church, a place of worship. But he said it was a place where there was the preaching of works and duties, not life and liberty in Christ. And the minister there preached often against election. One of his, one of his pet themes in his sermons was to preach
against election. And he would often try and hold up the doctrine and ridicule it, vilify it.
And McEwen says this too was a doctrine that I could not endure. But one day he felt the minister had gone too far with this doctrine, because the minister quoted in one of his sermons the words of John Wesley. Because John Wesley had once said that the doctrine of election represented God to be more cruel than the devil. John Wesley said that. The doctrine of election represented God to be more cruel than the devil. Now this remark disturbed McEwen greatly, and so he began to search the scriptures. He'd often heard the minister say to people,
the minister had said it to him once, you might have been saved years ago if you had wished.
Now he thought about that remark. That remark as well disturbed him.
It didn't seem to fit with his own experience and his own seeking of Christ and his own conviction
of sin. So he began to read and study and prayerfully search the scriptures.
He was particularly studying about this doctrine of election. Was it true? Was it in the Bible?
What did God's word say about it? And as he studied he became more and more convinced of
the truth of God's sovereign grace. And he became more convinced particularly of the doctrine of
election, and he started to worry whether he was one of the elect. And so he said he prayed the
prayer of Psalm 106 verses four and five, where the psalmist prays, remember me oh Lord with the
favour that thou havest unto thy people. Oh visit me with thy salvation that I may see the good of
thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.
Now this time he was working for a man who was a Jew, but this man was an absolute hypocrite
and gave Mercure a hard time. And eventually he dismissed Mercure because Mercure refused to work
on the Lord's day. He at least knew that much by now. And so he went and found new employment,
and this new employment took him to a new area and he was forced to attend the new chapel.
And he went to a chapel where the gospel was preached and where Christ was preached,
where justification by faith was preached. And he says for three months, for three months it
was like heaven upon earth to me, for I could then read my title to the mansion in the skies.
I felt so happy I could scarcely attend to my duties, for I had indeed found the Lord God
and was now afraid lest I should lose the glory of his presence.
That's assurance of salvation we were hearing last night isn't it?
A few months later, this was an independent chapel, a few months later he visited a Baptist
chapel. And he went to a Baptist chapel to witness a baptism. He says as he went that he was full of
prejudice against, full of prejudice against this ordinance. And he left the baptism service,
vowing never to return to a Baptist church. But the sermon that was preached that day remained
with him. He says the effects of that sermon I could not clear from my mind. The arguments of
the preacher, the texts of scripture brought forward, his challenge that he would at once
give up the subject if anyone could produce from the New Testament only one text in support of
infant sprinkling. With the fullest confidence that I was right, he says, and the preacher was wrong,
I commenced my search. I could not find one text, one instance of an infant being baptized,
but I found no less than 80 references to believer's baptism. And so he was convinced,
his prejudices gave way, his objections changed to surrender. And he went and told his pastor what
had happened. His pastor was a thoroughgoing pedobaptist and so they discussed it and they
felt there was no alternative left for mature but to resign from the church and to seek a Baptist
church. The minister made mention of all this on the following Lord's Day. And he said that there
were two young men who had left his ministry believing in adult baptism. And then he added
these words. He said, I compare myself to a hen which sat upon ducks eggs. After incubation,
I found I have hatched ducks for the water.
Mecure left, went to a Baptist church, made application for baptism and was duly baptized.
600 people were present when he was baptized and he testified to the saving grace of Christ
before them all. He said he felt the divine presence was most precious and overflowing.
The age of 18, he preached his first sermon in the open air in March 1840. Not long afterwards,
he became the minister of a church in Newport in South Wales. And he says that while he was there,
they saw a number of quite dramatic conversions. One man who was a notorious gambler in the town
was suddenly converted through a sermon one morning on the words, what think ye of Christ.
And so in time he became ordained and became an ordained minister of the particular Baptist
churches of Kent. And his thoughts began to turn to opportunities farther afield
to minister the gospel. And his thoughts turned towards Australia. And so he eventually went
and asked the particular Baptist churches of Kent and East Sussex if they would give him assistance
for his wife and his six children to emigrate. It was an expensive business, even for the passage,
but they were willing to sit him. And he was walking one day and he saw an advertisement
in the window of a building for what was called the Christian Immigration Society.
And they were looking for a chaplain on board a ship that was steaming to Melbourne, a ship called
the Hyderabad. And he would be given free passage in return for his job as a chaplain on board that
ship. Now, even in those days, this is in the 1800s, the journey itself was enough to dawn
with any man, and let alone taking your wife and your six children. Because there was great storms
generally, especially in the Bay of Biscay. And it was a long journey, four months, it took him
with six children, and his wife himself in one cabin, violent storms, seasickness that went on
for weeks sometimes. He talks about one incident, where in the midst of a violent storm, they were
so tossed about that a big jar of treacle fell off one of the shelves and smashed, and the treacle
ran through all their clothes, some of their books, some of their most treasured belongings.
And that was the kind of inconvenience that some of the hardships and practical things that you
had to be prepared to put up with. Then in the midst of the voyage, one of his sons contracted
whooping cough. Thought he would die, but he didn't. And when the vessel finally arrived at
the port of Melbourne and moored some miles offshore, he had just enough money to pay the
fare to the vessel that ferried you actually into the port, and paid the money, and they boarded,
and they went, and they arrived in Melbourne. By this time, another son had contracted whooping
cough. And they arrived, they found, in Melbourne in the middle of a gold rush.
One of the first things someone said to him was, listen, this is a land of gold and misery.
You have either one or the other. You either find gold, or you find misery.
He describes walking through the streets of Melbourne in those years, and the sight of
hundreds of families who had emigrated just like him, with no money, destitute, and taking out
their cabin trunks and all their belongings, and setting them up on the footpath, and displaying
what they had for sale, so that they could raise some money. And he talks about the pitiful sight
of walking along and seeing things that were obviously treasured family heirlooms being put
up for sale on the sidewalk, so that people could have enough money to feed their families
and to survive. Many went off to the gold fields, and some found gold that obviously many didn't.
He looked for a job. He finally got offered a job as a policeman. But then as he was just about to
accept it, he was told that he would have to do duty on a Sunday if he was to be a policeman.
And so he refused it. And the man asked him why he refused it. And he stated simply,
I fear God, and I reverence his day. The response he got, he says, was typical.
The man said to him, in this country, in this country, you will find it necessary to put the
screw a little into your conscience. And he says, alas, how many have put the screw in their
conscience so much that it has become numbed. He eventually acquired a job working with a horse and
buggy, looking after some horses in Geelong. He talks about an incident where he nearly lost his
life. He knew very little about horse and buggies. And one day he had to take this wealthy family
up to the top of a high outcrop of rock, a local scenic spot where you could look down on one of
the valleys outside Melbourne. And he had to drive this buggy up. And he got it up all right. But then
the man said, right, and now we're going to go down. And he had no idea the best way to drive
the buggy down. And so very foolishly, he got off and stood in front of the horses and led the buggy
all the way down. And when he got to the bottom, and when he got home, and he told the men what
he'd done, he said that was the most foolish thing. One false step, and the horse and buggies
would have been over the top of you, and you would have been killed. You always had to steer
them down from behind. But he didn't know that. He tells of a sea journey taking eight hours to
go 50 miles from Geelong, from Melbourne to Geelong in the teeth of a gale. He went there
to preach the gospel. He tells of living in a tent and pouring rain, freezing winters,
burning summers, and earning four pounds a week for his wife, his six children. And he eventually
is instrumental in the formation of a Baptist church in Geelong. And he's got some people
gather around him, and one of the people who gathers around him is a wealthy merchant.
And the wealthy merchant has been a very good supporter and a great encourager to him.
But then he starts to hear some of Mercure's preaching and some of the emphasis in his
preaching. And he takes him aside one day and he says, Mr. Mercure, you will have to compromise
a little. But Mercure relates to him a story he was told as a child, a story of a man who tried
to sit on two stools at once. And the result was that he fell down in the middle. And he said,
I have made up my mind that I will preach the whole counsel of God. And then he quoted to him
the words of John Bunyan. John Bunyan, who had once said, the Almighty being my helper and shield,
I will suffer even until the moss shall grow on my eyebrows if this frail life continues so long,
rather than violate my faith and my principles.
Well, after some years at the cost of 150 pounds, they build a chapel, they call it the Mount Zion
Chapel in Geelong. And he preaches the gospel there, gets together a number of people,
and often goes away on preaching to us. He refuses to receive any salary until that chapel is
completely paid for. And he travels far and wide preaching the gospel, he goes to the gold fields
of Ballarat, talks about how he always carried a loaded revolver because of bushranges,
and he was not afraid to use it. In a number of instances, he relates in his autobiography of how
confronted by bushranges, he draws it out and points it directly at their heads
and tells them in no uncertain terms to get lost.
He visits Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland. And in his journeys, he goes into the outback
and he encounters all sorts of things, just journeying to find small groups of people
where he can preach the doctrines of God's grace. He one day encounters a scorpion in his boot,
he talks about coming across a 14 foot snake.
He once takes an outback tour to Queensland and becomes stranded out in the open, he rides his
horse, decides to ride his horse between two settlements. And it's in the middle of a heatwave
and that day the temperature reaches 148 degrees Fahrenheit. There's been no rain for 12 months.
And his horse dies. He has to walk on looking for water and he eventually finds a dam and floating
in the dam are some dead cattle. And he makes the mistake of drinking the water. And only in a
matter of hours, he's contracted dysentery and then typhoid. And he becomes totally disoriented
with a fever. And he very nearly loses his life. He just manages to stumble upon a homestead before
collapsing. These are the things he did. And now this this kind of story and ministry could be
repeated 100 fold by some of the earliest Christians in this land and the way they took
the gospel. Well, in 1860, he makes a visit to Sydney from Geelong. And he comes and preaches
in Sydney around many Baptist churches, and he preaches with great acceptance. He preached at
Newtown and some of the other churches. And God blesses his ministry. And he's invited to come
back. And so he accepts the call, and he leaves Geelong in 1861. And he comes to Sydney to establish
a congregation, which is eventually to become Castle Ray Street Baptist Church. And his ministry
in Sydney in the 1860s was truly marked by the power of God. And if it wasn't revival, it was
very close to being a revival, at least in the terms of his ministry. Writing in his diary about
the first visit that he ever made to Sydney, he remarks on the beauty of entering Sydney harbour
at dawn on a clear, still summer morning. He says, and many people made this comment before him,
many of the first settlers said the same thing about Port Jackson when they entered it. He said,
I never in my life witnessed a scene more glorious than on the occasion of my first visit to Port
Jackson. He talks about that first visit. He preached in Bathurst Street in Newtown. He says,
on each occasion, the different places were full of attentive hearers. The Word of God had free
cause. God was glorified because the Word was preached in power and in Holy Ghost and in much
assurance. And the result of this visit was his call to Sydney. He talks about how he came to
Sydney. He arrives in Sydney after a stormy sea passage, and they look for some suitable premises
where they can worship. They end up renting the Odd Fellows Hall in Sussex Street for 12 months
at a cost of 25 shillings a week. And this, he says, is the only building he can rent in Sydney.
And so on May the 26th, the first service is held there. It's recorded they had a prayer
meeting at 10 a.m. and a service at 11 a.m., and at the service there were 350 people present.
He preached on the text I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel. On Monday night, he calls a prayer
meeting. He records that there were a good number present. Quite encouraging, he says,
the brethren prayed like man. He preaches on Wednesday evening to 70. A month later,
June the 24th, he remarks that there were 500 people present at a public tea meeting.
And so on the Lord's Day, July the 7th, the church was formed.
Now he begins to encounter some opposition to his work. He says that he took great heart from
a favourite quote of his, of Thomas Manton's, which he had often before him. Thomas Manton,
the Puritan, once said, it is better to have the praise of evil men's hatred
than the scandal of their love and approbation. Now I would like to relate to you this incident
which you might have heard me speak of before in connection with this man. The incident that
occurred on board one of the liners, that moored in circular key. But I think it's important that
I repeat it if you've heard me talk about Baptist history before on one of the evangelical tapes
from that Banner of Truth conference. I mentioned this incident, so you'll excuse me if I mention
it again, but I'd like to because it's important, it gives you an insight into the kind of evangelistic
zeal of this man and also the blessing of God that rested upon his labours. What happened was
that one of the largest vessels that was then coming to Australia moored at circular key.
And it was called the White Star. And as Mercure would go about his business in Sydney town,
he would see the White Star moored there, was there for some days. And he felt very strongly
constrained of God that he should go on board that ship and preach the gospel. But for a few
days he did nothing about the conviction. But the conviction would not subside and so he began to
believe that it was truly of God. So he thought the next step was to ask the captain's permission.
And so he went and he asked the captain and the captain was delighted with the idea. And so it
was announced Mercure would preach the next Sunday afternoon on board the White Star. He records in
his diary that he preached to 1200 and that their attention was remarkable.
Now this gives us an insight into the kind of numbers, the kind of attention and power.
Although Mercure never once himself claims that there was any great spiritual awakening going on,
he never mentions the word revival in connection with his ministry or other men's ministry at that
time. But it's obvious that God's blessing is upon his labors in a remarkable way.
And so the first time there's 1200 he continues preaching and each Sunday he goes on board the
White Star and preaches. And on some Sunday afternoons he also preaches in the Lyceum.
I mentioned yesterday that there were often 700 people present, many of them the lowest of the low.
Now in the course of one of these weeks, one Monday morning a sailor calls upon him,
a sailor from the White Star. And he says directly this sailor to him, he burst into a flood of tears
and he said to Mercure, he said, oh that sermon you preached on board ship yesterday.
And it was a sermon on Christ's words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The sailor said if Christ was thus forsaken so must I be. I am lost, I'm lost, there's no hope
for me. He was in great distress, Mercure says. I thought it was the sorrow of a broken-hearted
sinner, so I spoke to him of the ability of Christ to save to the uttermost. I gave him a Bible,
I asked him to call again. I do trust that he is a brand plucked from the burning fire,
a seal for my ministry and a soul for my hire. The following Sunday he's preaching once again
in the Lyceum to another great crowd of 700 plus. And as he entered the building to preach,
he meets a sailor, a mate of the other man's from the White Star. And so he says to him,
is your friend who called on me on Monday here with you? There was no answer. So he asked him
again, is your mate here, the one I gave the Bible to? He promised he would be here.
Mercure went on, where is he? What's the matter? And at length the sailor sobbed out,
he hung himself this morning. I felt overwhelmed, Mercure said, and with all these dreadful
feelings I had to walk onto the stage and preach to this crowd. Well during the course of that
sermon he was preaching and speaking of the difference between natural and spiritual conviction.
And he related this whole incident to the congregation about the sailor coming to see
him and him giving him the Bible. And he ends by saying to the congregation, after telling them
about this man, he says, and I am just informed, he hung himself this morning. The excitement
produced when I made this statement, he says, I will never forget. Two persons rushed out of
the theater exclaiming, oh I cannot stand this. I do believe there will be some fruit to the
glory of God from these services. But that was not the end of the incident. The very next day
Mercure is called to a coroner's inquest in Sydney. And as he enters, the captain of the
white star is under examination. And the coroner is saying to him, are you the captain of the white
star? I am, he says. Was a service held? Yes. Who was the preacher? Reverend Mercure. Did you hear
the sermon? Yes. What kind of sermon was it? I declined to answer, said the captain. Well what
were the doctrines advanced? Were they Calvinist or Arminian? Calvinist. The captain said,
do you think the sermon was calculated to induce a person to commit suicide?
Most certainly not. The sermon was most encouraging to those who feel their need of Christ.
During that sermon the gospel was faithfully preached. At that point Mercure is called himself.
The coroner begins to question him. Do you know the deceased? No. Did you know he was present
when you preached? No. Did you see him afterwards? Yes. He related the incident at the manse,
the previous Monday, when the man called on him and he gave him the bible.
The coroner said, then it is not true that you drove him from your door
telling him he was not one of God's elect. Most certainly I did not.
The reason why I asked you this question, the coroner said, is in consequence of the report
throughout this city that you expelled him from your door saying there was no hope for him,
for he was not one of the elect and therefore could not be saved.
It is further reported the sermon you preached was of that fearful and exciting character,
so much so that it drove him clear out of his mind.
Sir, Mercure said, would you like me to give you an outline of that sermon?
Yes, gladly. I seized the opportunity, he says. The room was crowded and for more than half an
hour the crowd listened breathlessly. Many appeared to be moved. The coroner's response
was subdued. I am informed, he said, you preached yesterday and you made some remarks in the course
of that sermon in reference to the deceased. Yes, he said. Well what did you say? Sir, Mercure
answered, in order to understand the remark that I made yesterday it will be necessary for me to
give you an outline of yesterday's sermon. And so he did. He records later in his diary,
isn't God wonderful? During my examination I preached two sermons.
But you see the point. You see the kind of attitude, the kind of opposition,
the kind of caricature of the doctrines of grace that was being thrown up against his ministry,
which by this time was having great effect. His preaching was not hyper-Calvinistic.
It was doctrinal, it was orthodox, it was historic Christianity, it was practical,
it was evangelistic and it was full of zeal and passion and compassion. Well the affair ended when
the ship's doctor gave evidence that the deceased had some weeks before fallen onto the deck of the
ship and sustained a brain injury and he was of unsound mind before he ever heard the sermon.
Well all this caused such a great stir in the city of Sydney and the following Sunday at the Lyceum
there were 900 people and he says 1861 proved to be a year of such numbers and such blessing and
it was a year at least under this man's ministry of great spiritual awakening. And there were
regular reports in the newspaper the Sydney Morning Empire about the services and regular
reports of how sometimes 900 to 1,000 would attend the special services at the Lyceum
and this continued right through August, September and October. And he says, he makes a remark,
he says there were many baptisms and many hopeful conversions. He comments in his diary in January
1862 and he looks back on the year of 1861 and his comments reveal something of his humility
but also something of God's working. He says, what a year past this has been.
I may well say what has God wrought. He has indeed wrought wonders of providence, wonders of grace.
And then he pens a prayer. Most precious Lord, thou has brought thy poor servant to see another
New Year's Day. I desire most humbly and unreservedly in thine own almighty strength
to yield myself, all I am, all I have to thy disposal, to lose my will in thine.
And embrace thyself, my Jesus, my portion, my happiness, my wisdom, my strength, my beloved
and my unchangeable friend. Oh lead me thou almighty God the Holy Ghost more and more into
Christ and out of self, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable to his death. Teach me I pray to honour thee by committing
myself wholly to thee for the carrying on, perfecting and crowning with glory of thine own work.
I told you something yesterday of the man's labours in opposing the false doctrine
and particularly the posing the efforts of the priests and the cardinals of that time to
promote their own doctrine incidents like that man, that converted man, the supposedly converted
man I told you of yesterday. So you remember he was a faithful labourer in many ways. I want to
move on to an incident towards the end of his ministry in Sydney. In 1868,
by 1868 they had built the new chapel building for Castle Ray Street and it was erected and opened,
but by 1868 it still was in debt to the tune of approximately one thousand pounds.
Now one thousand pounds was a lot of money in those days and that kind of money was hard to
come by, especially in Sydney and for the comparatively small numbers of people and
the great need. I mean there were many of the lowest sort he says, but you don't find too
many records of wealthy, outstandingly wealthy people in the congregations and comparatively
small numbers of such people and great needs common to the Sydney congregations. And so this
one thousand pound debt is still there and Mercure is worried about it and he thinks about it. And
the idea occurs to him that that money, one thousand pounds, could be raised quite easily
back home in England. And he begins to formulate a plan and he plans to make a return trip to England,
tour around the churches that he knows and get introduction to other situations and tell them
what's happening in Australia, tell them about the chapel, tell them about the debt and ask for
their support. And he thinks that the money would be raised quite easily and then he could bring
the money back with him. However as he's planning all this there's one major consideration which
so far has prevented him. You see he understands that that would mean leaving his beloved wife and
his children. He estimates that the voyage at least would take three months each way.
In fact it took 109 days when he finally made the voyage back to England.
He estimates he would need at least 12 months in England to visit the various churches and towns
and tell of the needs and raise the capital. And so he's thinking in terms of a two years
absence from his wife, his children. And he thinks of the voyage that he has to make.
And there was no certainty that you would survive the voyage. There were many wrecks,
many who were lost, there were many storms. And all these things that
make him reticent to really go through with his plan. But he prays about it and he thinks about
it. He thinks about his wife. He remembers how he had the privilege of leading his own wife to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He remembers how they'd been baptized together so many years ago. How she had
been such a beloved helper and fellow worker. And he talks about her being my beloved helper
through 29 years of cloud and sunshine. And so one day he plucks up courage
and he sits down with her and he discusses the whole idea.
He talks about her being one of the fondest mothers who ever discharged the responsibilities
of motherhood. And they had a beautiful relationship. You can read a lot about it
if you take the time to read his autobiography. He sits down one day with her and discuss the plan.
And he says her response was typical. Let me quote to you her two words.
Well she says there are two evils in this and I will choose the lesser of the two.
One is the calamity of the chapel being sold and the cause of Christ being reproached.
And the other is my husband going away to England perhaps never to see each other again in this
life. I will therefore choose that you my husband should go to England.
And so he makes the preparations and eventually he leaves. He makes the journey over to England
incident free and he goes around the various churches. He has no trouble in raising the
needed money. People are only too eager to hear of the work to find out what's going on.
And all goes well until towards the end in the time of his return. Back home in Sydney
his wife falls ill. And there was great emphasis placed on change of climate if you fell ill in
those days. And they often thought that if you were ill in one place then if you moved to somewhere
else the change of climate might help you. So she fell ill in Sydney and the doctors tried to
treat her but advised that she go down to Victoria for a change of climate. So she did and it seemed
to help her. She came back to Sydney but she'd not been back in Sydney long when she fell ill again.
And then one day in a fit of violent coughing she ruptures a blood vessel in her lung
and she hemorrhages for many minutes. This was the beginning of the end for her
says one of the deacons. Gradually she grew worse and yet he said all who visited her
remarked at her happy estate. She had such assurance. You remember the other remark that
John Wesley had made about the Methodists once. He said about the Methodists, he said,
our people die well. Our people die well. Well, Mrs. McCure died well. She truly did.
She, there are many incidents about the kind of things she said when she was on a deathbed.
One time she remarks to one of the deacons, she said, I part with my husband
but the church shall not part with its place of worship. She gathers the family together and told
them all of her love and faith in Jesus and that she's totally unafraid of death and she's
completely ready to meet her God. She says to one of the daughters, tell father to preach a funeral
sermon from John 15 and have him have that hymn God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.
Not long after that she said she could hear beautiful music and singing, take my hand she
says I shall soon be gone and within five minutes she fell asleep in Jesus with the sweetest smile
on her face which remained in stamp there in death. Now during all this time while she was
ill and dying, McCure had begun his voyage back to Sydney. He was on board ship. He knew nothing
of what was going on. He knew nothing of the circumstances. Didn't even know his wife was ill.
He raised the £1,000. He was eagerly looking forward to getting back, paying off the debt
on the chapel, taking up the ministry, perhaps another decade of laboring and preaching the
Gospel, seeing his wife and children at Circular Quay. Look forward to that day greatly. But about
the time that his wife died he had a most disturbing experience on board ship.
He went to bed one night after a relatively calm day on board ship and he had a dream.
And in his dream he dreamed his wife was dead. He dreamed she died. He was so disturbed by the
dream that he woke up and he climbed immediately out of his bed and he got down on his knees to
pray. And he tried to pray but he couldn't. He just couldn't pray. And he was stopped in the
midst of his trying to pray and the conviction came to him again, almost like a voice, almost
as if someone was saying, she's dead, she's dead. And so she was, but he didn't know that.
Well that disturbed him greatly for the remainder of the trip, but he didn't think she was dead. He
thought that might have been some, just some perhaps psychological experience that he had
some nightmare. And so solemn tidings awaited him when he finally docked at Circular Quay.
Expecting to see his wife and his children, a deacon met him with the news and gave him a
letter recalling all of his wife's deathbed wishes and talking about her serenity and her assurance.
He had arrived home to find his wife had been buried for 23 days. It was a Sunday.
On the Monday, he had to perform a wedding. On Tuesday, he was called to bury a child
who was killed in a buggy accident whilst returning from church at Kissing Point.
On Thursday of the same week, quite unexpectedly, one of his deacon's wives died.
And he had the job of burying her on the following Sunday afternoon.
He says when he went there, he was broken and bursting. He needed help even to read through
the service. And when it was finally over, he took aside one of his deacons and he inquired
of where his wife's grave was. Turned out that he had actually been standing next to it
and that it was right next door to where he had buried the deacon's wife.
And he fell down and he held on to the grave for some time. He was broken-hearted and sobbing.
He composed himself and he returned home and he talks about returning home to the
empty house, empty of her, the children seated at the table, but her chair empty. No mother,
no wife. And then he remembers that it is that it is his 29th wedding anniversary.
That very day. He said, this is my 29th wedding anniversary and I have not seen my lovely wife's
face. I have only seen her grave. Well it took him many years and months to recover from that grief.
He did finally preach a memorial service as his wife had wished. He preached from John 15 and he
had the hymn. Then, not so long afterwards, his daughter died in Geelong, age 26. About a year
afterwards. He returned home to England in 1871 and he started a new work near Cambridge called
the Mount Eden Chapel. And God used him there powerfully for many years. And he said,
later of this time at Eden Chapel, he said that he was never more blessed in all his life.
He would often think back on his time in Australia. He would often, he says, take up his
well-worn Bible and turn to his favorite text, the text which he believed summed up his experiences
in Australia, Deuteronomy 8 and verse 2, where God says to his servant, and thou shalt remember
all the ways which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee
and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would keep his commandments or no. So he died an
old man and full of years and powerful testimony to God's saving grace. And this is just the life
and labors of one man. I'm sure if we did but know it that could be repeated and there are many
of the first pioneering Christians who relate such lives. Reminds us of the Word of God in
Hebrews chapter 6, where we're encouraged to imitate the faith of such people. Let me close
with this text. You remember that Hebrews 6, we're being warned about the perils of falling away
and God says in his Word in verse 11, having warned his people, he says,
we're convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, though we are
speaking in this way, in this way of warning you about falling away. And God says in his Word in
verse 11, he says, we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full
assurance of hope until the end and that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. Imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit
the promises. Well may we all by God's grace be enabled to imitate such faith and diligence and
patience and look forward as this man did to inheriting the promises of God. Let us pray.