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Mr. Chapman's Best-known Hymn.

 Oh, my Saviour crucified!

Near Thy cross would I abide;

There to look, with stedfast eye,

On Thy dying agony.

 

Jesus, bruised and put to shame,

Tells me all Jehovah's name;

"God is love," I surely know

By the Saviour's depths of woe.

 

In His spotless soul's distress

I perceive my guiltiness;

Oh, how vile my low estate,

Since my ransom was so great!

 

Dwelling on Mount Calvary,

Contrite shall my spirit be;

Rest and holiness shall find,

Fashioned like my Saviour's mind.

 

 

Robert Cleaver Chapman.

 

THE last time, probably, that Robert Chapman and Denham Smith were in the same meeting (October, 1884), Mr. Denham Smith expressed the wish that Mr. Chapman's "Life" might be written.  Mr. Chapman's ready reply was: "It is being written, dear brother, and will be published in the morning."  Only on High is it truly written, and only there can it be fully appreciated.  But the exhortation to remember our guides who have spoken to us the Word of God, to consider the end of their conduct, and to imitate their faith (Heb. Xiii. 7), is a warrant for seeking to recall, as far as possible, some of the features of a life in which God has been so truly glorified.

As a man of faith and prayer and devotedness to God, the name of R. C. Chapman is known far and wide, though few are left who knew anything of his early Christian course except by hearsay, and fewer still have any knowledge of his earliest years.  The few facts concerning him that follow are fully reliable, having been kindly communicated by one who knows them well-his sister-the only one who could give them.  This sister, Miss Arabella Chapman, of Clifton, is the only survivor of a large family, and, though in her ninetieth year, she was at her brother's side from the time he was taken ill, June 2nd, 1902, till he was called to his rest. Being one with him "in the Lord," she found it "a great comfort to be with him to the last, and likewise to be among so many dear brethren of one heart and spirit."

Boyhood and Youth.

Robert Cleaver Chapman was born in Denmark, January 4th, 1803, where his parents resided at that time. His mother felt the importance of a child's early years, and taught and trained her children herself till they were nine or ten, seeking to instil high principles and a love for learning. While in Denmark Robert Chapman had lessons from a French abbe, and he was then sent to a school in Yorkshire, where he made good progress. He studied European languages, and purposed to acquire Eastern ones. He had a passion for literature, and desired to give himself to it; but though the Chapman's had been rich, the position of his father-Mr. Thomas Chapman-had in this respect undergone some change, and it was needful for the son to pursue a course that would bring remuneration; therefore, though with some reluct­ance, he studied law and became a solicitor. In this profession he soon occupied a good position, and had he pursued the course on which he started, there is little question that the high honors to which it can lead might have been his.  But God had honour in store for him, great and abiding, such as the world cannot give. 

In later years, Mr. Chapman was a frequent visitor at the Firs, near Wellington, the residence of Mrs. Hanbury, who recently fell asleep at the great age of 108, and Miss Charlotte Hanbury in her Autobiography writes of him:

"He told me much about his boyhood.  He was devoted to his mother, whose company was his greatest pleasure.  It was a matter of entire indifference to him who was present at the table, or who was absent, as long as she was there.  She was a lady of influence and decided character, and her conversation was his great delight.  Others in the home-party used to say: ‘Robert is a philosopher; Robert won't do much.'  He listened to what were declared to be his incapacities, and believed what he heard, which hindered the development of his talents.  Thus he was told he could not sing, but later in life his ability was known to all his friends.  He was an excellent student, and he admits that he was a learned youth, modesty adding: ‘I would not say a learned man.'  At sixteen he turned his earnest attention of the study of the Bible, and continued this with such diligence for four years that he gained a thorough acquaintance with the whole Book.  Then its subjects began to impress his heart."

As further evidence of the good use Robert Chapman made of his early years, the following may be added:

"In his travels abroad he can easily preach in five languages. . . He used to tell me much of Italian literature, and notable people of Italy, as well as of the history of other countries; indeed, his fund of literary knowledge distinguished him, independently of his great spirituality."

At the time when his mother's influence specially affected him, she had been brought under the power of teaching that was not evangelical, and therefore she did not teach him the Gospel, though she always said it was her chief prayer that all her children might be led to love the truth: Though he was a great attraction at evening parties in London, to which he was often invited, he was a religious youth, and his state at this time seems to be de­scribed in one of his hymns:

"Blind from the birth, I would be wise,

And all the mystery know

Of fair Creation's ceaseless groan-

­Of man's estate and woe.

"I toiled and spent my strength for nought,

I vexed my soul in vain,

Till I beheld the risen Lord-

Thy Son, the second Man."

He expressed it in another way by saying he made it his business to judge the Bible, and did not allow the Scriptures to judge him.

The following, which is taken from a letter written in 1894, to the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone, then about to retire from office, who courteously acknowledged it, is a fuller record of Mr. Chapman's early efforts, and of his first knowledge of Christ, while it contains expressions of his maturer acquaintance with Him:

"The undersigned, in his years of youth, sought diligently, and with strong purpose, to establish his own righteousness in hope thereby to obtain eternal life. In the eyes of all who knew him he had become a blameless young man, religious and devout; but, by the Spirit of God and the Scriptures that were his early morning meditation, he was taught to weigh himself in the balances of God, to see his own guiltiness in the light of God's justice, his own uncleanness in the light of God's holiness. Then by the Spirit of God was revealed to him Christ his righteousness, Christ his sanctification; he was taught to call God his Father, and to make the pleasing of God his business in life. In this path walking, he has been for threescore years and ten drinking a cup of true blessedness (earnest of the eternal), and making every bitter thing sweet in that cup, with soul at leisure to seek the welfare, temporal and eternal, of all around him.

"Since the entrance of sin and death into the world, the demands of the human conscience are such that nowhere can the conscience find peace but in the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, and such are the cravings of the heart after happiness, that only in the fullness of the Godhead, dwelling bodily in Christ, can the heart be satisfied; yea, that peace, that rest, can neither man find nor God bestow, save in the once crucified Son of God, now the Great High Priest at the right hand of God, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him."

From Darkness to Light.

The turning point in Mr. Chapman's life came when he was about twenty. He was invited by Mr. John Whitmore-an elder and greatly valued

Christian worker at John Street Chapel, Bedford Row-to hear the well-known James Harrington Evans, and in a few days a great change was apparent to those who knew him. Dr. G. F. Maberly, whose recollections of Mr. Chapman date back to 1844, says the account he heard was as follows:

"One evening as Mr. Chapman was walking near John Street Chapel, Bedford Row, in evening dress, one of the deacons or elders standing at the door felt that he must go and speak to him. Apologising for his intrusion as a stranger, he asked him if he would kindly come into the chapel to a meeting. Mr. Chapman responded to the invitation, and the Lord met with him."

Another account is that he became acquainted with Mr. Whitmore in the way of business; but, however it was, it is certain that God used him and Mr. Evans to accomplish His gracious work of calling the self-righteous young man out of dark­ness into His marvellous light, and that it was through the ministry of Mr. Evans that he received his earliest instructions in the Gospel of God's grace and the things that pertain to life and godliness. This being the case, a brief notice of Mr. Evans and his ministry cannot be out of place, and, indeed, is necessary if we would see how Robert Chapman-as a "genuine son"-followed out to their legitimate conclusion those principles on which Mr. Evans sought to act, which so greatly affected his course as a servant of Christ, and for which he endured not a little. Let us remember that links between different generations of God's children-links of a true succession-such as that between Mr. Evans and Mr. Chapman, are links for eterenity; let us also, as servants of Christ, take to heart the fact that the after-life of those brought to God is often affected by the character of the one whom God uses in their conversion, as well as by the way in which he deals with the Word of God.

James Harrington Evans.

Dr. Evans - a clergyman at Salisbury - took great interest in the education of his son Harrington, who was so forward in his studies that he obtained a scholarship at Oxford at the age of fourteen; he gained his degree of B.A. so early that he was known as "the boy bachelor"; and he proved to be a man of great ability. According to his father's purpose he became a clergyman, and though at  Oxford he was for a time foremost in worldly pursuits, his early training, and especially "the power of a mother's love," had their restraining effect.  He obtained a curacy in Staffordshire in 1809, and the rector, telling him he took too much trouble with his sermons, and should read printed ones as he himself did, sent him a volume, which had a result he little anticipated, for the perusal of it led him "to comprehend and embrace the blessed and fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone."  Thus proving for himself that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, he preached that Gospel as few did in the early part of last century. Removing the next year to Milford, in Hampshire, he was zealous in his work, but, while souls were converted and godly persons were attracted to visit the place, such strong disappro­bation of his plain preaching was expressed that the rector, whose sentiments were entirely opposed to those of his curate, gave him six months' notice to leave.

Mr. Evans had already become exercised before God as to his position in the Church of England, and, though some of his friends sought to help him to view matters in a different light, "it was all in vain; the baptism of infants, the union of the Church with the State, and what he considered to be the consequent absence of holy discipline in that Church," caused him to leave it. This he did in January, 1816, when he and his wife were baptised by immersion at Taunton. After a time Mr. Evans went to London, and Mr. Henry Drummond, M.P., erected for him spacious buildings in John Street, where his preaching attracted many from all parts of London. As connected with Robert Chapman's subsequent course, it is interesting to observe how Mr. Evans sought to be guided by Scripture. His son, the author of his Memoir, himself a clergyman, says:

"Whilst Mr. Evans himself held the doctrine of believers' baptism, . . . he always firmly maintained that he could not be the pastor of a Baptist Church, as it would involve the rejection from Church fellowship, and from the table of the Lord, of many whom God had received, and who might, from their holy character, lie advanced to higher rewards in heaven than many who agreed with him on the subject. He, however, invariably suggested a candid and prayerful consideration of the subject, . . . leaving it to the decision of conscience and judgment, as in the sight of God.

"A careful examination of the Word of God on the subject of the Lord's Supper had satisfied Mr. Evans that the family of God should meet around His table every Lord's-day, and the Lord's Supper was therefore celebrated every Sunday evening. . . . These were always peculiarly happy seasons, in which he enjoyed much of the Master's presence .... In the admission of members into the Church, he was most cautious that they should first give satisfactory proof of vital godliness; but,  if he were assured of this, he considered that, however weak and feeble they might be, they ought to be united with the saints of God in order to their being nourished by the means of grace, and associated with other believers.

"Mr. Evans judged 'the calling an untried, unproved, and therefore unknown man to the title and office of pastor, although the individual might be most richly endowed with both gift and grace,' to be 'most hazardous,' and he considered that 'if anyone in the church shall prove himself, by the exercise of gift and grace, to be possessed of anyone or more pastoral gifts, such as visiting to edification, expounding the Word,' etc., 'such an one ought to be welcomed as an especial gift of God, received, and valued.' 'While the usual plan most commonly proves a failure, this can scarcely be anything short of a great blessing, through the power of the Holy Ghost '."

This sketch would be incomplete without an indication of the character of the preaching and teaching which must have made a great impression upon so young and ardent a listener as Mr. Chapman, and had no small effect upon his course and ministry. The following summary, though con­densed, is given in the words of the Memoir. Mr. Evans was for a little while fascinated by Sabellian error as to the person of Christ, on account of which he never ceased to be humbled. Being by God's grace delivered from this,

"His mind was gradually but firmly fixed in the conviction that the Son and the Holy Ghost are, with the Father, truly, properly, personally God. He fully declared the total and entire depravity of man by nature, without ability to turn himself to God; the free, sovereign, electing love of God, flowing through the Cross of Christ; and the absolute need of the power of the Holy Ghost to commence in regeneration and carry on in sanctification His work in the soul. He was fettered by no shackles of human system, and felt himself at full liberty to proclaim the Gospel as free to every creature under heaven. His standard of holiness was a very high one; he deeply felt the importance of a decided separation from the world in the Christian, and thought it ought to be manifest in the dress, furniture, table, and domestic arrangements of the child of God. Union amongst God's people was always his avowed and cherished object, and his longing for it thus found expression in a letter to his father: 'Oh! when will those days come when party names, party distinctions, party separations, shall cease?'"

These quotations give some idea of the man under whose influence God was pleased to bring Robert Chapman, when in grace He called him to reveal His Son in him.

The Oil of Joy for Mourning.

The experience through which the newly ­awakened one passed when God's light shone into his soul seems to be recorded in his Hymns and Meditations. Dwelling on the words, "The winter is past" (Song of Solomon ii. II), he writes:

"Lord, I remember Thy dealings with me! When Thy hand at first arrested me, and Thy Spirit convinced me of sin, my cup was bitter with my guilt and the fruit of my doings; my joy was turned into mourning; my soul was like a salt land, accursed of God; the hail and storm swept away my refuge of lies! I was alive without the commandment, once; ignorant of the holy law of God, while yet I was under it; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

"Then all was dreary winter within, and therefore it was winter without. Sick was I of the world, hating it as vexation of spirit, while yet I was unable and unwilling to cast it out. I found no city to dwell in-I wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way.

"In the good and set time Thou spakest to me, saying, ‘This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing.' And how sweet Thy words, 'Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee!'

"How precious the sight of the Lamb of God! and how glorious the robe of righteousness, hiding from the holy eyes of my Judge all my sin and pollution!

"Then did the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb did sing. In Jesus crucified-in Thee, my Lord, my soul found rest, and in the bosom of Thy love.

"Ere I knew Thee I had no stay to my soul; my every cistern proved broken. I had no kind and faithful Friend, almighty, all-wise, unchangeable, to soothe my grief and bear my burden.

"But in all that dismal path I now see Thy hand! I was under the curse, but Thy truth has made me free. The winter is past, for I am in Christ Jesus, walking no longer after the flesh, but after the Spirit-the rain is over and gone."

Thus was he called by God "into the grace of Christ," and taking his stand at once and decidedly as a confessor of His Name, and owning Him as Lord, he was baptised as a believer and attached himself to the assembly of Christians in London in which Mr. Harrington Evans ministered the Word. Having learned from the Scriptures that it was the will of God that believers should be baptised, he went to Mr. Evans and expressed his desire to carry it out. With commendable caution Mr. Evans said, "You will wait awhile, and consider the matter." "No," said Mr. Chapman, "I will make haste, and delay not, to keep His command­ments." How blessedly he adhered to his purpose through his long life is well known. Not many years ago he said to a friend, "Beloved brother, I have no time to be in a hurry; and the only thing I make haste about is to keep the command­ments of God."

Those who have in any measure been led in the same path know that the step just referred to could only be taken at some cost:

"The offence of the Cross has not ceased; no sooner did I know Thee and confess Thee, than I became a stranger to the sons of Hagar (who genders only to bondage), whose child I was by nature. Thy love drew me aside from the path of the worldling, whether wicked or devout; I became an offence to those I forsook, even those of my own flesh and blood."

But he had begun to learn of Him who said, "I have set My face as a flint," and with "purpose of heart" he followed on to know the Lord, with a dread of dishonouring Him. On one occasion he said:

"I remember the time when I was afraid to die, and this fear should follow every unconverted person; but on coming to Christ, and being saved by Him, I passed from that state to another, that of being afraid to live, for I feared that if I lived I might do something that would dishonour the Lord, and I would rather die a hundred times than do such a thing. But, thanks be to God, I did not remain long in this state, for I saw clearly that it was possible to live in the world without dishonouring God. I understood that when Christ died we who believe died in Him, were buried with Him, and rose again with Him to be seated with Him in heavenly places. As such He sends us into the world, according to that word, 'As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world' (John xvii. 18). Hence our character below should be that of persons sent down from heaven. Here we should have no inheritance, for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour. Such was the purpose of God in saving us, and such is mine in this world."

Gain counted Loss for Christ.

As he thus fell in with the purpose of God, all other literature-in which he had so delighted at once gave place to the Holy Scriptures, which were now read in a very different spirit, and he became, and continued to be for well-nigh eighty years, a man of the one Book. When at the sea­side with some of his young relatives he would say, "Let us come to the Bible." That Book he read in its original languages, and possessing an acquaintance with the very letter of it beyond that of many of the so-called Higher Critics, and dis­cerning its spiritual lessons by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he only saw increasingly the perfect harmony of the whole. He proved the truth of the 'Word, " Great peace have they which love Thy law: and they shall have no stumbling-block." Few men since the days of the Apostle Paul, we may say, more fully followed his steps in counting loss for Christ what previously had been gain to him. Indeed, with a little variation of language as to his course before he knew Christ, Philippians iii. is a true picture of his experience. His mother used to say, "Robert always has a passion, whether literature or the flute, and whatever he takes up he pursues diligently." There is little question that the same thing might have been said about Saul of Tarsus, and we may well thank God that in the man of the nineteenth century, as in the man of the first century, that passion was by His grace laid at His feet. As in Paul's case, earthly ambition gave place to heavenly-the one great ambition of being well-pleasing to Christ his Lord.

Robert Chapman evidently soon learned what "pure religion and undefiled" is, for, separating himself from the world, he found delight in visiting the poor. He was particularly interested in a poor, old, blind woman who had no one to take her to the meeting. Thus walking humbly in the path of service at hand, he was soon led of God to further service appointed by Him. Mr. Pugsley, of Barnstaple, who married one of Mr. Chapman's cousins, went to London to visit him, and being much struck to see this young man thus interesting himself in the poor, soon felt that Robert Chapman had learned and possessed something of which he himself was ignorant; this led to his conversion. They prayed and read the Word together, and Mr. Pugsley returned to Devon a changed man, whose true devotedness to the Lord became evident to all.

Mr. Chapman felt that he was called of God to give himself to the ministry of the Word. When his friends told him he would never make a preacher, his reply was, "There are many who preach Christ, hut not so many who live Christ; my great aim will be to live Christ." It was by God's grace that resolution was made, and by the same grace it was kept (Phil. ii, 13). That he did live Christ, over seventy years, no one who knew him can question. Many have heard how J. N. Darby, when no one occasion he heard some brethren speaking of R. C. Chapman as a good man, but deficient in knowledge of the heavenly calling, reproved them with the words, "You leave that man alone; he lives what I teach." As a result of that life of devotedness, which can be fully estimated by the Lord alone, his ministry has borne fruit which could never have resulted from any measure of mere human eloquence.