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Early Ministry at Barnstaple.

It was on the invitation of Mr. Pugsley that Mr. Chapman visited Barnstaple in 1831, which led to his taking up his abode there in April, 1832. His own account-given to Mr. G. F. Bergin a few years ago-of his connection with the chapel to which he first went, and of its being left for the building which will always be specially associated with his name, was as follows:

"When I was invited to leave London and go to minister the Word of God in Ebenezer Chapel, then occupied by a community of strict Baptists, I consented to do so, naming one condition only--that I should be quite free to teach all I found written in the Scriptures. This I continued to do for some time with blessing from the Lord. A brother who visited me in those days urged me to set aside the strict rule that none but baptised believers should be allowed to break bread. I replied that I could not force the consciences of my brethren and sisters; and I continued my ministry, patiently instructing them from the Word. I well knew at that time that I could have carried the point with a large majority, but I judged it to be more pleasing to God to toil on to bring all to one mind. I was enabled to bear with their unduly pressing a right course; I could not have thus waited had they been pressing a wrong thing, such as infant baptism. In due time, through patiently waiting, and by the blessing of God upon us, we were brought to be all of one mind.

"A little time after that some Christians resident in Barnstaple, who held the strict views which we had abandoned, demanded that we should give up the use of the chapel. I carefully examined the Trust Deed, and found that in not one particular did we set aside its provisions.  Yet we gave them the chapel, just as I should give my coat to a man who demanded it. You will not be surprised when I tell you that ere long the Lord gave us a much better chapel. He will be no man's debtor."

The grace and patience with which Mr. Chapman acted in this matter is further expressed in a letter, written in 1893, which should have special attention in days when division is lightly thought of:

"When, sixty years since, I came to this place, I waited for unity of heart and judgment among the company who called themselves Baptists; and when, by the power of the Scriptures, the greater part of them were minded to throw down their wall, we waited on in patience for fulness of unity of judgment. For this I was blamed by men of much grace, who at that time were endeavoring in the south of Devon to bring about a joint testimony of saints to the full truth of God.  What we now enjoy here of mutual love and the Spirit's unity would never have been our portion had any other course been taken."

The interest Mr. Harrington Evans took in Mr. Chapman's work at Barnstaple, where he sometimes visited him, and the high esteem in which he held him, found expression in some of Mr. Evans' letters, which greatly contribute to our knowledge of what he was at that period of his life. Three years after Mr. Chapman settled in Barnstaple he had a serious illness, concerning which Mr. Evans wrote to the church at John Street in the following touching manner:

"September, I835.- This day brings a letter informing me of the dangerous illness of our beloved Brother Chapman. What a lesson as to the uncertainty of all things here below is thus afforded us! It is not long since I felt the need of a caution, lest I should glory in his strength, so strong did he seem as to bodily strength. And now, it may be, as a flower of grass, which a breath of wind scattereth, so may he fade. This will be received (D. V.) at your church meeting; need I suggest that it be especially set apart for him and the dear people com­mitted to his charge? Absent from each other in body, yet present with each other in spirit, between seven and eight to-morrow evening we may meet at the throne of grace together, and beseech the Father of all our mercies, and our support in all our troubles, on his behalf, with a simple, childlike confidence that, if for the Divine glory, he may be restored to health and prolonged usefulness in the service of Him whom he loves. To the praise and honour of God's most free grace I say it, and with a deep remembrance that but for the atonement of the Son of God he could have nothing before him but the blackness of darkness for ever, that, among those whom it has been my mercy to have known upon earth, I have seen few indeed like him: a child so loving, a servant so ready, poor in spirit above most, and withal bold as a lion, and gentle as a nurse. What he was, I know the grace of God made him, and I trust in my heavenly Father's love that it will be our mercy to see him yet abounding more and more to the praise of that grace for ever."

The answer to these prayers may still call forth our thanksgiving to God (2 Cor. i, II), and remind us that we cannot estimate the far­-reaching effect of believing prayer.

From various references it is evident that whenever Mr. Chapman visited London his ministry was much valued:

"May 30, I842.-R. Chapman has just left us. He slept here last night, after preaching for me at John Street. Oh, what a man of God he is! What grace does he exhibit! Courage, meekness, love, self-denial, tenderness, perseverance, love for souls-all springing out of love of Christ and God-seem beauteously blended together in beautiful symmetry. But by the grace of God he is what he is, and by the grace of God (may we not add?) we can be what he is."

How these words confirm the statement in Mr. Evans' memoir concerning himself: "In reviewing his private character as a Christian, perhaps the distinguishing feature was humility"! On September 11th, 1846, Mr. Evans writes:

"I found beloved R. Chapman all that he ever was, and more-more like Christ, more self-denying, gentle, and full of love-one of the most remarkable instances of Divine grace, especially showing itself in this, a strong stimulant, or rather stimulator, to lead others to covet and aim at the greatest grace, and the most patient encourager of its very weakest display."

 In the same year, in conversation with a friend, Mr. Evans, in speaking of the power of influence, referred to Mr. Chapman as an example, adding:

"He is one of my stars. I hold him to be one of the first men of the age He has no ebbs or flows. He can always realise his acceptance. But then he is indeed a child, ready for anything, everything-it matters not what-to wash your feet, or go and preach Christ in the market-place within a stone's throw of a baited bull; it is all one to him, if he can do his Master's will."

Thank God, this was true to the end, above fifty-­five years later.

Fellowship with other Servants of Christ.

But we must go back in thought to 1832, and it is interesting to observe that in the very year that Robert Chapman went to Barnstaple, with the sted­fast purpose of seeking to learn and carry out all the will of God, George Muller and his friend and fellow-labourer, Henry Craik, took up their abode in Bristol. These servants of Christ had already been exercised about many things at Teignmouth, and on the even­ing of August 13th," at Bethesda Chapel, Mr. Muller, Mr. Craik, one other brother, and four sisters-only seven in all-sat down together, uniting in Church fellowship, ‘without any rules, desiring to act only as the Lord should be pleased to give light through His Word'" (Dr. Pierson's George Muller, page 99). Thus, though unknown to one another, these dear brethren, then comparatively young, were being led in the same path of subjection to God's Word, and in the course upon which they entered God sustained them till He called them higher-Mr. Craik in 1866, Mr. Muller in 1898, and Mr. Chapman in 1902-the path of each being truly that of the just, shining" more and more unto the perfect day." Though evidence of the exact date is lacking, it seems clear that Mr. Chapman and Mr. Muller must have met soon after 1832.

Early in the same second quarter of the last century, some servants of Christ in Dublin and other places were moved to give themselves to the diligent study of the Scriptures, and made an effort to carry out what was written. This, as we have seen, Mr. Chapman had for some time been doing; consequently, when he and they were in God's providence brought together, they found themselves in many respects of one mind, and thus new links were formed.

In the matter of Christian fellowship he gladly went where there was room for the whole Bible, and a readiness, so far as he knew, to carry out the will of God according to the Scriptures. Where this place was given to the Scriptures he felt there should be no hindrance to fellowship, but he would allow no compromises; indeed, at a Conference at Leomister on one occasion he surprised those present by saying that rather than make any compromise in this matter he would prefer to die. He would not acknowledge sectarian titles, and if the name of a religious denomination was mentioned to him he would say that it grated upon his ears. But his heart went out to all who are Christ's, and such, whatever name they bore, were welcomed by him, even as in his intercessions he embraced the whole Church of God. Speaking of the oneness of all believers he said:

"Unless we have a spiritual understanding of this Divine unity we cannot rightly grieve for the divisions of God's people. By looking into this glass we discover the nature and the guilt of schisms and divisions."

Though he never failed to give baptism a high place as expressing the believer's burial and resur­rection with Christ, and was accustomed to baptise in the river Taw at Barnstaple until he was eighty (when he thought it well to leave this service to others), no one ever more strongly withstood the teaching that there is anything saving in it. His mind on the subject in connection with fellow­ship is very clearly expressed in Mr. Muller's record of his own exercise of heart about it. In Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Muller, vol. i., page 202, he writes:

"In August of 1836 I had a conversation with Brother R. C. on the subject. . . . This brother put the matter thus before me: Either unbaptised believers come under the class of persons who walk disorderly-and in that case we ought to withdraw from them (2 Thess. iii. 6) ­or they do not walk disorderly. If a believer be walking disorderly, we are not merely to withdraw from him at the Lord's table, but our behaviour towards him ought to be decidedly different from what it would be were he not walking disorderly, on all occasions when we may have intercourse with him, or come in any way into contact with him. Now, this is evidently not the case in the conduct of baptised believers towards their unbaptised fellow-believers .... The Spirit does not suffer us to refuse fellowship with them in prayer, in reading and searching the Scriptures, in social and intimate inter­course, and in the Lord's work; and yet this ought to be the case were they walking disorderly. This passage ( 2 Thess. iii. 6), to which Brother R. C. referred, was the means of showing me the mind of the Lord on the sub­ject, which is, that we ought to receive all whom Christ has received (Rom. xv. 7), irrespective of the measure of grace or knowledge which they have attained unto."

His attitude towards those who are known as "Exclusive Brethren" was characteristic. Any who knew him would never thus describe them in his presence. He sometimes spoke of them as,  "Brethren dearly beloved and longed for," and sometimes described them as, "Those brethren whose consciences lead them to refuse my fellowship and to deprive me of theirs." By this expression he meant that they were acting conscientiously, but that their consciences were not guided by the Spirit of God through the Word, and therefore were not fully under the power of the love of Christ. He mourned that a servant of Christ should by his dictum lead, and that other servants and children of God should be led, in a course so contrary to love and righteousness, and did his utmost to hinder it; but he deemed it far better to suffer rejection than himself to reject those who were walking in the fear of God and in subjection to His Word.

Mr. Chapman's mind with regard to divisions in God's Church is well expressed in the following circular-letter, which was dated January, 1846. Had this been taken to heart (instead of being criticised, as it was) the evil which developed, and still prevails, would have been nipped in the bud, and many would have been saved from untold disasters through fresh divisions, of which they have had such painful experience:

"Certain Brethren in the Lord in different parts of the kingdom having agreed to set apart the second Wednesday of the next month for prayer and humiliation, on account of the divisions in the Church of Christ, it is proposed to all to whom those divisions are a grief to join in the above service.

"If, as is commonly confest, the present low estate of the people of God be the bitter fruit of their having so long time grieved the Spirit of God, then is it not the highest aggravation of their guilt that they have so little mourned, either jointly or singly, publicly or privately, for grieving the Holy Ghost?

"Manifold, indeed, are the evils that have grieved Him; and it becomes saints to seek of God a spirit of judgment concerning all those evils. In the meekness and gentleness of Christ, it is urged upon the consciences of saints to consider especially the dishonour done to God by different opinions and judgments among His children concerning His truth, inasmuch as the unity of mind between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-which the unity of the Church should represent is a unity of wisdom as well as love, and of counsel as well as of operation.

"Different degrees of attainment in grace and know­ledge, and differences in gifts and offices, must of necessity have place among the members of Christ; but such diversity is of God, and works unity; contrarieties of judgment concerning the truth always check the fellowship of saints, and, if not mourned before God, gender strife and division.

"Will not God set His seal of approval to any attempt of His children, however feeble, to seek of Him, in His own way and order, unity both in judgment and in love?

"If any company of believers be found thus aiming with godly perseverance at unity, will not strife cease among them, and brotherly love wax fervent?

"Who shall set a limit to the progress of unity among the true members of Christ, if that unity is first sought rightly, even by a handful of saints?

"Meanwhile, happy they who, like Daniel, chasten their souls before God in secret, confessing their own sin and the sin of fellow-saints, not seeking their own things but the things of Christ, and not discouraged by the unbelief or indifference of others, knowing that God, who seeth in secret, shall, at the latest in the day of Christ, reward them openly."

Life at New Buildings, Barnstaple.

It was this spirit, with a hearty carrying out of the exhortation to be "given to hospitality," that characterised the humble residences at Barnstaple, Nos. 6 and 9, on opposite sides of the short street called New Buildings. These abodes of peace and love are known to many throughout the world, and remembered with gratitude. No servant of Christ ever went there without finding a loving welcome and true sympathy, and few can have left without carrying away some deeper sense of the blessedness of trusting God, and seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness. No. 6 was from the beginning Mr. Chapman's dwelling, and in one of the rooms of this most simply furnished abode he who was truly "great in the sight of the Lord" breathed his last. Some time back a friend offered him the use of a better house, and desired him to occupy it, as being more suitable, but he declined the offer, saying he desired to continue where any Christian, even the poorest, could come to him without hesitation.

When he first took the house, he asked the Lord to send him some of His servants, to whom he might show hospitality. Some came, and his heart was filled with joy; hut after a while he was left without anyone, which so grieved and perplexed him that he was led to the Lord in self-examination, and said: "Why, Lord, dost Thou not send Thy children to me?" When speaking of this some years after he added: "l have never had to repeat that question, for since then I have had no lack of visitors under my roof." For many years Mr. Chapman cleaned the boots of his visitors, and put them at the doors of their rooms. Once, when this was referred to, he said: "It is not the custom in our day to wash one another's feet; that which most nearly corresponds to this command of the Lord is to clean each other's boots." We well know that he only named this as a sample of the loving and lowly service to one another inculcated in John xiii.

Mr. Chapman rose very early; but he retired early as well. For a long while he prepared his own breakfast and took it alone; but in later years he joined others at breakfast at 7 o'clock, dinner being at 12 o'clock. There was great cheerfulness at the table-words of wisdom and grace were constantly heard; but no room was given for conversation to degenerate into frivolous talk. It was also a rule of the house that no one should speak ill of an absent person, and any infringement of this rule called forth a firm though gracious reproof.  After breakfast, Mr. Chapman gave an exposition of Scripture-preceded by a hymn, and followed by prayer - which was greatly valued. A hymn was sung after dinner, and one after tea was followed by a brief portion of the Word and prayer.

Guests at Mr. Chapman's table ever found a plentiful supply; but nothing was allowed to be wasted. Once when the table was being cleared he was heard to say, "Take the crumbs and give them to the birds, for  ‘your heavenly Father feedeth them '." Ten or twelve years ago, when he had been grieved by hearing of some rather wasteful habit, he put his thoughts into a verse, which he repeated at the breakfast table of the house in which he was staying, remarking that it was the principle he desired to express. It was at once said, "That should be printed." A heading being suggested, he was well pleased with it, and at once accompanied his host to a printer's. As first printed it was as follows:

THE FRAGMENTS

(John vi. 12).

If mustard or salt I take more than I use,

Let straightway my conscience the waster accuse;

My Lord who redeemed me, whose Name is my boast,

Said, "Gather the fragments, that nothing be lost."

 

Mr. Chapman's Fellowship with Mr. Hake.

Before the two houses at New Buildings were so closely linked together, No. 9 was for some years occupied by Miss Paget. In Anthony Norris Groves' Memoir mention is repeatedly made of two devoted sisters in Christ at Exeter-the Misses Paget. One was taken to be with the Lord; the other removed to Barnstaple, and became well known there for her godliness and readiness to every good work.  Mr. Groves writes of visiting her there in 1852, and says, "I slept at dear R. C.'s, and they were all most affectionately kind." When she fell asleep, nearly forty years ago, Mr. William Hake, of Bideford, removed to that house, and thus became more closely linked in fellowship and service with Mr. Chapman, till he too was called home in November, 1890. At the back of No. 9 some new rooms were added, including a large one for meals and meetings. In this room was held the weekly meeting on Thursday evening known as the District Meeting. It was so called because Christians in fellowship at Grosvenor Street were invited in turn, according to the district in which they resided, to tea and a Bible-reading after. This meeting was much valued; friends often came to it from neighbouring towns, and visitors would try to make their stay include a Thursday evening. For many years it was both pleasant and profitable at the meetings to hear conversation chiefly carried on between "the patriarchs," as Mr. Chapman and Mr. Hake were called, though others joined in it.  In this room, at a special meeting for young men, Mr. Hake was present the very evening before he was called to be with Christ.

Mr. Chapman so deeply felt the parting with his fellow-labourer that he was not able to be present at the burial, and on that day only saw two or three friends in his own room. His account of the last day of their long service together, and the peaceful departure of dear Mr. Hake at the ripe age of ninety - five, as given in The Golden Lamp for December, 1890, will be read with interest:

                                                                                                                  "Barnstaple, Nov. 5th, 1890,

                                                                                                                   9 New Buildings.

"On Tuesday morning, November 4th, my beloved fellow-labourer, Brother Hake, joined us at our early breakfast hour, seven o'clock. In the afternoon he rendered loving service by bearing me and others company to the station to cheer a visitor who was leaving us. Returning together, we held in my room our usual Tuesday afternoon prayer - meeting, in which beloved Brother Hake took fully his part. At our tea-table at six o'clock we had a goodly company of young disciples of Christ, to whom Brother Hake spoke joyfully on the words, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.' The meeting afterwards began with:

‘We go with the redeemed to taste

Of joy supreme that never dies.'

All who sang, and some who heard outside the room, felt that the singing was heavenly, the deep bass of the dear aged one perfecting the harmony. After prayer, the first Psalm was read. Brother Hake took occasion to draw contrasts with the walking, standing, and sitting of the first verse:  ‘Enoch walked with God; Elijah stood before the Lord; David sat before the Lord.' After he had thus for about an hour been the brightness of the assembly, his speech failed, but with support he walked to his bedroom. Our dear young Brother Idenden sat up with him. I joined them about four o'clock in the morning. Brother Hake grasped my hand, and held it until he could hold it no longer, and breathed out his spirit to the Lord at 7.10.

"His beloved daughter Mary is sustained of God.  Surely our God is the Father of mercies and the God of comfort. He is 'wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working '."

The following brief account of the fellowship of these two men of God, also from Mr. Chapman's own pen, bears date November 30th, 1890. It was not printed.

"It pleased God in the year 1831, in this neighbourhood, to bring together the dear departed one and myself at the house of a relative-a child of mine in the faith.

"Our hearts were presently knit together in the fellowship of the Spirit, according to the words of the Lord, 'That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.' Each found the other a lover of the Scriptures, and bent upon obedience to the Lord without reserve.

"Brother Hake was then residing in Exeter. In April, 1832, I left London to reside in Barnstaple, giving myself altogether to the work of the Lord. Some years after, in answer to our joint prayers, he came to Bideford, where he had a school; thus communications became more frequent, and fellowship closer. In 1863 he came to Barnstaple, since which time, up to the hour of his departure to be with Christ, we have been yoke-fellows in the work of the Lord, our two houses, Nos. 9 and 6 New Buildings, making together a home of rest for the servants of God, and of resort for young disciples, where we, their elder brethren, have sought to cheer them on their way.

"Our fellowship has been ever growing, and during its fifty - nine years' continuance, never was strife or bitterness between us. The dear departed one was wont to say, ‘Ah! dear brother, we never had a jar.'  It was given us by God's grace ever to hold fast God's truth-­His whole truth-in the Scriptures, also the form of sound words devised by the infinite wisdom of the Spirit of God. Our hearts were assured of the fulness of the Word of God, and that, while colour can be found in it for well-nigh any false doctrine, any error, no error can abide the test of the whole Scripture. Thus we daily contributed each to the other's treasure of grace and truth.

"In regard to the Scriptures that have been fulfilled, our unity of judgment was blessedly complete; as to what is yet to be fulfilled, we attained to an excellent measure of unity, which was growing to the end.

"Touching,

The guidance of our steps,

The ordering of our ways,

The rule of our household,

we always waited on God together for His mind. If, on conferring together, we found ourselves of one mind, we laid our unity before God for His perfecting; we remembered the fault of Nathan and David, who, knowing in part the will of God as to the building Him a temple, failed to lay the matter before God for the perfect revelation of His will. If judgment did not agree we waited on God to give us oneness of mind, and neither of us ever took a step against the judgment of the other-hence no strife, no bitterness!

"The obligation of John xvii. to oneness between the children of God, like unto the oneness between the Father and the Son, will be fulfilled in a coming day; if not now fulfilled, the obligation is immutable as the Fountain Head-God the Father's love in His Son.

"We have endeavoured, in foreview of the Judgment-­seat of Christ, to tread the path in which the whole Church of God should be found walking. The fruit of such obedience could not but be a keeping of the unity of the Spirit, in lowliness, meekness, and love; schism and division being far away! "

In a volume called England, Home, and Beauty, H. B. Macartney, M.A., the son of Dean Macartney of Melbourne, gave a lengthy description of a brief stay at New Buildings in 1878, when visiting this country.* He left greatly impressed with Mr.

• As Mr. Macartney's reference to Mr. Chapman's father has been widely copied, it seems needful to remark that both as to name and official position it was incorrect.

Chapman's profound knowledge of the Scriptures, but not less with his kind considerateness for all with whom he came in contact, and his true lowli­ness of mind. Mr. Macartney's conclusion, that "communion with God makes him childlike," was an evidence that he himself could appreciate what was spiritual. He said Mr. Chapman reminded him of Moses, and Mr. Hake of "Aaron, the saint of the Lord," and he describes the lessons in humility that he got, both at the tea-table and in more personal intercourse with Mr. Chapman.