Can You Give Me The Gospel You Offer?
John E. Hazelton, “Hold Fast”:
The late Charles Rolfe (1802-1877), Rector of Shadoxhurst and Orlestone, Kent, a good scholar in the school of Christ, a consistent follower of the Lamb, and a faithful champion for the truth, frequently told an anecdote of a person who went to a minister who had been offering salvation to all who chose to accept it, and said to him, “Sir, last night you offered me salvation; can you give it to me?” “No!” “Then why did you offer it? Preach the Gospel of the grace of God boldly, as you ought, without seeking to please men, and then the Holy Ghost will apply the truth to the hearts of those whom the Lord shall call.” Our omnipotent Saviour is not a suitor at the sinner’s heart, and the Lord’s servants are not sent to offer but to proclaim. This is clearly- brought out in the title of an eighteenth century book by Joseph Hussey, an Independent minister of Cambridge—”Operations of Grace, but no Offers of Grace.” Every declaration of God to the sinner is on the principle of grace and gift, not an offer, which implies there is some capability in man to make use of the benefit offered. The offer of salvation is a denial of man’s total depravity as born in the Adam fall and “dead in trespasses and sins”; it ignores the Gospel truth of the new birth and puts in its place man’s acceptance of the offer as the condition of divine life.
Charles Rolfe was a man little known, but one of those saints whose character exercises a wide influence. The greater portion of his life was spent in a remote part of the Weald of Kent. He was an accurate classic with a remarkably tenacious memory, and had the Greek Testament quite at his finger ends. Among his warmest friends were two clergymen of kindred spirits, Thomas W. Weston, LL.B., vicar of St. John’s, Tunbridge Wells, and Edward Wilkinson, M.A., Ph.D., of Christ Church, Leamington.
Charles Rolfe (1802-1877) was an Anglican High-Calvinist preacher. He served for thirty-nine years as Rector of Shadoxhurst and Orlestone, Kent. It is believed he was a direct descendant of John Rolfe, who on April 5, 1614, married Pocahontas in Jamestown, Virginia.
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