The Life And Testimony Of John Jeffries

Gospel Standard 1871:

Death. On May 20th, 1870, at Wantage, aged 77, John Jeffries.

He was a good old warrior, being called to fight under Christ’s banner over half a century against “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” with whose delusive joys, corruptions, and devices he was not unacquainted. He was of very poor and illegitimate birth. His mother, dying while he was young, left him in charge of his grandmother who cared but little about poor John. He grew up, not knowing how to read or write, for he was obliged to earn his living when only 7 years old. His fare was indeed hard, being chiefly bread, and his luxuries consisted in being occasionally allowed to soak his bread in the liquor his master’s food was boiled in. Notwithstanding, he grew up a bold and self-willed youth, going to various parts of the country for a livelihood, till about 20 years of age, when he procured employment at a tanner’s yard, Wallingford. Here the Lord began a work of grace in his soul; and being then ringleader of all that was base and bad, the Lord set this in the light of his countenance, which brought great distress; and John, not knowing what was the matter with him, endeavoured to drown his troubles in the ale-house, and other amusements; but it was like “vinegar upon nitre,” for his miseries increased upon him; so that he was sometimes driven from his companions under the hedge to groan out his sorrows. Added to this, his new pursuits and manners, savouring of religion, stirred up the natural enmity of his wife, for he was then married, who often threatened his life; so that frequently he feared to close his eyes in sleep lest she should carry out her threat, and his soul be launched in hell.

During this time the truths of the Bible were discovered to him, though unable to read a word; and this produced a strong desire in him to be able to read; so, getting some person to teach him the alphabet, he soon managed to read the word for himself.

About this time, also, the Lord spoke pardon and peace to his heart; and, becoming acquainted with some of the Lord’s people, he was brought to hear those good men, Gadsby, Robins, Warburton, and others, under whose ministry his soul was built up. He often travelled many miles to hear them preach, and, being confirmed in God’s ways he was baptized at Woodcot, Oxfordshire, and joined the church at Wallingford, where he was led into the mystery of iniquity and of Christ; so that he was “not carried about with every wind of doctrine.”

Like all the true-born sons and daughters of Zion, he found the way to the kingdom lay through much tribulation. His wife dying, he was left with five children. He afterwards married a widow with four children; and in about a year afterwards it pleased the Lord to afflict him so that he could not labour for their support, and he was, therefore, passed over by the parish authorities to Wantage. Here he spent his last twenty-four years as a pauper.

I became acquainted with him in 1853, living under his roof till after the death of his wife in 1857; therefore I relate this from hearing him many times describe the ups and downs of his earlier life; and I can testify of the Lord’s grace in and towards him in his latter stages. Though afflicted with a pained body and a scanty share of this world’s goods, to be endured in lonely solitude, spending many hours in bed, shut in by himself, I never heard him complain; but he would say, on being asked how he got on, “O! As happy as a Prince!” many times extolling the God of all his mercies for supplying all his needs by raising up friends. Thus, like “the fowls which sow not nor gather into barns,” his heavenly Father fed him, and led him to observe these things and so understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.

He was often on his watch tower, anxiously waiting the dawn of immortality, many times repeating those lines of Newton: “I feel this mud-wall cottage shake,” &c. And he expressed the state of his mind in the following lines:

“A sinner saved I now do stand, 

Through faith in Jesu’s blood,

I soon shall reach sweet Canaan’s land, 

And there be with my God.”

On seeing him two days before his death, he said, “I am only waiting the Lord’s time; firm on the Rock; I know in whom I have believed,” &c. He lived, and died in love with the glorious doctrines of distinguishing grace, as revealed and sealed on his heart by the eternal spirit of truth.

Alfred Belcher

East Challow