The Life And Testimony Of Lena Vaughan

Gospel Standard 1975:

Lena Vaughan, a member at Zoar Chapel, Bradford, died on 15th November, 1974, and was buried at Harpenden on the 20th November in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection.

She was married to the late Mr. W. B. Griffiths Vaughan at Gower Street Chapel on 30th May, 1921, by Mr. John Booth. She came to Bradford after responding to that great question “Wilt thou go with this man?” and she said, “I will go.” It is true that she had responded to that same question in 1911 in respect to her union with the church’s living Head. The severed connection from the south meant a great sacrifice. It was there where she was brought into deep soul exercise, and also into gospel liberty. 

The following is an extract from a letter written about 1909 or 1910 (when she was 18 or 19 years old):

“I hope I can say I have known your feelings in respect of the intense suffering and sorrow of the Lord Jesus…I well remember the time when I was so blessed. I thought I never should cease to wonder, and adore Him. He seemed more, so much more, than I could grasp. He is all wonderful. I wish I knew Him now as you do. Isn’t He worth knowing? Can any other object or creature be compared to Him?

“I also love that hymn that you mention (23). The last verse was once a great blessing to me: ‘His blood can cleanse the blackest soul’. How low He comes down, doesn’t He? The blackest, the vilest, the needy, the poor, the lost! We are not afraid to number ourselves among such, and to these He comes with His great salvation. What a Saviour!”

She applied for church membership at Zoar chapel in November 1921 and her union with the church continued until her death. The following is the recorded minute of that occasion:

“Mrs. Vaughan spoke of the dealings of the Lord with her soul at an early age. She was exercised and the work deepened when she went into business at Abingdon. She was in great distress of soul on account of her sinful state, when a sermon was blessed to her soul from the text: ‘For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’ She afterwards returned to London and attended Gower Street and earnestly prayed that God would reveal Himself. These prayers were answered in December 1910 after hearing a sermon preached by Mr. White. It was when going into the gallery that the words, ‘Fear ye not: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified,’ came powerfully to her mind. Hymn 950 was given out and the fourth verse just applied to her:

‘Yes, now I know, ’tis He, ’tis He!

‘Tis Jesus, God’s dear Son,

Wrapt in humanity, to die

For crimes that I had done!’

“After which, feeling a sweet personal interest in the sufferings and death of Christ, and loving Him as she had never loved before, she was baptized by Mr. Dickens, April 1911. She spoke of many favours which God had bestowed upon her up to the present time, including her removal to Bradford. The ministry of Mr. Booth had been helpful to her. Being now settled at Bradford as the wife of Mr. Griffiths Vaughan, she wished to become a member with us. She was unanimously accepted.”

Mrs. Vaughan’s husband was a minister of the gospel as well as a school master, so they were in word and deed “heirs together of the grace of life.” In their early married life, and before her two sons were born, while her husband was away keeping ministerial engagements, she with a few more young ladies gathered together on Saturday evenings to read the writings of godly men. The church minute book also records that a lady, who had been exercised a long time about baptism and joining the church, bore testimony that “she was brought to a decision by a sweet letter received from Mrs. Vaughan.” Later while teaching in the Sunday School, there were many evidences of that scripture: an “elect lady and her children.” One Lord’s day in particular when she was teaching, the subject being that of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus, she said afterwards, “There was a sweet odour which filled the house.” There are those still with us, and others still living but removed from us, who can testify that she was “a helper of their joy” in their early exercises and seeking the Lord’s face and favour. Also she had the joy of seeing some of them “walking in truth.” Her love and counsel in the days of their espousals and obedience is still prized. From 1921 to 1928 it could be said respecting their married life, they were happy and fruitful years in the home and the house of God.

Their firstborn David, born in May 1923, was a cause of much concern and wrestling at the throne of grace, which some of us can well remember who were at the prayer meeting the Thursday before he was born. John was given some two years later in 1925. Mrs. Vaughan always affectionately referred to them as “my boys.” But whether as a “mother of children” or a “mother in Israel,” or “all the city of my people,” it can be testified that “thou art a virtuous woman.” Her children have great cause to “rise up, and call her blessed.”

The death of Mr. Booth seven years after their marriage was a great sorrow to them, and brought increased duties and increased burdens during those eighteen years when the church was without pastor. During these years Mrs. Vaughan did not spare herself. The apostle speaks of “those women which laboured with me in the gospel.” She sought to be a “bearer of one another’s burdens,” as a true help meet.

It was from 1945 that both she and her husband were called upon to bear more personal afflictions of the body. It seemed to begin when her husband found it necessary on medical grounds to relinquish his position as assistant head master of the High School where he laboured the whole of their married life. He began his pastorate the following year 1946. Mrs. Vaughan had a serious illness during 1948 but an operation in July of that year brought relief and her health was partially restored. These were the beginnings of their sorrows belonging to his short pastorate. It was not only bodily sickness, but both were feeling much cast down because of the trial of their faith and the hardness of the way. How Mrs. Vaughan could and did weep with those that weep, and sat where they sat! She was not only a “bearer” but a sharer in their sorrows. Nevertheless, this word was fulfilled in their experience: “He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands asunder. O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men!”

This is recorded in the minute book, January 1950:

“It being Mr. Vaughan’s thirtieth anniversary of his ministry in the gospel, he gave a review of events covering those thirty years…He also spoke of his feelings attendant on various aspects of present conditions, his own health and that of his wife, and notified the church that in the near future they contemplated moving south should the way be open.”

Nothing was done hastily, though it was done quickly; the Lord gave this word to Mr. Vaughan with some power, “It is expedient for you that I go away,” and Mr. Vaughan loved to do things because it was expedient. The door which opened for them to go to Boumemouth was opened by Mrs. Vaughan’s near and dear relative; and what was thought at first to be temporary residence continued from 1950 until in the same house Mr. Vaughan passed from “this vale of tears” to that “inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” They had known five years of sowing in tears at Zoar, but now were to be given “seven years of plenty” of “green pastures and still waters.” Mr. Vaughan died on January 26th, 1958. This was the beginning of the last chapter in the life of our beloved friend, a period of some sixteen years.

Paul’s description of “a widow indeed” was stamped upon the following sixteen years: “Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.” The following extracts from her letters bear all those precious fruits.

1960: “All thy wastes He can repair and rebuild anew, that which seems desolate and forsaken. His reviving hand is required in our hearts and in the church, renewing and confirming former blessings we have enjoyed. How quickly our desponding spirits could be revived!…I cannot speak of any great blessings that I have had, but like you, I dare not say I have not obtained help of God, both in little things and the bigger things of life’s pathway. He has been my help, and although I am lonely and desolate, yet, ‘In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul’…You will know that S.M. was taken suddenly while speaking at a business meeting in London. Death comes very swiftly and its approach seems very near. May we be found with ‘oil in our vessels with our lamps’ and waiting.”

1962 (after being in hospital): “Now I am at home again after an absence of nine weeks, and I can look back and praise my God for all through which I have passed. How quickly we can be brought low! and how mysterious and bewildering it was at times to find myself helpless, among strangers, and in a short space of time, hurried into hospital-surrounded with the ungodly and foolish, and at the point of death! A very solemn experience! But I was not left bereft of help and comfort. Hymn 70 was a great support to me, and I felt quiet and resigned to His all-wise purpose, and could cast my all into His hands, either for death or for life. It has been a testing time and a sore trial. I have proved Him a stronghold in the day of my trouble. He has been faithful and good to one so unworthy and impoverished in spirit.”

Mrs. Vaughan was increasingly concerned about living alone, yet feeling: “His way must be made plain before us.” “When the cloud moved, they moved, where it tarried they tarried, and so we must watch His guidance, and we shall be in our right place.”

1967: “I hope you can say as often as I have cause to say of my little habitation, ‘A sure provision of my God,’ and after nine years, I still marvel at the way I was directed to this place in my hour of need, and where I hope I have known and felt His presence and help. I often pray, ‘Abide with me, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.’ The end appears very near at times, but it matters little if ‘I may finish my course with joy.’ ”

What evidences in the foregoing extracts that she was a partaker of those evidences of being a widow indeed—in felt desertions and desolations—alone and yet not alone; her confidence of faith in the Lord’s faithfulness; her continuing in prayer and supplications!

On her seventy-seventh birthday, though feeling she “lacked nothing” that her “good sons” could supply, she greatly missed the means of grace, and her only contact with many of her friends was by ‘phone, “which proved a great help.” The Lord who had provided her with her helpmeet in those years of of “labour of love, which ye showed toward His name,” provided a time when they should “rest awhile” from those labours, and provided during the years of widowhood a place at Bournemouth where the “cloud tarried long” but which now began to move, and when and where the cloud moved she moved. Surely it moved to the right place for her when it led to the Harpenden Bethesda Home.

In January 1971, she wrote: “If I am spared to February, I shall have reached my four score years-so can only expect ‘labour and sorrow.’ I have much to be thankful for in that in this place I am wonderfully provided for, with every possible comfort and kindness. I am sure Griffiths would have wished me to spend my last years among ‘my own people.’

“We are very favoured in Luton. Those of us who attend Bethel (including myself) have Mr. Ramsbottom’s ministry, and those who attend Ebenezer have Mr. Hill—in each case a savoury and searching ministry, well attended by good congregations. I look forward to the services very eagerly, and if I am not able to get to the chapel, I have them relayed to my room. These are blessings that often melt my heart as I feel so undeserving of them, the gospel being more precious to me now than at any time of my life. My prayer often is, ‘Draw me, and we will run after Thee’—for ‘we would see Jesus.’ “The comfort and kindness of her last home continued to be ministered by the staff and friends unto the last. During her last year on earth she had a great desire to “put her house in order,” and her last letter was written after the writer had promised, God willing, to lay her mortal remains where she herself had arranged they should be at Harpenden. She shrank from being a burden to others and to her own sons. So the time when the word spoken by the Lord to her husband, “It is expedient for you that I go away,” has been applied in our loss of a faithful member for over fifty years. Our loss is her eternal gain. A Harpenden friend wrote: “One thing stood out and above everything else, and that was her prayerful anxiety to have a religion that would take her to heaven.” She enjoyed a little foretaste of heaven in her room at Harpenden.

The church and friends at Zoar extend to her two sons, their wives and children, our felt sympathy in their great sorrow, and desire that the expediency of their dear mother’s departure may be owned and blessed of God to them. Again we feel well assured of this—she longed to be where Jesus is, and we firmly believe that “her sufferings now have reached a close, and heaven affords her sweet repose.”

B. W.