{"id":24806,"date":"2025-04-23T22:38:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T22:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=24806"},"modified":"2025-04-23T22:39:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T22:39:30","slug":"the-life-and-testimony-of-john-stockdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2025\/04\/the-life-and-testimony-of-john-stockdale\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life And Testimony Of John Stockdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earthen Vessel 1912:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In that valuable work on \u201cChurch Fellowship,\u201d by Mr. W. Jeyes Styles, the writer thus defines the office of deacon:\u2014\u201cDeacons are honorary servants of the Church, who, for Christ\u2019s sake, and love to His cause, attend to all temporal matters, and thus leave their pastor more free to pursue his high and holy calling\u201d; and our author further adds on \u201cThe Ideal Deacon\u201d (Note XI, p. 147):\u2014\u201cIt is clear that Deacons must not only be in fellowship with the Church, but men well known for the spirituality of their religion, the consistency of their lives, their adherence to the doctrines of the Gospel, and their manifested fitness for the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the testimony of those who enjoyed the fellowship of service with our late beloved brother, John Stockade, we have no hesitation in saying, as we read the above, such was the faithful and devoted deacon of the Church at \u201cHope,\u201d Bethnal Green, who now mourn the loss of their true friend and wise counsellor.<\/p>\n

The following brief memoir is from the pen of the sorrow-stricken widow, whom we affectionately commend to her all-wise Judge and ever living Husband:\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cOn May 24th, my beloved husband was called to his eternal rest, after three years of weakness and pain resignedly and patiently borne. For nearly forty years he had faithfully served the Church at \u201cHope,\u201d Bethnal Green, and this Cause was very dear to him. To the last he entertained the hope that the Lord would spare him to continue his office. Never shall we forget the last Lord\u2019s-day we had with our loved one. In the morning he spoke of the Lord\u2019s presence, and the blessed assurance that his sins were washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the afternoon our dear esteemed friend and brother in the Lord, G. W. Clark, and he spent a very happy time together, and we can indeed say our hearts burned within us as we heard them speak of the love of Christ. Throughout the whole day he was in spirit with the people and place he loved so dearly, and prayed for the blessing of the Lord to rest upon the services.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis mortal remains were interred on Thursday, May 30th, at West Ham Cemetery in the presence of a large number of friends, many of whom had come a great distance. Our heart were comforted in the midst of our sorrow by the loving testimony to the faithful and honorable character of our beloved, which was voiced by brethren G. W. Clark, C. A. Guy, and E. Marsh, each of whom took part in the burial service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe miss him much, yet are assured our loss is his eternal gain. His end was so peaceful and happy that as we watched him passing away we felt that for him \u2018dying was but going home.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Far from a world of grief and sin,
\nWith Christ eternally shut in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To the foregoing we may add that our esteemed brother G. W. Clark preached on the following Lord\u2019s-day evening at \u201cHope\u201d from the words, \u201cBe thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.\u201d It was a deeply impressive service that will long be remembered. The hymns sung were from Denham\u2019s Selection, and chosen by our widowed sister, 1,013, 1,012, 150, and \u201cNearer, My God, To Thee.\u201d The Lord appear for His stricken flock and raise up other such \u201cgood men and true,\u201d prays\u2014<\/p>\n

E. Marsh<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In that valuable work on \u201cChurch Fellowship,\u201d by Mr. W. Jeyes Styles, the writer thus defines the office of deacon:\u2014\u201cDeacons are honorary servants of the Church, who, for Christ\u2019s sake, and love to His cause, attend to all temporal matters, and thus leave their pastor more free to pursue his high and holy calling\u201d; and our author further adds on \u201cThe Ideal Deacon\u201d (Note XI, p. 147):\u2014\u201cIt is clear that Deacons must not only be in fellowship with the Church, but men well known for the spirituality of their religion, the consistency of their lives, their adherence to the doctrines of the Gospel, and their manifested fitness for the work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":24805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1830],"tags":[1232],"class_list":["post-24806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-stockdale","tag-baptist-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24809,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24806\/revisions\/24809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}