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April 9: Dr. John C. Taylor

9 April, 2013 in April 2013 by archivist | 3 comments

MEDICAL MISSIONARY JOHN C. TAYLOR, SR.

taylor_JohnCOn December 13, 1973 the Lord called Home one of His faithful servants, Dr. John C. Taylor, Sr., who for more than fifty years had given of himself, his time and his talents to his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to the people of India. He was a man greatly beloved of the Lord and by the people of India whom he served so faithfully and so lovingly. Many are the people who will remember Dr. Taylor for his great love and sacrificial service to them as he sought to bring to them physical healing for their bodies through means of his medical knowledge, and spiritual healing for their souls through his know¬ledge of the Word of God and his personal testimony to the power of Christ to save lost sinners. John Taylor was not only a medical doctor but also an ordained minister of the Gospel and a real evangelist.

Born in Richmond, Kansas on April 9, 1886, of godly parents, John Taylor early came to know Christ as his personal Saviour. On August 14, 1913 he married Elizabeth Siehl, and together they went to India in November, 1914 and were stationed at Roorkee, U.P. where they labored for half a century, returning to the U.S.A. for retirement in October, 1967. They served under the Reformed Presbyterian Mission which, in 1965, became World Presbyterian Missions, the foreign board of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. Mrs. Taylor passed to her Heavenly Home in March, 1970. Some years later, God provided another helpmeet for Dr. Taylor in the person of Mrs. Elizabeth H. Daniels, and the remaining years of Dr. Taylor’s life were enriched through her fellowship.

taylor_family_1931Dr. Taylor was survived by his widow, Elizabeth D. Taylor, three sons—John, Jr., Carl and Gordon, and two daughters, Margaret Courtwright and Gladys McGarey.

A friend of both the high and lowly, Dr. Taylor became almost a legend in India. He was a man of faith and action, a good example of the kind of Christian of whom James writes, “I will show thee my faith by my works.” Nothing was too hard or sacrificial for him if, by doing it, he could help ease the physical or spiritual suffering of his fellowman. He especially ministered to the poor and downtrodden people in the villages of Northern U.P., India. His work varied from village evangelism, medical clinic work, relief work during the awful days of partition between India and Pakistan, to the founding in 1945 of the Children’s Home and Baby fold for the children of leprous parents in Bhogpur, which is now under the direction of his son, Gordon, and which now houses some 200 children. Dr. Taylor had the joy of seeing a number of these children come to know Christ as their personal Saviour and then go out to serve Him full time. Several of the children studied in the Theological Seminary at Roorkee and are now preaching the Gospel in India, and several more are now students at that Seminary. Others have gone into other fields of service where they are also witnessing for the Lord whom they came to know while at the Children’s Home.

During his semi-retirement, Dr. Taylor wrote of his experiences in India, which have been published in book form, India—Dr. John Taylor Remembers. This book reflects his touch with people, an essential ingredient in the life of any servant of Christ.

taylorDr_wPaulTaylor_1948Dr. Taylor was a valued member of the Saharanpour Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, and served his last years on the field under World Presbyterian Missions. To those who had the privilege of serving with him in India, he was a tower of strength and wisdom in so many matters concerning the work; but he was more than this—he was a kind and loving friend and counselor and a true “brother in Christ.” To many of the Indian Christians he was like a father. To the struggling National churches he was a guide and stay and inspiration. We rejoice that God gave him the great joy of seeing the beautiful church building at Bhogpur finished and used for the worship of Christ, before he retired from active missionary work in India. This building was erected largely through the efforts of Dr. and Mrs. Taylor and will be a continuing memorial of their sacrificial service for Christ and the people of India.

No doubt Dr. Taylor has entered with great joy into the presence of Jesus Christ, his Lord and Saviour, and has heard him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

The General Synod and World Presbyterian Missions are happy to pay tribute to such a saint of the Lord. We thank God upon every remembrance of him. “He being dead, yet speaketh.”

[excerpted from The Minutes of the 152nd General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, 1974, pp. 157-158.]

Words to Live By:
Please take the above testimony as a good reminder to pray for our many missionaries, wherever they may be serving.

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April 4: Augustus Brodhead

4 April, 2013 in April 2013 by archivist | 1 comment

“I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people”

Augustus Brodhead was born into the family of the Hon. John H. and Eliza (Ross) Brodhead, on May 13, 1831, in Milford, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Union College in New York in 1855, and was then admitted to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he took the full course. Upon graduation from Princeton, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Hudson, whereupon he was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions (PCUSA) to serve as a missionary to India. Brodhead was then ordained as an evangelist by the same Presbytery on May 4, 1858.

It was at that very time that the Sepoy Mutiny had so disrupted all Christian work in the Northwest Provinces of India. Four PCUSA missionaries, along with their families, had been massacred. Indian Christians in that region had been scattered, and chaos still reigned. “But,” as the historian remembers, “all the atrocities of the mutiny and all the uncertainties of the future could not daunt the courage or shake the resolution of those young Christians who consecrated themselves to the service of the India Mission and pressed forward to take the place of their martyred brethren.”

In the midst of summer that year, Mr. Brodhead was married to Miss Emily Cumming, of Princeton, New Jersey, on July 15, 1858, and they sailed for India on November 7th. After a protracted voyage which took them around the Cape of Good Hope, they arrived at last in Calcutta on April 4th, 1859.

Their first settlement in India was in Mainpuri, a moderate sized town of about 25,000 inhabitants, in Uttar Pradesh, located between the Ganges and Jumna Rivers. Working here, and also in the military garrison of Fatehgarh, about thirteen years were spent preaching, teaching and ministering to the native churches and assisting them with evangelistic efforts.

In 1872, the Mission Board transferred Rev. Brodhead to Allahabad, the seat of government for the Northwest Province. Here he took on a key role in the Theological Training School of the Synod of India, writing and publishing on the subjects of biblical and church history, along with some devotional literature. Only about three or four of his works appear to have survived to the present day. Rev. Brodhead also edited a magazine published by the Mission for use by the native Christians, and assisted in the preparation of hymnals, composing a large number of hymns and translating many others. Much of his time was taken up with managing the North India Bible and Tract Society and the Christian Vernacular Education Society. It was said of his that “his knowledge of affairs, his calm and impartial judgment, his warm and kindly heart, his extensive missionary experience, combined to give him great influence, not only in his own, but also in the missions of other denominations.

Finally, after a series of severe illnesses weakened his health, he was advised to quit the mission field. Reluctantly, he agreed and returned to the United States in 1878. For a brief time he was employed as Stated Supply in several churches, but then answered a call to serve as the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Bridgeton, New Jersey.

The Rev. Brodhead pastored this church from 1881 until his death on August 29, 1887, though it is recorded that he died in Toronto, Canada. His wife Emily survived him by nearly eighteen years, dying in 1905, and her remains were buried in the Princeton, New Jersey cemetery.

Words to Live By:
Has God called you to serve in missions? If not by your moving to other lands, then certainly by your daily, prayerful support of those who are on the field, often risking everything, to bring the Gospel hope of a risen Savior.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  (Matthew 28:19-20, KJV).

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July 2 : John Newton, Missionary

2 July, 2012 in July 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:   

Pioneer Translator Among Presbyterians

We all know and love the John Newton of “Amazing Grace” fame, but this John Newton, while named after that beloved minister, was a Presbyterian missionary who sailed to India with his wife in the middle nineteenth century.  He was to have a fifty-six year ministry to the inhabitants of that country.

Leaving in 1835, he took along a printing press and countless pieces of literature.  Not only did  he learn the language in Panjabi, he prepared a dictionary and grammar for the people.  He translated the entire New Testament and a whole series of tracts for his congregations.

He was characterized as being a powerful preacher both in English as well as in the native language.  Yet it was said that he won respect and confidence from his patience and tact in dealing with the masses.  There wasn’t any narrow-mindedness in him.  He invited the Church of England missions into his field of labor.  By that, there was a span of forty years of fraternal relationships which only doubled the spiritual workers in India.

He went to be with the Lord on July 2, 1891, reaping the fruits of his labors on those foreign shores.

Words to Live By:  When both character and conduct agree as one in a Christian’s life, you can be sure that the witness for Christ will be amplified to both the glory of God as well as the everlasting good of the unsaved people around us.  Work, dear reader, in both of these areas in your lives.

Through the Scriptures: Hosea 1 – 4

Through the Standards: The second commandment: Reasons annexed

WLC 110 — “What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it?
A.  The reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it, contained in these words, For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments; are, besides God’s sovereignty over us, and propriety in us, his fervent zeal for his own worship, and his revengeful indignation against all false worship, as being a spiritual whoredom; accounting the breakers of this commandment such as hate him, and threatening to punish them unto divers generations; and esteeming the observers of it such as love him and keep his commandments, and promising mercy to them unto many generations.”

WSC 52 —  “What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
A. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he has to his own worship.”

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