The Life And Ministry Of Charles Rolfe

Gospel Standard 1880:

Memorials of Charles Rolfe, B.A., Rector of Shadoxhurst and Orlestone, Kent; with Incidental Reflections. By Edward Wilkinson, M.A., Ph.D., Rector of Snargate, Rent.—London: Nisbet and Co., Berners Street, W. 1879.

What a beautiful thing is real friendship! and especially when it is backed up with such manifestations, and practical proofs, as demonstrate its sincerity. Jonathan showed the sincerity of his love to David by interceding with his father Saul in David’s behalf; and Boaz gave the most practical proof of his friendship to Ruth by letting her glean in his harvest field, and by telling his reapers to show her favour by letting her glean among the sheaves. But O how little of such sincere genuine friendship is there among poor mortals now! What a deal of hollow false friendship there is among them! The mere professions of friendship, the vain talk about it, friendly words, and friendly looks, and friendly good wishes expressed, are abundant enough; but very little friendship that flows out of the very bosom, as warm as a man’s heart, and which has the right sort of marks, and tokens, and practical proofs to back up its genuineness. The more we are taught of God the deceitfulness of the human heart, and the more we learn of human life, of men, and their ways and actions in the world, the more, no doubt, shall we find, like Micah, that real friends are very few, and that it is unsafe to put over much trust in any creature whose breath is in his nostrils. “Trust ye not,” saith Micah, “in a friend; put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her that Iieth in thy bosom.” How poor Job had to prove the need of such caution when passing through his bitter trials! The men that had flattered him with their smooth tongues and bland words in the day of his prosperity had not a kind word to say to him when the hand of God was heavily upon him, and which made Job say, “To him that is afflicted pity should be showed him by his friends.”

But, then, in this pathway of comparative desertion and solitude, which will be sure to befall some of the children of God in the course of their pilgrimage, they are the better able to feel a true and tender sympathy with the perfect and sinless Jesus, that Man of sorrows, who deserved universal pity, and whose sufferings claimed commiseration from all, and yet who received so little of either that he was made to say, “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness”; and, further, they are the better able to value the few true friends they find among men, and the more to cherish their friendship.

Among the many interesting features in the work mentioned at the head of this paper is the true and warm-hearted friendship which existed for many years between the late Mr. Charles Rolfe and Mr. Edward Wilkinson, the compiler of his “Memorials.” With both these good men, “open rebuke was better than secret love;” and “the wounds of a friend” better than “the kisses of an enemy,” which are “deceitful.” Knowing, moreover, that friendship, like delicate plants, often withers for the want of culture, and as often flags for the want of moisture, they learned in a very blessed way how to cultivate friendship between themselves, and to keep their friendship thriving and healthful through the moisture of reciprocal kindness.

Mr. Rolfe, the subject of the “Memorials,” being rector of Shadoxhurst and Orlestone, Kent, and Mr. Wilkinson being rector of Snargate, Kent, they were fellow-labourers in the gospel of Christ; not merely two clergymen of the national Establishment, which in too many instances amounts to nothing of vital importance; but they were godly men, servants of Christ, and both taught the discriminating truths of free and sovereign grace, and hence were fellow-labourers in the gospel in the best sense of the word.

It has seemed a little remarkable, since the “Memorials” came into our hands, that we should never once have heard of Mr. Rolfe before. We are, however, told by the author of the work that “he was but little known on earth, and was completely overlooked by the professing world.” He was evidently a man of peculiarly retiring habits of life, and preferred his “quiet meditations on the lonely roads about Shadoxhurst, and to be alone with Jesus,” to thrusting himself into public notice. Not but what other servants of Christ, whose habits are as retiring as were Mr. Rolfe’s, and who as much prefer, when they can get it; the quiet meditation on lonely roads, yet creep into more public notice, despite their efforts to avoid it.

We will now touch a little upon some things in the volume, and give our opinion of it as a whole. Being ourselves thoroughly Nonconformist in principle, it would be naturally expected, interesting a book as we have found it to be, yet that we should not agree with everything we meet with in it. As, however, it is the proper work of a reviewer, and particularly if he be a man of God, to express an impartial opinion of any work he takes in hand to notice, and to faithfully state wherein he agrees or disagrees with its contents, we shall be obliged, in dealing with the “Memorials,” to exercise this liberty; and, indeed, we feel that we had better, without such liberty at command, never presume to notice any work at all in the pages of this magazine.

In turning, then, at once to our volume, our remarks will be confined to a narrow limit. They must of necessity be so, if we keep to that part of the work which really constitutes the “Memorials” of the late Mr. Rolfe, inasmuch as they form a very small part of the work, in comparison with that part which is taken up with “Incidental Reflections” by the author. Whether this might not prove a little disappointing to some, who, upon seeing an advertisement of the book, might expect, according to its title, to get a good long memoir of a departed saint and servant of Christ, we will not decide. What, however, is recorded in the way of reminiscences of Mr. Rolfe, his religion, faith, doctrines, and experience, all bears the right stamp. He was no doubt a very godly man, and in his life and practice feared God above many. When at the University, at Oxford, where he took his degree of B.A., he contested an open fellowship with that eminent Christian, Mr. Philpot, who afterwards resigned it, when, from conscientious motives, he seceded from the Church of England, and joined the Particular or Strict Baptist Communion, of which he became an eminent minister of “the gospel of the grace of God.” We are told that, “by the time Mr. Rolfe had taken his degree, not only was his personal holiness manifested, but his doctrinal views were established.” “Taught by the Spirit to understand” early in life what are called “The Five Points,” vis., 1, The Fall of Adam, and consequent spiritual death; 2, Election and Predestination; 3, Particular and Eternal Redemption; 4, Regeneration and Effectual Calling; and 5, the Final Perseverance of the Saints, he never in any subsequent period of his Christian life wavered in his belief of those great doctrines; they were, says our author, “his comfort through life, and gave him perfect peace in death.”

Mr. Wilkinson, in speaking of the very early period when his friend became a partaker of the grace of God, writes almost as if he thought he came into the world a Christian. “He seems,” says Mr. W., “like John the Baptist, and Jeremiah, to have been sanctified from the womb.” And again, a page or two further on, “from his very birth he was an object of God’s special and distinguishing grace.” If by such remark the author simply means that the Lord began to operate on his heart when quite a child, we can understand his meaning; but if he means that Mr. Rolfe was a subject of divine grace at the very time of his natural birth, we think this is more than what any body could tell. Leaving, however, the time when the mysterious work of regeneration was wrought by the power of God in his soul, it may be enough for us, as probably it was for Mr. Rolfe himself, to know that he was brought very early in life to experience the saving operations of God on his heart, and to be convinced that he was conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity, and that, as a sinner by nature and practice, he could only be saved by the sovereign and almighty grace of God.

Being appointed to the rectory of Shadoxhurst, it was in that pariah that he began, continued, and ended his labours as a minister of the gospel of the grace of God. For thirty-nine years he laboured in that “rustic village,” being “but little known on earth, and completely overlooked by the professing world.” His motto seems to have been all through his spiritual life, 

“Be familiar with few;

Be cautious with some;

Be courteous to all;

Speak evil of none.”

Would that this was the motto of many more, and that it was as practically carried out as it was by Mr. Rolfe! As he sought not the friendship of the world, knowing it to be enmity with God, so neither did he seek the society of mere professors of religion; and there being few with whom he could feel a union and a fellowship in the gospel, he kept himself aloof from most. His spirituality, says our author, “was distasteful to them, and his religion was a reproof to those who experienced no reality in their own profession. His visits were never a mere idle pastime, spent in common-place conversation, or in the gossip of the day, but were more like angels’ visits with conversation in heaven. An admirable answer was given by a respectable woman at Ham Street to the question, ‘How would business be attended to if they were all like Mr. Rolfe?’ ‘Well, I don’t know,’ she replied; ‘he always attends well to his own business: at least, he does when he comes to us.’ He seldom, we are told, entered a house without offering to engage in prayer; “it was the very atmosphere in which he lived.” O what houses are entered, and how often are they entered in the present day by those professing godliness, when we fear it hardly ever comes into such persons’ minds to propose to spend a moment in prayer with God. But were the minds of the children of Zion much more frequently led out under the influence of grace to adopt such practice when they meet together, it would surely indicate a more healthful state of soul than what now seems to exist among them.

Mr. Rolfe being a great reader, he explored such mines of theological literature as are to be found in the works of the Reformers, and the Puritans, and particularly such Puritans as Owen and Thomas Goodwin; but being strongly opposed to duty-faith, of which there is too much in their works, he would sift the wheat from the chaff, take the pure grain, or faithful expositions of the Word, and let the chaff and husks of duty-faith go for what they are worth. This, through God’s merey, is what we have always been enabled to do ever since we first became acquainted with the works of those great divines; and having been enabled to adopt this method, it has kept our mind the more unprejudiced in making use of them, and getting what good we have been helped to obtain in reading the same. Neither will any man, we trust, ever make us afraid to either mention the word Puritan, or quote their sayings, lest we should be thought a duty-faith man for so doing.

“Mr. Rolfe 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 to do, without seeking to please men, and then the Holy Ghost will apply the truth of God to the hearts of those whom the Lord shall call.’ It is not in the natural power of any unregenerate man to accept Christ, or come unto him; for he himself expressly says, ‘No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.’ ‘The preparation of the heart is from the Lord,’ and it is only in the day of God’s power that men are made willing to receive Christ. They must be first made to feel their need of a Saviour before they desire him, for the carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither can be. At the same time, the faintest desire after God is a sign of spiritual life, and the invitations of the gospel are to all the weary and heavy laden.”

This has always been our view of the matter; neither do we feel, after 80 years’ labour in the gospel, the least turning of mind in an opposite direction. Having all along repudiated the duty-faith system, we deprecate it now as much as ever, and yet we love some of the good old Puritan writers for all that.

Again. Mr. Rolfe was as thoroughly practical in his religion as he was sound in doctrine. “Utter unworldliness,” we are told, was “one of his chief characteristics.”

“No one could ever visit Shadoxhurst rectory without being impressed with the reality of true godliness; and those who were able to enjoy a heavenly spiritual-mindedness felt it good to be there.

“The day was begun, continued, and ended with a perceptible evidence of godliness in the tone of mind—I should say spirit—and conversation.

“Every morning he repeated the 51st psalm while dressing, and he was constantly applying Scripture to any remark made at mealtimes.

“He allowed nothing to set aside family worship, and constantly exhorted the members of his family to be present at it.

“One of them once said to him, ‘Father, we shall never have cause to blame you. We are sure you will go to heaven, and you have shown us the way.’

“Would that this could be said to all parents professing godliness.

“The rest of the day was spent in reading, meditation, prayer, pastoral visitation, and walking; his asthma making constant out-door exercise necessary to him.”

But what a trial it must have been to so spiritually-minded a man to have lived all the days of his Christian pilgrimage upon earth, with no more vital godliness around him than what it appears was to be found in the parish where he laboured. If asked about the state of his parish, we are informed what answer he would give. He would say, “I cannot say that I see much vital godliness. There is a profession, but I cannot say there is a possession. Such a one is a kind man, a good man of business; but I cannot say that he is an enlightened, spiritually-minded man. I would hope the best; but I cannot discern any sign of real life.” With the exception of one here, and another there, he considered his people, says our author, “neither better nor worse than the rest of the world.” To have remained for 39 years in such a parish, and under such disheartening circumstances, must, we should think, have been crushing to the good man’s spirit; and profoundly mysterious, too, to our mind, when we consider the character of Mr. Rolfe, was the purpose of God in permitting him to abide there so long. We can only hope, with Mr. Wilkinson, that the truth of God, “which he exemplified in his life and death,” may bring forth its fruit in after days.

Though we as conscientiously dissent from the Established Church as it is possible for a man to do, believing most sincerely that, as a system, it is without an atom of divine authority for its origin and existence in the world, yet we are always glad when we hear of any who minister within its walls, that they “know the grace of God in truth,” and are faithful preachers of discriminating grace. If we hear of any coming out, and seceding from it, on such conscientious grounds as those which brought out the late esteemed editor of this periodical, we are glad for such separation. But when any really good and gracious men of God cannot see their way clear to break away from the national Establishment, and yet, through being divinely taught, can see their way clear to preach, in whatever pulpits of that Establishment they may be called upon to stand up, nothing but the pure gospel, we can, we are sure, rejoice in this. It is not, in fact, so much with the position they choose to assume, that we wish to interfere; it is a matter we prefer leaving between God and their own consciences. But when they venture to publish broadcast over the land such a statement as we meet with on the 112th page of the work we are noticing—VIZ., that the Established Church of England is “the purest Church, because the most Scriptural and apostolic, in the world,” we feel equally at liberty to turn our eyes directly away from the Anglican Church, to look for a pure and Scriptural and apostolic one. If as our late esteemed editor said of the Puritans, when reviewing “Nichol’s Series” of their works, that “they were men who were heartily and conscientiously opposed to the errors of the prayer-book, and to the corruptions of the Establishment,” we wonder what those godly men, so mighty, as Mr. Phtlpot says, in the things of God, would say of the Established Church in the present day, were they alive to witness its horrible corruptions, its impure, unscriptural, and unapostolic practices. Again, when Mr. Wilkinson himself confesses on another page of his book, that “the unimpeded progress of Popery has so weakened the hold of it (that is, the Church) on the affections of the nation, that an M. P., who had always been a supporter of the Church, lately said that there was scarcely one of his colIeagues who would now hold up his finger in its defence,” we can only say that were we among the honourable member’s colleagues, we should certainly not be the one to raise so much as a finger for either its defence, or continuance, another day. When and how it will come to its end, we are very willing to leave with the Lord; but that its downfall will be brought about, if not before, yet towards “the time of the end,” and that all godly eyes will be made to see that, as a system, it was always human, and not divine, always corrupt, and not pure and apostolic, we have no more doubt than we have of the downfall of Popery itself. Were we to look about us in a day like the present to find a thoroughly pure, Scriptural, and apostolic church, perhaps we should have to look far and wide to find such. But were we to seek for a church as near that model and pattern as could be found, then we should take such Nonconformist churches as are made up of professed believers in Christ, and who have been baptized by immersion on a profession of their faith in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and who continue “steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” And that either Mr. Wilkinson or Mr. Rolfe should not have thought such churches more apostolic than the Established Church of England, it is difficult to understand; and the more so, after reading such remarks as the following in reference to good old Mr. Rolfe:

“He rejoiced to hear of all men of truth in the church, and his heart’s affections were instantly drawn towards them. Yet, though he was thus a loyal member of the Church of England, he was stiIl more united to the ‘holy Catholic Church’ than to any national one. This church is composed of all the living members of Christ’s body, redeemed from among men, out of every kindred, nation, and tongue, and sanctified and regenerated by the Holy Ghost. These are the elect people of God, and are confined to no particular churches, whether national or congregational. Bishop Ridley says, ‘When I speak of the Church of England, I mean God’s elect people of England,—that is, when he intended the real living Church of England.”

We will now make a brief reference to Mr. Rolfe’s last days, his death, and triumph of faith in the swellings of Jordan. An extract or two, without further remarks of our own, will be sufficient:

“The faith of Mr. Rolfe never wavered for a single moment, and in the full assurance of hope, he looked forward to his departure with joy. He knew whom he had believed, and he was confident that he would keep that which he had committed to him. His conversation was in heaven, and earthly things were completely lost sight of, and he was longing to depart and be with Christ. He had never borne any hatred or malice, but on the contrary was full of love and charity, and consequently at peace both with God and man.”

His son gave the following particulars to Mr. Wilkinson:—

“He continued in the same joyous and ecstatic state as that in which I left him, and the nurse said he raised himself up and was preaching with a loud voice the whole of the time. ‘It was delightful,’ said she, ‘to be with him. I have never witnessed but one such death before, and that was 20 years ago. Oh, sir, you must write an account of it. It was beautiful! There was no fear at death. The sting was completely removed.’

“During the day he said, ‘Give my love to the people,’ meaning his own charge. He had loved and prayed for their souls in life, and he loved and prayed for them to the end. ‘Blessings on my sons!’ ‘I am thankful to have been made a blessing to Mr. Wilkinson, and he says also to Mr. Hale.’ ‘To God be all the praise!’ ‘God deliver this nation from Popery!'”

Again; at the very last, he said,

“’God bless my dearest wife, and recompense her and everyone for all their kindnesses!’ A thousand pardons for every hasty word! The doctor says I must not talk, but I must talk of Jesus!’ These were the last words of the dying man of God. Christ had been All in all to him in life, and the sum and substance of all his discourse and ministry, and now in death his last words were, ‘I must talk of Jesus.’

“Thus passed into glory Charles Rolfe, 39 years rector of Shadoxhurst and Orlestone, Kent, on the 19th of August, 1877, in the 76th year of his age, leaving behind him a character for godly simplicity, spirituality, heavenly-mindedness, and decision for the truth as it is in Jesus, and in the faith of God’s elect, that may be equalled, but never surpassed.”

As we have before stated, this work contains numerous “Incidental Reflections,” by the author, and which form the largest part of the volume. But these “Reflections,” with the “Memorials” of Mr. Rolfe, his original hymns, of which there are a few, and also a few of his Letters, and some “Notes of Sermons,” make the work, as a whole, an interesting book to read. For some of our poorer friends and readers, it may be too expensive, especially in these bad times, for them to purchase; but as there are always some who can better afford to invest a few shillings in the purchase of any book that is really worth the buying for the spiritually profitable reading which it contains, we can commend the “Memorials” of Mr. Rolfe as being one of that class.