A Personal Appreciation Of William Styles
Earthen Vessel 1914:
“Missed!”
A Personal Appreciation By Pastor H. Bull, Ramsey, Hunts.
“Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.”—1 Samuel 20:18
Another pen more able than ours has written one Appreciation of our late beloved friend and brother, Mr. W. Jeyes Styles, on behalf of the denomination to which he was attached and adorned. I cannot, however, refrain from adding a few lines of personal testimony respecting the kindness I received at the hands of one who many times befriended me, especially as a young minister in the early years of my service for the Master.
My first introduction to Mr. Styles was at the laying of the memorial stones of the Tabernacle, West Ham Lane, on Tuesday, March 7th, 1903. Taking me kindly by the hand, he gave me a cordial welcome to his home. No one in the denomination probably owes more to our beloved brother than I do, especially for kindly counsel when in difficulty. I had been at Borough Green but a year when a little incident occurred that nearly resulted in my resignation. Mr. S. wrote me to come and see him at once. We talked matters over, but I was still undecided. The next day a hurried note reached me, in which the following terse sentence occurs: “The fact is, I don’t like the idea of your leaving Boro’ Green, and the feeling grows on me.” Suffice it to say that this was, under God, the deciding factor, and I remained to enjoy seven years of happy and fruitful service. I cannot help feeling that were such kindly counsel sought and accepted more frequently it would often result in clearing the air and smoothing the difficulties between pastors and people.
Having been privileged to enjoy Mr. Styles’ close friendship for eleven years, I knew him to be most generous in his gifts of useful books to ministers whose small stipends were insufficient to allow them to purchase them. I have to thank him for some of the most useful works I possess.
It was at home, however, one learned to know and love him best. There, in spite of physical infirmities, one always found him solicitous for the comfort and enjoyment of others, and ever ready to impart instruction to an enquirer from his own extensive stores of knowledge, and, above all, deeply concerned about the future of young ministers of the denomination he loved so well. Needless to add, if we, who were favoured with his friendship, feel we have lost a dear personal friend, “whose place is empty,” the “miss” at “Elmscroft,” and in the heart of the one who for so many years seconded his every effort, must be vastly greater. May God bless her, is our earnest prayer.
William Styles (1842-1914) was a Strict and Particular Baptist preacher. He served as pastor for the churches meeting at High Wycomb (2 years); Lower Holloway (3 years); Providence, Islington; Keppel Street (10 years); West Ham (4 years); West Hill, Wandsworth (6 years). After his conversion to Christ while sitting under the ministry of the Congregationalists, he was baptized by C. H. Spurgeon and became a member of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. During this time, he enrolled in the Pastors’ School. He eventually embraced high views of sovereign grace and strict communion principles, thereby leading him to join the Strict and Particular Baptist denomination. He was an outspoken opponent of the pernicious teachings of duty-faith and the free-offer, believing that no church, minister or member had a right to identify as “Strict and Particular Baptists” if holding to those errors. He took a leading role in the Metropolitan Association of Strict Baptist Churches and was a supporter of the Strict Baptist Mission. Both of these organizations now embrace the errors of duty-faith and the free-offer, standing opposed to the faith and order of the Strict and Particular Baptists.
William Styles, A Guide To Church Fellowship (Complete)
William Styles, A Memoir of John Hazelton (Complete)
