The Life And Ministry Of Daniel Allen

Earthen Vessel 1892:

Our departed brother Daniel Allen, of blessed memory, many years the beloved pastor of the Particular Baptist Church, A, Sydney, and whose death we recorded in our last issue, was born of humble parents in the parish of Wilbey, Suffolk, in the year 1824. About the year 1843 he left his native place for the colonies of Australia, and after arriving at Tasmania he removed in the course of a few years to Victoria, and rendered good service as a missionary in the goldfields. Subsequently, he was appointed to the charge of one of the Baptist Churches, and with the exception of a year spent in Launceston, continued as pastor of the Melbourne Church till 1870, when he settled at Sydney, and became the pastor of the Church at Castlereagh-street. For many years he contributed to the Earthen Vessel & Gospel Herald, while up to the time of his death he edited the Australian Particular Baptist Magazine. He was prominent in social and temperance movements, and as Grand Chaplain of the Orange Institution was well known for his energy in the cause of Protestantism. He valiantly strove for the faith he held so dear. The Baptist Union of New South Wales forwarded a resolution of condolence to the widow and family. He was the author of several books; among them being, “History of the Convents,” “The Apocalypse,” “An Antidote to Infidelity,” “Worship of the Spirit,” &c. His death was a very blessed one; a full account of which appears in the Australian Particular Baptist Magazine for October, 1891. The last words that were heard to fall from his lips were “Serve Him.”

“God hath His mysteries of grace, ways that we cannot tell;

He hides them deep, like the hidden steep of him He loved so well.”

A few months before the death of our dear brother we received the annexed letter from him in answer to one we wrote him at the beginning of the year:—

To the Editor of the “Earthen Vessel and Gospel Herald.’’

“My Dear Brother Winters,—Grace, love, and mercy be unto you from the Lord Jesus. Your excellent letter has rather touched my Suffolk sensibilities, and somewhat moved the holy principles of grace, peculiar to the citizens of Zion, born of the New Jerusalem. I am thankful that we are one in spirit in the immutabilities of God’s truth, and in the inextinguishability of His love, from whence has come forth unto us the heavenly music of the everlasting Gospel, of which it is said, ‘Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound.’

“’Tis music in the sinner’s ears, 

‘Tis life, and health, and peace:

“‘It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners;’ and I can say from my heart, ‘of whom I am the chief;’ and the older I get the more deeply convinced I am of the truth of God, the more conscious I am of this fact; nevertheless, I rejoice in my soul to know that

“‘A sinner is a sacred thing,

The Holy Ghost has made him so.’

“It is thus that He qualified me to come to the Saviour, and showed me how adapted He was to me, and how exactly suited I was to Him. As the Saviour of a great portion of mankind, He is said to be ‘a great Saviour,’ and in order to be glorified as such, He must save just such great sinners as I am; for which I adore and magnify His holy name here on earth; and when He shall take me safe to heaven, as I really believe He will, I have resolved in my heart that He shall never hear the last of it to all eternity. I am determined to make a great noise about it in that upper, better, and more glorious world, which He has gone to prepare for me, and not for me only, but for all who love His most adorable name.

Early Days In Suffolk

“I knew many great and good men in Suffolk when I was a child who are now in glory. I knew and heard in my childhood with profit, pleasure, and delight, Matthew Harvey of Horham Chapel, in the fields the venerable Trotman of Laxfield, and Cornelius Elvin of Bury-St. Edmunds, Middleditch of Ipswich, Collins of Grundisburg, and, I think, Nunn of Dairy-lane, Ipswich. Cornelius Elvin not being quite 16 ounces to the pound, his preaching was more in accordance with the extent of my capacity for the reception of the truth in my youth, which will account for my hearing him better than any other man in Suffolk in these the days of my youth, when I always strove to avoid any pretention to religion whatever. Nevertheless, when I got to the side of a lonely man who feared God, I would speak of some of the great things of God, which, I trust, God presented to my mind. At that time, one old gentleman used to say to me at the close of my discourses, ‘Oh, Dan, my boy, you will have a fearful lot to answer for if you are not saved, for you know so much of the Lord’s will, that if you are not enabled to do it, you will be beaten with a terrible number of stripes.’ I would then sometimes turn aside to weep, and repeat Dr. Watts’ hymn which says—

“‘That awful day will surely come, 

The appointed hour makes haste,

When I must stand before my Judge 

And pass the solemn test.’

Then a sense of inability to stand the investigation would overwhelm me, and I would cry out:—

“Jesus, I throw my arms around, 

And hang upon Thy breast;

Without a gracious smile from Thee 

My spirit cannot rest.’

“I used also to go to hear Mr. Goldsmith, of Stradbrooke, at times. My deer mother’s mortal remains are buried there. She died when I was two years of age, and it was a terrible loss to me; but I have good reason to believe it was her eternal gain; for it was her preservation from much sorrow, anguish, and pain. Therefore, I have long approved of the Lord’s sovereign will in taking her to Himself. Should you be passing, kindly copy from her stone, inserted in the front wall, the inscription, and send it to me in your next. Hannah Allen was her name. I send you a very poor photograph of her son, who has never failed to remember her in any one day of his life. I will send you a better if it please the Lord some day. I should truly love to accompany you through the roads, lanes, fields, and by-paths of dear old Suffolk; the violets, and primroses, and cowslips, and ladies’ fingers, and dewberries, are frequently fresh before my eyes to this day; nevertheless, I am willing to forgo this pleasure, if the Lord has designed it so, in the prospect of a better country filled with the beauties and odoriferous fragrance of the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley, and where the tree of life is growing, and pure rivers from the throne are flowing, and fountains of endless pleasure will gladden our hearts to all eternity, and God Himself shall wipe all tears for ever out of our eyes, until then, we once again say, ‘Farewell, and leave each other in the bosom of His eternal love,’

“In which, I remain, yours for ever,

“Daniel Allen, Pastor.

“Sydney, April 8th, 1891.

“P. S.—My Dearest Brother,—I have just returned from a 2,000 miles’ journey in Victoria, where God has blessed me much to His people, of which you will read in the magazine. I am too ill to write with my own hand, therefore, my daughter has written at my dictation, which I hope will be acceptable to you, as an answer to your own sweet letter.”

We were unable to visit Horham last summer according to promise on account of illness, hut our dear brother J. R. Debnam kindly supplied a copy of the inscription upon the headstone in Stradbroke Baptist Chapel burial-ground, which runs as follows:—

In memory of 

HANNAH ALLEN, 

Wife Of Robert Allen,

Who departed this life, 

July 20, 1828,

Aged 61 years.

(Footstone—H. A., 1828).

If the inscription refers to our departed brother’s mother, there must be a mistake in the age given. Our brother Debnam assures us (having examined the stone twice) that the figures are as above. The stone is in rather a bad condition, which rendered the characters difficult to decipher. Our friend, John Harding, of Worlingworth (one of the deacons of Horham Chapel), who was born in 1823, has a distinct remembrance of Mr. Daniel Allen when living at Wilby, as they were lads together and worked on the same farm. In a letter to us, Mr. Harding notes that Mr. Allen’s father was a small farmer at Wilby, and a member of the Baptist Chapel, Stradbroke. His mother was a meek and consistent Christian. There are no relatives in the locality now; the last died 16 or 18 years ago. Mr. Harding also says, “I well remember him (Daniel Allen) saying on a certain occasion what a state of mind he had been in; and one day as he was ploughing, I think with oxen, and it was hot and the flies stung him so that it made him angry, and he thought he must use bad language but he left his oxen, or horses, I cannot positively say which, and went into an old shed not far off and wept and prayed. I do not remember if he wrote (to his friends here) how he was set at liberty. He wrote to me several times after he became a preacher; evidently he was no sham of a professor, he was a real live man of God.” Thanks to our brother Debnam, and his good deacon Harding, for their timely and valuable help. When last at Horham we had a long and pleasant chat with brother Harding about our beloved brother Allen and his youthful days at Wilby. But he will see the land of his nativity no more. His soul revels in the glory of the better land, and is satisfied.

“O the rest for ever, and the rapture!

O the Hand that wipes the tears away!

O the golden home beyond the sunset,

And the hope that watches over the day!’’

May the Lord graciously support and cheer the beloved widow and family, and raise up a man after His own heart to fill the vacant pulpit.

So earnestly prays—

The Editor