The Life And Ministry Of F. Beedel

Earthen Vessel 1897:

Pastor F. Beedel, Castlereach Street, Sydney 

Brotherly Greetings

My Beloved Brother Banks,—Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, and to all the dear people of God with you, who are held in the embrace of everlasting and unchangeable love, covered and sheltered by the blood of the everlasting covenant, called and regenerated and anointed with the anointing which teacheth all things and is true, and even as it hath taught you so ye shall abide in Him. How sacred is the relationship in which Zion stands to her God in covenant, and how highly favoured to have a name and a place within her gates, and all who feel this will ever pray, “Peace be within thy walls,” &c. (Psa. 122:6-9).

My dear Brother, to be a doorkeeper here, or a hewer of wood or a drawer of water to such a people, saved by the Lord, is a favour and a honour indeed, and in whatever capacity to be helped to serve them is serving Him. But oh I to hear His welcome voice speaking within the heart and saying, “Feed My sheep,” and “feed My lambs,” “Feed the Church of God which He has purchased with His own blood,” overwhelms us sometimes, and we intuitively fall at His dear feet and say, “Lord, give me the food for them and bless what Thou givest.” And how often have we found a crumb received from His own dear hands multiplied and become a feast to our own soul and the souls of those to whom He sends us. He does not expect us to go a warfare at our own charges, but He will be at all the cost.

Origin

Well now, you have written asking for a little account ot our origin, &c. I thank you much for your kind letter, and fully reciprocate the desire, which I know is shared by the Lord’s dear people here, to come into closer touch with the Churches of God in England. Dear old England! yes, with all her faults, I love her still. It is the land of my birth.

I was born in 1841, in the town of Reading (Berks.), and was with the firm of Huntley and Palmer till I left for Australia. I saw the rise of that great and honourable firm; was one of the first, though but a lad when they started, and have not been forgotten by them since I have been in the colonies. Mr. G. and Mr. W. Palmer were both friends and counsellors to me. How much comes back to my mind just now, that would perhaps be of no interest to you; therefore pardon my reference hereunto.

My parents belonged to the “Church of England,” and I was very early sent to, and was brought up in this connexion, and fully satisfied with it, quite believing that “in my ‘baptism,’ I was made a member of Christ, a child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,” loved my Church, and looked upon Dissenters as a people to be avoided, and thus went on perfectly satisfied with my natural religion, that all was right, until I was induced by a young man to go and hear Mr. H. Grattan Guinness. Now the axe was to be, and was, laid to the root of the tree, and, as I heard him preach upon the new birth, its nature and necessity, all my natural religion was cut up, and I was left without a shread. I saw the new birth that night for the first time. I saw too that he had it, and I had not, and that without it I could never enter heaven. This ground me to powder. I went away from that meeting crushed, humbled, and in agony of soul, saw the delusion I had been in, and determined never, never to enter my mother “Church” again, and would have walked twenty miles any time to hear that young man, though I only heard my condemnation, and these convictions were very deep, though they lay buried for some years, yet I clearly saw and felt the difference between a profession and the possession of true religion. 

I left England in ’64 with wife and child, went to Queensland, was there twelve months, came to Sydney, an entire stranger to the people and cause here went to Aratum, about 300 miles south from here, started business; was there eight years; and, while there, the Lord put His hand second time to the work, without any instrumentality. But, oh! how the Lord thundered into my soul and revealed my sins, my wretchedness, and woe, and the agony of soul I fell into was indesribable, night and day calling upon Him out of a broken heart till Jesus was revealed, and the sweet word dropped as from heaven into my heart and healed it, “I will have mercy.”

My sins were gone, my burden removed—the curse, the wrath my soul had been fearing was seen to have passed on Him. Deliverance from it was mine; liberty and peace, and “no condemnation,” were mine. Oh I how my soul did leap for joy, and I entered into another world. Every blade of grass seemed to speak to me of resurrection life. The birds sang their great Creator’s praise, and all the trees of the field clapped their hands, and now my only desire and delight was to

“Tell to sinners round,

What a dear Saviour I had found;

To point to His redeeming blood,

And say, Behold the way to God.”

Now my trials and conflicts began, of which I cannot give a thousandth part, but the Lord stood by me and helped me to speak, oft time, all over the place, and the district around, and many precious seals were then given, some of which remain to this day.

I then wrote home to England, to some of my wife’s relations, whom I knew to be godly people, and told them what the Lord had done for me, and from them, in return, I first received the “Earthen Vessel,” and it was my meat and drink in those days. Oh! how many things I remember, especially the writings of your dear father; how acceptable they were to me then. But to shew the leadings of that Divine and unerring providence that “guides a sparrow and wings an angel,” and “who numbers the very hairs of our heads,” in the very first Vessel I received, I learned about the church in Castlereagh-street. 

In the number I read there was the report of Mr. McCure’s leaving Sydney for England, and I also saw that our dear brother Allen was in his place, and this led me to write him, though a perfect stranger, but I wanted to get from him as many Vessels as I could for reading and for distribution, and I also sent to your dear father and used to receive from him direct, six per month. Well, our dear brother Allen forwarded me a large parcel, and with it a letter, wanting to know, of course, who the stranger was, and his very first letter went right into my heart, and he with it, and there remained for five years (in correspondence) before I ever saw his face, and for twenty years in united service as fellow-labourers in Zion, without a jar or a breach in unbroken harmony till the day when he was taken home.

Call To The Pastorate At Sydney

To tell all the leadings of Providence in bringing us to Sydney would occupy too much space, but, when privileged to be united to the Lord’s people, I was happy. In time was chosen deacon, then had the care of Sabbath-school, and finally, after seeking for a pastor among the supplies we had, and sending home to brother Winters soliciting his help, if possible, to obtain one from England, and failing, the Church decided to call your unworthy brother to the pastorate, the most important position any mortal man can be called to in this world, and, from the time of supplying on trial until this clay the dear Lord has enabled me to go in and out before His people without a break. Also, since our dear brother Allen’s departure the work of the Magazine has fallen into my hands, and you will understand what that means, but “Having obtained help of God I continue unto this day.” Trials have come, enemies have risen up, and the old beaten path of tribulation has been trod, but 

“He near my soul has always stood,

His lovingkindness, oh I how good.”

We have peace and harmony in the Church; peaceful, God-fearing men as deacons, and real friends of Zion. Our congregations are not large, but on the whole encouraging. The Lord has knit us very closely together and we enjoy His presence and sweet refreshing, and sometimes a little increase is given, for which we are thankful. Besides, the Lord has opened other doors for us and enables us to fulfil the injunction, “Do the work of an Evangelist,” for beside various other places to which we make monthly visits, the Lord has led us to the asylum for aged men (infirm and destitute), a Government institution, where there are about 1,200 men of all classes and conditions, and we find about half of them confined to their beds. We visit them in the wards and give them books, and to the rest we speak in a large room set apart for the purpose, and it is always full of anxious listeners to hear the glorious Gospel. Then there is another asylum for women (about 700), we visit also monthly, at Newington, and we have the same privilege there, and many seals the Lord has given us among these poor aged ones, three of whom it has been our pleasure to baptize, their united ages amounting to 216 years; but in this I want to solicit your help and sympathy, for to each of these asylums we take truthful literature, which is received gladly, and very encouraging testimonies we hear at times of the Lord’s blessing attending the reading. I have taken a whole cart load from my house, the accumulation of years, and have used up all the back numbers of our own Magazine, and all the supplies sent us from friends of home periodicals have all gone, and the cry is still for more whenever we go. Can you, dear brother, send us a parcel of your back numbers? Here is a good field for them and all on the free grace principle.

[We have sent a parcel, could send more if friends would help. The carriage is rather expensive, but by a little united effort we might send Brother Beedel a good bundle.—Ed.]

Have just given a little outline of our work here, yet often feel what poor unprofitable servants we are. Oh! may the Lord revive us. Am pleased to find that the Lord is helping you and blessing you in connection with the Earthen Vessel & Gospel Herald. May the same blessing rest on you that rested upon your dear honoured father and brother Winters. I have several letters of his to me that I value. Also Mr. Winters’ “Sunday-school Hymnal” and “Boy Life.”

Relative to the Churches here, of which you have enquired, will endeavour to give you all we can of them in our Magazine, which we send you every month, and am glad to see you receive and acknowledge. Our relations here are few, but true; our ministerial brethren are poor, but pure: our aged brother Hicks is a father, and one of the valiant men of Israel, still bearing fruit in old age. Our dear brother Young, at Lambton, is a hard-working brother, who has had to work very hard for years for the bread which perisheth, and serve the Church for but very little, but the Lord is his strength. Our friends at Ryde are about building a new chapel; our friends at Ermington have a new and neat little sanctuary served by our dear brethren Spurway and Marshall, the latter being one of the blind men that have eyes; our brother is afflicted with blindness, yet reads and speaks well, and is well taught of God.

F. Beedel

2, Cooper-street, Paddington, Sydney