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 PrintableVersion Isaac MarsdenA 19th-century Wesleyan evangelistGood reason to thank GodISAAC MARSDEN ‘The man made excuses but he [Marsden] seized him by the collar and carried him into the vestry. Then he locked the door and induced him to go down on his knees and make a full and complete surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. The man was soundly converted and lived a holy life and died a triumphant death.’ Such was the ministry of Isaac Marsden of Doncaster (1807-1882) at a time that has been described as the ‘zenith of Methodism’. Years of drunken ridicule of Christ had given way to a life of prayer and passionate irrepressible zeal for the salvation of others. An immensely strong man, loud and boisterous before his conversion and hew as the same afterwards. He was scathing about formal orders of service and dead orthodoxy. Many people were offended at his crude language and forceful methods. Catherine Mumford, soon to be the wife of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, warned him: ‘Watch against animal excitement in your revival services… As to that Isaac Marsden, he might be sincere, but exceedingly injudicious and violent’. However, Booth welcomed Marsden’s help at the outset of his own work. Both men knew they were reaching people others could not. For most of his ministry Marsden combined a successful textile business with an amazing output of evangelistic preaching and missions. His message was not ‘easy believism’, he always called for holiness to accompany salvation. At the beginning he had the dubious habit of counting ‘converts’ and by no means all proved to be genuine, but throughout the land there were large numbers of people who had good reason to thank God for Isaac Marsden, and some of them could be found in all kinds of Christian service at home and overseas. We may want to question his methods, his doctrine of sanctification and his understanding of revival, but reading this book will, for many, stir up evangelistic zeal, cause thanksgiving to God for the amazing variety of people he is willing to use, and also remind us to ‘test everything’ (1 Thessalonians 5.21) and at the same time ‘not to put out the Spirit’s fire’ (1 Thessalonians 5.19). Clifford Pond, © Evangelicals Now - July 2008 |
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