The Christian Revival

(Copied from unpublished ‘Curnow from Kernow,’ ‘After the Golden Cockatoo,’ Chapter 9. See also Edwin A. Curnow, Bible Christian Methodists in South Australia 1850-1900, Uniting Historical Society, 2015, p 131.)

Rev. Samuel Keen 1818-1871

In unfolding the story of yesterday, now and then a character stands tall in terms of their unique contribution. Bible Christian , Rev. Samuel Keen was one such person whose life’s motto was ‘I for one must venture’. It fitted his personality and style like a well-chosen glove. Twenty people had formed a society at Shebbear in Devon under Cornishman William O’ Bryan and from this group the Bible Christian off-shoot of began on 9 October 1815.

Samuel Keen was born at South Molton in Devon in 1818. There had been ‘the great revival’ of October 1842 that had started from the Mission headquarters at Vernon River of which it was reported:

“Services in the parsonage had often been characterised by quickening power, but the people now received the Baptism of the Holy . The work spread like fire through the whole district” (1).

Keen’s offer for work in South Australia in 1852 was accepted and he and his wife reached Port Adelaide on 6 March 1853; his fare having been paid by George Fife Angas who had a special interest in farmers settling on the Gawler Rev. Samuel Keen 1818-1871. The growth Plains. of the Bible Christian cause across the Gawler Plains was due to this man’s driving passion for . Died 21 June 1871 .(14).

This was the background from which Samuel Keen came and his letters to England reveal a man of endless energy always on his horse riding from farm to farm. The growth of the Bible Christian cause across the Plains was due to this man’s driving passion for souls. He started his mission with four members and five years later had 319. Over a period of seven years Samuel Keen is credited with the formation of 15 congregations and the building of over 12 chapels.

F. W. Bourne has written, “The history of the Gawler Plains has been most fittingly spoken of as an almost continuous revival.’ He described Keen as one of the ‘handy men’ of the missionary enterprise. His alertness, his enthusiasm, his power of adaption and initiation were simply wonderful” (2).

Methodist historian, A. D. Hunt described Keen as a, “This one thing I do’ sort of man—riding his horse from farm to farm preaching under gum trees or in the rude homes of the early settlers, aiming always for a verdict, taking with absolute seriousness the charge of Wesley: “You have nothing to do but to save souls.”

Keen served 19 years in South Australian circuits. His last station was Clarendon which probably included Port Elliot. A month before his death he wrote to a friend. “From 5 April to 6 May I travelled 444 miles, visited 127 families and preached 27 times. besides other work. Full work is better than half—I am content and happy, looking forward to the blessed home, to be forever with the Lord.” As he was travelling to a ‘distant appointment' in the company of his two daughters, —history records he was ‘seized with apoplexy’ on the morning of 11 June,1871. He died on 21 June 1871 at the age of 54 (3).

Elim Chapel Peachey Belt West 1857-1879 (See Edwin A. Curnow, Bible Christian Methodists in South Australia 1850-1900, pages, 140, 146-147,149,152, 270-272, 334, 457, 500, 511.)

With chapels at Waterloo Corner, Virginia, Angle Vale, Zoar at Penfield and beyond, with Primitive Methodist Chapels at Sturton Penfield, Burton and Carclew, to name a few, the area was dotted with small chapels and places of .

The Bible Christians were known for their passion and enthusiasm in matters of . Our Thomas was probably not local preacher material but he was surrounded by families like the Taylors, Robert Wait and members of the March family who were solid Methodist local preachers.

Although they were the last of the Methodist churches to arrive in South Australia, the Bible Christians Methodists with their focus on the rural community established the majority of the early chapels across the Plains.

After ‘Ebenezer' at Angle Vale in September 1854 came Salem (Gawler Bible Christian Church Penzance Cornwall Blocks), Zoar (Penfield), Bethesda (Lewiston), Elim (Waterloo Corner), Bethlehem (Virginia) and Bethany (West Gawler). The church in later years followed the settlers north, so it was little wonder the Gawler Plains were described as a ‘Methodist Nursery‘ by someThe Elim Chapel was built on an acre of land in the southern corner of section 4264 donated by Mrs Ellen Cameron. It was also the site of a small cemetery. It was also on this section that Anthony and Eleanor Taylor came to live in 1855. Elim Chapel was a small stone Bible Christian Church Penzance Cornwall structure in open paddocks which stood in stark contrast to the Penzance Bible Christian Methodist Church. Rev James Rowecame from an earlier period in Penzance in Cornwall.The Rev. James Rowe, the first Superintendent of the Bible Christian Church in South Australia, who was from Penzance, Cornwall had arrived in 1850 and opened the chapel on 22 February 1857 as part of the Gawler circuit.

“On the day it was opened eight members were transferred from Zoar, and formed into a church. Since then four have removed, yet we have now a Society of 59 members rejoicing in their Saviour. So read the church’s Missionary Society Report to England in l857” (4).

The building of the chapel and the adjoining schoolhouse was financed by an interest-free loan from George F. Angas.

The School

In 1862, the day the school was opened. The first teacher was Mr Samuel Davie and the average attendance was l7 pupils until the school closed in 1873. (5)

In most cases it was normal for children to attend school for a few years and then to leave in order to take part in the ordinary work and business of life. The youngest of the family, Thomas Curnow (Jnr1) would have been about 20 years of age so it is unlikely that he attended school at Elim. In a small wood and iron school room we can imagine it would become very hot during summer and drinking water needed to be brought from home. (See Mortlock Library GRG18 for index of Roll books)

On 23 August 1858 the District Council hired Mr George Herford to address the task of clearing stumps from the track that led to Elim Chapel. According to Council minutes the tender paid £12 for the job, as well it might, for the new chapel aroused considerable public interest. On 30 April 1859, for example. the day following the chapel's anniversary service 90 people had gathered and found room in the small chapel to sit down to a public tea.

The chapel’s remaining debt of £l76/8/l0 was paid off in l858. Messrs Gilbertson, Curnow. Taylor and Wait all donated £5. Mrs Curnow’s donation was listed separately and again Mr Curnow contributed work to the value of £2/2/-. Other sources of income over the years came from tea meetings. Band of , Anniversaries, lighting collections and seat rents (6).

Those paying seat rents included, Trewin, Ward, March (spelt Marsh), Wilton, Taylor, Curnow. In 1878-9, Taylor, Davis, Buckley, Miss Gilbertson. Other additional donations were received from, Walker, Wilton, Ward, Trewin, Argent, Peacock. For a few years the chapel was marked by various activities. “God has blessed the neighbourhood both in a temporal and spiritual point of view. Souls have been saved through the ministry of the word and a vast amount of wealth has been accumulated by the settlers. -- Here things are of a very encouraging character. The chapel is literally crammed on the Sabbath with attentive listeners” (7).

(Photo left) Mr Arnold Brumfield who grew up on a nearby farm stands in the location of the old Elim Chapel, school and cemetery. January 1984. The property at the time was used by the Adelaide Polo Club.

Names appearing on the records include: Anthony Taylor (this included his wife and large family. Thomas Curnow, Robert Wait. Thomas Gilbertson, Joseph and William March (spelt Marsh), William Rabish, Samuel and John Webster, John Wilton, William Ward, Truan, Argent, Cockshell, Moal, Peacock and Trewin.

Anthony Taylor was converted through the Bible Christians while in England and he opened his home for preaching services at Mary-church. He came to the colony in 1850 and he joined the Bible Christian Church at Bowden. He assisted with building the Elim chapel and he gave in proportion to the number of land sections he owned. His wife was Eleanor and they had seven sons and a daughter. He died on 6 May 1878.

John Elim Taylor was born 6 June 1858 and was named after the chapel. John married Ellen Mudge of Bowden on 28 July 1880. (Bowden was another Bible Christian strong hold where the Taylors had lived before moving north.) John and Ellen took up residence on Section 3003. At the time of his marriage he named his farm ‘Whimple Farm’ after the family home in England. John and his brother Richard played the organ on the Sabbath while Sam became the Local preacher. The Taylor family were solid members of the Bible Christian church and later worshipped at Virginia.

John Wilton was born at North Hill, Cornwall in 1821 and he died at Dalkey on the 10 January 1878 at 57 years of age. He landed in Australia in 1851 and settled at Bowden. After travelling to the gold fields with Anthony Taylor and others he settled on a farm at Peachey Belt. For years he was a Class Leader, Chapel steward and Superintendent of the Sabbath School at Elim. (Obituary’s found in the Bible Christian Magazine, after June 1878. No Obituary was found for Thomas Curnow (Snr) 1877 perhaps because he was buried at Salisbury in the Primitive Methodist cemetery)

Elim Chapel was closed for worship in 1879 and permission was granted for the sale of the property after many families moved further north with the opening up of new farming areas. However, the Minute book says they were still meeting in 1888 when a Mr Mason was listed as a member. It appears that a last meeting took place, on 6 August 1890.

Revival and

The spirit of excitement, revival and evangelism, was characteristic of the Bible Christian movement. The Rev. W. Haslam described its roots:

“Every year, in one part or another a revival would spring up, during which believers were refreshed and sinners awakened.

Sometimes it is suggested that there is a great deal of the flesh in these things—more of this than of the spirit. I am sure this is a mistake, for I am quite satisfied that neither Cornish nor any other people could produce revivals without the power of the Spirit. But as a fact it is well known that revivals begin and continue for a time and that they cease as mysteriously as they began” (8).

While Samuel Keen established the course of the Bible Christian work on the Gawler Plains of course there were others of similar passion working in different areas of the State. Layman James Blatchford had started the work at Burra and by 1856, 14 men and their families had been sent out from Devon.

Like Samuel Keen most of them had already been touched by the English-Cornish revivals. Similar to the zeal of the growing Pentecostal churches of our time. Bible Christians expected God to pour out His Spirit on Congregations and to change people’s lives. It is not surprising then that between 1881 and 1890 a 28 per cent increase in membership was recorded in South Australia.

Bible Christians were also active in Victoria and around the Cornish community of Bendigo. One author writes:

“As the Bible Christian sect was such a very Cornish body, it can scarcely be credited that there would not be some instances of the revival phenomena as found in the other churches. The church at California Gully. for instance. notes in its literature its gracious revivals” (9).

Elim Chapel was far from just being a building. It was a distinct ecclesiastical decoration on a stark, developing countryside.

Healthy Sunday School 1861.

The Advertiser Paper Sat. 14 September, page 2, under the Virginia correspondent reported that Anniversary services of the Elim chapel Sunday-school had taken place. In the morning a sermon was preached by Mr Edgecombe, and in the afternoon and evening by Mr Roberts. On Monday the children were entertained at tea in the afternoon; after which, there was a tea meeting for parents and friends, followed by a public meeting. Mr Waite was called to the chair. Suitable addresses were delivered by Messrs Roberts, Edgecombe and Counter. The School was reported to be in a prosperous condition, 65 scholars being on the books and 44 in average attendance. The sum of £11/03/9 was collected during Sunday. Several excellent dialogues were recited by the children at the services.

February 1866—Missionary Chronicle

“Here (at Elim) things are of a very encouraging character—— I was preaching on the evening of 24 July last, when the mighty power of God was so manifested, that several were in floods of tears before the sermon was ended, and came to the penitent’s pew before the public service was concluded; after which. in the meeting, many more came forward to be prayed for, and to pray themselves for the of their souls. There were 15 side by side, crying aloud for through Jesus Christ. Truly the promise was fulfilled, ‘ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me.

On the following Friday, 28th, we had another such baptism in answer to mighty prayer, when several more came to the penitent’s form.”

Staunch Methodism

Methodists were not simply expansionists. As the revivalists of the day they did not preach a cheap ‘one up’ emotional conversion. The evidence of a real conversion needed to be seen in and ethical practice although the latter sometimes seemed more obvious than the former. Back in Devon the strict rules of the Wesleyan Methodist Church had excluded William O’Bryan from their Society because he would not abandon the area to which God had called him to preach. O’Bryan’s three attempts to re-join the Society failed and it had been this unbending, repressive discipline that eventually lead to the independent Bible Christian cause.

The authority accorded to the church and its preachers has been described as follows:

“They were zealous men, dedicated to promoting the Methodist way of life. Godly. righteous and sober; these characteristics of their own were the qualities they sought for in others. Teaching by the Bible, many of them with a literal exactitude, they abhorred strong drink in all its forms and implanted the of total abstinence in their congregations. Strict in moral ethics they required a like standard in their converts. Today, we might find their judgements in many matters harsh and arbitrary, but in those days they did not spare the members of their congregations and required a strict adherence to the principles of the faith and behaviour they themselves upheld and practised” (10).

Today in our supposed sophistication, materialism and independence, when most seem to have forgotten any form of supreme being who interacts with the world, we need to be careful before passing judgement on those who have gone before us. While our generation has put aside the legalism of yesterday we have stumbled into doing what is right in our own eyes, only to be left with a world that to many seems empty and meaningless.

Reports from the mission reflect the presence of the same renewing spirit at Elim typical of other Bible Christian chapels. Gawler Mission Report—Elim, 10 November I858.

“During the fortnight we continued there 14 professed to find peace. On two occasions, especially, the power was very great and a stout hearted young man who had been wandering like the prodigal son from his father’s house came to the chapel to mock, but was so powerfully wrought upon, that with his father (an old man and very worldly minded) and another man and his wife, he was led to cry aloud for mercy. God graciously answered prayer—father and son were reconciled—By the time our services closed here, the fire was kindling at Zoar and the friends began to think that they ought to have special services.” Report: Rev. John Counter.

Understanding the Drinking problem

In the final lines of this chapter, an appreciation of the past requires us to touch on an issue that touched many families and our own early family line. We need to take time to enter the world of yesterday and to understanding the heavy drinking culture, the abuse of alcohol and the important rise of the temperance cause that Methodism was so well known for.

Methodism arose out of 16-17th century England where people sought release from the harsh conditions and of life. This led to widespread social drinking, a grog shop on every corner and widespread drunkenness. High levels of intoxication and serious social breakdown existed throughout England and Cornwall. Without the of social welfare agencies some of the concerned gentry and clergy of the period, while not being the social engineers of our time, attempted to address this national catastrophe by advocating abstinence. Without tracing the history of the temperance movement or the ‘Band of Hope,’ it is sufficient to say there was a period when this movement was quite socially strategic. Tea drinking festivals and temperance societies had hundreds of members and indeed they were a feature of the period. A festival could include one or two bands, bright decorations, flags and banners along with a large boiler to provide endless quantities of tea or coffee.

At one time, in an article entitled ‘Doings of Temperance’, Rev. Samuel Keen recounted the death of a parishioner and described how a ‘slave of strong drink’ had eventually came to sign the temperance pledge. The article concluded:

“Through temperance the tide of peace and prosperity flowed into his family. Seven years since, this reclaimed drunkard and converted sinner after 18 years of sobriety and 17 years of Christian life passed triumphantly, through the valley of death. Christian reader if these be the fruit, which the temperance cause produces, ought not every Christian to use his best endeavours to promote the growth of this noble cause.”

In addition to this moral welfare-cause there was the strong piety of the Sabbatarian movement mentioned earlier that pervaded the social fabric by focussing on the do’s and don'ts of Sunday practise.

Sabbath breaking was usually seen as the first crime that led to all sorts of other misdemeanours. It was this sort of thinking that caused a stir when the railway line between Salisbury and Adelaide was opened on Sunday, 29 December 1856. For the train to arrive on Sunday was nothing less than an impious infringement of the Sabbath (11). A strong moralizing theme was the theme of most clergy.

Rev. Samuel Keen wrote of the Elim Chapel area in 1858:

“The daytime during our services was spent in visiting the people. Many of the friends with whom we conversed were acquainted with the neighbourhood, before any of our chapels were erected and could describe the manner in which the Sabbath was spent, by horse-racers. sportsmen and various classes of sabbath breakers which included almost all the settlers for miles around. But what a change! Now the greater part of the families are seen wending their way, some on foot and others in spring carts or on horse-back, to the house of God” (12).

Manning Clark writes, “Protestant clergy were identified in the public eye as moral policemen for a particular way of life rather than teachers by precept and example of the way to salvation by continuing to counsel subordination and to urge the poor to accept their lowly station in life, they (the clergy) prostituted their to the service of the social needs of the classes in power in the Australian colonies and in London.” (13)

This description of the day, while perhaps true in some cases, is a harsh generalisation. The Christian itself, without moralizing, clearly does transform human behaviour. Not all clergy could be described as choosing to ride on the back of the powerful class. People like Keen immersed themselves in the struggles of the day enduring great . They called for the subordination of all people and classes to Almighty God for personal salvation. As a consequence, this also led to social reform for the ultimate benefit of society and a better world.

It could be said however, that the clarity of the Gospel as gift; grace and freedom, was shrouded in morals and legalism so that the central Christian message of the love of God seen in the cross of Christ was blurred. Instead of the love and grace of God arresting people, the church was seen as a social, cultural reference point, a welfare agency that kept people on the straight and narrow path of decent respectability. Instead of arresting the rebellious heart this sort of message only provokes and hardens a generation. When I think about our family history, I suspect that this emphasis on morality, respectable piety and law sadly planted seeds of rejection in the next generation. The institution of the church itself in this country seemed to turn a full circle. It would not be difficult to conclude that from its non-conformist, radical beginning, the zeal of the early Methodist movement became a respectable social institution, similar to the Established-church that nurtured Wesley. The institution then preferred to live off the faith of its fathers rather than reach future generations by challenging them to choose Jesus Christ as Lord.

References:

(l) F. W. Bourne. The Bible Christians—Their Origin and History. 1905. p. 314

(2) F. W Bourne, The Bible Christians—their Origin and History, 1905. p.353.

(3) F W Bourne, The Bible Christians—their Origin and History, 1905.

(4) A D Hunt. The Bible Christians in South Australia. Pub. Uniting Church Historical Society. SA. 1983. p.19. This could mean the Curnows were one of the first eight families transferred from Zoar.

(5) In Methodism on the Gawler Plains Mr L. Roberts refers to a schoolhouse adjoining the chapel. The Statistics Unit of the SA. Education Department considered that the school class itself was conducted in the chapel—letter May 1987. Alkmini Stames.

(6) Elim Account Book—SA. Archives S.R.G.4/46/11. 1857-79.

(7) Missionary Chronicle/Bible Christian Magazine. February 1866. Source related to John Elim Taylor: Evelyn Briggs Kadina 1975.

(8) F W Bourne. The Bible Christians—their Origin and History, 1905. p. 297. Revivals are listed as taking place at Newport. Isle of Wight. Rookley. St Helens. Newbridge and Wroxall. p. 293.

(9) Ruth Hopkins, Where Now Cousin Jack, Print D. C. Walker Pty Ltd. 1988. p. 79. Bible Christian churches were also located in Victoria at White Hills. Eaglehawk at Sailors Gully and Sheepwash (Mandurang) opened 1881. Woodstock on Loddon Opened 1869. Emu Creek, Cornish Town. Rev. Thomas Keen opened California Gully 1864.

(10) Phyllis Somerville. Influence of Cornwall on SA. Methodism. S. A. Methodist Historical Society. Vol. 4. October 1972.

(l l) Margaret Galbreath, Gillian Pearson. Elizabeth the Garden City, 1982. Pub. City of Elizabeth SA p. 11.

(l2) Rev. John Counter and Rev. Samuel Keen, Gawler West Methodist Mission Report. November 1858. Stationed at Gawler 1858-59.

(13) Manning Clark, A Short History of Australia, p. 102.

(14) Photo supplied courtesy of the Munno Para Library.

King William St.. Looking north Edmund Gouldsmith 1852-1932 Adelaide Art Gallery