GEORGE WHITEFIELD COLEMAN

Christ to the young man said: "Yet one thing more;      If thou wouldst perfect be, Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor,      And come and follow Me!" Within this temple Christ again, unseen,      Those sacred words hath said, And His invisible hands today have teen      Laid on a young man's head. And evermore beside him on his way.      The unseen Christ shall move, That he may lean upon His arm, and say,      "Dost Thou, Dear Lord, approver" Beside him at the marriage-feast shall be,      To make the scene more fair: Beside him in the dark Gethsemane      Of pain and midnight prayer. O holy trust! O endless sense of rest!      Like the beloved John, To lay his head upon his Savior's breast,      And thus to journey on!                                                —Henry W. Longfellow.

When the English historian, Froude, would give the reader a proper conception of the influences which molded the life and work of Thomas Carlyle, he gives a picture of the quiet Scotch village in which he was brought up. He portrays a humble dwelling where a pious mother watched and prayed and where a stonemason toiled and planned for the welfare of those entrusted to the home. In this he follows the steps of countless biographers who realize the effects of home environment upon the careers of those whose lives they would portray.

The Colemans, like the Puritans, reared their children in the atmosphere of their own fiery convictions. The children were not fed on Charlie Chaplin and the moving picture stars but on Paul and the Scriptures which were able to make them wise unto salvation. Such early teaching produced a dynamic race of men -- and such a man was George W. Coleman.

George W. Coleman was born in Perry Center, New York, October 10, 1830. His parents, John and Julia Coleman, were thrifty farmers such as formed the backbone of the nation in the past century. Far removed from the temptations and evil influences of the city, they reared their children in the fear of the Lord. In their religious beliefs, they represented old-time Methodism.

In speaking of the home in which Bishop Coleman was reared, L. B. Kent who lived with the family as hired help says, "Church-going was as regular as was the daily worship. Sunday visitations and recreations were not thought of, much less planned for, as they are nowadays by families professing to be Christians . . . The evening 'sweet hour of prayer' in which the venerated father read to us from the family Bible which lay on the stand, praying also earnestly for each and all of us, each of us in turn reverently and gladly following in personal prayer and praise, can not be forgotten, nor its life-long influence be doubted.

'Father Coleman' as an intelligent Methodist was a seeker of sanctification. The boys and young men converted in the recent glorious revival in which George and myself had been converted, had organized a band as provided in the church Discipline, and were seeking to be sanctified, and, of course, were praying for the blessing. But none of us doubted that 'Mother Coleman' was holy and ready for heaven, and yet she was quietly seeking to be sanctified, the Lord being her leader and teacher. And as she prayed one evening in our family 'band' the Lord gloriously sanctified her. She fell prostrate upon the floor, shouted and praised the Lord for some minutes and declared that the Lord had fully sanctified her. The only doubt any of the company could have was respecting her not having been sanctified for years. But we were all greatly blest, and rejoiced greatly with the happy, holy mother. That we were all growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ constantly I have not a doubt. Serious, conscientious, prayerful, self-denying, teachable and humble, there was little danger of immediate backsliding. Would that all young Christians of today were as well protected and warned against backsliding and as carefully guarded against the spirit and associations of the world as were young Christians generally forty to sixty years ago."

The secret of Spurgeon's spiritual vision and power can be traced to the Puritan home in which he was reared and to the prayers and teachings of his godly mother. In after years he bore this eloquent testimony: "I have not the powers of speech to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me and prayed with me. How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, 'O that my son might live before Thee!' ',

It is not surprising that young Coleman reared in such an atmosphere was converted in early years and it was fitting that, when as a penitent he prayed through to forgiveness, his mother was at his side singing,

"Oh, how happy are they

Who their Savior obey

And have laid up their treasures above.

 Tongue can never express

The sweet comfort and peace

Of a soul in its earliest love."

In later years he used to say, "The plane on which we started out at conversion was described in the hymn,

'My glad soul mounted higher

In a chariot of fire

And the moon it was under my feet.' "

At a subsequent date he received an equally clear assurance that the very God of peace had sanctified him wholly. From that time "Holiness unto the Lord" was his all-absorbing theme, and he remained "steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

In 1853 he was united in marriage to Miss Jane Bush. Into this ideal home came seven children. One of these sons, J. Emory Coleman, is particularly worthy of mention in the history of Free Methodism. When the Illinois and Wisconsin Conferences united to establish a school known as Evansville Seminary at Evansville, Wisconsin, in 1880, he became its first principal. A stalwart man, trained at the University of Rochester, endowed with a sensitive spiritual nature, he gave himself in unstinted measure in establishing the new school. Associated with him in work was his wife, Lucy Sellew Coleman, a constant inspiration and a tower of strength. In 1894, after fourteen years of hard labor, he was compelled by failing health to resign and seek a change.

He was elected district elder in the Wisconsin Conference, a position he filled with great acceptability for eight years. He was then pastor at Evansville for one year. He reached the end of the journey in 1906. His dust is sepulchered in the beautiful cemetery at Evansville, Wisconsin.

The wife of George W. Coleman passed to her reward in 1897. She was a loyal member of the Free Methodist Church from the early days of its organization and for thirty-four years shared the toils, trials, and triumphs of an itinerant minister's life. She was in Bible phraseology "a mother in Israel." Many who were prayed into the kingdom of God and established in holiness by her influence will rise up in the day of final rewards and call her blessed.

During the early years of his married life George W. Coleman was a prosperous farmer but at the same time was always busy in the Lord's work as a local preacher. B. T. Roberts with his keen spiritual perception saw in him a "chosen vessel" for the Lord. Had it not been for the persistent and urgent appeals of Brother Roberts, it is probable he never would have entered the ministry. After long hesitation, he sold his stock and farm equipment, burned the bridges behind him and fared forth to preach the gospel. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him" (Deuteronomy 32:11,12).

It was with fear and trembling he entered the itineracy. As is often the case, those who are really called of God to preach have to be urged to assume its great responsibility while those who have a mere human desire "rush in where angels fear to tread." At the end of his first year in the ministry, as he was making his report at the annual conference, he said he had not seen the success he longed to see on his circuit and if the conference thought best he would be glad to leave the ministry. He voluntarily retired from the body while his case was discussed. He begged the conference to be frank with him. When he returned, Bishop Roberts announced that the vote was unanimous for him to keep on. In his own quaint way he was accustomed to say, "And I've been going ever since." Encouraged by this decision of his brethren, he never questioned his call again but threw himself with all his ransomed powers throughout his long life into the ministry, to bear its burdens without a murmur.

"Except life itself be cast in the scale
No life can be won, no cause can prevail."

On November 25, 1899, General Superintendent Coleman was united in marriage to Mrs. Laura J. Warren of Canada, a woman of keen mind and of deep piety. For seventeen years previous to her marriage she was a successful preacher of the gospel in Canada. This training enabled her to enter intelligently into the work of her husband. She traveled with him as long as he remained in the general superintendency and cared for him tenderly and faithfully during the long period of his decline.

We give the following appraisement of "Father Coleman," as he was affectionately called in his later life, from the pen of Bishop W. T. Hogue, his intimate associate through many years: [17]

"It is as true now as when originally uttered by John Wesley that 'God buries His workmen, but carries on His work.' It seems a pity that strong men, who fill eminent places in the church of God, should become old, lose their vigor, grow feeble, and pass away; but Infinite Wisdom has so decreed it, and, in obedience to that decree, the subject of this sketch, after many years of faithful and effective service for God and His church, has passed from earthly scenes to be numbered with the great majority. With him, however, to be mustered out of service here was to be mustered into loftier service in the immediate presence of his King Redeemer.

"General Superintendent Coleman was a man unique in appearance, manner, intellectual cast, and mode of expression. He was physically tall, rather heavy, with broad and slightly drooping shoulders, possessed of high but sloping forehead, light hair, blue eyes, an aquiline nose, closely set lips -- in fact, possessing a sort of cast-iron Roman appearance in general.

"George W. Coleman, true to the pattern of early Methodism and Free Methodism, went about holding services as a lay preacher for a number of years following his conversion. The record shows that he was admitted to the Genesee Conference of the Free Methodist Church on trial in the autumn of 1863. He was admitted to full connection and ordained deacon in 1865, and was elected to elder's orders in 1867. He served as pastor twenty-three years.

"During this period he also served efficiently as stationed chairman within the Genesee Conference. On all these fields of pastoral service and district administration he was the personification of fidelity to God and the church, and is gratefully remembered to this day for the earnestness and helpfulness of his pulpit and pastoral ministrations, as also for the wisdom of his counsels and the judiciousness of his administration.

"In the autumn of 1886 he transferred his membership to the Wisconsin Conference, and was made traveling chairman of the Evansville and Platteville Districts, in which capacity he had served but a short time when the General Conference, held at Coopersville, Michigan, in October of that year, elected him as the third general superintendent of the Free Methodist Church. He was re-elected to this office in 1890, 1894 and 1898. At the General Conference of 1903, on account of advanced age and growing infirmities, he announced the withdrawal of his name from further candidacy for the office. A little later he secured for himself and Mrs. Coleman (his second wife) a comfortable little home in Gainesville, Wyoming County, New York, where his remaining days were spent in retirement from all public service.

'Father Coleman' was a member of the General Conference Board of Trustees 1890-1898, a member of the General Missionary Board 1886-1898, and president of the General Missionary Board 1891-1898. He was also president of the board of trustees of Evansville Seminary in 1894, and a member of the board 1892-1896. He was elected delegate to the General Conference of 1878, and was a member of each succeeding General Conference, excepting that of 1886 and of June, 1907. In all these councils of the church he ever took a most active interest, and, so long as his powers remained unimpaired, was a most judicious counselor.

"His temperament was of the phlegmatic type, rendering him peculiarly deliberate in thought, expression and movement, while inflexibility was written upon every feature of his countenance. He was laconic in expression, and was characterized by a somewhat droll though a pleasing manner in social converse and in his public utterances. His was an intensely penetrating gaze, and yet sanctity and goodness beamed in all the features of his Napoleonic face.

"Among the qualities of character which chiefly distinguished General Superintendent Coleman we would note particularly the following:

"1. Unbending integrity. As soon would we have expected the sun to depart from the heavens as George W. Coleman to depart under any circumstances from the most absolute incorruptibility of character. He bore the character of the man described in the Fiftieth Psalm as one 'that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.' Neither friend nor foe, neither flattery nor intimidation, neither fear of loss nor hope of gain, could swerve him a hair's breadth from the exact right, as he conceived it. He was integrity personified -- a concrete, living example of New Testament righteousness.

"2. Intense convictions, combined with invincible courage. He was at the utmost removed from that class of men who should be classified as moral invertebrates -- who either have no well-defined convictions, or having them, have learned to trifle with them and disregard them, until they can lay their convictions aside to suit any occasion where strong convictions are in the way of success and popularity. He lived under a perpetual sense of moral obligation, and DUTY, not ease, advancement, gain, or popularity, was constantly his watchword. With him to know duty was to do it, e'en though the heavens might fall.

"'He feared not,
Had heaven decreed it, to have stood
Adverse against the world, and singly stood.'

"3. Inflexible determination. Defeat was a word ruled out of his vocabulary. His purposes were fixed, and he never varied from them, except as compelled to such variation by those providences that he could not overcome. Like the wheels of Ezekiel's vision, he always 'went straight forward,' whither the spirit within him directed, and 'turned not to the right hand nor to the left.' Perseverance found its ideal realized in him. Not Andrew Jackson, nor even Napoleon the First, exceeded him in the matter of invincible determination of purpose.

"4. Unwavering faith in God and in the final triumph of righteousness. He 'believed God,' like Abraham of old. He accepted the entire Bible as the word of Jehovah. He had no room for and no patience with new-fangled notions and ways in the things of religion. He accepted the doctrines of orthodox religion, and believed they could never be superseded by anything better. He believed in the final triumph of Christianity to that degree that he never could be pessimistic. One of his favorite texts was, 'Fear not, little flock; for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' His glowing optimism rendered him a cheerful saint. 'The God in whom he believed and trusted was in very deed the health of his countenance.' His face was radiant with the reflected glory of 'the Sun of righteousness.'

"5. Spirituality. He was a man who lived in the Spirit and walked in the Spirit. He walked on earth, but lived in heaven. He carried a heavenly atmosphere with him at all times. The writer remembers how, in his own early years, the sanctity of this good man's appearance and the spiritual atmosphere generated by his presence brought him under deep conviction more than once or twice. Like Barnabas, 'he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.' Having for a good portion of one year made his headquarters in our home, and the writer having known him personally and intimately for many years, we regard this testimonial fully warranted by the character of George W. Coleman's life.

"We would not for a moment wish to convey the idea that General Superintendent Coleman was without his faults, but we must insist that where faults appeared in his life, they were of the understanding and not of the heart. They were chiefly exaggerations of some of those traits we have mentioned as among his virtues. Of such a mold was he, by nature, that what others might esteem his faults were regarded by him as virtues -- as the results of moral and religious convictions.

"General Superintendent Coleman, when at his best, was a strong man in the pulpit. While not specially gifted with oratorical power, and while neither a master of logic nor of rhetoric, he had convictions, and uttered them with such sincerity, strength, and utter confidence in their final triumph, that he produced deep conviction and inspired strong faith in others, and was particularly successful in the edification of God's people.

'Father Coleman' died the death of the righteous. Through his long period of suffering he was a paragon of patience and hopefulness. On one occasion he said, 'I do not know what I could conjure up to make me feel bad. I think I am pretty well fixed.' His interest in all the affairs of the church continued to the last. The letter sent him by the later General Conference deeply moved him, and, though near his end, he understood it all, and on hearing it read, remarked, 'I will answer that.' A few days later he peacefully fell asleep in Jesus."

Shortly before he answered the roll call of heaven at his home in Gainesville, New York, July 3, 1907, he wrote this characteristic letter to a friend:

"Well, for fifty and more years it has been the main thing with me to live for God. I have found my chief satisfaction in so doing. The results have been so satisfactory that if I had my life to live over again, with all the light of added years, I should have to take substantially the same course I have taken. I don't know how a person could take a course that would bring more satisfactory results. Words fail to express the sense of divine approval which I constantly feel, and have felt for years, and the consciousness that I have had an eye single to the glory of God."

His last message reminds one of the valedictory of another hero of the cross who, when he was about to wear a martyr's crown, looked death in the face and exulted: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the . faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: . and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

We present an editorial of Bishop Coleman which is characteristic of him both in style and content -- in simplicity and directness:

Individual Responsibility

In this world alone God can treat men in an associate capacity, and even when thus dealt with he does not lose his identity in the light of God. We are responsible to the extent of our light and ability as moral individuals in this world -- responsible for what we choose and for what we do -- and the same responsibility will continue in the world to come. We cannot shirk the responsibility that rests upon us by transferring it to our friends or enemies; God must be supreme, first, last, always, in matters of obedience, no matter what our fellow men may think, say or do. Hence the words of Christ: "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37). The opinion of our nearest friends should weigh nothing with us if it stands opposed to the will of God. It will not do, when we give an account of our stewardship, to say, "My brethren thought I ought to do so."

We shall be held personally and individually responsible at last for the light afforded us. We cannot throw the blame on others for primarily the result of our conduct rests with ourselves. God had made us rational creatures, and will always treat us as such. Free moral agency and divine sovereignty can never be reconciled as a basis for human conduct. Whoever makes the latter sentiment the cause for his action will be "weighed in the balances and found wanting." God did not from all eternity, for reasons best known to himself, foreordain whatsoever comes to pass. Because God FOREKNOWS a thing He does not foreordain it; for it would have been no less certain unforeknown. God's works were known to Him from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18), but He did not foreordain that a certain number should be saved and the rest lost, do what they would. This would clearly contradict the Scriptures. He has said, "Whosoever will," so that the matter of salvation or damnation depends, after all, on the human will. He doubtless will have to say to some, as Jesus said while on earth, "Ye WILL not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).

Nothing is more certain than that God will treat with each one of us as individuals. We must answer for what we are, morally, independent of all others. He treats the planets separately, though they are unintelligent, and man is more important than a planet. Each person is of sufficient worth for God to deal with as an individual, and the Word of God and our own consciousness teach that He will do so. Our real manhood lies in falling back on our own responsibility and acting as though we were under obligation alone to God. How many will let the Lord have the right of way in His own territory, and believe that whatever He does will be for their good, as well as for His glory? To do this, I judge, is to have the right kind of faith in Him. But many want to direct affairs themselves, as though God might make a mistake. For one I am glad we have an omniscient God, who always knows what is best for us, and who administers his government accordingly. He has given us a sense to know the right and wrong of moral questions, and He will furnish us light to walk in and never exact more of us than the fair thing.

We have no warrant to pin our faith on the sleeve of another, for "every one of us shall give account of himself to God." We are obliged to walk in our own light, and do our duty as the Lord shows it to us. We shall have to do our own thinking and make up our own minds as to how God would have us do it. In view of all this, well may we sing,

"Arm me with jealous care,

As in Thy sight to live,

And, oh! thy servant, Lord, prepare,

A strict account to give."

Some say, "It is impossible to live every moment as though it were our last," but the Bible says, "Be ready"; and so we can. We shall not have to live a strained life either, but simply live as God made us to live. Man in sin has a hard time of it, and is truly one to be commiserated, for "The way of the transgressor is hard" (Prov. 13:15). "The lamp of the wicked shall be put out" (Prov. 13.9). God's ways are "ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace."

We are under the most solemn obligation to God, growing out of our relation to him. He has done everything needful for us, and should we not do what we can for Him? We cannot repay Him for the love He has exercised toward us, but we can give Him all there is of us, and He promises to accept that; and shame on the man who would offer less than this to God. The endowments He has bestowed on us also are great, and we ought not to expect a reward if we are unwilling to meet the responsibilities He places upon us. He says, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes" (Isa. 5:4)? He ought to have some return for the expenditure He has made, and we ought to be satisfied if He will consent to take up with the leavings after we have served His bitterest enemy many days. We may be sure He will not reap where He has not sown, nor gather where He has not strewn (Matt. 25:24). All he desires is his own, with what increase we can give.

The nobility of man is seen in the fact that he is called to act for himself. He is the arbiter of his own eternal fortune. We ought to help ourselves what we can since God does all the rest and makes salvation possible. God will never allow another to speak or act for such a dignified being, and no other being on earth is afforded such an opportunity, for there is no created being equal to Himself. The effects of man's choices reach through the eternal ages and put into the shade all questions of a merely earthly character. If God should do business with an angel, it would not compare with what He does for human beings; for a man is of much more value than an angel. The spiritual millionaires are of far more importance to God than those of earth, like Rockefeller, Carnegie, the Rothschilds or Morgan. They may attract much more attention among men, but God cares more for what will affect humanity forever. It is given to us to decide whether we will be happy or miserable forever; and such a question, so far as we know, is not left to any other creature but man, thus showing the light in which God views him. If it were not for the terrible work sin has done, we should decide such a question very quickly. He has put the whole responsibility on ourselves.

17 Free Methodist, September 3, 1907