JOHN SAMUEL MACGEARY

THE GREAT COMMISSION All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. The spirit of missions is the spirit of the Master; the very genius of his religion. I am a missionary heart and soul. God had only one Son and he was a missionary and a physician. A poor imitation I am. In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die. . . . I never made a, sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left Hit Father's throne on high to give Himself for me. —David Livingstone. The missionary spirit is the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of the Incarnation and the Cross. Not then to the instrument of the Master, however dear, however noble, but to the Master Himself be all the praise, Who lives to carry on by His own unfailing resources and chosen instrumentalities His work of the redemption of a fallen world, to the high and glorious issues of His eternal kingdom. —H. Grattan Guinness, D. D.

The Hills of Pennsylvania not only produce fine coal and oil; but they also have brought forth many "men to match her mountains." Among these illustrious men from a rugged state may be numbered the subject of this chapter, who was born near Pittsburgh, February 13, 1853. His rugged environment was matched by an equally rugged ancestry going back to the Scotch Covenanters and farther back still to the French Huguenots. His father was a soldier in the Mexican War and later in the Civil War, having been a prisoner in Libby Prison. Liberty was as dear to him as his life.

At the tender age of eight years Mr. MacGeary's home was broken up and he was compelled to shift for himself. Being of a studious turn of mind, he succeeded in fitting himself for teaching, which occupation he followed for a short time. He never formed any bad habits, nevertheless he felt himself a sinner in need of God. When about twenty-two years of age he found his way to a meeting in the neighborhood, where the people were so dead that they did not pray for him, although he requested prayer. On the way home, in the woods by himself, he sought God and was most soundly converted.

He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Later the sainted Rev. S. K. J. Chesbrough and others held a grove meeting in the neighborhood. The young man's heart responded to the truth and he cast in his lot among them.

Feeling the call of God to preach he, after a long struggle, said yes. After some correspondence with General Superintendent B. T. Roberts, he made his way to the Genesee Conference, was admitted on trial and assigned to the Lockport, New York, circuit, as junior preacher with C. C. Eggleston, in 1876.

When the Pittsburgh Conference was organized in 1883, he became one of its charter members, transferring from Genesee. When the conference grew so large that it was advisable to divide the territory in 1899, he remained in the northern part, in the newly-organized Oil City Conference.

His early ministry was pioneer work in new fields. There were few churches in those days and of necessity most of the services were held in homes, schoolhouses or rented halls. He with other pioneers in western Pennsylvania -- Sellew, Barnhart, Bean, Bently, Tobey, Hawkins, Miller, Zahniser, the Sager brothers and a host of others -- suffered hardships such as the present generation knows nothing about. Henry Blews, grandfather of the writer, brought J. S. MacGeary into New Castle, Pennsylvania, and after great toil and sacrifice organized the Arlington Avenue church, and from that point as a hub the New Castle District was built up.

In order to give the children the benefit of a Christian college, he moved to Greenville, Illinois, and Mr. MacGeary traveled for the college about three years, but tiring of the work he returned east, where he was again elected elder in the Oil City Conference.

In 1911 he was elected the first missionary bishop of the church, going directly to India, where he spent three months, thence to South Africa for two and one half years. After he returned to India for about six months. From there he returned to the homeland by way of China and Japan.

The office of missionary bishop being discontinued, Mr. MacGeary was elected missionary secretary and spent one winter visiting the work in China and Japan. He was re-elected the second term and served till the October Executive Committee meeting, when he resigned, feeling the strain of the weighty problems and grind of the office work was too much for his strength.

At the invitation of his boyhood friend, Rev. J. Barnhart, he went to the California Conference, where he was in active service up to the time of his death -- during the last decade of his life.

The call to eternity came just as he wished. His desire was to die in the harness and God granted his wish. While immersed in the busy cares of his pastorate at Oakland, California, preparing for a revival campaign, he suffered from an attack of influenza which on January 20, 1931, suddenly affected his heart and John S. MacGeary, missionary bishop, hero of a thousand battlefields, was with his Lord. His comrade-in-arms at home and on foreign fields, Rev. A. Youngren, preached the funeral sermon from the text, "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?" A cloud of glory overshadowed the service. Six fellow ministers carried his dust to rest in the Mountain View cemetery of Oakland, to await the return of the Lord.

What an enviable record he left behind! For fifty-five continuous years -- in season, out of season, enduring hardness as a good soldier without a murmur -- he served God and the church of his choice. Few servants of the Lord are privileged to equal that record.

During these fifty-five years he served as pastor nineteen years in the Genesee, Pittsburgh, Oil City, and at the close of his life in the California Conference; as district elder, nineteen years; as financial agent of Greenville College, almost three years; as missionary bishop, four years; as missionary secretary, four years.

He was a member of the Missionary Board for a period of sixteen years. He served as delegate to the General Conference eight times and was elected for the ninth time when death called him. For twenty-seven years he was a corresponding editor of the Free Methodist.

Like a star in the firmament, the Christian shines out in luminous luster. A radiant glory abides upon him. Of the Christian graces there are some that stand out in individual lives with greater brightness than others. We would call attention to those graces which characterized the life of John S. MacGeary.

Tenacity of purpose. Although having many obstacles to overcome, he pursued his course through a long life, having only one objective -- the glory of God. Nancy C. Morrow, who knew him in his boyhood days around Tionesta, Pennsylvania, developed this feature of his character.

If the life story of Rev. John S. MacGeary, that prince among men who so recently left us, were to be fully written, no choicer volume could be given to the youth of our own and of future generations. In it could be clearly traced the plan of God for one of varied talents wholly surrendered to Him from his youth up. However, this plan might be disappointing to some, for it contained no "flowery beds of ease"; but, on the other hand, proved that "there is but one element in luck, and that is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck," or Scotch, as it was in this case.

Left an orphan at a very tender age by a father who was one of the loyal defenders of the Union, it became his lot to "earn his bread by the sweat of his brow," among the honest tillers of the soil. Yet for all this, the Holy Spirit, true to His office, in due time showed this youth his great need of salvation, and led him unerringly to the foot of the cross, without any special aid of man.

"Girded when he knew it not," his plans for himself, which seemed right and good, were ruthlessly broken by a Master hand. With him there was no gaining of heaven at a single bound, nor falling headlong into the applause of the world. His diffidence was hard to overcome after he entered the ministry, and his retiring disposition was not conducive to the winning of the applause of those who believed that the true measure of a preacher consisted in the overwhelming power produced on his audience. And, had it not been that he believed God was faithful who had called him, he might doubtless never have been known outside his own conference. Such was the beginning of his ministry.

But the fiber of a sturdy Scotch ancestry that was numbered among the "martyrs of the covenant" was strongly interwoven in Brother MacGeary's character and he met every providential discipline with a calm submission that bespoke a filial spirit buoyed up by communion with Him who is invisible. Faith was shown under every sharp trial. With ambitions baffled, but with unfaltering trust, he turned aside without complaint. Following this, circumstances providentially arose that turned the whole current of his life into the broad, deep, tried and safe channels of Christian activity. God prepared for him an exceptional helpmeet, who was to be for him a true companion indeed, and who was to be of great assistance to final triumph as a minister.

Not satisfied with his attainments, Brother MacGeary became a diligent student of the finest type. Through industry, perseverance, and patient faith, he became a refined Christian gentleman and an eloquent preacher.

Guilelessness. He was a transparent man, free from the arts of diplomacy which lead to self-advancement. He could be taken at face value. He practiced the advice he once gave a young preacher, "The Word of God teaches that we will be rewarded for our works, not for our scheming." We quote Rev. N. B. Ghormley:

"Others will speak of his eminence as a minister, of his ability as an administrator, of his genius and versatility as a writer, of his pleasing impressive personality, of his enduring qualities as a friend. But to us who knew him well on the mission field and subsequently, his outstanding characteristic was that of guilelessness. More than once we have observed the shining of this quality, under circumstances which to many if not most would seem to justify a measure of dissimulation, a suggestion of self-interest. In him, never the discourteous, the uncouth, or the ungentle; always the considerate, the self-effacing, the absence of the ego. As he takes the little step within the veil, to enter upon activities greater by far -- for One who rules there affirms that the faithful shall be made rulers over many things -- let us bid him farewell with, 'So bonana ekuseni' ('we will meet you in the morning'), as we bade him good-bye at the Durban wharf. May God raise us many, equally gracious, equally patient, equally guileless."

Strength and gentleness combined. On this point we quote the well-chosen words of Bishop Pearce:

"Rev. John S. MacGeary was a blend of two great character elements, strength and gentleness. Strong men, men well endowed intellectually, are, oftener than not, sternly vigorous and in many cases self-assertive and grandly patronizing to those actually, or seemingly, less favored than themselves; and this is sometimes so very apparent that friendships go glimmering and the little Lucifer son of the morning, elicits only a small amount of sympathy from the body politic when for evil cause the wonder is evoked, 'How art thou fallen'!

"With our brother's evident strength went a rare, a superb refinement of soul. God's gentleness made him great; the Spirit's anointing made him strong. His native fiber, cleansed by the redeeming blood of Jesus, made for a singularly influential and godly life and a devoted and successful service for the Lord of the church.

"Look at the symmetry of his life! He was a husband and father of the first order. In East or West or in lands across the sea he was the same unfluctuating personality. Some men seem essentially local. He was a cosmopolitan man through a cosmopolitan Savior, always thoroughly furnished to all good works.

"He was a great preacher, a worthy bishop, a wise administrator, wonderful among his loved ones, firm and true in his friendships."

As a Missionary Bishop

It is upon his work as missionary bishop that we wish to lay special emphasis. In this field he made his greatest contribution to the church as a whole. He was deeply devoted to the cause of missions. In addition he had almost unlimited patience in sifting the details necessary to render just decisions regarding both persons and policies on the foreign field. He was unusually free from personal bias. His administration of our missionary interests was eminently successful. Aggressive in extending the missionary program, he kept within proper financial bounds so that no sinister reactions came upon the work so dear to his heart. Consequently his administration of our far-reaching missionary project was unusually satisfactory both to the workers in the "no man's land" of distant climes and also to the church in the homeland.

An evaluation of his work in the foreign fields can best be given by the missionaries themselves.

BY REV. S. D. CASBERG

I feel that God has removed from His church on earth another of her great pillars, and through that removal not only the church in the homeland has suffered loss, but the foreign field has lost one of its most earnest and able advocates.

As one member of a large group of missionaries, I feel the loss most keenly. We shall never forget the wise counsel and fatherly advice of Brother MacGeary during the time he spent with us in India as missionary bishop. He captured the hearts of the Indian Christians from the very first. His great fatherly spirit was instantly manifest to both missionaries and Indian Christians alike.

Later on, when he honored the church by accepting the office of missionary secretary, we, as missionaries, became more deeply attached to him. His tender sympathy and fatherly counsel during that period are some of our memory's most sacred treasures.

Rosa H. Smith gives this appraisal of his work in Africa:

When the General Conference of 1911 ordered Brother MacGeary to Africa he came with a missionary's (not a bishop's) salary, ready to use oil lamps, travel on donkeys and ox wagons, and endure the hardships of mission life, and we at Inhambane knew he endured them without a murmur.

He was a great preacher, feeding the missionaries with a feast of good things and also the colonial people of Natal, when he was invited to preach in their churches. But, notwithstanding the depths of his preaching, he could simplify his addresses so that the humblest natives could grasp the thoughts, a difficult task for many new missionaries.

He was a leader, not a driver, firm for the right, yet tender, actually shedding tears for persons with whom he had to deal firmly and showing such tenderness and fatherly sympathy and fairness that even those in the wrong could not but feel in him the spirit of Jesus and that he was a friend and father to all.

As a Writer

As a writer, he excelled. Those stable qualities of his personality were unmistakably interwoven in his writing. He had a distinctive mission to spread scriptural holiness -- and he fulfilled it both in the pulpit and with his pen. His articles in the Free Methodist on holiness will long be remembered. His thought, clear and comprehensive, was expressed in sturdy Anglo-Saxon. His declarations of truth were not "a flash in the pan" but were of the type which were worthy of meditation and critical scrutiny. In 1924 he wrote an extended series of editorials upon his favorite theme, the atonement, which are worthy of preservation.

For a long period of years he was a corresponding editor of the Free Methodist and for a number of years was a contributor to the Sunday school quarterlies. When the first teacher's training course was inaugurated, the Sunday School Board requested him to write an "Outline History of the Free Methodist Church" as a unit of the course. It served its purpose admirably and was also widely read by the church in general, since Hogue's exhaustive history was not yet published.

A Tribute from His Life-long Friend, Bishop A D. Zahniser

About the year 1884 a new family moved into a community center known as Stewarts Run, Forest County, Pennsylvania. The only established place of public worship in this vicinity was "The White Church," where the Wesleyan Methodists and the Free Methodists worshipped on alternate Sabbaths. The announcement was made that a young Free Methodist preacher who had been reared and converted in the community and was formerly a district school teacher, would occupy the pulpit on the following Sabbath. The oldest son in this new family, then about eighteen years of age, attended the service.

At the appointed time, a large, fine-looking man, about twenty-seven years of age, with clean-cut features, a wealth of dark brown hair, with beard and mustache to match, the sides of his face being clean shaven, entered the church, kneeling reverently in silent prayer as he took his place in the humble pulpit. He was very plainly but neatly dressed and presented a striking personal appearance. The young minister was introduced to the congregation as "Johnnie MacGeary." The preacher's voice was clear and forceful, his manner pleasing, his gestures and movements peculiar to himself, his language plain and correct. The speaker evidenced a sincerity, simplicity and an unconscious dignity.

Little did that unsaved lad of eighteen years, who sat in the congregation, dream that he would some day be associated with the preacher of this occasion in the ministry of the same denomination and write a tribute as a meager expression of his high appreciation of this good and great man at the close of his life's labors. This was the youth's first introduction to Free Methodism and his first time to see Rev. John S. MacGeary.

The subject of this inadequate tribute had much to overcome in the beginning of his career. He was compelled to rely exclusively on his own resources. He was naturally bashful and retiring. Nature had endowed him with a strong physique, fine personal appearance, a bright and inquiring mind, a tender conscience and strong will.

This ambitions youth capitalized the obstacles that confronted him, making them stepping-stones to a useful and successful career. Converted and sanctified in his teens, he took the Word of God as his counsel, the life of Christ as his pattern, and the Holy Spirit as his inspiration and guide. He united with the Free Methodist Church as a matter of clear conviction, and responded to a definite, divine call to the ministry of the gospel and became an outstanding figure in her history; a strong and able defender of her principles and doctrines.

The young minister's marriage to Miss Ella L. Hapgood, a teacher in the public schools, an excellent young lady, and a fine Christian character, proved a mutual blessing. She was an excellent conversationalist, and possessed fine social qualities, which seemed to supplement his natural seclusiveness. Theirs was a very happy marriage relation. His ardent love and loyal devotion for his life companion continued to the end. They each had their independent opinions and occasionally agreed to disagree harmoniously, maintaining their individuality in a mutually helpful manner.

J. S. MacGeary possessed an analytical, discriminating, constructively-critical mind. He accepted nothing as final that would not pass a fair test according to the process of reason, based on a sound premise.

He was an excellent writer. Anything from his pen was always worth a careful and thoughtful reading. He was a wise counselor, an able and efficient church leader. As pastor, district elder, missionary bishop and general missionary secretary, he was impartial and absolutely fair to all. His work was never inflated or exaggerated. He was an easy man to follow. His successors found his work based on a solid foundation. He was ever ready to take a firm stand for truth and righteousness, without respect as to how it might affect his standing, though few, if any, prized the confidence and esteem of his fellows more than he. He was fair, open and frank in debate and always manifested the spirit of the Master.

As a preacher Rev. J. S. MacGeary excelled from practically every viewpoint. His messages were masterful; they were logically, homiletically, theologically, scripturally and experientally sound. He glorified God, as God, and magnified man as man, stressing the atonement and the infinite possibilities of redeemed humanity in time and eternity. He faithfully warned the wicked of their sure, dreadful and everlasting retribution if they continued in rebellion against the government of God.

A TRIBUTE BY THE AUTHOR

The Roman poet Ovid said, "The way to be loved is to be lovely." John S. MacGeary was lovable because of his lovely character. The words of Jesus concerning Nathanael under the fig tree, "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile," had a faithful incarnation in him. The soul of sincerity, he never stooped to any human expedients to further his own interests. He was a transparent man.

With the passing of Brother MacGeary the church has lost one of its pioneers who literally suffered want for Jesus' sake in the raising up of Free Methodism in western Pennsylvania. Just before his death he wrote the following letter to his lifelong friend, Rev. Edward Blews, who was celebrating his sixtieth wedding anniversary:

"The recent sudden passing of M. B. Miller caused me to take a retrospect of the past forty-five or fifty years. It made me realize that I am getting to be a bit like 'the last leaf on the tree in the spring.' So far as I know there is only one man now living who was a member of the old Genesee Conference when I was admitted in the fall of 1876 and he has been laid aside from active work for perhaps fifteen years. Of those received into the original Pittsburgh Conference at its organization all are gone but D. B. Tobey, M. L. Schooley and myself. And I am the only one of these still active in the work. You and your brother, Harry, and Joe Zanini are about the only ones left who were received into the New Castle society when I organized it forty-five years ago. I shall never forget that winter. I was insufficiently clad for such cold weather and suffered intensely with the cold on those long drives from Charleston in Mercer County to New Castle and back and forth (a distance of about thirty miles) . You remember, I think, that I was taken sick during the revival meeting and was confined to the house for about six weeks. I lay in a stupor most of the last day I was in New Castle, in your father's home, but preached in the evening and the next day drove home. Part of the way I did not know where I was, but my horse took me home. I got into the house and went to bed. Wife sent for Dr. Lee and he came and worked over me a good deal of the night. I feel that under God I owe my life to him. Brother Sager continued the meeting. But I would gladly go through it all again to see such a revival as we had at that time. And the fruit has come since. Surely, 'the tears of the sower and the songs of the reaper shall mingle together in joy by and by.' What a goodly number have gone over from the New Castle and Coaltown work. What a meeting it will be in the morning."

As a boy, his spirit of sacrifice and that of his faithful wife made a deep impression upon me and, in the words of Paul, "I am a debtor." His life is like that of the monk, who was shipwrecked on a lonely island. This monk always carried his pockets full of seeds to plant as he went about. He planted his seeds, then died. Many years later when men came to inhabit the island they found it covered with apple trees laden with fruit. So we today enjoy the fruits of his faithful toil. May his spirit of sacrifice fall upon the younger preachers of the church.

We feel concerning him personally as did Benjamin Franklin who wrote this classic to a friend:

"I condole with you. We have lost a most dear and valuable relation. But it is the will of God and nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside when the soul is to enter into real life. This is rather an embryo state, a preparation for living.

"A man is not completely born until he be dead. Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals, a new member added to their happy society?

"We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or in doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God. When they become unfit for these purposes, and afford us pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an encumbrance, and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them.

"Death is that way. We ourselves, in some cases, prudently choose a partial death. A mangled, painful limb, which cannot be restored we willingly cut off. He who plucks out a tooth parts with it freely, since the pain goes with it; and he who quits the body, parts at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases which it is liable to or capable of making him suffer.

"Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure, which is to last forever. His chair was ready first, and he has gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together; and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and know where to find him: Adieu."

Brother MacGeary is gone -- one of God's noblemen. He was a calm man, well-poised, pointed in speech, accurate in thought, sane in his judgments, a penetrating gospel preacher whose message searched the consciences of men. The Free Methodist Church has lost one of her most able servants, who after more than a half century's toil has entered into his richly-merited reward.