
JONATHAN GOFORTH
1859 - 1936
Jonathan was the seventh
of the eleven children born to Francis and
Jane (Bates) Goforth, farmers in Thorndale,
Ontario, Canada. His formal education was
often interrupted by the seasonal needs of
farm work. At the age of fifteen, he was put
in charge of a second farm his father owned.
He was brought up in the Presbyterian Church
and committed his life to Christ when he was
eighteen and shortly thereafter he joined
the church. He read the autobiography of Robert
Murray M'Cheyne, an evangelist to the Jews,
and felt called to become a minister. While
listening to a sermon by G. L. MacKay, a Presbyterian
missionary to Formosa, he felt another call--to
be a missionary. He had already taken a course
in business in London, Ontario, in addition
to his high school courses in nearby Ingersoll.
Now he enrolled, at the age of 23, in Knox
College in Toronto. Despite early traumatic
experiences when he was mocked as a hayseed
by more sophisticated classmates, he eventually
won the respect of faculty and students because
of his enthusiasm for evangelism and his personal
piety. He often preached at rescue missions
in Toronto or visited prisons or went door-to-door
to witness to families. During summers, he
participated in home missions work. It was
while he was assisting at the Toronto Union
Mission in 1885 that he met Rosalind Bell-Smith,
his future wife.
Rosalind was born in London,
England. Her family moved to Montreal, Canada,
in 1867. Her father was John Bell-Smith, founder
of the Royal Academy of Art in Canada. At
the age of twelve, she had been converted
at a revival meeting. She attended the Toronto
School of Art, graduating in 1885, and before
going to London to continue her studies, she
became involved in the work of the Toronto
Mission Union and met Jonathan. In the autumn
of the same year they became engaged and were
married in 1887.
Jonathan had early decided
that China would be his mission field. The
Presbyterian Church in Canada had no field
in China, so he applied to China Inland Mission.
He never received a reply, but his fellow
students at Knox College raised funds so that
he could go out under the Presbyterian Board.
The Board appointed Jonathan and J. Fraser
Smith to China. In October of 1887, he was
ordained.
The Goforths left Canada
for China in February, 1888. They arrived
in Chefoo (or Yantai in the Pinyin romanization)
in Shantung (or Shandong in Pinyin romanization)
province and stayed to study the Chinese language
and prepare themselves for work in the northern
part of Honan (or Henan in the Pinyin romanization)
province, which was the field assigned to
the Presbyterian Church of Canada . The Goforth's
first child, Gertrude Madeline, was born in
August. The Goforths eventually had ten more
children: Donald, Paul, Florence, Helen, Grace,
Ruth, William, [Amelia] Constance, Mary, and
[John] Frederick. Gertrude, Donald, Florence,
Grace, and Constance all died as babies or
very young children. Ruth married D. I. Jeffrey,
a missionary to French Indochina; Helen married
Dr. George Van Gorder, and Mary married Rev.
Robert Moynan.)
Toward the end of 1888, more
recruits began arriving from Canada and Jonathan,
together with Smith, took a trip through North
Honan. In December, the Presbytery of North
Honan was formed (Jonathan was the first moderator)
and the next year Goforth began to go on preaching
tours through the field. For two years, the
mission base was in Linching, Shantung, but
in 1890 a home was secured in Chuwang in Honan.
In 1894, the mission moved to Changte (Changde
in the Pinyin romanization). For the next
several years, Jonathan's time was spent on
preaching tours, with small but growing results.
The family's first furlough back to Canada
took place during 1894-1895. After their return,
Jonathan continued his tours. Rosalind stayed
in Changte and had Bible classes for local
women in addition to running the home. The
Goforths began to hold "open house"
for Chinese visitors, since many were intensely
curious about western life style and this
provided a good opportunity for evangelizing.
Thousands were led through the home between
1894 and 1899. There was some criticism, however,
by other missionaries of this policy, as they
felt it lowered the Chinese opinion of westerners.
In 1900, the so-called Boxer
Rebellion broke out. All foreigners in China
were in great physical danger from Chinese
infuriated by the years of insults and humiliation
their nation had suffered from the West and
Japan. In June, the missionaries in Changte
received word from the American consul in
Chefoo to flee south. The party set out for
Hankow. On July 7, outside of Hsintien, the
party was attacked by a mob, all their property
taken, and Jonathan was beaten almost to death.
They found refuge in a village of Moslems.
After many more adventures, the missionaries
reached Hankow. They went from there to Shanghai
and from Shanghai returned to Canada.
Jonathan returned to Honan
in 1901, as soon as it was feasible, and in
July, 1902, Rosalind and the children left
Canada to join him. The work of the field
had been revised and Jonathan had received
the area northeast to northwest of the city.
He decided to attempt a different method of
evangelizing. He would take his family with
him, rather than leave them in Changte. He
would not have to return to the mission base
for months at a time. The family would move
to a village and stay for a month while Jonathan
and his helpers preached to the men and Rosalind
preached to the women. After about a month,
they would move on. Rosalind at first strongly
opposed the plan for fear that the conditions
would be too unhygienic for the health of
the children. She finally acquiesced, however.
(They had lost five children by 1901. All
of their other children survived.) Other missionaries,
however, doubted the wisdom of Jonathan's
methods. The Presbytery finally allowed him
to put them into practice on a three-year
trial basis and he had to finance the work
at his own expense. The trial proved successful
and from February to June and September to
December each year the Goforth family went
on evangelizing tours. As the children grew
older, they were sent to the boarding school
at Chefoo and then to Canada for their higher
education.
About 1904, Jonathan received
a copy of Charles Finney's Lectures on Revivals.
He became convinced that there were laws which,
if followed, would bring great spiritual awakenings.
He was also excited by the stories he began
to hear about the Welsh revival. He began
to spend many hours in Bible study and prayer
studying the nature of revivals. In 1907,
Jonathan was chosen to accompany the foreign
mission secretary of his Board, R. P. MacKay,
on a trip to Korea. They arrived in Korea
to find themselves in the midst of a revival
that stirred them deeply. They returned to
Honan through Manchuria and, as Jonathan described
the Korean experience to crowds at Manchurian
mission stations, he received invitations
to hold evangelistic meetings in that province.
With difficulty, he received permission from
the Honan Presbytery to go. The few weeks
he spent in Manchuria in February, 1908, were
a turning point in his life, for he preached
to large crowds in many places and became
closely associated with the religious enthusiasm
that was manifesting itself in the province.
From this time forward, Jonathan was known
throughout China as an evangelist.
In 1908, the Honan Presbytery
gave Goforth permission to go virtually full-time
into evangelism all through China. Because
Jonathan would be constantly traveling, Rosalind
returned with the children to Canada in July
to await his next furlough, when they would
be reunited. Jonathan preached in many towns,
especially in the province of Shansi (Shanxi
in the Pinyin romanization). He also helped
train Chinese evangelists and was one of the
prime movers behind the formation of a Presbytery
of Chinese believers in 1909. By 1912, eight
Chinese men had been ordained as ministers.
Also in 1909, Jonathan left
for furlough. He returned to Canada via London,
England, where he preached about the revivals
in China. After a brief time in Toronto, he
attended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in Canada. There he again described
the revivals in China and Korea and he emphasized
the need of Canadian church leaders to renew
their faith and to give more active support
to evangelism. The speech won him enemies
and he began to acquire a reputation among
some as a fanatic, difficult to get along
with. Jonathan was appointed a delegate to
the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh,
Scotland, in 1910. He and his family went
to Britain where, in addition to attending
the conference, Jonathan held revival meetings
and spoke at Spurgeon's Tabernacle and the
Keswick meetings.
By August, 1910, Jonathan,
Rosalind, and their children were back in
Honan. Goforth was required by the Home Board
of his church to spend less time preaching
at revival meetings. He and Rosalind were
assigned to Weihuifu. In 1914, they returned
to Changte. Jonathan gave part of his time
to helping start churches in Honan and part
of his time training Chinese evangelists.
In 1915, Knox College awarded
Jonathan an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
Jonathan and Rosalind,in that same year, went
on a tour of China Inland Mission stations
south of the Yangtze River, during which Jonathan
preached at many revival meetings. By the
end of the tour, his health, which had been
precarious before the tour, was much worse.
The Goforth family returned to Canada in 1916
and the next year was spent in rest. The Goforths
were back in China by the fall of 1917 to
face a serious personal and professional crisis.
Jonathan had felt for some time that some
missionaries coming to the field were not
fully committed to the Christian faith as
he understood it and were not preaching the
full Christian Gospel. This was a part of
the greater fundamentalist-modernist conflict
which was gaining impetus throughout Protestant
churches in North America. Because Jonathan
could not accept a Presbytery decision to
allow both fundamentalists and liberals to
preach as they felt led, he sent his resignation
to the Home Board. The Board allowed him to
remain a member of the mission, but removed
him from any responsibility for the Changte
field. He was now free to evangelize where
he chose in China. A family home was built
in Kikungshan (Jigongshan in the Pinyin romanization),
but Jonathan and Rosalind spent most of the
next few years traveling.
In 1919, the Goforths received
an invitation from the warlord Feng Yu-hsiang
to hold meetings for his troops. Feng had
himself been converted at a meeting led by
John R. Mott. He was called, especially by
missionaries, the Christian General. Besides
his faith, he was also known for the orderly
conduct of his troops and his efforts to supply
his men with a vocational education as well
as training as soldiers. Both Jonathan and
Rosalind became friends and strong supporters
of Feng. Jonathan preached to his troops several
times in the coming years.
In 1920, Honan and other
parts of north central China faced severe
famine. Rosalind wrote articles for western
magazines and newspapers and helped administer
the funds that were raised to buy relief supplies.
The Chinese government later gave her a medal
in recognition of her efforts. Later the same
year, she and Jonathan went on a speaking
tour of south China, and then spent time working
with Feng's army in Honan. At about the same
time, Rosalind published two books, Chinese
Diamonds for the King of Kings (1920) and
How I Know God Answers Prayer (1921). In 1923,
Rosalind had to return to Canada because of
poor health. In the spring of 1924 Jonathan
joined her there on furlough.
The Presbyterian Church in
Canada was debating whether to unite with
other churches in the country. Partly because
he feared that the liberal tendencies in the
proposed union would be very strong, Jonathan
voted against it. The Presbyterian Church
in Canada was maintained as a separate organization.
The North Honan field as a mission, however,
went into the Union. Consequently, the Goforths
were without a mission field. Jonathan was
commissioned by the church to find a new field
of service for their missionaries. He returned
with Rosalind to China in early 1926. Their
daughter, Mary, returned with them along with
her husband, Rev. Robert Moynan. However,
the Moynans had to return to Canada in 1927.
After many false starts and dead ends, Jonathan
received a letter from Rev. James McCammon
suggesting that he consider Manchuria. In
January, 1927, Jonathan, Rosalind, and three
other missionaries traveled to their new field,
the territory west of the Southern Manchurian
Railway. The major station for the field was
established at Szepingkai on May 1, 1927.
The next eight years were extraordinarily
busy. Jonathan continued to hold evangelistic
meetings in addition to establishing churches
and helping to train new missionaries. He
and Rosalind wrote a book about their experiences
entitled Miracle Lives of China, which was
published in 1931. With the help of his son
Fred, he prepared another book, By My Spirit,
which was about Christian revivals in China
and which was published after Jonathan's death.
Rosalind, as she had been doing for many years,
wrote articles about the work for western
magazines and newspapers and sent hundreds
of letters to supporters. She also did evangelistic
work among women. By 1935, there were two
resident missionary stations (Szepingkai and
Taonan) and 30 outstations. There were seven
western missionaries (including Jonathan,
Rosalind, and their son Paul) and 61 Chinese
evangelists and Bible women. Besides the work
among Chinese and Manchus, there was a Mongolian
evangelist who preached to his people. Jonathan's
principle associate and eventual successor
as head of the mission was Allan Reoch.
The Goforths had a furlough
to Canada in 1930. During the furlough, Rosalind
had a successful operation for cataracts.
However, Jonathan also developed cataracts
and the operation on his right eye was not
successful. By April, 1931, he was completely
blind in his right eye. In May, Jonathan,
Rosalind, and Paul returned to Manchuria,
where the work was hampered by shortages of
workers and funds. However, the growth in
the number of converts and baptisms continued.
(By 1934, there had been 2,554 people baptized
and a community of 3,261 Christians was served
by the mission.) Jonathan became completely
blind in March, 1933. With the help of a Chinese
companion, he continued to preach at evangelistic
meetings and direct the mission. However,
his health continued to decline and when Rosalind,
too, became ill in December, 1934, they decided
the time had come to return to Canada for
good.
Through much of 1935 and
1936, Jonathan led evangelistic meetings throughout
Canada. But many ministers in the church denounced
his preaching as emotional or reactionary
and would not let him preach in their pulpits.
The controversies and the extensive speaking
tours took their toll of his strength. On
October 8, 1936, he died in his sleep.
Rosalind continued to live
in Toronto, where she and Jonathan had settled
on their return from China. She spoke and
wrote to help raise money for the mission
in Manchuria. She also wrote two books based
on the work of her husband and herself: Goforth
of China (1937) and Climbing (1940). The latter
was her autobiography. She died May 31, 1942,
of angina.