As His Friends Know Him
IT is a steep climb up the New Hampshire mountain roadway, severely testing the hillclimbing powers of an automobile, to get to “Crestwood,” the summer home of Dr. C. I. Scofield at Ashuelot. But the hilltop view, after you have reached it, is worth the climb. From the house itself, and the garden round about it, one looks off over the beautiful Connecticut Valley with a sense of satisfying height, and distance, and sky and clouds and the glories of God’s world. East Northfield, rich with memories of the ministry of D. L. Moody, is seen in the distance. Birds and flowers are round about in abundance. A bit of a cabin, a hundred yards or more from the house, forms a secluded study for Dr. Scofield, and there one finds chosen treasures of his rich library, marked and well-worn Bibles, and jottings on sermons and addresses. There are evident reasons for the unusual
catholicity of Dr. Scofield’s temperament, in- 115 terests, and relationships. Love of nature, love of men, love of scholarship, love of hard work, love of God and the Word of God — all these have combined to make the man as his friends know him. People who see him only as he has been ever since his conversion, with his simplicity of life and habits, would not realize that he was brought up in an extremely ritualistic way, as an Episcopalian. But this gives him a sympathy with that side of life that he might otherwise never have had. Yet when working on the monumental labor of his life, the Scofield Reference Bible, in Oxford, England, he and Mrs. Scofield found a welcome spiritual fellowship in a little group of Plymouth Brethren who worshipped there.
When this latter fact was mentioned in these biographical chapters as they were first published in the columns of The Sunday School Times, a Pennsylvania pastor-reader of that paper wrote to the biographer:
“This naturally raises the question: How far did Dr. Scofield and Mrs. Scofield share the peculiar beliefs of these people? On which of the many points which Plymouth Brethren set up to justify them in maintaining a separate denominational existence were they in accord?”
Dr. Scofield as He Is To-day
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Dr. Scofield’s own answer to this question will be read with interest by many:
“I am a minister of the Presbyterian Church, South, accepting in all sincerity the standards, and happy in the fellowship, of that branch of Presbyterianism, which seems to me very careful as to the doctrinal company it keeps in these easy days. But being such and so, I found it for certain personal reasons most convenient to worship usually while in Oxford with a little group of worthy middle-class Englishmen of the sect — they would warmly deny being a sect — of the so-called ‘Open Brethren.’ Just as in my wide-spread ministry I have worshipped with pretty nearly all of the other sects.
“I love the Baptists, but have never been asked, after a week in a Baptist pulpit: ‘On which of the many points which Baptists set up to justify themselves in maintaining a separate denominational existence were Mrs. Scofield and myself in accord?’ I gathered that ‘Brethren’ are emphatic for separatism — with their idea of which Mrs. Scofield and I are not in accord.
“But since every one of the Protestant sects had its origin in Separatism, based on doctrinal discord, mostly of the hair-splitting variety, and since Separatism was never once referred to in that simple, godly gathering in an old lumberyard office in Oxford, I no more felt constrained to raise the point than when I am worshipping with my Baptist, Methodist, or Dutch Reformed brethren. I have, indeed, had for many years an occasional happy Lord’s day with the church of which this Pennsylvania reader is the justly esteemed pastor, and I do not to this day know to which branch, limb, or twig of our manifold Presbyterianism his great church belongs. But I love that church, and I love him.”
And again — “You’re a better Jew than I am,” said a Jew to Dr. Scofield in all heartiness.
When he was asked recently what was his present denominational relationship, he wrote the following characteristic reply:
“I was ordained thirty-seven years ago as pastor of the First Congregational Church of Dallas, Texas. I remained in that pastorate until my removal to Northfield, Massachusetts, at the invitation of Mr. D. L. Moody and the First Congregational Church of that place. After seven years of happy work there, I resigned the active pastorate to begin the preparation of the Reference Bible and to finish the Correspondence Course.
“I had been aware that the Congregationalist denomination was rapidly changing its stand on certain doctrinal questions of great importance to my understanding of the Christian faith, but I am not controversial by nature, and was too intensely interested and occupied in Bible study to give close attention to current discussions. And so it happened that, at last, I lifted my face from my work and found that the denomination, in whose fellowship I have found great and true men of God, had resolutely moved to positions to which I could not follow. It was, therefore, heartening to look about me and find that I was in the very midst of a people to whom the old definitions, the old methods of expression, sufficed — the Southern Presbyterian Church. I reflected that they were the very people who, equally with the Congregationalists, knew me best, and I asked the Paris, Texas, Presbytery of that denomination to take me into its membership. And they did, with many gratifying expressions of welcome, and there I have been restful and happy.
“There is not a trace of bitterness in my heart in all this, for my memory holds too many instances of kind things said and done by my Congregationalist brothers to leave any room for anything but gratitude and esteem; but it remains true that the designation ‘Congregationalist’ would not now describe me. It stands for certain liberties which I do not allow myself, and for a certain attitude toward the Bible and historic Christianity which is not my attitude.”
There is something in Dr. Scofield that draws people close to him. As a veteran of the Confederate Army, having fought through the Civil War, he surprised certain people in Dallas, Texas, during his memorable pastorate in that great Southern State. On a certain Memorial Day he was invited to speak to the veterans of the local “Camp” of Confederates. And about the same time he was asked if he would address, on that Memorial Day, the local Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. This would have seemed a dilemma to some men. But Pastor Scofield went to the heads of each of these organizations and asked whether there would be any objection to having the members of both associations of veterans meet together, in his church, for a joint service. Those in charge said there would be no objection, though some doubt was expressed as to whether the men would come. But when the invitation was extended the men did indeed come, in two separate bodies, and the meeting was splendidly attended. Scofield gave a straightforward message, including the Gospel; and as a result of that service some of the veterans, meeting with this true pastor in his study afterward, were led to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. And joint meetings of the Confederate and the Union veterans have been continued since that time on Memorial Day.
One of the first impressions I ever had of Dr. Scofield was as to the ease with which people could get to him. It was at the time of the great Prophetic Conference held in Chicago in February of 1914, less than six months before the storm of the world war broke. He gave a fearless Scriptural message on the assurance in God’s ‘Word that world-wide and permanent peace can never come save by the coming of the Prince of Peace, though that message was laughed at by the general public and newspaper reporters at that time. I think this was the first time I had ever seen or heard Dr. Scofield, and I hoped I might get his autograph in my personal copy of the Scofield Reference Bible.
At the close of one of his addresses I sought him out, and found that others-had the same desire. And I supposed that a man of his prominence, so much in demand for public addresses, must be more or less annoyed by the importunity of strangers coming to him and “bothering” him for an autograph. Even then he was about to leave the church to catch a train. But he greeted every individual who came up to him at the close of that meeting, even as he greeted me, then an entire stranger, as though we were all doing him a personal favor by letting him write in our Bibles! I think I have never seen such genuine courtesy and unaffected Christian love in a conference speaker or Bible teacher as I saw in him at that time, and as I have seen in him many times since.
When Dr. Scofield was at Northfield one of the students served him as his “chore boy.” That student is now pastor of a church in New England, the Rev. Robert Clark, of Lyndon, Vermont; and his tribute to Dr. Scofield confirms what so many others have come to know of the man. Mr. Clark writes:
“TI was intimately acquainted with him when he was president of the Northfield Bible Training School. From 1900 to 1903 the school was open to men; I attended it during these years. That
I loved and revered the doctor as a teacher goes without saying. He is my spiritual father, and I owe to him, under God, more than I owe to any other man. He brought me into the light and liberty of the Gospel, and gave me methods of Bible study that have proved fruitful ever since.
“But I was even more closely associated with the doctor than as a student, for I worked for him for a year as his ‘chore boy,’ and spent the summer with him at his summer camp. During that time I was much in his company, driving him to his appointments, or to the train, or riding out in the afternoons. In this way I came to know him very well, and I can truly say that the closer contact deepened my love and respect for him.
“I found that Dr. Scofield was a companionable man. He never seemed to feel any distance between himself, the man of wide experience, and ‘a raw country youth; he talked as freely to me as to his guests. He was always ready to give me aid and to clear up some difficulty in my Bible study.
“I found that Dr. Scofield was a humble man. He was teachable. He was as ready to listen to the experience of the humblest believer as to the mature saint, and he believed that he could learn from both.:
“I found that Dr. Scofield was a man of prayer. He prayed about everything, the little things as well as the big things: all were carried to the throne of grace. Two things in this connection made a deep impression on me.
“In the doctor’s study, when I agreed to stay with him for the summer, we knelt down and he prayed for God’s blessing on our relations as master and servant.
“One morning, when I went over to the family tent to get orders for the day, I heard him praying. I paused, and I heard my name mentioned; he was praying for me, that I might have a pleasant trip down to the village. That was characteristic of his life and practice.”
This man who has helped such countless multitudes loves to commend others who are helping their fellows. He one time wrote a letter to the office of The Sunday School Times, speaking with discriminating and hearty appreciation of the special writing that was being done, in different departments of that paper, by various members of its staff. Then he added:
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“Thank God for the gifts, but how important to remember that while the Holy Spirit makes gifted Christians, ‘dividing to every man severally as he will,’ yet it is the blessed Lord who assigns the place of service of the men thus endowed. And just as there is no self-choice of gift, so there is no self-choice of the place and sphere of service in the gift. When I find a man ministering His gift, in the right place, I’m just happy — oh, yes, and HELPED.”
Dr. Scofield loves all nature — not only men and women and children, but the whole created world, still so beautiful in spite of what Satan and sinners have done to mar God’s work. I recall how he once pointed to a glowing, blazing bed of poppies, and asked if I did not think their brilliant color was wonderful against the dark green of the fields and the trees in the background.
A little bird bath has been cut from the natural stone, just outside the “Crestwood”’ house, for the countless little friends of the air that the Scofields love.
And to hear Dr. Scofield talk about St. Francis of Assisi, in his love of nature, is a memorable experience. He read aloud to us page after page from that old Christian’s writings, dwelling upon the nature-love there. Thus: “This perfect lover of poverty [St. Francis] permitted one luxury — he even commanded it at Portiuncula — that of flowers; the Brother was bidden not to sow vegetables and useful plants only; he must reserve one corner of good ground for ‘our sisters, the flowers of the fields.’ Francis talked with them also, or rather he replied to them, for their mysterious and gentle language crept into the very depth of his heart.”
In a Bible study on the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel Dr. Scofield has said, commenting on our Lord’s words, “I go to prepare a place for you”: “He is giving me an experience of it in this beautiful world of variety. Why should I want to live in a marble mansion cold and fine? I want to live in nature, in a. place which exactly responds to my complex nature.” And it is a conviction of his that we shall find heaven filled with such beauties as God has already given to us in the world of nature so lovingly provided for His children now and here, only, of course, then infinitely more beautiful and more wonderful.
No one who is as human as this man of God could be lacking in a keen sense of humor. And no one can long be with Dr. Scofield without finding contagious evidences of his love of fun and of wit. Like all persons who really enjoy humor, he can see a joke on himself as well as on others. He tells one such, which occurred when he was preaching ata conference. His son was a little fellow of five or six years at that time, and insisted on sitting on the platform with his father. For a while the youngster played quietly with his father’s watch, which had been given to him to keep him quiet. Then, without warning, the boy crossed the platform and handed the watch to his father, who was in the midst of his sermon. Dr. Scofield was by no means near the conclusion of his address, but, to the surprise of the presiding officer, he hastily closed his message. When asked later about the abruptness with which he had brought his sermon to an end, he explained that he thought his allotted time was up, and that his young son had been sent in this way to inform him!
He likes to tell of an experience he had when he was a private in the Confederate Army, and had gone off with some fellow-soldiers to rob an apple orchard. As they were in the midst of their looting, a Confederate officer passed down the road, and, looking across the fence into the orchard, asked the boys what they were doing. There was nothing to answer, except to explain that they were helping themselves to the apples; and they stood in fear and trembling as to what would come next. The officer drew his sword, passed it over the fence to young Scofield, and said laconically, “Spear me one, will you?” The relief was intense.
Another Confederate reminiscence which appeals to Dr. Scofield’s sense of humor is in connection with a formal dinner that he attended, to which Senator Roscoe Conkling had been invited. The Senator failed to appear until quite late, and then came, in immaculate evening dress of course, to join the rest who had been expectantly waiting his arrival. “In his oracular and ponderous way,” says Dr. Scofield, “the great statesman explained his delay: ‘The senior Senator from Massachusetts [Sumner] has just been making his annual attempt to enact a law to abolish the distinction made by God Almighty between black and white.’”
Readers of The Sunday School Times may recall a characteristic letter from Dr. Scofield, written to the Editor at the time the latter’s church was looking for a new pastor. A high standard both of orthodoxy and of pastoral abilities was set up by that church; and Dr. Scofield wrote about the matter as follows:
“Ts it faith, or is it presumption in this pagan age, for your dear church to ask so much of the ministry of the day? I have read, of course, with perfect delight the resolutions of your church as to the faith necessary to be held by the pastor whom you seek. But when I look upon the ministry of the day and the material actually at hand, I am dismayed and overwhelmed by the contrast. The coming of the Lord draws near, and we shall soon have with us again the Apostle Paul — I would put him first among those whom I would recommend, and I can think of no other who would fill all these requisites, considering I myself have passed the age of pastoral work.”
Deepest intensity of conviction is as characteristic of this man as his lighter and tenderer side. Those who attended one of the Bible conferences at Crescent City, Florida, in recent years may recall the vehemence with which Dr. Scofield said one day from the platform, speaking of the tragic devastation that the Higher Criticism has wrought among the ministers of this
130 The Lafe Story of C. I. Scofield
generation: “I would rather spend Sunday morning in a saloon than sitting in a church under the preaching of a modern Higher Critic!”
Looking back over his own lifetime experiences, this veteran saint says there have been two great epochs in his own life. “The first was when I ceased to take as final human teachings about the Bible and went to the Book itself. The second was when I found Christ as Victory and Achievement.”
His study and teaching of the Victorious Life have blessed many. His epigrammatic putting of this truth goes to the heart of it: “Christian experience, and the experience of the Christian, may be two very different things.”’ By this Dr. Scofield is reminding us that normal “Christian experience” of the New Testament sort is always victorious. But the experience of many a Christian is anything but victorious. For “Christian experience is wholly the result of the Producer of Christian experience — the Holy Spirit.” And this Bible teacher has rendered a great service in insisting that every Christian has the Victorious Life. For the Victorious Life is simply Christ Himself; and every Christian has Christ — or else he is not a Christian; “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). But many a Christian who, because he is a Christian, has Christ indeed within his heart, is yet failing to yield wholly to Christ and to believe wholly in His sufficiency, and therefore is sadly failing to have a personal experience of victory over sin. Because he has Christ he has the “Victorious Life,” but he is not letting that Life, or Christ, work in overcoming power. In other words, this is the oft-repeated counsel that the Christian “‘ possess his possessions,” and believe in and enjoy the “all things” that God has given him in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 3: 21).
In ceasing to take as final human teachings about the Bible, and in going to the Book itself, Dr. Scofield has labored for many years in the spirit of the true scholar. That always means the drudgery of infinite care and tedious painstaking. As this Life Story has pointed out, Scofield as a boy and a young man, before he ever knew the Lord, was given of God a temperament and a habit of work that may well be described by that definition of “the scholarly temperament — that rare combination of profound insight, sustained attention, microscopic accuracy, iron tenacity, and disinterested pursuit of truth, which characterizes the great scientific discoverer or the great historian.” It was some thirty years of this sort of study, research, and hard work that made the Scofield Reference Bible what it is to-day in clearness, dependableness, simplicity, and compactness. Writing to a friend about these chapters in his Life Story, after they had been appearing in the columns of The Sunday School Times, Dr. Scofield said: “Charles started in with the word ‘amazing’ as characterizing a life which seems to me chiefly one of drudgery, but now I am ‘amazed’ to see how skilfully he makes my very drudgery interesting.” Drudgery is always interesting — to other people who look on! Only the few find it interesting enough to go in for it themselves, and to keep at it, in season and out of season, until the work is really done.
But with these characteristics of what may be called the sternly scientific make of mind, the brilliant insight into truth, lucid simplicity of statement, and powers that have made this man a marked character whether in the world or in the Church of Christ, there are also a simplicity and a faith that are childlike in their beauty and tenderness.
His love of St. Francis of Assisi has already been mentioned. He told a little group of friends one day that he counted St. Francis his own particular saint. And then he went on to explain that, as some one else has said, everybody ought to have a special saint — ‘‘not to take the place of Christ, of course, but to interpret Christ down to me. As Paul says, ‘Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ’ — but test me by Christ every time, Paul was careful to urge.”
St. Francis’ love of birds “found” Dr. Scofield. With deep feeling he read aloud this passage from “Sabatier’s Life of St. Francis’’: Full of joy, he was going on his way when, perceiving some flocks of birds, he turned aside a little from the road to go to them. Far from taking flight, they flocked around him as if to bid him welcome. ‘Brother birds,’ he said to them then, ‘you ought to praise and love your Creator very much. He has given you feathers for clothing, wings for flying, and all that is needful for you. He has made you the noblest of his creatures; he permits you to live in the pure air; you have neither to sow nor to reap, and yet he takes care of you, watches over you, and guides you.’ Then the birds began to arch their necks, to spread out their wings, to open their beaks, to look at him, as if to thank him, while he went up and down in their midst stroking them with the border of his tunic, sending them away at last with his blessing.” After reading this Dr. Scofield said quietly: “I believe that if we were filled with the Holy Spirit the birds would come close to us.”
“Abba, Father,’ says Dr. Scofield, “is the affectionate realization of God’s fatherhood. And so one exclaims, in a flood of tenderness and love, ‘Oh, Father!’ or, ‘Dear Father.’ This is said, of course, only in the Spirit. But how commentators have bothered and puzzled over that expression, ‘Abba, Father.’”’
The depth and simplicity of Dr. Scofield’s faith come out in the comment he has made on the narrative, in the ‘“‘Life of St. Francis,” of that godly man’s healing of a loathsome leper. The story is a beautiful one, and after reading it aloud to friends Dr. Scofield said, with enthusiasm: ‘Well, now, that doesn’t stumble me. It would be strange if such a man could not heal lepers, by the power of God.”
The beauty of true Christian mysticism is recognized in his comment on this saint: “Francis is of the race of the mystics, for no intermediary comes between God and his soul.” Christian mysticism, he points out, is what has been called “immediacy’’ — that is, that nothing, not even prayer, is needed to bring the believer into the presence of God. This is certainly the teaching of the New Testament concerning the union with Christ which is true of all Christian believers. Not nearness, but union. We are not with Christ, but in Christ; he is not with us, but zm us. Tennyson knew this when he wrote,
“Closer is He than breathing, and
nearer than hands and feet.”
Dr. Scofield’s childlike trust in God’s love and the sufficiency of God’s grace to give His children anything comes out in the story he tells of a personal experience of answered prayer. Some good Christian people would quite misunderstand this story — unless they heard Dr. Scofield himself tell it, and saw the light in his face, the irresistible humor in his smile, and the Christian faith back of it.
With his advancing years he very much wished for an automobile. He was telling a minister friend about this one time, and how, with his desire for a car, he decided to pray for it.
“And,” he went on, “God he
answered it, and he sent me
“Ts that so?” said the mini tening to the experience. “I1 praying for an automobile,” the mi tinued. ‘‘But as I think of it, I believe 1 be of greater service to the Lord, in the tian ministry, if I had one. I could time to better advantage; I could make pastoral calls; I could get more work I believe I may start praying for one my
And then Dr. Scofield, as he tells the; dent to-day with a twinkle in his eye, surpr his minister friend. “Well,” he said qui¢ “if you believe that you could render be service as a Christian minister with an mobile, and believe that you ought to a for it for that purpose, you do so. But I ask God for an automobile in order to 1 better service. I told God that I had pretty hard all my life, and that I was geon in years, and that I wanted an autome as a toy, a plaything, something in which rest and enjoy myself. And God sent it to
Whether the minister saw the point recorded. But that there is a point the d a very real one for God’s children, cannot be doubted. God loves to give his children good times. But how few of his children really be- lieve this! Many a friend has had reason to know of the great tenderness of heart in this man of God. He has a genius for friendship; the light that comes into his eyes as he greets a friend is wonderful. Even those who have been new-comers in his circle of acquaintances notice this. I remember seeing him, one day, walking up the street when he did not know that I was near him. As he walked along he noticed coming toward him a man whom he had only recently met. Dr. Scofield stopped short, lifted up his head, reached out his hand to his acquaintance, and a great light of friendship shone on his face as he spoke to this man whom he had already taken into his heart.
We were talking together one day, in his rustic study out under the trees in the New Hampshire summer home, and he had been speaking ‘of all that belongs to the believer, in Christ.
As he came to the close of what he was saying, he added, “And then we come to the ineffable — !” He stopped, and a radiant smile broke over his face. His eyes closed, and ano any farther word he prayed ‘quietly: “We thank thee, O Father, that Jesus does
it all.”
GREYSHINGLES
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VERSARY SPEAKER
DR. CHARLES G. TRUMBULL,
|Editor of the Sunday School Times,
” who will, visit Toronto from March 22
to March 27 on a twofold mission. Dr,
Trumbull will preach in Knox Church on Sunday, March 22, on the occasion of Dr. Inkster’s fifteenth anniversary as the pastor. Beginning on Monday, |’Mareh 23, Dr. Trumbull will speak twice daily at the Annual Prophetical Conference, which will be held in Knox Church, under the auspices of the Prophetical Investigation Society of Toronto. Dr. Trumbull is well know to Globe readers as
the writer of the weekly Sunday |’
school lessons. t
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