A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LATE EDITOR’S LIFE.
IT is with deep sorrow that we have to announce the death of the Editor of this magazine— Dr W. T. P. Wolston, M.D. A brief sketch of his career will, we are sure, be acceptable to our readers. May it be for the glory of God, stimulating to the young servants of Christ, and calculated to convince the unconverted reader of the reality of a Christian life.
He was born at Brixham, Devon, on the 6th September 1840, and departed to be with the Lord at Weston-super-Mare, on the 11th March 1917—in his 77th year.
The light of vital Christianity shone brightly in the home of his boyhood, but the saving grace of God did not reach him till he was twenty years old when a law student in London.
He has placed on record the striking story of his conversion, in a booklet entitled “No man can serve two masters,” telling of his listening to the preaching of Richard Weaver first, and then to that of Charles Stanley; and how, after deep soul-exercise, he found peace in believing, the result being a complete break with his old worldly associations, and an immediate devotion to Christ and His interests.
It was, undoubtedly, this whole-hearted surrender to the Lord, at the dawn of his spiritual life, that made his after-course one of peculiar power, joy, and blessing.
Under the impulse of a bright conversion he abandoned the study of law, and took up that of medicine, believing that a doctor’s profession offered peculiar scope for Christian testimony and usefulness. It is not too much to say that hundreds who came to him for bodily help found spiritual blessing, conversion, and salvation in his consulting rooms and as he sat by their sick beds. The day alone will declare the immense amount of work thus done for the Master.
Leaving London he went to Edinburgh in 1864, where he graduated, and was appointed House Surgeon to the Old Infirmary there. He then established himself in practice in this city, speedily obtaining a large clientele, and becoming known, very generally, as a skillful and kindly doctor.
That, however, was only part of his life. Together with this he threw his heart into the work of the Gospel. He preached in various halls to large companies; he frequently lectured to the students on subjects of spiritual interest. Nor was his pen idle. He edited a gospel magazine for forty-five years; and wrote and caused to be circulated many striking gospel booklets, which God largely used to the conversion of multitudes. He produced no fewer than nine volumes on those subjects that were nearest his heart; he travelled throughout Scotland, England, and Ireland preaching and teaching everywhere, in busy centers, and in isolated places, always carrying with him a warm heart, a breezy presence, an expectant faith, and always receiving a hearty welcome. That God was pleased to greatly bless his ministry, both oral and written, it is needless to say the day will declare.
The first tract he wrote, “God says I am Saved,” has not only had an enormous circulation, but has been sealed with wondrous results. Along with his untiring activity he always found time for prayer. Some of us have knelt beside him, often in some strange corner, ere he mounted the platform to preach at times to thousands. This was his power, and by this he was maintained in self-forgetful simplicity and freshness, as much in old age as in youth.
We need not speak of his hospitality, his open house and helping hand, his hearty counsel to those in distress, his genial succor of the widow and the orphan. It is known and remembered by those who received it.
In 1909 he gave up his practice as a doctor; and then took the opportunity of fulfilling a long-standing desire to visit Australia and New Zealand in the work of the Lord. There he was abundantly used.
He then paid two visits to Norway, both of which were largely used in conversions and the help of Christians. During the second visit, on the 5th February 1915, he had a severe seizure, with paralysis of the left side, but leaving the mind and speech unaffected. He was brought home to Weston-super-Mare, where for two years he lay helpless, but with intelligence unimpaired. Never a murmur escaped his lips. It was positively delightful to be by his side, and to witness the grace of God that shone more brightly in a vessel broken and shattered than it did even in one full of life and energy. Then a few weeks before the end another seizure followed, with unconsciousness as to everyone and everything here, but with only a greater, deeper, richer communion with the Lord, expressed with perfect lucidity and order, a beautiful instance of a vessel destitute of all power but that of the Spirit of God.
The spring of his spiritual vitality lay in a deep personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ; and this it was which kept him steady amid the distracting and deceitful influences which might have marred his Christian course. He was constrained by that love in the immense labours of a long and active life, and in weary months of debility, till the moment when he was put to sleep by Jesus.
The close was lovely, but with him, and many more precious, blood-bought saints, the separation is only “till the day break and the shadows flee away.”
J. W. S.