BIOGRAPHY
Frank Binford Hole was a man of God. His long life was
marked by faithfulness, devotion, patience and hope. His memory is best
honoured by remembering the massive pillars of the faith in which he laboured,
lived and died.
The conspicuous feature of his life was that he lived
and laboured in the Christian Faith, and was constrained to do so by personal
experience of the love of Christ. He had every opportunity to seek the ordinary
satisfactions of life in a garish world. In possessions and intellect he was
fitted to achieve such satisfaction: but early in life at the age of sixteen,
he was met by the Stranger of Galilee and from that moment he "endured as
seeing Him who is invisible".
After King's School, (the building off
the Strand is now King's College in the University of London) and a short
period in the family business, he entered the banking profession. While still,
however, at an early age, he gave up what is usually called secular employment
and became a full-time worker in the service of Christ.
His gifts from
God manifested themselves in three different ways: firstly as evangelist;
secondly as teacher; and lastly as publisher. In younger days he was closely
associated with Arthur Cutting in evangelistic work. Together they travelled
the country conducting tent missions, often in rural areas; and many persons
heard and received the Word of life through them.
Mr. Hole also preached
the Gospel in the West Indies and in South Africa, and indeed visited several
other parts of the world in the course of his ministry. Most knew him best as a
teacher, that is as a minister instructing Christians in Bible Truth. Both as a
speaker and as a writer, he possessed a wonderful gift of teaching through
illustration. To illustrate the words "all joy and peace in believing", he
described a party which attempted the ascent of Vesuvius. On their return they
were asked whether they had enjoyed the experience. "Enjoyed it!" Mr. Hole
represented the climbers as replying, "Enjoyed it! The wretched mountain
rumbled and spat fire! We were so terrified that we couldn't enjoy anything".
They had no joy because they had no peace.
It is not perhaps well known
that his books on the foundation of the faith came into the hands of Dr. Billy
Graham, who not only specially commended them to his team, but also sent an
emissary to Little Britain to greet the author in person.
Lastly, as a
publisher, his work has contributed to the spread of Christian Truth to every
corner of the earth. In these labours Miss F.M.Aves was his devoted helper for
forty five years. He received a ceaseless stream of letters witnessing to the
help received wherever English is spoken through the publications emanating
from his unpretentious premises in Little Britain.
During these years
his fellow-writers were H.P.Barker, J.T.Mawson, A.J.Pollock and Hamilton Smith.
F.B.Hole was the last surviving member of this devoted band. The Day will
declare it -- what God enabled him to achieve.
He wrote several
valuable books, "The Great Salvation" and another one equally valuable
"Foundations of the Faith". He also edited and contributed many articles to a
small periodical called "Edification" and for many years "Scripture Truth" from
which a complete New Testament commentary has been extracted and printed.
He was entirely careless of human estimation of his work. To him the
words of Churchill about General Gordon aptly apply. Describing the statue of
Gordon which at that time stood in Trafalgar Square Churchill wrote "Amid the
noise of the traffic as formerly that of battle the famous General stands and,
inattentive to the clamour of men, inquired what is acceptable to God". It
would be entirely in the spirit of such a man if he thought at all of the
eminence of his labours to break in with his "non nobis Domine" -- "not unto us
O Lord not unto us but unto Thy Name give glory for His mercy and for Thy
truth's sake". (Psalm 115: 7).
F.B.Hole lived and laboured in the
certainty of the resurrection life. and in the promise of the vision of perfect
blessedness because he believed in a living Redeemer. During the last
conversation Mr.Blackburn had with him, Mr. Hole said "I have had at times to
occupy myself with the subtleties of the Faith but now that I am very old I
have come back to simple things."
He was a humble man. His
contributions at Fellowship meetings were usually brief but very worthwhile.
His hymn in Spiritual Songs is no. 159. "O God of Grace whose saving power".
How true the fourth line, more evident now 33 years after his death "The ranks
of faith grow thinner". The writer of these notes can remember Mr.Hole's
illustrating the difference between appropriation and assimilation by the
following stories:
"Some boys were playing marbles when along came a
bully who stole the marbles and put them in his pocket and ran off. The boys
chased him and eventually overpowered him and made him restore their marbles to
them. He had appropriated them but they did not become part of him. But a boy
is about to eat an apple and another boy comes and steals it and runs off. The
boy follows him and catches him but there was nothing left but the core. The
apple was now assimilated into the thief's system".
Mr Hole was
emphasising the need for formation by assimilating the Word of God into our
spiritual lives.
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