BIOGRAPHY
JAMES BUTLER STONEY was born at Portland, Co. Tipperary,
on 13th May, 1814. His father was a strict Puritan and his mother (nee Butler)
equally strict from a different point of view. Her four sons remarkably
answered to her culture in mind, in address, and in manner of life. They had
private tutors, and lived in a country home, with only country pursuits and
pleasures.
J. B. S. entered Trinity College, Dublin, at fifteen,
taking his place at 70 out of 92. At nineteen he was Senior Freshman and well
up in Classics and Law. His first religious impression was as a boy, when the
Rev. Baker Stoney, Rector of Castlebar, the friend and fellow-worker with Mr.
Nagle of Achill, came to Portland. At family prayers he read Acts 9, and dwelt
on the fact that God's salvation was so great that He could send a "light out
of Heaven" to arrest one soul, and in that light was seen a Saviour in the
glory of God for a man on earth who was stamping out His Name from the earth.
He saw that just One and heard the voice of His mouth (Acts 22 and 26).
The youthful mind is "wax to receive and marble to retain," and he
never lost the sense of the revelation in Christ of the "kindness and love to
man (philanthropy) of our Saviour God" (Titus 3. 4). But the ambitions and joys
of youth left little room for serious thought. He was eagerly following his
studies for the Bar; all his prospects in life depended on his success at the
Bar.
In 1831 men were dying of cholera all around in Dublin. He was
suddenly taken ill, and his first thought was, "How can I meet a holy God?" The
agony of his soul was worse than that of the body. He rang for his servant to
go for the doctor. "Thomas, I am afraid I am dying." "Surely you are, sir,"
said Thomas. Alone he threw himself on his face and cried to the God he had
heard of as a boy, who could receive the chief of sinners because the
"Crucified One" was at His right hand. When the doctor came he was exhausted
and appeared dying, but quite calm he said: "Jesus will have me. Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit."
A long sleep restored him, and he was soon able to
return to his studies. But he had been "born again," born for a new world, new
hopes, new life. "No more law for me," he said. "I'll be a witness to grace,"
the grace that could only be revealed from glory for sinners.
He
joined the Divinity Class at Trinity College, Dublin, where there were really
good men at that time, but he had to wait nearly four years. He could not be
ordained until he was twenty-four years of age. His family were very angry; his
uncle would have nothing more to do with him; as his fine talents and
opportunities were being thrown away for a curate's pay.
But during
those four years he was studying the Scriptures with all the earnestness of a
soul that had learned that unseen things are for eternity, the seen things of
this life passing away. As he studied the Epistles he found that the "gifts"
for ministry in the Church of God were given directly from the Ascended Man to
each one, so that by Christ's own appointment one became an evangelist or a
teacher, etc. (Eph. 4). He would not wait for a curacy; he would go out at once
into the highways and hedges and invite sinners to come to God's great
salvation: "Come, for all things are ready."
He wrote a little book
called "Discipline in the School of God", dealing with the Old Testament
characters, and contributed to several periodicals. He spoke somewhere every
day and travelled much. A fervent, impressive speaker, he anxiously avoided
anything like eloquence, feeling that the Spirit of God was the only power for
holy things.
J.B.S. died on 1st May, 1897, just before his
eighty-second birthday. God was his exceeding joy to the end - while telling of
Him he gently fell asleep. He rejoiced to say:
"It is the treasure I found in His love That has made me a
pilgrim below."
C. E. F.