Jonathan Goforth

Jonathan Goforth was born on February 10, 1859, on a farm near London, Ontario, Canada. He was the seventh of eleven children. His family was poor, and he worked on the farm. As a boy, he had little interest in religion. He attended the Presbyterian church only with reluctance. When he was eighteen, he read an account of the life of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, the Scottish minister, and was struck by his devotion. He was also moved by an address from a missionary on the need of the foreign field. He gave his life to Christ and soon felt a call to the ministry.

He studied at Knox College in Toronto, where he was a diligent student. He also did evangelistic work among the poor and in the slums of the city. In 1886, he met Rosalind Bell-Smith, an artist and a woman of strength, who shared his concern for missions. They were married in 1887. They offered themselves to the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and they were sent to China in 1888. Jonathan was the first missionary of the new Canadian mission to the field, and they were assigned to the province of Honan, in central China.

They settled in a hostile region. The people of Honan were suspicious of foreigners and threw stones at the missionaries. They were driven from their first house. They worked with patience and set up a station in the town of Changte. They traveled by wheelbarrow from village to village, preaching in the open air. He was a man of fierce energy and a plain speaker. He spoke Chinese with force, and he drew crowds. His wife Rosalind was a tower of strength. She taught the women and bore a number of children, five of whom died in infancy and childhood. The couple suffered heavy loss.

In 1900, the Boxer uprising broke out, and the missionaries were in great danger. In June, the Goforths were warned to leave. They fled by cart and on foot across the country, pursued by mobs. They went for about a month, a journey of several hundred miles to the coast. Jonathan was struck on the head and nearly killed. Rosalind carried their baby, who was ill. They reached safety, but their baby son died soon after. It was a terrible time.

He returned to China in 1901 and resumed his work. In 1907, he visited Korea, where he saw the great revival in Pyongyang and other cities. He was deeply moved by the sight of people weeping over their sins and seeking forgiveness. He came back to China with a burden for revival. In 1908, he traveled to Manchuria and began a series of meetings. He taught that revival comes through the Holy Spirit, as people give themselves to confession and prayer. In Manchuria, a revival broke out in which thousands were converted. He took his message across China, and the movement spread through the country. He saw a large number of conversions and a deepening of the life of the churches.

He was a man of great faith and of fixed convictions. He was known for his stress on dependence on the Holy Spirit. He took as his motto the verse in Zechariah that says not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit. His wife wrote a biography of him, Goforth of China, and a book on his teaching, By My Spirit. He also was a hard and demanding man. He drove himself to exhaustion. His family bore a heavy price from his labors, and his children were often left at school. He had a hot temper, and he was impatient with those who did not share his vision.

In his later years, he lost his sight. He returned to Canada in 1934. He spent his final years traveling and speaking about China, even though he was blind. He died on October 8, 1936, in Wallaceburg, Ontario, at the age of seventy-seven. His life shows the power of a man who relies on the Spirit and the cost of a ministry that leaves nothing in reserve.