Jonathan Goforth (, February 10, 1859 – October 8, 1936) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
to China with the
Canadian Presbyterian Mission, along with his wife,
Rosalind (Bell-Smith) Goforth. Jonathan Goforth became the foremost missionary revivalist in early 20th-century China and helped to establish
revivalism
Revivalism may refer to:
* Christian revival, increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or society, with a local, national or global effect
* Revivalism (architecture), the use of visual styles that consciously ...
as a major element in
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
China missions.
Biography
Goforth grew up on an
Oxford County, Ontario
Oxford County is a regional municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario. Highway 401 runs east–west through the centre of the county, creating an urban industrial corridor with more than half the county's population, spanning 25 km be ...
, farm, the seventh of eleven children. As a young man he taught school in
Thamesford, Ontario. Hearing fellow Oxford County native
George Leslie Mackay
George Leslie Mackay 偕瑞理 or 馬偕 ''Má-kai'' (21 March 1844 – 2 June 1901) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary. He was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan (then Formosa), serving with the Canadian Presbyterian Mis ...
, Presbyterian missionary to Taiwan, speak, he sensed a call from God to go to China. He attended the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
, and
Knox College, where he graduated in 1887, and was awarded the
Doctor of Divinity in 1915. During his training, Goforth met Rosalind Bell-Smith at the
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
Union Mission. Born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England, she had grown up in
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
, Canada. They married in 1887, in his final year at Knox, and eventually had eleven children, six of whom survived childhood.
After initially subjecting him to teasing and even hazing, Goforth's classmates came to support him greatly in his quest to become an overseas missionary. Goforth had also read
Hudson Taylor
James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was respons ...
's book ''
China's Spiritual Need and Claims
''China’s Spiritual Need and Claims'' (original title: ''China: Its Spiritual Need and Claims'') is a book written by James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, in October 1865. It is arguably the most significant work rega ...
'', a book that so excited him that he ordered many copies and mailed them to many pastors that he knew in order to promote missionary work in China.
The Goforths were sent to pioneer the
North Henan mission in 1888. Their work was difficult and they lost five of their eleven children to sickness.
In 1900, the Goforths had to flee for many miles across China during the
Boxer Rebellion. Jonathan was attacked and injured with a sword, but they both survived and escaped to the safety of one of the "
Treaty Ports
Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...
".
The Goforths returned to Canada for a year. After their return to
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
in 1901, Jonathan Goforth felt increasingly restless. In 1904 and 1905 he was inspired by news of the great
Welsh revival and read
Charles Finney's ''Lectures on Revivals''. In 1907, circumstances brought him to witness firsthand the stirring
Korean revival ("When the Spirit's Fire Swept Korea"
943
Year 943 ( CMXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Spring – Allied with the Rus', a Hungarian army raids Moesia and Thrace. ...
represents his response). As Goforth returned to China through
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
in early 1908, congregations invited him back. During his extended visit there the "
Manchurian revival" broke out, the first such
revival to gain nationwide publicity in China as well as internationally.
[ p.162] The revival transformed Goforth's life and ministry; from then on he was primarily an evangelist and revivalist, not a settled missionary. He also became one of the best-known of all China missionaries, admired by many, but criticized by some for "emotionalism".
In 1925, he decided to remain within the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and his Henan station was transferred to the support of the
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
. He and Rosalind, despite their age and frailties, were then sent by the church to begin work in
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
, where they remained until Goforth's eyesight failed in 1935. He remained active into the 1930s, especially in Manchuria; in 1931 the Goforths coauthored ''Miracle Lives of China''. After his death in Toronto, Rosalind, a capable writer who had first published in 1920, wrote the popular ''Goforth of China'' (1937, with many reprints), and her own autobiography, ''Climbing: Memories of a Missionary's Wife'' (1940).
Their final years in Canada were spent recounting their stories to many congregations. Goforth died at his son's manse in
Wallaceburg, Ontario
Wallaceburg ( 2016 population 10,098) is an unincorporated community in the municipality of Chatham-Kent in Southern (Southwestern) Ontario, Canada. Originally a small settlement, it was recognized for its significant contribution to the lumbe ...
, after preaching the previous evening in nearby
Wyoming, Ontario. The funeral service was held in Toronto's
Knox Church, and Goforth is buried in the
Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the same city.
See also
*
Christianity in China
Christianity in China has been present since at least the 3rd century, and it has gained a significant amount of influence during the last 200 years.
While Christianity may have existed in China before the 3rd century, evidence of its exist ...
*
Christianity in Korea
References
Further reading
* Rosalind Goforth, ''Goforth of China''; McClelland and Stewart, 1937;
Bethany House
Bethany House Publishers is a publisher that publishes Christian fiction and non-fiction books. Bethany House Publishers was bought in 2003 by Baker Publishing Group.
Bethany House publishes both historical and contemporary fiction. Historica ...
, 1986.
* Rosalind Goforth, ''How I Know God Answers Prayer'',
Zondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publ ...
, 1921.
* Ruth A. Tucker, ''From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions'', Zondervan, 1983.
* Jonathan Goforth, ''By My Spirit'', 1929, 1942, 1964, 1983.
* Rosalind Goforth, ''Chinese Diamonds for the King of Kings'', 1920, 1945.
* Alvyn J. Austin, ''Saving China: Canadian Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1888-1959'', University of Toronto Press, 1986, chapters 2, 6.
*
Daniel H. Bays, ''Christian Revival in China, 1900-1937''
*
Edith L. Blumhofer and
Randall Balmer
Randall Herbert Balmer (born October 22, 1954) is an American historian of American religion. He taught at Barnard College and Columbia University for twenty-seven years before moving to Dartmouth College in 2012, where he was named the Mandel Fami ...
, eds., ''Modern Christian Revivals'', University of Illinois Press, 1993.
* The Rev. James Benjamin Webster, ''"Times of Blessing" in Manchuria: letters from Moukden to the Church at home, February 17-April 30, 1908'', 1908.
* The Goforths' papers are in the
Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
Center archives,
Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., collection 188.
* Janet & Geoff Benge,'' Jonathan Goforth: An Open Door in China'',
YWAM Publishing, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goforth, Jonathan
1859 births
1936 deaths
Canadian Presbyterian missionaries
Canadian evangelicals
Canadian clergy
Canadian Christian religious leaders
Presbyterian missionaries in China
Presbyterian missionaries in Korea
Presbyterian writers
People of the Boxer Rebellion
University of Toronto alumni
Christian revivalists
Canadian expatriates in China
Canadian expatriates in Korea