Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 223, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1914 — YOUTH IN THE PULPIT [ARTICLE]

YOUTH IN THE PULPIT

/ CHURCH RECORDS FULL OF EX- fc AMPLES OF PRECOCITY. « —————— Fourteen-Year-Old Charles Forbes, Who Began at the Age of Nine, - —Has Had Much Success—Triumphs of Girl Revivalist. Without the slightest sign of -nervousness, and with all the religious, fervor and enthusiasm of one who has spent many years in the pulpit, the fourtqen-year-old son of Rev. Charles Forbes, who has been conducting a mission at the Stratford tabernacle, London, England, preached a striking sermon recently. Young Forbes began preaching at nine, and he has 'since toured through several American towns. Some of his sermons have been printed, and published, while many more have found their way to the hearts of American working men. Curiously .enough, it at the Stratford tabernacle that Miss Helen Coulthard, who, as “Nellie, the Child Evangelist,” has touched the emotions of thousands, preached last Easter. Miss Coulthard is now twenty years of age, and when she was nine spoke in the open air at a church army meeting. Since then her “conversions” have been many: She is a sister of Miss Libby Coulthard, the fourteen-year-old mill-girl of Bolton, who has held large congregations spellbound with the eloquence and simple directness of her preaching. Libby, like her sister, Helen, began preaching when she was nine years of age. “I love preaching,” she says, “and it is very funny how sermons come to me. When I am at work in ‘ the mill a text comes into my mind and I think about it all day, and then I go home and find it in the Bible.” Readers will probably also remember the sensation created some time ago by Francis Storr, who, as a child of thirteen, preached at a great revival meeting in Holloway hall, and afterwards delivered sermons in various parts of England. There have been quite a number of boy preachers, notably Evan Roberts and Claude Han bury Cooke, or “Jack” Cooke, as he was generally called, who, born in 1886, preached his first sermon at a Manchester street corner 11 years later, and conducted many successful missions in the states. Mention might also be* made of Colin Livingstone, Fltz Wood and Willie Barling, the Croydon boy preacher. As a rule the infant prodigy of the church does not fulfill the promise of earlier years, although there have been exceptions. For example, Mr. Spurgeon preached his first sermon at the age of sixteen. George Fox, the evangelist, and founder of the Society of Friends, was also quite a little boy when he started preaching at a tavern ; while George Whitefield and John Wesley both commenced preaching at a very early age, giving a foretaste of their quality by addressing their school-fellows.