Editor of the Gospel Magazine.
By REV. J. P. MACQUEEN.
SOME months ago, in a comment in our Magazine, we warned our readers, many of whom are also regular readers of the Gospel Magazine, relative to the favourable reviews of books on Pre-millennialism appearing then in the pages of that otherwise excellent and edifying evangelical undenominational magazine. In case some may have concluded from our comment that we had fallen out of hearty sympathy with the witness of that excellent evangelical periodical, we wish to state emphatically that it is far otherwise, and that our only objection to the Gospel Magazine was against these favourable reviews of books bearing on the subject of Pre-millennialism. It was during our itinerary in Canada and the United States that we were especially shocked by the extravagantly unbecoming views held, and the methods of propagation employed, by those holding Pre-millennial views of the Second Advent, and we then resolved to oppose and expose this blatant caricature of Scriptural and divine truths. In one city in Canada, for instance, during the present writer’s sojourn there, a lady teacher who stayed in the same house with us, went to the local Dispensational Pre-millennial Church on a Sabbath night, to see things for herself at first hand. On her return she said she was horrified to see in the Church a dramatic representation of the Second Advent stage-acted. Those on the lower platform represented those who were to be left behind in the so-called “tribulation,” whose foreheads were marked by a man with an ink-horn in his hand, with “the mark of the beast,” and the bodily tortures, contortions, and agonies they were supposed to undergo were gruesome and lurid in the extreme. On the upper platform were men and women, all dressed in white, with palms in their hands, representing the Church being triumphantly raptured, and Christ coming in the clouds to meet them. The religious extravagances of the pre-millennialist Fifth Monarchy Men in England were tame in comparison with the foregoing impious, dramatic representations and caricature of the most solemnly awe-inspiring events yet to be. Knowing these facts, we were duty-bound to warn our readers, but, notwithstanding, we would otherwise like to pay deserved tribute to one of the finest Christian gentlemen it has been our privilege to meet on life’s journey, while regretting very much his Pre-millennial views.
Rev. Thomas Houghton, editor of the Gospel Magazine, and a faithful and godly minister of the evangelical section of the Church of England, passed to his everlasting rest and reward in 1950, aged 92 years, after having served his generation, by voice and pen, according to the will of God. It is interesting to record that when he was offered the editorship of the evangelical Gospel Magazine, he at first refused, owing to the arduous nature of the work of his wide parish. Shortly after his refusal he lost his voice, and, thinking himself useless for the work of the ministry, he then accepted the editorship of the Gospel Magazine, and, wonderful to relate, immediately his voice was restored to normal. Previously, the Gospel Magazine had as editors men as distinguished for their intellectual gifts as they were eminent for piety, especially its first editor, the renowned Augustus M. Toplady, the author of the famous
hymn, “Rock of ages, cleft for me.” For uncompromising fidelity to evangelical principle, Rev. Thomas Houghton was not a whit behind the best of these.
He was a regular reader and sincere admirer of the Free Presbyterian Magazine from its inception till the day of his death. He corresponded cordially with the late Rev. J. S. Sinclair, our Magazine’s first and worthy editor. He also corresponded with Rev. D. Beaton, whom he met in London at one of the annual conferences of the Sovereign Grace Union. He quoted frequently, in the Gospel Magazine, from the Free Presbyterian Magazine, and often reproduced from it entire articles. He was the author of many books, booklets and pamphlets, bearing on evangelical subjects generally, and also books and booklets on present-day heresies and errors. These books and booklets were in popular demand, and obtained a wide circulation among true evangelical believers.
He was noted for his strict and Scriptural observance of the Lord’s Day. He condemned, with uncompromising fidelity, the running of vehicles for commercial gain on the Lord’s Day, and while he unsparingly condemned listening-in on the wireless on Sabbath, he declined to have a wireless set in his house even on week-days, because the abuse far exceeded the use in this connection. It was altogether remarkable that so faithful a minister of the Gospel could be found in the heterodox Church of England, with its widespread Modernist and Anglo-Catholic corruption. He was a gentle but firm witness for “the truth as it is in Jesus” in his day and generation, and as fine a Christian gentleman as the present writer ever knew. “The righteous man’s memorial shall everlasting prove” (Ps. cxii. 6, metrical version).