The
story of Edward Eagar, after whom
our Lodge for homeless people in Darlinghurst
is named, begins in Killarney, Ireland
where he was born in 1787. His parents
were landed gentry so he was well
educated. He trained as a solicitor
and became an attorney to His Majesty’s
Courts in Ireland. In 1809 he was
charged with forging a bill of exchange,
convicted and sentenced to death.
He
pleaded for clemency and was gaoled
for 18 months until transported to
Australia. The chaplain sought Edward
Eagar’s repentance. Edward committed
his life to Christ, repented, and
the chaplain sent a letter with him
to Australia to Rev Samuel Marsden.
The letter said of his conversion,
that he wept, and in fervent prayer
at the throne of grace we implored
mercy for his poor soul, when lo!
The heavenly pardon came with power
to the afflicted suppliant. All in
an instant, was love, joy, peace.
He has since continued praising and
blessing that God and Saviour who
dealt so graciously with him. He has
really become a new creature.”
He
arrived as a convict in chains in
1811 and was assigned to teach children.
He soon commenced Bible classes in
the Windsor district. He was then
given charge of the local school.
In 1812 he met with two newcomers
Thomas Bowden and John Hoskin and
they formed the first membership of
our church on March 12, 1812. They
wrote to the Methodist Conference
in England to “send us a minister
lest we die in our sins.” The minister,
Rev Samuel Leigh, arrived in 1815
and Edward Eagar introduced him to
Governor Macquarie. In 1813 Eagar
was given a conditional pardon, and
he set himself up as a lawyer in 103
Pitt Street.
He
was a most active early member of
our church. He assisted in founding
the Sydney Benevolent Society, the
British and Foreign Bible Society,
the Australian Religious Tract Society,
and established the Society for the
Protection and Civilisation of Distressed
Islanders of the South Seas. He also
planned the first mission to Aborigines.
In 1818 he was granted a full pardon.
However, Judge Jeffrey Bent did not
let him forget he had been a convict
and he was disbarred from practise
as a lawyer. He put up 10% for the
funding capital to establish the Bank
of N.S.W. (Westpac) but was distressed
that because he had been a convict
he was not allowed to be a director
of the bank. Other emancipated convicts
saw that their rights as freed men
were also in jeopardy and Edward Eagar
took up their case with the British
Government.
He
fought for trial by jury, and for
freedom to trade commercially. This
was the first Australian attempt to
change government policy. He was a
hard antagonist and made many enemies
including John Macarthur. He lost
a court case because pardoned convicts
did not have a right to own property,
to sue, to give evidence in court
or to have other civil rights. Other
emancipated convicts then clearly
saw how they lacked civil rights.
Dr
William Redfern and Edward Eagar sailed
to London in 1821 to argue the case
on behalf of other freed convicts.
He left his wife and three sons behind
taking his daughter with him. He was
never to return. He fought for the
colonists for the next 20 years. Eagar
was becoming Australia’s first liberal
political agitator.
But
his personal life fell from his Christian
standards. He met and married a 16
year old girl and they subsequently
had 10 children. His Sydney wife Jemima
moved into a house in Macquarie Street
with William Charles Wentworth and
had a son by him. Edward was a devout
man and the first secretary of our
church, but he had a vicious tongue
and after his civil rights were denied
him, he was bitter against the conservative
government and social standards.
In
Sydney, his son Geoffrey, became the
Treasurer of N.S.W. — the best Treasurer
of the nineteenth century, a cabinet
minister, first accountant of the
Bank of N.S.W., and a leading public
servant. He never forgave his father
for leaving his mother. When Edward
Eagar died in 1866, he was described
as “a gentleman”, but a study of his
life shows that he constantly wrestled
with God.
There
was internal conflict between good
and evil, between doing the best and
being overcome by the worst. Many
men in Sydney today know that inner
wrestling with God in their hard times,
that is why I named our eight storey
building for homeless people after
him. In that remade old chapel with
its ancient sandstone front dating
back to 1847, and its concrete tower
apartments rising on the skyline,
we have a place that says the old
can become new, and a name that says
the worst can start again.
Edward
Eagar’s sin was obvious, his conversion
was genuine, his early devotion to
Christ and the Church was real. He
wrestled with God, but failed to persevere
until God had blessed him. Many great
men had that experience first recorded
of Jacob in one of the greatest chapters
of the Bible. The story of Jacob is
also the story of a man whose character
had great defects. He is at the one
time, one of the worst men in the
Old Testament, and also one of the
greatest.
His
life was shady and he did some despicable
acts. He was a scheming, grasping
crook, but one of the founding fathers
of a great nation. God promised Jacob
the land of Israel in the dream known
as “Jacob’s Ladder”. (Genesis 28:10–15)
He was born a twin, holding onto his
first-born brother’s heel. He was
later to cheat his brother out of
his inheritance. He would swindle
his equally crooked Uncle Laban. He
was motivated by selfishness but God
persevered with him, never leaving
Jacob alone, and he became the founder
of the nation promised to his father
Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.
Jacob’s
name meant “Twister” and a twister
he turned out to be, but God persevered
with him and he changed and was given
a new name “Israel” which means “Prince”.
The twister became a prince, a tribute,
not to him, but the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. God pursued him for
thirty years and one night wrestled
with him and threw him at the brook
Jabbok. Jacob was on his way back
to his family estate after a long
absence when he heard that his brother
Esau, whom he had defrauded years
earlier was coming to meet him with
400 men. Jacob craftily sent some
men ahead with presents to pacify
Esau, but that night, unable to sleep
with the impact of his troubled conscience
a Heavenly Man came upon him and wrestled
with him. Genesis 32:22–32
Jacob
was wrestled with God and refused
to let God go without a blessing.
So God blessed him for his perseverance.
God gave him a new name that gave
him a sense of self-esteem and a new
start. Failure was not final, for
failure gave way to a new future.
The impact of heredity was overcome.
The influence of psychology was turned
around. He became a different person.
The experience of despair had given
way to the gospel of recovery and
renewal.
Consider the occasions when we wrestle
with God.
1. WITH CONSCIENCE
Many people have a troubled conscience.
The lie awake at night over what they
have done. They toss and turn in anguish.
They wrestle all night with God. The
only way to peace and conquest is
to say to God, “I will not let you
go until you bless me”, and find that
your inner conflict can be turned
into inner peace. St Augustine was
the most brilliant mind in the first
thousand years of Church history after
St Paul. But for his early life, he
was not a Christian. His faithful
mother who prayed for him constantly
despaired as she saw her brilliant
son wasting his life in debauchery,
immorality and atheism. And Augustine
was not happy with his bright life
of wine, women and song, he was in
turmoil. But God did not give up on
Augustine.
He
wrestled with him until Augustine
surrendered and found peace and a
new future in God. As he wrote: “Thou
hast made us for Thyself, and our
hearts are restless until they find
themselves in Thee.” Turn your conflict
with God into peace with God. That
is how he can make you a new person
— the old “Twister” can become “Prince”.
If you have a troubled conscience,
wrestle with God over it until he
blesses you, and enables you to become
a brand new person.
2. WITH AFFLICTION
Many
people feel handicapped by some limiting
disability. They could do more for
God if only.., but there is a limitation
— sickness, singleness, suffering;
lack of education, opportunity, resources;
physical, mental or spiritual limitation.
When you wrestle with that limiting
affliction, stick at it. God sometimes
heals it by removing it from you;
sometimes handles it by giving you
additional strength enabling you to
cope with it; and sometimes changes
it by transforming the thorns into
a crown. Charles Spurgeon, acclaimed
as the greatest 19th century preacher
of them all, suffered from prolonged
bouts of depression requiring long
periods of time away from his work.
Sometimes,
worn with work, the pressures of
thousands of people in his ministry,
and the shortages of finances for
his orphanages and colleges, he
would collapse. But always he hung
on in faith crying for God to bless
him, and inevitably he found that
after the long wrestle, a period
of great blessing. He published
3,500 sermons read by millions,
and 135 books which still sell in
huge numbers to this day.
And
every period of wrestling led to
continued blessing. If you suffer
some limiting affliction, ask God
to bless you by removing it, by
increasing your strength to bear
it, or by transforming it. You may
limp through life but with pride
and blessing.
3. WITH TEMPTATION
Our
church is wrestling with how to
be the church in the inner city
right now as we plan our redevelopment.
It would be so easy to see our prime
city location, forget about ministry
to the needy and the poor, and take
our assets and build the most beautiful
church facility in the country in
some lovely, outer suburban areas
where we could attract an affluent
and nice type of member. But that
would be the great betrayal. God
needs us in the inner city to be
his witness on the streets, to be
his light in the city of darkness,
and be his salt in a tasteless society.
To
run from the hardness of the inner
city, or to be seduced by the temptations
of the suburbs would be a denial
of all of his blessings. The night
grows long, and we wrestle with
God, and we say, “We will not let
you go until you bless us” and I
know that God will open the windows
of heaven and pour his blessings
upon us for our perseverance and
faithfulness.
4. WITH PROBLEMS
Do
you find it a constant struggle
to manage your heavy load of problems?
Do you feel you are wrestling with
a load that is too much for you
to manage? Persevere and say: “I
will not let you go until you bless
me” and see if God will not help
you manage. Former President Jimmy
Carter in a delightful book he and
Rosalyn have written entitled, “EVERYTHING
TO GAIN”, speaks about how he wrestled
with world problems, then defeat
by Ronald Reagan, and his distress
the way matters of international
importance were being handled by
his successor in the White House.
Jimmy Carter says: “I had learned
many years ago to release my problems
to God, something I had to do often
in all our political years when
I was trying to do so many different
things at once. “Here it is God.
You take it. I cannot handle it
all alone,” I would say. It helped
me through good times and bad.
I
knew that God loved me. I had found
God’s love a shield around me that
protected me in the midst of controversy
or let downs. Sometimes now, when
I think about the defeat and how
much I disagreed with what our successor
was doing in Washington, I was having
to say: “It’s too much for me. Here
it is again, God, take it again.”
Persevere with your problem as much
as you can then have God take over
for you. He will see you through.
Edward
Eagar did so much good for Sydney.
But he always had a hard wrestle
with God over the conflict within
his conscience, the limiting afflictions
of his character, the temptations
of this city, and the burden of
his problems. And he gave in. He
did not persevere until God blessed
him. He stands as a symbol of a
man who did so much but who could
have accomplished much more if he
had only persevered until God blessed
him. By the grace of God we can
grow from deception to integrity
as did Jacob. Five times God gave
Jacob a second chance. No failure
is final.
You
can be changed by God’s power. When
God wrestles with you do not let
him go until you say: “I will not
let you go until you bless me”.
Having wrestled, do you not feel
His blessing now?
by
Rev Dr Gordon Moyes
Rev
the Hon Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC is one of Australias most respected Christian
leaders. Ordained as a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, he
served for 27 years as the Superintendent of Wesley Mission Sydney, Australias
largest non-government welfare provider and the worlds largest city-based
church. He is also a prominent evangelist, broadcaster and elected Member
of the New South Wales Legislative Council.
He
became a household name in Australia many years ago when he began as host
of the weekly television program Turn Round Australia and radio program
Sunday Night Live with Gordon Moyes.
Prime
Minister John Howard characterised Dr Moyes as the epitome of effective
Christian leadership, when describing the way he had grown Wesley Mission
into one of the most dynamic and socially responsive church-based charities
in the world.
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