Bible Christian Magazine SAMUEL BROWN LANE

REV. SAMUEL BROWN LANE
(President of Conference, 1905)

LIKE several of his brethren, Mr. Lane is a Cornishman, and was born at Marham-church, in December, 1857, and twenty one years later entered the Bible Christian ministry. He has served the Connexion in Chichester, Barnstaple, Chatham, Jersey, Devonport, and Brighton. He came prominently before the denomination and religious public during his pastorate at Devonport, where he displayed unusual interest in the work of the School Board, of which he became a member. The universality of his reputation, however, has been won during his pastorate at Brighton, where he has successfully laboured for the last thirteen years. When the

invitation to the pastorate at Brighton was accepted, a few harboured the feeling that it was not consonant with the "fitness of things," and that another sphere would better suit his instincts, methods, and proclivities. Time here, as in other cases, has been the revealer and judge, and one verdict only is possible. The acceptance of the responsibility has been more than justified, and a work has been done and an influence acquired in Brighton which are rarely paralleled by a single minister in any denomination, For many years he has been secretary of the Brighton and Hove Free Church Council, and secretary of the Sussex Federation of Free Churches. Following his own example at Devonport, he became a member of Brighton School Board, and served on it for seven years.

When quite a young lad Mr. Lane took a great interest in the temperance cause, and for some years was the secretary of the band of hope connected with the Sunday school he attended in his native village. During his term in Brighton temperance work has brought him into contact with all classes of religious workers and reformers, and not unfrequently he has had to face the antagonism of publicans and licensed victuallers. It is always a pleasant experience to listen to Mr. Lane relate some of the more striking incidents associated with his campaign against the drink traffic. Against the publican, as a publican, he says but little, but when the publican becomes a lawbreaker, then the full weight of his influence is brought to bear against him, and he does not shrink from standing in the

witness-box of the police court as an accuser. His temperance work is not confined to Brighton. Temperance societies in various parts of the country have solicited his services, and, whenever it has been possible, they have been willingly rendered.

Mr. Lane is known outside his own communion as "Lane, of Brighton," and an admirer questions whether any man in the town, during the last fifty years, has exercised such an influence for good. A man's work is the product of his thought, emotion, enthusiasm, and zeal, and these have been poured out in unstinted devotion during the last thirteen years. In 1893, when Mr. Lane assumed the pastorate at Brighton, there was one church, with ninety members, and a hundred scholars. In 1898 a second church was built at Stanford-avenue, costing about Ł6,000. A third church, in another part of the town, has recently been built and opened, the outlay approaching nearly Ł7,000. Towards this sum Mr. Lane secured by personal effort about Ł2,000, and the Connexion has made a grant of Ł600, and a

free loan of Ł1,500. The full membership at Brighton now stands at 391, with two schools, 42 teachers, and 643 scholars. A noble work has been done by Mr. Lane, and the joy of the reaper, as well as the labour of the sower, has been a portion of his experience.

Some successes are simple and easily explained, some are difficult to understand, whilst others transcend the limits of human judgment, and are utterly inexplicable according to known laws of effort and achievement. Assuming certain fundamental principles, it is not impossible to explain the success attendant upon the efforts of the subject of this sketch. Nature gave him a strong physical constitution, and it has served him well. But in addition to this unspeakable endowment of a fine physique are his enthusiasm, his longing to pour himself out in devoted service, his. disposition and determination to abandon himself to the achievement of any worthy object upon which he has set his heart. The evolution and exhibition of these qualities of

life must inevitably produce results. Sometimes they do not manifest themselves until after their creator has passed into the Silent Land. Put in the case of Mr. Lane, these results have not only been produced, but have become visible and tangible, and are open to the eyes of all who care to observe them.

He is not, and never has been, a student, nor a great reader of theological or philosophical literature, and not a few men of his years are in this respect far beyond him; but he seems somehow to know what is being thought and said, and when the "psychological moment" arrives the impression is made that he is acquainted with the subject in many of its bearings. No one intimately acquainted with Mr. Lane will question the assertion that frequently he proclaims upon the housetop what others

are only thinking within. In proclaiming it, too, he uses the minor and major scales, the pathetic and thunderous tones, the attitude of a born dramatist, and the scorn, sarcasm, and humour of one trained and disciplined for such work. When he has "liberty " on the platform, and the subject grips him, into his deliverance he throws the whole force of his body, mind, and soul, voice, tone, gesture, thought, diction, emphasis, fire; and by this combination he breaks down every barrier, carries everything before him, and sways his audience according to his own will. The substance of his deliverances is neither original nor deep, and the grace of refined speech is rarely attempted. A musical phrase, flowing forth in dulcet tones, is not often heard. He is direct, pungent, sometimes blunt, with the result that no one is carried away into metaphysical clouds, and everybody knows exactly what is meant. He

frequently uses the "pathetic" note, and his brethren have often seen the effect upon the audience. This is sometimes followed by the note of "thunder," and down comes the house. As a speaker, his position of strength and influence is the platform, and this he uses in the interests of causes which affect directly and indirectly the welfare of his fellowmen and the Kingdom of God.

As will have been inferred from what has been said above, Mr. Lane is a tireless worker, patient in attention to details of Organisation, humanitarian in his sympathies, brotherly in his relations with his fellows, manly in his bearing and conduct, instinctively religious in his views of life and destiny, and possessing a heart, mind, and soul which are the dwelling-place of thoughts, emotions, and impulses which make him one of the most attractive personalities in the denomination. We are intimate and familiar with his past, and we know his present position and power, but what his future will be time must be allowed to decide. At the Conference of 1905, at Exeter, he received from his brethren the

highest honour they could confer. By an overwhelming vote, subsequently made unanimous, he was elected to the chair of the Conference a position which he filled with courtesy, ability, and dignity. All who know him will join in the prayer that his days may be many and fruitful, and that the success of the past may be more than realised in the brighter times yet to be.

[ Volume 2 pages 12 - 17 ]

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