*Excerpt from Reuban Butchart's "The Disciples of Christ in Canada Since 1830", Chapter 10*
Not much can be told of the career of this spiritual leader in Hants County, Nova Scotia. He is first known as a Baptist pastor who by his own study became willing to embrace what he believed was a more scriptural faith, along with John McDonald, also of his congregation. Being excluded they had to begin a Reform movement themselves. This rare example of courage of conviction caused him rebuke at times, for his uncompromising preaching, and he was denied a place to preach in buildings that being community-built for the purpose should have been open to him. He seems to have been of the type which holds and expresses its convictions with the utmost certainty. Moreover, he is seen as one anxious that others should be sound in the faith, a not too prevalent type at present when perhaps tolerance in every department may be over-exercised.
It is about his concern for the purity of the faith of the Churches of the Reformation that these paragraphs deal. After being in the new faith for a term of three or five years, on August 29, 1840 he writes a letter describing the River John church (perhaps our first in Canada) and as a comment adds what follows:
"I have seen in the New Testament a church that fully pleases me and nowhere else. There are yet many things wanting. We are in it in part, and in our order in part; and this makes us the greatest mongrels in the land and the most inconsistent of all men: to recommend one thing and to practise its opposite . . . (it is) scandalous to any man wearing the Christian name. There are, however, some among us who live a life of faith in the Son of God; if they continue to show forth the same diligence . . . they shall walk with Him in white." (The Christian, Sep. 1840.)
This language coming from an iconoclast for the truth, caused something of a sensation and enquiries for its meaning were made, which were explained in the February issue, 1841, page 198. With almost apostolic fervidness he explains:
"The force of the truth in the first position of the sentence I still feel: We are not in the apostolic order yet, only in part. But, let us prove all things and hold fast the good. The apostolic order is, that we should not only believe truth, but also possess and cherish the spirit of that faith; that we should not only fear the Lord, but also possess the spirit of the fear of the Lord; not only pray but have the spirit of prayer. Nor is it sufficient that we should have a knowledge of the first principles of the gospel, but also have the spirit of wisdom and of a sound mind. The 'spirit of adoption' is as necessary as any of the above. The spirit of meekness also and the spirit of life in Christ Jesus make the possessors of the above divine influence free--free from the law of sin and of death. Freedom--precious word: apostolic standard, God's delight, and the Christian's glory."
Here John Doyle pointed a penetrating finger at the faults of some of his brethren, but in such a manner that they themselves were to apply the rebuke, if any. Such pastoral writing at least, does not figure in our periodicals.
In the early days John Doyle was about the only Maritimer coming West to Ontario to evangelize. In the Co-operation meeting in Everton, June, 1857, he was in the chair. In the summer of 1853 he engaged in Co-operation evangelism, laboring in Esquesing and Erin. In 1855 he was appointed to travel and preach as a mission to the townships of King, Pickering, Wawanosh in Ontario. In March, 1855 he reported that his labors for the Co-operation were three months lacking one week; he had travelled otherwise four weeks; had added by baptism 33 and two by letter. (Christian Banner, March, 1855). He referred also intimately to Bowmanville, where he likely lived and may have been pastor; also to Meaford, Owen Sound where he held meetings. W. W. Eaton refers to him as practically the head of the work at Rawdon, in the year 1839. On March 2, 1840 he with B. Howard was appointed to travel for one year from May 1 in the Maritime provinces. They were practically to raise their own support from the churches, in this which was apparently the first local co-operation in Nova Scotia. (The Christian, p. 23, June, 1840.)
Some of his letters in The Christian exhibit a gift of rugged language, typical of the man. He was a rare type which may be called the shepherding leader.