Heroes of the Faith: John Hambleton

A runaway teenager becomes a theater man, then a gold rush drifter, then a near-corpse under a tree while his so-called friends dig a grave. That’s the road John Hambleton walks before the gospel finally moves from something he “believes” to Someone he trusts. We mark the 100th Heroes of the Faith broadcast by telling his full, surprising story and why it still speaks to anyone trying to fill the heart with success, adventure, or self-effort.

We talk about Hambleton’s upbringing in Liverpool and the quiet power of a godly mother whose Christlike life kept pressing on his conscience long after he rebelled. You’ll hear about the moment in a Geelong saloon when the Bible is mocked, laughter spreads, and Hambleton can’t join in, even though he isn’t yet converted. That tension builds through the chaos of the California Gold Rush, where fortunes rise and vanish overnight and eternal questions get louder when death gets close.

The turning point comes back home in England, where he discovers his mother’s written prayer of faith and then hits the wall of trying to change himself. With a Bible open to John 3 and John 5, he stops trying to earn God’s favor and simply trusts Jesus Christ. From there, the story accelerates into open-air preaching, rented halls, training other evangelists like Henry Morehouse, bold banner ministry at public gatherings, and even the Bible carriage, a mobile pulpit and book distribution tool that carried the message town to town. We also trace the unexpected fruit of Hambleton’s preaching, including Thomas John Barnardo’s conversion and the lasting impact of Barnardo’s homes.

If you want a vivid Christian testimony, practical motivation for evangelism, and a reminder that grace is received not achieved, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: what part of Hambleton’s story challenges you most?

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Transcript

Why Heroes Of Faith Matter

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And thank you so very much for that kind word of introduction. Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. I'm Brother James, and I greet you once again in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. We're so very happy that you've tuned into the program today. As a matter of fact, this broadcast makes number one hundred in our series of studies on the heroes of the faith. This is the one hundredth program in which we have given you a brief, but we trust a blessed biographical sketch of some man or some woman who has made a mark for God in this world and will be greatly rewarded for their service and for their labor in the life that is to come. You know, I have spent a great deal of time uh not in my own research, but reading the research of others for these heroes of the faith programs. I I don't know any of these people. I've not uh met them, I've not uh corresponded with them and so forth. I I am blessed to be able to uh simply take from the labors of others and glean from the study and the work of others and pass this information on to you. But in in over twenty years of reading and study, I have found these one hundred uh sketches to be most interesting and most helpful, most challenging to me in my Christian life. But can you imagine what it'd be like to get to heaven and have all eternity to spend with the saints of all the ages, the redeemed out of every kindred, every tongue, every tribe, every race, every nation of people, and from all the centuries of God's church. What a testimony medium. What tales to be told. I think so many times God's people look with dread and fear toward the judgment seat of Christ, and no doubt there is wood, hay, and stubble there, no doubt there is uh loss of reward that is made manifest in that day. But but I'll tell you something else. What a great and wonderful time of revelation that will be as we see God giving out rewards, and as we learn through the uh countless ages that lie ahead, while those rewards were given out, we learn the nature of the service and of the sacrifice and so forth. And I tell you, I just look forward to it. I look forward to the day when heaven reveals the labors, when heaven reveals the sacrifices, when heaven reveals the glory that is bestowed upon those that have truly given up their lives for the service of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the furtherance of the gospel. We're just getting a little glimpse on these programs at the lives of just a few of these people, but I'll tell you there's tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people already gone on home to heaven, that have served the Lord and served him well, served the Lord and served him faithfully, served the Lord and brought honor and glory to his great name, and we'll get to meet those people, and we'll see them rewarded, and we will we will stand as God gives the merits that are due to those that have earned them. And what a time, what a great, exciting time that will be when the work of earth is rewarded by the God of heaven. I look forward to being there. I hope you're saved, I hope you're born again, I hope you'll be part of that great company. When the role is called up yonder, I hope you'll be there to enjoy what lies before us. On the

John Hambleton’s Early Rebellion

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program today, we want to look at John Hambleton. John Hambleton. He lived from eighteen twenty to eighteen eighty nine. He was raised in the seaport city of Liverpool, England. His saintly mother, and how many times have we read during the course of these one hundred studies of a godly mother who raised her children for Jesus Christ? How many times have we read of God rewarding those efforts? His saintly mother was one strong link in the events leading to his conversion. He recounted as an adult I shall never forget the lovely way she used to place her hand upon my head and talk about that peerless person who was God manifest in the flesh. As a teenager, John Hambleton rebelled against his upbringing. With his peers he became an openly depraved delinquent. At sixteen he ran away from home to enter the theater and traveled England, Australia, and America as an actor, theatrical manager, adventurer, and gold digger.

Gold Rush Hardships And A Shaken Soul

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The way home began in eighteen fifty. It started in a saloon in Geelong, Australia, when a fellow actor ridiculed the Bible. Everyone joined in the laughter as he made fun of the sacred text, as he made fun and mockery of the Word of God. But John, John could not join in. Unable to shake off the impressions of his mother's consistent, Christ-like example and teaching, he found himself speaking out to defend the Bible and defend Christianity, though he was not a Christian. He knew that his mother had to be right, that the Bible had to be the Word of God, and he spoke out in that barroom in defense of sacred scripture. In my own heart, Hambledon observed, I believed every doctrine of the Christian faith. Though I was a rejector of Christ and a neglector of God's great salvation, how many in our world today in just that condition? How many in our churches today just like that? Oh, they don't deny the doctrines. They believe them, they hold them to be true, but they have never personally put their faith, their trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, men like Hambleton were drawn by the California Gold Rush. Hearing about the fortunes to be had, he left Australia to go digging for something to satisfy his heart. But he would not find it in rock, he would not find it in stone, he would not find it in any precious metal that he might mine from the ground. San Francisco was going through wild times. The laws allowed the people to carry out tax free any gold they picked up, panned, or dug. Fortunes were made and lost overnight in the gold fields. Hambleton narrowly escaped alive. Careless of fatigue, worn with hunger, broken through disappointment, men pursued their way over wild and desolate tracts of country where nothing met the eye but vast prairies, from which there arose immense mountains capped with snow and slopes that were wooded with trees of enormous growth. Of course they had to endure many hardships, often suffering the pangs of hunger, thirst, fever, and fatigue. This to say nothing of the peril of robbers and the rowdyism of some desperate characters in our own party, said Hambleton. But they didn't care. All this could be endured and suffered as long as they could reach the point of their ambition and find the precious gold on which men have so long set their hearts. John Hamilton almost died several times, at least once each by drowning, by stabbing, by shooting, by thirst, and by disease. What a life, what a miserable life. At his lowest, his friends, falsely so called, went to dig a grave while he lay nearby under a tree. He did look grim. He was to say as I lay upon that grassy couch apparently upon the eve of death, my soul trembled as conscience suggested the question Where will you go when the end comes? Then the scenes of my past life rushed with fearful imagery through my mind. I thought of home I had deserted. I thought of my mother's heart that I had broken, I thought of the talents that I had abused, I thought of the grace of God which I had despised and rejected. Then I thought of the just retribution of the wicked, and of the awful eternity, when impenetent sinners such as myself shall reap forever and ever what they have sown in time. God has it had his attention. But Hamilton did not yet see the way of salvation. He recovered physically, and like so many men, brought face to face with death and brought face to face with the reality that they will drop into hell just as soon as death moves on and leaves them standing, they return to their former wickedness.

A Mother’s Prayer And Real Conversion

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Circumstances came together for Hambledon to sail back home. After seventeen years of absence he stepped onto the dock at Liverpool on april first, eighteen fifty seven. His quest for any relatives seemed futile, but finally he found his sisters. Before his mother had died years previously, she asked her daughter to write a declaration of her prayer of faith. John's sister produced the paper. One of her declarations read that God would save her prodigal son John and bring him back to Liverpool that he might become a preacher of the gospel. Determined to change. John Hamilton tried the route of self-effort. And for weeks he strove. He struggled. He vowed, he resolved and ended up in deep despair. He could not change his life, he could not make himself into the person his mother wanted him to be. Thankfully, during this time, he went to a bookstore and bought a Bible. In despair of saving himself, he saw the Savior he needed while reading John chapter 3 and John chapter 5. He trusted Jesus Christ. He stopped trying to impress Jesus Christ. He stopped trying to earn the favor of Jesus Christ. He stopped trying to make himself good enough to be accepted by Jesus Christ. And he trusted. He trusted Jesus for the salvation of his soul. And in that instant, in that moment, God worked his mighty work in the heart, in the life of John Hambledon, and saved his precious soul. Once he knew he was at peace with God, Hambledon wanted the same for others.

Learning To Preach With Nothing

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At first my knees trembled like Jeremiah, he said, but God directed me to his word, saying, Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak, be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee. Reginald Radcliffe, the Liverpool lawyer, was an early encouragement to the new believers. The marketplace was John's brief apprenticeship, where he began his preaching career with open air preaching. He and a dock worker named Edward Usher rented the Teutonic Hall for gospel services. It was happy work, and a considerable number claimed to have been converted. Then with a shilling and only a shilling between them, Hambledon went travelling in the name of the Lord. Mrs. Reginald Radcliffe wrote It was laid on the hearts of Hambledon and his friend to go into Lancashire, and preach the gospel to some of the great populations in the towns and villages. I remember well when they started. They were going to trust God for everything. So with very little in their pockets and their hearts full of faith, they set off from Chatham Place. Mr Radcliffe accompanied them out of town as they went afoot. Before parting they stepped over a hedge, knelt down in the field, and commending each other and the work of God and the work unto God, I'm sorry, into his own keeping. Some weeks after, when they returned, they both stood up before me and said, Look at us. We are better dressed than when we started, and have lacked nothing. Better still, God had blessed their words to many souls. We are often told that God wants faithful servants, not necessarily successful servants, and that's true. It's very true. But Hambleton was both faithful and successful. The most notable success in his ministry was the men that he trained. Wherever we see, he was pushing another servant out into the work. He had urged Richard Weaver to launch out. And when the revival stream which began flowing in eighteen fifty nine was at high tide, Henry Morehouse was converted in eighteen sixty one. Henry came into touch with Richard Weaver, John Hambledon, Edward Usher, Reginald Radcliffe, Joshua Poole, names that we've mentioned to you before, and there were others besides these. Sometimes these men filled fourteen rented theaters in London on one Sunday night to herald out the gospel, to packed houses every one. What days of revival those were probably the last dying gasp of England. When Henry Morehouse left auctioneering to preach the gospel, he was the first or the first man he went looking for was John Hambledon of Liverpool. Under Hamilton's wing, Henry quickly grew in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And Hamilton gave young Henry the sink or swim approach in learning how to preach the gospel. He just said there's a crowd, go preach to them. And then later they would rehearse the matter and discuss better ways to do the job. Together they entered on an evangelistic tour through the provinces. These men did their evangelizing without a fixed salary or human promise of support. They spoke about depending on God. It meant not depending on organizations or societies or committees or pledges or promises. John Hamilton was fearless, willing to do God's will at all costs. He did not make his attainments a standard of Christian fellowship, and no Christian ever accused him of being a sectarian bigot. He loved God's people and they knew it.

Banners, Mobs, And Unexpected Fruit

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Hambleton, Usher, and Morehouse attended the Tercent tough word for me, tercentenary festival, honoring William Shakespeare at Stratford Vaughn on Avon, needing a text for one of his banners. And here's what they did. There was this great festival to honor Shakespeare in Old Billy's hometown. And what these men did is they made huge banners with evangelical messages upon them, and went and stood in the midst of that crowd holding those banners and preaching the gospel. What a novel idea in the eighteen sixties. Needing a text for one of his banners, Hambleton was supplied with the right words one night as he lay awake and heard Henry talking in his sleep, which he often did. There I stood with a board on which was printed, Christ for me, Christ for me. And the poor people were singing so happy. Morehouse paused, then added, Praise the Lord, mercy's free. He quieted down and slept till morning. And so it was that Christ for Me, Praise the Lord, Mercy's Free became Hamblet's text for use at the Shakespearean festival. The drama of hearing Hamilton in full stride, preaching his lungs out, transfixed the people. That day he was a man with a message. The text made a startling impression. People were stirred, fruit was gathered, many souls were saved that day, who had come to celebrate Shakespeare and left rejoicing in the Lord. Together Reaver and Hamilton were the sons of thunder for that age. Henry Pickering described Hamilton's preaching partner as a man with peculiar unction. With such spiritual electricity, a greater God made preacher has not been known in living memory. The moment he began to speak, at least in his palmy days, he sent a power and reality through the hearts of the thousands, the thousands who thronged to hear him. You felt God was there, the spirit was working, the bleeding lamb of whom he loved to sing was the center, and eternal issues were at stake. Usher Morehouse and Hambledon came to Dublin in eighteen sixty two, and an eighteen year old named Thomas John Barnardo heard things from the converted actor that he never knew before. Days later, after speaking with his brother, he entrusted himself for time and eternity to our Lord Jesus. This brilliant young man went on to study in Edinburgh, Paris, and London. There in eighteen sixty six a destitute boy, commonly called a street Arab, took him to where eleven others were sleeping on the roof of an iron building under the stairs.

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Dr.

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Bernardo opened his doors to these waits. His mottos became admit first, inquire afterwards, and no destitute child ever refused admission. For almost forty years he ran the Bernardo homes, housing almost are you listening? sixty seven thousand runaway or abandoned boys and girls. In fishing terms, Bernardo was a big catch. From Dublin, these men ranged out into the south of Ireland. Cork, Morehouse, and Hamilton were drowned out by a mob singing We'll hang Garibaldi on our sour apple tree. But Garibaldi was in Italy, and the closest enemies that mob saw were the two preachers who insisted that a free and full salvation came only through faith in the blood of Christ, not in ritual or ecclesiastical decree. Hamilton was a lion like man. With no amplification system, no guerrilla bodyguards, he stared down, outsmarted, overshouted, and outlasted that ugly mob. You want a great book? You ought to read The English Evangelist, the story of Henry Morehouse by J. McPherson. Near a race course, a gang instigated by an Irish Roman Catholic created a disturbance. Hamilton told the ringleader that he would allow him to speak if he would answer one question. Prodded on by his comrades, he stepped on the platform. Hambledon asked, Why did Cain murder his brother Abel? That question seemed to reach out to that young man like the hands of an invisible giant. Stunned and shaken, he bolted from the platform in panic, leaving Hambledon to answer his question and by it preach on sin, righteousness, and judgment. On another occasion, the circus people thought business was suffering due to Hambledon's preaching next door. Sound familiar? Their clown volunteered to dress up in a bizarre costume, ridicule the preacher, and distribute circus handbills. Hambled knew how to fool a fool. Look here, friends, and you will see two fools, one for the devil and the other for Christ. God made man in his own image, but look at that poor fellow there and see what Satan has done for him. By God's grace I am a free and a happy man serving a good master. But that poor man is only serving the devil, and will only get the wages of sin which is death. Yet the God he mocks sent his only son to die on the cross to save sinners from eternal punishment, and I am here to declare the glad tidings that there is forgiveness of sins for all who believe in his most blessed name. The jester shrank into the crowd, as if he had vaporized, but at the end of the day he rematerialized in front of the converted actor to ask for prayer. The clown confessed, I am wretched in my quiet moments.

Bible Carriage Innovation And Final Years

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In eighteen seventy nine, Hambleton returned to Australia for a year and This time on a mission for the Lord. Edward Moisey, Harrison Ord, and Henry Rainey had also gone down under. These itinerant evangelists saw fruit of the gospel, and several large congregations sprang up in Victorian Tasmania. In December of eighteen eighty, Hamilton made it to Henry Morehouse's deathbed back in England. Calling to see him on Monday last, he wrote, before he left us, I grasped his arms as his face betokened that the enemy death was doing its last work. I said, Harry, we shall soon meet up yonder. He replied, while gasping for breath, sure, sure, sure. How plainly visible is the work of God in putting into such a little frail vessel as our brother such a treasure, showing us all the excellency of powers of God. That's how Hambledon dismissed his dear preaching friend. Henry Moorehouse had introduced the idea of the Bible carriage in England, and Hambledon liked it. Hamblon was inventive and always looked for better ways to get the work done. The Bible carriage was a bookmobile, a portable pulpit, and sleeping accommodation all in one. George Mueller had backed up this method of Bible distribution. In eighteen eighty four, when Hambled again sailed for Australia, he brought along a Bible carriage that had been manufactured by Mueller's friends in Bristol, England. This Bible carriage would be widely used in Australia. You know what it was. It was a motorhome with a pulpit built on the back, and Bible texts and illustrations painted on the sides, built by George Mueller in eighteen eighty four and used by John Hambleton for five years in Australia. His last act of service was to pack a box of books for one of the Bible carriages, load it into a wheelbarrow, and walk it to the station five hundred yards from his home. It was there in Geelong, Australia that he had heard his home call on december eighth, eighteen eighty nine. Hambledon used his magnificent voice and command of language, and ability to think on his feet in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, in the open air, in tents, in halls, in chapels, in rented theaters. He took advantage of public executions, carnivals, circuses, fairs, and race tracks. He also engaged in Bible carriage work, as well as lecturing throughout the country on a large chart, which he called Ezekiel's Tile. Pictures of scenes taken from the book of Ezekiel. He would point to one, preach on it, point to another, preach on it. A soldier for his master. The one time rebel became a servant. The actor proclaimed instead eternal realities. The prospector found the treasure more precious than the gold that perisheth. And he preached Jesus Christ every way a man could preach Jesus Christ to every kind of man he could find to preach to. John Hambleton. You probably never heard of him till today. But what a man, what a great man. Banners, gospel banners, public preaching, a motorhome with Bible verses on the sides, and a pulpit built right on the back. What a man. What a savior. What a gospel. What a hero for us to look up to. I hope and pray that God uses these tales, these broadcasts, to challenge you, to inspire you, to stir you up to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in some way, anyway. It's better than no way.