Funeral Service for John T. Carrol
Milltown, Washington
March 30, 1957
Hymn, “Peace, Perfect Peace” (No. 36, Leaflet), Ernest Nelson, Calvin Casselman, Rosetha Newman,
Eileen Longley
Obituary (Read by Tharold Sylvester)
Tharold Sylvester: I would like to read just one verse this afternoon: Psalm 126:6, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” I feel that I can express my deep gratitude for the sacrifices of our brother, and what he has meant to me through the years, and I believe I can understand a little better what God told Joshua when He said, “Moses my servant is dead.” That was God’s obituary of Moses, put in five words. The outstanding statement in this is, “My servant.” Moses truly was God’s servant. We read of Paul expressing himself as a servant of Christ, and we know that this was true. That is why, this afternoon, I feel that one of the greatest tributes that we can give our brother is to call him the servant of Christ. He truly was that. He has served long, willingly, faithfully, and untiringly. I don’t suppose it is necessary to remind you people of what he himself has told us so often of his first days, the days when he heard the gospel, when that gospel moved his heart and touched him and brought him to the place of true submission to Christ, when He said, “It is Christ for me,” he also said that other word, “forever.” Now he has proved that. That is why this afternoon, as we are gathered here to pay our last respects to him, we are grateful for that sacrifice.
I believe we can put it this way, that he saw very clearly at the beginning that to believe Christ was to receive Christ, and he also saw that to receive Christ was to live Christ, and to live Christ was further more a privilege of following Christ. That is why, in his own daily home life those first days, he followed Christ, and a few years later, when had the privilege of going forth into the ministry, obeying that greatest of all commands, he also followed Christ there. The mark of a true servant is that they always want the will of the Master to be done. You are familiar with what Jesus asked of His first disciples when He told them to “follow i.e.,” to make them apostles. We are glad for our brother’s vision that enabled him to see first of all the privilege of service, and the fields white unto harvest, and he gave himself – he started forth. That means making himself poor. He started that way, continued that way, and we are very, very grateful for that, but we are also very very grateful for the fact that he finished that way, and today he lies in another man’s coffin, he will be buried in another man’s grave. He maintained that mark of poverty and homelessness until the very end of his life. We are grateful for that, because he has given us a wonderful example of what Jesus lived and taught.
The world stumbles over the fact that they want to change Christ. Some change it one way, some change it another, and that is why we have the religious confusion in the world, but I believe he understood clearly from the very start that God wants to change lives. God did change Jack’s life. The love of God will always change lives, the power of God will always change our lives, the revelation of the Gospel will always change lives, and we are glad for what has been changed in his life, because today we are enjoying things that we would never have enjoyed if he had not made that first sacrifice. Can you just picture what it would have meant if Jack had said “no” when Christ called him? If he had lived for himself, gathered earthly things around him, could that have brought the living hope that we have today? That is why I will say this, we are grateful that when he was weighing up that cost, that choice, God was able to keep his vision clear and enable him to see what just one grain of wheat could produce. I believe I can understand how he felt, because I faced the same things when I started out. I felt I didn’t have very much to sow, maybe just a few kernels of truth, but I wanted to sow them, and I believe he felt the same way, and as he sowed them God gave him more and more. I believe that we can say this afternoon to you people that you will value those seeds of truth planted in your hearts, planted from his own lips, and lovingly cared for by his own hands, and you will value them increasingly as the years pass. Don’t lose the vision of just one corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying. Remember that your life can be exactly the same thing. You can have a part in the greatest of all work to spread the glorious gospel of Christ. Seed sown should grow, shouldn’t it? I am glad that Jack lived long enough to not only see seeds springing up, but sheaves gathered – some that have already been gathered home. This came as the result of the corn of wheat falling into the ground, and dying. The Scripture makes it very clear and plain that amongst them there will be some tares. We can’t hinder that – but no true servant of God will ever sow tares. We can say this afternoon that our brother didn’t sow that kind of seed. He was interested in planting a bountiful harvest to the glory of God. I am grateful that he didn’t give his life over to the pursuit of pleasures, or to any other earthly calling. I am grateful that he became as a corn of wheat, willing to fall into the ground and die that a harvest might be produced. We are enjoying today a great deal of what he has faithfully labored for.
A true servant always meets God’s terms. You know the terms on which He sent His apostles forth. Jack met those terms, and in doing that, God was able to give unto him a message, a glorious message. You have heard him speak about the message of Christ – that he became a risen, glorified, living Saviour. Isn’t that a glorious message? Isn’t that something that we appreciate? I can tell you this afternoon that you can never bury the Love of God. You can’t bury true righteousness, you can’t bury the power of God, and you can’t bury the life that God gave. That is why Christ Himself rose from the dead, rose not alone to go to Heaven but to dwell in every individual that makes a complete surrender to His will. There is lots of need in my life for God to change me yet. I have found out through the years to whom I can go that that change might be wrought in me. That is the One that our brother has pointed us to so often. He didn’t preach himself, but he preached Christ, the power of God, the resurrection of life to enable us to enter into those things that are so precious and so real. I feel grateful that we have a glorious message, a message of resurrection. It is a message of death first, but it is also of resurrection. It is a thing that takes away the sting of death and is the promise of eternal life, the message of the resurrection.
With a glorious message, what about God’s method of carrying that message? Knowing your Old Testament, you know that the ark must always be borne upon men’s shoulders. There was a time when they made a new cart to carry it, and it ended in disaster. David said, “How shall the ark of God come to me?” When he found out how it was to be, he submitted, and when the ark was carried to its resting place it was borne upon men’s shoulders. I am grateful today that I have a little part in bearing the precious gospel. I want to keep before me God’s method. Our brother Jack has often told us of the need of loving and serving as Christ served. That is still the standard, and as I go out from here, I hope that it might be with a definite purpose and consecration of my life to that standard, because there is just as much need today. We have the glorious message, but we have also given to us the method by which to carry it. When the messenger is right, the message is right, and the method is right, God can bless it, and that is why so many today are enjoying this.
Our brother has often told us that there are four things God’s people will enjoy forever. They will enjoy the Word of God. They love to read it today for the simple reason it comforts them, it instructs them, and it brings them into the place where their service can be acceptable. We love it today, and that is where we turn in our need, and in times of distress – to the Word of God. We will love it forever. Why? Will it not be a thrilling thing to hear the Word of God from the lips of the Son of God? Our brother has already entered there where the veil has been taken away. Now we see through a glass darkly, but for him that has been taken away. Every child of God will love the Way of God – the way of escape from sin, bondage, and corruption, and they love the Way of God today – it is plain and clear. When you look back on first days, remember the first steps that became clear to you. Do you see it just as clearly today, or has your vision become dim? It is a time like this that can wipe away a lot of fog and mist, doubt, confusion, perplexity, and we can have our eyes lifted again to see the things that are eternal. God’s people will love the Way of God forever. They will walk in it there, because Rev. 7:17 tells us the Lamb will lead them unto living fountains of waters, He will feed them, comfort them, wipe away all tears from their eyes. Wonderful promises.
God’s people will love to do the Will of God. It is not easy for them to lay their own will aside. You must lay it down, that the will of God might be done. Is it worthwhile? Was it worthwhile for our brother to do God’s will? I believe there would be a hearty “Amen” from every heart. The children of God will love the fellowship of the people of God forever. A little foretaste of that is given to us now, but then we can have fellowship with God, with the people of God, with all the servants of God that have lived in the past. Isn’t that a wonderful possibility? Isn’t that a wonderful privilege, and don’t you want to enter into it more fully? If our brother Jack could stand on this platform this afternoon, I believe he would encourage everyone to enter into a deeper death, a greater sacrifice, for His sake. Why? Because it is not in vain. We have a glorious message, a message of life. We have a wonderful example, the example of the Son of God, and we are glad for those who have helped us to show us that, have clarified it for us, and have helped us to follow in the same way. I am thankful that Jack had the clearness of vision to choose right, courage to step out on the promises of God. I am grateful for his godly counsel, his wonderful example, his fellowship through the years, and I want to value this as I should, and put my best into His service.
Malcolm Graham: Since hearing that I was expected to have a little word in this service this afternoon, there is one verse that has been on my mind. This verse was spoken on by our brother at a meeting I was privileged to sit in. Usually when we think of some person, we think of something in connection with that person, and when I thought of our brother, there were many things I thought of, but this one that I am going to mention this afternoon seems to be outstanding to me because he put so much into one little sentence. Romans 8:29 “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren.” This is a verse familiar to all of us. I have learned that even memorizing Scripture doesn’t reveal it to us. It is good to memorize, but even that doesn’t help us to get what we should out of it. Our brother helped me to get the meaning out of this verse in a truer sense than I had ever known before. Our brother read this verse, and then he told us this: God purposed, God planned, God predestinated, God arranged, that all His sons would be made like His Son. When He said that, I realized that that was putting the purpose of God in one sentence. God planned that every child of His would be made like His Son now. Our brother fed on Christ, he thought about Christ, he spoke about Christ, and over and over, again he would open little thoughts to us that made what was dark to us, simple, like this verse that I just mentioned. The reason that he meant so much to me was that every time I met him, he passed on some little thought about Christ that I had failed to grasp, little thoughts that he had received because of feeding on Christ, because of making room for Christ, and because of seeking to bring Christ to others. It was the theme of his life every day, and because of that, he wanted others to partake of these things, that they might have the joy that he had himself.
Eccl. 7:1 “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” A good name doesn’t mean just what we are called by. A good name is what we are, how we live, how we act, what we do and God, using His servant in those days as He does today, said, “a good name is better than precious ointment: He sought to do good, he tried to encourage others to do the right thing because he had a vision of the beyond. He realized that if we didn’t do right now, we couldn’t be rewarded for it. Jesus said that to some will be said: Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” I couldn’t expect the judge of all the earth to say “well done” if I am not doing well now, if I am not seeking to do the right thing now. When I thought of our brother, he realized that it was necessary to do the right thing and to be the right thing so that he could encourage others to do it. The Son of God – the example of God in His Son – made this very clear, that the day of His death was much better than the day of His birth, and as we allow God to work in our hearts, then the day of our death will be better than the day of our birth. Jesus was born into a world of sin, of pain, disappointment and sorrow, just the same as we are. When He left this world it was better, because there was none of that where He was going. I like to read the words of Jesus on the last night of His life, in John 14. He wanted them to believe what God had said, and then accept what God had given, so that when the end would come, they would have something to go on to. The disciples were feeling the pain of parting with One who was so dear to them — like we are. He said, “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father.” When I think of our brother, I am going to miss him perhaps more than most of you, because of the many things we shared together – we rejoiced together, we wept together, but like Jesus said, “If ye loved Me, you would rejoice because I am going to my Father.” I think of the words of Paul, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We are glad that our brother lived so that death was gain. Death was a reward for him. The day of his death was better than the day of his birth. Because of that, we rejoice, and because he has gone on to his reward. It is an inspiration to us to think of his faithful life, his love and zeal for God’s truth, and for God’s people. I hope that as we are gathered here in honor of him, it will cause us to ask ourselves, “What are we living for?” What are we putting into it that can give us the assurance that death will be gain for us? May we do our best for His name’s sake.
Hymn, “Oh how perplexing Life Would Be” (No. 82)
Willie Jamieson: II Corinthians 4:18, 5:1-10. It isn’t at any time an easy thing for those of us who are workers to have any funeral service, but in one sense this service is different to any other that I have had the opportunity of attending. The one to whom we are paying our last respects upon this earth, I have known for exactly fifty years, and all during those fifty years, I have been closely associated with him in almost every line of service pertaining to this wonderful Kingdom of God, and if you were to ask me what I know about Jack, it would take me a long time to tell it all, but I can put it simply in this little sentence, that everything that I knew of Jack encouraged me to put the most that I had into the service of Jesus Christ, and much of what I rejoice in, I can attribute to my association with our brother. It has been mentioned already in the meeting here, that sixty years ago, in the country of Ireland, Jack heard the Gospel message, and it had an appeal to his own heart that enabled him to turn his back on everything that he had hoped to attain in this world as a young man. A time like this always brings me face to face once again with this great eternal plan that God has for men and women of all ages and nationalities, and I am very thankful to know that this plan never changes, it is the same today as it has ever been. Thousands of years before the world was ever made, this was God’s plan. What you and I enjoy is what has been in the mind and will of God for countless ages of Eternity before this world was ever made, and will be the plan of God through the countless ages of Eternity.
Isn’t it a wonderful thing that sixty years ago in Ireland God’s eyes were looking down upon the life of a young man, and God saw that in that heart there was a purpose to do that which was right, and He gave to that young man the opportunity and privilege of hearing that everlasting Gospel that calls a person from the power of sin and death and darkness and brings them into this wonderful fellowship and family of God. I thank God for that call that came sixty years ago to our brother. Six years later he heard another call from God of Heaven, to leave his home, his mother, his business, all his friends, to go out into the world as Christ’s servants have always gone into the world – homeless, poor, forsaken, mistreated, misunderstood by the world. Fifty-three years ago that call came to Jack. He said, “Lord here am I, I am willing for whatever it may mean or cost to be Your true servant, and in weakness, fear, and trembling, he was led out into the great harvest field, and God began to sow that life of his as a corn of wheat, dying every day. Right to the very last day of his life, that death was still working there – that willingness to be a nobody, so that Christ’s life might be planted in the lives of men and women. We are not glorifying Jack for that, we are glorifying God that called him, and continued His work in his life.
I had a letter from him saying, “I would like you to come and see me, but I don’t want you to come for a few more weeks.” I stayed two weeks, but every message I got assured me of the fact that if I didn’t go soon, I might be too late. He wasn’t able to talk very much to me, but everything he said to me during those days was in connection with the Kingdom of God. One of the last audible things he said to me was, “I wonder who it will be right to send to a certain convention this summer.” That was the last message that I got from our brother. There were a few other words, always in connection with the Kingdom. I went away to attend a special meeting, and returned as soon as possible. The first thing he asked me was, “How did the meetings go?” There was death working in that man to the very last of his life. Death for the Kingdom’s sake, sacrifice, self-denial, separation from all that other men and women are living for today. All those things, I said, “What a wonderful life it is to live as a servant of God, to see what it brings into a person’s life at an end.” There was a man who lived in the same city, 84 years of age, and almost every day that old man came, but never came empty-handed, but always came with some fruit or something. He was almost afraid to go out into the street lest he would drop dead, but he said, “I have never yet seen the bride that was not looking forward to meeting her bridegroom, and even if I have to drop dead on the street, I am thankful for the privilege of being associated with a man of God, a servant of God like Jack has been.”
After we had had our supper on Monday night, many of the workers gathered in. I went up to his room as usual to see how he was and it came to me, maybe tonight will be his last. As I sat there I took him by the hand, and I took his pulse. I held his hand there for hours, and I felt that pulse getting weaker, and with each breath I wondered if that was the last. I felt we should send word to all the workers in that area, and in less than half an hour, sixteen of Jack’s fellow-servants were sitting or standing around that deathbed, almost in adoration, as they watched that life struggling to stay in that body. Then there came the last gasp of breath, and his face was racked in torture because of the pain that he was enduring, but after that last breath there came onto Jack’s face the expression of an angel. You will see that expression today as you pass by the coffin. All that weakness and anxiety passed away. The peace that passeth all understanding was stamped upon that countenance, and Jack went home to meet his God and to enjoy the reward of a faithful, true, consecrated life. “All things are for your sakes.” Can you picture this in that sense this afternoon?” “That the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.” Do you feel that God is interested in a gathering like this, and rejoicing in the fact that in this 20th century He can call men and women away from all the ways of life to pour out their lives for the sake of others? We had a service in Oakland, and when we went to pay the funeral director, he said, “we consider it a privilege and a pleasure to serve such people as we have been serving. Mr. Carroll must really have been a disciple of Jesus. He was never married was he, never had a home of his own, and if he had, he could never have gathered around him so many loving friends that we have seen today.” Do you think it is in vain? God doesn’t. God rejoices that a company of people are here today such as this to pay their last respects to one that they love more than anyone else in all the earth. This has taken place that God might be glorified.
Graveside Service
Hymn, “Lord Grant My Life May Be
Sung by 123 workers present. Prayer, Charlie Krub
Paul began to speak about eternal things. An eternal weight of glory, an eternal house built by God. I would just like to say this afternoon that it would be good for me and for you to ask ourselves, “Am I putting all that I can and all that I am into this glorious gospel work today? Do I know anything about living for those eternal things? Am I looking at eternal things, or am I looking at these temporal things? I thank God that He has put a desire in my heart to make these things my own. Eternal weight of glory. Is it worthwhile? I think so. There was no uncertainty in Paul’s mind. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” I would like you to concentrate a little while upon that house made by God. It is not made with hands – the house that we are going to live in forever. Only God can build that house. God is building that house in your heart and life. We shall all appear before the judgement seat of Christ. We can picture our brother this afternoon having entered into this, the fulfillment of it, rejoicing in that body, that house not made with hands, and rejoicing in the thought that forever and forever that is going to be his because for sixty years he separated himself, denied himself, laid his life upon God’s altar and kept it there, and now he is receiving from God the deeds done in his body.
If I had nothing more to make Heaven, for me than just the association with the noble men and women I have known, it would be worthwhile. I think of Jack having fellowship with men like John Vint, with Mrs. Silvernail and Lester, and many many others. Do you think there is any regret or sorrow in his heart because he heeded the first call, and then the second call, and kept true to those calls to the end of his life? It was a wonderful thing to me to think that this man that I had labored beside for fifty years was dying in another man’s home, what an honor it is that he has been laid in another man’s coffin, and that we will lay away his last remains in another man’s grave. Could you want anything else more like his Master? These are the things that enrich this Kingdom, that hold it together, that make it worthwhile, and these are the things that are going to help us to carry on in the future. Some may wonder what will happen to this because Jack is gone. This Kingdom doesn’t belong to Jack. God chose him and called him and used him, but this is still God’s Kingdom. If all of us here today were to die, it wouldn’t change God’s Kingdom, God’s Family, God’s Way. We have the privilege of being true to this that has meant so much all these years that we have known it. There is the necessity of being true and loyal to one another. Jesus prayed that we all might be one. If I am criticizing you in the presence of someone else, I am not making it easier for that one to love you as God wants them to. We need to take a firm and true hold, and pray that by the grace of God and help of God that we will be firmer and stronger and more steadfast than ever before. We will be so close together that all the forces of the enemy will just fall off like water falls off a duck’s back. What has happened this last week will not scatter or separate us, it will bind us closer together. It will make us long and pray and labor as we have never done before. I am so thankful that in my little short lifetime, I have had the privilege of being a fellow-laborer with Jack Carroll and I wouldn’t care if all the world heard me say that. I hope that God will find in all our hearts a purpose and desire to be true to Him and to be grateful to Him for such a wonderful salvation as was manifested in the life of Jesus and also in the life of our brother that we are paying our last respects to this afternoon. I want to re-dedicate my life and consecrate my life in a fuller measure, so that the few remaining years of my life will be spent in such a manner that God may smile upon it, that I would have the privilege of dying in another man’s home, of being laid in another man’s grave, to keep true and faithful to God to the very end.
Prayer, Reuben Bennett. Hymn, “Lord Grant Thy People Grace (No. 13)
Pall Bearers: Oliver Barene, Niels Jorgenson, Dale Bors, Bob Ingram, Jack …
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