BENDIGO IN PULPIT

Evening Star, Issue 22249, 29 January 1936, Page 6

BENDIGO IN PULPIT

THE SIX MEN IN THE PEW Bendigo, a city in the heart of the Victorian goldfields,, js completing its Protestant cathedral, and‘Westminster Abbey is sending its own old pulpit for it. The city, once called Sandhurst, takes its name from a man who filled English pulpits for 30 years, after having filled the pugilistic prize ring for 18 years. His name was Thompson, and he was one of triplets born at Nottingham early last century, the three being called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. His name became distorted into Bendigo, and under that name he beat all the heavy-weight men and won the championship of England. When he was nearly 40 Bendigo was converted, and, like his fellow townsman William Booth, who stood' on the kerbs of Nottingham’s streets and preached before he founded the Salvation Army, he became an ardent preacher, conducting with great success all over the country. Conan Doyle, in one of the best of his poenls, tells the tale of a service at which the ' _ good resolutions of Bendigo, “ pride of Nottingham,” were overcome by the jeering and jibing of half a dozen men who sat in the front pew during a service at Birmingham, making it impossible for the preacher to continue. Accordingly, ho said a short prayer, laid his Bible on the shelf, vaulted over the pulpit rails, and gave all sixsuch a thrashing that they were reduced to abject submission, and the service concluded peacefully'—■ The Lord, said he, has given rne His message from on high, And if you interrupt Him I will know the reason whv.