THE LATE REV J. J. DOKE.

Northern Advocate, 4 October 1913, Page 2

THE LATE REV J. J. DOKE.

Many New Zealanders will hear with great regret of the death of the Rev J. J. Doke, who for some years was pastor of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church in Christchurch He had exercised a useful ministry in Devonshire and Bristol before coming out to this Dominion, and while here he established a reputation for zealous, capable industry. From us he went to South Africa, taking in succession churches in Grahamstown and Johannesburg. Everywhere his gifts have won recognition, and he has been greatly beloved. Recently he started on a. long, hazardous journey into Central Africa to act as as pathfinder for the Baptist Missionary Society of South Africa, with a view to a new missionary advance into the interior. He was accompanied by his son Clement, and, despite the difficulties encountered on the way, the two safely reached Ndola, in N.W. Rhodesia, not far from the Congo border. A letter written by him at this point reached the secretary of the Baptist Colonial Society on August 18. Now follows the cabled intelligence that Mr Doke succumbed to enteric fever at Umtali, on the opposite side of Rhodesia, the second object of his journey. He will be greatly missed by his people of the Central Baptist Church at Johannesburg. Of late he tried his hand at literature, and his first novel, "The Secret City," has been very favourably reviewed, and has attracted attention in New Zealand. Mr Doke leaves a wife, three sons, and a daughter, to whom heartfelt sympathy will go out. Two of his sons have dedicated their life to a missionary career. It will be remembered that Mr Doke's brother was one of the first men to lay down his life in connection with the founding of the Baptist Mission on the Congo.