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    Jim Craig's Battle for Black Rock: A Novel of the Canadian West
    Jim Craig's Battle for Black Rock: A Novel of the Canadian West
    Jim Craig's Battle for Black Rock: A Novel of the Canadian West
    Ebook247 pages3 hours

    Jim Craig's Battle for Black Rock: A Novel of the Canadian West

    By Ralph Connor and Michael Phillips

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    A courageous minister is out to save the souls of a frontier mining town in this nineteenth century Christian Western novel.

    The mountain town of Black Rock is a place where hard-living miners find respite from their labors in the fleeting pleasure of the saloon. When Pastor Jim Craig arrives, he brings with him a radically different vision of salvation—one found in the everlasting love of the Lord.

    Jim believes the Gospel can change lives, and he’s determined to prove it. But those who profit off of whiskey and sin are equally determined to fight his message of reform. Written by a Canadian minister and first published in 1898, Jim Craig’s Battle for Black Rock is a timeless tale of Western adventure and the power of faith.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateSep 1, 1988
    ISBN9780795350870
    Jim Craig's Battle for Black Rock: A Novel of the Canadian West
    Author

    Ralph Connor

    Ralph Connor was the pseudonym of best-selling Canadian writer Charles William Gordon. Born in a small town in Ontario, Gordon’s interest in writing was ignited as a student first at the University of Toronto and then at Knox College, where he completed his divinity studies. Gordon went on to become a reverend in both the Presbyterian and United churches, and used the pen name Ralph Connor to keep his literary activities separate from his religious vocation. Over the course of his career, Connor published more than forty works, including the wildly popular The Sky Pilot, which sold more than one million copies, Glengarry School Days, The Man from Glengarry, and Postscript to Adventure, a posthumous autobiography published after Gordon’s death in 1937.

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      Book preview

      Jim Craig's Battle for Black Rock - Ralph Connor

      Jim Craig’s Battle

      for Black Rock

      Ralph Connor

      New York, 2017

      Originally Published as Black Rock. Privately printed in Canada by Jim Macdonald in 1898 and then in the United States in 1900 by Fleming H. Revell.

      Jim Craig’s Battle for Black Rock

      Copyright of edited edition © 1988 by Michael Phillips

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

      Electronic edition published 2017 by RosettaBooks

      ISBN (Kindle): 978-0-7953-5087-0

      www.RosettaBooks.com

      DEDICATION

      To Kent Bateman,

      whose love for Ralph Connor played

      a significant role in the inauguration

      of this new series, and a man whose

      priorities, ministry, and compassion

      for his fellow man in many ways mirror

      Connor's own.

      THE SUNRISE STORIES

      OF YESTERYEAR

      Stories of Yesteryear is a series of novels which hearkens back to nostalgic times of bygone years—times which, if not easier, somehow yet seem less complex, even with their hardships, than these present frenzied years of the late 20th century. The series includes old publications which have been lost to the present day reading public, but which in their own day were best-sellers. Most of these have been edited for Sunrise and brought back into print in updated format so that you can today enjoy quality, wholesome fiction through great works and classics of the past. In addition the series will occasionally offer new stories about historical times and places of past generations. All the books in the Stories of Yesteryear series are stories about people with real joys and problems you can identify with. They are uplifting and inspirational in their content, while not always heavily spiritual. They will be enjoyable and dramatic stories, books you can be proud to read and give to friends. We at Sunrise Books hope you will enjoy the selections chosen for this series. We are always happy for your comments about any of our books.

      THE EDITOR

      Michael Phillips is one of the most versatile writers of our time. In addition to his reputation as a best-selling novelist, he has penned more than two-dozen non-fiction titles.

      Phillips is also known as among those who helped rescue Victorian Scotsman George MacDonald from obscurity in the 1980s with his new publications of MacDonald’s works. His efforts contributed to a worldwide renewal of interest in the man C.S. Lewis called his master. Phillips is today regarded as a man with rare insight into MacDonald’s heart and spiritual vision. Phillips’ many books on the nature and eternal purposes of God are highlighted by several groundbreaking volumes on MacDonald’s work.

      What many readers have not known is that Phillips’ editorial expertise in exhuming the works of his favorite authors of yesteryear has not been limited to the Scotsman. He has also edited two of Canadian Ralph Connor’s most memorable titles—Black Rock and Sky Pilot. Phillips’ conviction that the works of this novelist and man of God of a century ago are worthy of new life for our time remains as strong today as when his new editions of these two titles were first published in 1988.

      CONTENTS

      Introduction by Michael Phillips

      Foreword by Professor George Adam Smith

      Preface by Ralph Connor

      1. Christmas Eve in a Lumber Camp

      2. The Battle for Black Rock Begins

      3. Plans

      4. Christmas Day Race

      5. The Christmas Service

      6. Mrs. Mavor's Story

      7. The Making of the League

      8. Jim Craig's Vision

      9. An Old Story in a Stable

      10. First Roll-Call of the Black Rock Church

      11. The Spring of 1883

      12. The Breaking of the League

      13. Graeme's Dangerous Plan

      14. What Happened to Billy Breen

      15. The New League

      16. What Came to Slavin

      17. The Two Calls

      18. An Agonizing Decision

      19. Love Is Not All

      20. How Nelson Came Home

      21. Graeme's Return Home

      22. Graeme's New Birth

      23. Travels

      24. Homecoming

      INTRODUCTION

      I have a love, sometimes even a passion, for old things.

      Old tables, old barns, old landscapes, old mountains, old castles, old gardens, old bureaus, old buildings, and old books. I especially love history—old times.

      Out of this has emerged from within me a hunger to write and edit and publish books which hearken back to nostalgic bygone years—times which, if not easier, somehow seem less complex, even with their hardships, than these present frenzied years of the 20th century. It is not that old is necessarily better by some absolute standard. Yet the flood of newness which contemporary society presses upon us tends to drown out the sometimes quieter voices from the past. And it is my conviction that these ancient voices, though perhaps expressing themselves in different, occasionally in quaint and old-fashioned ways, nevertheless contain much truth for us today.

      Thus, coupled with my interest in reading and writing historical fiction is an ever-present itch to uncover and bring to light old books which have for one reason or another been lost to the reading public. It has grown almost to a compulsion to discover the works of forgotten authors, and then do what I can to bring their works back into print. Sometimes this will mean simply reprinting them. Other times it may mean a thorough editing of every line or a change in format. But always the goal is that present day readers of quality, wholesome, inspiring fiction can once again enjoy works and classics of the past.

      It was this desire which led to the edited editions of George MacDonald's classics which I have done for Bethany House Publishers. And now I am excited to be able to introduce you—through this series for Sunrise Books—to another nearly-forgotten author of three generations past, whose life and whose books in certain ways parallel MacDonald's own.

      I first heard of Ralph Connor (1860-1937) several years ago through two friends who kept telling me, You really ought to read some of Ralph Connor's books. They're terrific!

      But I was busy, and never got around to doing so.

      Yet these men were persistent. And I found their urgings especially difficult to ignore in that they came from such different quarters and had such different reading tastes. Both were close friends of mine. One man pastored a small church, did carpentry work on the side, and enjoyed reading, in addition to Connor, the likes of Harold Bell Wright and similar fiction. The other was a seminary Professor with many literary accolades to his credit, whose chief reading interest was not in the line of fiction at all but in weighty theological treatises.

      I respected and admired both men, diverse as they were, and each kept saying, You've got to read Connor. And it was my seminary Ph.D. friend who said, You have no idea how that man influenced me when I was young. I read his books, and they instilled within me such a sense of goodness and strong, manly uprightness. The men, the heroes of his books have remained with me all my life, and have been very influential in the person I am today. Here, he went on—and I can picture the moment even now with a sigh of mingled sadness and rejoicing, for the man has since gone home to be with his Lord—here . . . take this copy of mine and see what you think.

      Thus, eventually I began to thumb my way through these old worn copies of Connor's books, some of them more than 80 years old, at first out of loyalty to my two friends. Pretty soon I started to hunt for them myself, a curiosity beginning to rise within me to find out the answer to the question: "Just who is Ralph Connor anyway?"

      As I began to investigate this Canadian writer of the early 20th century, my interest could not help but be aroused. I discovered that, though a pastor of a Winnipeg church for most of his professional life, almost incidentally he stumbled into writing on the side. In so doing he gained a worldwide reputation for a name which was not even his own, eventually penning some twenty-five novels, many of which were best-sellers in the early years of this century. His first five titles alone sold some two million combined copies within their first several years, and the total volume of his work was estimated to be over five million. But as popular as he had once been, upon further investigation I discovered that only three or four of his works were still in print, and these were being sold only in very expensive library editions. There was not a single book of this once best-selling author still readily available to the book-buying public.

      Charles William Gordon was born in Glengarry, Ontario, the son of a Scottish Highland Presbyterian minister. His mother was also of Scottish descent, and his Scottish roots—vividly visible in everything about him, down to his very name and place of birth—always played an intrinsic role in the stories and characters of the later author's writings.

      Scotland's Highland Clearances of the late 18th and early 19th centuries had resulted in a steady influx of Scottish immigrants to Canada (as recounted in the MacDonald title The Highlander's Last Song).

      Gordon's parents had emigrated from Scotland not long before their son's birth, still spoke the auld Scot's tongue at home, and thus the Scottish Highland past of the Gordon family never left them. Even the hometown name of Glengarry, hearkens back to the old country, as do many place names in Canada, indicating the reestablishment of little Scottish communities throughout the new land. And the wild scenery of the region lingered long in young Charles Gordon's memory. His later books are liberally sprinkled with Scottish characters, Scottish songs, and even Scottish dialect.

      Gordon worked his way through the University of Toronto with his brother, taught for a year, and then put himself through the divinity school, Knox College. The two years 1883-1885 followed at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, after which Gordon returned to Canada, where he became a young missionary to the miners, lumbermen, and ranchers of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

      It was during his years in western Canada, living with the rough and tumble men of the mountains and prairies, that Gordon's writing career really began, though he did not suspect it at the time. His sensitive spirit fell in love with these men, while at the same time recoiled from the godlessness of their lifestyles and the bondage to alcohol under which many of them lived. He loved the West and never forgot it. Neither did he forget the men he had met, shared life with, and come to love.

      But most of all he never forgot the vision which burned in his heart to tell them of God's love. He yearned to help them make something better of themselves.

      He spent only a few years in the West. But coming as they did in the formative years of his late 20's, the images and faces and dreams and hopes of that period became a foundation for much of his later life.

      Gordon was a missionary, an evangelist, at heart—a man whose soul burned with a passion for the eternal salvation of men. He traveled to the West as a young and untried missionary, walked alone into regions where no churches existed, where the men drank hard, carried guns, settled disputes with their fists, and were uninterested in the gospel. Into such a setting he went, as a greenhorn, so to speak, carrying a Bible instead of a six-shooter, and speaking words of peace and gentleness and compassion. The impact of his life in the West is left to the reader of his books to determine.

      In 1894, after some years in the West, Gordon became the minister of St. Stephen's Church in Winnipeg. Winnipeg was then a booming town on the edge of Canada's Western frontier, a thorough mix of East and West, where a real estate developer from Chicago or Montreal, a fur-trapper down from the mountain country, and a gun-toting cattleman from the plains might share a table together at the local boarding house. Into this milieu came 34-year old Charles Gordon to attempt to extend his evangelistic vision into the city. His church at St. Stephens was in reality but a tiny mission outreach—an inauspicious beginning for the young preacher.

      But Winnipeg was a thriving young place, full of enthusiasm for the future. And Gordon's impact and missionary zeal was quickly felt. As he himself later recalled: The story of St. Stephen's Church is quite a remarkable one. It was my good fortune to be its first minister. The growth of the church was extraordinary. One secret was youth. The city was young, the people young, the minister young. At my first communion in 1894 the roll showed fourteen members.

      Youth notwithstanding, Gordon modestly omits mention of his own key role in the growth and outreach of the ministry of St. Stephens. He remained minister there for 40 years, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 members on the same roll and the church had found it necessary to enlarge seven times, so active were its people in many aspects of ministry.

      Gordon served as chaplain of the 43rd Cameron Highlanders division in World War I, and through his increasing reputation (both as a writer and as a minister) he was later involved in national positions, campaigning for the League of Nations, serving as chairman of the Manitoba Council of Industry and as Moderator of the General Presbyterian Assembly in Canada.

      He married Helen King, daughter of a fellow clergyman, in 1898 and their marriage was a long and happy one, with seven children—the eldest a son, the other six daughters. His college days, as well as his missionary experiences in the Rockies, always remained fond in his memory. He was an athlete, a singer, a champion canoeist, all disciplines which stemmed from his days at the University, and mention of which repeatedly found their way into his books. He loved the out of doors and his summer home was really nothing but a camp in the woods.

      Gordon became an author by accident.

      In 1897 Gordon was sent to Toronto to meet the Presbyterian General Assembly as a representative of the Western Home Mission Committee in hopes of inspiring his church's leaders about this aspect of ministry. He was shocked by the seeming indifference of the Assembly toward the mission work being carried out in the small new mining centers in the mountains, and by its lack of concern for the pastors with their small congregations in the foothill country. As excited as he still was about such endeavors himself, it grieved him to see such a lackadaisical attitude on the part of the Church leaders. Something had to be done, he felt, to awaken them, and all of Canada.

      After the meeting Gordon went to see his old friend, Rev. Jim MacDonald, who was then the editor of the church paper, the Westminster Magazine.

      In MacDonald's office he let himself go, decrying the apathy of the Assembly, and giving his friend a full portrait of a trip he had recently taken to visit many of the missionary outposts of the west. Of the private meeting, he later remarked, My language, I will confess, would have required editing before publication.

      Sit down, Gordon, urged MacDonald. Be calm!

      It was the wrong word to use on the young firebrand preacher. And for the next fifteen minutes MacDonald sat listening to more of Gordon's tales.

      Well, what are you going to do about it? MacDonald asked when he was through.

      "What are you going to do about it? Gordon shouted back at him. What's that sanctimonious Westminster of yours going to do about it?"

      More heated debate followed. Then suddenly MacDonald had an idea.

      But say, Charles, my boy, he said eagerly, —I've got it! I've got it! You write me something when you go back to Winnipeg!

      Me write? What good would that do?

      Tell the people what's going on out there. Oh, not like some committee report, but a little personal thing. A story out of your own experience—put it in the form of a yarn! Yes, that's it!

      MacDonald's hands raked through his shock of red hair. He sprang to his feet and began pacing the room.

      Charles! I have got it! A story! You remember that thing you did years ago about your first summer in Southern Manitoba. That's it! Promise me you'll do it!

      I'll think about it.

      Think about it? I know you too well. No! Before you leave this room you will give me your word of honor that you will write me a short sketch. I'll put it in my Christmas issue of the magazine.

      Gordon's own words describe the result of that conversation:

      "I promised and left him . . . When I reached Winnipeg I was so overwhelmed with back work that any attempt to write my sketch was impossible. Soon I began to get letters from the editor of the Westminster—then telegrams—I cursed him in my heart. But one Wednesday night after coming home from my prayer meeting I sat down, took pencil and notebook and at three o'clock Thursday morning I had in my hand: Christmas Eve in a Lumber Camp.

      "With scarcely a word of retouching I sent it to Jim MacDonald.

      "In a few days a wire came: 'Ms. too long for single article. Re-write. Make it into three.'

      "I was too late for the Christmas number. I went at the thing with more care and deliberation, and in ten days I had a story in three chapters. That story was the beginning of Black Rock."

      Gordon goes on to reflect on the book after more than three decades had passed:

      Black Rock is an example, he writes, "of that rather rare thing in writing, a successful novel with a purpose. Black Rock is really a phenomenon in a way, indeed in several ways. I am too far on in life now, I hope, and moreover I have seen too much of the real things in life to lay myself open to the charge of egotism if I speak frankly about Ralph Connor and his books. When I sent those first three articles to Jim MacDonald I had no more thought of a book in my mind than I have now of flying to the North Pole. Slightly less in fact, for I should dearly like to encircle the pole in an airplane.

      My sole purpose was to awaken my church in Eastern Canada to the splendor of the mighty religious adventure being attempted by the missionary pioneers in the Canada beyond the Great Lakes by writing a brief sketch of the things which as clerk of the biggest presbytery in the world I had come to know by personal experience.

      When MacDonald received Gordon's three-chapter fictional sketch of life in the West, he found no name attached as author. He promptly wrote his friend, asking

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