JONES, Robert, Rev (1864-1944)
Assembly memorial minute, 1944
The parents of the Rev. Robert Jones came from County Antrim, Ireland, and settled on the land at Grassmere, where they brought up a large family in an atmosphere of true godliness. Robert was born on' August 31st, 1864. He received his education at the State School, and worked on the farm. The love of the country and of farming folk ever filled his heart. The first Presbyterian minister of Woodford (which includes the Grassmere charge) was the late Rev. R. W. Rock, who discerned at once the solid worth of the Jones family, than which none was more loyal to the minister. Robert soon became a teacher in his Sunday School. Later on, the influence of the late Rev. T.J. Riddle, father of our present Clerk of the Assembly, became a powerful factor in his life, strengthening his determination to enter the ministry.
In the last decade of the century Robert did Home Mission Work for our Church in various places, Laang Forest being one of them. He entered the Theological Hall, Ormond College, in 1898, and concluded his course in 1900. His Exit appointment was to the Mount William Goldfields. On April 17th, 1902, he was ordained and inducted at Bright, where he remained for nine years. His succeeding charges were Barrabool and Winchelsea (1911), Windermere (1917), Portarlington (1926), where he laboured till his resignation at the end of 1942.
These few notices give but little indication of the manner of man this most lovable minister was. No man was more worthy of the term “man of God” than he, and no man was more humble and unassuming. His “sheer goodness” was felt by all who knew him. Probably he never made a single speech in the Assembly, but his contribution was never lacking, for it took the form of priestly intercession both in private and at the Assembly Tryst, and only the Great Day will reveal the depth and extent of his spiritual influence. He turned too late in life from the plough to the ministry to become a scholar in the conventional sense, but in “God’s wisdom” few were as deeply versed as he. In his various charges (all, significantly, in the country) he rooted himself in the hearts and lives of his people. His prayers were marked by a deep reverence and holy intimacy. His preaching was strongly evangelical, and was addressed powerfully to the heart and conscience. He overflowed with goodwill to all, and was gifted with a rich sense of humour, so that his goodness was never—to use a borrowed phrase—the “oppressive” kind.
Robert Jones died at the home of one of his sisters, Mrs. Faulkiner, of Carnegie, on March 20th, 1944, His wife, “a woman of rare graciousness and beauty of spirit, ” predeceased him. One of his brothers' is an elder at Grassmere. To his sisters, brothers, and nieces, the Assembly tenders its sincere sympathy.
Gender
- Male