The Canadian Azusa The Hebden Mission In Toronto

5

The Canadian “Azusa”: The Hebden Mission in Toronto

Thomas William Miller*

Enthusiastic

city

Pentecostal

however, Baptism, (Ellen)

at the

Apostolic

that another

proponents

of Pentecostalism

Faith Mission in 1906 in Los

Angeles

referred to that

city

as “the American Jerusalem.” A similar

appellation

could be given to the

of Toronto,

Ontario,

where a powerful visitation of God

began late in the same

year.

For

decades,

Canadian Pentecostals have considered Robert E.

McAlister,

one of the founders of the

Assemblies of Canada, to have been the first Canadian to have received the

Baptism

in the

Spirit

and

spoken

in tongues in the twentieth

century.

A careful examination of the

documents,

has revealed that the first

person

to have

experienced

this

accompanied by tongues-speaking,

was Mrs. James

Hebden. There remains one faint

possibility

Canadian had the Pentecostal

experience

at an earlier

date,

for John

Loney, of Snowflake, Manitoba,

wrote to William

Seymour in

1906,

I am in sympathy with your

work, am baptized with the

Ghost and fire, and have received the gift of some as

unknown

tongue

or

tongues.

It first came two

years

and is proving more distinct and real. Believe God is

I me for some

special

work in some

part

of His

”

Holy yet ago, preparing vineyard

Loney

was

thousands, who,

.

citizen,

This account was

reprinted

in Seymour’s

Apostolic

Faith

paper in

December,

1906. There is no

way

of

ascertaining

whether Mr.

a Canadian or a recent American

emigrant.

Snowflake is near the U.S.

border,

and he

may

have been one of the

many

at the turn of the

century,

came north to take

up the offer of free homesteads on the Canadian

prairies.

His name does not

appear

in

any

available records of Canadian Pentecostalism. If he was indeed a Canadian then his experience

of the

Spirit’s Infilling

would antedate that of all other known Canadians and even that of

Seymour

and the “Azusa saints.” After a lapse of some

eighty years,

it is

unlikely

that this

can ever be solved, and it would seem safe to claim Mrs.

this century. Support

for this view has come from

Hebden Mission

by

an

eye-witness

to the

early

establishment

problem

Hebden as the first Canadian

Pentecostalism in Toronto.

recipient

of the

Baptism

in

an account of the

of

to Christ in the

The Reverend

George

C.

Slager

was converted

Hebden Mission in the summer of

1908, just

over a year after Mrs. Hebden’s

baptism

in the

Spirit.

He saw

many

others saved, filled

1

6

with the

Spirit

and

supernaturally

healed in the

meetings

that seemed to

go

on from

morning

to

midnight every day.

The Reverend and Mrs.

Slager

were familiar with other

newly- established Pentecostal missions in the

city

and also attended the first Pentecostal Convention in

Canada,

in Toronto

during

the autumn of 1908.

Slager

later wrote that “Mrs. Hebden was the first to receive the

baptism

in the

Holy Spirit accompanied by the initial evidence of speaking in other

tongues …

in fact,

they

claimed that she was the first to receive this

experience

in Toronto.”2

The Mission on

Queen

Street East became a focal

point

for the fledgling

Pentecostal movement in Canada and Mrs. Hebden was for some time the dominant

personality

in the Toronto work. She had been converted at the

age

of fifteen in

England and,

after marriage

to James

Hebden,

a contractor, came to Canada. In

May of 1904 they rented a three-story building in Toronto and

opened

a combined Rescue Mission-Faith

Healing

Home.

They

reserved the top

floor for their

private apartment. Despite

some initial successes in ministry, Ellen Hebden felt a lack of power in praying for the sick and

began

to intercede with God for more love and more faith. She was a woman of

strong

conviction and

was, according

to contemporaries,

much the better

preacher

in the

family.

On November

17, 1906,

while

engaged

in prayer, she sensed the

Spirit in an unusual

way.

Her account of what followed was

published later in her first

magazine,

The

Promise,

in

May,

1907.

Later,

she sent a similar account to

Seymour

in Los

Angeles,

who

reprinted

it in The

Apostolic

Faith. Mrs. Hebden’s

report

was

that,

without any expectation

of such an ecstatic

experience:

Suddenly,

the Holy Ghost fell upon

me, and I exclaimed

aloud,

“Oh Jesus! Thou art a real, living person! Thou art

.

lovely beyond description!” My

whole being seemed to be

filled with praise and adoration such as I had never realized

before…. I was praising Jesus all the time, and yet it did

not appear to be me, but the power within that was praising

Him….

my hands

were raised

by the power

of God and

pressed tightly

into

my right

cheek … I said to the Lord,

“What does this

mean?”,

and a very quiet, yet

distinct,

. voice said

“Tongues.”

I said

“No, Lord, not Tongues.”

Then followed a moment of deathlike stillness, when the

voice uttered the.word This time I felt .

again “Tongues.”

afraid of

grieving

the Lord and I said

“Tongues,

or

anything

that will

please

Thee and

bring glory

to

Thy

Name!”

One unknown word was

repeated

several times

and I thought that must be

Tongues….

On

Monday

morning (Nov. 19th)

I arose again to spend the day with the

.

Lord. I waited

patiently

for Him. At noon I took the word

of God, read a portion of it and spread it upon the floor. I

2

7

.

.

‘

.

‘

then knelt upon it and cried to the Lord to give me nothing

only

what corresponded with His word. Great

peace filled

my

soul and

I began

to

sing very quietly

but to

my

amazement I was

singing

in another

language.

I said

eagerly,

“Is this Tongues?”, and then another verse burst

from

my lips,

and for two or three hours I sang in an

unknown

language:

it was marvelous … Later on the Lord

gave

me

twenty-two languages,

one

night

in a

public

meeting;

and hundreds of verses of poetry have been given

by

the Spirit, also the interpretation of many. Sometimes

the Lord

gives

me the

interpretation

of what others are

saying;

also I have been able to write all the languages that

God has spoken through me … A month later my husband

received the

baptism

of the

Holy

Ghost and

spoke

in

tongues.3

Within five months there were between 70 and 80 who had received a similar

experience

and had

spoken

in tongues and four “workers”had

gone

out to

spread

the news. Some went to

Simcoe, Wingham,

Stratford and other Ontario communities. Other

people came to

Toronto,

drawn

by reports

of the unusual

meetings

and some

stayed

in the Hebden “Home” to “wait

upon

God for the baptism

in the

Holy

Ghost.” As she wrote in her first

report

to Seymour,

“This is the

power

of the

Holy

Ghost: this is the

day

of Pentecost.”4

Mrs. Hebden

appears

to have come into her

personal

Pente- costal

experience

without

any

contact

with,

or instruction

by, any other charismatic

group. Stanley

H.

Frodsham,

the author of the early

Pentecostal

history

With

Signs Following,

has

reported

this to be a characteristic of the

early days

of the Latter Rain outpouring,

and described the Hebden work in Toronto as one remarkable

example.5

Contacts were

quickly

made between Toronto and Los

Angeles, however,

in addition to occasional reports

sent in to

Seymour by

Mrs. Hebden.

By the

end of

1906,

a “Bro. O. Adams” went from Los

Angeles

to Ontario and told the saints in Toronto what God was

doing

in the south.

Though

Mr. Adams had not himself

yet

received the

Baptism,

his

report encouraged

others to

tarry

before the Lord and “three were filled with the

Holy

Ghost.”6 In December, 1906, A. S.

Copley

of Cambridge,

Ohio visited the Hebden Mission, and

published

his report

in an Ohio

religious journal,

an account

Seymour reprinted in his own

paper. According

to

Copley,

three services a day were held,

in addition to

special days

for Bible

reading, prayer

and divine

healing.

He added that “Pentecost has

begun

in Toronto”.?

7

About a month

later,

Ellen Hebden wrote to

Seymour

that her understanding

of Tongues had

grown:

3

8

About the middle of this month

(Feb., 1907), God gave

me a greater measure of power and now I have “the

gift of

tongues.”

I can speak and preach at will in three

languages

with

great fluency any length

of time. At first I find that I

had

tongues

as a sign, now as one of the gifts. God also

gives

the interpretation as He wills.8

Large

numbers of

people

came to the Mission to

inquire

and to receive for themselves the charismatic

experience

and there soon were six Pentecostal “missions” scattered

throughout

Toronto.

Pastor

George

Fisher had a work on

College

Street: Mr. and Mrs.

Murray (Mrs. Murray

was known as the “blind

missionary from

India”)

had a mission in the West End of the

city,

and a “Pastor

Craig” opened

a work in the center of Toronto. A Christian and

Missionary

Alliance

pastor

of a church on

Yonge Street attended a

camp meeting

at Old Orchard Beach in the U.S.A. and there received his

Baptism.

He

immediately began holding

Pentecostal services in his home church. In addition to all these new

missions,

a godly woman named Mrs. Builder

opened

a Pentecostal Workers Home on Borden Avenue. Here

many

came to tarry and to receive the

Holy Spirit. George Chambers,

who was present

in the

city

at the

time,

and

personally

knew the workers in each of these

missions,

was himself led later to establish still

. another Pentecostal work in the

city.9

Mr. Chambers

preached

in that mission about one

year,

and

proclaimed

the doctrine of Spirit baptism

with

tongues speaking, though

he had not himself then received the

experience.

Chambers was destined in the

providence

of God to become the first General

Superintendent

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada,

but his

entry

into the Movement was

hampered by

his great

caution. He

began hearing

in 1906 of the Los

Angeles

revival and received tracts and

papers describing supernatural healings and accounts of people

speaking

in languages he had never heard. He was then a

clergyman

with the New Mennonite Brethren in Christ

Church,

with

headquarters

in Berlin

(now Kitchener), Ontario. His little mission hall was

only

six blocks from the Hebden

hall,

and he has described in his Memoirs the fears he then felt lest members of his congregation should be “infected” with the Hebden “errors.” He wrote:

.

.

We were spending much time in prayer, seeking God for a revival, but had no

particular type

of revival in mind. Papers

and tracts

began

to sift through from Los Angeles, telling

of the wonderful

things that

were taking

place there, emphasizing especially

the

strange phenomenon

of speaking

in

languages

never learned, but

breaking

out spontaneously

as the Spirit would come upon the different

4

9

individuals. This, I remember,

put a damper

on our ardent

praying

for revival. When we heard of such strange

doings,

we asked the Lord not to allow such to come to us in

Toronto …. How terrified we were when we heard that the ‘

thing

we had feared had come to Toronto, but not upon us.

God took for granted that we meant just what we had asked

Him,

“not to allow it to come on us.”‘0

The result was that “The cloud of blessing lifted from our church, as we

rejected

this

moving

of God’s

Spirit.

It settled down over the Hebden Mission…. The revival which broke out there

brought blessing throughout

Toronto and the

surrounding

area.”

Despite

his

personal fears,

and

warnings

to his

congregation, man,

of Chambers’ people

began

to visit the Hebden Mission and there receive the

Baptism

in the

Spirit.

About that time, the Reverend Chambers attended his denomination’s annual conference at Berlin and there heard an old friend, the

special conference speaker, preach

on the

Baptism

of the

Spirit.

His friend, A. G. Ward,

formerly

a Christian and

Missionary

Alliance field worker in Western

Canada,

had come into the Pentecostal experience

and now was

proclaiming

it. His

message initially

was given

a fair

hearing,

but sentiment turned

against

him

and, despite the fact that a number of clergy present were filled with the

Spirit and

spoke

in tongues, there was a negative reaction and those so identified were

obliged

to leave their denomination.

George

Chambers had not

yet

received his

Baptism,

but

began attending

the Hebden Mission

along

with members of his own congregation.

One of his first actions was “to

apologize

to Mrs. Hebden for the unkind

things

I had said about

them,

and about the work of the

Spirit

that I had

previously opposed.”

He and his wife then became seekers for the

experience

but did not receive it until several

months later,

while

they

were

pastoring

in Elkland, Pennsylvania. They

were invited to the American

city by folks

who had come to Ontario in response to reports about the

outpouring

of the

Spirit.

After much

fasting

and

prayer,

the Chambers found themselves in the midst of a powerful revival of

religion.

It

began when a

lady preacher

was filled with the

Spirit,

and a mood of conviction for sin settled down on the

people. Despite

vehement opposition

in the

community,

the revival

spread

and

many

were converted,

healed and

baptized

in the

Holy Spirit.

One of the notable answers to

prayer

came as a result of bitter persecution.

The volunteer fire

brigade plotted

to rush one

night into the

meeting

and hose down all the

gathering.

A man was posted

at the window to give the word when the hall was full, but he became so fascinated

by the events underway

that he forgot to give the

signal!

5

10

From

Elkland,

the Chambers’ were called to

pastor

a

growing congregation

at

Vineland,

Ontario. This

fledgling

Pentecostal church

began

as a result of the visit of some members of Chambers’ former denomination to the Hebden Mission in 1908. Two of these people

received the

Baptism

in the

Spirit

in Toronto and soon several others were

seeking

for a similar

experience.

The services at the East End Mission continued to be characterized

by manifestations of divine

power. George Slager regularly

attended the

meetings

that

year

and wrote:

One felt the Presence of God as soon as one entered the

place.

There was such

variety

in the meetings.

Something happened

in every meeting. Sinners were convicted and prayed through

to

salvation;

and it seemed so

easy

to receive the baptism of the Spirit. The reason

being that folk were

really spiritually hungry.

There were also remarkable healings…. Sundays

were spiritual feast days. One hardly knew when one

meeting

ended and another

began…. There was always a group praying or tarrying before God between

meetings…. Many brought

their lunch and stayed

all day, sometimes far into the nights

Such services were irresistable to

many

in southern Ontario who thirsted for renewal and

reality

in religion. The first in Vineland to receive were Mrs.

Henry Snyder

and Mrs.

George

Stewart. Others joined

them in cottage

prayer meetings

in the home of Mr. David Fretz. His

sister,

Mrs. James

Troupe

came into the Pentecostal experience

and received “the

ministry

of discernment and prophecy.

“Mrs.

Troupe’s

husband was a prosperous fruit

grower and

gave large

sums of

money

to

support

several of the earliest workers in missions overseas. The

opposition

to Pentecostalism that arose in Vineland forced the Pentecostals out of their old church,

so an old school owned

by

Mr.

Fretz,

was donated to the group

and used for

meetings.

It was here that Reverend Chambers began

a

ministry

that was anointed

by

God. A

community-wide revival broke out in which:

The entire

village

and

surrounding countryside

were

stirred. Over twenty entire families,

parents, young people

and

children,

were

brought

into the church.

They

were

either saved,

reclaimed,

healed or filled with the

Holy

.

Ghost.

Every church for miles around

was affected

The first summer after his

arrival,

a

campmeeting

was held at nearby

Jordan Station. Dr. Yoakum of Los

Angeles

was the main speaker,

and

supernatural

occurrences were manifested. One of the most notable event was a “visitation of angels, who seemed to hover over the

camp

while

singing

and

playing heavenly

music.”

Many were

praying

and

seeking

God at the

time,

and were

deeply

moved

6

both

Chambers had

arranged mattresses for the Jordan

with

dead,

Many “Latter

its

genuineness. Ontario, including

was established

Wortman,

of the Pentecostal Assemblies congregations

. fledgling

the same

time,

denomination because result was

visited

11

reveals

and these were

a

was

to South

camp

and other fresh

inspiration.

At to attract scores of

Caistor

Township,

when his uncle,

by

the

experience.

Another incident at the

campmeeting

the

opposition

of many individuals

and,

at the same

time,

their realization that miracles were

possible among

the Pentecostals.

a firm in Toronto to rent cots and

Station

campmeeting,

shipped

to the

camp grounds

in twelve casket boxes.

Immediately rumor

swept

the

region

that the Pentecostals were

going

to raise the

and a public

protest

was

begun

to

stop

them!

came to the

camp

to decide for themselves whether this

Rain” movement was of God, and most were convinced of

Among

the visitors were residents from

London,

the Wortman

family,

and a very strong Pente- costal

congregation

in that

city

as a result. One of the indirect results of this

campmeeting

that Charles

a medical

doctor,

later went as a missionary

America, and still later became head of the Missions Department

of Canada. Other Pentecostal

were the fruit of the Jordan

churches,

like

Vineland,

were

given

the Hebden Mission continued

earnest seekers after the

Baptism,

and its influence continued to spread

to a number of Ontario communities.

Among

the

early visitors were the Arthur Atters of

Abingdon,

near Hamilton. Mr. Atter was dying of tuberculosis

William

Manley,

a Free Methodist

clergyman, prayed

for

him,

and he was healed. The Reverend

Manley

had been

expelled

from his

he had been

baptized

in the

Holy Spirit.

The .

a keen interest

among

the members of the Kerr church in Abingdon

in the claims of the Pentecostals. Numbers of them

the Hebden

Mission,

and there

many

received the

Holy Spirit baptism

and

spoke

in tongues. Others were healed and some were converted.

Meetings

were held in the local church

but the

praying

saints were forced to leave.

Eventually, over 40 former church members formed a new Pentecostal congregation

and asked Arthur Atter to be their

pastor. According to the Pentecostal Assemblies of

Canada,

Gordon F. Atter,

author of The Third Force, this

process

was

frequently repeated

Pentecostalism in Canada, and accounted in large

part

for the

rapid

formation

assemblies. ?4

of visitors to the Hebden Mission and

ministry by some of the Toronto workers in Abingdon helped

to expand and consolidate the work. Mrs. Hebden

printed

in her

magazine

girl,

Edna

Manley,

who

reported

her

Abingdon,

in the

early days

of

An

interchange

testimony

of an

Abingdon

in

historian

of new Latter Rain

the

7

12

years

General

Baptism

of the

Spirit

27, 1909,

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of

and

baptism

in the

Spirit

with

tongues speaking

late in 1908.

Young Edna later became the first wife of W. E. McAlister-for some

Superintendent

Canada. W. J.

Brown,

a lay worker at the Hebden

Mission,

held meetings

in Abingdon and

reported

on services held in the summer of 1908 by Pastor Atter. There were two services on weeknights more on

Sundays.

Charles W.

Chawner,

who had received the

at Hebden’s

Mission,

also visited

Abingdon and

gave

a missionary address to about 35 people. Mr. Chawner was soon to become the first Canadian Pentecostal overseas missionary.

A letter from Mrs. Arthur Atter to Mrs.

Hebden,

dated

January

recounted the former’s salvation a few months

earlier, and her

struggle against tongues speaking

Pentecostal Convention in Toronto in October 1908. Her letter ended with

praise

to God who had

patiently

filled her with His

Spirit.

Another letter from

Abingdon

from Pearl

told a similar

tale, 15 and

reflects the close

relationship

that then existed between the Latter Rain saints in the two

Snyder

communities.

The Hebden

Mission,

many

while

attending

the

dealt with her and

“the

American

of others.”

At the

like its

counterpart

Jerusalem” in Los

Angeles,

was a mecca for

many

of the

early Pentecostal

evangelists

and itinerant workers. Toronto became a key stopping point,

for

George

Chambers

reported

that he had met

“workers from all over the world who had come to see and experience

what God was

doing

for hundreds

Hebden Mission he met the returned missionaries Herbert Randall and H. L.

Lawler,

and Thomas Hindle who later went overseas as

stopped

off in Toronto

during

one of his

and Daniel

Awrey,

who had received the

Baptism

also visited the East End Mission.’ The Hebdens

leaders of the Latter Rain Movement Toronto for

nearly

a

decade, though

their influence

declined for reasons to be discussed later.

well. Frank Bartleman worldwide

tours, in 1890 in Ohio, were the

acknowledged

.

One of the chief

by-products Mission was that missionaries the Pentecostal

to their overseas

fields, Egypt

in gradually

of the

outpouring

of the

Spirit

at the Randall and Lawler both came into

who had

11,

experience

there. These two

men,

before

returning

and China

respectively,

went to Canada’s

capitol city

and introduced the Pentecostal doctrines to its inhabitants.

They were joined by Robert E. McAlister,

earlier received the

Baptism

at Los

Angeles,

on December

He was to become one of the

leading figures

in Canadian

that

followed;

he

helped

establish the

a number of

others,

was founder of

the

1906.17

Pentecostalism in the

years Ottawa

church, pastored

8

13

Pentecostal

Testimony,

the official

publication

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, was a founder of and administrator for the organization,

and was renowned as a Bible teacher. He had been converted in a Holiness Movement church near

Cobden, Ontario, and thus found much in common with the Hebdens and those who gathered

at their Mission. One cannot be certain at this

point,

but it seems reasonable to assume that

“R.E.,”

as he was

affectionately called,

was in contact with Randall and Lawler in Toronto, for he obviously planned

at one time to

go

to some overseas field at the same time the other two men left. In his first

report

of the outpouring

of the

Holy Spirit

in the Ottawa

vicinity,

R. E. identified himself as one of the missionaries enroute to the

foreign fiend.” K

Herbert Randall had received the

Baptism

of the

Spirit

at the Hebden’s

meetings

in March of

1907,

while home on

furlough. Before

going

to

Ottawa,

he

began

Pentecostal works in

Wingham and Stratford. 19 After a short visit in

Portland, Oregon,

he went to Ottawa in

December, 1910,

and became the leader of a local

Pentecostal revival in the

nearby

hamlet of Kinburn, about 30 miles from the

capitol.

R.E. arrived

shortly

afterwards and

immediately became active both at Kinburn and then at Ottawa.

By May, 1911, he reported that over 70 had been

baptized

in the

Spirit

at

Kinburn, and that some had received miraculous

healings.

In later

meetings over 20 more had a Pentecostal

experience

and a church

building was soon erected in Kinburn. It was the first such structure erected in Canada

specifically

for a Pentecostal

congregation.

The Randalls and the Lawlers moved on to other fields of service, but Reverend McAlister remained to pastor in Ottawa. A few residents of the

capitol

had received the

Baptism

in the autumn of

1908,

and the Hebden’s

magazine

contained an account from William Watt of Ottawa,

in

March, 1910, reporting

his Pentecostal

baptism.

Watt added that he had left the Holiness Movement church in the

city because of its criticism of the Pentecostal

experience

as a “delusion.”20

.

.

R. E. rented a hall in Ottawa and held

meetings

which were attended

by large crowds, including

some of the

highest ranking members of the

city’s

middle class. C. E. Baker came into the Movement as a result of the

supernatural healing

of his wife. She had suffered

long

with cancer and was

facing

another

operation when she asked to have “hands laid on” her at the Pentecostal meetings.

The result was an instantaneous

healing.

Mr. Baker

gave up

his business in the

city

and became a Pentecostal

evangelist, working

first in the Eastern

Townships,

and then

moving

into Quebec.

His first

meetings

at McBean were marked

by many

9

14

conversions,

and thus

encouraged

he launched a new work in Montreal. Until his death in

1947, “Daddy”

Baker directed an evangelistic

thrust in Montreal and

encouraged

outreach to other parts

of the

province.

He invited Aimee

Semple

McPherson to the city

in 1920 and her

meetings

that

year

have been described as the greatest

revival in the

history

of Quebec. The

largest

church in the city

could not hold the crowds and

supernatural healings

con- firmed the word of God in so marked a manner as to lead

many hundreds to seek salvation.

One miraculous

healing

was that of a Mrs. L. R. Dutaud. This lady

was the wife of a Baptist

preacher

and had been

given up to die because of tuberculosis

of the throat,

cancer and other infections. At her insistence she was taken to the Pentecostal

meetings,

and there was

completely

healed. Her husband became an assistant to Reverend Baker and then assumed

responsibility

for all of the French-speaking

Pentecostal work in the

province.21

The work in Montreal also

expanded

to include

Italian-speaking residents and

eventually

there arose an all-Italian

organization affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. This

long, tenuous arm- of the Hebden Mission’s influence can be traced still further: in the 1920’s a young Methodist

pastor,

disillusioned with what he perceived as creeping Modernism in his denomination, left Newfoundland to attend

Moody

Bible Institute.

Enroute,

he stopped

off at Baker’s church in Montreal to

investigate Pentecostalism. Four

years later, having

received his own Latter Rain

experience, Eugene

Vaters felt called

by God to take the “full gospel”

to his homeland.

Again,

he and his wife visited

Montreal, and for a time assisted in a suburban mission hall. He also visited fledgling

Pentecostal works in the

Maritimes,

and then

began

a life-time of

ministry

in Newfoundland. In a few

years

he had become General

Superintendent

of the Newfoundland

churches, and invited Pastor Baker to St. John’s for

meetings.

As a result, the Pentecostal church in the

city

was

“greatly strengthened. “22

The ties between the Montreal church and the Pentecostals of the island,

which came into the Canadian Confederation in

1949, always

have been

especially

close. The Hebden influence

naturally declined with the

passing

of years and the

spread

of the Latter Rain to the farthest reaches of the

Dominion,

but it was

unquestionably very strong

in the first decade of the Movement in Canada.

The East End Mission in Toronto can be credited with .. influencing

the

development

of Pentecostalism in Canada indirectly through

the life of Robert

Semple

and his

widely

known wife,

Aimee. Robert

Semple

had

immigrated

to Canada from Britain and somehow had declined in his

degree

of commitment to

10

Christ.

George

15

Slager

met him at the Hebden Mission and reported:

Robert

Semple

renewed his consecration to preach the

Gospel,

after the Lord healed him of TB He also tarried

and received the

baptism

in the

Spirit during

the earliest

of the outpouring in the East End Mission.23

days

young

‘

and

go

with

100 received

in western

Ontario,

where he met

Semple

went to

Ingersoll,

Aimee. She had been converted and filled with the

Spirit

in some local

meetings

in

1908,

and

agreed

to become

Semple’s

wife

him into the

ministry. They

held

meetings

in

London, in the home of Dr.

Wortman, during

the winter of 1909-10. Over

the

baptism

of the

Spirit, many

others were saved and there were several remarkable

healings.

Robert and Aimee were

William H. Durham of Chicago at the

time,

where Aimee

and an altar worker.

They helped

Durham in his

in Ohio and

Chicago,

then returned with him to London where still more were saved and filled with the

Spirit.

Then the three of them attended the Pentecostal Convention in Toronto in

assisting was

pianist meetings

1910. The

Promise,

meetings

in

reporting

on the Convention,

January,

noted that:

‘

Brother and

Sister Semple

broke away from the London

with Bro. Durham, who remained in London …

and as they came we enjoyed another season of refreshing

and another wave of baptisms. Brother

Semple

was so led

of the Spirit that he always spoke to edification; … and

Sister Semple’s

gift of interpretation

was such a blessing in

to us the very words in given tongues, that it made

the

presence

of God

very

manifest to all.

They

left for

China

shortly

after.24

‘

giving

.

McPherson, She

following

Alberta;

ministry

married Harold

It is a well-known fact that Mrs.

Semple

Robert

Semple’s untimely

death in China.

later returned to evangelism in Canada,

preaching

in a number of Ontario centres. Besides her remarkable

campaign

in Montreal in

1920,

she held

city-wide meetings

in

Winnipeg, Manitoba; Lethbridge,

and

Vancouver,

British Columbia. Her

led to the United States and a career as an

evangelist

that made her one of the best-known

preachers

of the time.

Ultimately she founded

Angelus Temple

in Los

Angeles,

LIFE Bible

College, and the International Church of the

Foursquare Gospel.

So

great was the

impact

of her

personality

and her

preaching

that she was

remembered in Montreal and

Winnipeg

decades later. Her meteoric career

spanned

the formative

years

of the twentieth

Pentecostal Movement.

Though

the

ministry

of “Sister Aimee” was carried out

mainly

in America, the Hebden Mission in

fondly

century

11

16

Toronto farm

girl

played

no small

part

in

shaping

the

destiny

of the little

from

Ingersoll.

Another visitor to the 1910 Convention was a “Bro. McAlister

whose

preaching

Hebden’s probably

report

visits

Winnipeg, Angeles glowing

movement.

was considered

most

accept-

the

greatest

Pentecostal

that reached

‘

I was filled with the

from

Winnipeg,”

able.25 No other identification of this

person

was

given

in Mrs.

of the

Convention,

but the

Winnipeg

visitor

was R. E.

McAlister,

for he had held

meetings

about that time in the Manitoba

city.

That there were close

relationships between the Toronto and the

Winnipeg

saints is evident from the

to the former

city by

A. H.

Argue (1868-1959),

a man described

by

Gordon Atter as

“probably

evangelist

Canada

produced.1126

From the first news of the Azusa Street

outpouring

there had been an

interchange

of

people going

to Los

to participate in the revival

there,

and

returning

north with

testimonies.2′ A. H.

Argue

was a Winnipeg businessman and a Methodist “exhorter” when he first heard of the Latter Rain

He went to Durham’s Mission in

Chicago

and there “waited on God for

twenty-one days (until) …

in other

tongues

as the

Spirit gave

utter- ance. “28

Following personal Pentecost, Argue

returned to

and

began

to hold

“tarrying meetings”

in his home. A local revival

began

which

brought hundreds, perhaps thousands,

of people

under the influence of the Pentecostal Movement.29 One of those to receive “a

mighty baptism”

that time was

Harry Horton,

Holy Ghost, speaking

Winnipeg

meetings Horton.3o

at

family

evangelist, ministering United States. A son

Watson,

time,

A. H. pastored that Walter

McAlister,

spoke

in

tongues.31

and he made

Toronto;

of the

Spirit

in the

Argue

father of

Stanley

M.

in

throughout

the

Mr.

Argue arranged

his financial affairs so as to

provide

his

with a regular income and became a full-time Pentecostal

for

many years throughout

Canada and the

and a

daughter, Zelma,

travelled with him and later became

evangelists

their own

right.

For a

in Winnipeg and it was in one of his

meetings

later to be a General

Superintendent

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of

Canada,

was filled with the

Spirit

and

But Pastor

Argue’s

chief

ministry

was evangelism many early trips

Dominion to

preach

the “full

gospel.”

One of his first

trips

was to

from there he went to

Ottawa,

then down to the north- eastern

States,

back to

Chicago

and

finally

on to

Winnipeg.

that he chose Toronto as his first

stop.

In a

report

to Seymour,

he wrote:

The first place I visited was Toronto, at which place I did

the fellowship of the saints. Pentecost has fallen in at

least five missions there …;2

significant

enjoy

It is

12

Another Mission

17

evidence of the

widespread

is found in a letter from a small Saskatchewan

named Brownlee. It was addressed to Mrs. Hebden. The

writer,

into reality

‘

early

Pentecostal

congregation

an influence

Though

August, fledgling in Ontario, Toronto. they

‘

through

influence of the East End

community,

a

to its size.

Hartford and

Ottawa,

Mr. S. T.

Odegard,

outlined the events in his life which had led him

the Latter Rain Movement. He

reported

that his

hunger

for

in religion had led him to read his Bible. From a tract, he got the address of the Hebden

Mission,

and in July,

1907,

he went to Toronto. There he was instructed

by James Hebden,

was

baptized in water and then received the

Holy Spirit infilling,

and

spoke

in new

tongues.

On his return to

Saskatchewan,

he wrote to

express thanks to God. Mr.

Odegard opened

a Pentecostal

“philanthropic mission” in Moose

Jaw, Saskatchewan,

in 1913 and

personally financed that work until 1950. When he was 84 years of age, he sold the

building

but left the sum of

$3,000

in a local bank for the establishment of a new Pentecostal church. The nucleus of this

eventually joined

with the Pente- costal Assemblies of Canada.33 Scattered references such as these make it abundantly clear that the Hebden Mission in Toronto had

in Canada which was out of all

proportion

the Hebdens did not itinerate like other

early

Pente- costal leaders,

they appear

to have made a few visits to Ontario towns to

promote

the revival: for

example, they

visited Sarnia in

1908.

They

maintained close contact

too,

with the

Latter Rain

groups

at

Abingdon,

as well as with the six or more Pentecostal Missions in

They probably

were well-known to R. E.

McAlister,

and

most

certainly

had cordial relations with A. H.

Argue.

In fact, it would

appear

that some workers from

Winnipeg

were channeled

the Hebden Mission enroute to their

respective

fields. The Promise of March, 1910 contained a report on the

progress

made to that date in sending out missionaries. It noted that there were then five Pentecostal workers in

Mongolia-“three

from 651

Queen

and two from Brother

Argue’s

Mission in Winnipeg.”34

Thus there

developed

within a few

years

a tripartite axis of Canadian Pentecostals who looked towards Los

Angeles,

and

Winnipeg

as the chief centres of the Movement.

the

Apostolic

Faith Mission of William

Seymour

in Los

lost its

overwhelming importance

for the Canadian

and the Hebden

Mission,

for reasons to be described

suit.

Eventually,

Pentecostalism was to flow east and

west,

rather than north and south,

but the Hebden Mission was instrumental in bringing about

Street

East, Toronto,

Toronto Gradually, Angeles believers, later,

followed

this

change.

the broad stream

of Canadian

13

18

Before it lost its distinctive

position

as the earliest Pentecostal centre in Canada, the Hebden Mission

helped

launch a world-wide missionary

outreach which in

large

measure

shaped

the

program later

developed by

the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.

Two, whose work has

already

been

noted,

were Herbert Randall and H. L.

Lawler,

missionaries on

furlough

who received the

Baptism

of the

Spirit

in the Mission. Another was Kin

Wong,

an

emigrant from China who was coverted in Toronto and in

February, 1907, attended the

Queen

Street

meetings.

There he heard a woman address

him, although

he knew that she could not

speak

Chinese. He was later

baptized

in the

Spirit

and made

plans

to return as a missionary

to China.

By February

of

1909,

Mrs. Hebden could write in The Promise that:

In all, from this little Mission, there have sailed to the

following

fields one

missionary

to South

Africa,

one to

India,

two more sail for China in a few days, and there are

five others who have received calls who are waiting orders,

amongst

the

rest,

Bro. Kin

Wong

to China. Now no

collections are taken

up except

for Missions. Faith in God

is

the greatest

inspiration,

and God, so far, has supplied all

needs. Some of the missionaries have refused aid, selling all

they had,

and paying their own way out, waiting on God to

supply

the rest. Others have

nothing

to go with, but the

prayers

still go up almost

daily in the name of Jesus and by

the

Holy Spirit

to send forth more laborers and to equip

them for the journey.35

That the missions

policy

was one of entire faith was confirmed

by George Slager,

who noted that soon after the start of the work in Toronto, baptized

believers were called

by God

and sent to various mission fields. “The work was

unorganized

in those

days,

so these went out without financial

backing

other than God’s

promises.

“36 George

Chambers once made

up a list of all those

who had

gone

out from the Hebden Mission in the decade before

1919,

when the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada was

incorporated.

It is an impressive document, given

that few of the missionaries named had any

financial

backing

and none of them had

any religious organization

behind them. The list included:

Bro. & Sis. Charles Chawner Africa

Bro. & Sis. Arthur Atter China

Bro. & Sis. Hindle & Grace Fordham

Mongolia

Bro.

Edgar

Scurrah S. Africa

Bro. & Sis.

George

C.

Slager

China

Bro. & Sis. Robert

Semple Hong Kong

Bro. & Sis. Herbert Lawlor N. China

Bro. H.L. Randall .

°

Egypt

.

‘

14

19

In addition, a number of Pentecostals from other communities went out to Africa before

1919,

two from Kitchener and five from

Parry

Sound.3′ Charles Chawner was a saintly man who

gave up

his trade as

painter

in Toronto after his call to Africa. Gordon

Atter described him as “a

great

man … his

prayers

were the ‘

simplest things

in the world …

just

like a child

addressing

a

father.”38 Brother Chawner was

baptized

in the

Spirit

at the

Hebden Mission in February,

1907, and given

a vision of his future

sphere

of labor in Zululand. His

revealing

account of that call and

the

steps

taken to fulfill it were included in a letter sent back from

South Africa and

reprinted

in The Promise:

He made it plain that I should leave all and follow Him

to Zululand, and

having

drawn me aside one day He told

me it was time to go. He led Bro. Hebden in such a way that

he secured the ticket much more reasonable than we

expected,

and so laid it on the hearts of the friends of the

Mission that sufficient

money was contributed,

most of it

in one night, all of it within about one month, to

needed the

supply

me

with some clothes,

pay passage

over the water,

and

railways right to Weenen, Natal,

S.A.39

The wonderful provision

of the Lord for the new

missionary

was

recounted in the rest of his rather

long letter,

and need not be

repeated

here. After

scouting

the

unevangelized portions

of the

country,

and

finding

Zululand to be exactly the

place

shown him in

his vision, Mr. Chawner returned to Toronto.

Again

the Hebden’s

supporied

his work

by publicizing

it in their

magazine

and

announcing

that the entire Chawner

family

would return to Africa

within a few weeks.4° The career of Charles Chawner in South

Africa was so remarkable over a thirty-year span that Pentecostal

Assemblies of Canada historian Gloria Kulbeck called him “the

Apostle

to the Zulus.”4? His son,

Austin,

continued his father’s

work in Africa and these two men laid a basis for modern

Pentecostal missions which has continued to the

present.

Another of the earliest Canadian missionaries connected with

the East End Mission was Arthur Atter, the

prosperous

Caistor

Township

farmer who had become

pastor

of the

Abingdon

congregation.

His name

appears

several times in The Promise and

he played a prominent role in the establishment of Pentecostalism

in southwestern Ontario. The Atters left from Toronto for China in

1908 and

helped

to establish the foundation for a strong national

church centered in

Shanghai.

Ill health forced them to return to

Canada and after 1911

they

became

pastors

of a number of

Pentecostal

congregations.

Besides those names on the list drawn

up by George

Chambers,

there were others at the Hebden Mission who went overseas and

‘

.

‘

15

20

they

were listed in a late 1909 issue of The Promise. Their

names, and

places

of

service,

were listed as: James

Chapman,

South Africa;

Edwin and

Margaret Hill, China;

and Samuel

Grier,

South Africa.42 The individuals in the list were said to have

gone already, or to be

going soon,

to the field.

Some,

it

seems, may

not have finally gotten

to the land of their call, for W. H. Burns is reported the next

year

to be ministering to the saints at

Abingdon.43

On the other

hand,

at least two more workers did leave the Hebden Mission for overseas work. A native of Holland, a “Bro.

Lak,”

left in February, 1909 for South

Africa,

and James Hebden himself left about the same time for North Africa. As Mrs. Hebden noted:

Missionaries are still

going

forth and God still

keeps

providing

for them. It is now two years since our first one –

went out, and since that time some one has always been on

the way to the foreign field.44

The Hebden Mission had the

potential

to become the main centre of Pentecostalism in Canada. Mrs. Hebden was the first to receive the

Baptism

in the

Spirit

with

speaking

in

tongues.

Her husband’s

experience

followed

shortly

thereafter. A host of earnest seekers came to share

personally

in the remarkable

outpouring,

the healings

and the other

phenomena

that characterized that first decade in the Mission in Toronto. A number of

congregations arose which looked to the Hebdens for

spiritual leadership.

A relatively large

number of missionaries went out with the

prayers, and with at least an initial financial contribution if desired, of the

.

.

East End Mission saints. The Hebdens also had what was

probably the

largest

of the Toronto Latter Rain mission

groups,

and were active in the

holding

of the first Pentecostal Convention in the

city. Why then,

did their work

gradually

decline in importance and

why was their Mission

by-passed

in the

development

of a distinctively Canadian form of Pentecostalism? The answer lies in the attitude of Mrs. Hebden to

any

form of

organization

or structure for the fledgling

Movement.

The first

steps

to this end were taken in 1909 at a June campmeeting

at

Markham,

near Toronto. The

meetings

were a blessing

to all who

attended,

and the camp’s organizer, A. G. Ward, led the

way

in

trying

to introduce a very simple form of structure for the infant Movement. He was joined in this endeavor

by one

of the

key camp speakers,

Vicar A. A.

Boddy,

of

Sunderland, England.

The Vicar toured Canada and the United States at an early date, promoting

Pentecostalism. It was

probably Boddy

who suggested

the name for the

proposed organization,

the Pentecostal Missionary Union,

for such a body had but

recently

been set

up by Pentecostals in

England.

In A. G. Ward’s account of this

event,

16

2-1

they

also were influenced

by

the actions taken Pentecostals towards some form of

organization.

by

American He wrote:

.

.

‘

At this camp meeting it was thought

wise, and to be the mind of the

Lord,

to form the

simplest

kind of an Organization possible,

for we felt as the work grew it would be difficult to

carry on

either at home or on the mission field without some

headquarters

to which workers

might refer their

problems,

and seek counsel.

During

the

Camp, we formed what was to be known as the

“P.M.U.”,-the Pentecostal

Missionary

Union. We chose this name in order to conform with a similar

organization

formed the same year by some of the American brethren in a Camp at Alliance, Ohio,

and also with a British organization which had taken the same name.

Perhaps

we were premature in this

undertaking.

In

any case,

it soon met with

great opposition

from some Canadian workers,

particularly

the Hebdens, who seemed to feel that God had called us away fro.m all organizations and that we ought never

again

to become identified with anything “man-made.” Rather than engage

in a controversy and thus

endanger

the

spiritual state of this new Movement, we decided not to

lay any stress

upon

the infant

organization.’*”

That Mrs. Hebden

rejected totally any

form of structure for the new Movement is beyond

doubt,

but her

opposition

seems to have gone

even

deeper.

She

ridiculed,

for

example,

the use of the designation

“Reverend” for

gospel

workers.46 Her

early background

was

“high

church” and she

apparently

never held

any type

of ecclesiastical

designation (such

as Methodist

deaconness), whereas both Ward and

Boddy

had been ordained in the

regular manner. Mrs. Hebden also feared the

negative impact

that

any form of organization might have on the level of spirituality

among the

early

Pentecostals. She issued a

strong

denunciation of the P.M.U. in the autumn of

1909,

in an article titled “ORGANIZATION”. In that article she wrote:

.

We desire to state most emphatically that in the Lord’s

work at 651 Queen St. and at 191 George St., Toronto, we

have no connection whatever with

any general

organization

of the Pentecostal

people

in Canada. As a

“missionary

church” we stand alone in God’s divine

order,

and extend the right hand of fellowship to every member of

the

body

of Christ … and we decline

absolutely

all

responsibility

for

any

so-called

representatives

of the

Pentecostal work in Canada.47

In the next issue of The

Promise,

she also noted that “of the fourteen Pentecostal Missions in Canada, there are

only

about two which are

yet

in the P.M.U.”. She added that she

rejoiced

at

17

22

.

had come “out of it.”48

Loon’s wrote:

in-coming reports

that other Pentecostals

One of the

fledgling

Pentecostal

groups

that withdrew from the P.M.U. was led

by Harry

Van

Loon,

of

Hartford,

who had a work among

the Indians of the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford. Van

letter to Mrs. Hebden was

published

same, believing

separating

“organization” recognized leadership Seymour’s

spokesman

opposed any who had formed promote

in her

paper.

In it he

to

After a time, when a union was formed, we endorsed the

it to be beneficial to our work:

but, on the

other

hand,

found it was

bringing

us into

bondage

and

us to a

great

extent from God’s

people

and

missions that did not affiliate themselves with the union.49

Van Loon’s letter

provides

evidence both for the

great

fear of

that then existed

among

Pentecostals and of the

of Mrs. Hebden. It

appears

from articles in

Apostolic

Faith that she was the

acknowledged

of the Latter Rain in Canada.

Though

she

vehemently

structure for the

Movement,

she at least credited those

the P.M.U. with

“endeavoring honestly

the cause so dear to their

hearts,” but, she added, some “who

organize

do so with the

prospect

men.”50

Nonetheless,

she made clear her firm conviction

intensifies and

perpetuates

of the

day

as

proof.

In her

view,

there was “no room for

incorporated

costal

Missionary Unions,”

and she insisted that the local

Church, “with Jesus

presiding”

was the

only proper

Christian

“organization the denominations

Presbyteries,

organization.51

True to her

convictions,

Pentecostal believers.

of

receiving

honors from

that division,”

and

pointed

to

Boards,

Synods

or Pente-

Mrs. Hebden avoided

any

form or structure that would result in the formation of a united

body

of

Both the

Abingdon congregation,

and her own

group

at Toronto, were identified in her

magazine

at times as the “Church of

God,”

but this was a title

adopted

“because that’s what

they

read in the New

Testament,”

and

they

made

“fellowship, not doctrine” the basis of their

gatherings,52

of which there were several at an

early

date. The earliest was a convention of the saints in Toronto in the autumn of 1908. Present were most of the leaders of the local

missions,

as well as A. G. Ward and G. A. Chambers. The venue was a mission hall on Concord Avenue where the work was directed

by Mr. and Mrs. George Murray.53

This

suggests

that the

Hebdens,

while

being

the best-known of the local

workers,

were not so

predominant

as to have all Pentecostal work in Toronto

their

aegis.

A second

convention,

of 13 days

duration,

was

the late summer of 1909 at the East End Mission. This was so

under

held in

successful that another year.

convocation

.

was set for November that

18

possibly Foreign Seymour

systematic

‘

23

.

It is clear from the

reports

in The Promise that Mr. and Mrs. Hebden were in charge of these

gatherings.54

Another convention in their Mission in

January

of 1910

brought together

a number of well-known Pentecostal

leaders, including

“Brother

Scott”,

the R. J. Scott who was the

Superintendent

of Home and

Missions for

Winnipeg,

and who had

spent

some time with

at Azusa

Street,55 Brother

McAlister of

Winnipeg, Robert and Aimee

Semple

and William H. Durham.56 It was after this last convention that Mrs. Hebden

began publishing

more

statements of the doctrinal distinctives of her Mission. Previously

the bulk of The Promise had been devoted to

reports

of the

Spirit’s outpouring

in Toronto and elsewhere. She

began

with a brief statement of faith entitled “The

Gospel

Plan” and then

gave each short statement an extensive treatment. Thus the Hebden Mission, though firmly rejecting

church

organization

formulated an

early

Pentecostal

theology

within four

years

of the first

outpouring

of the

Holy Spirit

in Canada. It is outlined below:

The

Gospel

Plan

God Commands

.

.

Faith

.

Baptism

Commanded

John’s

Baptism

Baptism:

Water and the

Spirit Healing: Healing through

Faith Second

Coming

of Christ Breaking

of Bread

Baptism

of the

Holy

Ghost

with

Tongues

Spake

Mission

magazine

,

Movement. the Hebden

teachings

of

any kind,

Repentance

.

‘

.

upon

in the

Each of these

pithy

statements was elaborated

and must have had a wide influence in shaping

and further

defining

the

theological

stance of the infant Pentecostal

While the doctrine of the Second

Coming

was listed in

statement

of faith,

it does not

appear

as prominently in the

published reports

and letters sent in to Mrs. Hebden as did the

about

Holy Spirit baptism

with

tongues speaking

and

Divine

Healing. Perhaps

this was the case because the latter two .

doctrines resulted in immediate and

spectacular changes

in the lives of the mission attendants. One other theme, however, in manifestations of the Gift of

Prophecy began

to assume a more

in later issues of The

Promise,

and it was this

to Mrs. Hebden’s

which

eventually

led to the demise

_

prominent place feature,

in addition organization, Mission.

rejection

of church

of her East End

19

24

At

first,

she warned that “There is a tendency with the

people

to be seeking to speak with

Tongues

rather than seek the

Baptism,

and the

Baptism

rather than the

Baptizer.” Later,

she claimed to have sung

with

tongues,

to have

quoted

much

poetry

under the inspiration

of the

Spirit and,

in one

meeting,

to have

spoken

in 22 languages.

In addition, she was able to interpret what others said in tongues

and to draw “sketches” under divine

power.58

On November

27, 1908,

Mrs. Hebden, in a prayer

meeting,

and

“again in the

Spirit …

declared God was

looking

into three hearts and that one was called to

China,” and

two others to

unspecified

fields.59 A letter from an unidentified

correspondent

at Sarnia described the writer’s reaction in first

meeting

Mrs. Hebden while the latter was holding meetings

in the southwestern Ontario

city.

Wrote the

correspondent:

Mrs. Hebden was lying on the couch

talking

in tongues

and

interpreting.

She was saying

“they

are calling, calling

for thee=calling from over the sea-the time

And

of separation

is very near to thee.” then she spoke of India. I felt God

was speaking but did not think it would come to pass soon,

but I am on my way to India and the Lord is leading all the

way.6″

When the Hebden work

expanded, they

moved their

place

of residence to 191 George Street in Toronto and made the house a place

where sincere seekers could

gather

to

pray

for the

baptism

of the

Holy Spirit.

The name “Lama Gersha” was

given

the house as a result of a message in tongues, the

interpretation

of which was said to be “a

place

of

spiritual teaching..”61

That was in October, 1909. About the same time a thirteen-day series of

meetings

was

signally blessed

by God,

and Mrs. Hebden

reported

that:

In one

meeting

the

Spirit

fell upon me, and took such

control of

my

hands that I played the

organ

under the

power

of the

Spirit.

This occurred several times.,12

Classical Pentecostals will not encounter much

difficulty

in accepting

these

reported

charismatic

experiences

as

genuine; however it is clear that such manifestations included

“prophetic” designations

of certain individuals as called

by

the

Holy Spirit

to overseas mission fields. That the “call” was often

genuine

is evident from the

subsequent history

of men such as Charles W. Chawner and Arthur

Atter,

but there

appears

to have

developed

an undue emphasis

on this

gift

in the

ministry

of Mrs. Hebden.

According

to Gordon

Atter,

some of the first Pentecostal leaders

perceived

a great danger

in this area and Mrs. Hebden

gradually

lost her influence with Canadian Pentecostals.

Though

services at her Mission continued at least until 1914, the moral and

legislative leadership

had devolved

upon

those men who united to establish the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, in 1919.

20

25

had become so obvious

The need for some form of organization

after the first decade of Pentecostalism in Canada that even some of

Mrs. Hebden’s associates favored the idea. Arthur Atter,

money

and had China, Reverend

for

example,

had met charlatans who had conned

many

believers out of

taken

advantage

of their

credulity.

Before

going

to

Atter met a man in Toronto who was

collecting funds for a leper

colony

near

Shanghai.

When the Atters arrived in China and made

inquiry, they

found the

leper colony

was non- existent. The man, with information

supplied by

Mr.

Atter,

was later arrested and

imprisoned

in the United States. Such fraudulent schemes were made easier

by

the vastness of Canada and the slowness of communications. Thus Arthur Atter was one of those

in.tendent McAlister,

was one of

of the Latter Rain

congregations

protect

means

.

who favored

organization.63

Another admirer of Mrs. Hebden,

George Chambers,

the seven

signatories

to the

application

for a Dominion Charter from the

federal government.

And another of the

applicants

was R. E. McAlister,64 who was well-acquainted with the Hebden Mission and

probably

attended some of the

early

conventions of the saints in Toronto. Chambers became first Chairman and General

Super-

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Walter

who held the same office at a later date, noted that the impulse

behind the

organization

was the same in Canada as in the United States–“to

It was

finally

realized that there was no

practical

overseas missions without a Canadian

headquarters.

noted, Canadian Pentecostals had looked to their American brethren for

leadership,

example by

the formation of the Assemblies

further reason for

organization

was

given by Tom

Johnstone as the need to avoid fanaticism and to prohibit individuals from

using

the Movement to advance their own careers. In

addition,

Johnstone

doctrine.” of furthering Besides, McAlister

said,

The

relatively Central

growth

total

and

they

had set an

of God in 19l4.ó5 A

‘

of Pentecostalism

throughout

Movement

expanded and Pembroke, and eastwards

We had to have some form of organization to insure we

remained a coherent, viable fellowship of churches

capable

of moving toward desirable

goals.66

rapid

and Western Canada further

emphasized

the need for some form of structure. The Dominion Census of 19 l reported only 5 l3 Pentecostals in the

country,

whereas the 1921 Census showed a

of more than 7,000. The centres of Canadian

by then included

Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton

addition to the Hebden Mission in Toronto. From Ottawa,

along

the Ottawa River

Valley

to

Arnprior

to Montreal and the

province

of

Pentecostalism and Vancouver, in

the

21

26

Quebec.

From

Winnipeg,

the work

spread

in all directions. The Pentecostal leaders in Alberta were

closely

associated with A. H. Argue

in

Winnipeg,

and the work in Vancouver had its chief impulses

from the American Pacific Northwest.6′ Thus the

regional development

of Canadian

Pentecostalism,

and the

emergence

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada

gradually relegated

the Hebden Mission to status of non-influence.

So far as it may be determined, the Hebdens remained

indepen- dent of the P.A.C. and were

by-passed by the stirring development of mainstream Pentecostalism.

Nonetheless,

their contribution to the Movement in Canada cannot be over-estimated. Ellen K. Hebden was the first known Canadian to receive the

baptism

of the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking

with

tongues. Though

it has been claimed that she received this

experience

after

reading accounts of the Los

Angeles revival,68

there is little doubt that “it was

totally independent.

She heard of the Los

Angeles outpouring following

her own

experience.”69

Her work at 651

Queen

Street East attracted a host of

gospel workers,

such as

Randall, Lawler, Chambers and

Slager.

It also was the means of

bringing

into the Pentecostal Movement a number of

people

who later became leaders and missionaries, such as C. W. Chawner, A. Atter and Robert

Semple.

The East End Mission touched the lives of numerous sincere. seekers for more of God from other denominations: for

example, William Watt of the Holiness Movement in

Ottawa,

Arthur Watson,

a Salvation

Army

officer in Toronto, and S. T. Odegard, a Lutheran in Saskatchewan. Besides that, the Hebden Mission was a gathering place

for Free Methodists from

Abingdon

and Vineland, and for New Mennonites from the Kitchener area.

Although

Mrs. Hebden had no social status, her

meetings

were attended

by people from

every

class of

society-doctors, lawyers, professors

and schoolteachers,

in addition to the common folk.’°

The East End Mission was the

predominant

Pentecostal centre in Toronto for several

years,

and its

membership

is believed afterwards to have formed the nucleus for one of the

largest congregations

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada in that city-Evangel Temple-which

was housed for some

years

in one of the architectural landmarks of Toronto.71 The doctrinal tenets of the Mission were not

markedly

different from those of many other Holiness-Revivalist sects in North America at the time, but

they have a

particular significance

for the

history

of Canadian Pente- costalism. The four chief themes of Salvation,

Holy Spirit Baptism, Divine

Healing

and the Second

Coming

were

adopted

whole- heartedly by those

who attended their Mission. To these doctrines

.

22

27

were

appended,

in varying degrees of perceived importance, those denominational teachings

that the new Pentecostals

brought

with them. In the

process,

as Gordon Atter has

observed, “their theology largely shaped

the

theology

of the

early

Pentecostals in Ontario. “12

Yet the Hebden Mission had no

part

in the

rapid

advance of the Pentecostal Movement

throughout

Canada and their Mission apparently

was closed about the

beginning

of the First World War. James

Hebden,

who was a veteran of the

English military,

became an instructor of

troops

and is believed to have died about 1919. Mrs. Hebden seems to have lived in obscurity in Toronto after the demise of the East End Mission. It is

regretable

that their contribution to the Movement has been so

long neglected,

due no doubt to the lack of source materials available to the researcher. In his Guide to the

Study of

the Pentecostal Movement, Jones included

only

a very few references to James

Hebden,

and none at all for

Ellen

K.”

Hollenweger’s

monumental

study

of Pente- costalism contains no reference to either of the Hebdens.’4 It is to be hoped,

now that some

documentary

materials have been discovered and treated in this article, that further studies will be made on this fascinating early period

in Canadian Pentecostal

History.

*Thomas Miller received his M.S.T. from the Lutheran

Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,

the M.A. and the Ph.D. from the University

of Saskatchewan. He currently is on the

faculty

of Eastern Pentecostal Bible College in Peterborough, Ontario.

‘ The Apostoli(- Faith, 1 :4 (December, 1906), p. 3.

2George

C. Slager, Letter to W. E. McAlister, Vancouver, B.C., March 24, 1954.

Typed copy

in Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada

(PAC) Archives, Toronto, Files 13-15. Hereafter, such documents will be identified

simply

as PAC Archives.

3Ellen Hebden, “How Pentecost Came to Toronto,” The Promise I (May, 1907), pp.

I-3. Cf. the similar account in The Apostolic Faith 1 :6 (February-March, 1907), p.

4.

4 The Apostolic Faith, 1:6 (February-March, 1907), p. 4.

-‘Stanley

H. Frodsham, With

Signs Following, (Springfield: Gospel Publishing House, 1946), p. 53.

6 The Apostolic- Faith, 1:6 (January, 1907), p.l.

7 A. S.

Copley,

“Pentecost in Toronto,” The

Apostolic

Faith 1:5 (January, 1907), p.

4.

$The Apostolic Faith, 1:6 (February-March,

1907), p. 4.

George

A. Chambers,

“History

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.”

Typed copy

of letter to W. E. McAlister, ca. 1954, PAC Archives.

“)George A. Chambers,

50 Years in the Service of the

King: 1907-1957, (Toronto:

Full

Gospel Publishing

House, 1960) pp. 10-18.

.

‘

°

23

28

‘ ‘ Slager, op.

cit.

12Chambers, 50 Years, pp. 18-20; See also “Memories:

The

Story

of 75 Years in Vineland, 1908-1983,” (Vineland, Ontario: Vineland Pentecostal Church, 1983) Mimeographed.

131bid., p.

19.

14Thomas Wm.

Miller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

Niagara Falls, Ont., April 30, 1984.

‘5 The Promise, 12 (February,

1909), pp. l, 3,

and 6. PAC Archives.

16George

A. Chambers,

“Fifty

Years Ago,” Pentecostal

cited as PT; See also The Apostolic

Testimon v, 37:5 (May, 1956), p. 6,

hereafter Faith, 1.:2 (October, 1906), p.

4.

‘7A. G. Ward, “Tributes of Fellow Ministers to R. E. McAlister,” PT (November, 1953), p. 12;

Letter to T. W. Miller from W. E. McAlister,

‘

Agincourt, Ont., August 16, 1983.

‘sR. E. McAlister (ed.), The Good

Report,

I (May,

19l 1).

19The Promise, I (May,

1907) and 2 (June, 1907).

20Letter of Wm. Watt in The Promise, 15 (March,

1910), pp. 6-7. 2’Gloria K. ?Culbeck, What God hath

Wrought:

A

History of

the Pentecostal Assemblies

of Canada, (Toronto:

The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada,

1958), pp. 93, 100-(02;

and Aimee Semple

McPherson, This Is That, Los Angeles: Echo Park Evangelistic Association, 1923, pp. 240-242. 22Eugene Vaters,

Reminiscence, St. John’s: Good

Tidings

Press, 1983, pp.

57-62.

z3Slager, op. cit.

24 The Promise, 25 (March,

1910), p. 1; See also McPherson, op. cit., pp.

57-58, 192-195; and Aimee: Life Story of Aimee Semple McPherson,

Los

Angeles: Foursquare Publications, 1979), pp.

250-254.

Quotations

from

Mrs. McPherson’s books used

by permission.

?77? Pro/n?, 15 (March, 1910), p. 1.

26Atter Interview, see note 14 above.

27 The Apostolic Faith, 1:6 (February-March,

1907), p. 3; also 1:9 (June-

September, 1907), p. 1;

and 1:12 (January,

1908), p. 4.

28A. H. Argue “Azusa Street”,

PT (May, 1956), p. 9.

29A. G.

Ward,

“How the Pentecostal

Experience

Came to Canada,”

Typed copy

of Letter, ca. 1954, PAC Archives.

3?Stanley

M.

Horton,

“Twentieth

Century

Acts of the

Holy Ghost,”

Pentecostal

Evangel, (October 21, 1962), p.

19. Stanley Horton has served , in a variety of professorial roles with the Assemblies of God. He is currently

on the

faculty

of the Assemblies of God

Theological Seminary in

Missouri.

‘

Springfield

3[Thomas Wm. Miller,

Taped

Interview with W. E. McAlister,

Agincourt, Ont., May 3,

1984.

32 The Apostolic Faith, 2:13 (May, 1908), p. 4.

33 The Promise, !5 (March, 1910), p. 8; See also Songs of the Reaper:

The

Story of the

Pentecostal Assemblies

of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon:PAOC,

Sask. Dist., 1985, p. 75.

‘

.

34/bid.. p.

2.

3sThe Promise, 12 (February,

1909), pp. 1, 3.

36Slager, op.

cit.

24

29

37 Data derived from a summary of early Pentecostal missions, located in PAC Archives, undated, but probably ca. 1956 and from G. A. Chambers. 3xAtter Interview, see note 14.

39The Promise, 12 (February, 1909), pp. 4-5.

4°/hid., p. 8; see also The Promise, 15 (March, 1910), pp. 2, 6. 41GIoria G. Kulbeck, “C. W. Chawner:

Apostle

to the Zulus,” PT

‘

(December, 1959), pp. 9-10.

42 The Promise, 14 (October, 1909), p. I .

cit., 15 (March, 19 10), p. 2.

44/hid.. p. 5.

G. Ward,

op. cit., see note 29 above.

4/1The Promise, 2 (June, 1907), p. 2.

47Ihid., 14 (October 1909), p. 1.

4K/hid., 15 (March, 1910), p. 2.

49/hid., p. 6.

sO/hid., p. I. …

51 Ibid.

5?Atter Interview, note 14.

S3Slager, vn.

cit..

s’The Promise, 14 (October, 1909), pp. 1-2.

55The Apostolic Faith, 1:6 (February-March, 1907), p. 7 and 1:8 (May, 1907)..

‘5/1The Promise, 15 (March, 1910), pp. 1-2.

57/hid., p. 3..

581bid., I (May, 1907), p. 1.

s9/hid., 12 (February, 1909), p. 2.

6°Ibid. , p. 7.

t’llbid., 15 (March, 1910), p.’ I.

/l2/hid.

63Atter Interview, note 14.

,14.Chambers, 50 Years, p. 38.

“5McAlister Interview, note 31 above.

6(,Thomas Wm. M iller, taped interview with Tom Johnstone,

Agincourt, Ont., April 29,

1984. The Reverend Tom Johnstone is a former official with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.

67Donald T. Klan, “Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada Church Growth in British Columbia From

Origins

until 1953,” M.C.S. thesis,

Regent College,

Vancouver, B.C., March, 1979. Used by permission.

(18Cornelius J. Jaenen, “The Pentecostaic:lfc]Movement,” Unpublished M.A. thesis,

Winnipeg: University

of Manitoba, 1950, p. 32.

MAtter Interview.

7(‘Frodsham,

With Signs

Following, pp. 53-54.

“”Historic Church Burns in Downtown Toronto,” PT (December, 1981 ), p.

12.

72Gordon F. Atter, The Third Force, rev. ed.,

Peterborough: College Press, 1962, p. 36.

73Charles E. Jones, A Guide to the Study of the Pentecostal Movement (Metuchen,

N.J.: Scarecrow Press,

1983) 2:846.

74Walter J. Holienweger, The Pentecostals: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches, trans. R. A. Wilson,

(Minneapolis: Augsburg,

1972.

25