The Journal of John Long III

YEARS:
PREFACE   1872-1889  1890  1895  1896  1897 
1898  1899 
1900  1901  1902  1903  1904  1905  1906  1907 
1908  1909  1910  1911  1912  1913 
1914  1915  1916  1917 
1918  1919  1920  1921 
1922  1923  1924  1925  1926 
1927

Chapter 4 - John Long's Place in 2x2 History
The Significance of John Long's Journal
Photos of the John Long Family
John Long's Treatises & Writings
John Long's Poetry

John Long was born on September 15, 1872 in Burntwood, Cloughjordan, County Tipperary, [Ireland], to Gilbert and Ann (Turner) Long.  He died in 1962, at age 90.  There were eight children born into his family:  Eliza Jane-1868; Maria–1870; John-1872; William–1874; Anne Ellen 1876-77 (lived 9 months); Samuel–1879; Anne Ellen-1881; and Thomas-1883.  John Long attended Newtown School. 

Under the ministry of John Govan, Director of Faith Mission, John Long "was convicted, and first publicly decided for Christ in Cloughjordan about the year 1890." In 1899, at a "Mission in Stoney Acre...my mother, William, Annie and Thomas were led into a saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus; and began to pray and testify." 

When he was 23 yrs old, his father contracted pneumonia and passed away on June 18, 1895. His brother Sam died while in the Boxer Persecution in Singapore in January, 1902. His sister Annie passed away in 1910. In 1916, his mother and brother Thomas died one day apart, and his sister Maria died later that year.

He was appointed a Methodist Colporteur on September 3, 1895 and resigned in November, 1898. He ceased to be a Methodist in November, 1899.  He began to be a member (not a pilgrim worker!)of the Faith Mission Prayer Union in 1898 and did not renew his membership after September, 1915. On January 1, 1899, he started on "the new Lines of Faith in God. Faith Lines is a preacher going forth without any fixed or stated salary, neither any public collections at meetings, but just trusting in God to put it into the hearts of God's people to give to the support of them who ministered in Spiritual things." He is shown on the 1905 Workers List as entering in the work in 1899 and he was excommunicated from it in 1907 by Wm Irvine.

After he was excommunicated in 1907, John Long returned to his previous work distributing religious literature and conducting independent missions. He was working in northern and central Great Britain during 1908, during the first days of British Pentecostalism.  Back in Ireland, he eventually became an early preacher with the Elim Evangelical Band, the spark which produced the Irish Pentecostal movement, and played an important role in its initial development. In late December 1919, his resignation from Elim was accepted. He spent much of his remaining life traveling throughout the British Isles, often on bicycle, as an independent, unsectarian, itinerant evangelist, well-known in early Pentecostal circles.

On December 25, 1920, Christmas Day, John married Maggie Keegan from Gorey, Co. Wexford.  He was 48 years old, and she was 28 years old. John Long was 51 years old when he became a father for the first time. They had four children. Their eldest child was a daughter, Miriam, born March 1, 1923.  After that followed a son, Gilbert, born January, 1927;  daughter Rhoda, born May, 1929; and son John Long (IV), born March 15, 1931.  John Long III passed away on July 4, 1962 at age 90, and is buried in a public cemetery in Antrim County (Ireland); his wife Margaret predeceased him on February 19, 1956.  His son, John Long, recalled that his Father used a bicycle, and only returned home about once every six weeks.

John Long made another copy of his Journal in 1920 and left the original with Ralph Walker, Glencannon, Ballygar, Co. Roscommon. (From:  John Long's Journal, April, 1923).  The author visited Mr. John Long IV in his home on July, 29, 2004, and personally inspected the two Journals written by his father.  They are not identical.  The forward in the second one states that it contains some additional information that came to his mind as he was copying from the first Journal he wrote.

John Long's son John, was born in 1931. His lovely wife, Mary, served us our first tea in N. Ireland. They have been married for 47 years and have three children, two sons and daughter; the oldest son's name is John; David and Ruth. Mr. Long is a retired Presbyterian minister in Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church. (see: http://www.freepres.org/main.asp)

The Author is much indebted and thankful to John Long for a copy of his father's Journal and his express permission to reprint it on the Telling The Truth website, as well as additional information he has so generously provided.  The value of his Journal is immeasurable.

Go To:  John Long's Journal

Chapter 4 - John Long's Place in 2x2 History

READ:  The Significance of John Long's Journal

Photos of the John Long Family

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