Janice Pibworth tells the story of Christian campaigner Helen Cadbury
Helen Cadbury was the sixth child of Richard Barrow Cadbury of the famous Cadbury’s chocolate business.
The Cadbury family were renowned Quakers and well-known for their philanthropic work. Richard and his brother George took over the cocoa business from their father and by their leadership they made great advances in the manufacture of chocolate.
Bournville, ‘The Factory in a Garden’, was their idea in order to improve the working and living conditions of the Cadbury’s workers. They introduced many new initiatives, from adult education to creche facilities for the children of the workers. Richard and Emma Cadbury, Helen’s parents, shared the same saving faith in Christ; this impacted not only their home life, but also their charitable work and the company’s practices.
Conversion
A gifted musician, Helen was bright with a strong personality, always full of energy and with a sense of humour. When she was about 12, she attended an evangelistic mission, with her father, for the people of the Birmingham slums and it was at one of these meetings that she was converted; she had been touched at seeing the transformed lives of people from the slums. She avidly began reading her Bible and witnessing to the girls at school. Encouraged by her father, she wanted to share the gospel through the use of the Scriptures, but it was difficult to carry a Bible around at school. Her solution: she sewed pockets into her dresses so she could carry her New Testament. It was from this initial start that a future world-wide work would develop and become the Pocket Testament League.
On a family visit to Egypt and Palestine, Helen’s father developed diphtheria and died. She was now 22 and faced with major life decisions. She decided to live with her widowed mother and care for her. During Helen’s education abroad she had mixed with ‘liberal theology’, but on her return home, she began to read the Bible afresh and to put her trust in it as God’s word. With new spiritual interest, she immersed herself into the slum work and the busy home life.
Marriage
In early 1904 she volunteered to be a worker at the Torrey-Alexander evangelistic campaign in Birmingham and it was through this that she met Charles McCallon Alexander, the American singing evangelist of the partnership. This duo had already travelled to many parts of the world, preaching to thousands. After a ‘whirlwind romance’, Helen and Charles were married on 14 July 1904. A house, which they named ‘Tennessee’ after the American state where Charles was born, was built in Birmingham, England, as their family home. Life with Charles travelling on the many missions in the UK and abroad was hectic for Helen, but she seemed to have no trouble keeping up with this busy lifestyle.
Campaigns and trials
Their motto, which they had on display in their home, was: ‘Each for the other and both for God’. This must have been tested when Helen gave birth to their much-wanted child, a boy, only to lose him a few hours later. They remained childless for the rest of their lives. Even with sorrow, difficulties and health issues, Charles and Helen continued on their campaigns, but now they added another dimension to their work by reinstating the idea of the Pocket Testament League, and they went on to establish headquarters in both the UK and America. Members signed a pledge to always carry a part of the Bible with them and to read one chapter of the Bible daily. Even in China the work spread and was known as the Sleeve Testament League as the Chinese used their sleeves, rather than pockets, to carry the Scriptures. Today, millions of parts of the Bible have been distributed throughout the world through the Pocket Testament League.
Helen and Charles wanted to share the gospel in whatever way they could, whether through conversation, preaching, song, or some other means. Helen wrote a few hymns; this part of one verse sums up her life:
Anywhere with Jesus, over land and sea,
Telling souls in darkness of salvation free.
At the age of 92 and after a full life of service, she died. Inscribed on her gravestone is the Bible reference Romans 1:16: ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.’
Helen had served her master as a soldier for Christ; she was no chocolate soldier.
