This
is the day that … ANDREW
MELVILLE
was born in 1545.
This Scottish Reformer has been
called “the father of Presbyterianism”.
As John Knox had withstood Queen
Mary’s Romanist tendencies a generation previous, now the battle was with King
James IV who declared that he was supreme “over all persons and causes, civil
and ecclesiastical alike” (Fathers
of the Kirk, page 48).
At an historic meeting in 1596
Andrew Melville called the king, to his face, “God’s sillie vassal,” and taking
the king by the sleeve went on to remind him that there were two kingdoms in
Scotland ... and one of those was ruled by King Jesus, to whom King James IV
must bow as a subject!
Eventually this fearless Scot was
imprisoned in the Tower of London (1609-1611).
Then, at the request of a French noble, he was released to take up a
professorship on the Continent. There
he died, in Sedan, France, in 1622.
J.D. Douglas writes: “It was Presbyterianism of the type Melville
had forged that ultimately won the victory some 80 years after his banishment
and which still forms the basis of the national Church of Scotland today” (and
of Presbyterian churches around the world).
(Who’s Who in Church History,
page 469).
This
is the day that … FREDRIK
FRANSON died
in 1908.
Born in Sweden on 17 June, 1852,
Fredrik grew up in a Christian environment.
It was, however, the reading of Romans 10:6,7 that led to his
conversion. By this time he was 20 and
had emigrated to America.
He worked as a counsellor to
enquirers at some of D.L. Moody’s meetings, and became a member at the Moody
Church, Chicago.
By the age of 23 he was involved in
missionary work among entire communities of Swedish speaking folk in Minnesota.
Ministry in Salt Lake City led to
his writing a 212-page book – Mormonism
Unveiled – and then, in 1880, he went back to Colorado.
Then he spent nine years in
Scandinavia preaching the gospel … and returned to America on 7 September,
1890.
On 14 October, 1890, a meeting took
place under his guidance in the Swedish Pilgrim Church, Brooklyn, New York,
where “The Evangelical Alliance Mission” (TEAM) was born.
Today this mighty missionary
organisation has about 1000 missionaries serving on 29 fields.
This
is the day that … FREDERICK
WILHELM BAEDEKER
was born in Germany, in 1823.
At the age of 25 we find him
discharged from compulsory army training due to ill-health.
In 1851 he marries, but, alas, his
young bride dies three months later.
Sick and distraught, Baedeker sails
on a French ship (which is nearly wrecked on the way) to Australia. He arrives “on crutches”.
Four years later a neighbour
invites him to hear Lord Radstock, an evangelical Anglican, who is speaking at
a series of meetings organised by the local Brethren assembly. He reluctantly consented to attend one meeting.
In Baedeker’s own words: “I went in a proud German infidel and came
out a humble believing disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ambassadors for Christ, page 245).
His wife was also converted. And for the next 40 years Baedeker preached
the gospel across Europe … in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Switzerland, Finland,
and especially in Russia. “Into every
corner of Russia he penetrated with the gospel message. Permits were granted, through the influence
of a Christian countess … which gave him access to all the prisons of Russia
and Siberia …” (Chief Men Among the
Brethren, page 145).
Thousands of Bibles and gospel
portions, supplied by the British and Foreign Bible Society, were distributed.
But his ministry also took him into
the homes of the aristocracy.
Drawing-room meetings in palatial country homes would see him opening
the Scriptures to “princesses, counts and barons”. Such meetings raised the opposition of the media and authors like
Dostoevski and Tolstoy (Ambassadors for
Christ, page 246).
“Forbidden by police to hold
religious services in Riga, Baedeker obtained permission to lecture on ‘sin and
salvation’!”
(ibid, page 247).
Thousands packed into the hall
night after night …
During a two-day Brethren conference
back in England, Dr Baedeker caught a chill and died soon after – 9 October,
1906 – at the age of 83.
To those who came to visit him
during his last hours he would say: “I
am going to see the King in His beauty” (Twelve
Marvellous Men, page 20).
And he surely did.
This
is the day that … JOHN
ELIOT was
born, in 1604, in England (Christian Hero
Cards, by Ed Reese).
John was educated at Cambridge and
became skilled in Greek and Hebrew.
Under the influence of Rev. Thomas
Hooker, young Eliot embraced the doctrines of Puritanism … and was eventually
forced to flee to Massachusetts (USA) in 1631.
Pastoring a church in New England,
“his pulpit was a new Sinai from which burning lightning bolts hurled down upon
all transgressions. Yet he was also a
true gospel preacher, his kindness and love won for him many friends” (Early Missionary Endeavours, by J.T.
Mueller, page 35).
Eliot set himself to learning the
Indian language – quite a task! “Our
love”, in their language, was “Nummatschekodtantamuhn-gngannunoash”!
But Eliot persevered for 15 years
before he dared to preach to the Indians in their own tongue, and eventually
translated the whole Bible for them (1664).
And he compiled an Indian grammar and dictionary, and translated Richard
Baxter’s famous volume, A Call to the
Unconverted, for them. It was 28
October, 1646, he preached to the Indians, his text being Ezekiel 37:3: “Can these bones live?”
In the years that followed there
were encouraging results, and opposition from the tribal medicine man. On 7 October, 1647, Eliot even buried a
famous chief according to Christian ritual.
Thus he was known as “the apostle to the Indians”, the first missionary
to America’s native people.
He died on 20 (or 21) May, 1690, at
the age of 86. “The Lord Whom I have
served over 80 years will not forsake me,” he said. “O come in Thy great glory!
A long time I have waited for Thee.
Welcome, Lord, welcome.”
And the Bible he translated, and
had printed, is now in an extinct language, and can only be understood by a
handful of scholars.
This
is the day that … GRANT
COLFAX TULLAR
was born in Connecticut, in 1869. At
that time Grant was President, and Colfax was Vice-President, hence the little fellow’s name!
His mother died when he was only
two years of age, and he was reared by “unsympathetic relatives”, worked in a
woollen mill, then a shoe store, at the age of 19 he was converted at a
Methodist camp meeting, and went on to become a Methodist minister.
In 1898 he was in the home of a
pastor and his wife in New Jersey.
Tullar tells the story in his book, Written
Because, that at the tea table there was only “a wee dab of jelly”
left. The hosts, knowing his love for
jelly, insisted that he have it. As he
started to scoop it onto his plate he asked, “So this is all for me, is it?”
And immediately the theme of a
gospel song suggested itself to him. He went to the piano and wrote words and
music :
All for me the Saviour suffered,
That night the pastor, Rev. C.L.
Mead, sang it as a solo at the evangelistic meeting.
Next morning a letter arrived from
Mrs Carrie Breck, including the words of a poem she had just written. And those words fitted the melody Grant
Tullar had composed the previous evening.
So he discarded his “All for me” words, and today many a gospel singer
has sung Mrs Breck’s words to Grant Tullar’s melody -
Face to face with Christ my Saviour,
Grant Tullar pastored a Methodist
Church for some time before entering full-time evangelistic work.
He died on 20 May, 1950.
This
is the day that …JOHN
CAIRNS was
ordained in the United Presbyterian Church – one of the three branches of
Presbyterianism that existed in Scotland in 1845.
Born on 23 August, 1818, John
Cairns was to become “their outstanding leader” - 33 years ministering at
Berwick-on-Tweed, and then serving many years as principal of their theological
college and professor of systematic theology and apologetics at the United
Presbyterian Divinity Hall in Edinburgh.
It was not learned until after his
death that he had received an invitation, at the age of 40, to the
principalship of Edinburgh University, and had turned it down.
Alexander Gammie, in his Preachers I Have Heard, tells of
Principal Cairns’ pulpit style: “His
arms seem to give him the most trouble.
It was all utterly ungainly. It
would have been enough to wreck the pulpit popularity of most men. But in his case it was quite otherwise. People would have walked miles just to hear
John Cairns say: ‘Let us pray …’” (page
58). “His transparent goodness, his simplicity of character, his forgetfulness
of self, shone through every utterance.
He was a saint who was unconscious of his saintliness …” (page 59).
And in The Christian Portrait Gallery we read: “He was an orator, and swayed his hearers with the passion and
pathos of his words! He was fond of
illustrations, and used similes never beyond the comprehension of the
illiterate, but instinct with a fire that set the blood tingling through the
veins” (page 52).
All of this was combined with a
massive intellect.
Near the end of his ministry he
exclaimed: “I have now preached for 43
years and I have been a professor of theology for more than 20, and I find
every year how much grander the gospel of the grace of God becomes, and how
much deeper, vaster and more unsearchable the riches of Christ, which it is the
function of theology to explore …” (Fathers
of the Kirk, by R. Wright, page 213).
Principal John Cairns died in 1892
at the age of 74.
7 August
This
is the day that … THOMAS
L. JOHNSON
was ‘probably’ born, in 1836, in Virginia, USA.
His father was an octoroon (i.e.
one-eighth negro) … and his mother a black slave. Thomas was born into slavery.
It was 21 years later that revival
fires swept through Virginia, great camp meetings were held, and thousands
professed conversion. Among them were
Thomas and his mother.
In 1863 he married Henrietta
Thompson. The Civil War resulted in his
freedom, and he pastored a small black congregation in Denver, Colorado, where
he even preached some of Spurgeon’s sermons!
In his 40’s we actually find him in
London – a student in Spurgeon’s College.
And on 6 November, 1877, he and his wife sailed as missionaries to
Africa.
In a village in Fernando, Poo
Johnson preached the gospel. The tribal
king was converted. “Soon nakedness,
violence, ignorance and indifference to the Sabbath began to disappear” (Evangelical Times, February, 1988).
Mrs Johnson died in June, 1879, and
a sick Thomas Johnson found it needful to be carried 80 miles to the coast.
Back in America he re-married … and
was nominated as U.S. Consul to Liberia.
“He continued to serve the Lord
into his 70’s, speaking about Africa and conducting evangelistic missions in
many churches.”
This
is the day that … the “fire
fell” at
Crossweeksung, in 1745.
Twenty-seven year-old DAVID BRAINERD had been expelled from Yale
College three years earlier, and had turned his eyes toward the mission field,
among the Red Indians.
His diary almost becomes monotonous
with “spent the day in prayer and fasting for my beloved Indians.”
He tells of preaching through a
drunken interpreter, of riding 50 miles a day to Indian encampments “down
hideous steeps, through swamp and most dreadful and dangerous places … pinched
with cold … an extreme pain in my head.”
At times he coughed up blood.
But on 8 August, 1745, about 64
Indians – men, women and children – gathered around him. He preached to them on the parable of the
Great Feast (Luke 14:16-23) and, to use his own words:
“The power of God seemed to descend
like a rushing mighty wind… Almost all
persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together and scarcely one was
able to withstand the shock of this surprising operation. Old men and women who had been drunken
wretches for many years and some little children, not more than six or sever
years of age, appeared in distress for their souls… There was almost universal praying and crying for mercy … numbers
could neither go nor stand…”
In the days that followed more and
more Indians cried:
“Guttummaukalummeh!” (“Have mercy on me!”).
By October, 1747, Brainerd was on
his deathbed in the home of the famous Jonathan Edwards, and on 9 October all
the trumpets sounded as this 29 year-old man of God passed to his Heavenly
reward.
William Carey read Brainerd’s Journal, and went to India. Robert Murray McCheyne read it, and went to the
Jews. Henry Martyn read it, and went to
India and Persia.
This
is the day that … ADONIRAM
JUDSON was
born, in 1788.
He was to become America’s first
foreign missionary – sailing from his homeland as a Congregationalist, and
arriving in India as a Baptist, in 1812.
With his young bride, Ann, he soon
find himself in Burma, with a 33 year ministry (without furlough) ahead of him,
during which he would see the death of both Ann and his second wife, Sarah;
endure a 23-month imprisonment in intolerable conditions – and translate the
Bible into the Burmese language.
Then he would return to America for
a brief furlough – and go back to Burma with his third wife, Emily.
When he died in 1850 he left behind
a flourishing church with 7000 members and more than 100 national Burmese
pastors.
“Judson became an inspiring example
of missionary sacrifice and dedication for several generations of young
people,” says E.A. Wilson.
True! And he would continue to be an inspiration
to today’s Christian young people if they would read his biography.
This
is the day that … MARY
ARTEMISIA LATHBURY
was born in Ontario County, New York State, in 1841.
Her father was a Methodist minister
… and her two brothers would also become Methodist ministers later in life.
Despite poor eyesight, Mary
Lathbury became a professional artist, and even an art teacher at an academy in
Vermont.
She edited the Methodist
Sunday-School Union magazine.
In 1877 she attended a camp meeting
at Lake Chautauqua (New York State).
During the summer months 50,000 people would attend the great convention
meetings at this site.
A Methodist bishop suggested that
it would be good if the Chautauqua Movement had its “own vesper hymn”. As the sun set across the lake that night,
Mary Lathbury penned the now well-known hymn, “Day is dying in the west, Heaven is touching Earth with rest…” The melody, called “Chautauqua” in some
books, and “Evening Praise” in others, was composed by the camp Music Director,
William Fiske Sherman.
Seven years later, at the same
camp-site, Mary Lathbury again set pen to paper, this time to write a special
study song for those who attended the Chautauqua meetings, “Break Thou the Bread of Life, dear Lord, to me…” Again it was set to music by William
Sherman.
Mary Lathbury died on 20 October,
1913, in New Jersey.
Augustus
Toplady was born in Surrey, England, in 1740, and his father was killed when he
was only a few months old. His
biographer describes him as a “sickly, neurotic, and precociously religious
lad” (The Gospel in Hymns, A. Bailey,
page 117).
In his diary he writes, “I am now arrived at the age of 11 years. I praise God I can remember no dreadful crime, and not to me but the Lord be the glory, Amen.” He also wrote that “Aunt Betsy is so fractious … and insolent … she is unfit for human society.”
At
the age of 12 he began preaching, at 14 he was writing hymns. At the age of 16, now living in Ireland, he
heard a Methodist lay preacher, James Morris – and was converted. He later wrote: “Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in
England, should be brought near to God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a
handful of people met together in a barn, by the ministry of one who could
hardly spell his name.”
He
later decided that Calvinism was the Scriptural teaching and joined the
Anglican Church. He became a fighting
Calvinist – his violent antagonistic clashes with John Wesley make sorry
reading – “he sometimes indulged in the severe and scurrilous language that was
tolerated in controversy in those times,” writes Elsie Houghton. Toplady called Wesley a “liar and forgerer
… the most rancorous hater of the gospel system that ever appeared in this
island”. He accused Wesley of “Satanic
shamelessness”.
In
1762 Toplady was ordained in the Church of England, where he was to become an
effective witness for his Lord.
“Immense crowds” we are told, flocked to hear him preach.
His
ministry was cut short by tuberculosis, but around the world thousands of
believers still sing his great hymn:
Rock
of Ages, cleft for me,
Let
me hide myself in Thee.
Let
the water and the blood,
From
Thy riven side which flowed,
Be
of sin the double cure –
Cleanse
me from its guilt and power.
==============================================
This
is the day that …VANCE HOUSTON HAVNER died, in 1986.
He was born in a small community
nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina (USA),
in 1901.
He made his “peace with God” in the
woods after hearing his father preach an old-fashioned gospel message. Vance was 10 years-old at the time.
By the age of 12 he was licensed to
preach by a local Baptist church – and ordained at the age of 15. Newspaper records of the “boy preacher”
speaking to a 1,800 strong congregation – when he was only 12 – are incredible
to read.
He found himself drifting into the
‘new’ popular liberal theology. “It did
not become malignant in my case,” he later wrote, “but I did have enough of the
virus in my system to preach popular sermons that converted nobody.” Then he read Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism and returned to the evangelical faith.
He married Sara Allred in 1940 –
and preached on the day she died 33 years later (Just a Preacher, page 19).
His biography, Journey from Jugtown, by D. White, and his own autobiography, Three Score and Ten, tell the whole
remarkable story.
After a series of Baptist
pastorates, Vance Havner devoted himself to an itinerant ministry across
America. He was also a regular speaker
at Moody Bible Institute Founder’s Week.
His solid prophet-like preaching
was combined with a homespun folksy style that earned him the nickname “The
Will Rogers of the Pulpit”.
He wrote 31 books – and every one a
gem!
Of this unique man of God Billy
Graham writes: “I do not know of any
man in my generation who has stirred revival fires in the hearts of so many
people throughout the nation as Vance Havner.
Great crowds of people have packed churches and auditoriums to hear him
preach. Whenever I see a book by Vance
Havner I immediately purchase it …”
And on 12 August, 1986, this pulpit
giant went home to be with the Lord he had served for 75 years.
Some Vance Havner quotes
:
Separatists? A church had
a sign in front: JESUS ONLY. One night a storm blew out the first three
letters and left US ONLY. Too many
churches have come to that.
A more dangerous stroll.
We’re so smart in America we can walk on the moon, but it’s not safe to
walk in the park.
The Red tide: If America
is not buried by Red Russians from without, we may be smothered by Red Tape
from within.
The hope of dying.
George Palmer said before he died:
“I’m homesick for Heaven.” It’s
the hope of dying that has kept me alive this long.
This
is the day that … WILLIAM
BRAMWELL
died, in 1818, at the age of 59.
The exact date of his birth is
unknown. But the amazing results of his
evangelism around England are well documented.
Fifteen hundred converted in
Sheffield (1795); 500 converted in
Leeds (1801); 450 converted in Hull
(1804) – and so it goes.
Interesting anecdotes abound in the
life of this early Methodist preacher.
For example, he would not speak to “a lazy, pre-occupied
congregation! If they did not give him
their undivided attention he would close the service … because a sort of insult
had been poured on the gospel” (They
Dared to be Different, page 119).
“He married a holy woman whom he
saw about once every six weeks, his travelling and preaching keeping him away
so constantly…” (Men and Women of Deep
Piety, page 52).
And the story is told of two women
who had been to hear Mr Bramwell preach (Life-Changing
Evangelism). “How is it,” asked one, “that every time we hear Mr Bramwell
preach, he tells us things we never knew before?” “Perhaps,” replied the other,
“it is because he lives much closer to God than we do … and God tells him
things He tells nobody else…”
This
is the day that … FLETCHER
OF MADELEY died
in 1785.
John William Fletcher, born in Switzerland on 12
September, 1729, had been converted at the age of 22 (in England) and thrown in
his lot with the Methodists. He was
sometimes referred to as “the saint of Methodism”.
But on 6 March, 1757, we find him
ordained in the Church of England.
Bishop Ryle writes: “How Fletcher got over the difficulty of
being a foreigner and not having taken a university degree, I am unable to
explain” (Christian Leaders of the 18th
Century, page 394). But, adds the
good bishop, “things were strangely managed in the Church of England 100 years
ago.”
Fletcher became a close friend of
John Wesley, the latter’s well-known testimony being that he had never found
anyone “in Europe or America who so exemplified holiness as John Fletcher.”
To quote Ryle again – a convinced
Calvinist – “I will never shut my eyes to the fact that Fletcher was a
Christian as well as an Arminian … he was a rare grace and a minister of rare
usefulness” (pages 386-7).
Late in life, at the age of 52, he
married Mary Bosanquet, another of Wesley’s ardent disciples.
His parishioners at Madeley –
chiefly miners and ironworkers – flocked to hear this man of God … and we read
of how he spent whole nights in prayer for them.
For 25 years this continued, until
a short illness led to his home-call at the age of 56. It was a Sunday evening. As he lay on his deathbed, unable to speak,
his wife whispered to her dying husband:
“My dear creature, I ask not for myself. I know thy soul. But I
ask for the sake of others, if Jesus be very present with thee lift up thy
right hand.” “Immediately”, we read,
“he did so, and then a second time” And
then he died, “without one struggle or groan” (Ryle, page 417).
This is the day that … EDWARD
McKENDREE BOUNDS was born in 1835, in a small
log cabin in Missouri, USA.
His
father was a leading figure in “the social, economic and religious fibre of the
town” … but he died when Edward was in his mid-teens.
After
studying law, 21 year-old Edward practised for three years and then entered the
Methodist ministry. Then came the Civil
War … and Bounds was accused by the Union army of being a Confederate
sympathiser. He was arrested and
harshly treated … then ‘exiled’ from Missouri as long as the war continued.
On
13 May, 1863, he became a chaplain to the Confederate forces … he was wounded
at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee … and again was captured by the Northern
forces.
After
the war he returned to ministry, married Emmie Barnett, and built a great
church in St Louis. After the death of
Emmie, 10 years later, he married her cousin.
And
he took on the editorship of the Christian
Advocate, an influential Christian newspaper. During the nine years that followed many powerful articles came
from his pen, especially in connection with prayer. His volume, Power Through
Prayer, is still in print, and has long been regarded as a classic on that
subject.
In
1894 he parted company with the Methodists – their “political, worldly and
merchandising attitudes he would not condone”.
He continued an itinerant “revival” ministry, and his pen was ever busy.
On 24 August, 1913, E.M. Bounds entered his rest.
This is the day that …. BARCLAY
FOXWELL BUXTON was born in Essex, England, in 1860.
He was converted (or came to assurance) during
Moody’s eight-day Cambridge Crusade – it was Tuesday, 9 November, 1883, to be
precise – and the gospel he had intellectually known for so long ‘now became
crystal clear to him’.
In 1885 he was ordained to the Church of England
priesthood … and almost immediately felt the call of the mission field.
Five years later we find him and his wife Margaret,
with six others, sailing for Japan under the banner of the Church Missionary
Society.
Eight years later Barclay Buxton and his fellow
worker, Paget Wilkes, organised the Japan Evangelistic Band – an
interdenominational mission dedicated to ‘evangelism, conventions and training
national workers’.
Barclay Buxton died in 1946.
==============================================
This
is the day that … WILLIAM
CAREY was
born in 1761. The place was
Paulerspury, an insignificant village in the English Midlands.
His story is well known – at least,
it ought to be!
Born to a family in humble
circumstances, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker at the age of 14.
At the age of 18, through the
witness of a fellow apprentice, young Carey was led to think earnestly
concerning spiritual matters and the condition of his own soul, and was
converted. It has been suggested that
he actually heard John Wesley, who visited the area at this time (W. Carey, by A. Clement, page 5).
Thus it was he joined a Baptist
Church, took to preaching, and was ordained to the Baptist ministry at the age
of 26.
Six years later he presented a
strong case to evangelise those in distant lands. His essay, An Enquiry into
the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen,
has been called “the first and still greatest missionary treatise in the
English language” (W. Carey, by W.
Davis, page 17).
Despite opposition – for missionary
work was unthinkable to the theological climate of that day – Carey offered
himself: “I’ll go down the mine,” he is
reported as saying to his few supporters, “if you hold the rope”.
The result was the formation of the
Baptist Missionary Society, and Carey himself went to India. Church historians often refer to him as “the
father of modern missions”.
The troubles he faced are
incredible to read – the destruction of his manuscripts by fire; the opposition
of the East India Company; the insanity
of his wife, Dorothy; the desertion of
co-workers; the fire which destroyed
the print shop, “inflicting most distressing loss” (W. Carey, by J. Myers, page 112);
the clash with the committee back in England …
But to compensate for this is the
thrilling account of the first convert, Krishna Pal, about seven years after
the beginning of Carey’s missionary labours.
William Carey died after 41 years
in India, without a furlough … his
translation of portions or whole Scriptures into about 40 different languages
and dialects, and his educational and philanthropic work, mark him as a servant
of God extraordinaire!
On his deathbed we eavesdrop as he
speaks to Alexander Duff: “Mr Duff …
when I am gone, say nothing about Dr Carey – speak about Dr Carey’s Saviour” (W. Carey, by B. Olson, page 46).
So it was, on 9 June, 1834, that “the father of modern missions” went to
his eternal reward. “Well done, thou
good and faithful servant.”
His tombstone bears the words, “A
wretched, poor and helpless worm, on Thy kind arms I fall.”
This
is the day that … JOHN
HAIME died
in Hampshire, England, in 1784, at the age of 78.
The exact date of his birth is
unknown, but he grew up – in his words – “cursing, swearing, lying and
Sabbath-breaking”.
The thought of going to war against
the French in 1739 momentarily turned his thoughts Godward, but before long “I
was in the depths of despair”. It was
after some encounters with the enemy, and what he later believed to be divine
deliverance, that Haime found himself with two Methodist soldiers. “We took a room without delay and met every
night to pray and read the Holy Scriptures.
Some began to listen under the window…”
It was not long before a converted
John Haime was preaching to his fellow soldiers. “He talked in such English as a peasant might use, and which
peasants would have understood, of sin and judgement, of Christ and His
salvation. The crowd about him –
war-battered soldiers – hung breathlessly on his lips. They numbered some thousands, the sound of
their singing filled the valley. And
this scene was repeated in British camps every day – sometimes twice, sometimes
thrice a day. The preacher was John
Haime …” (Wesley and His Century, by
D.W.H. Fitchett, page 226).
Sometimes when the army settled in
one place for a time, a wooden tabernacle would be especially built. “I frequently walked between 20 and 30 miles
a day,” Haime records, and preached 35 times in the space of seven days. I had at this time three armies against me –
the French army, the wicked English army and an army of devils. But I feared them not for my life was hid
with Christ in God” (Early Methodist
Preachers, [1903], pages 52-53).
The Battle of Fontenoy (11 May,
1745) where the French won a devastating victory, saw Haime’s horse shot from
under him. “Someone cried, ‘Haime is
gone!’ But I replied, ‘He is not gone yet!’ I had a long way to go (back to
camp), the (musket)balls flying on every side.
All the way lay multitudes groaning, bleeding, or just dead. Surely I was in the fiery furnace; but it did not singe a hair of my head. I was as full of joy as I could contain.”
After the war Haime returned to
England and met John Wesley for the first time. He even asked Haime to accompany him on some preaching tours.
On his deathbed Haime was heard to
say: “This is a good way! Oh, that all may tread this path in the
important hour.”
The stories of these
soldier-Methodists is as inspiring and challenging as anything one might read
in the history of the Church.
This
is the day that …ALEXANDER HENDERSON died in Edinburgh, Scotland,
in 1646.
When King Charles I sought to
impose episcopacy (the rule of bishops) upon the Church of Scotland, it was
Henderson who led the fight against it.
He became leader of the
Covenanters, and for 20 years steered the Scottish Church as their elected
moderator (1638-1658) through stormy years.
For the last six years of his life
he was rector at Edinburgh University.
“His name,” writes W. Barker, is
“revered as second only to John Knox in the Church of Scotland”.
==============================================
This
is the day that … FRANCIS
ASBURY was
born in 1745 – the “first apostle of American Methodism”.
But he was born in England, worked
as a blacksmith for a time, and was converted in a barn. “The preacher,” he wrote later, “had no
prayer book, yet he prayed wonderfully.
What was more extraordinary, the man took his text and had no sermon
book…” He was about 16 at the time he
came to know Christ as his Saviour.
Before long he had thrown in his
lot with the Methodists, and in 1771 John Wesley sent Francis Asbury to
America. When he arrived in
Philadelphia (27 October, 1771), there were only 600 American Methodists. When he died 45 years later there were
214,235.
Asbury was not a great speaker, nor
a successful pastor. He was plagued by
ill health.
But he was dominated by the desire
to see Scriptural holiness spread across the continent, and “he forced himself
to remain in the saddle, even when covered with blisters, by clinging to his
faith and through swallowing large amounts of liquid in which 100 horseshoe
nails had been boiled…” (Francis Asbury,
by C. Leeding).
During his 44 years of American
evangelism Asbury travelled 270,000 miles (mainly on horse-back), crossed the
Allegheny Mountains more than 60 times, and saw more of the American
countryside than any other parson of his generation.
His advice to his helpers: “Go into every kitchen and shop; address all, aged and young, on the
salvation of their souls…” (Who’s Who in
Christian History, page 42).
Francis Asbury went to hear the
“Well done!” on 31 March, 1816.
This
is the day that … GEORGE
GRENFELL
(not to be confused with Wilfred Grenfell of Labrador!) was born in 1849, in
Cornwall.
It was a one thousand pounds
(Sterling) donation in 1882 from eccentric Robert Arthington, the “Miser of
Headingley” (England), which was given to the Baptists for work in the Belgian
Congo. As a result a steamboat, “the
length of a cricket pitch” was especially constructed and shipped to Africa in
800 sections … then carried inland “by a vast army of porters.”
The boat was named “Peace” and it
was George Grenfell who would sail her up and down the Congo in six eventful
missionary trips. For that matter, he,
along with native helpers, had to assemble the boat in the first place, the
three engineers coming from England to oversee the task having died shortly
after arriving in Africa.
The “Peace” was even surrounded by
wire screens as a protection from poisoned arrows … “There was a time when 50
war canoes attacked the steamer and the protective blinds proved their value” (The Missionaries, by G. Moorhouse, page
200).
The Royal Geographical Society
(England) awarded Grenfell a “Founder’s Medal” because of his exploratory work,
and King Leopold of Belgium made him “Commander of the Royal Order of the Lion”
due to the blessings this man of God had brought to the heart of Africa.
But Grenfell and King Leopold ‘fell
out’. The Congo state government
confiscated the “Peace” to carry guns and soldiers on a war expedition!
Ruth Tucker writes: “Despite the overwhelming obstacles,
Grenfell saw surprising success during his years in the Congo … he supervised
Baptist missions (there) for 20 years and witnessed a great spiritual awakening
at his own mission station in Boloko” (From
Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, page 156).
George Grenfell died in Africa in
1906.
In childhood we find her working in a woollen mill 12 hours a day … then school teaching … and finding some fame as an author.
When
Adoniram Judson, America’s first foreign missionary, returned from Burma on his
first furlough in 30 years, he read one of her books (she wrote under the
pen-name of Fanny Forester).
Impressed
by her ability, Judson suggested that she write the biography of Sarah, his
second wife, who had died a few months previously.
As
they worked together on this volume, friendship blossomed into romance, and on
1 June 1846, the 58 year-old pioneer missionary wed the 29 year-old
writer.
Back
in Burma, Emily and Adoniram laboured faithfully for the Lord. She wrote:
“Frogs hop from my sleeves when I put them on, and lizards drop from the
ceiling to the table when we are eating, and the floors are black with ants…”
By
12 April, 1850, she was a young widow – Judson had died during a sea voyage
recommended for his health. But she did
not know she was a widow – alone in Burma with baby Emily – for another four
months!
This
brave woman returned to America to care for the Judson children, until she died
of tuberculosis on 1 June, 1854, at the age of 37.
This is the day that … ROWLAND
HILL was born in 1744, in Shropshire,
England.
This
colourful character, whom Spurgeon described as being full of fun in the pulpit
(and meant it as a compliment), was one of the outstanding evangelicals of his
day.
Hill
was converted at the age of 18 and entered the Church of England ministry. But reproved by the bishop for his desire to
preach everywhere – “in season and out of season” – he finally opened his own
“Surrey Chapel” in London in 1783. At
the opening service on 8 June, he took as his text: “We preach Christ crucified” (I Corinthians 1:23). (In later years this same pulpit was
occupied by the great F.B. Meyer.)
Holding
strong Calvinistic views, Hill joined with Augustus Toplady in the controversy
against the Wesleys. As an open air
preacher, due to the influence of his friend George Whitefield, Hill often
preached to 20,000 at a time.
“The
Countess of Huntingdon,” we are told, “rejoiced in the success of his labours …
but the name of Mr Hill is mentioned in her ladyship’s will as one of the men
who was not to
be permitted to preach in one of her chapels!” Perhaps his quaint wit, of which
anecdotes abound, and his eccentricities would have been too much for her
ladyship’s genteel congregations!
He
was one of the founders of the London Missionary Society and the Religious
Tract Society. And this latter movement
gave birth to the British and Foreign Bible Society, of which he was also an
ardent supporter.
Rowland
Hill died on 11 April, 1833, and was buried in front of the pulpit from which
he had dispensed the Word of God for 50 years.
His last words had been: “I have
no rapturous joys, but peace – a good hope through grace – all through grace.”
This is the day that … JOHN OWEN died in 1683, at the age of 67.
He
has been called “the Calvin of England” and “the
theologian of the Puritan movement”.
James
Packer writes, “In an age of giants, he overtopped them all” (Quest for Godliness, page 191).
His
writings, “weighty with learning”, fill some 28 large volumes. Many of these have been reprinted in our day
by the Banner of Truth, a publishing house that has done much to resurrect a
current interest in Calvinism.
Born
in Oxfordshire in 1616 (the exact date is unknown) where his father was a
Church of England clergyman, young Owen entered Oxford University at the age of
12 and graduated with B.A. and M.A. degrees seven years later, on 27 April,
1635.
Ordained
by the Church of England, but not converted, it was some years before he came
to know the Saviour. He attended a
Presbyterian Church to hear a famous preacher of the day, Edmund Calmany, only
to discover a substitute preacher was in the pulpit. Nevertheless, the sermon based on Matthew 8:26 found its mark.
He
married Mary Rooke – had 11 children – left Anglicanism to join the Congregational
Church, and found himself “reluctantly” a chaplain in Oliver Cromwell’s army (History of Preaching, by E. Dargan,
Volume 2, page 178).
With
the advent of King Charles II to the throne, Owen found himself ejected from
his position as Dean of Christ Church (for not being an Anglican!).
One
year after his wife died he married a wealthy widow (21 June, 1677), which
enabled him “to keep a carriage and a villa” (Puritan Profiles, by W. Barker, page 299).
In
the closing six years of his life he devoted himself to writing. His massive commentary on Hebrews is “a work
of gigantic strength as well as gigantic size”, wrote Dr Chalmers (quoted by
Spurgeon, Commenting on the Commentaries,
page 188).
And
his The Death of Death in the Death of
Christ sets forth the
“classic
Calvinistic statement of the atonement”, that Christ died only to save the
elect (Puritan Profiles, page 297).
John
Owen, like many other famous non-conformists, is buried in Bunhill Fields, East
London … in “unconsecrated ground”, because he was not a member of the Church
of England.
This
is the day that … MICHAEL
FARADAY died
in 1867.
The third son of a Yorkshire
blacksmith, young Faraday grew up to know the meaning of the word
‘poverty’. But the family attended the
nearby chapel and was rich in things spiritual.
His interest in electricity
motivated him to write to Sir Humphrey Davy, asking if there was an opportunity
to work as a laboratory assistant. Davy
invited him for an interview and soon the young Faraday was on his way to
becoming one of the great names in the world of science.
At the age of 30 he married Sarah
Barnard – a happy union that continued until his death 47 years later. And that same year he became a church
member. Peter Masters, of Spurgeon’s
Tabernacle, tells us that although Faraday had attended that chapel since
boyhood, “not until he was 30 … had he proved the reality of Christian
experience” (Men of Purpose, page
14).
What Peter Masters omits to say is
that it was a Sandemanian chapel … a curious movement in the 18th
century that the pastor of Spurgeon’s Tabernacle (and many other evangelical
Christians) would regard as heretical (see Dictionary
of the Christian Church).
Faraday’s discoveries led to his
election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
His experiments with electricity “changed the face of the world”.
Meanwhile he became an elder in the
Sandemanian church and “an ardent preacher”.
Michael Faraday’s life “was devoted
to Christian work and science”, and between them he perceived no
incompatibility. He accepted the Bible
as God’s Word without reservation.
But in the matter of interpretation
there were a few issues upon which an evangelical believer might well part
company.
This is the day that … The Reverend ADAM CLARKE died in 1832.
This friend and fellow preacher
with John Wesley is especially remembered for his massive Bible commentary,
which is still in print.
Spurgeon wrote in his Commenting
on the Commentaries: “Adam Clarke
is the great annotator of our Wesleyan friends, and they have no reason to be
ashamed of him, for he takes rank among the chief of expositors … his
commentary is filled with valuable rarities, such as none but a great man could
have collected.” Adds Spurgeon,
“Notwithstanding his peculiarities, Adam Clarke still stands a prince among
commentators.”
One of those ‘peculiarities’ is
surely the comment that Eve was tempted, not by a serpent, but by an orangutan!
And his notes on the death of Judas
are not for the dainty ears of my readers!
==============================================
This
is the day that … SAMUEL
H. HADLEY
was born in 1842, in Morgan County, Ohio, USA.
Sam Hadley was brought up in a log
cabin. “In our log cabin,” he later wrote, “I could lie on my bed and see the
stars through the cracks in the roof and feel the snow sifting down upon my
face in the winter time. We were lulled
to sleep by the barking of foxes and the hooting of the owls in the woods…” (Down in Water Street, page 60).
And there it was he promised his
God-fearing mother (a direct descendant of Rev. Jonathan Edwards) that he would
never drink alcohol … but at the age of 18 that promise was broken. “It isn’t the last drink that hurts a man …
or the fourth or the fifth, but the first … that’s what ruins a man” (page
64). “That first drink changed my
life”, Hadley testified later.
Sam Hadley wrote from
experience. For 15 years he “rarely
went to bed sober”. A medical career
was forsaken. He worked as an insurance
man, but gambling became his mainstay ... he “lied, stole, and forged
cheques.” His home was shattered – his
wife had left him, and all the furniture was pawned to get money to buy drink.
And then on Tuesday, 18 April,
1882, in a lonely prison cell he fell on his knees on the stone floor and
cried, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (ibid, page 70).
The following Sunday he attended
the Water Street Mission – the first Rescue Mission in the world, founded by a
converted convict named Jerry McAuley some ten years previous. And so it was as Jerry preached and sang –
… And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains …
the Spirit of God laid hold of 40
year-old Sam Hadley, and he came to a place of assurance in his new-found
Christian faith.
Listen to his own words: “Never with mortal tongue can I describe
that moment … I felt the glorious brightness of the noon-day sunshine in my
heart. I felt that I was a free man. Oh, the precious feeling of safety, of
freedom, of resting on Jesus! … And I have been shouting ‘Glory’ pretty much
all the time since!” (page 78).
Gone was the “hell-born desire for
whisky. Gone the profanity – and a few
weeks later – I threw my plug (of tobacco) away … and the desire was removed”
(page 80).
Four years later Hadley became
successor to Jerry McAuley as Superintendent of the famous Water Street Mission
in Manhattan, and there he laboured faithfully for 20 years, pointing men and
women to the One “who was able to save from the guttermost to the
uttermost”. And “a century later it is
still a vital outreach”, reaching those who need food and shelter with the good
news of the gospel.
Later Sam Hadley became an ordained
Methodist minister, and went to his reward on 9 February, 1906.
This
is the day that … IRA
DAVID SANKEY
was born in Pennsylvania, in 1840.
In his early years he attended the
Methodist Episcopal Church, became Sunday-School superintendent, and led the
choir.
During the Civil War he fought with
the Union Army.
Three years later, on 9 September,
1863, Sankey married a member of his choir, Fanny Edwards. “She has been a blessing and a helpmate to
me throughout my life and in all my work,” he wrote in his autobiography (page
17).
In 1870 he met D.L. Moody at a 6.00
a.m. YMCA prayer meeting, and after hearing him sing, Moody challenged him to
become his partner in an evangelistic ministry. Before long Sankey was leading the singing and contributing some
gospel solos at Moody’s meetings.
Many converts testified to the
impact made by Sankey’s singing as well as the preaching of the evangelist.
Sankey’s Hymn Book is reputed to
have sold 80 million copies in the first 50 years (1873-1923).
Among the well-known tunes Sankey
composed are those to which we sing these words: There were ninety and nine…; Simply trusting every day…; Encamped along the hills of light…; The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide…; Under His wings…; Oh! Safe to the Rock that is higher than
I…
On 13 August, 1908, Sankey joined
the Heavenly choir …
29 August
This
is the day that … OLIVER
WENDELL HOLMES was born in 1809.
His
father, Abiel Holmes, pastored the First Congregational Church in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and young Oliver grew up “in a library where he bumped about
among books.”
And
whilst still a youngster he would accompany his father in the horse and jig as
they spent the weekend going to various preaching appointments. Along the way father Holmes indoctrinated
his son with a rather stern Calvinism.
At the
age of 10, however, Oliver “was still afraid of the devil, but the doctrines of
transmitted sinfulness, justification, or sanctification, meant no more to him
than the mystic syllables by which his friends counted each other out in their
games” (Gospel in Hymns, page 520).
On
entering Harvard University, from which he would graduate in arts and medicine,
Oliver forsook the religion of his parents and embraced the Unitarian
heresy. This teaching, that reduced the
Lord Jesus to a mere example and denied His substitutionary
Atonement,
was making powerful strides in America at this time.
Even
Abiel Holmes was deposed from his church, and the Unitarians took over.
By the
age of 29 Oliver was professor of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth
College. Then, in 1847, he went to
Harvard Medical School, where he was professor for the next 35 years.
His book,
The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, was first serialized in the Atlantic
Monthly (1857). It brought him fame
in the literary world.
“Essayist,
novelist, poet, wit, humorist, humanist and the raciest of talkers, he became
one of the best known and best loved men on both sides of the ocean (Handbook
to Church Hymnary, page 374).
He wrote
a famous hymn in 1858:
Lord of
all being, throned afar,
Thy glory
flames from sun and star;
Centre
and soul of every sphere,
Yet to
each loving heart how near!
O.W.
Holmes died on 7 October, 1894. One
writer tells us: “in his later years he
fell back for spiritual comfort on the great evangelical hymns…”
==============================================
This
is the day that … GEORGE
FREDERICK ROOT
was born in Massachusetts, USA, in 1920.
Gifted in the field of music, he
studied as a music teacher, and Fanny
Crosby later became one of his pupils.
He even wrote a cantata, The
Flower Queen, for which Fanny Crosby wrote the text.
Under the pseudonym of G. Friedrich
Wurzel he wrote a number of minstrel songs that achieved much popularity in the
secular world.
One of the melodies he wrote was called
The Little Octroon. The composer sent it to William O. Cushing,
who wrote the gospel words:
Ring the bells of Heaven,
There is joy today …
His great
invitation hymn, for which he wrote both words and music, is still in many
hymnals today:
Come to the Saviour,
George F. Root also wrote the
melody for the well-loved children’s hymn:
When He cometh, when He cometh,
To make up His jewels …
This
is the day that … ST
AIDAN (or Aidian) died in AD 651.
He is one of the 68 ‘saints’
mentioned in the Anglican Prayer Book.
It was he who left the Isle of
Iona, off the north-west tip of Scotland, to take the gospel of Christ to the
wild Saxon “savages” (as they were called) of Northumbria (the northern area of
Britain). It was AD 635.
The King of Northumbria, Oswald,
had already embraced Christianity, having heard the gospel from some Celtic
missionaries, and he it was who requested the monks at Iona to send a teacher
of the Christian faith to his people.
So it was Bishop Aidan preached and the King acted as interpreter for
him. Aidan could not speak the English
language!
A church and monastery were built
and young men trained as missionaries on the island of Lindisfarne. And from that centre the gospel penetrated
the greater part of Britain.
Copying the Scriptures became an
important part of the monastic duties and the famous “Lindisfarne Gospels” –
dating from about AD 700 – may still be seen in the British Museum.
It is the Venerable Bede (d. AD
735), the first historian of Christianity in Britain – who tells us what we
know concerning this bishop – how King Oswin of Yorkshire gave him a horse, for
example, for Aidan made all his missionary journeys on foot. But on his first ride Aidan met a beggar –
and gave him the horse! (Book 3,
chapter XIV).
And Bede tells of Aidan foretelling
a coming storm and giving holy oil to the sailors that they might calm the
troubled sea.
As with the other stores of these
early saints, legends mingle with facts, making it difficult to discern what
really eventuated.
But there seems no doubt that St
Aidan was “the true apostle of England” (as Bede calls him).
“He was free from all pride,
avarice and anger, and was at once gentle and fearless, consoling the afflicted
and sternly reproving sinners, however powerful they might be” (Dictionary of English Church History,
page 11).
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