This
is the day that … ROBERT
WILLIAM DALE
was born in London, UK, in 1829.
He was to become a major force in
English Congregationalism – and through his writings his influence would circle
the globe.
For 36 years he pastored the famous
Carrs Lane Church in Birmingham. He
threw himself behind the Moody-Sankey revival in 1875. He encouraged a young Campbell Morgan. He wrote volumes on Bible doctrine, which
made him a household name in the Christian world of his day.
But he also held to the doctrine of
‘annihilation’ – and not every evangelical would be happy with his stand on
various issues.
Principal Fairbairn is quoted in
the massive 750-page biography: “Dale
ceased to be a Calvinist without becoming an Arminian …” (page 707).
He died at the age of 76.
This
is the day that … MARY
SLESSOR was
born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1848.
Known as ‘Carrots’ because of her
red hair, young Mary came to know the Saviour when an old widow ‘gathered
children around her fire, and used that fire as her text.’ “If ye dinna repent, and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, your soul will burn in the lowin’, bleezing’ fire forever and
ever,” she said.
Mary Slessor in later life would
say that it was fear that drove her to the Saviour, but once inside the
Kingdom, she became a messenger of love and mercy.
In 1874 the news of David
Livingstone’s death sent a wave of missionary enthusiasm through England. Mary offered herself to the Foreign Mission
Board of the United Presbyterian Church.
Two years later, at the age of 28, she sailed for Africa.
Nearly 40 years later she died in
her mud hut, at the age of 66.
This
is the day that … “The Jungle Doctor” was converted. It was in 1926.
Paul Hamilton Hume White was born
in New South Wales, Australia, in 1910.
Sixteen years later he saw the
newspaper headlines – “Irish Evangelist calls Bishop a Polecat!” It was a story concerning William P.
Nicholson who had visited a pipe-smoking Anglican clergyman and had been asked
by a reporter what he thought about such a nauseous habit. Nicholson had replied in his usual blunt
manner!
But that headline led Paul White to
go and hear the unique Irishman. And 50
years later Dr White recalled, “He finished up by talking about the cross and
Jesus’ love. He made it clear that
there were two things I could do – either go God’s way or turn my back on
Him.” Thus it was, “the great
transaction” took place as this teenager surrendered to Christ.
In the years that followed he
served in Africa as a missionary under the auspices of the Church Missionary
Society.
His 42 (by 1977!) Jungle Doctor books sold about three
million copies – and his autobiography, Alias
Jungle Doctor, later hit the Christian bookshops.
Marcus Loane, formerly Archbishop
of Sydney, is well within the mark when he writes: “Paul White’s influence as a soul-winner, creative genius and
inspiring leader made him one of the most outstanding Christians in 20th
century Australia.”
The “Jungle Doctor” heard the
Saviour’s “Well Done!” in 1992.
This
is the day that … JOHN
KITTO was
born in Plymouth, England, in 1804,
His father was a drunken
stonemason, and young John was a ‘sickly infant’. At the age of four he was sent to live with a grandmother, and
the stories she told (albeit of fairies and giants) developed a hunger for
learning in the young child.
As he grew older, Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels became firm
favourites.
And then disaster struck! It was 1817 and a fall from the roof of a
house – 35 feet to the ground – left him unconscious for a fortnight.
“When he awoke one morning he asked
for a book…”
Thirteen year-old John could see,
but he could not hear. He was deaf for
the rest of his life.
He worked as a shoemaker – and met
Anthony Norris Groves, pioneer of the early Brethren movement. It was Groves who “gave decision and
evangelical tone” to young John Kitto, and he took Kitto on as assistant in his
dental surgery.
And when A.N. Groves gave up his
profession (and 1200 pounds
sterling
a year!) to become a missionary, 25 year-old Kitto went with him – to
Baghdad. “Early in 1831 plague visited
the city … and in the first fortnight 7000 died”, including Mrs Groves.
Groves and Kitto returned to England,
and John Kitto took up his pen to write articles for a Christian magazine… For 20 years he wrote and wrote – “it
regularly occupied him 16 hours a day” (Doing
Good, by R. Steel, page 253).
His Daily Bible Illustrations (eight volumes) became a best- seller.
Spurgeon commends it highly – a
work “we have read with an enthusiasm that few works can inspire…” (Sword and Trowel, 1868, page 153). Spurgeon adds that the records of Kitto’s
perseverance gave him “the first impetus to literary study” (page 151).
This remarkable man of God married
… had nine children … and suffered much ill health in his closing years.
He died in Germany (to which he had
ventured for health reasons) on 2 November, 1854, at the age of 50.
This is
the day that …
CHRISTINA GEORGINA
ROSSETTI
was born in London, UK, in 1830.
“An exceptionally brilliant family”
is how one biographer describes them … her father was a professor of Italian at
King’s College, London; her brothers
achieved fame in the world of art, and Christina shone brightly in literary
circles.
Some of her hymns are still sung
today … Love came down at Christmas…
and None other Lamb, none other Name,
none other hope in Heaven or earth or sea …
Strikingly beautiful, Christina was
used as a model by Holman Hunt when he was painting his masterpiece, “The Light of the World” – “Christina
sat for the eyes and the brow of the head of Christ” (Great Christians, page 472).
In 1871 a “terribly disabling
disease” robbed her of that outward beauty.
Nevertheless her spirit remained in tune with her God and more spiritual
gems came from her pen, such as this favourite:
What shall I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a
lamb.
If I were a wise man I would do my
part.
Yet what can I give Him – give my
heart.
Miss Rossetti died on 19 December,
1894.
In Reformation Europe a third
strand had arisen. Not only were there
the Lutherans and the Reformed Churches, now arose the Anabaptists, who
emphasized separation of Church and State (something the other groups did not
do), and who also emphasized believer’s baptism.
As a result, “No group of early
Protestants suffered greater persecution than the Anabaptists … Throughout
Europe they were strangled, beheaded, or burned alive, by Lutherans(!),
Calvinists(!), and Catholics alike” (The Progress of the Protestants”,
by J. Haverstick, page 50).
Hans Hut was a leading figure in
the Anabaptist movement. “Perhaps no-one
among them was more successful in preaching and baptizing than Hans Hut” (The
Anabaptist Story, by W. Estep, page 80).
Another writer tells us that he was
responsible for more converts than all the other Anabaptist leaders combined (Christian
History magazine, Volume IV, No 1, page 14).
It is only fair to say that his
theology was somewhat offbeat.
Convinced that the Second Coming was about to take place in two years’
time (in 1528), “he embarked on a feverish missionary journey to recruit
144,000 saints needed for the millennial kingdom”.
Eventually arrested, he was
imprisoned and tortured for four months (the books do not tell me by whom), and
he “died of asphyxiation from a fire of unknown origin”. The following day his body was burned at the
stake!
Ironically, some of his hymns found
their way into Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinistic) hymnals (Estep, page 81).
And after his death the Anabaptist
movement continued to prosper, with less emphasis on extreme millennial views.
==============================================
His
father died when he was but four years old … but he grew up to be ‘a guid
laddie’, eventually working as a bookkeeper.
Sundays
found him regularly at the United Free Church teaching Sunday-School. A fellow teacher, John Storer, would often
speak of the joys of salvation to him.
But of this Dan Crawford knew nothing.
His was a mere head knowledge of the eternal truths.
Nevertheless,
his friend’s testimony seemed to stir within him a sense of conviction. (Not forgetting the work of the Holy
Spirit!)
On Sunday
15 May, 1887, with John Storer, Dan Crawford attended an old-fashioned gospel
meeting. The meeting closed and still
Dan Crawford had not responded. But
John Storer brought the issue to a head by “drawing a thick line with a
carpenter’s pencil” on the floor.
“Dan,” he said, “you’ll not step over that line until you have trusted
Christ. Will you trust Him now?” (Twelve
Mighty Missionaries, by E. Enock, page 82).
Dan
signified his commitment to Christ by stepping across the line.
He never
looked back. Baptised on 15 September,
1887, he fellowshipped with the Brethren Assembly, fell in love with Grace
Tilsley, and felt the call to missionary service. He was not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision … and on 23 March,
1889, he set out for the Congo … alone.
He was 20 years of age.
Many in
those days referred to Africa as the “white man’s grave”. Scores of pioneer missionaries succumbed to
disease/death within months of their arrival.
But Dan Crawford’s health even prospered in these harsh conditions, so
he wrote to Miss Tilsley, telling of his love for her. Before long she was en route to Africa … and
they married on 14 September, 1898.
Not only
did he achieve remarkable results among those with whom he worked for 22 years
in the Congo, but he wrote Thinking Back (1912), a book that caused a
stir by challenging some contemporary missionary methods.
He
translated the Scriptures into the Luba dialect, and used it in his village
“Bible schools”. His converts were
encouraged to participate in preaching, teaching and church administration.
On the
night of 29 May, 1926, he accidentally knocked the back of his hand on a rough
wooden shelf. Being sleepy, he failed
to apply iodine – and later treatment proved useless. As a result of that simple accident blood poisoning set in and he
died on 3 June, 1926.
Again …
“he stepped over the line”, into the very presence of his Lord.
==============================================
This
is the day that … LORD
RADSTOCK
died, in 1913.
He was born Granville Augustus William Waldegrave on 2 April, 1833, into one of
England’s aristocratic families.
Conversion came during his time as
an army officer at the Crimea when he was struck down with fever and given up
to die. But God had plans for this
young man, and back in England, at the age of 23, this third Baron Radstock (as
he became) threw himself into Christian work.
In 1874 we find him in St
Petersburg, Russia, ministering in fashionable drawing rooms to counts and
countesses, dukes and duchesses.
Tolstoy, the Russian novelist,
caricatured Lord Radstock in Anna
Karenina, under the name “Sir John”.
With the rise of evangelicalism the
Russian Orthodox Church protested, and Radstock was forced to leave in 1878.
Back in England he continued
preaching (it is said Princess Mary, who later became Queen, attended some of
his meetings).
After his death the British Weekly put it well: “He was never better pleased than when he
was expounding the Epistle to the Romans, which he interpreted precisely as
Luther interpreted it…”
This
is the day that … GEORGE
CAMPBELL MORGAN
was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1863.
He was to become – to quote Warren
Wiersbe – “perhaps the greatest Bible teacher of his day in the
English-speaking world,” despite the fact that his trial sermon for the
Methodist ministry (on 2 May, 1888) was a disaster and they knocked him back!
Eventually he was to exercise a
remarkable ministry at Westminster Chapel, from 1904 to 1917, and again, from
1933 (at the age of 70!) until 1943.
During this latter pastorate he had an able young associate named Dr
Martyn Lloyd-Jones …
The writings of Campbell Morgan are
still in print. His biography, A Man of the Word, was written by his
daughter.
He went to his heavenly home on 16
May, 1945. At the memorial service in
Westminster Chapel, Dr Lloyd-Jones, a Calvinist, said of his predecessor, an
Arminian: “We differed theologically,
but we never discussed that; we
believed in the same final authority of this Book. If one of us was a little bit Calvinistic in his preaching, the
other was also Calvinistic in his praying!
So we never quarrelled at all, and we just said nothing more about it” (David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Volume Two, by
Iain Murray, page 133).
This
is the day that … PERCY
RUSH was
born in Cheshire, England, in 1882.
His autobiography, Is Not This a Brand, is an incredible
saga of redeeming grace …
Reared in a ‘religious’ home, 17
year-old Percy was led to Christ (on 11 May, 1899) by a local preacher, Mr
Worthington. Four years later, when the
Torrey-Alexander Mission came to Liverpool, Percy Rush was there, leading
others to Christ.
But a year later came the tragic
turning point. A deacon in the church
he attended gave him a drink “of hot spiced ale” to combat the ’flu he had
caught. “And with that hot spiced ale
there came into my personality a craving, not merely a liking, but a cursed
craving …” (page 23). By page 57 of
this testimony Percy Rush is a desperate alcoholic … married to a Christian
lass.
“I went for my wife, once, with a
new knife. The blade was broken in the
struggle.” He found himself arrested –
and placed in a padded cell.
But chapter 15 is entitled,
“Tracked Down by the Tremendous Lover”, and it tells how, at the age of 46, at
an open-air meeting, he came back to the Saviour.
Dr W.E. Sangster writes: “What happened on the green at Clacton on
that memorable Sunday changed this drink-sodden, drug-taking, demon-haunted man
into a good husband and father, a faithful and dependable friend, and a blazing
advocate for the faith” (page 3).
Not only did Percy Rush become a
Methodist preacher but his wife became an active worker with the Christian
Literature Crusade.
This
is the day that … DAVID
BREWSTER
was born in Scotland, in 1781.
Even as a child he showed an
interest in things scientific … and it is as a scientist his fame now rests.
“His most notable discovery goes by
the name Brewster’s Law, which has found wide application, especially in later
technology” (Scientists of Faith, by
D. Graves, page 94).
His experiments led to a new system
of lighthouse illumination; he helped
establish the British Association for the Advancement of Science; he improved the stereoscope and invented the
kaleidoscope. And much more.
But there was a strong Christian
influence to be found in David Brewster.
He had, in earlier days, trained for the Church of Scotland
ministry. He soon found that the strain
of public speaking was not his forté – especially after he fainted in the
pulpit!
But, writes Henry Morris, it was
not until after the death of his wife that “he experienced a true conversion
and regeneration” (Men of Science – Men
of God, page 42).
At the time of his death, on 10
February, 1868, he said: “I shall see
Jesus, and that will be grand. I shall
see Him Who made the worlds.”
This
is the day that … JOHN
CENNICK was
born in 1718. [His surname is
pronounced ‘Kennick’ (Companion to Hymn
Book, page 59)].
Brought up in the Church of
England, it was not until the age of 16 that he came to know the joy of sins
forgiven. In his autobiography he tells
of the burden of sin that had come upon him, and how he sought to find peace of
mind by “fasting, running, eating acorns, leave of trees and grass”.
He tells us that he went alone to a
church to pray, and there … “I believed there was mercy for me … I heard the
voice of Jesus say: ‘I am thy
salvation’.”
Shortly after this he read
Whitefield’s Journal and sought out
the famous preacher.
For a while Cennick assisted John
Wesley in teaching the children of coal miners at Kingswood, and he engaged in
open-air preaching alongside Howell Harris.
At Swindon, “a mob gathered … they
brought horns, guns and a fire engine, besides the usual clubs, stones, eggs,
dung, rotten fruit and dead animals.
They fired the guns over the preachers’ heads so close that the faces of
both were ‘as black as tinkers.’ They
covered them with dust from the highway and then the fire engine sprayed them
with filthy water from the ditches.
While they were deluging Harris, Cennick preached, and when they changed
to Cennick, Harris took up the talking …” (Gospel
in Hymns, page 112).
After the famous split between
Wesley and Whitefield, Cennick sided with the latter, becoming overseer of
Whitefieldian Methodism during Whitefield’s tours of America.
But in 1745, during a visit to
Germany, he joined the Moravians, was ordained to their ministry and later
pastored one of their churches in London.
There he died in July, 1755.
Of the 500 hymns he wrote, few are
found in today’s hymnbooks.
Charles Welsley’s “Lo, He comes with clouds descending”, seems
to be a revision of Cennick’s earlier effort, and his delightful children’s
hymn, “Children of the Heavenly King”,
is still sung today.
But there are two choruses, sung at
countless church suppers and camps, which both came from Cennick’s pen:
Be present at our table, Lord;
Be here, and everywhere adored;
Thy creatures bless, and grant that we
May feast in Paradise with Thee.
Also:
We thank Thee, Lord, for Jesus Christ,
And for the blood He shed.
We thank Thee for His risen life,
And for our daily bread.
This
is the day that … PETER
PHILIP BILHORN died
in 1936.
He was born in a little town in
Illinois, USA, on 22 July, 1865, three months after his father had been killed
in the Civil War.
The family had migrated from
Bavaria and their original family name was ‘Pulhorn’. This had been legally changed by a certain judge … the young
Abraham Lincoln.
By the age of eight Peter had
finished his school days – it was needful for him to find work and to help
support a struggling family.
In 1976 the Bilhorns moved to
Chicago, and here he became a popular singer in German concert halls and beer
gardens.
A series of gospel meetings was
being held in the Moody Church by Dr George Pentecost … 20 year-old Peter
Bilhorn was converted on the 12th consecutive night of his
attending.
Before long he was a part of the
George Pentecost team, singing the gospel and being involved in a preaching
ministry to the cowboys of the Dakotas.
In need of a portable organ, he invented one: weighing less than 70 lbs., it could be folded into a case. The Bilhorn Folding Organ Co., Chicago,
became popular among gospel singers.
A story is recorded of him visiting
a gambling hall in Reedsburg, Wisconsin:
He found 18 men sitting around a gambling table. Opening his organ he said: “Boys, let me sing to you,” and he sang, “Where is my wandering boy tonight?” During the second verse he began to weep,
and so did many of the men. Sixteen
professed conversion.
Billy Sunday used him as
song-leader before Homer Rodeheaver took over that position.
Bilhorn conducted a choir of 4000
voices in the Crystal Palace (England) at the 1900 World Christian Endeavour
Convention. Queen Victoria invited him
to sing in the chapel of Buckingham Palace.
His name is attached to over 2000
gospel songs, sometimes as author, sometimes as composer, or both. For example, he wrote both words and music
of “Peace, peace, sweet peace, wonderful
gift from above”. He wrote the melody
for: “I will sing the wondrous story”.
He died in Los Angeles, his
home-going words being: “What is
that? Jesus – that is all right.”
At the
age of eight he was admitted to the membership of the Ebenezer Chapel, and by
the age of 16 he was known as “the boy preacher”.
With a
desire to serve the Lord in Madagascar he applied to the London Missionary
Society in 1850, and they accepted him – for China! And it was there his missionary work, the first in central China,
lasted for 57 years.
He
founded the Religious Tract Society in Hankow, and literally millions of copies
of the Scriptures were distributed during his lifetime.
“The
first Protestant convert in central China was baptized at Hankow in March,
1862” (Griffith John, by C. Irwin, page 19). By 1905 the church membership in that city had grown to 6,500.
Griffith
John established a medical work, itinerated thousands of miles to other towns
and villages, and translated the Scriptures into Mandarin and Wenli.
Many a
time he faced bitter opposition, not only from rebel Chinese – “kill the
foreign devil!” – but also from the “Times” newspaper in England, which
accused missionaries of “provoking the men of this world”. This outburst even led to a Member of
Parliament condemning missionary activity, and the London Missionary Society
instructed Griffith John to withdraw from central China to one of the ‘treaty
ports’, where churches were already established. “Griffith John protested so vigorously the LMS Directors
cancelled their instructions!” (page 24).
After the
death of his first wife, Mr John married the widow of Dr Jenkins in 1874.
Not only
did the Chinese Government hold him in high honour, but the Congregational
Union of England and Wales elected him as Chairman in 1888, and the University
of Edinburgh conferred upon him a DD degree (1889). A “Griffith John College” was also established in Hankow.
It was in
Swansea, Wales, where he had come to know the Lord as his Saviour that he was
laid to rest. He passed into his
Saviour’s presence on 25 July, 1912.
==============================================
This
is the day that …JOHANN
THEODORUS VANDERKEMP
died, in 1811.
Born in Rotterdam, Holland, 64
years previously, he ran away from home in his teens, became a soldier for 15
years, studied medicine at Edinburgh University – and practised as a doctor
back in Holland for 10 years.
Then – at nearly 45 years of age –
he witnessed the drowning of both his wife and daughter in a boating
accident. His Deism failed him and he
turned back to the religion of his godly parents.
In 1796 he offered his services to
the London Missionary Society – and three years later, at the age of 50, he
arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, as leader of this pioneer missionary band
to the Dark Continent. This was some 40
years before David Livingstone ventured forth to this needy land.
There were problems with Boer slave
traders … and the Bushmen – “an almost pygmy people”.
And when he was 60 he married a 17
year-old Malagasy slave girl whom he had rescued. This marriage, we are told, “created an uproar among colonists
and missionaries as well!”
Nevertheless, the same biographer
tells us that “he won hundreds of converts” and after 12 years of missionary
service he is recognised still as “one of the great pioneers of the London
Missionary Society”.
Historians tell us that this man of God preached between “40 and 60 hours a week, a total of more than 18,000 sermons during 34 years of ministry. He crossed the Atlantic 13 times and ministered extensively in the American colonies.”
Coupled to these amazing statistics
are the sizes of the crowds which flocked to hear him. Preaching in the open air to crowds of
10,000–20,000 was not uncommon. “It has
been estimated,” writes K. Hardman, in The Spiritual Awakeners, page 90,
“to more than 100 million persons…”
George Whitefield, that prince
among evangelists, died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on 30 September, 1770,
at the age of 56, and is buried beneath the pulpit of the Newburyport
Presbyterian Church.
For
27 years she worked in Asia with the China Inland Mission. Her experiences are told in a series of
eight best-selling autobiographical volumes.
By Searching tells of her early life in Canada, the clash with the
English professor during her university days, her studies at Moody Bible
Institute, and subsequent application to C.I.M. And their rejection of her application: “You are proud, disobedient and likely to be a trouble-maker”
(page 98).
But the book concludes with her
sailing for China, on 11 October, 1928.
Her second volume, Vistas, takes up the story of her
missionary adventures, her marriage on 4 November, 1929, to John (an
“irresistible force collides with an immovable object” is how she described
it!) More than once she “put on her hat
and coat” and walked out on him! But
she always came back.
“Without God’s help,” wrote her
biographer, “most marriages would not have endured the shattering experiences
she and John shared” (One Vision Only,
by C. Canfield. Vistas, by I. Kuhn is included in this volume).
Forced to leave China around 1950
due to “violent guerrilla warfare”, the Kuhns continued their missionary work
in Thailand. The story is told in Ascent to the Tribes.
But in 1955 Isobel was flown home
to the United States, where she died of cancer in March, 1957.
This
is the day that … CHARLES
WESLEY was
born, in 1707, the 18th child of Rev. Samuel and Susanna Wesley.
He was premature – “several weeks
before his time, he appeared more dead than alive. He did not cry, nor open his eyes, and was kept wrapped up in
soft wool until the time when he should have been born … and then he opened his eyes and cried” (A Heart Set Free, by A. Dallimore, page
23).
It was 31 years later that his
spiritual eyes were opened, on 21 May, 1738, just three days before his
brother, John, also came into the assurance of sins forgiven … and together
these two “sons of Susanna” (along with George Whitefield) launched the
Methodist Revival.
Charles left his mark by writing
about 6,500 hymns – “on every conceivable phase of Christian experience and
Methodist theology”. In his study, in
his garden, on horseback, hardly a day passes for the next 50 years that he
does not write a hymn. He even dictated
a hymn to his wife from his deathbed! (C. Wesley, by V. Clark, page 28).
When Whitefield died – despite
theological differences – Charles Wesley wrote a ‘biographical’ poem – 536
lines in length (Dallimore, pages 238-9).
Among his great contributions to
the hymnology of the church are: “Jesus, Lover of my soul”, “And can it be”,
“Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing”, “Love Divine, all loves excelling”,
“Soldiers of Christ arise”, “Hark the herald angels sing”, “Christ the Lord is
risen today”… and many, many more.
Charles Wesley died on 29 March,
1788.
This
is the day that … HORATIUS
BONAR was
born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1808.
Known as the greatest of Scottish
hymn-writers, Bonar was also, at one time, Moderator of the Free Church of
Scotland, editor of The Border Watch,
and minister for 23 years at Chalmers Memorial Church, Edinburgh.
His interest in Bible prophecy was
stimulated through hearing Rev. Edward Irving lecture on the subject in
1829. With his two brothers and a few
others, Bonar met regularly to study the advent of hope. “A certain stigma, as of heresy, was
fastened on (their pre-millennial views) – they were regarded within God’s
heritage as speckled birds” (Memories of
H. Bonar, page 47).
A new magazine was published, Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, with
Bonar as editor.
His brother, Rev. John James Bonar,
tells us “from the time that Dr Bonar accepted this mode of prophetic
interpretation as taught by Irving, it dominated and complexioned all his
views” (H. Bonar, A Memorial, page
99).
But it is his contribution to
hymnody for which he is best remembered.
In 1846 he penned:
I heard the voice of Jesus say:
“Come unto Me and rest” …
… written for the children in his
Sunday-School.
“Go
labour on, spend and be spent” is another of his hymns still sung today. And the moving communion hymn likewise … “Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face” …
A copy of Hymns of Faith and Hope, by H. Bonar, contains over 150 of his
hymns, and was published in 1869, 20 years before his death on 31 July, in
1889!
=============================================
This
is the day that … DR DAVID MARTYN LLOYD-JONES was born in Wales, in 1899.
At the age of 27 he had given up his promising
career as a Harley Street specialist, and with his young wife, Bethan, returned
to the land of his fathers. And here he
entered the Christian ministry, in a small Calvinistic Methodist Church.
He preached his first sermon at Sandfields, in
Wales, on 28 November, 1926. His text
on that occasion was I Corinthians 2:2 – “I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And this was still his central theme when he became assistant pastor to G.
Campbell Morgan at London’s Westminster Chapel in 1938. Morgan retired in 1943 and Lloyd-Jones soon
established Westminster Chapel as the “foremost evangelical pulpit in England.”
Verse by verse he traversed the great books of
Scripture, delivering 60 sermons on “The Sermon on the Mount”, preaching for 13
years on Romans chapters 1-14. His six
volumes of printed sermons on Ephesians total 2,235 pages.
His challenge to evangelicals to
separate from the mainline churches in 1966 brought the wrath of some fellow
evangelicals upon his head. But by pen
and from pulpit Martyn Lloyd-Jones continued to “contend for the faith once
delivered unto the saints.”
Some have called him the greatest preacher of the 20th
century.
==============================================
Robert,
however, came under the influence of the Wesleyan Methodists, attended some of
their meetings, and found himself under conviction of sin. He was 18 at the time. “One evening,” he later wrote, “while poring
over the Epistle to the Romans … I saw what God had done for the sinner and
what was required of the sinner to obtain the divine favour and the assurance
of eternal life” (R. Moffat, by E.J. Smith, page 21).
In 1815
he was ‘reluctantly’, because of his poor education, accepted by the newly
founded London Missionary Society.
On 18
October, 1817, at the age of 21, he sailed on the “Alacrity” for Cape
Town, South Africa … leaving his fiancée, Mary Smith, behind. He
had met her about six years earlier. In
1813 this 18 year-old Scottish lad had been employed as a gardener in
Manchester, England. And his employer
had a daughter … Robert already had
felt the call to Africa as a missionary, but Mary’s parents refused to give
their consent when he proposed marriage.
Two
years later this young pioneer missionary received letters “bearing the joyful
tidings that he might expect to welcome Mary later in the year”.
Complications
arose, however, in the form of a deputation from the London Missionary Society.
It was requested that he accompany these gentlemen inland, which meant he would
not be in Cape Town when his Mary arrived.
It was a conflict of duty … or love.
But with the L.M.S. deputation he set off (duty won!), only
to find that a tribal war had broken out and it was necessary for them to turn
back. Thus when Mary Smith arrived, in
December, 1819, Robert Moffat was there to meet her, and they were married a
few days later. He wrote a letter home that confessed “her arrival was to me
nothing less than life from the dead.”
Together they laboured for Christ for 50 years. One of the daughters, also named Mary,
married David Livingstone.
Robert Moffat translated the whole Bible into the Bechuana
tongue. He evangelised the Hottentots,
ruled over by Africaner, a feared warrior chief. Africaner eventually became a “zealous witness for Christ” (Vision
and Valour, by T.J. Bach, page 55).
It was during the first furlough in England that a young
medical student heard Robert Moffat say, “I have seen in the morning sun the
smoke of 1000 villages where no missionary has ever been.” The young medical student caught the vision
and ventured forth to become one of Africa’s greatest missionaries. He was David Livingstone – who later married
Robert Moffat’s daughter, Mary, in 1844!
It was at the age of 88, at the home of another daughter in
Kent, England, that this pioneer missionary went to be with his Lord. It was 9 August, 1883.
Converted
at the age of 17, she soon found herself the centre of attention from the local
theological students who congregated at her parents’ home.
The
Life of David Brainerd stirred her
missionary interest, and when young Adoniram Judson proposed – and told her
that he was planning to leave America’s shores as a missionary to India – she
was quick to accept.
Judson’s
letter to Deacon Hasseltine reveals the devotion of the first American foreign
missionary:
“Dear Sir, Can you consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world?
“Can you consent to
her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to hardships and sufferings
of a missionary life … to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a
violent death?”
Deacon
Hasseltine consented … and on 19 February, 1812 (just two weeks after their
marriage) Adoniram and Ann sailed for India.
But
it was Burma that they finally found their field of service, where they did face degradation and insult and
persecution …
And
there Ann died, on 24 October, 1826, at the age of 36.
==============================================
In his early life he took a special interest in
Hebrew, Arabic and Coptic. When he was
nine years-old a discovery took place by some of Napoleon’s soldiers at the
mouth of the western arm of the Nile; a
large slab of black granite (3'9" high, 2'4½" wide and 11"
thick), covered with strange writing.
Three different languages were recorded on this
Rosetta Stone, as it was later called.
There was the hieroglyphic picture script of ancient Egypt, a later form
of Egyptian writing known as Demotic script, and the third was Greek. At an age when ancient Egyptian was still
untranslatable, this was a major breakthrough.
It was Champollion who, with his knowledge of Greek
and the fact that the same decree had been recorded in three languages, was
able to crack the key. A whole new
world of Bible archaeology was opened up as Egyptian hieroglyphics now gave
their story to the scholars.
Champollion died in Paris about a decade later, on 4
March, 1832, at less than 40 years of age.
When he had preached in the First Presbyterian
Church of Philadelphia that Christ had died for all men – and not simply the
‘elect’ – the charge of heresy had been brought against him.
“For one year he was made to sit in silence in a pew
in his own church and hear others preach!” (500 Sermons, by T. de Witt
Talmage, Volume 4, page 292).
Eventually the breach was healed.
The
Schaff/Herzog Encyclopaedia tells us that Dr Barnes was “a truth-loving,
earnest, conscientious man of God” (page 215).
His
Commentary on the Bible has recently been reprinted, still as valuable
as ever for its profound scholarship.
Spurgeon, while not giving unqualified approval, does say, “no minister
can afford to be without it…” (Commenting on the Commentaries, page 14).
It was Christmas morning, 1749, when little Dolly
Byrom tripped down the stairs of her home in a state of excitement and
anticipation. For a few days earlier
her father had promised to write her a poem “as a Christmas present”.
Dr John
Byrom was one of the tallest men in England, and, adds his biographer, “one of
the queerest looking!” (The Gospel in Hymns, by A. Bailey, page
112).
Although an Anglican, he was friendly toward the
Methodist cause then arising. He
invented a system of shorthand that made him famous, and wrote a number of
poems, most well known of which was the one Dolly found upon the breakfast
table that Christmas morning –
Christians, awake! Salute the happy morn
where-on the Saviour of mankind
was born;
Rise to adore the mystery of love
which hosts of angels chanted
from above;
With them the joyful tidings
first begun,
God incarnate and the Virgin’s
Son.
History
tells us that Wenceslas was a Bohemian king who was martyred by his
pagan brother about AD 930. St
Wenceslas is the patron saint of what used to be Czechoslovakia (now the Czech
Republic and Slovakia – two separate countries.)
And
the ‘Feast of Stephen’ commemorates the death of the church’s first martyr,
as recorded in Acts 7.
It
was John Mason Neale, ‘the prince of hymn translators’, and an Anglican vicar
of the last century, who gave us the carol “Good King Wenceslas”. It has no basis in fact, but was one of
Neale’s original compositions … written 1000 years after Wenceslas lived – and
who may, or may not, have looked out on the Feast of Stephen!
And
because Stephen, the deacon, had previously been employed in caring for the poor,
it became customary for the early Christians to open the church alms-boxes and
distribute the benefits therein to those in need. Hence, this day is often referred to as “Boxing Day” …
==============================================
Until his conversion at the age of 22 he was “a
dedicated infidel”. And he was a Texas
Ranger!
But some friends dared him to attend an
old-fashioned Methodist camp meeting, and there it was he met the Saviour.
In November, 1866, he was ordained to preach the
gospel, and four years later became pastor of the First Baptist Church, Waco,
Texas. At the age of 28, in conjunction
with his pastoral duties, he was lecturing theological students at a nearby
Baptist University.
In his 60’s he founded the Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary and became its first president.
This 6'4" man of God, with flowing beard, was
said to resemble an ancient prophet. He
would read and remember 300 pages every day, and 33 volumes came from his pen.
“When you hear this silly talk that the Bible
‘contains’ the Word of God, and is not the Word of God, you hear a
fool’s talk,” he wrote. “I don’t care
if he is a Doctor of Divinity, a president of a University covered with medals
… it is fool talk. There can be no
inspiration of the book without the words of the book” (Baptists and
the Bible”, page 309). As a result
of his dynamic evangelical leadership the Southern Baptist movement grew to be
one of Christendom’s great soul-winning denominations.
B.H. Carroll died on 11 November, 1914.
=============================================
Those who
adhere to the Reformed tradition have described Hodge as “the leading American
theologian of the 19th century”.
Charles
Hodge was educated at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University),
and then at Princeton Theological Seminary.
In later life he was appointed Professor of Theology at this citadel of
Calvinism.
“Hodge
unswervingly defended a supernaturally inspired Bible”, and this emphasis was
carried through by the 3,000 students who passed under his ministry (Dictionary
of the Christian Church, page 473).
His
commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is still regarded as a classic work
(1835), and has been reprinted by “Banner of Truth”.
In 1822
he married Sarah Bache, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. Eight children were born, including
Archibald Alexander, who likewise became a theological professor. Sarah died in 1849, and he remarried a
widow, Mary Stockton, three years later.
He
founded and edited the prestigious journal, The Princeton Review, in
which he found time to attack the liberal German theology, and Charles Finney’s
revivalism.
On the
other hand he defended slavery, though not the cruelty often meted out to these
poor fellow Americans.
Professor
Hodge died in Princeton, New Jersey, on 19 June, 1878.
==============================================
He entered Parliament in 1832 and became Prime
Minister of England in 1868. This
“grand old man” of the House of Commons, as he was called, maintained strong
Christian convictions throughout his lengthy career.
Dr
John Clifford (Spurgeon’s nemesis), claims that Gladstone was “from first to
last evangelical, clinging to the great realities of personal sinfulness and
personal salvation through the cross of Christ” (Typical Christian Leaders,
page 50).
And
Dr Boreham gives us this quote from Gladstone himself: “I commend myself,” he writes in his will,
“to the infinite mercies of God in the Incarnate Son as my only and sufficient
hope” (Faggot of Torches, page 243).
In
his 424-pages book, The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, (1890),
Gladstone defends God’s revelation to man.
He locks horns with evolutionists and higher critics. True, some of his points may not suit all
evangelicals today, but the book reveals one who knows and loves the Word of
God.
He
was a High Churchman, devout and regular in his worship. The claims of the Church of Rome he strongly
denounced. Death came on 19 May, 1898,
and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
==============================================
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1907.
Certainly there is no Christian message in his
books, although the heroes are always men of high ideals. Nor is there any indication that Kipling was
ever converted. An active Freemason, he
is sometimes spoken of as the Masonic Poet.
But in 1897 he wrote a hymn for Queen Victoria’s
Diamond Jubilee – a hymn still to be found in most hymnals and often sung on
patriotic occasions:
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line
–
Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us
yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget.
==============================================
This
is the day that … JOHN WYCLIFFE died, in 1384.
He
was born of sturdy Saxon stock in Yorkshire, England, somewhere around the year
1320. It was in an age of spiritual
darkness – and 200 years before Luther would shake the church with his reforms.
But
Wycliffe saw the apostasy into which the Church of Rome had fallen. “The Church,” he said, “should return to the
poverty and simplicity of apostolic times.”
The Pope he called “the Anti-Christ, the proud, worldly priest of Rome!”
(Church in History, by B. Kuiper, page 143).
He
occupies a distinguished place in the history of the Christian Church, first as
a scholar and champion of theological reform, but primarily for his translation
of the Scripture into the English language.
His followers, known as the Lollards, went out two by two, covering
England with Protestant teaching. Many
of them met fiery deaths.
Schaff
comments: “It becomes evident that in
almost every doctrinal particular did this man anticipate the reformers.” History refers to him as the “Morning Star
of the Reformation”.
Wycliffe
died of a stroke and was buried in the church graveyard at Lutterworth, in
1384. But in 1428 his body was exhumed
and burnt, and the ashes thrown into the nearby Swift River.
This
act of desecration, as viewed by the Roman Catholic Church who instigated it,
is seen in a different light by many Protestants. To them it was prophetic.
For as the river took Wycliffe’s ashes to the sea, so his message spread
from shore to shore until the Protestant Faith was firmly established around
the world.