This
is the day that … BILLY
BRAY was
born in 1794, in Cornwall, UK.
His early life was one of
drunkenness and mischief … but in 1823 the Spirit of God laid hold of him and
Billy became a “man in a new world”.
He became an evangelist for the
Bible Christians, a branch of English Methodism.
For 40 years he itinerated around
Cornwall, “singing, shouting, preaching, praying” – and his sayings became
legendary … “I used to be a mad man,
but now I’m a glad man.” “I can’t help praising the Lord. As I go along the street and I lift up one
foot it says ‘Glory!’, and I lift up the other and it says ‘Amen!’.”
Billy Bray once said, “When the
Lord converted my soul He gave me power to pray with the men before we went to
our different places to work in the mines.
I used to pray, ‘Lord, if any of us must be killed today, let it be
me; let not one of these men die. If I die today I shall go to heaven’.” It isn’t much wonder that he saw many of
those miners converted.
Criticized for his untuneful
singing voice, Billy replied: “My
Father likes to hear the crow as well as the nightingale, for He made them
both!”
And on his deathbed, on 25 May,
1868, he spoke to his doctor, “When I get up there, shall I give them your
compliments, and tell them you will be coming too?”
Billy Bray was one of the most
colourful characters in Church history.
His biography, by F.W. Bourne, became a best seller – over 500,000
copies. And although he died over a century
ago, “he remains a religious folk hero of the Methodist people of Cornwall” (The Glory Man, by C. Davey, page 8).
This
is the day that … BLANDINA
was
cruelly martyred in AD 177.
Sometimes referred to as the
Martyrs of Lyons (in France), 48 Christians were arrested and put to death.
Their bishop was 90 year-old
Pathinus. There was a 15 year-old lad,
and a deacon, spoken of as ‘a pillar of the church’. And there was Blandina, a slave girl…
It was feared she might renounce
her faith. But she remained true,
saying: “I am a Christian, we commit no
wrongdoing.”
Finally she “endured the scourging,
the iron chair over a fire, and being put in a net and tossed by a wild bull…”
The story comes to us from
Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, the
first history of the Christian faith (approximately AD 340), in which he quotes
an eyewitness letter written from Lyons to Asia Minor.
This
is the day that … WILLIAM
MATTHEW FLINDERS PETRIE was born in England, in 1853.
He was named after his grandfather,
Captain Matthew Flinders, who had sailed around Australia 50 years before.
But young William was more
interested in the sands than the sea … in particular, the sands of Egypt. He was to become one of the most renowned
Egyptologists of his day, and directed excavations in both Egypt and Palestine.
His interest had been triggered off
by a book claiming that the Great Pyramid of Gizeh was a “prophecy in stone” –
each ‘inch’ along the various chambers representing a year.
Petrie spent nine months measuring
the length and breadth of every corridor and chamber … and “in so doing he
proved Piazza Smith (the author of the aforementioned book) wrong” (Archaeological Diggings, June, 1995,
page 25). In his book, 70 Years in
Archaeology, Petrie even tells of coming across one of these “prophecy
numerologists” busy filing away a stone to make the measurement fit with his
preconceived notions! (pages 26, 35).
For 46 years Petrie delved into the
mysteries of Ancient Egypt. The most
important find was the Merneptah Stele at Thebes, once capital of Upper
Egypt. “For Bible students the
inscription is extremely important,” writes John J. Davis. “It is an official recognition of a people
called Israel in extra-biblical documents and is the earliest mention of Israel
known to us in such literature” (International
Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology).
Most scholars date this Stele around 1220 BC.
It was he who established the use
of pottery to date the various levels of strata. And his book, Palestine and
Israel, contained a denunciation of the Higher Critical theories concerning
the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.
Flinders Petrie was knighted in
1923. He died in Jerusalem on 28 July,
1942.
This
is the day that … DAVID
ZEISBERGER
was married – at the age of 60 – to Miss Susan Lecron, at the suggestion of the
Moravian Mission Board. It was in 1781.
For the previous 40 years he had
devoted his life to the preaching of the Gospel among the Red Indians. “He had made himself so truly their brother
than they adopted him into their tribe and gave him the Indian name of
Thaneraquechta …” (Torchbearers of the
Faith, by A. Smellie, page 227).
Zeisberger’s translation of the
Scriptures into the Iroquois language is described as “outstanding”. Despite
the fact that he found his work continually harassed by the French/Indian war,
and the American Revolution, he continued on.
There are stories of massacres and imprisonment and hardship enough to
daunt the most valiant of souls.
Zeisberger persevered.
During a synod meeting the strong
suggestion was made that he take unto himself a wife, which he did. He then
returned to his Red Indians with the Gospel…
“The wrath of the British (during the Revolutionary
War) was directed mainly against Zeisberger… He and two fellow missionaries
were arrested as spies. Practically
starved, they appeared before the governor to defend themselves against vile
and unjust accusations” (Early Missionary
Endeavours Among the American Indians, by J. Mueller, page 92). Eventually Zeisberger was free to lead his
Christian Indians across the border into Canada, where there was freedom – and
“where the Moravian testimony continued for many generations”.
He died on 17 November, 1808, saying: “The Saviour is near; He will come and take me home…” He departed this life at the age of 87, over 60 years of which was spent in missionary service.
“No other Protestant missionary exercised more real influence, and was more sincerely honoured among the Indians, and none … excelled him in the frequency and hardship of his journeys through the wilderness” (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia, page 2570).
5 June
This is the day that … WILLIAM EDWIN ROBERT SANGSTER was born “on a blazing hot” day in 1900 … in London. (The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church spells it Edwyn … but both biographers, including his son, spell it Edwin!).
His parents attended the Church of England, but young William found the Radnor Street Wesleyan Chapel more to his liking. It was Mr Wimpory, curator of the Chapel and a church officer at Radnor Street, who led 10 year-old William to the place of conversion.
At the age of 16 he set eyes upon Margaret Conway, and fell in love. At 17 he became a local preacher.
At 18 he joined the Queen’s Royal Regiment – “nightly he prayed by his bunk while army boots were hurled at him…” (page 13). And he led a prayer and Bible study group with a few other soldiers. In Germany a Methodist chaplain called upon him – “had a walk and a talk and went away again…” Sangster, one biographer tells us, forgot about this meeting until a letter arrived informing him “that he had been accepted for the Methodist ministry”! (Sangster of Westminster, page 14).
So when the army days were over he entered Handsworth College …
His first sermon (before other theological students – a terrifying ordeal) was a disaster. “The delivery was spoiled by a Cockney accent so strong that it was almost comic” (page 16). So young Sangster worked hard at voice production.
He was ordained on 27 July, 1926 … and married his Margaret on 12 August the same year.
After some smaller parishes he followed Dr Leslie Weatherhead to Leeds Methodist Church. Paul Sangster, in his biography of his father, speaks of the many differences between the two pulpiteers – but, he says, they were “one in the fundamentals” (page 111). Anyone familiar with Weatherhead’s outrageous liberal theology must therefore wonder what Sangster really believed!
From Leeds he moved to Westminster Central Hall (where he followed Dinsdale Young, who was an evangelical!) … he was appointed President of the Methodist Conference … and wrote a strong defence of Wesley’s Christian Perfection doctrine, The Path to Perfection. Likewise volumes on the art of preaching and books of sermons came from his able pen. He shared platforms with Billy Graham, Alan Redpath, Lindsay Glegg, Tom Rees and George Duncan … evangelicals all.
But in December, 1957, the first symptoms of muscular atrophy appeared … the cause of his slow lingering death over the next two and a half years. When he died – on 24 May, 1960 (Wesley Day) – “he had not spoken a clear word for over a year.”
6
June
This is the day that … JOHN ANGELL JAMES was born, in 1785.
This British Congregationalist pastored Carrs Lane Church in Birmingham for over 50 years!
From 8 May, 1806 (at just 21 years of age) until his death on 1 October, 1859, John Angell James was a laborious, earnest and successful pastor, not remarkable for scholarship, but with a fine talent for practical service, a ready flow of language, and a constant aim at religious impression.
He wrote voluminously – 15 volumes consisting of sermons and addresses on practical subjects. Most well known is The Anxious Enquirer, which sold 200,000 copies in the first five years of its publication. A 4 year-old assistant school teacher read it in 1843, was converted, and later became John Angell James’ successor at Carr’s Lane Church. That was Dr R.W. Dale, who ministered there for many years.
Spurgeon, in his autobiography, thanks God for The Anxious Enquirer (page 88), and even tells us of his “pilgrimage to Birmingham” as a lad to hear James preach (page 190).
Another to be influenced by The Anxious Enquirer was the wife of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It led to her conversion (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Volume 1, pages 166-7).
7
June
This is the day that … SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON was born, “25 miles from Edinburgh”, Scotland, in 1811.
His mother was 40 years of age at the time, and his father was the village baker. And – to establish in our minds something of the superstitions of the world into which he was born, James’ grandfather had “buried a live cow to appease the Evil Spirit which seemed likely to empty his byre (cow-shed)! (Journal of Christian Medical Fellowship, January, 1992, page 5).
But James Simpson would be one of that century’s great scientists, who would help bridge the gap between “old wives’ tales” and responsible medical practice. His medical studies led him to the pinnacle of fame – elected “Senior President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh” at the age of 24.
After studying at Edinburgh University he was appointed to the faculty as Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. And he found time to devote to his growing interest in archaeology – even being appointed Professor of Antiquities at the Royal Scottish Academy.
But the medical field was also encountering new discoveries. The use of ether to be used in the rendering of a patient unconscious during an operation had been tried. Likewise experiments with “nitrous oxide” (laughing gas).
But there were dangers also. A Liverpool chemist suggested the use of chloroform – a substance discovered some 10 years previous. On 4 November, 1847, Simpson and two colleagues experimented with it – on themselves. Six days later he was reporting to a medical meeting the advantages of this particular anaesthetic. And to answer his critics – religious critics who thought that women must suffer pain in childbirth – he argued that even God put Adam into a “deep sleep” prior to performing His divine surgery! He popularised the use of chloroform … and tried it out on a mother in labour. “She was so excited about the less painful birth that she named her baby girl Anaesthesia!”
Simpson was a member of the Church of Scotland – living at the time of the Disruption in that denomination, he threw in his lot with the Free Church of Scotland (1843).
Conversion, however, appears to have taken place in 1861, although some writers suggest a couple of years previous. Asked at a public meeting what was his greatest discovery, Simpson unhesitatingly replied: “That I have a Saviour” (Men of Destiny, by Peter Masters, page 38).
In 1862 we find him quoted as saying in an address, “I am one of the oldest sinners and one of the youngest Christians in this room” (Journal of the Christian Medical Fellowship, January, 1992).
Sir James Young Simpson died on 6 May, 1870.
8 June
Twenty-six
years later God used this young Calvinistic-Methodist to ignite a revival fire
across that land. With his “scorched Bible” (it had been damaged in a mine
explosion), Evan Roberts prayed and preached.
Sometimes he wept in the pulpit.
Other times he simply talked in between songs and testimonies.
The
1904 Welsh Revival saw “100,000 outsiders converted and added to the Churches”,
writes Colin Whittaker (Great Revivals,
page 95).
And
then, some two years later, Evan Roberts went to stay with Mrs Jessie
Penn-Lewis, a wealthy English lady, and her husband. Together they published a magazine, The Overcomer, and Mrs Penn-Lewis wrote her War on the Saints, in which “early Pentecostal groups” were branded
as “satanic”! (God’s Generals, by R.
Liardon, page 99).
Curious
stores are told of these years. Dr F.B.
Meyer made a special visit to see Evan Roberts. But “the maid returned to Mrs Penn-Lewis and whispered that Mr
Roberts would not come downstairs” to see the famous preacher (We Must Have Revival, by H. Duncan, page
69). Russian missionary leader, Professor I. Neprash, tells of his visit … “We
– Mr Roberts and I – sat down … there was no fellowship … I tried my best to
discover some point of communion but failed … we both became uneasy and
presently he left the room …” (ibid, page 53).
Evan
Roberts eventually left the Penn-Lewis home, lived alone in Sussex, and wrote
“booklets that never were a success”.
Later he moved back to Wales, and died there, in January, 1951, at the
age of 72.
9 June
This is the day that … JEANNE
MARIE BOUVIER DE LA MOTTE GUYON died, at the age of
69, in 1717.
As
a young girl, born to an aristocratic French family, she was raised in various
convents. At the age of 16 she was
married to a high-ranking nobleman more than twice her age. Widowed at the age of 28 Madame Guyon found
herself “with incredible wealth and vast estates to manage.”
Although
she belonged to the Roman Catholic faith, yet she “saw more clearly the
sublimest truths of our most holy Christianity” (Introduction to Autobiography, published by Moody Press,
page 6).
“I
henceforth take Jesus Christ to be mine …” she wrote, “and I give myself to
Him, unworthy though I am, to be His spouse.”
In
an age of debauchery when King Louis XIV considered himself God’s appointed
ruler whom all must obey, Madame Guyon refused consent for her daughter’s
marriage to the person of the king’s choosing.
She was imprisoned for nine months, only to find favour in the eyes of
Madame de Maintenon, the king’s favourite mistress, who secured her release.
Madame Guyon now found herself conducting
“prayer meetings and counselling sessions for the young ladies of the king’s
court!” “Palace or prison made no
difference to Madame Guyon,” writes one biographer, “so absorbed was she in the
love of Christ.”
Eventually her writings brought her into conflict with the Roman church, she was tried for heresy and sentenced to imprisonment in the Bastille. (At the same time as ‘the man in the iron mask’ was also held prisoner there). Four years later she was released (in 1702), was banished, and died some 15 years later.
During her remarkable life she wrote a 20-volume commentary on the Bible, and 40 devotional works. Madame Guyon was a mystic, and her ‘visions and revelations’ led John Wesley to be critical of some of her writings as lacking a Scriptural base.
Likewise,
some of her “bizarre stories of self-inflicted pain … putting stones in her
shoes and rolling in stinging nettles…” cause many evangelicals to regard her
with a quizzical eye.
Born in
1816 at Macclesfield, England, John Charles Ryle was educated in his native
town, then attended Eton and Oxford and eventually into the Church of England
ministry.
In 1880
Queen Victoria appointed him to the bishopric of the newly created Diocese of
Liverpool. His evangelical and
Protestant stance was soon evident. And
the work flourished. Forty-two new
churches and fifty new mission halls were opened during his ministry.
But it is
as a writer his fame has continued to spread.
Three
hundred tracts came from his pen – many of them defending the “glorious truths
of the Reformation”. Larger works include
his commentary on the Gospels (which is still in print!), Old Paths and Knots
Untied … this latter volume often crossing swords with Romanist and
Anglo-Catholic teachings.
His Christian
Leaders of the 18th Century contains the biographies of some of
England’s spiritual giants.
“It has
been said,” writes B.C. Mowll, “that few in the 19th century did so
much for God, for truth and righteousness, among Englishmen, as Bishop J.C.
Ryle.”
11 June
Four
months later, on 12 October, 1926, these three middle-aged women arrived in
London. They had travelled over 6000 miles on a route almost unknown to
civilization (God’s Adventurers,
by M. Tiltman, page 31).
During
the previous 20 years these remarkable missionaries had lived in wayside inns
and peasant’s dwellings, everywhere presenting the gospel to Tibetans, Mongols
and Chinese.
And more
than once they faced incredible danger… like the time they were captured by a
brigand chief! (Three Women, by W.J. Platt.)
Ruth
Tucker writes, “It was through the amazing pioneer work of these three single
women that the Great Northwest (of China) was initially opened to the Gospel.
They did not found churches or theological learning centres, they simply obeyed
the command to take the Gospel to every creature” (Guardians of the Great Commission, page 88).
This
is the day that … JAMES
GILMOUR was
born, “a few miles from Glasgow”, Scotland, in 1843.
Few missionary stories reveal such
hardship and danger and solitude … “I doubt if St Paul endured more for Christ
than James Gilmour did…” was said at his memorial service in Peking.
After studying at a Congregational
theological college, Gilmour left for Mongolia in 1870 under the auspices of
the London Missionary Society. For 27
years he lived among the Mongolians (less than half of that time with a
faithful wife who died on the field), seeking to point them away from their
Buddhism to the Saviour.
“Always he was busy,” writes A.
Smellie, “healing the sick, talking with enquirers, selling Christian books,
preaching the gospel …” (Torchbearers of
the Faith, page 212).
He ate but once a day … walking
from village to village with his luggage and Bibles and medicines on his
back. In 1886 he records in his
journal: “Preached to 24,000 people (this
year), treated more than 5,700 patients, distributed 10,000 books and tracts …
and out of all this there are only two men who have openly confessed Christ.”
During a brief furlough in Scotland
he had this to say: “Just think! In a little town like this there are men
preaching on every other street corner, and I am all alone in these hundreds of
square miles in Mongolia. What you
people are thinking of I cannot imagine!”
Judged by worldly standards his
success was minimal. But when he died
at the age of 48 he assuredly heard the Saviour’s “Well done, good and faithful
servant!”
13 June
This
is the day that … JOHN
HUNT was
born in England, in 1812, to illiterate and irreligious parents.
Converted at the age of 17 when he
came into contact with the Methodists, he was soon preaching in their
meetings. At the age of 23 he entered
their “Theological Institution” for missionary training, and on 29 April, 1838,
he and his new bride, Hannah, sailed for the South Seas.
Fiji! “Those hills which they viewed upon their arrival contained the
ovens in which human beings were roasted for cannibal feasts. There … widows had been strangled to
accompany the dead chiefs to their ‘Paradise’.”
“Cunning was the highest
intelligence. War was their
business. The religion of the Fijian
required cannibalism” (They Knew Their
God, Volume 4, page 61).
Thus it was John Hunt and his good
wife, both in their mid-20’s, tackled the unwritten language of these people
that they might tell them of the Saviour.
“I determine,” he wrote in his
journal, “to make known nothing among the poor Fijians but Christ and Him
crucified. Oh that my speech and my
preaching may be with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (Biography of John Hunt, by G. Rowe,
1860, page 173).
The savage climate led to the death
of their three children soon after birth.
He wrote: “I have three now in
Heaven. I thank God they are safe. I feel much my need of them now; but, oh,
how awful the thought of their living to sin against my God and be lost!”
For 10 years John Hunt
persevered. King Thakombau – “the
butcher of his people” – was a fierce foe, and his wars and hostility toward
the missionary seemed to make all success hopeless.
His translation of the New
Testament in Fijian was completed in 1847 (though not published until 1854).
And God saw fit to pour out revival
among these people. There was weeping
and groaning “and a general calling upon God to have mercy” by many
Fijians. Even Queen Viwa was converted.
John Hunt wrote: “One hundred converts the first week of the
revival… The mats of the chapel were
wet with the tears of the communicants of the table of the Lord…”
But a year later – 4 October, 1848
– John Hunt died, at the age of 36.
King Thakombau was baptised nine
years later by a fellow missionary.
And the gospel continued to bring
light and joy and peace to those who had lived in darkness.
“The mission to Fiji has been as
remarkable for its success as any ever undertaken by the Christian world. At the jubilee of that mission there was not
an avowed pagan left. Fifty years
before there was not a single Christian in all Fiji” (Epoch Makers of Modern Missions, by A. McClean, page 171).
This
is the day that … HARRIET
BEECHER STOWE
was born, in 1811.
She was the seventh child of Rev.
Lyman Beecher and his wife, Roxana. At
the time her father was pastoring a Presbyterian church in Connecticut.
At the age of 13 Harriet made a
confession of faith in Christ. “I have
given myself to Jesus,” she told her father, “and He has taken me.”
In 1836 she married Calvin Stowe, a
professor in Hebrew at the college where her father was now president. Stowe is described by one biographer as
“awkward and inept … a hypochondriac who sometimes slid into depression … and
would sulk in his room for hours.”
But Harriet found a new outlet for
her talents – writing.
First published as a serial in a
newspaper, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was
released in book form in 1852. Five
hundred thousand copies were sold in the next five years in America alone.
It highlighted the slavery question
as no preacher had been able to do and gave the nation a conscience. It is true to say that Uncle Tom’s Cabin greatly influenced the Civil War that
followed. It is likewise true to say
that a strong Christian testimony is found in the pages of that remarkable
bestseller.
Harriet Beecher Stowe died on 1
July, 1896.
Few Christians realize the
spiritual significance of this document.
Pope Innocent III had placed
England under an interdict. (That could
be compared to excommunicating – not just an individual, but a whole
nation!) And it meant no more masses,
no more Christian burials, no more confession, no more priestly absolution of
sin … and more. For a people who had
believed these unscriptural practices to be ‘gospel’, it was a matter of the
gravest importance.
King John had rejected the papal
Archbishop and appointed one of his own choosing!
The interdict had its desired
effect. King John gave in – accepted
the Pope’s choice of Archbishop of Canterbury, and surrendered the British
Empire to Rome – and promised to pay annual tribute into the Roman coffers (English
Church History, by C. Lane, page 207).
But by an amazing twist of
circumstances, Stephen Langton (the Pope’s choice for Archbishop) then sided
with the English barons – against the papal demands! It was he who had the Magna Carta drawn up – a charter that
stated among other things, “The Church of England shall be free, and hold her
rights entire, and her liberties inviolate!”
In other words, no interference or domination from the Pope.
Thus it was, at Runnymede, Stephen
Langton and the barons compelled King John to sign the document against his
will! (New Guide to Knowledge of
Church History, by M. Bloxam, page 156).
Because the actual document bears
no date, some historians have suggested 19 June was the day it was signed.
In the Making of the Magna Carta
(page 9), it records how “by 15 June it … had been completed and could be laid
before the King for his formal acceptance…
The date, 15 June, may well be that on which the sealing took place” (pages 7, 9).
The Pope fumed … condemning and
annulling it in a Bull (24 August, 1215).
“We do utterly reprobate and condemn this agreement … whereby the
Apostolic See is brought into contempt.”
Too bad!! It was a stepping-stone toward the Reformation days when the ties
with Rome would be finally broken.
Lead,
Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou
me on;
The night
is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead Thou
me on;
Keep Thou
my feet; I do not ask to see
the
distant scene –
one step
enough for me.
Newman was ‘at sea, 16 June, 1833’
when he penned those words.
At the age of 32 this Church of
England clergyman had visited the continent in an effort to regain his
health. In Sicily he caught a fever
that brought him to the brink of death.
Besides all of this, there was mental turmoil over spiritual issues.
It was on the voyage home to
England – ‘on a merchant vessel carrying a load of oranges’ – that he wrote his
famous hymn.
Twelve years later he forsook the
Church of England and joined the Church of Rome.
In 1879 he was made a
cardinal. He died the following year,
at the age of 89.
This
is the day that … John
Wesley was
born, in 1703. And during his
remarkable ministry we know of two early Methodist preachers who were converted
on this day.
JOHN NELSON was a Yorkshire man who first heard Wesley preach at
Moorfields (17 June, 1739). “As soon as
he got on the stand, he stroked back his hair and turned his face to where I
stood, and I thought, fixed his eyes upon me” (Early Methodist Preachers,
page 2).
John Nelson continues, “This man
can tell the secrets of my heart, but he hath not left me there; for he hath showed the remedy, even the
blood of Jesus” (page 3).
In the years that followed John
Nelson became one of Wesley’s loyal friends, preaching the old-time gospel.
“On 17 June, 1758, God gave me a
clear sense of His forgiving love,” he wrote to John Wesley (page 88).
Rodda was 15 years of age when his
conversion took place, and by the age of 20 he was often found preaching three
times a day in various places. At Worcestershire, “they brought gunpowder with them
and almost filled the place with the smoke of it” (page 90). “Some of them pelted me with dirt and broken
tiles.”
In Heresford, “a wicked man
gathered dirt out of a kennel and threw it in my eyes and face … I could
proceed no further.” In Cornwall, “the
mob gathered and pelted me with rotten eggs” (page 92).
And so it goes.
Any “Christian” who is too lazy to
get out of bed or turn off the TV to go to Church ought to read of the
sufferings of Wesley and his early preachers, as they confronted the mobs with
the claims of Christ!
=========================================================
This
is the day that … ELIZABETH
CECILIA DOUGLAS CLEPHANE was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1830.
“Gentle and retiring in
disposition, and generous to a degree, she was known as ‘The Sunbeam’ among the
poor and suffering in Melrose”, the village in which she lived, and made famous
in Walter Scott’s novels.
Elizabeth and her sister belonged
to the Free Church of Scotland where Rev. James Irwin later ministered. “There still remains,” he wrote, “a
treasured memory of their wholehearted devotion to the church … their
generosity was a constant joy to my predecessor and the church treasurer!” (The Romance of Sacred Song, by D.
Beattie, page 55).
Her poem … There were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold …was
found in a newspaper by Ira Sankey and spontaneously set to music as he sang
and played the organ with only the words before him! (My Life Story, by Ira
Sankey, page 307). It was 1874, in
Glasgow, Scotland. “A short time
afterwards I received, at Dundee, a letter from a lady who had been present at
the meeting thanking me for having sung her deceased sister’s words” wrote
Sankey (ibid.).
Elizabeth Clephane’s other
well-known poem was also published posthumously, and set to music three years
later …
Beneath the cross of Jesus
Miss Clephane died at the age of
38.
This
is the day that … ADAM
CLARKE
preached his first sermon.
He was about 21 years of age at the
time – the date of his birth is uncertain – but this young Irishman had come to
faith in Christ through the ministry of some itinerant Methodist preachers.
In 1778 (when he was perhaps 18
years of age) he joined the Methodist Church, led his sister, Hannah, to the
Saviour, and found himself as ‘helper’ to Rev. Bredin. “Tomorrow,” said this
wise man of God, “you will preach to the Methodists some five miles from
Derry.” “I will do the best I can,”
replied Adam, “with God’s help.”
Thus it was – on 19 June, 1782 –
that Adam Clarke expounded I John 5:19:
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in
wickedness”. The congregation was so
impressed that they invited him to stay overnight and preach to them again at 5
o’clock the next morning – which he did!
Mr Bredin had seen the potential in
this young man and already written to John Wesley in England. Wesley replied that he would be pleased if
Adam Clarke came to England to assist in the work there.
The rest is history. Not only did Adam Clarke become one of
Wesley’s most loyal preachers and president of the Methodist Conference, in
1806, but his fame lives on in his massive Bible Commentary – the work of 40
years.
He died of cholera on 26 August,
1832.
This
is the day that … GEORGE
WHITEFIELD was
ordained by Bishop Benson in 1736. The
place was Gloucester Cathedral, it was “Trinity Sunday,” and Whitefield was 21
years of age. He tells us in his
journal that he had spent the day previous in prayer and fasting … and “prayed
fervently for about two hours” on a hill outside the town.
On the Sunday he “arose early and
prayed over St Paul’s Epistle to Timothy, especially that precept ‘let no man
despise thy youth’.” Thus it was in fear and trembling young Whitefield
approached the sacred office.
The following Sunday he was to
preach his first sermon and the gospel was powerfully presented. “I have since heard that a complaint had
been made to the bishop that I drove 15 people mad the first sermon…” he wrote.
Mad? Or overjoyed that they had come to know the Saviour!
There would be many more –
thousands more – who would experience a holy joy before Whitefield preached his
last sermon 34 years later.
And Bishop Benson was clearly a
leader who stood by his men. His reply
to those who complained after that first sermon was that he hoped the madness
might not be forgotten by the next Sunday.
This
is the day that … INCREASE
MATHER was
born in 1639, in Massachusetts.
He was to become a leading light in
colonial America – a Puritan of the Puritans, author of 130 books and
pamphlets, and president of Harvard University (1681-1701).
He wife was Maria Cotton, daughter
of another famous Puritan divine, John Cotton, who had fled England, having
disobeyed the archbishop’s command to kneel before the sacrament. And the son
of Increase and Maria was named Cotton Mather, who published 469 volumes – a
brilliant scholar on a wide variety of subjects.
Cotton Mather is usually remembered
for his part in the infamous Salem witch trials – especially as he defended the
use of spectral (unseen) evidence! This
was in opposition to his father’s trace rejecting such evidence in finding as
guilty those accused of withcraft. But
he also wrote the monumental account of the early years of Christianity in
America, The Great Works of Christ in
America.
Increase Mather died on 23 August,
1723, in the arms of his son.
This
is the day that … EBENEZER
ERSKINE was
born in Berwickshire, Scotland, in 1680.
His father was a Church of Scotland
minister. Ebenezer, and his young
brother Ralph, followed suit. But their
respective ministries encountered stormy days.
The republishing of a volume that
had first appeared 73 years earlier – The
Marrow of Modern Divinity – was condemned as heretical by the General
Assembly of the Scottish Church.
Ebenezer Erskine, by this time a well-known preacher who oft-times
resorted to open air meetings because his church could not accommodate the crowds,
defended the Marrow volume. As a result he, and three other ministers,
were suspended (August, 1733) and eventually deposed from the State Church.
Ebenezer Erskine became the leader
of the Associate Presbytery, later known as the Secession Church, founded on 5
December, 1733 (The Cambaslung Revival,
A. Fawcett, page 26). And he invited
fellow open-air preacher, George Whitefield, to visit Scotland … on the
condition that Whitefield would not align himself with the State Church. This Whitefield declined to do… “If the Pope himself were to lend me his
pulpit,” he replied, “I would gladly proclaim the righteousness of Jesus Christ
therein” (George Whitefield, by A.
Belden, page 124). Thus the Secession
Church began to denounce Whitefield – “and even called him an agent of the
devil” (ibid, page 125).
Ebenezer Erskine died on 2 June,
1754, and within about 200 years “most of the ‘seceders’ had found their way
back into the national church” (Who’s Who
in Christian History? page 237).
This
is the day that … SAMUEL
MEDLEY was
born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1738.
By the age of 14 he was apprenticed
to an oilman in London, but disliking this work, at the age of 17, he became a
midshipman in the Royal Navy. Despite a
godly heritage, young Samuel Medley now descended into the quagmire of sin.
But during naval action between
England and France in 1759 he received a severe leg wound. “I am afraid,” said the surgeon, “that
amputation is the only thing that will save your life. I can tell tomorrow morning.” As he lay there, wounded, his mind turned to
spiritual things. We are told that he
spent the night “in prayers and penitence”, and next morning the surgeon held
up his hands in amazement at what he called “a miracle”.
But alas, before long, Samuel
Medley was back to his sinful ways.
It was three years later, back in
London, that his pious grandfather, William Tonge, read him a sermon by Dr
Isaac Watts on Isaiah 42:6-7. Samuel’s
thoughts were turned to the things of eternity. He was soundly converted, and it is believed that it was to
commemorate this experience that he penned his first hymn:
Awake, my soul, in joyful lays,
To sing thy
great Redeemer’s praise;
He justly
claims a song from thee;
His loving
kindness, oh, how free.
He saw us ruined in the Fall,
Yet loved us notwithstanding all.
He saved us
from our lost estate;
His loving
kindness, oh, how great.
Samuel Medley joined the Particular
Baptist Church, married, taught school for four years, and then became pastor
of a Baptist Church in Liverpool, where he stayed for the next 27 years. His ministry there “was one of remarkable
and increasing popularity and soon a much larger building had to be erected” (Christian Hymn Writers, by E. Houghton,
page 138). He was “especially
successful in reaching sailors.”
Among his 150 hymns we still find
in our hymnals such favourites as:
I know that my Redeemer lives –
What comfort
this assurance gives …
and
Oh, could I speak the matchless worth,
Oh, could I
sound the glories forth
Which in my Saviour shine …
Shortly before he died, 17 July,
1799, he remarked, “I am now a poor, shattered barque about to gain the
blissful harbour.”
This is the day that …PHILIP HENRY died in 1696.
During his 65 years of earthly
pilgrimage he was an ordained Church of England clergyman who was ejected from
his church (as were some 2000 other clergy), for refusing to obey the king’s
“Act of Uniformity” (24 August, 1662).
Two months later his son Matthew
was born, and it is due to his father’s preaching (especially a sermon on Psalm
51:17) that Matthew’s soul was awakened “to begin to enquire after
Christ”. Matthew went on to become
famous for his great commentary on the Bible.
Philip Henry has been described as
“a man of great good sense, shrewd as well as pious, and his remarks, expressed
in a quaint, proverbial style, have been recorded with filial fidelity by his
excellent and celebrated son” (Cyclopaedia of Religious Biography, page
257).
Philip Henry’s dying words are
recorded for us – “O death, where is thy sting?”
=========================================================
He was born in 1611 … the exact date being unknown. Nor are we sure of the place. His father, Alexander Leighton, was an outspoken Puritan who incurred the wrath of the infamous Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. As a result, Laud had him branded on the forehead, fined 10,000 pounds Sterling, publicly whipped, one ear cut off and one nostril split. Oh, yes, and life imprisonment! (Fathers of the Kirk, page 85).
Son,
Robert, attended Edinburgh University from whence he was nearly expelled for
writing “witty verse” in which the red nose of one of the faculty figured!
He
entered the Church of Scotland (which at the time had bishops), spending 10
years on the Continent. He returned in
1641 to a Church of Scotland that had rejected episcopacy in favour of
Presbyterianism. For seven years he fitted in, but in 1648 he resigned and
became principal of Edinburgh University.
The
year 1660 saw Charles II on the throne and episcopacy was re-introduced into
the Scottish church. Two-thirds of the ministers accepted the change -
including Leighton, who was consecrated as a bishop. Three hundred ministers refused to accept the king as “supreme in
all causes civil and ecclesiastical”
and were ejected from their parishes.
History knows these faithful pastors and their followers as ‘the
Covenanters’.
Robert
Leighton met with some of these “non-conformists and sought to heal the breach,
to no avail.” In 1674 he resigned his
archbishopric and passed his final decade “in quiet study and meditation!”
On
his tombstone is the inscription: “In
an age of utmost strife, he adorned the doctrine of God his Saviour by a holy
life and the meek and loving spirit which breathes through his writings.”
This
is the day that … PHILIP
DODDRIDGE
was born in 1702, the 20th child of a London tradesman.
“So feeble the spark of life that
he was first laid aside as dead” – until a servant girl noticed a movement …
and the child lived. Except for sister
Elizabeth, all the other children did die in infancy.
By the age of 13 he was orphaned,
and a prosperous gentleman named Downes became his self-appointed
guardian. He grew up in a godly
environment, both at home and school.
“Although he could never tell when he was first conscious that Christ
was his Saviour, he knew that he loved Christ and was in fellowship with Him…”
(Life of Dr P. Doddridge, by H.J.
Garland, page 14). He “openly confessed
his Lord and joined the Church” (of England) on New Year’s Day, 1718.
The Duchess of Bedford offered to
send him to university and pay all fees for his theological training. But by this time Philip Doddridge had swung
to the non-conformists (those who did not ‘conform’ to the state church or
‘conform’ to the rules of the Prayer Book).
Thus it was that he became pastor
of the Chapel Hill Congregational Church in Northampton for 22 years, during
which time he opened an Academy where 200 young men were trained for the
ministry. It is said that he had a
student read to him, even whilst he was washing and shaving…” (Gospel in Hymns, by A. Bailey, page
66).
He married Miss Mercy Maris on 22
December, 1730 … and he wrote The Rise
and Progress of Religion in the Soul, which is mentioned in the biographies
of William Wilberforce, C.H. Spurgeon, Henry Martyn and Mary Slessor as having
an influence upon their lives.
He wrote 364 hymns, many of which
are still to be found, and used, to the present day. One of the best known is …
O happy day, that fixed my choice
on Thee, my
Saviour and my God …
Others include :
Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve
And press
with vigour on …
Hark the
glad sound, the Saviour comes
The Saviour
promised long …
O God of
Bethel, by Whose hand
Thy people
still are fed …
His hymns were usually written to
be sung after his sermon, “given out by the presentor and sung a line at a
time” (Life and Hymns of Doddridge,
by H. Garland, page 30).
Philip
Doddridge died in Lisbon, Portugal, on 26 October, 1751. Among his final words, spoken to Lady
Huntingdon, were: “My tears are tears
of joy. I can give up my country, my
loved ones and friends into the hand of God;
and as to myself, I can as well go to Heaven from Lisbon as from my own
study in Northampton. I am more afraid
of doing wrong than of dying” (ibid, page 53).
Dr William Dodd was a Church of England clergyman
… “one of the most popular and successful preachers of the 18th
century” says his biographer.
The nickname ‘Macaroni Parson’ was
given to him because of his dandyish dress – the kind of attire worn on the
Continent. But even royalty flocked to
hear him preach. He became chaplain to
King George III.
His oratory, like his dress sense,
was flamboyant, and his socialite connections included Thomas Gainsborough (who
painted his portrait), the Countess of Huntingdon, Samuel Johnson and Johann
Sebastian Bach.
He founded charities, wrote
voluminously, edited The Christian’s
Magazine (in which he attacked John Wesley’s ‘perfectionist’ teachings),
penned a commentary on the Bible, and forged a cheque for four thousand pounds
sterling, signing Lord Chesterfield’s name!
Found out … Dodd was tried at Old Bailey, found guilty, and visited in
prison by John Wesley.
Speaking of Dodd’s composure under
sentence of death, Wesley wrote, “Such a prisoner I scarce ever saw before,
much less such a condemned malefactor.”
Augustus Montague Toplady (author
of the hymn Rock of Ages) paid a
visit, as did William Romaine.
Lady Selina, Countess of
Huntingdon, wrote Dodd “a long and almost unreadable letter.”
Samuel Johnson and his friends
gathered 100,000 signatures on a petition to save Dodd’s life, but to no
avail. On 27 June, 1777, William Dodd
was hung at Tyburn – at the age of 49.
This
is the day that … ALLEN
FRANCIS GARDINER
was born in 1794, in Berkshire, England.
After a reckless decade, from age
15 to 25, during which he forsook the Christian heritage his parents had given
him, and during which time he had become an English naval officer, Gardiner was
confronted by the claims of Christ, as an elderly lady – a friend of his
mother’s – wrote to him and quoted John 3:7 -
“Ye must be born again.”
This led to his conversion, and in
the days that followed Captain Allen Gardiner sailed forth to South America to
plant the gospel among the natives of Tierra del Fuego.
There it was that he and his men
died – of starvation – Gardiner being 57 years of age.
As a result of his heroic example,
the South American Missionary Society was born, and still carries on its
evangelical work.
Adijah was 13 years of age, a black boy living inland near the
west coast of Africa, when the slave traders attacked. He never saw his father again, and it would
be 25 years before he was to again meet his mother … and lead her to
Christ. But I’m getting ahead of the
story.
At the age of 14 he was crammed into a Portuguese slave ship, chains around his neck, with 186 others, bound for South America.
But
14 years previously, in 1807, Britain had abolished the slave trade and the
British Navy was out to enforce the law.
The Portuguese trading vessel was captured by a British man-of-war – and
your Adijah was free again. In Liberia
he was cared for in a Church Missionary Society home, and was truly converted.
At his baptism he was given a new name – Samuel
Crowther, the name of a C.M.S. pioneer.
And it was here he met Asano, also a freed slave, whose name was changed
to Susanna, who later became his wife.
Eventually
Samuel Crowther was ordained in the Church of England (1843), and on this day,
in 1864, he was consecrated as bishop of the new African diocese. This red-letter day took place in Canterbury
Cathedral, and among those present was Admiral Leeke of the British Navy, who
had rescued him from the Portuguese slave ship 42 years previously.
Back
in Africa Bishop Crowther reached many inland tribes with the gospel, and there
he found his mother. “Crowther’s mother
was one of the first people in Abeokuta to be baptised a follower of Jesus
Christ. The new name chosen for her by
her son Samuel was Hannah …” (Saints
Without Haloes, by L. Dox, page 95).
This “African St Paul”, as some have called him,
evangelised and translated the Scriptures.
His son, Dandeson Crowther, shared in the ministry. Dr
A.T. Pierson, Spurgeon’s successor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, wrote: “Wherever he went he brought and left a
blessing, and no man perhaps did more than he for the elevation and salvation
of his fellow countrymen” (Great
Missionaries, by C. Creegan, page
140).
In his final years racism reared
its ugly head among the C.M.S. leaders in England. They insisted that the Niger Mission was to be under “white
supervision”. The pressure upon Crowther
led to a “stroke and made him into a sick man”. He was in the midst of the conflict with the C.M.S. committee
when he died on 31 December, 1891.
Of the half-a-dozen books dealing
with Samuel Crowther scattered around me, only one mentions the sadness of his
final years, The Missionaries, by G.
Moorhouse, pages 284-286. Even Jesse
Page in his 190-page biography of Samuel Crowther does not mention it.
This
is the day that … RAMON
LULL was
stoned to death by a Muslim mob in North Africa, in1316.
He was born on the isle of Majorca, off the coast of
Spain, in 1232. In teenage days he
served as a courtier to the king of Aragon, and was educated as a knight. After
a life of ‘utter immorality’ (to quote his own words), at the age of 30 he
experienced a vision of “the Saviour hanging on the cross” and dedicated his
life to God.
The composition of the “vain song”
he was composing was now neglected as he gazed at that figure “in great agony
and sorrow”. He penned a quaint verse:
Pardon I sought at break of day;
contrite and
sad, I went straightway
my sins before the priest to lay.
(Bear in
mind that this was 200 years before the Protestant Reformation).
Ramon Lull felt the call to
missionary service almost immediately.
But it was almost another 30 years before he boarded a ship bound for
North Africa. By this time he had
written a number of books – “the most voluminous author on record” (Man, Myth and Magic, volume 59)! There are volumes on grammar, politics, medicine,
law, Antichrist, geometry, astrology, homiletics, theology – you name it, Ramon
Lull seemed to have written on the subject.
“Two hundred and forty of his books still survive”, although we know he
wrote many, many more (Dictionary of the
Christian Church, page 608).
And he had equipped himself for his
missionary expedition by learning Arabic from a Moorish slave.
“Since Thou, O Lord, art ever ready
to aid … how can any Christian fear to preach our holy faith to the infidels,”
he wrote.
His biographer, E.A. Peers, states
that the conversion of unbelievers “was the ruling passion of his life” (Fool of Love, page 28).
There were three missionary
journeys: the first at about 60 years
of age, when he was imprisoned and then expelled from the country; the second when he was 75, and again he
faced imprisonment and then banishment;
and the third when about 83! He
even commenced writing a new book during the voyage (page 102)! This time he was stoned to death. Marcus Loane, in By Faith we Stand, gives the date as 30 June, 1315 (page 71). However, most books say 1316.
With all
his curious beliefs (the Pope refused to canonise him because it was believed
he practised alchemy), he can claim the title of “first missionary to the
Moslems”. He was utterly devoted to the
service of Christ.