Better
known as Lord Shaftesbury, he has been described as “the outstanding Christian
layman of the 19th century.”
It was he
who led the fight against child labour … five year-olds ankle deep in water
working pumps in rat-infested mines … children forced to climb and clean
chimneys by unscrupulous masters … and the cruelty often inflicted upon small
children who worked 12 or 14 hours a day in the mills.
He was
chairman of the Ragged Schools Union for 39 years … he supported the newly
formed British and Foreign Bible Society … and the Protestant Alliance … and
the Church Missionary Society … and the Young Men’s Christian Association
(which was Christian in those days!)
And more!
On his deathbed
he asked for Psalm 23 to be read to him each morning, and “frequently those
present heard him murmur his favourite prayer, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus’.”
If you
can get hold of a copy of John Pollock’s biography of this great man called Shaftesbury,
the Poor Man’s Earl, read it! Or
Grace Irwin’s The Seventh Earl is equally fascinating. Or, I Stand Alone by Jenny Robertson.
==============================================
This
is the day that … EUGENIA
PRICE was
converted, in 1949.
Born in Charlestown, Vancouver,
Canada, young “Genie” grew up with agnostic views, and followed her father’s
profession by studying in Chicago to be a dentist. Three years later she quit the course and began writing scripts
for radio shows.
In 1949, she was 33 years of age –
and still far from the Kingdom. But
Ellen Riley, a childhood friend and now a Christian, crossed her path again.
“Some people come to God
gently. Not Eugenia Price. She kicked and fought every inch of the
way. But finally, on 2 October, 1949,
in a New York City hotel room, Eugenia Price was born the second time …” (More Than Conquerors, by J. Woodbridge,
page 132).
No longer would she write “murder
stories for children,” and for a while it was tough going. Then the Lord opened doors and Genie found
herself hosting an hour and a half radio program.
By October, 1950, she was scripting
“Unshackled” – stories of transformed lives – that was destined to
become “world famous” (ibid, page 132).
Her pen turned to writing best
sellers – Woman to Woman,
(Zondervan), her own autobiography, The
Burden is Light, and Christian
fiction like Beloved Invader. Thirty-five books bear Eugenia Price’s name,
and more than 15 million copies have been sold.
“I am a believer in Jesus Christ,”
she says. “Since I would be bored to
write a book which did not include Him, I attempt sincerely to show His Divine
intervention and involvement with all human life.”
This
is the day that … WENDELL
P. LOVELESS
died in Honolulu, in 1987.
“I was born in Wheaton,” he had
told an interviewer the year before he died, “which is the Protestant Vatican!”
After his father’s death, when
Wendell was still an infant, the rest of the family lived with the godly
grandparents. They attended Wheaton
College Church, and “before I was saved,” Wendell tells, “I was leading the
choir.”
He studied singing, piano and drama
– God was preparing him for future service.
During World War I he was a
marine. He was married in 1920 (“neither
of us knew the Lord,” he said) - and was chaplain of a Masonic Lodge.
But, watching his eldest child
playing, he says: “The thought came to
me with terrific force – I’ve got to set a better example to my son!”
Wendell Loveless began to read the
Bible – and “when I came to Romans, I was saved!”
Seeing the incompatibility between
Masonic teaching and Christianity, he resigned from the Lodge.
James Gray, the president of Moody
Bible Institute, invited him to join the staff in a management role.
Then WMBI, Moody’s radio station,
commenced – and Wendell Loveless was first manager … “along with a secretary –
that was the radio department!” Today
WMBI has over 160 full-time workers.
In 1928 he wrote his first chorus …
Every day with Jesus
is sweeter than the day before….
Others flowed from his pen – Altogether lovely …, You’ll never know real
peace ‘til you know Jesus …, All because of Calvary….
After 20 years with WMBI, Wendell Loveless pastored three churches and lectured at the Moody Bible Institute.
At the age of 90 he suffered a
stroke that slowed him down a little – some days, he told a reporter, he could
only type 25 letters because he could no longer use his right hand.
Living in Honolulu, where his son
Bob was “chaplain of Mid-Pacific Institute”, Wendell P. Loveless went home to
glory at the age of 95.
This
is the day that … CATHERINE
BOOTH died,
in 1890.
Converted at the age of 15 – the
words of a hymn having led her to assurance of salvation – she joined the local
Wesleyan church at Brixton, England.
And when a visitor named William
Booth came to preach, Miss Mumford (her maiden name) was much impressed. Not only with the sermon … but with the
preacher!
They were married in 1855 and she
takes her place as the mother of the Salvation Army.
Some said that her sermons were as
good as her husband’s. Certainly many
were converted under her ministry.
For 30 years she and her husband
waged war on sin and reached out a loving hand to England’s poor and needy.
Eventually she found herself on the
banks of ‘chilly Jordan’. She writes
from her deathbed – to the 20,000 gathered in the Crystal Palace:
“My dear Children and Friends, My place is empty but my heart is with you. You are my joy and my crown. Your battles, sufferings and victories have been the chief interest of my life these 25 years. They are still. Go forward … live holy lives … love and seek the lost; bring them to the blood … I am dying under the Army flag; it is yours to live and fight under. God is my salvation and refuge in the storm. I send you my love and blessing. Catherine Booth.”
On Saturday, 4 October, 1890, the
old General and his family gathered around Catherine’s bed. They prayed. They sang. Such grand old
hymns as:
Calvary’s stream is flowing so free,
Flowing for you and for me.
“Go on,” Catherine said … and they
sang some more –
Jesus, my Saviour, has died on the tree,
Died on the tree for me! Hallelujah!
Eventually, unable to speak,
Catherine Booth pointed to the text hanging upon the wall, which read, “My
Grace is sufficient for thee”. “That”,
writes her biographer, “was her last testimony to God’s faithfulness.”
This
is the day that … THOMAS
GOODWIN was
born in Norfolk, England, in 1600.
Converted at the age of 20, when
God spoke to his heart through a sermon based on Ezekiel 16:6, Thomas Goodwin
went on to become a Church of England clergyman, until he clashed with the
bishop!
He was told not to preach upon
controversial subjects!
And a few years later – in 1633 –
when he met non-conformist leader John Cotton, the die was cast. Thomas Goodwin resigned from the Church of
England and became a Congregationalist.
He pastored a London chapel,
married Elizabeth Prescott, spent a year in ministry in Holland, then back to
London.
During the Civil War he was a
Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell (and later was at Cromwell’s deathbed); he was the non-conformists’ leader at the
Westminster assembly where he spoke 357 times during five and a half years it
was in session. On 15 October, 1644, he
was even called to order for speaking too long!
And he kept minutes of the meetings
– 14 massive volumes.
His published writings cover 12
volumes (Banner of Truth) – for example, there are 36 sermons just on the first
chapter of Ephesians.
During his lectures at Oxford his
students called him “Dr Ninecaps”, possibly because of the “two double skull
caps” he often wore (Puritan Profiles,
by W. Barker, page 75).
Alexander Whyte speaks of him as
“the greatest pulpit master of Pauline exegesis that has ever lived” (Thirteen Appreciations, page 158).
But some fellow Puritans – like
John Owen – criticised Goodwin’s distinctive teachings on assurance.
Thomas Goodwin died on 23 February,
1680, and was buried in Bunhill Fields unconsecrated ground.
This
is the day that … JENNY
LIND was
born, out of wedlock, in Sweden, in 1821.
Billed as “the Swedish
Nightingale”, her singing was praised across the world. Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Berlin, Leipzig,
Vienna, London – the crowds came to hear this diva of the operatic stage (Cavalcade of History, by C. Golding,
page 801).
P.T. Barnum, the American
entrepreneur, signed her up (on 9 January, 1850) to appear in 150 “concerts or
oratorios” for $150,000 (The Fabulous
Showman, by I. Wallace, page 134).
American audiences fell at her
feet. The press spoke of her voice as
“unrivalled” and so, too, was her popularity.
After two years Barnum released her
from her contract – she had given 93 performances and he had made his fortune.
Jenny Lind married Otto
Goldschmidt, her pianist, on 5 February, 1852.
In the years that followed she
rarely sang for personal gain.
Irving Wallace tells of one who
found her sitting on the beach in the late afternoon – “a Bible on her
lap. The friend wondered why she had
abandoned her career at its height.
Jenny replied, ‘When every day it made me think less of this’ – and she indicated her Bible – ‘and nothing of that’ – and she pointed to the setting sun – ‘what else could I
do?’” (page 159).
Jenny Lind died on 2 November,
1887.
P.T. Barnum cabled her
husband. “So dies away the last echo of
the most glorious voice the world has ever heard.”
This
is the day that … HENRY
ALFORD was
born in London, in 1810.
The son of an Anglican rector, it
was not long before Henry Alford showed himself an exceptional child. Before he was 10 years of age he was writing
Latin odes … and a history of the Jews!! (Dictionary
of the Christian Church, page 27).
Higher education took place at
Trinity College, Cambridge – and from thence Alford served as a clergyman in
the Church of England, eventually, in 1857, being appointed Dean of Canterbury.
He became, says his biographer, a
man of many talents – “a poet, a preacher, a musician, a painter, a Bible
scholar, a philologist … he could build an organ and play it!”
Among his many writings was A Dissuasive against Rome – a polemic
against certain High Church tendencies in the Romeward direction in the
Anglican Church.
A. Bailey tells us that Dean Alford
was “a supporter of the Evangelical Alliance, and throughout his life he
maintained cordial relations with non-conformists” (Gospel in Hymns, page 390).
But it is his Greek New
Testament that is regarded as his magnum opus. This great work, which appeared between 1849-1861, “took its
place as the standard critical commentary of the later nineteenth century” (Handbook to Church Hymnary, page
251). The word ‘critical’ should not be
misunderstood in that sentence. Whilst
Dean Alford analysed the current theories and textual problems, he held to an
evangelical position.
In the foreword to his New Testament for English Readers, (2
volumes, published 1863), he insists on belief in plenary inspiration – “I hold
it to the utmost … the inspiration of the sacred writers I believe to have
consisted in the fullness of the influence of the Holy Spirit specially raising
them to, and enabling them for, their work, in a manner which distinguishes
them from all other writers in the world, and their work from all other works
…” (Volume 1, page 27).
Among his well-known hymns still sung today, are “Come, ye thankful people, come” and “Forward be our watchword”.
Dean Alford died in 1871.
This is
the day that … FELIX NEFF was born in Geneva, Switzerland,
in 1798.
Salvation came into his life
through the reading of Honey from the
Rock by Thomas Willcock, and at the age of 24 he was ready to commence his
remarkable ministry in the French Alps.
From village to village he
travelled – “in dead of winter through drifts, the thunder of avalanches alone
awakening the alpine stillness. In four
years he did not sleep five nights successively in the same place. His stomach was destroyed by poor food and
the irregularity of meal times. He was
always alone …” (A Book of Protestant
Saints, by E. Gordon, page 201).
But he persevered. He saw a “marked improvement in the moral
life of the people” as they responded to his Christian teaching. He introduced irrigation, taught better
methods of potato culture, worked alongside the men of the village, helped
build school houses – and even founded a teachers’ training college.
He became known as “the Apostle of
the High Alps”.
And on his deathbed he wrote his final
letter: “I ascend to our Father in
entire peace. Victory! Victory!
Through Jesus Christ.”
Felix Neff died at the age of 31.
This
is the day that … BENJAMIN
KEACH was
arrested for publishing a children’s book!
It was 1664, in Aylesbury,
England. Keach was a 24 year-old
non-conformist – that is, he refused to conform to the teachings of the state
church. He was a Baptist.
In those days religious toleration
was at a low ebb – non-existent might be a better word.
Two years earlier 2000 ministers
were ejected from their living because of their refusal – among other things –
to submit to bishops and use the Prayer Book.
Parliament had passed a law (the
Act of Uniformity) designed to bring all Christians under the banner of Anglicanism.
Benjamin Keach was actually
preaching when the soldiers arrived … “violently laid hold of him, tied him and
threw him to the ground. Then they
declared their intention of killing him by riding their horses over him. As the men spurred their horses forward, an
officer appeared and at the last moment saved the preacher from a horrible
death” (B. Keach, by R. Dix, page
11).
He was charged with printing “a
seditious and venomous book” entitled The
Child’s Instructor – a book that taught doctrines contrary to the Book of
Common Prayer.
Especially noted were his views on
the baptism of believers (rather than infants), and that “it is the gift of God
that makes a minister of the gospel and not learning from universities or human
schools.”
Keach was sentenced to a fortnight
in prison, two hours in the pillory, fined 20 pounds Sterling (a small fortune in those days) and
his book was publicly burned.
Like thousands of others, Benjamin
Keach suffered – more than once – because of his faith in Jesus Christ and
because he believed a man’s religion is not bound by the state – but by the
Word of God (ibid, page 15).
Sixty books came from his pen, he
introduced hymn-singing into Baptist services, and for many years preached to
large congregations … even up to 1000 people.
By the time of his death in 1704
(at the age of 64) he was one of the best-known Baptists in all England.
This
is the day that … JACOB
ARMINIUS
was born in 1560.
This Dutch theologian served as
pastor of a Reformed congregation in Amsterdam for 15 years.
During that time he began to
question the distinctive teachings of John Calvin, of which Holland was a
stronghold.
Aminius left the pastorate and
became Professor of Theology at Leyden, where his attack on Calvin’s view of
predestination led to violent controversy.
The student body and Reformed pastors became polarised over the issue.
After his death in 1609 his
followers issued a “Remonstrance” – so called because it remonstrated with
Calvin’s teaching. And the Reformed
churches countered with their “Synod of Dort”
condemning Arminians as heretics.
They were stormy days indeed, and
in some circles today the battle still rages.
This
is the day that … GEORGE
WILLIAMS
was born in Somerset, England, in 1821.
His farming days came to an end
when he drove a horse and cart laden with hay into a ditch, overturning the
lot, himself included. Father and
brothers decided young George should move to the city and earn a living there.
“I entered Bridgewater,” wrote
George at a later date, “a careless, thoughtless, godless, swearing young
fellow.” But his employer, Mr Holmes, a
draper, was a Christian. And it was
expected that all his employees attend the non-conformist chapel each Sunday
morning.
Thus it was, at the age of 16, he
was saved. “I cannot describe to you,”
he writes, “the joy and peace that flowed into my soul when I first saw that
the Lord Jesus had died for my sins and that they were all forgiven.”
Concerned with the many young
fellows similarly employed, but with no interest in the things of Christ,
George gathered 10 believers around him in his bedroom – 6 June, 1844 – and
formed an association “for the promotion of the spiritual welfare of young men
engaged in the drapery and other trades.”
The Young Men’s Christian
Association (YMCA) was brought to birth.
In its early days the evangelical witness was foremost.
Sir George Williams (he was
knighted in 1894) never ceased to preach the gospel.
George Williams died at the age of
84 and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.
This
is the day that … LYMAN
BEECHER was
born in Connecticut, in 1775.
He has been described as “the
father of more brains than any other man in America”, a reference to his 13 children. These included the famous preacher, Henry
Ward Beecher, and the author of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe.
As a matter of fact, “all his sons were well known as preachers” (Concise Universal Biography, page 222).
But Rev. Lyman Beecher was a giant
among giants himself.
Ordained to the Presbyterian
ministry in 1797, he pastored three large churches, was well known as a
revivalist, an educator and a social reformer.
He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society and president of
Lane Theological Seminary.
Initially he opposed Charles
Finney’s new revival techniques and theology, but a few years later he admitted
his worth and even invited Finney to hold meetings in Boston. Lyman Beecher found himself in ‘hot water’ with
his Presbyterian brethren who had little time for the famous revivalist. After all, Finney taught “man was able to
repent in response to God’s grace” (Dictionary
of American Biography, page 38).
As a result Beecher was actually
tried for heresy … but acquitted.
An inveterate opponent of Roman
Catholicism and Unitarianism, it is said that one of his fiery sermons
apparently helped incite a mob “that resulted in the burning of a convent”.
Lyman Beecher died on 10 January,
1863, after a long and stormy ministry.
This
is the day that … HENRY
STEPHEN CUTLER
was born in Boston, USA, in 1824.
He became famous as an organist,
then as choir conductor, at Boston’s Church of the Advent. It was here he introduced the first
surpliced male choir in America, and was criticised for it! “Some people considered using robes in a
church service to be overly formal!” (Treasury
of Great Hymns, by G. Johnson, page 278).
Not to be discouraged, Cutler was
appointed organist/choir master at New York City’s Episcopal Trinity
Church. And this time, in honour of a
visit by the Prince of Wales, he had his choir clothed in “cassocks and cottas”
(a short white linen or lace garment worn over a cassock).
Again it caused a stir … and is
thought to have been the cause of the church members “voting him out” at the
next meeting, although a different reason was given!
Henry Cutler wrote the melody “All Saints New”, to which Reginald
Heber’s words, “The Son of God goes forth
to war”, is set in some hymnals.
Henry Cutler died on 5 December,
1902.
Despite
a Christian upbringing, it was not until the age of 17, when he heard Daniel
Rowlands expounding Hebrews 4:15, that “he was conscious of a real conversion
of heart”. It was 20 January, 1773.
Ordained
as a Church of England curate (21 May, 1780), he soon fell foul of his
parishioners for “giving free instruction to children after Vespers. His rector considered this to be such a
shocking innovation that he was at once dismissed” (Sweet Singers of Wales, by H. Lewis, page 55). It is probably true to say that his
evangelical preaching had something to do with the dismissal also!
He
joined the Calvinistic Methodist and commenced ministering in the town of
Bala. From henceforth he would be known
as “Charles of Bala”.
He
travelled extensively around Wales, giving birth to the first Sunday-Schools
Wales had ever known.
In
1804 he was visited by a 15 year-old lass who had walked 27 miles to obtain a
Bible from him. It was Mary Jones,
and from her devotion to possess a copy of God’s Word came the founding of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, spearheaded by the Rev. Thomas Charles.
During
one of his itinerant preaching tours he nearly lost his life in the intense
cold. Frostbitten and racked with fever
his life was in imminent danger. One
old Christian – thinking apparently of Hezekiah – prayed that 15 years would be
added to Brother Charles’ life (II Kings 20:6).
Remarkably,
it was just 15 years later, on 5 October, 1814, that Thomas Charles said,
“There is refuge,” and passed into his Saviour’s presence.
==============================================
At
the age of 12 he and his family moved to New York State, “by ox sledge”.
Despite
little education and “acute near-sightedness”, and the fact that he was an
albino, he became a genius in the world of church music. “He could read a page of music when placed
upside down!” (Finney, by K. Hardman,
page 252).
Evangelist
Charles Finney employed Thomas Hastings as music director at the Chatham Street
Chapel, New York.
For
40 years Hastings taught music, trained choirs, composed, compiled and
published hymnals, wrote 600 hymns for tunes and 1000 tunes for hymns!
The
tune “Toplady” used for Rock of Ages… comes from his pen, as
does “Ortonville”, to which we
sing: Majestic sweetness sits enthroned...
Among
his best known words are Hail to the
brightness of Zion’s glad morning and Come,
ye disconsolate, in which he improved upon the work of an earlier poet.
One
writer states that Thomas Hastings “did valuable service in his day in stemming
the tide of deteriorating influences in American hymnody and maintaining the
ideal of devoutness in church praise” (Handbook
to the Hymnary, page 363).
One
is tempted to add, “Oh, for another Thomas Hastings!”
He died in Vermont, USA, on 3 January, 1918.
This is the day that … STUART HAMBLEN, at 4 o’clock in the morning, was converted. It was 1949.
Under
conviction of sin, 40 year-old Hamblen, the son of a Texas minister, telephoned
Billy Graham, waking him up: “Pray for
me,” he begged the evangelist.
Billy
Graham was preaching in his “Christ for Greater Los Angeles” crusade, which had
been scheduled to last for three weeks.
It was about to close, and Hamblen’s wife, Suzy, had talked him into
attending.
But
the conversion of Hamblen and two other well-known identities in the Los
Angeles area led to an extension of the crusade for another five weeks (Billy Graham, by John Pollock, page
80). Three thousand chairs were added
to accommodate the crowds; 6000 people
had already been attending the “canvas cathedral” each night.
Stuart
Hamblen had already achieved fame as a rodeo champion, a country/western singer
and songwriter, a dance- band leader, a gambler, and a heavy drinker. His 1934 Decca recording, Out on the Texas Plains, was one of the
year’s top selling discs.
But
when he was converted, he told his radio audience: “I’ve quit smoking and drinking”. And he was going to sell all his racehorses, except one, “which
would never race again”.
Shortly
afterwards “he bumped into his friend, movie star John Wayne. ‘What’s this I hear about you, Stuart?’ Wayne asked. ‘Well, John,’ came the answer, ‘I guess it’s no secret what God
can do!’ ‘Sounds like a song,’ the tall
movie star replied, and that remark started the musical notes ringing in
Stuart’s mind …” (New Life in Country
Music, page 64). As a result Stuart Hamblen wrote …
It
is no secret what God can do;
What
He’s done for others He can do for you…
Recorded by George Beverly Shea in
1951, this song soon became a firm favourite for thousands of Christians. He also penned This ole house, Open up your heart and let the Sun (Son) shine in, This
Book, Known only to Him, and many other popular gospel songs, some of which
even found their way on to the secular hit parades.
By 1952 he was a candidate for the office of President of
the United States – on a prohibition ticket!
Suffice to say, he was not elected!
This is the day … SIR JOHN BOWRING was born in 1792.
His early ambition was to become a
Unitarian minister. It was not to be …
“but he lived to become the most faithful and most honoured among Unitarian
laymen” (Memorable Unitarians, page 290).
This particular ‘church’ denies the
deity of the Lord Jesus … His atoning sacrifice … His bodily resurrection … His
miracles.
Sir John was also one of the
world’s – if not the world’s – greatest linguists of his day. And he was appointed Governor of Hong Kong
in 1854.
“His high-handed policy and his
insolence in dealing with the Chinese people brought on the second Opium
War” (The Gospel in Hymns, by
Bailey, page 172).
Attempts were made upon his life
and the arsenic placed in his bread resulted in his wife’s death. “He was the most-hated governor Hong Kong
ever had.”
But his hymn is found in most hymn
books :
In the cross of Christ I glory,
towering o’er the wrecks of time …
An apocryphal story tells of his
visiting Macao and, seeing the cross still standing in a ruined church, he was
inspired to pen his famous hymn.
But Bowring wrote the hymn in 1825
– and did not visit Macao for another 32 years.
Nor was it written from an
evangelical viewpoint.
He died on 23 November, 1872.
==============================================
This
is the day that … MATTHEW
HENRY was
born in Shropshire, England, in 1662.
His father, Philip, had been
ejected from his church for refusing to ‘bow the knee’ to the king’s
demands. His non-conformist views would
not allow him to recognise the king as “Head of the Church” nor be compelled to
use the Prayer Book. Submitting to
ordination by a bishop was also anathema to him.
So young Matthew grew up in a godly
home where Christian principles were adhered to – regardless of the
consequences.
In later years he entered the
Presbyterian ministry himself, being ordained on 9 May, 1687.
His first wife died in childbirth,
in 1689. The following year he wed Mary
Warburton – and all three children born to them died in infancy.
For 25 years he ministered at
Chester, and then at a dissenting church in London. But ill health plagued him.
In June, 1714, he was thrown from
his horse and taken to the house of a nearby parson, where he died the
following morning, 22 June, 1714, aged 52.
His memory lives on in his
monumental Commentary. George
Whitefield, we are told, read it through four times … on his knees!
Spurgeon speaks of Matthew Henry’s
Commentary as “first among the mighty” – and recommends that every minister of
the gospel should read it through “once at least”.
One does not have to agree with
everything this great Puritan said to be blessed indeed by his Scriptural
reflections.
This
is the day that … LOUIS
THOMPSON TALBOT
was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1889.
His father, an assistant manager
for Tooth’s Brewery, had married Bessie on the very day she had arrived from
England. It was in the early 1900s that
Louis’ older brother, Jim, had been converted at a gospel meeting in Redfern,
New South Wales. The preacher was Loyal
L. Wirt, who had served as a missionary in Alaska, and was the father of
Sherwood E. Wirt, who later became editor of Billy Graham’s Decision magazine.
Jim felt the call to Moody Bible
Institute, Chicago, and the clash with his liquor-selling father was awful.
But Louis was also converted when
Wilbur Chapman preached in Sydney Town Hall in 1909, and the following year he
also set sail for Moody Bible Institute.
In the years that followed, Louis
Talbot became a well-known name in the evangelical world. Billy Graham wrote in the Foreword to
Talbot’s biography, “Dr Louis Talbot was one of the spiritual giants of this
generation. As pastor, Bible teacher,
author and educator he influenced not only me but thousands of theological
students and pastors. His faithfulness
to the infallibility of the Scriptures and the gospel has been an inspiration
to me for many years” (For This I Was
Born, by C. Talbot).
After many years as president of
the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Louis Talbot died on 22 January, 1976.
This
is the day that … HARATIO
GATES SPAFFORD
was born in New York State, in 1828.
He was to become a well known
Christian businessman in Chicago;
professor of medical jurisprudence at Chicago Medical College; director of a Presbyterian theological
seminary, and active in the YMCA He was
a close friend of Moody and Sankey.
But on 22 November, 1873, the ss
“Lochearn,” an English vessel, collided with another ship and sank within 12
minutes. Aboard were Mrs Spafford and
her four daughters. Mr Spafford, having
remained in Chicago for business reasons, was planning to join them in England
a few weeks later. The daughters were
drowned, Mrs Spafford was rescued, and on reaching Cardiff, Wales, cabled her
husband with the two words, “Saved alone”.
It was two years later that Horatio
Spafford wrote one of our great gospel songs:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea billows, roll –
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me
to say:
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
The daughters had all been converted in Moody-Sankey meetings shortly before their deaths.
Ira Sankey, who incorporated this
gospel song into his Sacred Songs and
Solos, writes: “In 1876, when we
(Moody and Sankey) returned to Chicago, I was entertained in the home of Mr and
Mrs Spafford for a number of weeks.
During that time Mr Spafford wrote the hymn It is well with my soul, in commemoration of the deaths of his
children. P.P. Bliss composed the music
and sang it for the first time at Farwell Hall” (My Life …, by I. Sankey, page 191).
There is a strange twist to this
story. In later years Mr Spafford
“experienced a mental disturbance which prompted him to go to Jerusalem under
the strange delusion that he was the second Messiah” (Singing with Understanding, by K. Osbeck). There he died in 1888, at the age of 60.
His father was a vicar in the
village church. In secular circles he
is remembered as being “in the first rank of English poets”. He wrote such famous works as The Ancient
Mariner and Kubla Khan.
His early life was scarred by a
broken marriage, addiction to opium, and Unitarian theology. But the last 20 years of his life saw him back
in the Anglican fold … as a ‘practicing Churchman’.
He wrote Confessions of an
Enquiring Spirit, dealing primarily with the authority of Scripture. “For more than 1000 years,” Coleridge wrote,
“the Bible has gone hand in hand with civilization, science, law … in short,
with the moral and intellectual cultivation of the species, always supporting
and often leading the way” (quoted in Our Roving Bible, page 142).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge died at
Highgate, London, on 23 July, 1834.
==============================================
This
is the day that …Revival
came to Dohnavur. It was 1905.
For ten years Amy Carmichael had
served her Lord as a missionary in India … the last five of those years
rescuing young girls from a life of misery and shame.
Let us read of the blessing that
fell – in her own words:
“On 22 October, to quote one of the
little girls, Jesus came to Dohnavur.
He was there before, but on that day He came in so vivid a fashion that
we cannot wonder that it struck the child as a new coming.
“It was at the close of the morning
service that the break came. The one
who was speaking was obliged to stop, overwhelmed by a sudden realization of
the inner force of things. It was
impossible even to pray. One of the
older lads in the boys’ school began to try to pray, but he broke down, then
another, then all together, the older lads chiefly at first.
“Soon many among the younger ones
began to cry bitterly, and pray for forgiveness. It spread to the women.
Our children began, I think, simultaneously with the boys, but it was so
startling and so awful, I can use no other word, that the details escape
me. Soon the whole upper half of the
church was on its face on the floor crying to God, each boy and girl, man and
woman, oblivious of all others. The
sound was like the sound of waves or strong wind in the trees. No separate voice could be heard … nothing
disturbed those who were praying, and that hurricane of prayer continued with
one short break of a few minutes for over four hours. They passed like four minutes.”
(From Amy Carmichael, by Bishop F. Houghton).
This
is the day that … HENRIETTA
CORNELLA MEARS
was born in North Dakota, USA, in 1890.
“Praise God,” said her father, “it’s a girl! I couldn’t face rearing another son.”
Her biographers, E. Baldwin and D.
Benson, in Henrietta Mears, and How She
Did It, tell the remarkable story of this lass – “ready to become a
Christian and join the church” at the age of five! (page 33), of miraculous
healing when she accidentally jabbed a hat pin into the pupil of her eye (page
35), of her incredible personal work - leading thousands of men and women to
the Saviour (page 39).
Her education at the University of
Minnesota was threatened when the doctor warned her of blindness “unless you
discontinue reading and studying”. But
she persevered – reading by daylight – and graduated with excellent grades.
As a Sunday-School teacher in W.B.
Riley’s First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, she saw her class grow “from 5 to
500” (Dictionary of Christianity in
America, page 722).
In 1928 she took over as director
of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, with its 6000
members, and the entire Sunday-School grew from 450 to 4000 in less than three
years!
Her book, What the Bible Teaches, is an excellent survey of Holy
Scripture. “God’s Word must be our only
infallible guide,” she wrote. “To
reject His Word is to be rejected” (page 55).
In 1933 she co-founded Gospel Light
Publications, a source of reliable Christian literature.
On the evening of 19 March, 1963,
Miss Mears retired to her room and not only fell asleep … but fell “asleep in
Jesus” … “and 2000 people – hundreds of whom she had personally led to Christ –
filed silently into the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood to honour her
memory” (Women to Remember, by N.
Olson, page 121).
Writes Billy Graham concerning this
remarkable lady: “She had a remarkable
influence on my life. In fact, I doubt
if any other woman outside of my wife and mother has had such a marked
influence … She is certainly one of the greatest Christians I have ever known!”
This
is the day that … CHARLES
McCALLON ALEXANDER
was born in a log house near Cloyd’s Creek, Tennessee, USA, in 1867.
His father, John Darius Alexander,
played the ‘fiddle’ and led the singing at the local Presbyterian Church.
At the age of 13 young Charles
“rose and walked timidly to the front (of the church) and made his first public
confession of Christ” (C.M. Alexander,
by his wife, Helen, page 21).
After studying at Moody Bible
Institute, he found himself on a worldwide tour with Dr T.A. Torrey. It was Alexander who led the massed choirs (“The Glory Song” became a firm
favourite!) – and compiled the hymnbook that bears his name.
In Birmingham he married Helen
Cadbury (her family having revolutionised the chocolate industry), and later
travelled the world again, leading choirs for J. Wilbur Chapman.
C.M. Alexander died in Birmingham,
England, on 13 October, 1920, at the age of 53.
==============================================
This is the day that … JOHN
and BETTY STAM married, in 1933.
This
young couple had met during their years at Moody Bible Institute. Both had felt a call to China.
Betty
had graduated a year earlier than John and sailed for that distant land in the
autumn of 1931. A year later John
completed his studies and also joined the China Inland Mission.
And
so they met up again … and were united in marriage just over a year later.
Baby
Priscilla was born the following September.
But
their joys were short lived. Communist
rebels attacked the mission station less than three months later. A ransom of $20,000 was demanded – to no
avail.
On 6
(or 8?) December, 1934, they were beheaded.
All that remained of this heroic couple was laid to rest by faithful
Chinese believers, who also cared for baby Priscilla.
This is the day that … CHRISTIAN
FRIEDRICH SWARTZ was born in Germany, in
1726.
He
has been described as “one of the most energetic and successful missionaries of
the 18th century (Schaff/Herzog
Encyclopaedia, page 2131).
His
youth was spent at Halle, the centre of German pietism. Founded by Jacob Spener, this was a movement
that sought to add spiritual life to a moribund Lutheranism. Young Swartz here studied the Indian
dialect, Tamil, that he might superintend the translation of a Bible in that
tongue.
But
in 1750 he sailed for that distant land, where he lived for the next 48 years,
and he died there.
“His
passion to save men made all labour and sacrifice seem little. He studied the habits, modes of thought and
idioms of speech, and even the mazes of mythology, which are the paths to the
hearts of the Hindus” (New Acts of the
Apostles, by A.T. Pierson, page 91).
His
main field of service was Tanjore – but his influence spread far wider.
He
never married; indeed he was critical
of fellow missionaries who did! (Christian
Missionaries, by O. Milton, page 33.)
Rajahs, governors-general, haughty Brahmins, English military officers,
all seemed to look upon him as a man of God.
It
was Wednesday, 13 February, 1798, that he lay upon his deathbed and, “with
clear and melodious voice”, he joined with the friends gathered around him,
singing, “Only to Thee, Lord Jesus
Christ”.
The
Rajah’s son, Serfojee, acted as chief mourner a few days later.
It
was this historic battle, won by Constantine and his armies, which led to the
Christianisation of the Roman Empire.
Bear
in mind that one uses the word ‘Christianisation’ in its broadest term. Constantine, now Emperor, claimed to be a
Christian, and the changes that followed were momentous.
Persecution
ceased. By March, AD 313, an edict was
published granting religious liberty to all.
The Lord’s Day was set aside as a day of rest and worship. Favours were granted to the clergy. Churches were built.
Miller,
in his Church History, records that in one year, in Rome,
12,000 men and women
were baptised … “and a white garment, with 20 pieces of gold, was promised by
the Emperor to every new convert of the poorer classes…” (page 194).
Some
‘state churches’ regard these days as a triumph in the history of the Christian
faith; others, of ‘free church’ persuasion, are more likely to regard it as
“almost as calamitous as the fall of Adam and Eve.”
==============================================
History refers to it as the ‘Downgrade Controversy’,
a sorry spectacle of modern theology creeping into the denomination he loved.
He wrote in The Sword and the Trowel his
reason for his withdrawal:
Believers in Christ’s atonement are now in declared union with those who
make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who
deny plenary inspiration; those who
hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the fall (of
Adam) a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call
justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after
death … yes, we have before us the wretched spectacle of professedly orthodox
Christians publicly avowing their union with those who deny the faith…”
==============================================
This
is the day that … BISHOP
JAMES HANNINGTON
was martyred. It was 1885; the place was Uganda, Africa.
He had already been ordained to the
Anglican clergy when he read Grace and
Truth. And it was this, he tells
us, that caused him to “spring out of bed and leap about the room rejoicing
that Jesus died for me!” (Crusaders for
Christ, by A. Borland, page 46).
In 1882 he set out for the mission
field, Africa, and was later captured by hostile natives, on 21 October,
1885. “He was cruelly treated, bound
and starved, shut up in a native hut without ventilation, and almost
suffocated. Fever laid hold on him.”
Eight days later “a gunshot was
heard and Bishop Hannington fell, his body speared by the two natives who stood
at his side …” (page 63). He was 38
years of age.
This
is the day that … HIRAM
BINGHAM was
born in Vermont, USA, in 1789.
He was 20 years of age when
Obookiah, a young Hawaiian lad, was found weeping on the steps of Yale
College. He had arrived in America on a
trading vessel. Led to Christ by a young
Christian student, Edwin Dwight, it was hoped that Obookiah would return to his
own people with the gospel. But in 1818
the young Hawaiian sickened and died.
It was this tragedy that led the
American Board of Missions to call for volunteers for the Sandwich Islands, as
they were then called.
By 23 October, 1819, the ss
“Thaddeus” set sail with seven missionary couples. Leader was Hiram Bingham, with his wife, Sybil, whom he had only
met for the first time a month previously and married two weeks later! (From
Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, by Ruth Tucker, page 204).
Five months later they arrived at
Honolulu, where some of the missionary party were shocked by the sight of the
naked savages. “Gushing with tears,”
wrote Bingham, “they turned away from the spectacle.”
A new king had recently come to
power and put an end to human sacrifice.
Nevertheless “polygamy, fornication, adultery, incest, infant murder,
desertion of husbands and wives, sorcery …” were still prevalent (Company of Heaven, by G. Kent, page 58).
The presence of a doctor among the
Americans, however, opened the way to receiving the king’s favour.
Contrary to James Michener’s
anti-Christian novel, Hawaii, the
missionaries were soon welcomed by the islanders. Opposition came, however, from white traders whose visits to
Hawaii had resulted in widespread immorality.
Bingham invented a 12-letter
alphabet and translated much of the Scriptures into the native language.
In 1835 a missionary named Titus
Coan toured the Hawaiian islands. “He
crossed 63 ravines”, and saw
thousands confess Christ.
By the time Hiram Bingham returned
to America, due to his wife’s ill-health, in 1840, the church numbered
20,000. He died in Connecticut, USA, on
11 November, 1869.
His son, Hiram Bingham Jnr.
(1831-1908), carried on the work in the Gilbert Isles of the South Seas,
translating the Scriptures into their language.
This
is the day that … MARTIN
LUTHER nailed
up his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenburg in 1517, and, let it be said,
nailed his colours to the mast at the same time!!
Every one of those 95 arguments –
for that’s what they were – was aimed against the infamous doctrine of
“indulgences”, and he even expected Papal support for his crusade against this
unholy traffic (Documents of the
Christian Church, page 260).
Instead of which the wrath of Rome descended upon him.
Reformation Day - “The most momentous day, as yet,
in the history of Europe” is how Basil Atkinson describes it (Valiant in Fight, page 128).
Pope Leo X had sent Johann Tetzel
to Germany to raise money for the rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica in
Rome. To do that, Tetzel marched
through the streets with his entourage – a drummer calling the people to come
and hear this amazing ditty:
Once the coin in the coffer rings
A soul from purgatory heavenward
springs.
Official indulgence certificates were sold – authorised by the Pope himself – declaring that the purchaser could go immediately to Heaven at death, bypassing purgatory on the way. Or an indulgence could be bought for a departed loved one, thus delivering them from purgatorial fires.
Luther’s protest included such
sallies as the following:
No.
21: “Those preachers of indulgences are
in error who allege that through the indulgence of the Pope, a man is freed from
every penalty.”
No.
27: “Those who assert that a soul
straightway flies out (of purgatory) as a coin tinkles in the collection box
are preaching an invention of man.”
No.
37: “Any true Christian living or dead
partakes of all the benefits of Christ and the Church, which is the gift of
God, even without letters of pardon.”
No.
52: “Confidence in salvation through
letters of indulgence is vain … even if the Pope himself should pledge his soul
as a guarantee.”
No.
66: “The treasures of indulgences are
nets, with which they now fish for the riches of men.”
No.
86: “The Pope’s riches at this day far
exceed the wealth of the richest millionaires, cannot he therefore build one
single basilica of St Peter out of his own money, rather than out of the money
of the faithful poor?”
And so the die was cast. The Church of Rome took action. Luther remained adamant. The Protestant Reformation was under way.
And many a Protestant church (though alas, not as many as should) will give thanks to God this day for the brave stand taken by Martin Luther.
The Roman Church still teaches the
value of indulgences to enable one to bypass the torments of purgatory, though
not, let it be confessed, as blatantly as Tetzel propagated the doctrine.