Monthly Archives: December 2008

Dr John Byrom Wrote his Christmas Poem

Posted on by
Reply

John Byrom was born at Kersal Cell, near Manchester, UK on February 29, 1692. He was born the younger son of a prosperous merchant.

Enjoying the benefits of a prosperous family he pursued education at Trinity College, Cambridge and became a fellow in 1714.

He also took to poetry while still a student, penning “Colin to Phoebe”, based on the family of Dr Richard Bentley, the despotic master at Trinity College. It was published in the Spectator.

He then travelled abroad, supposedly to study medicine at University of Montpellier in France, but possibly due to political pressures, since he supported a Jacobite Pretender to the throne, as revealed in his epigram on King and Pretender. He did not graduate and never practiced medicine.

Following his return to London and his marriage to his cousin in 1721, he taught a system of shorthand, which he called “tychygraphy”, to provide his living. He had developed the system while at Cambridge. John Wesley and Charles Wesley both used Byrom’s shorthand in their personal diaries.

In 1740 his elder brother died and he inherited his father’s estate.

His poems were published ten years after his death and he is accounted among England’s poets. His shorthand invention was also published after his death as The Universal English Shorthand in 1767. It was not ultimately successful as it proved to be too clumsy for professional use.

Dr John Byrom was one of the tallest men in England, and, adds his biographer, “one of the queerest looking!” (The Gospel in Hymns, by A. Bailey, page 112). He also possessed a light-hearted and good-natured character which is apparent in his journals.

Although an Anglican, he was friendly toward the Methodist cause then arising. He is regarded by some biographers as a student of religious mysticism, taking interest in writers like Jacob Boehme and Malebranche

Dr John Byrom wrote a Christmas Poem on the morning of December 25, 1749, for his daughter.

It was Christmas morning, 1749, when little Dolly Byrom tripped down the stairs of her home in a state of excitement and anticipation. For a few days earlier her father had promised to write her a poem “as a Christmas present”.

That Christmas poem is counted as his most famous work.

Christians, awake! Salute the happy morn
where-on the Saviour of mankind was born;
Rise to adore the mystery of love
which hosts of angels chanted from above;
With them the joyful tidings first begun,
God incarnate and the Virgin’s Son.

This work survives as “A Hymn For Christmas Day”.

John Byrom died on September 26, 1763

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Dr Albert Barnes Writes a Grand Commentary

Posted on by
Reply

Dr Albert Barnes died on December 24, 1870, in West Philadelphia, USA, at the age of 72.

Barnes was born at Rome, New York, on December 1, 1798 and graduated from Hamilton College, New York, in 1820, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1823.

His ordination as a Presbyterian minister came in 1825, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey and he held Presbyterian pastorates at Morristown, New Jersey from 1825 to 1830, and then the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia for 37 years until 1867, when he resigned and was made pastor emeritus.

When he preached in his Philadelphia church that Christ had died for all men – and not simply the ‘elect’ – the charge of heresy had been brought against him.

In 1835 he was brought to trial for heresy by the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, and was acquitted, but his accusers succeeded in having him suspended from the ministry,

“For one year he was made to sit in silence in a pew in his own church and hear others preach!” (500 Sermons, by T. de Witt Talmage, Volume 4, page 292).

He was again acquitted of heresy in 1836. The charges of heresy primarily related to his comments on Romans and the fact that Barnes broke from strict Calvinism and taught that man had free will to accept or deny the Gospel. He encouraged people to exercise their power of choice, and to respond to God’s offer of salvation

The trial stirred up much bitterness. Barnes’ view was shared by other Presbyterians, identified as the New School branch, of which Barnes was a leader. In 1837 the Presbyterian church split between the conservatives and progressives. Barnes went with the progressive New School.

While being a gifted preacher he is remembered for his expository works which are said to have wider use than any others of their class.

The Schaff/Herzog Encyclopaedia tells us that Dr Barnes was “a truth-loving, earnest, conscientious man of God” (page 215).

Barnes’ New Testament Notes had sold a million copies by 1870.

His Commentary on the Bible has been reprinted and is still as valuable as ever for its profound scholarship. Spurgeon, while not giving unqualified approval, does say, “no minister can afford to be without it…” (Commenting on the Commentaries, page 14).

A current sales description for the Commentary says, Barnes “summarised the views of all the key expositors up to his time. He excelled in easy-to-follow, note-style commentary writing, and some of his treatments of controversial passages are unsurpassed in the way opposing views are contrasted and resolved. Some parts of his work, notably his notes on Job, Psalms, Isaiah and Daniel, stand high among the best commentaries on these books. Always full of information.”

He was an advocate of total abstinence from alcohol, was a staunch proponent of the abolition of slavery, and worked actively to promote Sunday-school. The reason Barnes’ writings are so reader friendly is that they were primarily written with Sunday School teachers in mind.

Albert Barnes nurtured some unusual ideas. It is reported that he would not fish with bait on a hook since he considered it to be a form of deception.

In an address given when he was 70, “Life at Threescore and Ten”, he said he wanted to die quickly, not with a lingering disease. Two years later his wish was granted when he died suddenly while visiting a friend.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Logophile on Jurisdiction

Posted on by
Reply

My recent post on the topic of The Right To Speak discussed the word ‘jurisdiction’. I want to explore that word a little more today, making a Logophile posting on this significant term. I pointed out there that the expression “the right to speak” means the same as the word “jurisdiction”.

Morphology of Jurisdiction

I pointed out in my posting on the Right to Speak that “jurisdiction” is the convergence of two powerful thoughts. Juris – comes from the Latin word ‘ius’, which means ‘law’. So we have the juris concept of law in such words as “jurisprudence” and “jury”.

Diction – means “to speak”. It refers to speech, words and commands.

Jurisdiction, then, refers to words that have legal authority. In practice that involves “The authority to apply the law.” But note that the authority is linked to the concepts of words and speech in the morphology of the word jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction means “the right to speak”, “speaking words of authority”, “speaking with legal privilege”, and “making law through the spoken word”.

Decrees and Dictums

Since speech is a key component of rule over a jurisdiction it is only reasonable to expect that many legal and authoritative terms refer to some form of speech or other. So consider the following examples of words relevant to authoritative enactments which refer to something spoken.

A Dictate is a directive or a command which authoritatively prescribes something, issues orders or gives commands.

A Dictator is someone who asserts their authority over others in a unilateral fashion, as an absolute ruler.

A Dictum is an authoritative pronouncement.

An Edict is a decree or proclamation issued by an authority and having the force of law. An edict is also a formal pronouncement or command.

A Pronouncement is something that is ‘pronounced’, ie: spoken.

A Declaration is something spoken out.

A Proclamation is also something that is spoken out.

While a Decree is a judgement it is synonymous in usage with the idea of a spoken announcement. Note that sense of a spoken announcement in the Law Encyclopaedia definition of “decree”: “A judgment of a court that announces the legal consequences of the facts found in a case and orders that the court’s decision be carried out.”

It Is Written

Spoken words end up written down and the written pronouncements of an authority are also important components of their jurisdictional rule. Diction can be in text form.

Therefore we have a range of authoritative terms referring to the written pronouncement. These written documents represent the dictates of the ruler.

A Papal Bull is a written document sealed with the Pope’s seal and expressed in a legal format that authenticates its significance.

An Encyclical was originally a pastoral letter from a bishop of the church, but now refers to a solemn papal letter.

Formal Notice is a legal form of advice from one authority to another within a prescribed format and carrying legal significance.

The word Prescribe has the word ‘scribe’ built into it, referring to the written nature of the legal document.

Every Idle Word

In the context of Jurisdiction every idle word has significance. That is why we are warned that we will have to give account for every word that we speak, even those that are said in jest or thoughtlessly.

“But I say to you, That every idle word that men speak, they will give account for in the day of judgment.” Matthew 12:36

Thus the Bible warns us that we must mean what we say. Our Yes must mean ‘Yes’ and our No must mean ‘No’.

“But above all things, my brethren, do not swear, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest you fall into condemnation.” James 5:12

Your Jurisdiction

While you may not rule an empire you do have rule over your own life and soul. Your words have the power of life and death over your own self. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, because the tongue dictates what you, as the authority over your life, decree.

There is law in your mouth. Your words determine legal outcomes for your personal existence. Be very careful of the ‘diction’ in your jurisdiction over your own life.

Jean Francois Campollion Cracks the Code for Hieroglyphics

Posted on by
1

Jean Francois Campollion was born in France, on December 23, 1790.

In his early life he took a special interest in Hebrew, Arabic and Coptic. When he was nine years-old a discovery took place by some of Napoleon’s soldiers at the mouth of the western arm of the Nile; a large slab of black granite (3’9″ high, 2’4½” wide and 11″ thick), covered with strange writing.

Three different languages were recorded on this Rosetta Stone, as it was later called. There was the hieroglyphic picture script of ancient Egypt, a later form of Egyptian writing known as Demotic script, and the third was Greek. At an age when ancient Egyptian was still untranslatable, this was a major breakthrough. The Rosetta Stone dates from 196 BC.

At the time of the stone’s creation there were three languages in use. The inheritors of Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt, the Ptolemies, still ruled Egypt, and they used the Greek language. The common citizens used a Demotic script, which was a development of earlier hieroglyphic script. Then there was the original hieroglyphics which were used by the priests and rulers. The stone spoke of the honours of the current Pharaoh, which scholars knew because they could read the Greek text. But they could not work out how to cross-reference the three languages to unlock the keys to hieroglyphics.

Learning of the Rosetta Stone as a schoolboy, Campollion determined that he would translate it. He became a linguistics scholar and received his Doctor of Letters at age 19; a very impressive achievement at that time.

Champollion, with his knowledge of Greek and Coptic and the fact that the same decree had been recorded in three languages, was able to crack the key in 1822. He had tremendous powers of concentration and an excellent memory, able to work for days without sleep. He was prompted to the key by a suggestion that foreign names in the hieroglyphs must have a phonetic component. Since the Ptolemies were mentioned in the stone this proved helpful.

Despite the enormous significance of his discovery it took several years for others to confirm and accept his breakthrough. He was, after all, an amateur Egyptologist, and those who considered themselves the experts were not quick to concede his achievement.

In his research he visited Egypt several times, along with a student named Ippolito Rosellini, who in turn became a noted Egyptologist.

Shortly after the accolades and acknowledgements began to come, including the First Chair of Egyptian Antiquities conferred on him and membership of the French Academy, he died, suffering a stroke.

Meanwhile a whole new world of Bible archaeology was opened up as Egyptian hieroglyphics now gave their story to the scholars. The first hieroglyph which Campollion translated gave the name Ramses II, confirming the name given to Pharaoh in the Bible.

Champollion is regarded as the father of modern Egyptology. He died in Paris about a decade after his great translation achievement, on 4 March, 1832.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Ann Hasseltine is America’s First Woman Missionary to Foreign Soil

Posted on by
Reply

Ann Hasseltine was born in Massachusetts, USA, on December 22, 1789 and became America’s first woman to go overseas as a missionary.

Converted at the age of 17, “Nancy” (as she was known) soon found herself the centre of attention from the local theological students at Andover Theological Seminary who congregated at her parents’ home.

The Life of David Brainerd stirred her missionary interest, and when young Adoniram Judson proposed – and told her that he was planning to leave America’s shores as a missionary to India – she was quick to accept.

Judson’s letter to Deacon Hasseltine reveals the devotion of the first American foreign missionary:

“Dear Sir, Can you consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world?

“Can you consent to her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to hardships and sufferings of a missionary life … to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death?”

Deacon Hasseltine consented … and on 19 February, 1812 (just two weeks after their marriage) Adoniram and Ann sailed for India under the newly established American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

But it was Burma that they finally found their field of service, where they did face degradation and insult and persecution …

Adoniram and Ann accepted the Baptist instruction en route to India and were baptised when they arrived at Calcutta. However the East India Company ordered them to leave India so they made their way to Madras and took the only ship available, bound for Rangoon, Burma, where they arrived on July 13, 1813.

They worked faithfully but it took them six years to see their first convert. Then life was interrupted by British incursions into Burmese territory. Adoniram was imprisoned and Ann kept him alive, despite her own illness by getting food to him.

When Britain captured Rangoon in 1824 the Burmese government imprisoned foreigners in Ava, the then Burmese capital. Ann devoted herself sacrificially to helping those who were imprisoned, by many letters to the government and by her personal assistance.

One of those imprisoned gave this “tribute of public thanks to that amiable and humane female, who, though living at a distance of two miles from our prison, without any means of conveyance, and very feeble in health, forgot her own comfort and infirmity, and almost every day visited us, sought out and administered to our wants and contributed in every way to alleviate our misery”.

When Judson was released they moved to Amherst. It was there, while her husband was on an errand to Ava, that Ann died on October 24, 1826, at the age of 36, thus fulfilling the prophetic tone of Adoniram’s letter of proposal to her father.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

The Irrelevant Church

Posted on by
1

While reviewing a report on teen sexual behaviour I noted a comment that should sound a serious warning to the modern church. The comment points out that the church is irrelevant in impacting the behaviour of teens.

Oh, and I don’t mean it is irrelevant to all those people who have never been to church, I mean it is irrelevant to the very teenagers who attend church twice a month! I’m talking about the kids who are connected to the church and attend more often than many other people attend church.

Research Report

The report I was reading came from a study of 1,000 thirteen year old students in America’s south-eastern states, in 2006. The purpose of the report was to establish the impact of the mass media on the sexual behaviour of teens, compared with the influence from their parents, school, religion and peers.

The particular focus was on the impact of the mass media, since previous studies had looked at the influence of family, peers, religion and school.

Research Findings

The particular research, by L’Engle et al, confirmed that family did play a part an important part, including the child’s relationship with their mother, the level of hands-on parenting (arguing for a stay-at-home parent) and clear sexual values provided by the parents.

School grades, sexual attitudes of the school teacher and the sexual activity among the peer group also serve as indicators of sexual behaviour, so they have an influence on the choices children make.

Demographic factors were a high predictor of the child’s sexual behaviour. So the community in which the child is being raised has a strong influence on their choices and behaviour.

That last point is one which all parents need to take into consideration. Those involved in spiritual impact on their community should also take note. There is something about the prevailing condition of each local community which has impact on the behaviour of those who live there.

The Irrelevant Church

You will recall that the family, school, peers and religion were all taken into consideration. Of these factors, the most irrelevant is the church. Now, that is not because these kids are secularised heathen who never go to church. This finding was the same among those who did attend church regularly.

To quote the report: “None of the religious variables was significantly associated with sexual intention or behaviours.”

Rather than this comment referring to children who have no connection with the church the researchers were concerned that the sample group may have been “more religious than most adolescents”.

The report then explains, “almost two-thirds of the sample reported attending church two or more times per month”!

Did you get that? These kids are mostly good church attenders. Yet they are completely unaffected in their sexual behaviour by their church attendance. That is, the behaviour of those who attend church compared to those who do not is exactly the same. Church attendance is irrelevant to their sexual choices and behaviour.

Wake Up Parents and Churches

The foolish idea that going to church will make a difference must be removed from the thinking of both the parents and the church leaders. Churches were not always irrelevant, so it is the modern expression of church which has become impotent in bringing value and transformation to its members.

Parents cannot wisely abandon their responsibility thinking the church will do the job for them.

Churches cannot continue to do what they are doing and think that they are providing value to their audiences.

Families and churches need a new level of wisdom and function to empower them to bring value into the lives in their care. If youngsters as young as 10-15 can find no value in the church then how can the church assume it is giving value to any of its members?

Robert Moffat Opens Up African Missions

Posted on by
Reply

Robert Moffat was born in East Lothian, Scotland, to staunch Calvinistic parents on December 21, 1795. His mother read missionary stories to her children when they were young and that made an indelible impression on young Robert.

With few academic possibilities and living near a shipping port Robert went to sea as a lad and endured many hair-raising dangers. His parents were relieved when he gave up sailing for studies. But at 14 he was apprenticed to a gardener. A few years later, under a different gardener, he attended Wesleyan Methodist meetings in Cheshire and found himself under conviction of sin.

“One evening,” he later wrote, “while poring over the Epistle to the Romans … I saw what God had done for the sinner and what was required of the sinner to obtain the divine favour and the assurance of eternal life” (R. Moffat, by E.J. Smith, page 21).

Then on a journey to a nearby village he saw notice of a returned missionary speaking locally. This brought back memories of his mother’s stories and he resolutely decided to become a missionary.

However his academic limitations were a problem for selection to missionary work. In 1815 he was ‘reluctantly’ accepted by the newly founded London Missionary Society.

On 18 October, 1817, at the age of 21, he sailed on the “Alacrity” for Cape Town, South Africa … leaving his fiancée, Mary Smith, behind. He had met her about six years earlier. In 1813 this 18 year-old Scottish lad had been employed as a gardener in Manchester, England. And his employer had a daughter. Robert already had felt the call to Africa as a missionary, but Mary’s parents refused to give their consent when he proposed marriage.

Robert’s first achievement in South Africa was to learn Dutch, so he could preach to the Boors. He then took an arduous journey to the mission station at Afrikaner’s camp. There he was quickly put in charge, and under his preaching the chief, Afrikaner, and his brothers were converted and took up some of the mission work.

Robert then took Afrikaner to Cape Town to meet the English authorities. It was now two years since arriving in Africa and to his delight this young pioneer missionary received letters “bearing the joyful tidings that he might expect to welcome Mary later in the year”.

Complications arose, however, in the form of a deputation from the London Missionary Society. It was requested that he accompany these gentlemen inland, which meant he would not be in Cape Town when his Mary arrived. It was a conflict of duty … or love.

But with the L.M.S. deputation he set off (duty won!), only to find that a tribal war had broken out and it was necessary for them to turn back. Thus when Mary Smith arrived, in December, 1819, Robert Moffat was there to meet her, and they were married a few days later. He wrote a letter home that confessed “her arrival was to me nothing less than life from the dead.” Together they laboured for Christ for 50 years. One of the daughters, also named Mary, married David Livingstone.

For the first ten years of their labours, establishing a new mission base among the Bechuana, they had no spiritual fruit. But when one person began enquiring about the Lord, Mary asked friends back home to send over a Communion service, which they did. By the time it arrived, three years later, there were 120 people ready to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the Moffats.

Robert Moffat translated the whole Bible into the Bechuana tongue, a task that took him thirty years. When it was completed he fell to his knees and thanked God for the strength to see it though, among his many other endeavours.

Moffat also evangelised the Hottentots, ruled over by Africaner, a feared warrior chief. Africaner eventually became a “zealous witness for Christ” (Vision and Valour, by T.J. Bach, page 55).

It was during the first furlough in England that a young medical student heard Robert Moffat say, “I have seen in the morning sun the smoke of 1000 villages where no missionary has ever been.” The young medical student caught the vision and ventured forth to become one of Africa’s greatest missionaries. He was David Livingstone – who later married Robert Moffat’s daughter, Mary, in 1844!

In his half century in Africa the former gardener carried many burdens: Unbearable heat, privations, arduous physical labour of all kinds as he single-handedly built mission stations from the dust, facing death at the point of a spear, burying several of his children (child and adult) including his first child – Mary, identifying the remains of his son-in-law – David Livingstone, and losing his wife in his latter years.

England gave this man great honour. He was an inspiration and a pioneer of exceptional acclaim. By the twenty-first century South Africa, with all its troubles, is a remarkably Christianised nation, thanks to the foundations laid by men who gave their all for Africa.

It was at the age of 88, at the home of another daughter in Kent, England, that this pioneer missionary went to be with his Lord. It was 9 August, 1883.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Dr David Martyn Lloyd-Jones Brings Doctrine with Passion

Posted on by
Reply

Dr David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born in Wales, on December 20, 1899, to be one of three boys in a Welsh Calvanist Methodist family.

When he was ten a fire destroyed the family home and permanently impacted the family finances. This gave young David a serious approach to life, such that he said, “I never had an adolescence”.

In his village of Llangeitho he and his brothers joined the local church, under instruction from their minister. But David did not have a living faith.

In 1916 he went to London to study medicine and excelled, heading for a prosperous careers as a Harley Street medical specialist. In London he attended Charing Cross Chapel, where he met his wife to be. Lloyd-Jones also began to investigate what true Christianity was, discovering that he had not really been a Christian at all. In an undramatic process of study David came to a genuine faith, but lamented that no-one had ever made the gospel plain to him.

The reality of his faith led him, at the age of 27 to give up his promising career as a Harley Street specialist, and with his young wife, Bethan, return to the land of his fathers. And there, in South Wales, he entered the Christian ministry, in a small Calvinistic Methodist Church, in Sandfields, Aberavon.

He preached his first sermon on 28 November, 1926. His text on that occasion was I Corinthians 2:2 – “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

Influenced by Puritan writers whom he had consumed, yet without formal theological training, the fresh young minister determined to preach only the Bible and to do it so clearly that it would bring life to those who heard him. This fresh and Biblical approach stood out in his day and won him an audience around Wales, Great Britain and America and Canada.

On November 28, 1935 “The Doctor” (as he came to be known) preached in London’s Albert Hall and was heard by G Morgan Campbell, the 72 year old pastor of London’s Westminster Chapel. Campbell invited Lloyd-Jones to be his assistant and successor, which, after some deliberation, The Doctor accepted in September 1938, taking his wife and two daughters to live in London.

G. Campbell Morgan retired in 1943 and Lloyd-Jones soon established Westminster Chapel as the “foremost evangelical pulpit in England.”

For the last 20 years of his ministry at Westminster Chapel the average Sunday attendance was 1,500 in the morning and 2,000 at night.

Verse by verse he traversed the great books of Scripture, delivering 60 sermons on “The Sermon on the Mount”, preaching for 13 years on Romans chapters 1-14. His six volumes of printed sermons on Ephesians total 2,235 pages.

His challenge to evangelicals to separate from the mainline churches in 1966 brought the wrath of some fellow evangelicals upon his head. But by pen and from pulpit Martyn Lloyd-Jones continued to “contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.”

Some have called him the greatest preacher of the 20th century, but he also supported many other Christian projects, such as the Evangelical Library, Inter Varsity Fellowship, Puritan Conference, ‘Banner of Truth’ Publishing and The Evangelical Magazine.

He preached his last sermon on June 8, 1980 and went home to the Lord on March 1, 1981.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in the French Revolution

Posted on by
Reply

Because of my fascination with the true nature of Freedom (Liberty) I was drawn to the emphasis given to this topic in the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. What I find is that the secular notion of ‘liberty’ as found in the Enlightenment and the Revolution, and also celebrated in America’s Statue of Liberty (given them by the French) is at odds with the Christian notion of True Freedom. This is a topic I will rake over multiple times, so read the various posts on this and related topics and see if you agree with my take on the matter.

The Enlightenment and French Revolution

The Enlightenment gave a new set of principles from which the architects of the French Revolution could justify their course of action and motivate the masses. Much happened in that whole process and any history of the events ends up being a summary at best.

However there was a clear tone to it all. It was decidedly secular and anti-religious. The French reacted to the Roman Catholic faith which had dominated the nation. They also reacted to their monarchy and all expressions of privilege. They wished to cast off traditions. They expected that the rational mind was sufficient to craft a culture and social order suitable for all.

The whole process came to be identified under three banners, as it were. There was the ideal of Freedom – expressed in the French word Liberté. There was the related ideal of Equality – expressed in the French word Egalité. And there was the ideal of Brotherhood – expressed in the French word Fraternité.

Intention

The intention of the Enlightenment was to be free from impositions ascribed to traditional religion (the Catholic church) and inherited rights (the monarchy and positions of privilege). There was a reaction against the constraints being imposed on people by religious tradition. There was also reaction to the idea that some people had privilege over others.

It could be argued that the desire for freedom represented a resentment of two things: personal limitation under external powers; and personal limitation due to limited personal inheritance.

Thus the objective was to do away with personal accountability and the consequences of inheritance. It could thus be seen as an attempt to do away with personal accountability and the consequences of sin.

I suggest that the underlying motivation behind the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the broader applications of that mindset was and is to be free from God. God is the one who holds each person accountable and God is the one who visits the iniquities of the forefathers down the family line.

Application

The motivation to do away with personal accountability, inherited advantage and personal limitation led to the imposition of a tyranny. All those who were benefited by their own actions or who received inherited advantage due to God’s blessing or the outworking of circumstances in previous generations were subject to theft, victimisation and death.

By demanding and legislating equality for all, the citizens expected to be freed from the consequences of their own personal choices and personal limitations. This is a similar pursuit to the socialist and communist conceptions, where all citizens become equal comrades in the society.

Interpreting Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

In the light of my observations consider what the three catch-cry terms of the French Revolution mean.

Liberty represents the rejection of imposed constraints, including those from God.

Equality represents rejection of personal accountability and consequences from actions.

Fraternity (brotherhood) represents the basis on which happy social order is to be expected.

A New Tyranny

Those who subscribed to the ideals of the Enlightenment sought to throw off the constraints of religion, tradition and inherited advantage and disadvantage. They resented this tyranny. Yet in their own actions and dogma they have imposed a whole new tyranny of their own. Their world is not better than the one they overthrew. They have not freed people from anything, but simply changed the clothes of those who are in control.

Note that the new enlightened world, under the power of ‘reason’ and not the tyranny of religious dictates, is presently held to ransom by the ‘religious’ beliefs of the dogma of evolution, with no regard for the ‘reason’ which was appealed to in the establishing of the republic concept. Reason argues against evolution, but it is the imposed dogma and those who exalt reason tyrannise others by their demand that everyone subscribe to the evolutionary doctrinaire.

This is just one example of how Enlightened people have brought nothing that resembles true freedom to the world. They have simply demanded the right to be the tyrants in place of others they resented.

Murder Reveals the True Connection

The wholesale slaughter of people whose crime was their place in traditional institutions or to hold inherited advantage, implicates the Enlightenment’s devotees as servants of Satan. I don’t say that to be sensationalist, but to echo the observation of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ told the religious leaders of His day that they were under the leadership of Satan, and that they had the same murderous ambitions that Satan had. They protested at His claim, but in short time were crying out, “Crucify Him!”

“You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth….” John 8:44

People who are happy to murder others are not in Christ’s team. They are players for the devil. When the French pulled out their guillotine and dispatched thousands of people they set Satan’s royal seal on their endeavours. Tens of thousands (some argue 1 million) people died as a consequence of the French Revolution. Many were simply murdered because of their place of privilege.

This is how the Enlightenment gave us freedom, equality and brotherhood. Hmmmm.

Horatius Bonar Wrote Hymns His Church Would Not Sing

Posted on by
Reply

Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on December 19, 1808. from a long line of Presbyterian ministers. His brother Andrew Bonar was a famous Bible commentator. Horatius and his brothers studied at the University of Edinburgh under Thomas Chalmers, and took part in “the Great Disruption” in 1843 that led to the founding of the Free Church of Scotland.

He was ordained in 1838 and pastored North Parish, Kelso for 28 years, before moving to Edinburgh.

Known as the greatest of Scottish hymn-writers, Bonar was also, at one time, Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, editor of The Border Watch, and minister for 23 years at Chalmers Memorial Church, Edinburgh.

He also wrote many best-selling books including, “The Night Of Weeping”, “God’s Way of Peace” and “God’s Way of Holiness”.

After his studies he began mission work among the illiterate and underprivileged youth in Leith. At that time the Church of Scotland only sang metrical psalms and rejected hymn singing, but the children needed something happy and simple to engage their interest. Bonar met the need by writing over 600 hymns, which were never sung in his church, due to the exclusive commitment to psalmody.

Bonar’s aim of reaching the hearts of children gave his hymns and books a simplicity and sweet devotional reality which is an endearing charm of his work.

His interest in Bible prophecy was stimulated through hearing Rev. Edward Irving lecture on the subject in 1829. With his two brothers and a few others, Bonar met regularly to study the advent of hope. “A certain stigma, as of heresy, was fastened on (their pre-millennial views) – they were regarded within God’s heritage as speckled birds” (Memories of H. Bonar, page 47).

A new magazine was published, Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, with Bonar as editor.

His brother, Rev. John James Bonar, tells us “from the time that Dr Bonar accepted this mode of prophetic interpretation as taught by Irving, it dominated and complexioned all his views” (H. Bonar, A Memorial, page 99).

But it is his contribution to hymnody for which he is best remembered. In 1846 he penned:
I heard the voice of Jesus say:
“Come unto Me and rest” …
… written for the children in his Sunday-School.

“Go labour on, spend and be spent” is another of his hymns still sung today. And the moving communion hymn likewise … “Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face” …

A copy of Hymns of Faith and Hope, by H. Bonar, contains over 150 of his hymns, and was published in 1869.

Bonar’s wife, Jane, also wrote hymns. Five of their children died in their youth.

Bonar died on July 31, 1889.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com