Frederick Arvid Blom – Swedish Preacher

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This is the day that … Frederick Arvid Blom died in Sweden in 1927, at the age of 60.

Fredrick was born in Sweeden, May 21 1867 in Bred parish. In 1883 he took a degree in navigation and became a sailor. In 1902 he was declared “not found” in Sweeden – which suggests he absconded.

He spent some years in the Salvation Army in Chicago.  He attended Bible College … and then pastored an evangelical church … until 1915.  Then Mr Blom “fell deeply into sin and spent some years in prison.”  His biographer does not reveal the details.  Blom himself wrote:  “I drifted from God … and became embittered with myself, the world, and not the least with ministers who looked upon me with suspicion because I was a member of the Socialist Party.”

Some time later Blom resumed his walk with God and pastored a Swedish Congregational Church in Pennsylvania until 1921.  At that time he returned to Stockholm, Sweden and was active in ministry in the Swedish Covenant Church and the Swedish Baptist Church until his death six years later.

His well-known gospel song – popularised by George Beverly Shea some years ago – is:
          He the pearly gates will open so that I may enter in …     

One biographer tells us that it is generally believed Blom wrote this hymn either in prison or shortly after his release.  Verse two may well reflect his own spiritual pilgrimage –

          Like a sparrow, hunted, frightened, weak and helpless – so was I;
          Wounded, fallen, yet He healed me – He will heed the sinner’s cry.

Amen!

Lionel Bale Fletcher – Australian Evangelist and Pastor

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This is the day that … Lionel Bale Fletcher was born, in 1877, at Maitland, New South Wales.

“He was an evangelist,” wrote Dr F.W. Boreham.  “He burned with a passion for Christ and was never so happy as when leading his fellowmen to the feet of his Lord.”

Lionel was born the eighth child of a Methodist lay preacher and was nearly named Octavius by his father, John Fletcher, but a last minute change of mind had him christened “Lionel Bale Fletcher” (“Bale” was his mother’s maiden name). All seven sons of John Fletcher ended up as preachers, three as ordained Methodist ministers.

At the age of 10 “he ran away from school and home” … and by the age of 16 he was sailing through Sydney Heads on the SS “Macquarie”.  It was the beginning of “two years before the mast” which took him to England and back.

On his return to Australia … and the bush he was the “black sheep” in the devout Christian family, On his brother’s property, 250 miles from Sydney, the memories of his godly upbringing and the faithful witness of a godly minister brought him to a place of conversion.  “The next morning,” says the biographer, “Lionel Fletcher made the bush ring with shouts of praise and joy” (Twelve Hours in the Day, by C. Malcolm, page 37).

On 2 February, 1898, he conducted his first church service;  on 24 January, 1900, he was married to Maud Basham – and in 1905 he began to pastor Congregational churches, in NSW, South Australia, Cardiff, Wales, and Auckland, New Zealand.

Invitations came for him to speak overseas – and before long his itinerant evangelist ministry took him around the world. He led great meetings in England and South Africa.
He wrote a number of books, including his autobiography, Mighty Moments, and titles on evangelism, including The Effective Evangelist, Conquering Evangelism and Youth & Evangelism.

Lionel Fletcher died in Mosman, Sydney, after a short illness on 19 February, 1954, survived by his wife and a son and daughter.

Lionel is yet further indication of the call of God passing down through a family and empowering children to go on to greater ministry than their parents could.

John Charles Ryle

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This is the day that … John Charles Ryle was born in Macclesfield, England, in 1816.

As Bishop of Liverpool from 1880 to 1900 he became “one of the greatest and most influential Anglican evangelicals of all time”.

Educated at Eton and Oxford, where he showed prowess as a fine sportsman, his thoughts turned to the ministry after a very real conversion experience.  He was 21 years of age at the time and had attended a parish church.

It was not the sermon that influenced him, but the second reading of the Scriptures.  It was from Ephesians chapter 2:  “By grace are ye saved, through faith …” “It was in the simple hearing of those words of Scripture that he grasped the secret of the Gospel” writes Marcus Loane (J.C. Ryle, page 32).

For a while he worked in his father’s bank.  But by 12 December, 1841, he was ordained a clergyman in the Church of England.  Various ministries followed.

He married in 1845 … was widowed in June, 1847;  married again in 1850, widowed again ten years later; and remarried in October, 1861  (J.C. Ryle, by P. Toon, pages 42, 44, 52).

Ryle was not a good mixer – the two places where he was “genuinely happy” were in his pulpit and when he was “in his study surrounded by books” (ibid, page 43).

Thirty books came from his pen, including a vigorous defence of Anglican theology – Knots Untied.  And a classic work on “Holiness”, from a Reformed perspective.  His commentaries on the four Gospels are still in print.

In his preaching “he was at heart an evangelist whose sermons always sounded the note of a singularly clear call to forgiveness of sin and acceptance with God” (Loane, page 105).

This great Bishop heard his Master’s “Well done!” on 10 June, 1900.