Henrietta Cornella Mears Tells it Like it Is

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This is the day that Henrietta Cornella Mears was born in Fargo, 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 Pastor Stewart MacLennan invited her to take over as director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, with its 6000 members. The entire Sunday-School grew from 450 to 4000 in less than three years! It was also the launching pad for graded Sunday School lessons and Forest Home Christian Conference Center, which she founded as a retreat centre for all believers.

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. She was prompted to this step by the reluctance of the Presbyterian church to make her materials available to the wider church. In typical forthright manner she took the matter in hand and created a solution, even though some did not like it.

On the evening of 19 March, 1963, Miss Mears retired to her room and not only fell asleep … but fell “asleep in Jesus” (she was 73 years of age) … “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!”

Henrietta was a woman of intense conviction and she instilled, or should we say ‘injected’ that conviction into her students. Some of those she taught said, “She ruined my life!” because of her insistence on total commitment to Biblical truth.

Henrietta taught that you are never to be a pushover when serving God, but rather be strong, unafraid and unyielding when doing things according to his will.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.

Benjamin Keach Punished for Preaching the Truth

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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.

Such was the antagonism toward religious non-conformists that the judge tried to find a way to impose the death sentence. When the jury found Benjamin guilty only of misquoting a single verse of Scripture, Judge Hyde bullied the jurors into finding the defendant guilty of other charges.

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.

While in the stocks in the public square he preached to the people and they looked upon him as a hero. Rather than pelt him with rotten vegetables they respected him. Keach’s preaching was so effective that the sheriff threatened to gag him. When a Church of England minister spoke out against Keach the crowd responded by scorning the minister for his godless life.

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). In this Keach was recognising the higher government of God over our lives than the governments imposed by men. Just as the early apostles declared that they must obey God and not man.

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 post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.