Samuel Crowther as God’s Slave

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This is the day that … Samuel Crowther was consecrated as a bishop, in 1864.

Adijah was 13 years of age, a black boy living inland near the west coast of Africa, when the slave traders attacked. He never saw his father again, and it would be 25 years before he was to again meet his mother … and lead her to Christ. But I’m getting ahead of the story.

At the age of 14 he was crammed into a Portuguese slave ship, chains around his neck, with 186 others, bound for South America.

But 14 years previously, in 1807, Britain had abolished the slave trade and the British Navy was out to enforce the law. The Portuguese trading vessel was captured by a British man-of-war – and young Adijah was free again. In Liberia he was cared for in a Church Missionary Society home, and was truly converted. At his baptism he was given a new name – Samuel Crowther, the name of a C.M.S. pioneer. And it was here he met Asano, also a freed slave, whose name was changed to Susanna, who later became his wife.

Eventually Samuel Crowther was ordained in the Church of England (1843), and on this day, in 1864, he was consecrated as bishop of the new African diocese. This red-letter day took place in Canterbury Cathedral, and among those present was Admiral Leeke of the British Navy, who had rescued him from the Portuguese slave ship 42 years previously.

Back in Africa Bishop Crowther reached many inland tribes with the gospel, and there he found his mother. “Crowther’s mother was one of the first people in Abeokuta to be baptised a follower of Jesus Christ. The new name chosen for her by her son Samuel was Hannah …” (Saints Without Haloes, by L. Dox, page 95).

This “African St Paul”, as some have called him, evangelised and translated the Scriptures. His son, Dandeson Crowther, shared in the ministry. Dr A.T. Pierson, Spurgeon’s successor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, wrote: “Wherever he went he brought and left a blessing, and no man perhaps did more than he for the elevation and salvation of his fellow countrymen” (Great Missionaries, by C. Creegan, page 140).

In his final years racism reared its ugly head among the C.M.S. leaders in England. They insisted that the Niger Mission was to be under “white supervision”. The pressure upon Crowther led to a “stroke and made him into a sick man”. He was in the midst of the conflict with the C.M.S. committee when he died on 31 December, 1891.

Of the half-a-dozen books dealing with Samuel Crowther scattered around me, only one mentions the sadness of his final years, The Missionaries, by G. Moorhouse, pages 284-286. Even Jesse Page in his 190-page biography of Samuel Crowther does not mention it.

This 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.

John Hunt to Fiji

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This is the day that … John Hunt was born in England, in 1812, to illiterate and irreligious parents.

Converted at the age of 17 when he came into contact with the Methodists, he was soon preaching in their meetings. At the age of 23 he entered their “Theological Institution” for missionary training, and on 29 April, 1838, he and his new bride, Hannah, sailed for the South Seas.

Fiji! “Those hills which they viewed upon their arrival contained the ovens in which human beings were roasted for cannibal feasts. There … widows had been strangled to accompany the dead chiefs to their ‘Paradise’.”

“Cunning was the highest intelligence. War was their business. The religion of the Fijian required cannibalism” (They Knew Their God, Volume 4, page 61).

Thus it was John Hunt and his good wife, both in their mid-20’s, tackled the unwritten language of these people that they might tell them of the Saviour.

“I determine,” he wrote in his journal, “to make known nothing among the poor Fijians but Christ and Him crucified. Oh that my speech and my preaching may be with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (Biography of John Hunt, by G. Rowe, 1860, page 173).

The savage climate led to the death of their three children soon after birth. He wrote: “I have three now in Heaven. I thank God they are safe. I feel much my need of them now; but, oh, how awful the thought of their living to sin against my God and be lost!”

For 10 years John Hunt persevered. King Thakombau – “the butcher of his people” – was a fierce foe, and his wars and hostility toward the missionary seemed to make all success hopeless.

John’s translation of the New Testament in Fijian was completed in 1847 (though not published until 1854).

And God saw fit to pour out revival among these people. There was weeping and groaning “and a general calling upon God to have mercy” by many Fijians. Even Queen Viwa was converted.

John Hunt wrote: “One hundred converts the first week of the revival… The mats of the chapel were wet with the tears of the communicants of the table of the Lord…”

But a year later – 4 October, 1848 – John Hunt died, at the age of 36.

King Thakombau was baptised nine years later by a fellow missionary.

And the gospel continued to bring light and joy and peace to those who had lived in darkness.

“The mission to Fiji has been as remarkable for its success as any ever undertaken by the Christian world. At the jubilee of that mission there was not an avowed pagan left. Fifty years before there was not a single Christian in all Fiji” (Epoch Makers of Modern Missions, by A. McClean, page 171).

This 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.

David Zeisberger – Missionary to Red Indians

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This is the day that … David Zeisberger was married – at the age of 60 – to Miss Susan Lecron, at the suggestion of the Moravian Mission Board. It was in 1781.

For the previous 40 years he had devoted his life to preaching of the Gospel among Red Indians. “He had made himself so truly their brother than they adopted him into their tribe and gave him the Indian name of Thaneraquechta …” (Torchbearers of the Faith, by A. Smellie, page 227).

Zeisberger’s translation of the Scriptures into the Iroquois language is described as “outstanding”. He pressed on with his work, despite being continually harassed by the French/Indian war, and the American Revolution. There are stories of massacres and imprisonment and hardship enough to daunt the most valiant of souls. Zeisberger persevered.

During a Moravian synod meeting the strong suggestion was made that David take himself a wife, which he did. He then returned to his Red Indians with the Gospel.

During the Revolutionary War, “The wrath of the British was directed mainly against Zeisberger… He and two fellow missionaries were arrested as spies. Practically starved, they appeared before the governor to defend themselves against vile and unjust accusations” (Early Missionary Endeavours Among the American Indians, by J. Mueller, page 92). Eventually Zeisberger was free to lead his Christian Indians across the border into Canada, where there was freedom – and “where the Moravian testimony continued for many generations”.

He died on 17 November, 1808, saying: “The Saviour is near; He will come and take me home…” He departed this life at the age of 87, over 60 years of which was spent in missionary service.

“No other Protestant missionary exercised more real influence, and was more sincerely honoured among the Indians, and none … excelled him in the frequency and hardship of his journeys through the wilderness” (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia, page 2570).

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.

Kenneth Taylor

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This is the day that … Kenneth Taylor was born, in 1917.

It was at family devotions that one of his children asked him the meaning of a verse in the King James Version of the Bible.  When he had explained it the children retorted:  “Well, Daddy, if that’s what the verse means, why doesn’t it say so?

As a result Kenneth Taylor would sit in the Chicago-bound train day after day armed with Bible, notebook and pencil.  And in 1962 he had paraphrased the Epistles.  He called his book Living Letters, and took it to a publisher.  And another.  And another.

Their refusals did not dampen his enthusiasm.  He took out a bank loan and published it himself.  It sold slowly at first – and then Billy Graham decided to give it free to those who wrote in to his telecasts.  Half a million copies were printed and sent to viewers.

Taylor then tackled the Gospels … and the rest of the New Testament … and the Psalms.  And kept on going.

In 1971 The Living Bible was published by Tyndale House, his own book company.

“In the first 27 months Tyndale House sold 13 million copies of The Living Bible.”

In 1986 Moody Monthly reported that 33 million copies had been sold, and “profits go largely to fund paraphrases in other languages.”

Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor died at age 88, on June 10, 2005.

Personal Note from Chris – My dad used Living Letters because he loved the idea that God’s Word could be made accessible. However there were many nay-sayers. Some questioned how a Bible could use the word ‘boomerang’ and be taken seriously.

When I turned up at church with a Living Bible I was asked, “What do you feed it?” I didn’t get the joke.

I loved the sense of God’s Word being so easy to read.
Then came all the talk about how a ‘paraphrase’ was not a REAL Bible.
Now, everyone takes for granted their easy access to so many translations. Enjoy the privilege. It did not come easy.