John Fawcett was converted as a 16-year-old in 1755 under the ministry of George Whitefield. He became the pastor of Wainsgate Baptist Church in Yorkshire in 1764. In 1772, he initially accepted the invitation to succeed the formidable John Gill at London’s Carter’s Lane Baptist Church and that at a substantially higher salary. This was no small honor for Fawcett who once wrote prior to 1764, To be brief, my dear […]
Mom’s favorite hymn, At Calvary, was published in 1895 by William Reed Newell. Newell was a Presbyterian pastor, assistant superintendent of Moody Bible Institute under the famous R.A. Torrey, and well-renowned Bible expositor. His only hymn was forty years old when Mom would’ve started singing it in Itta Bena, MS. The song meant little-to-nothing to me until five years after she died. But the song itself anticipates that very situation. doesn’t it? After […]
We recently enjoyed the annual Festival of Carols at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis. During it we sang this beautiful poem by Eileen Berry entitled “Carol of Joy” (2007, Beckenhorst Press) set to music by Dan Forrest. It’s nearly impossible to add anything substantial to, much less improve upon, the church’s traditional coterie of Christmas hymns but this is a worthy addition: Green leaves all fallen, withered and dry; Brief sunset fading, dim winter […]
“When [God] causes the gospel to be preached, it is certainly the case that he is not saying, ‘I have come to save Simon Peter or Cornelius the centurion or Mary Magdalene.’ He calls no one by the name given them by men at the time of their circumcision or baptism. Were that the case, we could certainly doubt our salvation, for then the thought would legitimately arise that not we but […]
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands (Rev 5:11-12). One of the sweet traditions in churches is the 5th Sunday night hymn-sing (a.k.a. 5th Sunday Sing). Or was. Some months will have five Sundays and many churches would gather that fifth Sunday night to, […]
Hands down, my favorite hymn is O Christ, Our Hope, Our Heart’s Desire. Written in the 7-8th century in Latin, it was translated by John Chandler into English in 1837. There are two different tunes, one arranged by Handel in 1751 (Bradford) and another by George Greatorex in 1851 (Manoah). I’m familiar with the latter because it’s far easier to sing in my opinion. Robust theology jam-packed into a simple, […]