Locked out of Church

In an earlier blog I told the story of Charles Simeon, and how the people of Trinity Church in Cambridge, England would lock the doors of the church to keep him from the pulpit. He preached the doctrines of grace, and the people did not want to hear expository preaching or the gospel message. He, of course, wore them down, many were converted, and Simeon pastored that church for over fifty years.

Now, I am not against locking preachers out of a church, but it must be for the right reasons. Alexander Henderson (1583-1646) was unconverted when he went into the ministry (Spurgeon once commented, "nothing could be sadder than an unconverted minister"). On the day of his ordination, the people of his church locked it so that presbytery could not get in to set Henderson apart for the ministerial office. So, against the will of the people, presbytery was obliged to sneak through a window of the church. By God's providence, Alexander Henderson was eventually converted under the preaching of Robert Bruce, and he became a valuable gospel preacher in the city of Edinburgh. But, indeed, at the beginning of his ministry he should have been locked out of his church!