Measuring a Minister

When John Newton took the pastorate at Olney in England, the people soon learned that Newton's life as a minister was consistent with his pulpit ministry. Once when he was speaking to a friend he linked the two: "I measure ministers by square measure. I have no idea of the size of a table, if you only tell me how long it is; but if you also say how wide, I can tell its dimensions. So when you tell me what a man is in the pulpit, you must also tell me what he is out of it, or I shall not know his size."

Thunder

A man came on one occasion to the great George Whitefield and asked if he might print his sermons. Whitefield replied, "Well, I have no inherent objection if you like, but you will never be able to put on the printed page the lightning and the thunder." (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

Seth Joshua

There is a story about Seth Joshua, the Welsh revivalist at the turn of the nineteenth century, that helps to illustrate the point that God may indeed be a patient and longsuffering God but his wrath does come upon men. Joshua was to preach in a town one evening, and advertisements appeared announcing his appearance at a local theater. This was a ruse. In reality, an actor was going to play the part of the evangelist and make great fun of him. That night, with the theater packed with people, the actor came on stage and began imitating Joshua, to the great glee of the crowd. As he circled the stage, the actor "fell with a thud and a hushed audience soon discovered that he was dead." Sometimes God's judgment does go forth immediately in the earth; other times it is withheld. But it will come.

Liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity is alive and well on the planet earth. In support of that fact is the recent statement by German New Testament scholar Gerd Luedemann: "The tomb was full and the manger empty." Of course, what he means by that is simply that there never occurred a virgin birth and there was no resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The Apostle Paul responded to similar suspicious teachings in his day, and he said, "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain . . . we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Cor. 15:12-14, 19). The very foundations of Christianity are the historical incidents of the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Much of liberal Christianity, however, proclaims a Christ without a manger, a Christ without a cross, and a Christ without a resurrection. If what these people teach is true, then what hope is there? As Paul said, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins . . . If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Cor. 15:17, 19). But, true believer, do not despair! Paul announces: "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead" (1 Cor. 15:20). Our hope is true and real. No, Prof. Luedemann, we believe that "the tomb was empty and the manger full."

The Horse Stealer

In 1770, George Whitefield was on a preaching tour of New York when an extraordinary event took place. He describes it himself:

"A very peculiar providence led me lately to a place where a horse stealer was executed. Thousands attended. The poor criminal had sent me several letters, hearing I was in the country. The sheriff allowed him to come and hear a sermon under an adjacent tree. Solemn, solemn! After being by himself about an hour, I walked half a mile with him to the gallows. His heart had been softened before my first visit. He seemed full of solid, divine consolation. An instructive walk! I went up with him into the cart. He gave a short exhortation. I then stood upon the coffin -- added, I trust, a word in season -- prayed, gave the blessing, and took my leave. Effectual good, I hope, was done to the hearers and spectators. Grace! Grace!"

Romaine Quote

William Romaine, 18th century Puritan, made the following comment regarding grace:

"O what am I, that such a sinner as I am should be thus highly favoured? A child of wrath by nature, even as others, and by practice, having sinned long with greediness against light and conviction, sinning and sorrowing, sorrowing and sinning, from year to year, a slave to the lust of the flesh, to the lust of the eyes, and to the pride of life, every moment fit and ripe for hell. O what a monument of infinite patience and longsuffering! spared from day to day, and at last called to the saving knowledge of Jesus."

Kinsman

Rev. Andrew Kinsman was once preaching on Sunday in London. A dreadful and heavy rainfall suddenly came, and a number of people who were simply passing by ducked into the church in which he was speaking. One of the people was a young man who was from Kinsman's home town of Plymouth; he listened to the service and then asked Kinsman how his relations were in Plymouth. Kinsman replied that his good aunt and religious mother had recently gone to heaven, "but which way are you going? What would your pious mother say, if she sould miss here William there?" The sermon had had no effect on the young man, but these words of Kinsman sure did. They struck him to the heart, and they were the means of his conversion.

Years later that young man's son came to Rev. Kinsman to have his child baptized. Kinsman, knowing that this man was an unbeliever, told him that he would baptize his child for the sake of his grandfather. Kinsman then told the man the remarkable story of his father's conversion. This so affected the man that he himself was converted hearing the conversion story of his own father!

Henry Tanner

In the year 1743, George Whitefield spent some time preaching in the port city of Plymouth while he awaited a ship to go to America. He had very low expectations regarding his preaching in that city; as he said, "I expected little success." A Mr. Henry Tanner, while he was at work on the docks, heard Whitefield preaching from a great distance . . . he concluded that Whitefield was a madman, and so he and some compatriots decided to go and knock him down. They filled their pockets with rocks to do so. But when Tanner drew near, his heart was melted as he heard the preacher proclaim the gospel of Christ and invite sinners to Christ. Tanner came back the next night and the night after that, and he was converted.

Tanner grew in grace and knowledge and was eventually called to preach. In 1769, he built The Tabernacle in Exeter and labored in the ministry there for many years . . . he preached three times every Sunday and twice during the week. Gillies tells of his end: "Mr. Tanner's exertions continued unabated till within a short time of his death. His frequent petition was, that he might die in his Master's work. His petition was granted. For he was taken out of the pulpit, being unable to finish his sermon; and shortly after fell asleep in Jesus, March 30, 1805, aged eighty six."

Log Cabin

George Whitefield in his Journals, dated November 22, 1739, tells of his meeting with Rev. Tennant in New Jersey:

"Mr. Tennant, and his brethren in presbytery, intend breeding up gracious youths for our Lord's vineyard. The place wherein the young men now study, is a log house, about twenty feet long, and nearly as many broad. From this despised place, seven or eight worthy ministers of Jesus have been sent forth, and a foundation is now laying for the instruction of many others. The work, I am persuaded, is of God, and therefore will not come to nought."

Whitefield was right in one sense: this log cabin became Princeton, and in the early years it had such presidents as Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Davies. And over the years the school employed some worthy theologians such as Charles Hodge and B.B. Warfield. The state of the school today from a spiritual sense is another matter all together.

Balm in Gilead

In New Brunswick, New Jersey in the 18th century there occurred a large awakening under the preaching of Reverends Frelinghuysen, Tennant, and Rowland. Rowland was once asked to preach in the Baptist church there. He preached divine law to such a degree that there were many present whose very souls were sinking under the weight of the law, and a number of them fainted in the service. Rev. Gilbert Tennant was present, in fact he was standing at the foot of the pulpit, and he saw the effect of Rowland's preaching. He interrupted the preacher and pleaded with him, "Brother Rowland, is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" According to Gillies, Rev. Rowland immediately changed the tone and tenor of his sermon, and he sought to direct the people who were overwhelmed with a sense of their guilt to the Savior. But before this had taken place a number of people had been carried out of the church "in a state of insensibility". Indeed, there is an answer to the weight of guilt and sin . . . we must point our people to Jesus.

Envy

Robert Murray McCheyne, pastor of a Church of Scotland congregation in Dundee, took a leave of absence to travel to Israel to see the state of the Jews in the holy land. He left the congregation in the hands of a young man named William Chalmers Burns. A revival broke out at the church under Burns' ministry. How did McCheyne react. Prior to the revival he had written Burns the following note: "You are given in answer to prayer; and these gifts are, I believe, always without exception blessed. I hope you may be a thousand times more blessed among them than ever I was. Perhaps there are many souls that would never have been saved under my ministsry, who may be touched under yours; and God has taken this method of bringing you into my place. His name is wonderful" (March 2, 1839).

The revival in Dundee made McCheyne's heart rejoice. He had no envy of another instrument being used of God in a place where he had labored with many tears. He rejoiced that the work of God was done and by whatever hand.

Rev. Cole

A Rev. Cole from Gloucester, England was greatly affected by George Whitefield's preaching. In fact, he used to claim that he was Whitefield's curate (assistant) and would follow him preaching from one place to another in the country. One evening he was preaching, however, and "he was struck with death" (Gilles); yet, he asked for a chair to lean on until he finished his sermon, and then he was carried upstairs and died. George Whitefield's reflection on this death: "O blessed God! If it be thy holy will, may my exit be like his!"