The Iron Pen #68

God & Country

On August 2, 1776 Samuel Adams made this statement as the Declaration of Independence was being signed by the members of the Continental Congress – "We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."

William Carey’s Guiding Posts

Editor’s Note: More than a century and a half ago William Carey made a list of "guiding posts" that he and his associates were to follow in their ministry. Read the list and ponder them. Would not these be profitable for Christian workers to follow in our day?

To set an infinite value on human souls

To abstain from whatever deepens India’s (or any people’s) prejudice against the Gospel

To watch for every chance of doing good to the people

To preach Christ as the means of conversion

To esteem and treat people of India (or any people) as our equals

To guard and build up the "hosts that may be gathered"

To labor incessantly in biblical translation (for us, biblical study)

To be instant in the nurture of personal religion

To give ourselves without reserve to the cause, not counting even the clothes we wear as our own

"Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they cannot understand; but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages of Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand." Samuel Clement, whose pen name was Mark Twain

SIX TYPICAL MEN IN THE EPISTLE OF ROMANS

1. The Guilty Man – Romans 3:19-20

2. The Justified Man – Romans 4:24; 5:1-11

3. The Identified Man – Romans 6:1-14

4. The Wretched Man – Romans 7:7-24

5. The Liberated Man – Romans 8:1-39

6. The Yielded Man – Romans 12:1-2

The Influence of a Godly Parent & A Spirit Empowered Pen

John Newton is the author of one of the most beloved songs of the Christian faith -- Amazing Grace. He was born in London July 24, 1725, to a pious Christian woman and the commander of a merchant ship which sailed the Mediterranean. In July of 1732, thirteen days before his seventh birthday, death took his saintly mother who had, since his third birthday, been his teacher and friend. He was left with only the memory of a godly mother and her Christian teaching.

When he was eleven, John went to sea and it was not long before he was wholly involved in the ungodly vices of seamen. As one author put it, "he became a dissipated sailor." He followed this ungodly path for many years, but finally, the memory of his mother brought him to himself. He remembered her Christian teaching and her godly life, and considered his ungodly lifestyle and his wretched life. The recollection of his mother prompted him to again seek Christ. He searched the slave ship for a Bible or some other book about Christ and found Imitations of Christ by Thomas Kempis. This book sowed the seeds of his conversion. On May 10, 1748 when the ship nearly sunk in a violent storm, he trusted Christ as his personal Savior. As a result of his mother’s influence a stream of boundless influence flowed forward throughout the world.

John Newton became a preacher of the Gospel. One of the people he lead to Christ was Claudius Birchman. Birchman went as a missionary to India. No doubt, no one has ever heard of Claudius Birchman. But, God mightily used a book this Englishman wrote, The Star in the East, to motive an American to become the pioneer of American foreign missions. The man this book motivated was Adoniram Judson, who became a missionary to Burma. Judson was the first American foreign missionary.

Newton also led Thomas Scott to Christ. Scott became a preacher and the author of the famous Scott’s Commentary on the Bible. Rev. Scott pointed despondent attorney and harp player, William Cowper, to the Christ of the Bible and through reading Romans 3:25 Cowper was saved. He says, "I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification." Not long after his conversion he penned one of the great songs of the Faith, There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood. William Cowper was used of the Lord to write many great Christian hymns but he also wrote other poetry, including The Negro's Complaint, an anti-slavery work, which had a mighty impact on a short and sickly little Englishman named William Wilberforce. He became a powerful English statesman and through his efforts slavery was ultimately abolished in England. Wilberforce was a dedicated Christian as well. He wrote, A Practical View of The Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians…Contrasted With Real Christianity. This book was instrumental in bringing Legh Richmond to Christ. Rev. Legh Richmond is the author of the once popular Christian children’s book, The Dairyman’s Daughter. Between 1813 and 1820 there were 22 editions of this book printed in America. The book was used of the Lord to bring about the salvation of thousands. Undergirding this chain of events stands the influence of John Newton’s godly mother.