TIMOTHY MISSION FUND

During the month of September gifts totalling $40.00 were received for our Timothy Mission Fund, which we acknowledge with sincere thanks. The balance at the end of the month was S48.40. Gifts for this fund should be sent in care of Miss Adriana Kievit, 1121 N. Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 49007. Acknowledgements were received for checks sent to the Spanish Evangelical Mission and the Wycliffe Bible Translators.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM SPANISH EVANGELICAL MISSION

Dear friends,

Many thanks for the check which we received. We are grateful for the renewed proof of your support and sympathy, especially in view of the increasing labors on the mission fields and, in consequence, the growing need of money for same.

The publication of the parts of the Bible story book is progressing. Part III has been published, Part IV is presently being printed, and Part V is in the process of translation.

For the missions in Italy we are cooperating with the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and are prayerfully looking forward to an evangelist for the mission post of Fornaci di Barga. An urgent request for Bibles and other reading matter - thanks to our Lord - has led to a contact with an evangelisation parish in Brazil.

With regard to the mission work in Spain, we can report the following - Evangelist Alarcon has returned from the Canary Islands to the Spanish continent. He is situated in Guadalajara. For his work in the surrounding area he will need, D.V. in the future, a simple Bible-van. The labor in Oviedo has been blessed. Evangelist Moragrega has gathered 14 people around him, who are looking for a proper place to meet under the administration of the Word. This is one of the difficulties which one has to face in the reformation work in Spain.

The same applies to the neighborhood of Granada, where a small group of people are living amidst a population which is entirely estranged from the Gospel. One of those people spent some time in Holland during the sixties. A member of our mission in company with a Dutch minister visited him and told him that this meant a good and many-sided mission field. An urgent request was made to the Spanish Evangelical Mission, and, at the moment, negotiations and investigations are being made. May the Lord crown all the mission labors at home and abroad with His blessings, so that it all may correspond with the great aim to honor His Name in the salvation of sinners and to the building of His church. May the labor of the mission contribute to this as does scaffolding in the construction of a building. May the Lord save through His Word and continue manifesting His guidance, to the praise of His grace in the mission fields.

Our prayer is - “O teach me, Lord, the way that I should go; Give understanding all Thy paths to know.”

With kindest mission greetings,

On behalf of the Board

Spanish Evangelical Mission

J.R. v. Oordt, secretary

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM

HAROLD AND FRAN POPOVITCH

(WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS)

Dear Timothy friends,

It is with a sense of shock that we realize how the time has flown and we have not written you to tell you how much we appreciate your generous interest in the work to which God has called us in Brazil. Thank you for your faithfulness in providing for our needs.

This has been a very busy year for us. The new year found us in the tribe with the whole family, taking advantage of an extended holiday vacation to work intensively on translation. Harold was ill part of the time and not able to accomplish all that he would have wished, but he worked on the final check of the abridgement of the book of Genesis. I started the translation of the book of Acts and finished the first eight chapters in first draft before coming out the end of January. The children then went back to school and we went to work on different assignments here in Brasilia.

When the school year ended, the family went back in to the tribe. This time we were able to complete Acts in first draft, I Timothy, and nearly half of II Timothy. The checking of the abridgement of Genesis was completed. Now Harold has been requested to teach elementary linguistics to National Foundation Indian worker trainees to help prepare them for dealing with Indian problems.

The children have begun another year of school: David, eighth grade? Jimmy, seventh; and Annette, fourth. Philip is now three and is ‘mother’s home companion’. The children seem to like the American school better this year than last, so that makes it nicer. All too soon we must face the problem of what to do about high school education.

Please remember to pray for special needs, including urgently needed housing, the job of translating (or pre-translation), and the Lord’s guidance in the decisions to be made.

In Him,

Harold and Fran Popovitch

A Glimpse of Mission Activity in Nigeria. Salome and Achetee, in their uniforms, are on the way to the huts in order to give medicines to the patients. In the background are the classrooms.

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN SEPTEMBER 1970

Classis East Source Amount

3 churches combined Mission Night Collection $1,650.00

Classis Midwest

Friend in Kalamazoo Gift 5.00

Norwick Missions Night Collection 431.87

InG.R. ch.col. Gift 75.00

InG.R. ch.col. Gift 25.00

G.R. Mission Night Collection 1,248.60

Friend in G.R. gift 10.00

Classis West

Corsica Mission Night Collection 161.71

Friend in Iowa Gift 125.00

Waupun Mission Night Collection 203.30

Classis Farwest

Fort Macloud Mission Night Collection 100.00

Artesian Mission Night Collection 305.25

Alberni Mission Night Collection 121.00

Lethbridge Mission Night Collection 330.43

Total 4,792.16

As you will notice several times mission night collection, that means the meetings that were held with Rev. Kuijt. We are sure that Rev. Kuijt enjoyed his visit to all the churches and we hope everyone enjoyed it. It has also brought a nice sum of money in the mission fund. We are glad to see the feeling of our people for the mission work. So if we are on the right place there is much to acknowledge the Lord for, that the Lord has spared and enabled Rev. Kuijt in all the traveling to meet all the churches. May it redown to the furtherance of God’s Kingdom and to the honor of His most Holy Name. In the name of the Mission Committee wc heartily thank everyone for their generous support. The Lord bless you and your gift.

American General Mission Fund

of the Netherlands Reformed Churches

of America and Canada

John Spaans, (Treasurer)

Plankinton Box 106 RR1

South Dakota 57368

MARTIN LUTHER

Student Days

Martin Luther’s schoolboy days ended at Eisanach, and by the time he was eighteen years of age he had fitted himself for entry into a university. By this time also Hans Luther’s earnings had considerably increased, so that the father could now afford to pay his son’s expenses. ‘My dear father,’ said the Reformer later, ‘maintained me at the university with loyal affection, and by his labour and the sweat of his brow enabled me to go there.’ Erfurt was the centre of learning fixed upon, and to it in the summer of 1501 the youthful student turned his steps. A merry, jovial young fellow, full of buoyant life, he little realized that even at this time God was preparing him almost imperceptibly for a career of activity which was to astonish Europe. Equally little did his parents, his friends, and his tutors realize that the light-hearted yet hardworking student, without influence, wealth, or high birth, was to be the originator of a movement which was to shake a proud and polluted church to its foundations. But God’s ‘chosen vessels’ are often hidden in obscurity until the time comes for their work to begin. They are in the deserts until the day of their showing unto Israel.

Of Luther’s studies at Erfurt little need be said. Seven subjects were taught at most universities during the Middle Ages: Grammar (the art of writing correctly); Rhetoric (the art of making effective speeches); Logic (the art of reasoning); and Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic, and Music. Latin was the language of learning and of the learned, and to this in the sixteenth century Greek was added. Erfurt indeed had the honour of being the first German University to issue a Greek book in Greek type. Luther greatly delighted in such study. Barren and unprofitable as much of it was, he pursued it with all the vigour of his soul, with the result that his intellect was sharpened and he became a master of debate and argument. It is impossible to explain in few words exactly why Luther’s studies at this period of his life were mostly barren. Suffice it to say that they dealt much with hairsplitting distinctions, and were clothed in a phraseology which was totally beyond the apprehension of all but the learned few. It was for this reason that in after years, when Luther had been enlightened by the entrance into his soul of God’s word, he greatly regretted the time he had wasted in ‘philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men and not after Christ’; and even spoke of these studies with disgust.

In due course Luther took his degree as Master of Arts at his university. ‘What a moment of majesty and splendour,’ he said later, ‘was that when one took the degree of Master, and torches were carried before, and honour was paid one. I consider that no temporal or worldly joy can equal it.’

Luther’s studies, however, were not yet ended. His general education was completed, it is true, but the time had now arrived when he must decide what profession in life he was to follow. His father and several of his relations considered that his acute mind would enable him to excel as a lawyer, and bowing to their wishes in the absence of any definite schemes of his own, he prepared himself for a course of lectures in law and purchased expensive text-books for the purpose. However by this time the Lord was beginning to deal with his soul, and it will be necessary for us to leave Luther at his legal studies for a brief period in order to return to his earlier life once again, and inquire as to his knowledge of God and of the grace of God that bringeth salvation.

It has already been seen that Luther had been brought up in a home where the Name of God was held in reverence, but where the Word of God was almost entirely unknown. ‘The entrance of Thy Word giveth light,’ sang the Psalmist, but this light was altogether absent from homes and hearts alike in the case of countless German families of the early sixteenth century. Printed Bibles were still very expensive, but stronger reason still against their use — the Roman Catholic clergy warned the people against them. Luther never set eyes upon a Bible until he was in his twentieth year, and then as it were accidentally, but actually in God’s good purpose, he came across a copy in a monastic library to which as a university student he had access.

As a youth Luther was taught to think of God as holy and unapproachable and as One who punished sin. He had no light or contemptuous thoughts of the majesty and greatness of God, nor of the terrors of hell for the sinner under His wrath and displeasure. But (great omission!) he was not taught to regard Christ as the Way, the only Way, to the Father, and as the One who put away, who alone could put away, sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Rather did he regard Christ as an angry, threatening Judge, and sinful man must seek protection from Him at the hands of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, and at the hands of other saints. Certain saints were often associated with particular localities. Thus in the mining district of Saxony where Hans Luther was settled, St. Anna, whom the Catholic church regarded as the mother of the Virgin Mary, was held in high honour, and Martin Luther himself, when a boy, wished to place himself under her protection. From earliest days indeed Roman Catholic traditions made no small impression on Luther. Even during his busy student life he never lost his regard for religious observances. Every day was begun with prayer; every day he attended mass. At regular intervals he attended the confessional. To the utmost of his ability he endeavoured to obey the Divine law so as to earn God’s favour and smile. When his conscience charged him with failure and wrongdoing he laboured to quiet its burning accusations by performing the duties and satisfactions taught by the church. He did not understand, nor was he taught, that Christ welcomes burdened, despairing sinners to Himself, and puts away their sin and guilt freely by His grace. Instead he imagined that he must produce good works and do his utmost to fulfil God’s righteous law. When he heard such sayings as ‘Serve the Lord with fear,’ he understood them to mean the fear which the slave has for a harsh and brutal master, and not the fear which a son has for a kind and loving father.

As year followed year and no remedy presented itself to Luther’s soul, fits of despair seized him; and he was tempted to blaspheme God, because like the servant in the parable, he thought Him to be austere and hard, reaping where He had not sowed and gathering where He had not strawed. If illness afflicted him, thoughts of death presented themselves before him, and plunged him into deep gloom, though in one such illness a friend who visited him, seeing his melancholy and distressed state of mind said, ‘Take courage; God will yet make you the means of comfort to many others; which words, it is recorded, were strongly impressed upon him.

These exercises of soul belong chiefly to Luther’s later student days. To those days, also, belongs the discovery of the Bible which has already been mentioned. Erfurt possessed several Latin Bibles, printed by the machines designed by John Guttenberg, the inventor of the printing press. Luther was greatly surprised to find that the Bible contained very much that the church kept back from the people. His surprise was followed by joy as for the first time, in turning the Bible page, the story of Hannah and the infant Samuel came to his notice. ‘Oh God,’ he prayed, “could I possess one of these books, I should ask no other worldly treasure!’

The youthful Luther was further impressed and distressed by several incidents, the first being an accident which befell him while he journeyed home one holiday season from Erfurt. As was usual for students in those days he carried at his side a rapier or dagger which in some way became detached from its sheath, and fell, severing the main artery of his leg. His companion at once went for the doctor, and Luther was left alone to press the wound tightly and prevent the blood from gushing forth. For some little time he lay upon the roadway face to face with death, and had not help been speedily forthcoming, his life blood would probably have fast ebbed away. In utter distress of mind and an agony of soul he had never before experienced, he called upon the Virgin for help, and doubtless vowed to serve her faithfully, when succour at length arrived and his life was saved.

On another occasion one of Luther’s bosom companions suddenly met his death, and tradition has it that he was struck down at his side by a stroke of lightning while Luther himself was spared. Be this as it may, it is certainly true that at the age of twenty-one Luther was journeying near Erfurt when a terrific storm broke over his head. A vivid flash of lightning passed before his eyes, followed by thunder which seemed to rend the heavens. Stricken with fear he fell prostrate to the ground, and exclaimed amid his terrors, ‘Help, Anna, beloved saint, I will be a monk.’ A few days later he bade farewell to his friends. ‘Do not be so rash,’ they said. ‘Today you see me,’ he replied, ‘and never again.’ The next day he presented himself at the gate of a monastery in Erfurt and, being an accomplished scholar, he found it an easy matter to gain admission. As the doors closed behind him he thought he had finished with the world, and was at last in a path which would give him acceptance with God. In the life of a monk he hoped to find the solution for all his problems and perplexities, and the heavenly peace which would banish all his fears. Little did he realize how great was his mistake. But God knew, and the hand of God was upon him for good. Soon he was to learn great and mighty things which so far had been hidden from his eyes.

(To be continued)

‘By the grace of God I am what I am’(l Cor. 15:10).

I am not what I ought to be; I am not what I wish to be; I am not what I hope to be. But, blessed be God, I am not what I used to be; and by the grace of God I am what I am.’

THANKSGIVING

We have come to know Thanksgiving as a day of festivity and sometimes are prone to forget that it is first a day of devotion. We assign its beginnings, by tradition, to the first harvest brought in by the Pilgrims in the New World, forgetting that in their vision of life every day was to be so lived that it should bring an increase in praise to the Lord.

The Englishmen who came to Plymouth in 1620 had traveled a long road before they came here — from the midlands of their home country to Amsterdam, then to Leyden, then across the great sea before they came to safe haven. Their spiritual leader thru their earlier pilgrimage was the Rev. John Robinson. When part of his flock sailed for New England, he was obliged to remain behind at Leyden, but he intended to follow them later.

Death prevented, but the Pilgrims departed with his blessing and his counsel.

“I am constrained for a time to be bodily absent from you,” he told them. “Think of me as a man divided in himself with great pain, and as having his better part with you.

“You are, many of you, stranger to each other and to the infirmities of one another, and so stand in the need of more watchfulness, lest when unsuspected qualities appear in men and women, you be inordinately affected by them. This requires at your hands much wisdom and charity.

“How much more is it to be heeded lest we take offense at God Himself — which we do as often as we murmur at His Providence in our crosses, or bear impatiently such afflictions as He pleases to visit on us.

“Lastly, whereas you are to become a body politic, administering among yourselves civil government, and are furnished with persons of no special eminence above the rest, from whom you will elect some to the office of government, let your wisdom and godliness appear, not only in choosing such persons as will entirely love and promote the common good, but also in yielding them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administrations.

“These few things, therefore, I do earnestly commend unto your care and conscience, joining therewith my daily incessant prayers to the Lord, that He who has made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all rivers of waters, would so guide and guard you in your ways, as inwardly by His spirit, so outwardly by the hand of His power, that both you and we also may praise His name all the days of our lives.”

The spirit of reverence and duty with which the voyage of the Pilgrims was launched is one that will guide us well in this day. When men are good, their works are good, and then there is ample cause for thanksgiving.

Editorial in Chicago Tribune

How many in these days have fallen, first to have low thoughts of Scripture and ordinances, and then to slight Scripture and ordinances, and then to make a nose of wax of Scripture and ordinances, and then to cast off Scripture and ordinances, and then at last to advance and lift up themselves, and their Christ-dishonouring and soul-damning opinions, above Scripture and ordinances.

–Thomas Brooks

THE PILGRIM FATHERS

John Stough ton

This originally appeared in Stoughton’s Spiritual Heroes (1848). 1970 is the 350th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower and the city of Plymouth is calling it ‘Mayflower Year’.

‘I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else worse,’ was the exclamation of King James respecting the Puritans at the mock conference held in the old withdrawing-room of Hampton Court, that monument of Cardinal Wolsey’s pride and fall, of ecclesiastical despotism and humiliation. ‘I will harry them out of the land’ was the merciful resolve of that orthodox prince, before whom, at the close of the second day’s conference, Bancroft fell upon his knees and said, ‘I protest, my heart melteth for joy, that Almighty God, of His singular mercy, has given us such a king as since Christ’s time has not been’. ‘James’, adds Daniel Neale, somewhat drily, ‘was as good as his word.’ Many a conscientious Puritan was driven from the shores of his fatherland to seek an asylum in a foreign country, and thus England lost some of her richest jewels, if citizens of integrity and uprightness be a nation’s wealth, and some of her best royal blood, if there be truth in the lines of one of the bards of James’ native land —

‘The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor,

Is king of men for a’ that’.

The Low Countries, as to religious liberty far surpassing the rest of Europe, afforded cities of refuge for the victims of persecution. The fact was then thrown in the teeth of Holland as a reproach, and it formed the spice of many a piece of wit at the Dutchmen’s expense, but their conduct redounded to their everlasting honour. Many of the Puritans of the Presbyterian school sought a home in Holland, and formed churches there upon their own principles: and the peculiar pressure of the persecuting times on the men who held the system of Independency might well constrain them to seek a resting place in the same free land.

There was a little flock of persecuted ones who dwelt in that part of England where Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire border on each other. They had a grave and reverend preacher, Mr. Richard Clyfton, who had been an instrument in the conversion of many, and among their number there was ‘that famous and worthy man, Mr. John Robinson, and also Mr. William Brewster, a reverend man, who was afterwards chosen an elder of the Church’. Robinson, whose intimate connnection with the Pilgrim Fathers will bring him prominently before us in this article, had been a clergyman in the Church of England and had held a benefice in Norfolk, where he was often molested by the Bishop’s officers, while his friends were almost ruined in the ecclesiastical courts; and as to Brewster, it may be remarked that he had held offices of trust under Secretary Davison, the unfortunate person whom Elizabeth made a scapegoat in the melancholy affair of Mary Queen of Scots. He had retired into the country, where he lived respected, and had been by degrees led to espouse the principles of Separatism, upon which he opened his house as a place of worship for the persons we have mentioned. But they felt themselves in peril from their eagle-eyed persecutors and resolved to seek religious freedom under the government of Holland.

On one occasion, a company of these freedom-seeking exiles appointed as a place of rendezvous the town of Boston, in Lincolnshire, at which port they were to embark in a vessel they had hired for the purpose. The party arrived, but the ship did not appear. Day after day they waited in the place with anxious hearts, till at length news reached them that the ark of refuge they were longing for would be ready to take them away at the appointed time at night for greater safety. They and their goods were taken on board when, to their unutterable surprise and agony, they found themselves betrayed by the unprincipled captain into the hands of their enemies, who entered the vessel, took them prisoners, rifled them of their money, searched their persons, treated the women with the rudest indelicacy, and then led the whole party in triumph through the streets of Boston, for a gazing-stock and a reproach. Brought before the magistrates, these innocent victims of intolerance found favour in their sight, though they were put in ward; but as soon as an order of council could be obtained, the greater part were dismissed; seven of these persons, however, among whom was Brewster, were cruelly detained in prison till the next courts were held.

This happened in 1607; in the spring of the following year some of the same parties, in connection with others like minded, made a further attempt to escape from oppression in their native land. But this time they would not trust an Englishman. They met with a Dutch captain at Hull who had a ship of his own, and they arranged with him for their passage. A solitary part of the beach, between Grimsby and Hull, far away from any town, was selected as the place of embarkation. The women and children, it was arranged, should go thither by sea, in a small vessel, the men by land. The former reached their destination the day before the Dutch ship arrived, and put into a little creek, where lying at low water they found protection from the ocean’s swell, and some relief from their distressing sea-sickness. In that condition they spent the night. How comfortless! the loud winds sweeping over them, the hollow moaning of the waves at the midnight hour (for the sea was rough), deepening the melancholy feelings that agitated their breasts. The next morning the longed-for ship arrived. Gladly was it welcomed by the women and children in their little bark, and by the fathers and husbands, too, who had been walking up and down the shore with deep anxiety. A boat was sent off from the ship, and it was thought best to take some of the men on board first. A party of them were conveyed there accordingly, and the boat returned to receive another load, when, to the terror of all present, a number of persons, some on horse, some on foot, armed with guns and other weapons, where seen approaching the spot, evidently for the purpose of arresting the fugitives.

The Dutch captain was alarmed, swore by the sacrament he would not stay, and spreading his sails to a favourable wind, which had risen, weighed anchor, and was soon out of sight. With what aching hearts did the poor exiles in the vessel look towards the receding shores, to their disconsolate companions, and their precious wives and children, who stood there ‘crying for fear and quaking with cold’. The men had no property on board, not even a change of raiment, and scarcely a penny in their pockets; but the loss of their possessions was nothing to the cruel stroke which served them from those they best loved on earth. As the wide field of waters spreads between these separated ones, we hardly know which most to pity, those poor widows, who look with agony on their little children, playing about the sands, chasing the tide, and gathering up the pebbles, unconscious of their evil lot; and those elder orphans, able to understand the woe which has come over them, and whose cries, together with their mothers’, mingle with the deep roar of the breakers; or those men on board, who weep and pray, and would give the world to be on land again, to share the destiny of the sufferers they are leaving behind. On the approach of the officers, some of the men on shore escaped, others remained to assist the women. The whole party was apprehended and conveyed from constable to constable till their persecutors were weary with the trouble of so large a number of captives and permitted them to go their way. As to those who were in the Dutch vessel, the elements warred against them. A fearful storm drove them on the coast of Norway; ‘nor sun, nor moon, nor stars for many days appeared’. The mariners despaired of life, and once gave up all for lost, thinking the ship had foundered. (But when,) says one who was on board, ‘man’s hope and help wholly failed, the Lord’s power and mercy appeared for their recovery, for the ship rose again and gave the mariners courage again to manage her; and, if modesty would suffer me, I might declare with what fervent prayers they cried unto the Lord in this great distress, especially some of them, even without any great distraction. When the waters ran into their very ears and mouths, and the mariners cried out, “We sink! we sink!” they cried, if not with miraculous yet with a great height of divine faith, “Yet, Lord, Thou canst save — yet, Lord, Thou canst save!” And He who holds the winds in His fist and the waters in the hollow of His hands did hear and save them.

‘In the end’, it is added, ‘notwithstanding all these storms of opposition, they all got over at length, some at one time, and some at another, and met together again, according to their desires, with no small rejoicing.’

Everyone who has visited a foreign country must remember the peculiar feelings he experienced when he first stepped upon its shores. The novelty of the scene, the architecture of the houses and churches, the dress, manners and language of the people, and a number of little things, in perfect contrast with what he has been accustomed to witness at home, excite a state of mind which can be more easily recollected than described. But it makes a wide difference whether the stranger be a tourist in quest of recrea¬tion, or an exile in search of a home. The feeling of strangeness which in the one case becomes the basis of pleasurable emotions, in the other case spreads coldly over the heart. And if there be no prospect of returning back to scenes endeared by the associations of childhood, and by still more sacred attachments — if the absence, in all probability, be for life, then is the sadness increased a thousandfold; and He who knows what is in man, and watches every chord of human feeling as it vibrates, has noted down this sorrow with a touching sympathy in those beautiful words, ‘Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country’. It was with such feelings that the English refugees landed on the shores of Holland.

‘They heard,’ says Bradford in this narrative, ‘a strange and uncouth language, and beheld the different manners and customs of the people, with their strange fashions and attires, all so differing from that of their plain country villages wherein they were bred and born, and had so long lived, as it seemed they were come into a new world.’ Amsterdam was the place to which, in the first instance, they looked as their future home. Since the Pacification of Ghent in 1578, this remarkable city had amazingly advanced in mercantile importance and was rising to that preeminence among the cities of the Low Countries which in the middle ages had distinguished Antwerp. But as they mused on what they saw, they must have gathered a lesson suited to their situation, and full of encouragement. Their own energy and perseverance, under the blessing of God, formed their only means of subsistence; and what those qualities of character could do was demonstrated in the growing power and opulence of that remarkable city. It was a spot literally won from the ocean by human toil, and secured by an immense dam from inundation. Its houses were built on a morass, yet they rested on a firm base, constructed of huge piles, a circumstance which gave rise to the saying of Erasmus, the multitudes of his countrymen were like birds, living on the top of trees.

Amsterdam, however, was not altogether a city of strangers. There were some there already who, like themselves, had left the shores of England for conscience sake. Some Puritans, among whom was the celebrated Dr. Ames, had at an early period established themselves in the city; and now there had been for several years in the same place a Congregational Church. Indeed, it was a portion of the very community whose formation in St. Nicholas Lane we described in a former chapter. Not long after that interesting circumstance, such of the members as could leave their native land were glad to escape to Holland, under the care of Mr. Johnson, their pastor, and Mr. Ainsworth, their teacher. These men were now presiding over the flock at Amsterdam. They, particularly the latter, were men of talent and learning, but unhappily discords afterwards arose between them which led to fierce controversy. Johnson was a man of ardent temperament and strict principle, and gave great offence by excommunicating from the Church his own brother and father. The disturbance in the Church was increased by some frivolous complaints, made by certain members, respecting Mrs. Johnson’s dress, who, being a person of some wealth, was rather smarter than her grave sisters, wearing, it is said, ‘cork shoes’ and ‘whalebone in the bodice and sleeves of her gown’. Ainsworth is described as a man of ‘meek spirit and calm temper, void of passion, and not easily provoked’; yet the misunderstanding between him and his more excitable colleague prevailed to such an extent that they separated from each other and the Church divided.

Before these unhappy discussions broke out the Church at Amsterdam was in great prosperity. With feelings of deep veneration and pleasure did the descendants of the exiles dwell on their virtues and the scenes they had hallowed by their abode and worship. The traditions of those days were among the choicest themes of conversation among the Pilgrims after they had settled down in New England. We fancy we see a family group listening to stories of the olden time from the lips of the grey-headed sire, who had known the worthies of the Amsterdam Church: and surely the little ones would look very grave as they heard their father tell of a certain venerable woman, whom we find mentioned with much honour in the records of that period as an ornament to her profession, who used to sit in a convenient place in the congregation with a birch rod in her hand, keeping the juveniles in awe and thereby preventing any disturbance in the course of worship.

In connection with the Church at Amsterdam the name of Ainsworth demands further notice. He was the author of a learned commentary on the five books of Moses, a work still highly prized by the biblical scholar. Indeed, his ability was so greatly esteemed that he was deemed by competent contemporary judges as one of the first Hebraists in Europe. It is affecting to read of this great man’s poverty, soon after his arrival in the Low Countries, when, owing partly to the straitened circumstances of his friends, but chiefly to his own disinclination to inform them of his necessities, he subsisted, it is said, upon the miserable pittance of ninepence a week; but when the circumstance became known, and the means of the congregation increased, a comfortable provision was cheerfully made for the wants of this disinterested man. If what Neale says is correct, this able divine met with an untimely end: having found a diamond in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised the fact, and a Jew came to him and claimed the lost valuable. On being asked what reward he desired, the enthusiastic scholar requested a conference with the Rabbis on the prophecies of the Old Testament respecting Christ, which the Jew promised to obtain for him. But ‘not having interest enough to obtain it, it is thought Ainsworth was poisoned’.

Robinson and his party did not tarry in Amsterdam more than a year. The spirit of strife, which unhappily prevailed there, greatly distressed them, and they thought it advisable to remove to Leyden, where happily they found a peaceful home for many years. Robinson was now their pastor, the venerable Richard Clyfton, who had watched over them in England with so much success, and who had accompanied them to Holland, being compelled to resign his charge from advanced age. The veteran’s ‘white beard’ is particularly mentioned in the New England traditions.

While Amsterdam was rising in mercantile wealth, Leyden was rising in literary reputation. By a singular but honourable preference, the citizens, on being offered by the Prince of Orange, in 1575, as a reward for their valour during the famous siege, either a remission of taxes or the foundation of a university, at once chose the latter. The city obtained the name of the Athens of the West; but with its cloisters of learning it combined busy manufactures: while in one street the student was engaged with his books, in another the weaver was sitting at his loom; but all breathed quietude and liberty; and one can scarcely imagine a more inviting home than that which Leyden presented to these weary-worn pilgrims who came along the pleasant road from Amsterdam ‘seeking peace above all other riches’. If the history of the city they had left was calculated to stimulate them to industry, the history of the city they entered was adapted to keep alive their love of freedom. Traces might still be seen of the effects of the heroic deed performed by the citizens of Leyden when, contending for their liberties, they preferred to inundate the city and neighbourhood rather than submit to the cruel tyranny of Spain.

But if Leyden afforded a peaceful retreat, that was almost the only advantage it presented to our pilgrims, for the city being far inferior to Amsterdam in wealth and trade, it afforded them but a poor prospect of maintenance. Industry, however, was not one of the least valuable traits in their characters, and setting themselves to work at such trades as they were competent to perform or able to learn, they obtained a humble and honest subsistence. Men who had bartered their prospects in life for liberty and religion were not the men to be paralysed by any difficulty which courage and zeal could overcome. Such of them as had learned the art of weaving employed themselves at the Leyden looms. Others were initiated into the craft of silk-dyeing, and some worked as printers.

But though their temporal circumstances were never very prosperous, their spiritual enjoyment in each other’s society, and under the ministry of their beloved pastor, Mr. Robinson, was very great. ‘Yea, such was the mutual love and respect that this worthy man had to his flock, and his flock to him, that it might be said of them, as it was once said of that famous emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and the people of Rome, that it was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having such a people or they in having such a pastor.’ The society flourished both in the graces of the spirit and in accessions to their numbers; for so remarkable was their peace and unity, that they attracted others like-minded with themselves from their native country, so that the Church in time amounted to nearly three hundred members. When any differences arose in this primitive Christian community, they were straightway nipped in the bud by judicious treatment: when any parties acted inconsistently they were reproved in the spirit of love; and when they proved incorrigible, which was seldom the case, they were solemnly cut off from communion.

Though strict in their discipline and strongly attached to their distinctive principles, they were far from being bigots. Robinson was a man of large-hearted benevolence, and he breathed his own beautiful spirit over his flock. Nothing more offended the good man than to witness a great rigidity in the enforcement of subordinate matters, especially when such sternness on points of outward order was associated, as is sometimes the case, with considerable laxity in points of moral conduct. He knew how to estimate ‘the tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin’, in their relative value to the weightier matters of the law. Schism he condemned, and division he deplored. From the government and ceremonies of the Church of England his conscience compelled him to dissent, but was prepared to welcome the pious of that and all other Christian communions to the fellowship of the Lord’s table. ‘Our faith is not negative,’ he observes, ‘nor consists in the condemning of others, and wiping their names out of the roll of churches, but in the edifying of ourselves; neither require we of any of ours, in the confession of their faiths, that they either renounce or in one word contest with the Church of England.’

The brethren of Leyden always treated with honour the Reformed Churches of the Continent; and members of those communities might be seen participating with them in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. When on one occasion a Scotch refugee minister, residing in Leyden, and in the habit of attending on Mr. Robinson’s preaching, requested, at the close of the sermon, that he might tarry as a spectator during the holy communion, the pastor replied, ‘Reverend Sir, you may not only stay to behold us, but partake with us, if you please, for we acknowledge the churches of Scotland to be the churches of Christ’. The minister, however, felt some difficulty in accepting this invitation, lest his rigid brethren at home should take offence at the proceeding.

Distinguished by so much unity, peacefulness, consistency and true-hearted love, our exiles could not but win the sincere respect of the Leyden citizens. The latter took their word, because they had found the strangers always prepared to keep it. They were glad to trade with them, ready to employ them, and, when circumstances required, to assist them by loans. After the tradespeople of the city had thus for a long period evinced their esteem of the English congregation, the magistrates on the bench of justice, upon the departure of their city guests to their new home on the other side of the Atlantic, publicly bore testimony to their social virtues, declaring that the English had lived among them twelve years and yet no suit or accusation had ever been brought against any of them. The reputation of their pastor for sanctity and learning no doubt greatly tended to raise the respectability of the Church in the estimation of the Dutch people. Circumstances afforded him ample scope for the display of his talents. The disputes between the Arminians and Calvinists raged in Leyden during his residence there, and in that far-famed controversy the English divine was called upon to take a part.

Episcopius had succeeded Arminius as divinity professor, and was zealously advocating the opinions of his renowned predecessor. Polyander, another professor of theology in the same college, with equal warmth supported the Calvin-istic side of the controversy. Robinson, who was a thoughtful, well-skilled and earnest theologian, could not but feel an interest in this grand religious dispute of the day, and therefore attended the lectures of both these eminent champions. He himself was a decided Calvinist, and by his studies at this time became more than ever master of the subject. His theological reputation rendered him a formidable opponent and a valuable ally, and therefore the Calvinists courted his assistance, while the Arminians feared his attacks. Episcopius having put forth certain theses and challenged his opponents to public disputes, Polyander requested Robinson to enter the lists. The English refugee, as modest as he was learned, at first shrunk from the idea, till, overcome by the persuasions of his friends, and still more by a sense of duty, he consented to accept the challenge. Robinson honourably acquitted himself in these disputations, and won increased respect and love from the Calvinists, at that time the leading party in Holland, Indeed, so great was their esteem for him, that it is affirmed he would have received some expression of national favour had it not been for the fear of giving offence to the King of England.

(To be continued)

Prayer, like Jonathan’s bow, returns not empty. Never was faithful prayer lost at sea. No merchant trades with such certainty, as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others; but then return with the richer lading at last.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS’ RESPECT FOR THE SABBATH

It is well known that the Pilgrim Fathers, weary of their perils at sea and eager for a foothold on shore, refused to disembark at Plymouth Rock on the day of their arrival, because inasmuch as the day was Saturday, they could not reach the land and establish themselves before the night that brought in the Lord’s Day. Their mast was broken in three places, their rudder was disabled, the fierce wind was driving sleet and snow in their faces, yet when they found themselves on Saturday at Clark’s Island, not for them the coveted shores of the mainland, they would not cross the intervening water nor begin their homemaking on the Lord’s Day. Instead they waited in the December cold and discomfort till Monday ere they landed at Plymouth Rock. They stayed on Clark’s Island because they wished to obey the Fourth Commandment. Such was their interpretation of works of necessity and mercy on their Day of Rest.

Dr. Alexander Mackenzie has well said — “If I were to build a monument to the Pilgrims, one which should generously represent the character of the men, it should be on Clark’s Island. It was the indulgence of their fondest desires to step on Plymouth Rock. They had not come in that wintry time to lose a day of waiting hard by the place where they were to abide. But they stayed on Clark’s Island because they loved God and reverenced His law. That persistence and that principle — the lingering there because the next day was Sabbath — I think is more heroic than the comparatively tame act of stepping their foot upon the shore they had crossed the sea to find.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN TENNETH

(conclusion)

In his public discourses, not to mention the justness of his method, the beauty of his style, and the fluency of his expression, by which he chained his not unwilling hearers to his lips, he was very awakening and terrible to unbelievers in denouncing and describing with the most vehement pathos and awful solemnity the terrors of an offended Deity, the threats of a broken law, and the miseries of a sinful state. And this subject, he insisted much upon, because he, with many others, found it the most effectual and successful means to alarm secure sinners. He used a close, distinguishing, and detecting method in the application of his sermons; which, with his pungent mode of expression, was very piercing and solemn. But, as Dr. Watts observes of Mr. Gouge, he knew the pity of Immanuel’s heart as well as the terrors of Jehovah’s hand. He was as tender and compassionate in his addresses to gracious souls as faithful to brandish and apply the law’s lancet to the cure: and he was as willing to do the one as the other. But, indeed, he was very cautious of misapplying the different portions of the word to his hearers; or of setting before them only a common mess, and leaving it to them to divide among themselves, as their fancy and humour directed them; for he well knew that was the bane of preaching. Once more, he was a successful preacher. When he was under trials for the ministry, he was much exercised with doubts, difficulties, and distresses about his call to this great and awful trust, but it pleased God to dissipate these clouds, and to afford to his perplexed and anxious mind abundant satisfaction respecting this matter, by the numerous seals which crowned his public labors; for as the famous Rutherford says, “it is not probable that God would seal a blank.” It may be truly said of him that he gained more poor sinners to Christ in that little compass of time which he had to improve in the ministerial work, which was about three and a half years, than many in the space of twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years. Many souls have and will have reason through eternity to bless God that ever they saw him. But though he was thus honored with smiles of heaven upon his labors; and though favored with the kind regards of a loving and generous people, who had it been possible would have plucked out their eyes and have given them to him; so that no minister before was ever the object of a more respectful regard and sympathy; yet was he far from being exalted in his own mind, but through grace retained a just, grateful, and humble sense of God’s distinguishing goodness and his own unworthiness. As he drew to his end, his love for his people and concern for their welfare increased. He would often express himself to one of his brothers, in such a language as the following, “I am grieved for my people, for I fear they will be left to wander as sheep without a shepherd; or get one that will pull down what I have poorly endeavoured to build up.” His brother, who watched with him in his sickness, has frequently overheard him in the deep silence of the night, wrestling with God by prayer, sobs and tears, for his people. Yea, when so reduced by consumption that he could scarce walk alone, he bore the pains of his lingering disease with unbroken patience, and silent submission to His Father’s pleasure, through the ruins of his decayed frame.

On Saturday evening — the last evening of his life — he was seized with a violent pang of death which was thought by his attendants to be his last; from which unexpectedly recovering and observing a confusion among them, he addressed one whom he saw uncommonly affected, with a cheerful countenance, in the following words, “I would not have you think the worse of the ways of holiness, because you see me in such agonies of distress, for I know there is a crown of glory in heaven for me, which I shall shortly wear.” Afterwards in the night, he often prayed, “Come Lord Jesus, why dost Thou linger?” Some time before day, he repeated with humble confidence the last words of David, “Although my house be not so with God, yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation and my desire.”

2 Sam. 23:5.

About the break of the day, he called his brother William to prayer, and earnestly desired him to implore Heaven for his speedy removal, for, he said, he longed to be gone. About eight or nine o’clock of the next day, which was the Sabbath, his desire was granted, when it pleased his Master to translate him to the great assembly of the just, “the church of the firstborn,” there to celebrate an eternal Sabbath, in praises and songs of triumph.

A few minutes before he expired, holding his brother William by the hand, he broke out into the following rapturous expressions; “Farewell, my brethren, farewell father and mother; farewell world, with all thy vain delight. Welcome, God and Father — welcome, sweet Lord Jesus! Welcome death — welcome eternity. Amen!” Then with a low voice, he said, “Lord, Jesus, Come, Lord Jesus!” And so he fell asleep in Christ, and obtained an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of his God and Saviour. He was buried in the grave-yard near the church where he preached, and where his tombstone may yet be seen. The Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabethtown, composed for his tombstone the following epitaph:

Who quick grew old in learning, virtue, grace,

Quick finished, well-yielded to death’s embrace:

Whose mouldered dust, this cabinet contains,

Whose soul triumphant, with bright seraphs reigns;

Waiting the time ‘till heaven’s bright concave flame.

And the last trump repairs his ruined frame.

Much praise cannot be awarded to the poetry of the forgoing epitaph, but it serves to show in what estimation Mr. Tenneth was held by one of the most theologians of his day.

His death occurred on the 23rd day of April, 1732, in the twenty-fifth year of his age.

Mr. Gilbert Tenneth, with the memoir of his brother John, published also one of his sermons. The subject is “Regeneration;” and is treated in a clear discriminating manner.

As far as can be judged from the accounts which have come down to us respecting this young pastor, and from the afore said discourse, there is no reason to conclude that both in piety and talents he was not inferior to any one of his brothers; and that if he had lived to the usual period of human life, he would have been a burning and a shining light in the church.

The people of his charge were greatly attached to him, and exceedingly lamented his death. There is still extant the fragment of an old manuscript book, kept by the session of his church, in which is contained the following entry:

“A mournful providence and cause of great humiliation to this poor congregation, to be bereaved in the flower of youth, of the most laborious, successful, well-qualified, and pious pastor this age afforded; though but a youth of twenty-four years five months and eleven days.”

In this record he is called ‘the reverend and dear Mr. John Tenneth.”

From “The Log College.”

There were many excellencies of David. Oh, but what doth David account the prerogative of a man? ‘Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, in whose spirit there is no guile,’ Psa. 32,2; that is, that is truly sanctified in spirit; that is in the state of justification; and as a witness of that, of the forgiveness of his sins, hath a spirit without guile. Happy is that man, not that is a king, or a prophet, or a strong man, or a beautiful man, or hath this endowment or that; but happy is the man whose sins are forgiven, and whose spirit is sanctified. — Dr. Sibbes.

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