It was a joy to be at the first of a series of Monday Seminars at LTS with Grant Gordon from Toronto. He has a lovely conversational style and began by explaining how he came to be in Europe at present, chiefly as part of a holiday but also doing research on John Newton. He described himself as an amateur historian as his main role has been in supervising ministerial students. His interest began about 24 years ago and since then he has made some interesting discoveries, including the recently published letters between Newton and Ryland. He has also discovered a long lost and unpublished diary of Newton, which includes many sermons by Whitefield and Wesley.
He spoke of his affection for Newton as arising from the fact that he was a normal human being rather one of these holier than thou types. His letters are his great legacy. He was a Calvinist but did not make his Calvinism obvious in an unhelpful way. There was a transparency about him that is attractive.
We then had an overview of Newton's life using interesting slides.
(Born 1725, at 6 his mother died, 11-17 At sea with father then on hos own for two ears. Aged 19-28 he was involved in the slave trade [22 converted, 23-29 Four trips, 24 Marries Mary] 29 Epileptic fit, quits seafaring, 1755-1764 Tide surveyor Liverpool, 1764-1779 minister in Olney, 1779-1807 Minister in London, St Mary Woolnoth.)
He also gave a brief outline for Ryland (1753 Born son of a Baptist pastor, 1759 Father becomes pastor,1767 Converted and baptised, 1768 Meets Newton, 1781 28 co-pastor with father, 1783 Baptises Carey, 1785-1792 sole pastor of College Lane, 1792 BMS formed, 1794-1825 Pastor Broadmead and Principal Baptist Academy).
The rest of the time was taken up with extracts from Newton's letters showing Newton's pastoral wisdom.
A short time of questions followed before the second seminar.
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