Blog of the Week 9

John Elias

They said he was the Methodist Pope
With his hardline ways they could not cope.
He'd thunder and flash,
Turn falsehoods to ash,
He gave Wales the message of hope.

John Elias was one of the leading preachers of Wales in his time. I first heard of him as a teenager, when Banner republished Edmund Morgan's biography. I'm not sure what prompted this blog. I began it, however, in 2007. It can be found here. There are 82 posts there. There have been about 1440 hits or so, 

Most popular post on the blog is a notice about the translation of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Fathers, which has two chapters about Elias. You can find it here.

John Cennick

John Wesley’s House & The Museum of Methodism

This is a post-dated blog post. In the business of things I omitted just to mention that on Monday lunch time I was at the Evangelical Library lecturing on John Cennick. We had a decent turn out and several were happy to hear more about a rather forgotten hero from Church history.

I simply gave the life story as I understand it. I concluded with these closing observations

Cennick left some 40 sermons and 750 hymns of varying quality. The main lessons to learn from his life are perhaps in the areas of how hard Christian unity is, holiness and evangelistic zeal.

1. How hard Christian unity is. Cennick was driven out by the Wesleyans and there was not much he could have done to prevent it. When he left for the Moravians, however, no-one forced him and the Moravians did little to encourage him to join them. He was obviously convinced that it was the right thing to do, however. It did nothing to increase unity.

2. Holiness. In his biography of Wesley, Luke Tyerman wrote

Cennick had his weaknesses; but, in deadness to the world, communion with God, Christian courage and cheerful patience, he had few superiors.

J E Hutton wrote that

Of all the great preachers of the eighteenth century, not one was superior to him in beauty of character. He was inferior to John Wesley in organising skill, and inferior to Whitefield in dramatic power; but in devotion, in simplicity, and in command over his audience he was equal to either.

3. Evangelistic zeal. Cennick probably preached some eight or nine thousand times between 1739 and 1755, often to huge crowds. He was often persecuted and yet his zeal knew no respite. Here is a brief passage from a late sermon preached in Ireland. It is quite Moravian in style but shows the passion with which he preached

Behold him behold the Lamb of God! Those open arms are extended to embrace you; that pained breast was made bare, that you might lean there and be comforted; that cross of his was raised up to screen and shelter you, like a great tree, from the burning heat of the wrath of Almighty God; those wounds are the cities of refuge, set open that you might turn in and be safe; that reverend head was bowed down to listen to your complaint and sighs, and those dear lips stooped to kiss you, the blood which runs down from all parts, from head to foot, hastened to make a river of life, that you might drink and live for ever, that you might wash and be clean. O go to him, venture near him, spread your hands and hearts towards this temple, make your prayers towards this gate of heaven, and apply fearless and with trust, to him who was lifted up and slain, and you shall find help.

How we need such preaching today.

Llangeitho

Yesterday (Wednesday) a friend here in Aber (Mike Iliff) kindly took a myself and another minister friend (Peter McKenzie) down to Llangeitho. It's only about 20 miles away but for some reason I had never been.

The main thing to see is the statue of Daniel Rowland outside the present CM Chapel. Some few things inside the chapel go back to Rowland's time too (the flagstones on the way in and a communion cup). He began ministering in the Parish Church which we also saw. That is where he is buried and there is also a pulpit there he is believed to have preached from.

The other thing to see these days is a slate plaque outside the caffi, which notes that this is where Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones lived 1904-1914 (as reported on this blog some time ago).

It was a very nice afternoon out and a reminder of the greatness and providence of God. I can recommend the bacon bap at the caffi, very nice.

The 19th century was dne by Edward Griffith. Below it are these words

Daniel Rowland ganwyd 1713 bu farw 1790

O nefoedd! nefoedd! nefoedd! Buasai dy gonglau yn ddigon gwag on i buasai fod sion yn magu plant i ti ar y ddaear!

Meaning

Daniel Rowland Born 1713 Died 1790

Oh Heaven! Heaven! Heaven! Thy corners would be sufficiently empty were it not that Zion is nursing for thee children upon the earth.

O nefoedd! nefoedd! nefoedd! was apparently a saying of Rowland.

A great blessing to me

This book by Canadian Grant Gordon explores the relationship between John Newton (1725-1807) and George Whitefield (1714-1770). I can't remember reading a book exactly like this but it certainly works well in that it sheds light both on Newton and Whitefield and is very stimulating to thought. I suppose when you read a single biography you identify or fail to identify and there can be no easy way to apply the lessons learned. This format means that you are forced to stand back and consider two pretty different men - not even exact contemporaries (they only knew each other the last 15 years of Whitefield's life) - and so the danger of over identifying is not really there in the same way,

The approach is to briefly give the two men's lives up to 1754 then in five chapters look t the life of Newton and his interactions with Whitefield. Closing chapters consider Whitefield's impact on the younger man and how they compare and contrast with a final page or two on Newton's final tribute to Whitefield. If you know the story of Newton and Whitefield you will enjoy the way they are delineated that much more sharply by this book.

Dr Grant intimated that he intends a similar book on Newton and Wesley which would be very welcome. This present volume is enhanced by several visual items, an index, etc. It is a pity it is not in hardback.

Owen Jones on John Elias

His mode of ascending the pulpit was peculiar. Watch this in the case of any preacher - it will not be difficult to say whether he has a message from God or not. John Elias ascended the pulpit with the gravity of a man that had just come from immediate communion with God. He was a man that always felt the solemnity of his position. The remark has been made, and it is true, that every preacher should have an atmosphere of reverence around him, which should make frivolity impossible in his presence. If any man lived in this atmosphere of reverence, John Elias did. He was always grave, but that gravity assumed greater solemnity still in the pulpit. He never condescended to tell any amusing anecdotes; he always avoided everything which would tend in any way to put the people in a light mood. All lightness and laughter, frivolity and vanity, withered away under the blighting influence of his presence.

Something must be known and felt

I have recently been reading Stuart Olyott's book Something must be known and felt and last Monday led a discussion group on the book up at the John Owen Centre. We were a good number (about eight). I had been a little nervous as although I'm a big fan of Dr Olyott I found myself disagreeing with things he says in this book quite a bit. We are a fairly diverse group and I thought maybe someone would have been more enthusiastic than I am. As it turned out we were pretty uniform in our reaction. We all agreed that this book or something like it needed to be written and we did accept that it goes some way to setting out some of the things we think are being forgotten. However, we were also agreed that this is not quite the book we have been waiting for. The book is written in a fairly generalised way not wanting to get bogged down in detail and ends up making sweeping statements and assertions that are hard to substantiate (for example, the idea that Luther was clearly mistaken and taught that the Word does it all). No-one was entirely happy with the Edwardsean understanding of the soul and none of us were happy with the penultimate chapter about the prayer of faith. So, a flawed book but inching towards some sort of a defence of Calvinistic Methodism or Experiential Calvinism, whatever you want to call it.

Westminster Conference 2014 Day 1

It was a good day today in Oxford Street at the Westminster Conference. Today had a very Welsh flavour with three Welsh speakers (Stephen Clark, Adrian Brake and Andrew Davies) and three Welshish subjects. Welshmen seemed thicker on the ground than usual too.

The first paper was called holy worldliness (almost the same name as this blog). After a laudatory introduction concerning Whitefield we moved to the way he and Harris were less than perfect in their approach to marriage. Certainly the Harris, Whitefield, Elizabeth James affair is bizarre and Harris's obsession with Mrs Griffith wrong but I felt it was harsh to criticise Whitefield's unsuccessful letter of proposal to Elizabeth Delamotte. Failures by two men in one area does not justify the accusation of dualism. Anyway we had a half decent discussion following the paper.

We then had an excellent introduction to Thomas Charles who died in 1814. His Bible Dictionary had an incredible impact. It makes you wish you spoke Welsh. It begins

"The Holy Scriptures are a treasure house of all profitable and essential knowledge ….. Since they have all been given by the inspiration of God, they must partake of his perfection, and befit it. Because of the perfection of his knowledge, he cannot err; and because of the integrity of his nature, he will not deceive us in any matter; therefore, the knowledge given to us in the Scriptures is lofty, certain and complete. There is nothing which pertains to our condition and our blessedness in another world; nor anything which pertains to our circumstances and our duties in this world, that God, in his holy word, has not given us full instruction, how to behave in all things, in all situations, and towards everyone. The great plan of salvation, through a Mediator, shines clearly and fully in it, before a world of sinners."

You can get one in leather on ebay for around £60-70. There appear to some volumes available online.

The final paper was on Calvinistic Methodism and so the focus was on Wales again but it went well beyond that. The discussion after limped along a little.

Aberystwyth 1823

As familar as I am with Aberystwyth I had never noticed this interesting plaque until it was pointed out to me this week. It says

IN THIS HOUSE

WAS FORMULATED

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH OF

THE

CALVINISTIC METHODISTS

1823

See the confession here.