If you knew what he knows about death

Do you not see that God is as continually restoring as taking away—that every bereavement is a restoration—that when you are weeping, others, who love as well as you, are clasping in ecstasy of reunion? If you have not learned this, you cannot have been doing the will of the Father, or you would not be as you are. If you reply, how little I know your loss, I respond, indeed it is great! It seems to include God! If you knew what he knows about death, you would clap your listless hands.

George MacDonald

Lead by example

A hymn by Thomas Nichols, No. 856 in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

1. We, who the blessed gospel preach,
Should by example also teach;
By good example sin reprove, 
And ev’ry stumbling block remove.

2. O! may we by our lives express
The same religion we profess;
O! let us not our selves deceive,
Nor hinder those that would believe.

3. O! how shall we account for those,
Who, by us, to destruction go;
Whom we have not reproved for sin,
But rather joined with them therein.

4. O! let us by no means intrude
On men, by such ingratitude;
But flee from sin, to God confess,
And pray him to forgive and bless.

5. We are the instrumental means
And cause of the most awful scenes;
If we God’s holy ways refuse,
And his most precious cause abuse.

Little is known of Thomas Nichols, the author of the above hymn. He published Hymns and Anthems: Composed on Divine Subjects, Agreeable to Sacred Scripture, Inspected and approved by the Rev. Isaac Backus (Albany, NY: Charles R. & George Webster, 1793). Thomas Nichols was affiliated with the New-Britain Baptist Church in Rensselaer County, New York (see also The Universal Register of the Baptist Denomination in North America, 1790-1794). David Music states that the book contains “206 hymns and thirty-two anthems” which “appear to be entirely original.” The book contained a recommendation by Isaac Backus.

This Thomas Nichols is probably the same Thomas Nichols who lived at Stephen Town (Stephentown) Albany County, New York, as recorded in the 1790 U. S. Census. Rensselaer County would be created from Albany County in 1791. In 1796, the Thomas Nichols who compiled Hymns and Anthems published “A Discourse on Poverty & Riches, in a Medium of Gospel Doctrine.” The fact that no address was given for ordering, but that it was available for purchase at the office of the Vermont Gazette (in Bennington, Vermont) suggests that the author lived in that general area. Bennington is in a neighboring county of Rensselaer County, New York and is roughly 30 miles from Stephentown, New York. 

Some genealogists have Thomas Nichols born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island in 1723 and died in 1798 in Vermont. However, I believe the 1798 death in Vermont is confused with a different Thomas Nichols who also came from Rhode Island. The birth in East Greenwich agrees with Isaac Backus’s note in his diary in 1791, “…Feb…The 15th, old Mr. Thomas Nichols, of Eastgreenwich, came here, and got me to examine and recommend a Hymn-book which he had composed, in an evangelical strain. He went away the 17th.” (Backus would only have to have been referencing where he was originally from, not where he currently lived in 1791.)

Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs pairs this hymn with Earl, an anonymous tune found in The Silver Chime of 1862, by George F. Root.

In Rephidim

Where Jesus Leads.

To Rephidim, to Rephidim, we follow him, we follow him.
In places dry and battles grim, in Rephidim, in Rephidim.
Where Jesus leads is always right,
Whether in sunshine or shadow of night.
Where Jesus leads is always wise,
E’en in dry places where battles arise.
Where Jesus leads is always best,

By the still waters to eternal rest.
To Rephidim, to Rephidim, we follow him, we follow him.
In places dry and battles grim, in Rephidim, in Rephidim.

The name Jehovah

Q. Why does the King James sometimes depart from the standard convention of translating יְהוָה as Lord in order to translate it as Jehovah 7 times?

A. The King James Bible uses Jehovah 7 times, 4 times as God’s name, plus 3 times where his name is part of a place name.

• Exodus 6:3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
• Psalm 83:18 that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
• Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
• Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
• Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
• Exodus 17:15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:
• Judges 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

Some have answered that Jehovah is used in these places because it is used as a proper name. That does not suffice, because it is a proper name in the other places. These seven choices break down into three categories.

A place name.

In Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, and Judges 6:24 Jehovah is part of a place name. In Genesis 22 and Judges 6, a geographical location; in Exodus 17, an altar at a particular place, given a name.

A double name.

In Isaiah 12:2 and 26:4, there is a double name, in the Hebrew יָהּ יְהוָה (Jah Jehovah). So the translators use the standard convention once and Jehovah once to translate the double name.

A (contextually) unique name.

Jehovah as used in Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18 is contextually unique, seen by the way his name is referenced. For example, Christopher Yetzer writes, “Exodus 6:3 is pointing out the name which He was not known by and in Psalms the name which is alone His.”

I will take Jesus at his word

 This is what much so-called Christianity in the United States has degenerated to:

“I always think of all the world’s faith traditions as a circle, with that divine mystery of the universe in the middle. We all have different names for that mystery, whether it’s God or Yahweh or Allah or Nirvana or Great Spirit. Whatever you call it, this is all different pathways to the same fundamental truth.” James Talarico

I will take Jesus at his word.

The Bible Made Them Baptists

From time to time I have written on “The Bible Makes Baptists.” Here is an excerpt from “Brazil Needs Gospel Preachers,” by Harvey Boyce Taylor (1870-1932) in News and Truths, September 27, 1922. Paraíba is state in northeastern Brazil. Recife is the capital city of Pernambuco, another state in northeastern Brazil. This is another historical example of the reading of the Bible producing Baptist belief.

The third case in point is the capital of the state of Paraíba. We had no missionary, no preaching, no Baptists in that capital. Quite a number of disciples were made under the preaching of a Presbyterian missionary. In a little while after reading their New Testament, they got dissatisfied with Presbyterianism and went to the missionary and asked him if there wasn’t anybody who did things like they did in Bible days. He tried to satisfy them but couldn’t and then told them where they could get a Congregationalist preacher, as one of the things they did not like was the Presbyterian form of church government. The Congregationalist preacher came up from Recife. After talking with these folks and trying to satisfy them, and failing, he told them they were Baptists. They had never heard of the Baptists. They had simply read the New Testament and it had made them what they were. They got in touch with a Baptist missionary down at Recife and he came out and baptized 40 of them and organized them into a church. That was the first New Testament church in the state of Paraíba.

Life is Good

“Life is good ... It is a blessing and a privilege to have this life, because God ultimately said, I’ll give this one to Jamie, because I know that he is the right person for it. And I think God gave you your life because he knew you were the right person for it.”

Jamey Carrington, speaking of the privilege of the life he has been able to live with spinal muscular atrophy

Psalm 109

Psalm 109 (metrical version from the 1650 Scottish Psalter)

Common Meter.

Suggested tune: Bangor, by William Tansur.

O thou the God of all my praise,
Do thou not hold thy peace;
For mouths of wicked men to speak
Against me do not cease:

The mouths of vile deceitful men
Against me opened be;
And with a false and lying tongue
They have accused me.

They did beset me round about
With words of hateful spite;
And though to them no cause I gave,
Against me they did fight.

They for my love became my foes,
But I me set to pray.
Evil for good, hatred for love,
To me they did repay.

Set thou the wicked over him;
And upon his right hand
Give thou his greatest enemy,
Ev’n Satan, leave to stand.

And when by thee he shall be judged,
Let him condemned be;
And let his pray’r be turned to sin,
When he shall call on thee.

Few be his days, and in his room
His charge another take.
His children let be fatherless,
His wife a widow make.

His children let be vagabonds,
And beg continually;
And from their places desolate
Seek bread for their supply.

Let covetous extortioners
Catch all he hath away:
Of all for which he laboured hath
Let strangers make a prey.

Let there be none to pity him,
Let there be none at all
That on his children fatherless
Will let his mercy fall.

Let his posterity from earth
Cut off for ever be,
And in the foll’wing age their name
Be blotted out by thee.

Let GOD his father’s wickedness
Still to remembrance call;
And never let his mother’s sin
Be blotted out at all.

But let them all before the LORD
Appear continually,
That he may wholly from the earth
Cut off their memory.

Because he mercy minded not,
But persecuted still
The poor and needy, that he might
The broken-hearted kill.

As he in cursing pleasure took,
So let it to him fall;
As he delighted not to bless,
So bless him not at all.

As cursing he like clothes put on,
Into his bowels so,
Like water, and into his bones,
Like oil, down let it go.

Like to the garment let it be
Which doth himself array,
And for a girdle, wherewith he
Is girt about alway.

From GOD let this be their reward
That en’mies are to me,
And their reward that speak against
My soul maliciously.

But do thou, for thine own name’s sake,
O GOD the Lord, for me:
Sith good and sweet thy mercy is,
From trouble set me free.

For I am poor and indigent,
Afflicted sore am I,
My heart within me also is
Wounded exceedingly.

I pass like a declining shade,
Am like the locust tossed:
My knees through fasting weakened are,
My flesh hath fatness lost.

I also am a vile reproach
Unto them made to be;
And they that did upon me look
Did shake their heads at me.

O do thou help and succour me,
Who art my God and LORD:
And, for thy tender mercy’s sake,
Safety to me afford:

That thereby they may know that this
Is thy almighty hand;
And that thou, LORD, hast done the same,
They may well understand.

Although they curse with spite, yet, Lord,
Bless thou with loving voice:
Let them ashamed be when they rise;
Thy servant let rejoice.

Let thou mine adversaries all
With shame be clothed over;
And let their own confusion
Them, as a mantle, cover.

But as for me, I with my mouth
Will greatly praise the LORD;
And I among the multitude
His praises will record.

For he shall stand at his right hand
Who is in poverty,
To save him from all those that would
Condemn his soul to die.

The 1650 Scottish Psalter may be more properly known as The Psalms of David in Metre. This English-language book of psalms in meter was first approved by the Westminster Assembly. The Assembly felt a need for a unified psalter in church use. Thus, they began with recent versifications of the psalms by Francis Rous (1643). This work was revised and approved in 1646. This work underwent even further revision by the Scots, and was authorized for public worship in November of 1649 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – and first printed and used beginning in 1650.