Christianity As A Costume

“Churches that accommodate the surrounding culture’s moral assumptions tend to empty out within two or three generations...Theological substance — creation, fall, redemption, resurrection, judgment, human dignity, sexual ethics, and the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ — is precisely what makes Christianity worth believing. Strip that away in the name of openness, and you’ve kept the brand while destroying the product.”

Andrew T. Walker

Evening Hymn

Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

“The Day is Past and Gone” – originally titled “Evening Hymn” – seems to be the most published of all the hymns of John Leland. In The Sacred Harp it appears with the tune Evening Shade, written by Stephen Jenks in 1805.

1. The day is past and gone,
The evening shades appear;
O may we all remember well
The night of death draws near.

2. We lay our garments by,
Upon our beds to rest;
So death will soon disrobe us all
Of what we’ve here possessed.

3. Lord, keep us all this night,
Secure from all our fears;
May angels guard us while we sleep,
Till morning light appears.

4. And if we early rise,
And view th’unwearied sun,
May we set out to win the prize
And after glory run.

5. And when our days are past,
And we from time remove,
O may we in thy bosom rest,–
The bosom of thy love.

The above hymn was written by John Leland. It is printed under the title “Evening Hymn” in The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland: including Some Events in His Life (Miss L. F. Greene, New York, NY: G. W. Wood, 1845, page 322). It is usually dated to 1790.

John Leland was an influential Baptist minister in America, before, during, and after the Revolution. He was born at Grafton, Massachusetts May 14 or 15, 1754, the son of James Leland. He began to preach at the age of 20 in Massachusetts. He moved to Virginia for about 15 years, ministering there, then returned to Massachusetts circa 1790. Leland supported the struggle for religious liberty, and exerted some influence on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and others. He married Sarah Devine in 1776, and they had several children. Leland died January 14, 1841. He and his wife are buried at the Cheshire Cemetery in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. John Julian describes Leland as eccentric and states, “His influence seems to have been equalled by his peculiarities” (John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907, p. 670).

Other hymns written by John Leland include:

• Brethren, I have come once more
• Come and taste, along with me
• O when shall I see Jesus
• Christians, if your hearts are warm.

The composer of Evening Shade, Stephen Jenks, was born March 17, 1772, the son of John Jenks and Lydia Bucklin of Rhode Island. Jenks became a composer and singing school teacher – and between 1799 and 1818 was author or coauthor of ten published music collections. These works included 125 pieces of sacred music of his own composition. According to Warren Steel, “Jenks was a prolific exponent of the American music idiom developed by Daniel Read and other Connecticut composers during the late eighteenth century.” Jenks first married Hannah Dauchy around 1792. After her death he married Rachel Travis in 1801. After Rachel’s death he married Abigail Ross. They moved to northern Ohio in 1829, and died there. Stephen Jenks died June 3, 1856. He and Abigail are buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Thompson, Geauga County, Ohio.

Steel also notes that Stephen Jenks’s “large manuscript tunebook shows that he continued to compose as late as 1850 and that he grappled with the changing styles of nineteenth-century hymnody.” He left nearly 100 unpublished tunes from his later years. In addition to Evening Shade, Jenk’s tunes Liberty, Mount Vernon, and North Salem continue to be popular with Sacred Harp singers.

In Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Knoxville, TN: Melody Publications, 2020), this text is paired with the tune Leland by L. M. Fosbery. The tune appeared as #31 in the 1899 Book of Worship with Hymns and Tunes, published by the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States. However, it was published at least as early as 1892 in The New Laudes Domini: a Selection of Spiritual Songs, Ancient and Modern for Use in Baptist Churches. Nothing further is known of the composer.

What to know, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• What to know about the breakaway traditionalist Catholics defying Pope Leo XIV -- “The ultratraditionalist Society of St. Pius X is defying Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four bishops without his consent at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland.”
• Waiting on the Wings -- “There are Texas sunsets—and then there’s the sunset I saw on the outskirts of San Antonio one evening: 15 million bats blotting out the sun.”
• The Palace in Paris -- “Maxey received a pardon from President Andrew Johnson after a personal vouch from Maxey’s U.S. Military Academy classmate and friend, Ulysses S. Grant.”
• Theological Triage: A Trojan Horse for Liberalism -- “Scripture gives no warrant for this. Theological triage is a man-made philosophy.”
• The Unscriptural Decline of Singing the Psalms in Churches -- “Roman Catholic inquisitors hunting the Waldenses frequently noted that they could identify them because even their uneducated peasants, weavers, and shoemakers would constantly sing the Psalms in their native tongue while working.”
• The National Museum of American History Has Become Wholly Un-American -- “Using the museum leaders’ own words, the report clearly documents how the museum has shifted its mission from history to woke activism.”
• The Impact of the First Democratic Nation in 1776 -- “There are only six countries on earth that do not claim to be democratic...Even states that have no intention of functioning as democracies feel the need to pretend that they do.”
• Should a church use a Christian web hosting company? -- “Many tech companies support causes and organizations that are in direct opposition to our beliefs and values.”
• Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Wife’s Ministry in the Church -- “...some members tend to press unnecessary expectations on pastors’ wives.”
• Regional body of United Methodist Church sues Highland Park UMC -- “A regional governing body of the United Methodist Church is accusing local church leadership in court documents of quietly trying to sever its connection with the conference and broader denomination.”
• Locked In, Cradle to Grave? -- “Facebook’s tone-deaf manner of colonizing the social space of children as the next frontier is consistent with its history of cringe-worthy decisions.”
• Gravestone Symbols of the American Revolution -- “If you’ve spent much time poking around old cemeteries in New England, you know that some of the most common gravestone symbols from the American Revolutionary era are the winged skull and the cherub or soul effigy.”
• “Draw Nigh unto My Soul”: English Baptist Piety and the Means of Grace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- “Given this prominence of the Scriptures in the life of Baptists, it is not surprising that hearing the Word preached was regarded by them as a vital spiritual discipline...”
• Are you paying too much for your domain? -- “A very pervasive scam asks you to pay a ‘domain listing’ service or something similar. But they’re literally just scammers.”
• 10 Things You should Know about Tithing under the Mosaic Covenant -- “To give only 8% or to give 15% is equally permissible. Not to give at all, or to give disproportionately to your income (which is the case with most Christians today), or to give grudgingly, is indeed sin.”

The Triune God

The Human Heart

In this world we see all sorts of dissension – factionalism, hatred, enmity, strife, jealousy, resentment, envy, malice, and viciousness. We blame evil on systems, institutions, opposing groups, history, and ancestry. The Bible places the blame elsewhere. There is an underlying fundamental problem, the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:18-20). We can try to blame everything and everyone else, but the Bible refuses to do so. The problem of the heart is present in every human being, and cannot be whisked away by special works or sincere wishes.

Weak theological systems and woke philosophical systems discard this truth about the human heart to agree among themselves that man is basically good. We just need a better environment, more money, more education, and all will be well. Try as we might, this never works. So try harder, with all your might! Still doesn’t work. The wickedness of the human heart may produce cruelty in one context and self-righteousness in another context – and both cruelty and self-righteousness in another. The impulses emerge from the same human nature, the same kind of human heart that exists in every human person. Recognition of the underlying problem calls for a different solution, which is essentially spiritual heart surgery (Romans 2:28-29; Romans 10:8-10; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

The good news is “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Looking for a present participle

In October 2025, a member of the Textus Receptus Academy,[i] named John, created a poll about the accuracy of and difference between the KJV and the NKJV in the text of Luke 6:10a. These verses read:

• AKJV: And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man…
• NKJV: And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man…

The purpose seemed ostensibly to defend the NKJV rendering. According to that author, “The KJV has Jesus speaking while looking. The NKJV has Jesus speaking after looking.” In the poll he asked respondents to vote, “Which is correct?” The poll options were: The KJV is correct; The NKJV is correct; both are correct; both are incorrect.

According to the creator of the poll, the right answer was “both are correct.” I agreed with this as the answer, but not for the same reason he gave: “We don’t know for sure the timing—either one is possible and it could be accurately rendered either way.” Actually, I even agree with the last part of that statement, that either understanding is accurate, based on the Greek. He teased out the fact that the aorist participle περιβλεψάμενος can translated either as antecedent (prior) to or as contemporaneous (simultaneous) with the action of the main verb. This is correct. However, in the end, I believe that John and many others of the polled missed it. When he wrote that “both are correct” what he actually meant was that both are possible correct translational renderings. He did not actually mean that “both are correct” because he went on to say “Historically, only one of the two actually happened.” In other words, he is saying either only simultaneous action happened or antecedent action happened. Both can’t be true. So, he explanation was somewhat contradictory.

However, when I say that both are correct, I am saying that Luke 6:10a in the KJV and NKJV actually mean the same thing in English. “Looking round about upon them all” (in English) is a present participle clause.[ii] Often, present participle clauses show two actions that happen at the same time. Apparently the poll creator and several others were laboring under the false conception of that being the only way a present participle clause can be used. That first explanation is a short and simple answer that does not include all the facts. Present participle clauses are used in the English language in at least six different ways: to describe simultaneous action, to show cause for an action, to give the result of an action, to add information about the subject of the main clause, adjectivally, or even to replace a full relative clause. Here are a couple of examples of how the present participle clause might be used in ways that are not simultaneous action.

• Opening the envelope, I found two train tickets.
• Running late, I missed the train.

In the first case the present participle clause expresses an action that happens in close proximity to, but just before another action (rather than simultaneous). The second case shows cause. The point is not that I was simultaneously running late while missing the train, but that I missed the train because I was running late. We speak and write this way, and are capable of understanding this way, if not set on an agenda. I believe that John’s not understanding the various uses of the present participle clause led him to assume that the meaning of Luke 6:10a in the King James and the New King James had to be mutually exclusive. Understanding the different uses of the present participle clause shows us we can understand the King James translation of Luke 6:10 as in the first example above – “looking” expresses an action that happens in close proximity to, but just before another action (rather than simultaneous). Jesus knew the thoughts of the onlookers, he asked them a question, and looked around at all of them. With no answer forthcoming, he addressed the man, “Stretch forth thy hand.” The looking occurred in very close proximity of time but immediately prior to his addressing the man with the withered hand. This interpretation will not only harmonize with the context of Luke 6:6-11, but it also harmonizes with the parallel passage in Mark 3:1-6.

Mark 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man…

An interpretation that does not the realize the harmony of Luke 6:10 and Mark 3:5 is incorrect and unacceptable. To me, this poll seemed to be an argument only for the purpose of arguing. Straining at a gnat, John swallowed a camel.

---

[i] I wrote this out then but, deciding the argument was a waste of time, I did not continue to reply in the Facebook group.
[ii] A present participle is a form using a verb + ing.

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.