A pilot without a compass

The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are his marching orders. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away. This is the flag which he nailed to the mast. May it never be lowered!

A church which does not honor the Bible is as useless as a body without life, or a steam engine without fire. A minister who does not honor the Bible is as useless as a soldier without arms, a builder without tools, a pilot without compass, or a messenger without tidings.

J. C. Ryle, Light from Old Times

A poor despised company

The following hymn is number CXXV in Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the Use of Religious Assemblies and Private Christians (Joshua Smith, Samuel Sleeper). There it is captioned “A brief description of the Children of God, in a Dialogue.” In some books it is called the “The Pilgrim Company.” The caption in Divine Hymns is helpful, cueing us in to the fact that this is a dialogue, discussing a despised company of travelers. In form, the first stanza is a question answered in the second stanza. Afterward, each stanza has the question in the first half and the answer in the last half. According to Warren Steel and Richard Hulan (The Makers of The Sacred Harp, p. 209), the hymn probably first appears in Hymns and Spiritual Songs by James Maxwell (London: 1759).

The hymn provides a contrast of the view of those “that walk in yonder narrow way.” The world can only see them in a temporal physical manner, while the narrator explains the long view – the eternal and spiritual look. Nothing is ever properly evaluated until it is evaluated in light of eternity. The type of hymn about “a poor despised company” or “poor and afflicted saints” have fallen into general contempt among most wealthy and prosperous Western churches.

1. What poor despisèd company
Of travellers are these,
That walk in yonder narrow way,
Along that rugged maze?

2. Ah, these are of a royal line,
All children of a King;
Heirs of immortal crowns divine,
And lo! for joy they sing.

3. Why do they then appear so mean
And why so much despis’d?
Because of their rich robes unseen
The world is not appriz’d.

4. But some of them seem poor, distress’d,
And lacking daily bread.
Ah they’re of boundless wealth possess’d,
With hidden manna fed.

5. But why keep they that narrow road—
That rugged, thorny maze?
Why, that’s the way their Leader trod;
They love and keep his ways.

6. Why must they shun the pleasant path,
That worldings love so well?
Because that is the road to death,
The open road to hell.

7. What, is there then no other road
To Salem’s happy ground?
Christ is the only way to God,
None other can be found.

In The Sacred Harp tradition, we sing this hymn to the tune Irwinton, by T. W. Carter. (Only the first and second stanzas are printed with the tune.) Irwinton was dropped from The Sacred Harp in the 1870 revision. The 1902 Cooper revision of The Sacred Harp added it back in an arrangement by N. Cheshire, called Joyful News (p. 244(. The Denson stream of The Sacred Harp added Irwinton back in 1911 (in the James Book, called Invitation, p. 482). It was dropped once again, and then returned to the book in 1991 (under the name Irwinton, p. 229).

Thomas W. Carter was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, the son of Edward R. Carter, Sr. and brother of Matthew M. Carter. He attended medical school in Augusta, Georgia, and afterward married Lucinda A. Tompkins in 1849. They had one daughter, Hannah, who married James McNeil. After the death of Lucinda, Carter married Mary C. Dozier circa 1875. He died August 19, 1876, and was buried somewhere in Lake City, Florida.

Thomas W. Carter wrote or arranged 13 songs that appeared in The Sacred Harp by B. F. White & E. J. King, published in 1844: Augusta, 35; The Old Ship of Zion, 79; Little Children, 86; Church Triumphant, 91; Oak Bowery, 94; Ecstasy, 106; Night Watchman, 108; Concord, 111; Sandtown, 112; Florence, 121; Irwinton, 124; Exhilaration, 170; Banquet of Mercy, 177.

With an eye on the cross

 

Hymn Book as “Prayer Book”

An interesting thought.

It has been asserted by some that in many of the English “free churches” (dissenters from the Anglican Church, including Baptists), the hymn book acted as a central, unifying, and authoritative resource. In that place it fulfilled many of the same functions as the Book of Common Prayer did in the Church of England. I find this very intriguing, and think there is some merit in that assertion. A group of churches with a shared hymn book had a degree of shared theological and structural framework for worship.

For example, Ernest Payne says that the hymn book as a body of practical and experimental divinity was “One of the more immediate and personal legacies of Wesley was the hymn book he edited.” He continues, “In the Free Churches a hymn book takes the place occupied by the Prayer Book in the devotional life, public and private, of the Anglican. This in part explains how it is that the hymns of Watts, Doddridge, and the Wesleys have so entered into the life of the English people.”

The Free Church Tradition in the Life of England, Ernest Alexander Payne. London: S.C.M. Press Ltd., 1944, p. 79

Acts 28:30-31

A final summary statement, 28:30-31

Verses 30 and 31 provide a summary statement to conclude the account. It began in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem and ends in the Gentile capital of Rome, taking Acts 1:8 to its logical “conclusion.” Yet there is no conclusion, for the witness still goes forth.

Verse 30: in his own hired house (εν ιδιω μισθωματι, a place of lodging that is hired, or rented).[1]

The word of God cannot be bound. What might have seemed to be a setback and stumblingblock in Paul’s ministry was so ordered and arranged by God. Paul acknowledged “that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). Often we do not at first see clearly what God has designed for our good, the good of others, and his glory. While here Paul would not only preach freely, but he also wrote what are commonly called “The Prison Epistles.” The term “Prison Epistles” refers to the four letters written while Paul was under house arrest in Rome – Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. The “we” section of 27:1-28:16 indicates that Luke travels with Paul from Cæsarea to Rome. Paul mentions Luke’s presence when writing to the saints at Colosse (Colossians 4:14), and to Philemon (v. 24). Previously, Paul had most often dwelt with others; now he has a dwelling place of his own. He had been on the move in the Roman empire; now he is settled in Rome. He had gone out with the gospel message to others; now others come to him to hear the message.

In the end of this chapter, soldiers guard Paul. He receives visitors, and freely shares the gospel (Acts 28:16, 20, 30-31). In the letters, Paul mentions being with “they that are of Cæsar’s household” (Philippians 4:22), his bonds (Ephesians 6:20; Philippians 1:7, 12-16; Colossians 4:3-4, 4:18; Philemon 10-13), and refers to himself as a prisoner (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1; Philemon 1, 9, 23). This was not Paul’s only incarceration, of course. He was bound in Philippi (Acts 16:23-40), Jerusalem (Acts 21:33), Cæsarea (23:23-24; 24:27), and Rome (Acts 28:16) – as well as when transported as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Cæsarea to Rome. Paul made it to Rome, as he believed, and was able to preach concerning “the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”

“…the narrative ends as it does because it had caught up with history, and at the moment there was nothing more to record.”[2]

“Yet it is a pleasure to us (for we are sure it was to him) that, though we leave him in bonds for Christ, yet we leave him at work for Christ, and this made his bonds easy that he was not by them bound out from serving God and doing good.”[3]

The open ending!

Alexander MacLaren said the book of Acts “stops rather than ends.”[4] The work of the Lord through his churches is not finished. God the inspirer pulls the curtain on “Act 28,” but his show goes on.

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[1] Josephus, Antiquities, Book XVIII, 6.10 mentions the circumstance of Agrippa, while “still in custody,” going to live in “that house where he lived before.” This might be a situation comparable to that of Paul.
[2] Ladd, Wycliffe Commentary, p. 1178.
[3] Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Volume VI, page 361. “Luke is with me” again when Paul is in prison in Rome the second time (II Timothy 4:11).
[4] MacLaren, The Acts of the Apostles, Expositions Of Holy Scripture, p. 383. He further suggests, like Ladd, “that nothing more is said for nothing more had yet been done.” That is, simply, the book stops at the point in history when it is written. There are many dreams and nightmares recounted by the unbelieving and misbelieving scholars, when instead a simple explanation is quite sufficient. It ended where the Holy Spirit ended it.

Hymns can mean anything

Hymns can mean anything ... or can they?

“I tend to tell people that whatever meaning or relevance they take from that is up to them.” unnamed Facebook commenter, cited in Sacred Harp Singing in Europe: Its Pathways, Spaces, and Meanings, Ellen Leuck, p. 226[i]

“Flexible interpretations of texts permit singers with diverse beliefs and experience to relate to Sacred Harp in personally meaningful ways…” Traveling Home: Sacred Harp Singing and American Pluralism, Kiri Miller, page 132

Regarding the texts and scriptural bases for the songs in the Sacred Harp tune books, it is important to understand that they have a context and underlying meaning. They cannot just mean whatever someone wants them to mean. Now, I understand that different texts may touch different folks in different ways, make us think different things, or make us feel different things. However, we must also understand that what we think and feel about a text is not part of the text itself, and does not become the standard for the meaning of the text. First and foremost (except for a few patriotic songs, e.g. “Behold, the smiling happy land,” “My country, ’tis of thee”) the texts are Christian texts.[ii] Therefore, the songs have a Christian worldview and meaning. That fact does not mean the texts cannot touch someone who is not Christian. That fact DOES mean that Christian hymns cannot be removed from their context and mean just anything and everything to everybody. That folks think they can have their own meaning and eat it to is a sad commentary on an age that does not understand or believe objective truth. May God help Christian singers not acquiesce to this falsehood. The Christian texts have Christian meaning.

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

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[i] A couple more quotes from Sacred Harp Singing in Europe: Its Pathways, Spaces, and Meanings: “…Sacred Harp singers in Europe who identify as generally non-religious…find other ways of internalizing the meaning of the texts outside of the realm of religious worship” (p. 220). “…the religious words in The Sacred Harp do have meaning for secular participants, though not a literal meaning. They have meaning within the context of the music, and they perhaps facilitate tapping into feelings of emotional and spiritual depth that secular lyrics can do less easily. Furthermore, it is understood by the community-at-large that the meaning of the texts is interpreted by participants privately” (pp. 222-223).
[ii] The Christians who included the patriotic songs doubtless understood them to fit within their Christian worldview.

Bearing the Cross

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: John 19:17

There is no incident in our Lord’s passion which, to a heart quickened with spiritual sensibility, is more replete with holy instruction, or more deeply, tenderly touching than this—Christ bearing to Calvary the cross upon which he was to suffer. It unveils such a profound abasement, and yet such a depth of love—it portrays a stoop of the Majesty of heaven to earth’s lowest degradation—so marvelous, and yet, is the measurement of grace, so vast, the fact stands out, amid the many marvels of our Lord’s death, one of the most touching and significant of all. To compel the criminal to bear the wood upon which he was to be impaled, was one of the severest elements of degradation in the Roman punishment of crucifixion. To this our Lord was subjected, “And he, bearing his cross, went forth.” Little did they dream, as they bound the fatal wood upon his shoulder, by whose power that tree was made to grow, and from whom the beings who bore Him to the death drew their existence. So completely was Jesus bent upon saving sinners by the sacrifice of himself, he created the tree upon which he was to die, and nurtured from infancy the men who were to nail him to the accursed wood. Oh, the depth of Jesus’s love to sinners! Lord! the universe in its accumulation presents no love like yours! Your love, eternal as your being, saw from everlasting the cross of Calvary, and yet you did not falter in your purpose, nor modify your plan of saving lost sinners by the sacrifice of yourself. You saved others, yourself you would not save!

Octavius Winslow, The Foot of the Cross, 1864

It is Well with My Soul

1. When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”

Refrain
It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul);
It is well, it is well with my soul.

2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control:
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my soul.

3, My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

4. O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
Even so, it is well with my soul.

5. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper thy peace to my soul.

Horatio Gates Spafford was born October 20, 1828 at Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, the son of Horatio Gates Spafford, Sr. and Elizabeth Clark Hewitt. His father was the publisher of the Gazetteer of New York. Spafford married Norwegian-American Anna Tobine Larsen Øglende in Chicago on September 5, 1861. Horatio Spafford, Jr. was a lawyer at a large law firm in Chicago, a church elder in the Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church, as well as good friends with evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Eventually he would withdraw from the Fullerton Church and emerged a dissident leader in a chapel he built behind his home. The group called themselves “Saints,” and was called by “Spaffordites” or “Overcomers” by their opponents.[i]

Horatio and Anna Gates, with some of their followers, founded “the American Colony” in Israel. Spafford died in Jerusalem of malaria on September 25, 1888. He was buried in the Mount Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem.

The story of the song It Is Well with My Soul is fairly well-documented. As with many others, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a calamitous loss for the Spaffords. This was followed two years later by and the sea-faring deaths of their four young daughters. They drowned on a transatlantic voyage. Horatio was home working in Chicago, while his wife and daughters traveled to England. They were on board the steamship SS Ville du Havre. On November 22, 1873, the iron sailing vessel Loch Earn collided with the Ville du Havre. Two hundred twenty-six of the 313 member passengers and crew were killed, including the Spafford’s daughters. Anna escaped. Upon reaching Cardiff, Wales, she sent Horatio a telegram, “Saved alone.” Survivors reported that they heard the child Annie Spafford (age 11) calmly say, “Don’t be afraid. The sea is His, and He made it.”

Soon Horatio Spafford traveled to meet his wife. When his ship passed near where the Ville du Havre sank, he felt inspired to write the lines we know as It Is Well with My Soul. Spafford wrote in a letter to his sister-in-law:

“On Thursday last we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the water three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe, folded, the dear lambs, and there, before very long, shall we be too. In the meantime, thanks to God, we have an opportunity to serve and praise Him for His love and mercy to us and ours. ‘I will praise Him while I have my being.’ May we each one arise, leave all, and follow Him.”

A reproduction of the original manuscript can be seen HERE. It has only four stanzas (which are the four contained in many hymnals and in first printing). The last line – “Even so, it is well with my soul” was originally “A song in the night, oh my soul!”

For more on the song, see Our Jerusalem: An American Family in the Holy City 1881-1949, by Bertha Spafford Vester, pp. 45-46, et al.

Another stanza (by Spafford, I think) was added to the song later (see No. 5, above), and some books print a sixth stanza (as follows), whose origin is unknown to me.

But, Lord, ’tis for thee, for thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

The tune, known as Ville du Havre, was written by the evangelistic singer Philip Paul Bliss (1838 – 1876) in 1876. For some biographical information on Bliss, see “My Redeemer.” The meter of It Is Well with My Soul is 11.8.11.9. with refrain. The refrain seems likely added by Bliss when he wrote the tune. Gospel Hymns No. 2 by Ira Sankey and P. P. Bliss seems to be the first printing of the song. It is No. 76. The scripture under the song title is “He hath delivered my soul in peace” (Psalm 55:18). Other related scriptures include Isaiah 66:12 (I will extend peace to her like a river); 2 Kings 4:26 (Is it well? It is well); Psalm 146:1 (Praise the Lord, O my soul) and Isaiah 34:4 (the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll).

This is a wonderful hymn expressing the peace and wellness of soul available to those who put their trust in God.

Psalm 84:12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

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[i] This is such a well-loved and comfort-giving hymn that I will pull the curtain of charity over its author. Suffice it to say that while all may have been well with the soul of Horatio Gates Spafford, all was not well with his theology as he progressed further and further in life.