George Leslie Mackay

 George Leslie Mackay was born near Ontario, Canada, the youngest of six children to Scottish immigrants.  Converted at the young age of ten, George began theological training initially in Toronto, then Princeton, then in Edinburgh, Scotland.  

With a heart beating desperately for missions, George advocated for and in 1871 became the first Evangelical Presbyterian missionary sent from Canada.  Arriving in Tamsui, Formosa (Taiwan) in 1872, George sought to immerse himself in the culture – desiring a robust knowledge of the culture.  He shunned contact with anyone speaking English, practicing his language skills with anyone who would listen to him.

George used his enthusiasm for speaking with people, coupled with a basic medical and dental knowledge, to minister and to endear himself to the native population.  Within five months, he felt comfortable enough to preach his first sermon.

The Formosans called him “the blackbearded barbarian due to his long black beard.  This “barbarian” prayed for his first convert and specifically asked God for an energetic young man.  God answered his prayer in the first months and gave him A-hoa.  Twenty-five years later, A-hoa led sixty churches.

Bucking tradition in both cultures at the time, George married a Chinese slave-woman named Tiu Chhang Mia in 1877.  This union produced two daughters and a son.  In a letter he wrote, “as I from my heart believe that Chinese and Canadians are exactly the same in the presence of our Lord, I act accordingly.”  

George’s marriage to a local, his adoption of the local culture coupled with his fierce devotion to the Gospel first and secondly to the people of Formosa endeared him greatly to the people he ministered to.  In his extensive diaries, he records numerous instances of entire communities giving up their individual idols – always spontaneous and discreet individual decisions.  The papers of the idolatry he burned.  The physical idols themselves he collected in one place, receiving them from the people.  In later years, his detailed diaries as well as his extensive collection of idols were a treasure mine for archaeologists to study, even to this day, and have been divided up into a number of museums.

George Leslie Mackay’s thirty years of ministry in Formosa led to the establishment of a major hospital which still bears his name, a university, a girls’ school, and the establishment of over sixty churches – most of which are still in operation today.  He developed a westernized alphabet to aid in the education of the lower classes in northern Formosa – an alphabet still in use today.  To this day, many people in the lower class add George’s Chinese surname “Kai” to their own.

George died in 1901 of throat cancer and the “black-headed barbarian” was buried near his church in Tamsui, where a marker shows his resting place.  Taiwanese people today remember him fondly, even to the point that Taiwan’s first-ever grand opera was entitled Mackay: The Black-Bearded Bible Man.  It took over five years to produce and over a hundred singers and stage crew from around the world were involved.

Christian History e-mail: 14 June 2021

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Leslie_Mackay

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2001/05/27/0000087547

https://presbyterianarchives.ca/150-years-of-mackay/

Blest Be the Tie That Binds

John Fawcett was born in England, near Yorkshire, in 1739.  Orphaned at the age of twelve, he apprenticed under a tailor.  As a sixteen-year-old young man, he came to faith under the preaching of George Whitfield.  After a few years as a Methodist, he became a Baptist and felt God’s call to preach. 

Largely self-educated, he became the pastor of a Baptist church in a little town called Wainsgate in 1765.  For seven years he stayed with that little congregation and the miniscule salary they could afford to pay him.  With a growing family and a small salary, it made sense to move when a call came from a much larger Baptist church in London. 

Moving day came.  Men, women, and children of the little congregation helped the young family pack and load crates onto wagons.  Noticing the tears and the grief of the parishioners at losing their beloved pastor John’s wife pulled him to the side and told him, “I cannot bear to leave.  How can we go?”  John confessed to her that he had the same feelings.  Abruptly, he told the men to unload the wagons.

John ministered to the little church in Wainsgate for 54 years, until his death in 1817.  The little congregation never could afford to pay him more than the equivalent of $200 per year, a salary he had to supplement with teaching.  Nevertheless, John Fawcett’s love for his flock compelled him to sacrifice the more prestigious pulpit and stay.  Taking up writing, John published many hymns, volumes of poetry, and theological works.  John often wrote special songs for his congregation, meant to be sung after the sermon as a closing to their time of worship and fellowship together.  The most famous of these was written after his decision to stay at Wainsgate:

Blest be the tie that binds; Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

Before our Father's throne; We pour our ardent prayers;

Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one; Our comforts and our cares.

When we asunder part; It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart; And hope to meet again.

https://hymnary.org/person/Fawcett_John1740

https://web.archive.org/web/20090213115457/http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2008/002/12.11.html

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/nutter/hymnwriters.FawcettJ.html

Got Be With You Til' We Meet Again

The hymn “God Be With You Til’ We Meet Again” was written by Rev Jeremiah Rankin in 1880, pastor of Washington DC’s First Congregational Church and President of Howard University.  He wrote it after discovering that the term “good-bye” meant “God be with you.”

On September 19^th, 1945, Darlene Deibler was liberated from a Japanese prison camp – just a few days after Japan signed their surrender aboard the USS Missouri.  Eight years before, she and her new husband had landed in New Guinea along with a mentor, Dr Robert Jaffray as missionaries.  Now, both her husband and her mentor were dead and Darlene, a 28-year-old widow, was returning home without a single thing to her name.

In prison, she had suffered in indescribable ways, both mentally and physically.  She had suffered from exhaustion, starvation, malaria, beriberi, and dysentery.  She had witnessed death on a horrible scale.  During this time, not one letter or package had reached her.  She wrote that as she departed, she prayed a bitter prayer, “Lord, I’ll never come to these islands again.  They’ve robbed me of everything that was most dear to me.”

Suddenly, she heard voices being raised in the distance.  On the shore were a large number of believers, most of whom had come to know Jesus through their mission.  They were singing, “God be with you til’ we meet again.  By His counsels guide, uphold you.  With His sheep securely fold you.  God be with you til’ we meet again.”

In her autobiography Evidence Not Seen she wrote, “This song released the waters of bitterness that had flooded my soul, and the hurt began to drain from me as my tears flowed in a steady stream.  The healing had begun.  I knew then that some day, God only knew when, I would come back to these people and my island home.”

God be with you til’ we meet again; By His counsels guide, uphold you.

With His sheep securely fold you; God be with you til’ we meet again.

Til’ we meet, til’ we meet, Til’ we meet at Jesus feet,

Til’ we meet, til’ we meet.  God be with you til’ we meet again.

God be with you til’ we meet again; ‘Neath His wings protecting hide you.

Daily manna still provide you; God be with you til’ we meet again.

God be with you til’ we meet again; Keep love’s banner floating o’er you.

Smite death’s threatening wave before you; God be with you til’ we meet again.

God be with you til’ we meet again; When life’s perils thick confound you.

Put His arms unfailing ‘round you; God be with you til’ we meet again.

Morgan, Robert J., Then Sings My Soul, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

Day By Day

Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg was born in Sweden in 1832, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor.  Very much a “Daddy’s girl”, she loved and adored her father. 

At an early age Lina (pronounced with a long ‘i’) was stricken with a paralysis that confined her to bed most of the time.  Doctors pronounced her case to be hopeless, but her parents prayed devotedly for her recovery.  One Sunday morning, while her parents were in church, Lina began reading the Bible and praying in earnest.  When her parents returned, they found their 12-year-old daughter dressed and walking around the house – completely recovered.

After her experience of healing, Lina poured out her love for God into verse, publishing her first book of poetry expressing her love for God by the age of 16.

At the age of 26, Lina experienced a tragedy which affected the course of her life.  With her father in a boat crossing a lake, the boat suddenly lurched and her beloved father was thrown overboard and drowned right in front of her eyes.  Nine years later, then married to a merchant and future member of the Swedish Parliament (Oscar Berg), she lost her only child at childbirth.

Lina poured her grief into her poetry, her broken heart spurring her to write more.  With many of her poems, over 650 of them, being set to music, she is often referred to as the Fanny Crosby of Sweden.  Her hymns were a tremendous influence of the great revival in Scandinavia in the 1850s. 

One of her hymns that has been translated to English is Day by Day:

Day by day and with each passing moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, Gives unto each day what He deems best –
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord Himself is near me, With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me, He whose name is Counsellor and Pow’r.
The protection of His child and treasure Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
“As your days, your strength shall be in measure,” This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in ev’ry tribulation So to trust Your promises O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation, Offered me within Your holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days the moments fleeting, ‘Till I reach the promised land.

Christian History e-mail, 27 July 2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Sandell

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/lina-sandell-berg-songs-out-of-tragedy-11630417.html

https://www.godtube.com/popular-hymns/day-by-day-and-with-each-passing-moment/

A Mighty Fortress is our God

 A Mighty Fortress is our God

The name of Martin Luther is rightly associated with Theology and Reformation.  He was also a man who moved mightily to reform worship within the church, writing a number of hymns.  Trained as a young man in the flute and singing in the choir, he had a heart and a head for music.  He worked hard to revive congregational singing, often borrowing tunes from secular music, and sometimes feeling later compelled to “give that music back to the devil” because it was too closely associated with bars and taverns.

He once wrote, “Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world…A person who…does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God…does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of [donkeys] and the grunting of hogs.”

Often in times of difficulty, Martin would turn to Philip Melanchthon, a trusted friend, and sing with him a hymn which has become Martin’s most popular and enduring hymn.  A hymn based entirely on the 46^th Psalm.  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1).

A mighty fortress is our God.  A bulwark never failing.

Our helper He amid the flood, Of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe,  Doth seek to work us woe –

His craft and power are great, And armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide.  Our striving would be losing.

Were not the right man on our side, The man of God’s own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?  Christ Jesus, it is He –

Lord Sab-a-oth His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.

And though this world with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us.

We will not fear, for God hath willed, His truth to triumph through us

The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him –

His rage we can endure, For lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them abideth.

The Spirit and the gifts are ours,  Through Him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also –

The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever.

Morgan, Robert J, Then Sings My Soul, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

 

 

 

Athanasius of Alexandria

Athanasius’ early life is not well-understood.  He was born in the 290s in Alexandria – the intellectual center and the breadbasket of Rome in northern Africa, near what is Egypt.  He studied under the great bishop Alexander and was his protégé.

In the year 325 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine called a great council of Bishops within the

Roman Empire in the city of Nicea.  This great Council began with some administrative manners, including how to readmit lapsed Christians from the recent persecution and solidified details on the selection of church officials.  The main event, however, was to resolve a point of doctrine which threated to divide the church – concerning the nature of who Jesus was.  The point of contention was the teachings of a man named Arius, voiced by Bishop Eusebius of Nicodemia.  Arius argued that the Son was the firstborn of creation and, hence, a created being.  As a created being Jesus, though greater than all Creation, was a lesser being than the Father.

During the debate, young Athanasius – at this time a Deacon of Alexander – rose to be the chief opponent of Arianism.  Athanasius’ brilliant mind argued from Scripture and from church history that the Father and the Son had always existed together eternally and coequal.  He argued from Jesus’ statements such as “I and the Father are One” and from John 1, stating “…the Word was God…”.  He also directly challenged his opponent to name one early Church Father who taught as he did – an argument that received no answer.

In the end, the Council of Nicea sided with Athanasius nearly unanimously.  They drafted a statement which we now know as the Nicene Creed, including the verbiage about Jesus, “…begotten, not made, of the same substance as the Father, by whom all things were made…”.

Athanasius was later elevated to the position of Bishop of Alexandria, where he continued a fierce defense of sound Christian doctrine.  He was persecuted in later years by Arian-leaning emperors.  Arian doctrine, and its successors, have unfortunately plagued the church for years – even to the present day in the doctrines of the Jehovah’s Witness cult.

Gonzalez, Justo L., The Story of Christianity, Volume 1, HarperCollins Publishers, 1984.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/who-was-athanasius-and-why-was-he-important/

 

 

George Matheson

George Matheson

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842, he came to faith at an early age and committed his life to Christ’s service.  Attending university at age 20, he began gradually losing his eyesight until he was completely blind.  The care of his sisters, who read his lessons to him and even learned Greek and Hebrew to help him study, were a tremendous help to him.

He was engaged but his fiancée, overwhelmed with the thought of caring for a blind husband, broke off the engagement.  He never married.

George became a minister in the Church of Scotland and was called to pastor churches in Innelan and Edinburgh.  His tremendous ability to memorize large portions of Scripture and his sermons made many of his hearers not realize he was blind at all. 

George composed many hymns, and even authored a hymnal.  A natural scholar, he wrote books and papers on many topics, some spiritual, some secular, including works on the intersection of science and Scripture – related to the new evolutionary theories of Darwin. 

He authored the hymn O Love That Will Not Let Me Go - #292 in our Baptist Hymnal.  On the evening of June 6^th, 1882, on the occasion of his sister’s wedding, he suffered great mental stress.  Alone in the place he was staying, he wrote:

“Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering.  The hymn was the fruit of that suffering.

“It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life.  I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself.  I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure that it never received at my hands any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high.”

George died of a sudden stroke in 1906.  He is buried next to his parents in Glasgow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Matheson

https://www.christiantoday.com/news/o-love-that-wilt-not-let-me-go-how-a-blind-pastor-produced-a-work-of-genius

https://www.blueletterbible.org/hymns/bios/bio_m_a_matheson_g.cfm