The Haystack Prayer Meeting

Samuel Mills was born in Connecticut on April 21^st, 1783.  Coming to faith at the age of seventeen, a part of the Great Awakening, he committed himself to missions work in a day when the idea of an American church sending missionaries was unheard of.  Missions-minded churches were few and far between, and missions societies dedicated to sending missionaries were nonexistent.

Attending Williams College in Massachusetts, Samuel was in the habit of spending Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in prayer.  Returning from one of these prayer meetings, Samuel and four of his friends were caught in a sudden downpour.  Taking shelter in a nearby haystack, they discussed a booklet by missionary William Carey, An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use means for the Conversion of the Heathen.  The five students committed themselves to the cause of world evangelism, inspired by Samuel’s words to them, “We can do this if we will.”

The five continued to meet and pray.  Others joined them in prayer, seeking direction from God on how they could meet the needs of evangelism in Asia.  In 1810, their members formed the American Board for Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).  Within two years, they sent their first five missionaries to the subcontinent of India.  Many church historians mark this as the beginning of the American Protestant missionary movement.

During its first fifty years, the ABCFM sent out more than 1,200 foreign missionaries, mostly students from New England.  They were deeply involved in Bible translation, establishing schools and hospitals in remote areas, and training local converts to continue the work of evangelism among their own people.

Samuel Mills was very active in the service of Christ through ABCFM.  Besides foreign missions, he preached everywhere in the young United States, from the Mississippi Valley to working with the destitute in New York City.  A trip to New Orleans revealed to him there were many families in the South who had no access to a Bible.  He started a Bible publisher and distribution ministry which was one of the precursors to the American Bible Society.  Finally, active in the effort to repatriate slaves to Africa, he helped found the American Colonization Society.  Returning from a short trip to Africa to scout settlement sites, he died at sea in 1818 at the young age of 35.

The significance of the impromptu Haystack Prayer meeting cannot be understated.  First, it was the seedbed of the North American foreign missions movement.  Many missions organizations today trace their roots to the ABCFM, including InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the Student Volunteer Movement-2, and the Luke 18 Project.  Secondly, it reminds us of our need for prayer – this entire movement began with the prayers of five young men seeking shelter from a storm.  Third, it shows the human cost of missions.  Samuel Mills’ words “We can do this if we will” shows us what these young men experienced: that God working through his tireless servants can do great things.

Footnote: a ‘haystack’ in this day consisted of a small platform of stone or wood upon which cut hay was stacked ten to twelve feet high.  It was neatly combed on the outside so rain would sheet off.  It was kept hollow on the inside to prevent rot and fermentation.  This would have been the perfect size for five young met to sit closely together and have an intimate discussion.

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader (Fourth Edition); Winter, Ralph, Ed, 2009.

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

https://www.gotquestions.org/Haystack-Prayer-Meeting.html

https://missionexus.org/missiologically-aware/haystack-prayer-meeting-matters-today/

https://www.globalministries.org/the_history_of_the_haystack_pray_10_10_2014_112/

https://www.globalministries.org/haystack_samuel_j_mills_10_10_2014_116/

 

 

Benjamin Keach

Benjamin Keach

On an October day in 1664, 24-year-old English pastor Benjamin Keach stood on trial.  The charge was “schismaticall factions and hereticall matter.”  The subject: infant baptism.  The text in question: a primer Reverend Keach wrote for children. 

As a Baptist, Reverend Keach believed and taught the practice was for those mature enough to profess faith in Christ, a conviction he came to after much study.  He was saved at age 15 and began his pastorate at age 18 – in the church that would in later times become known as the Metropolitan Tabernacle – pastored in the 19^th century by Charles Spurgeon.

A prolific author, he received a lot of unwanted attention from the Church of England, resulting in the trial mentioned above.  His books were burned in front of him, he was sentenced to two weeks in jail, then two hours in the ‘pillory’ (i.e. – ‘stocks’) with the written charge to be displayed prominently, “For writing and publishing a schismatical book…” 

Normally in a pillory, the accused would be pelted with objects or stones and be subject to jeering from the crowd.  Keach’s response was to use the time there as a preaching opportunity.  With his wife by his side, he spoke clearly to the crowds, holding their attention.  An Episcopal minister was brought to shout him down but the crowd, knowing the preacher himself lived an ungodly life, was drowned out with laughter.

Through his life, Benjamin Keach found himself fighting the fight for Baptist doctrine in a then-unfriendly situation.  He was noted as a staunch defender who always brought the discussion back to Scripture.  He was fined and threatened numerous other times.  Spurgeon, later writing about him, said that to people like Benjamin Keach, “we as Baptists owe our very existence.” 

Reverend Keach as a reformer as well.  It was common practice then in English churches that, if singing was to be done at all, it was limited to the Psalms.  Studying Scripture, Keach became convicted that music should be a part of the church’s service.  Introducing music he wrote at the observance of the Lord’s Supper, he won both friends and detractors.

Benjamin Keach is an example of a godly man who based his doctrine on the Word of God, and ensured his own life and his congregation followed suit.

Christian History e-mail, 08 Oct 2022

https://digitalpuritan.net/benjamin-keach/

Remegius of Reims

Remegius of Reims

Born to nobility in the city of Leon in Gaul (France) around the year 437, Remegius grew to be noted for his intellect and eloquence.  Having come to faith at an early age, he became the bishop of Reims at the age of 22 – a position he was given even though he had never even been a priest.

Gaul was ruled at this time by Clovis, the Germanic king who had united the warring tribes of Gaul.  Following the polytheistic warlike faith of his ancestors, Clovis married a believer named Clotilde.  Because of his wife, Clovis supported the church but feared that converting would weaken him politically and undermine the morale of his army.  However, during a crucial battle when things were going poorly Clovis cried out to Christ in desperation and imminent lost turned into a decisive victory.

Clovis immediately came to faith and asked Remigius for baptism.  In addition to the king, more than 3,000 of his soldiers were converted and baptized as well, on Christmas day, 496 AD.

Clovis, true to his new faith, deeded large tracts of land to the church throughout his kingdom and asked Remegius to oversee the establishment of dozens of churches.  He encouraged the churches to reach out to the barbarians on the frontier, converting many.  Remegius proved very efficient in the administration of these churches, and ensured the Arian heresy which was then plaguing the church was kept out of the churches he oversaw.  Remegius' efforts resulted in planting the church in large areas of what today is France, individual churches lasting centuries.

Over the years, a number of legends have sprung up around Remegius, mostly concerning miraculous healings.  A contemporary of his, Gregory of Tours, referred to Remegius as “a man of great learning, fond of rhetorical studies, and equal in his holiness to St Silvester.”  Remegius died in the year 533, at approximately age 93.

Christian History e-mail: 13 January 2022

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Remigius-of-Reims

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/remigius-of-reims/

https://historymedieval.com/clovis-i-the-first-king-of-the-franks/

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=376

 

 

 

Francis Makemie

 

In Accomack, Virginia, on the Delmarva peninsula, stands a statue of Francis Makemie.  Francis came to the colonies in the year 1683, ordained by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to evangelize in America.  For over 25 years, he preached in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Barbados. 

To make ends meet, he engaged in trade.  He married the daughter of a merchant and acquired some land.  As a minister, he wrote a Catechism, disputed with Quakers, defended ‘dissenter’ churches (those that acted outside the authority of the Church of England) and organized and pastored churches.

He was licensed to preach in both Barbados and Virginia.  Traveling to New York, the absence of a preaching license caused him difficulty.  Accused (correctly) of preaching without a license, Lord Cornbury, the Governor of New York, arrested him and after languishing in prison for a couple of months was brought to trial.  After a contentious trial, Makemie was found “not guilty” of the crime – a case which proved to be foundational to the later American concept of religious liberty.

Shortly after returning to Virginia in 1708, he passed away near his home in Accomack.  He was buried in his family cemetery and a later monument proclaiming him the “Chief Founder” of the Presbyterian Church in the America.  The inscription on the base of his monument reads, “Erected In Gratitude To God And in grateful remembrance of His servant and minister.”

 

Christian History e-mail, 04 Aug 2021

https://francismakemiesociety.org/index.html

Leonor de Cisneros

In the mid-16^th century, the Reformation took root in Spain for a short time.  The flame burned hot and many came to faith.  Among the converted were a young couple: Leonor de Cisneros and her lawyer husband Antonio Herrezuelo.  They became members of a secret underground congregation in their home city of Toro.

In 1559, the entire congregation of 70 worshipers was arrested and interrogated as part of the Spanish Inquisition.  Congregants were separated, including Leonor from her husband.  Torture and intense pressure to return to Roman Catholicism enticed many in the congregation to recant their ‘Lutheran’ beliefs and take steps to return to Roman Catholicism.  Leonor was told that her husband recanted and was waiting for her.  Under this pressure, she did and was sentenced to three years of reeducation in a convent.

The burnings of heretics during this dreadful time were public and well-choreographed.  Those who had refused to recant were dressed a certain way to indicate their intractability.  Those who had recanted were dressed another way.  Those condemned to die were given a final opportunity to recant their beliefs and receive the benefit of being strangled prior to being burned alive.  On October 8^th, 1559, Leonor was ushered outside her prison cell and, watching the parade of those who had refused to recant, was horrified to discover her captors had lied to her about her husband.  She saw him in the clothing of one about to be burnt.  Having a metal gag in his mouth he could not speak but she recalled the look he gave her to be worse than any rebuke.

Leonor witnessed her husband’s faithfulness through the flames and immediately repented.  Returning to confinement, she openly witnessed to the other prisoners and unashamedly spoke against the teachings the Roman Catholics continued to try to indoctrinate her with.  After nearly nine years, she was finally judged a ‘relapsed incorrigible heretic’ and was sentenced to death by the flame.  On that day, she walked calmly to the pyre, thankful to God that she had another opportunity to bear witness to the faith she had once denied.

 

https://leben.us/leonor-de-cisneros-profile-faith/

https://www.executedtoday.com/2016/09/26/1568-leonor-de-cisneros-chastised-wife/

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

 

An 'Ordinary' Man

Tha Byu was a scoundrel.  He was, at a minimum, a robber and a murderer.

When Adoniram Judson was in Burma (Myanmar) in the 1820s, a fellow Christian who had tried to work with Tha Byu turned him over to the great missionary as a difficult case.  Tha Byu had become indentured to him when the Christian paid off a debt of his, but he had become unmanageable.

Tha Byu was of the Karen tribe in Burma, a persecuted and lower-class segment of society most native Burmese had little time for.  Under Judson’s teaching he came to faith, and after over a year of learning to control his violent temper, the church in Burma agreed to baptize him in 1828.  Three additional Karen tribesmen witnessed the baptism and asked Tha Byu what had happened.  He excitedly told them, and a hunger for evangelism was born.  Tha Byu traveled to Karen villages wherever he could find them to share the Gospel.  At first only a few became converts, but soon his witness, and those who followed him, became so effective that eventually crowds of hundreds and even thousands thronged to hear him speak. 

Because Tha Byu was poorly educated and was older, he felt unequipped to teach the deeper doctrines of the Christian faith.  Instead, missionaries trained those he won and Tha Byu focused his efforts on reaching the thousands of his fellow Karen tribesmen scattered throughout Burma, casting a wide net wherever he could.  He is remembered fondly today as “The Karen Apostle.”  Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Myanmar, most of them among the Karen tribes.

Tha Byu’s ministry only lasted 12 years before he died form a lung infection.  His biographer wrote: From the day of his baptism to his death, he never intermitted his labors in preaching Christ, where the Saviour had not so much as been named, from Tavoy to Siam; from Martaban to the borders of Zimmay; and from Rangoon to Arracan. And though he was the first of his nation to go down into the baptismal waters, he lived to see hundreds and hundreds follow his steps, in whose conversion he held a distinguished part. We cannot err in honoring those whom God honors; and it therefore seems proper, that the name of Ko Thah-byu should be rescued from oblivion, and inscribed among the worthies of the church; that the rising generation may learn what “very ordinary abilities,” when wholly consecrated to God, may accomplish.

Tha Byu’s commitment to his fellow countrymen and his zeal for the spread of the Gospel show us that a person of ‘ordinary’ skills can have a great impact for Christ.

 

Christian History e-mail: 09 Sept 2022.

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/