Thomas Ken

Thomas Ken – a man who was both rewarded and punished for his convictions

Thomas Ken was born in 1637 and died in 1711.  His parents died when he was a child and he was taken in by his half-sister and her husband, who sent him to a boarding school where he eventually was trained for the ministry.  He had a firm attachment to the Church of England.

He returned to his hometown near London as a chaplain.  To encourage the devotional habits of the young boys he was in charge of, he wrote three hymns, one of each meant to be sung at morning, at evening, and at midnight if the boys woke up in the middle of the night.

The morning hymn had thirteen stanzas, beginning with:

                Awake, my soul, and with the sun the daily stage of duty run;

Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise, to pay thy morning sacrifice.

The evening hymn included this verse:

                All praise to Thee, my God, this night, for all the blessings of the night!

                Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings, beneath Thine own might wings.

Singing hymns was fairly revolutionary in England.  At this time, the only signing in churches was singing of the Psalms.  Thomas continued to write hymns, later publishing a hymnal.

Thomas was later appointed as chaplain to Princess Mary of England, wife of the Dutch King William.  He lasted a year, then was sent home after publicly rebuking the King for his treatment of Mary.  Thomas was then appointed as a royal chaplain to King Charles II, a rather thankless job as the King shamelessly indulged in a variety of immoralities.

During this time, Charles had an official mistress, Nell Gwynne.  For his convenience, Charles directed Thomas to lodge her in his residence.  Thomas replied that he was the King’s chaplain, not the King’s pimp.  Fortunately for Thomas, Charles took the rebuke in stride and later, when a Bishop’s position became open, said that the man who should have it must be, “that little man who refused lodging to poor Nellie.”  When Charles was on his deathbed, it was Thomas that he requested be at his side.

Charles was succeeded by James II, a royal proclamation which opened the door to an official sanction of Roman Catholicism.  Charles, along with six other bishops, refused to publish the order and instead drafted a statement opposing it.  James threw them in the Tower of London as prisoners.  Public pressure, including rioting in London, resulted in a verdict of acquittal.  After release, Thomas was taken in by a friend and spent the rest of his life writing and tutoring.

Thomas is known for his steadfast conviction in the light of authority, but perhaps more so for those little hymns he wrote those boys so early in his career.  Each of those hymns, meant to be sung morning, evening, and night, had a common refrain – a refrain we today call the Doxology:

                Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  Praise Him all creatures here below.

                Praise Him above, ye Heavenly host.  Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

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

https://hymnary.org/person/Ken_Thomas

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Ken

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

William Booth

William Booth

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was born in poverty.  At his death in 1912, over 150,000 English citizens filed by his casket and 40,000 were in attendance at his funeral including Queen Mary herself.  He was converted at age 15 via an invitation to church from a Wesleyan couple.  That night, in his diary, he wrote, “God shall have all there is of William Booth.”

A few years later, with a group of friends, he heard American preacher Charles G. Finney speak about revival.  They made their purpose the evangelization of the poor.  Booth held open-air meetings in the poorest communities and organized follow-up meetings in individuals’ homes.  After a brief foray as a pastor in a Methodist church, William and his bride Catherine, committed themselves to full-time evangelism of the poor.  He was fond of saying, “Go for souls, and go for the worst!”

William upended the ‘traditional church’ of the day.  He believed in short sermons, a fiery exhortation to receive Christ, secular music in the meetings, and visitation of the sick and poor.  These were the initial qualities to go into his “Salvation Army.”

Catherine was herself a bit of a firebrand.  She, also, was influenced by Finney, having read many of his writings during a period of being bed-bound for a few months as a young woman.  She was convinced after this time of her own calling to the ministry – in a day where Victorian values permeated dictating that ‘a woman’s place is in the home.’  Catherine responded that since the Gospel liberated men and women equally, and placed them on equal ground, then there was no Scriptural ground for denying a woman a place in the ministry, including the preaching ministry.  She eventually got the opportunity to preach at a Salvation Army service, and her abilities were noted.  She was often compared to a gentle but firm lawyer pleading with judge and jury for the life of a prisoner.  Catherine eventually gave birth to and raised eight children, in addition to the formal and informal duties as “Co-founder” of the Salvation Army.  The ministry she seemed most passionate about was training evangelists to reach the poor.

In 1865, Catherine received an invitation to preach in London.  William accepted what was meant to be a temporary position to run a mission in East London, a very squalid area of the city.  East London of that day was very densely populated, and one writer noted that “every fifth house was a gin shop.”  Many of these gin shops had steps to where even a young child could reach the counter of the bar.  William’s mission was to reach these people where they were.

William’s converts came from the drunkards and the prostitutes of that area.  They were trained to reach others and, within ten years, the ministry had spread throughout East London and in many European cities, with well over a thousand volunteers.  In 1878, William read a draft copy of the annual report for his ministry, his eyes fell on the words, “…the Christian Mission is a volunteer army.”  Booth crossed out the words, “volunteer army” and replaced them with the words “Salvation Army.”  The idea of an “army” caught on, and Booth organized the mission with a military-like structure with himself as the “General.”  Within another ten years, the Salvation Army had recorded over 250,000 converts.

His zeal was infectious.  He once said, “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God – I’ll fight!  I’ll fight to the very end!”

Over the years, he created a complex social relief structure to meet the needs of those he was called to serve.  He published a bestseller in 1890 entitled ‘In Darkest England and the Way Out’ to explain his plans in the regard.

When William died in 1912, seven of his eight children held leadership positions in the Salvation Army, including his seventh child, Evangeline “Eva” Booth, who served for 30 years as national commander for the North American Salvation Army mission, organizing the work and laying a structural foundation for the future of American work.  She was noted by the United States for her tremendous effort to soldiers heading to World War I, organizing “Doughnut Girls” to minister to the solders, and oversaw the appointment of Chaplains to serve in the US Army.  Eva left America in 1934 a tremendously popular figure to return to England and become the fourth General of the Salvation Army.  She retained her American citizenship until her death in 1950.

131 Christians Everyone Should Know, J.I. Packer, Broadman and Holman, 2000.

https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/history-of-the-salvation-army/

Ignatius Loyola

Ignatius of Loyola

Ignatius, born Inigo Lopez de Loyola, was born to a noble family in Spain in 1491.  As a boy, he was sent to a Spanish court to become a page – the first step to becoming a court official.  He embraced the life of royalty and fell in love with the practice of chivalry and war, hoping at some point in the future to win glory for himself.

As a young man, he was involved in a battle with the French for the town of Pamplona, Spain.  During the battle, a cannonball the size of an orange hit him.  After the battle, he was helped back to Loyola by the French soldiers who greatly respected his courage.  He had surgeries to reset his knee and to remove a protruding bone.  During his seven-week convalescence, he read spiritual books, including one by a monk which captured his attention describing the life of a monk as one of “holy chivalry.”  By the time he was released, he had decided to commit his life to holy living and doing penance for his sins.

Inigo walked to a small town in Northeastern Spain where he lived in a cave for about a year, subsisting as a beggar, flogging himself, attending Mass daily, and praying for seven hours per day.  It was in this town he wrote the beginning of his book Spiritual Exercises: a little book designed to help lay people develop the discipline of spiritual contemplation.  He studied in Barcelona where he attracted a number of followers and worked with them to help people walk closer to Christ.  As a yet-unordained person, he fell under suspicion of the established church during the Spanish Inquisition and was arrested at least twice.  Due to these persecutions, he and his companions moved to study for years in Paris, then later to Venice.  In Paris, he changed his name to Ignatius.

From Venice, in 1540, Ignatius and his followers received the Pope’s approval to begin a religious order which they called “The Society of Jesus” – or “Jesuits.”  The Jesuits began a ministry less focused on the trappings of spiritual life and more on ministry.  This caught on, and Jesuit orders soon sprung up in many of the major cities of Europe, in newly-opened areas of the world such as China, as well as many of the settlements in the New World, including areas of Quebec, Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Arizona, Mexico, and many areas of South America, often specifically reaching out to the Indians.

Ignatius is known for his work Spiritual Exercises.  The book is meant to lead a person through four weeks of meditation and prayer.  It has been in constant use by Jesuits up to this day, nearly 500 years, and is often used by lay people of all spiritual traditions.

The object of the first week is purifying one’s soul: examining your conscience and meditating on your sins, and on Hell.

The object of the second week is a focus on the Gospels and on Christ.

The object of the third week is freeing yourself from your will, to follow Christ.

The object of the fourth week is releasing the heart from worldly attachments.

Ignatius taught what was called “imaginative contemplation” in prayer and study.  In many traditions, ‘contemplation’ means to put all other thoughts aside and have an uninterrupted focus on what you are reading, freeing your mind of all thoughts and images.  Ignatian thought teaches ‘contemplation’ a bit differently: engage your imagination when you pray, insert yourself into the story.  When reading stories of Jesus, for example, use your imagination while reading to smell the smells, hear the sounds, feel the emotions, touch what is there.  In short, immerse yourself in what you are reading.

For nearly 500 years, Spiritual Exercises has been a guide for Christians to deepen their relationship with their Creator.

131 Christians Everyone Should Know, Packer, J.I., Holman Publishers, 2000.

https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises

http://sacred-texts.com/chr/seil/index.htm

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/moversandshakers/ignatius-of-loyola.html

Katharina Von Bora (Luther)

Katharina Von Bora (Luther)

Around the year 1523 and friend of Martin Luther’s named Leonhard Koppe came to him with a problem.  He had, years ago, committed his daughter to a Benedictine convent at age 3.  Her father missed her greatly and had received some secret communication from her, but had no options to get her back.  Helping a nun to escape, in this part of the world, was a capital offense.

Martin used some contacts to get his friend a job delivering fish to the convent.  There, Leonhard was able to facilitate communication with his daughter, who mentioned there might be some friends who would join her in her escape.  One day, Leonhard drove his wagon into the convent with twelve barrels of herring and drove out with a fugitive nun hidden inside each empty barrel, back to Wittenberg and Martin Luther.  One man in Wittenberg wrote, “A wagon load of vestal virgins has just come to town, all more eager for marriage that for life [itself].”

Leonhard claimed his daughter, and Martin felt a sense of responsibility toward the young women and set about, first to find their families, then finding them eligible husbands.  He married them all off but one, Miss Katharina Von Bora, a feisty redhead who, at age 22, was well beyond the usual age of marriage.  Martin widened and widened the net until two years later he found an elderly widower who would be willing to marry Katharina and give her the security she would need.  Martin took her to meet him and made the formal introduction.  Katarina told Martin, “Sir, this gentleman is not acceptable!”   Still looking at her patron, she continued, “but if YOU were to ask me, I’d say ‘Yes’!”

While Martin had encouraged marriage for ministers, he shunned it for himself, thinking the constant threat of a heretic’s death to be an unfair burden to any woman.  Nevertheless, in the summer of 1525, the 42-year-old former monk married the 24-year-old former nun and the Luther household was born.  Initially, it was a marriage of convenience, Luther writing this his marriage would, “please his father, rile the Pope, cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep.”  Martin’s Catholic critics turned their venom on his new bride, one pamphlet calling her a “poor, fallen woman” who had passed “from the cloistered holy religion into a damnable, shameful life.”  Katharina did not seem at all affected by the harsh criticism, and kept her focus on the success of her husband.  Over a short time, the marriage of convenience became one of a deep love and respect for each other.

Katharina, or “my Lord Katie”, as he often called her, stormed into his life, setting his domestic affairs in order: bring order to the finances, seeing to his health, and making certain Martin’s habit of giving money away thoughtlessly didn’t damage the family coffers too badly.  Owing to Martin’s bouts of gout, insomnia, constipation, stones, dizziness, and ringing of the ears, Katharina became very proficient at herbal medicines and massage.  She also had an incredible intellect, respectfully challenging her husband in the areas of theology he was studying.  At such times, he referred to her as “Doctora Lutherin.”  She was a bundle of energy, who harnessed that energy into being a blessing to her husband.

The Augustinian monastery where Martin once stayed was purchased by a nobleman and gifted to the Luthers.  Katharina arranged for boarding of their frequent guests in the rooms, at times being hospitable to 30 guests at a time, supervised planting of the fields, managed an orchard, harvested a fish pond, directed the barnyard, and even slaughtered the livestock.  Martin wrote, “In domestic affairs, I defer to Katie.  In everything else, I am led by the Holy Spirit.”

Katharina found time in all this activity to bear six children, three boys and three girls, born in a span of seven years.  The Luthers also adopted four children.  Their hearts were broken when their daughter Elizabeth died at age 8 months, and again when another daughter, Magdalena, died at age 13.  Martin seemed to take great joy in performing some of the ‘womanly’ tasks for his wife.  He reserved for himself, as often as he was home, the chore of washing diapers.

Katharina also made certain Martin’s personal priorities were in order.  Martin had, while single, seen the marriage covenant as somewhat of a broken institution and preached often on the responsibilities of husbands to take more of an active role in their marriage and domestic life.  ‘Lord Katie’ held him to this standard.  One story is related about Martin locking himself in his study, so enmeshed in his studies that he ignored his family for five days.  After five days, she removed the hinges from the door so the children could storm in.

They were married for 21 years before Martin Luther passed away in 1546.  His wife wrote, “For who would not be sad and afflicted at the loss of such a precious man as my dear lord was?  He did great things not just for a city or a single land, but for the whole world.  Therefore I am truly so deeply grieved that I cannot…eat or drink, nor can I sleep.  And if I had a principality or an empire and lost it, it would not have been as painful as it is now that the dear Lord God has taken from me this precious and beloved man, and not from me alone, but from the whole world.”

Christian History Magazine – two editions on the life of Martin Luther

https://www.visit-luther.com/reformation-heroes/katharina-von-bora/

https://lutheranreformation.org/history/katharina-von-bora-luther/