Joseph Hart
Born to Godly, Calvinistic-minded parents, Joseph Hart was born in London in 1712. His parents were well-to-do, and ensured he was educated in the classics. He loved literature, and was often seen in his early life browsing bookstores, looking for volumes he had not yet read. He went on to teach the Classics of literature.
At the age of 21, he began to have doubts about the state of his soul. He tried fasting, self-deprivation, and strict observance of religious duties in order to gain favor with God. This proved, ultimately, fruitless. He then tried the opposite tack, frequenting taverns and theaters and associating with friends of low repute. After several years he, in his own words, began to “sink deeper and deeper into conviction of my nature’s evil, the wickedness of my life, the shallowness of Christianity and the blindness of my devotion.”
At this time, the Methodist preachers John Wesley and George Whitfield were upending the nation with their evangelistic preaching. Hart still called himself a Calvinist, and was doubly incensed with not only the Christian teaching, but that of the Methodists – decidedly not Calvinistic. In 1741, after a very popular sermon of Wesley’s was published which declared his belief in the universal opportunity for redemption, Hart published his own book entitled ‘The Unreasonableness of Religion.” In it, he argued that human reason expects that God would accept us on the basis of our own good works, while Christianity as taught by Wesley and Whitfield teaches that our acceptance before God is on the basis of work done by Another, freely given to a person without any basis of their own merit or worthiness.
He even began to mock Christians, declaring that he was more faithful than they were since he sinned more, giving God even more opportunity to forgive him. He later confessed, “I committed all [types of] uncleanness with greediness.” While still a lover of and teacher of the classics of literature, the Bible remained off his reading list.
In 1751, he made the decision for sobriety. Again, he saw his own action as being ‘good enough’ in the eyes of God. In 1752, he married the daughter of a Baptist preacher. Hart finally resumed his reading of the Scriptures, but still remained is his state of unbelief. Two years later, a friend of his who had become converted under Whitfield’s preaching was asked to fill a pulpit at the London Tabernacle. Hart attended, and later went back to hear Whitfield preach. Whitfield’s preaching was searching and convicting and caused him distress. Desperately, he cried out to God for some sort of conviction in his heart. For five years, he struggled before eventually coming to faith at church on a Sunday in 1857.
Remembering his conversion he wrote, “I was hardly home when I felt myself melting away into a strange softness of affection, which made me fling myself on my knees before God. My horrors were immediately dispelled, and such light and comfort flowed into my heart as no words can paint.” He continued, “Tears ran streaming from my eyes. I threw my soul willingly into my Savior’s hands; lay weeping at His feet, wholly resigned to His will, and only begging that I might, if He was graciously pleased to permit it, be of some service to His church and people.” He was later asked to take a pulpit, a task he was eager to accept.
Joseph experienced trials in his life. His oldest son suffered from sporadic fits of seizures. Another son died at age 3. Later in life, his wife became ill and an invalid, requiring constant care. God used these trials to mold and shape him.
He began writing hymns and verse. His attitude toward suffering is captured thus:
Gold in the furnace tried
Ne’er loses aught but dross;
So is the Christian purified
And better’d by the Cross.
And when undergoing suffering…
If pain afflict, or wrongs oppress;
If cares distract, or fears dismay;
If guilt deject; if sin distress;
The remedy’s before thee, Pray!
Joseph Hart wrote many hymns which were often sung in his
day. One we will recall:
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick
and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity love and pow’r
Chorus:
I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in His
arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior, O, there are ten thousand
charms.
Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome, God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance, Every grace that brings
you nigh.
Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly
dream;
All the fitness He requireth Is to feel your need of Him.
Come, ye weary, heave laden, Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better, You will never come at
all.
https://www.evangelical-times.org/joseph-hart-1712-1768/
