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

It Is Well With My Soul

On October 8^th, 1871, Mrs O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire.  This devastating fire lasted three days, destroyed over 3 square miles of the city, including over 17,000 structures, killed about 300 people and left over 100,000 residents homeless.

Horatio Spafford, a Presbyterian church elder, a friend of D.L. Moody, and a godly man was affected by this tragedy.  A lawyer by trade, he lost much of his financial investments in the fire.  Despite the setbacks, he, his wife Anna, and their four daughters Annie (age 12), Maggie (age 7), Bessie (age 4) and Tanetta (age 18 months) poured their lives into ministering to the victims of this disaster.

After two years of work, the family decided to visit friends in England for a respite.  Anna went ahead with the girls while Horatio stayed behind to wrap up some business.  On November 22^nd, 1873, en route to England, the steamship Ville du Havre on which they were passengers was struck by another vessel, with great loss of life.  Anxiously, Horatio awaited news.  He eventually received a telegram from his wife with two words, “Saved, alone.”

Immediately, Spafford traveled to England to be with his grieving wife.  En route, he asked the ship’s captain to notify him when they reached the place where his daughters were lost.  When word came to him, Horatio went up on deck and penned the words to a beloved hymn:

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.”

It is well (it is well),

With my soul (with my soul),

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Lest this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

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 mare,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord haste the day, when the 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.

Following this tragedy, Anna gave birth to three more children, Horatio, Bertha, and Grace.  In 1881, they moved to Jerusalem and became part of an American Christian colony there, focused on ministry to people of all backgrounds.  There, they adopted a teenager named Jacob.

Horatio Spafford died of Malaria in 1888, age 59.  He is buried in Jerusalem.

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

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

Minnie Watson

Minnie Watson

Minnie Cumming came to what is now Kenya, Africa, from her native Scotland in 1899 to marry her fiancé, missionary Thomas Watson.  The young couple began the work of planting a Presbyterian church in a city called Kikuyu.  Soon after she arrived, the town was hit with a locust swarm, resulting in famine, which was followed by a severe Smallpox plague.  The back-to-back disasters resulted in hundreds of people dying, many dropping in the fields where they labored and expiring there.

Thomas and Minnie labored tirelessly to minister to the sick, but before the crisis had passed Thomas contracted pneumonia and passed away - less than a year after their marriage - leaving Minnie, a young widow, to run the entire enterprise on her own - a task she performed with energy and enthusiasm.  A year later, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland assumed responsibility for the effort.  Minnie was asked to stay on and supervise the refugee school established by the mission.

She adopted two children and ensured their education.  She became a fearless advocate for the education of girls in Kenya, something that aroused opposition, sometimes the form of violence.  She also advocated against the cruel practice of female circumcision, a practiced which declined steeply in the country under her influence.

One of the children that attended her school was a boy named Jomo Kenyatta.  Five years after arriving at the school in 1914, Jomo came to faith and was baptized at the local church.  This young man became the founder and the first president of the modern nation of Kenya, serving in that role from 1964-1978.  

Minnie stayed in this role for 32 years, establishing an extensive network of schools in Kenya and laying down the standards that guided Kenyan education for generations.  Minnie had the nickname "Granny Watson" among her pupils.  She was remembered by her students as the model of a Christian lady: strict when necessary but always loving, humble, and patient.  Her diligence in her task blazed the trail for many missionaries who followed her.

Minnie retired to Scotland, where she lived the last few years of her life.  When she passed away in 1949, her ashes were returned to Kenya and were buried beside her husband.

Feb 13, 2022 Christian History E-mail

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-39351913

 

John Roberts

Rev John Roberts was a Welsh missionary to Native Americans in Wyoming.  Born in North Wales in 1853, he came to faith at an early age and yearned to be a missionary.  As a young man, he was ordained as a Deacon in his Anglican church and served there briefly before sailing to the Bahamas to minister in Nassau.  There, he was ordained as a Priest and concentrated his ministry among the poor and outcast, including lepers. 

However, John was restless and wanted a greater challenge.  His heart was drawn to Native Americans, so John made his way to Colorado where, meeting with his Bishop, he asked for the most difficult field in the region.  He was told that was among the reservation of the Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes which would later be known as the Wind River Indian Reservation, but his Bishop first wanted him to gain some experience so John was assigned to minister to coal miners in Greeley, Colorado, and to a community in Pueblo.  There, Roberts established a mission church in South Pueblo.  When a smallpox epidemic quarantined the community, he fearlessly worked in the hospital tending the sick.

Finally given permission to go to the reservation, he left in late January of 1883.  He traveled by train, then took the last 150 miles by stagecoach.  They journeyed for 8 days in the middle of a blizzard where temperatures neared 60 degrees below zero, and arrived at Fort Washakie, on the reservation, on February 10^th.  John established a church there and was offered a government-paid position as principal of a school – a job he accepted both for outreach and to learn local customs.  He branched out from there, establishing congregations in eight outlying communities, five of which remain active today.  He traveled extensively on horseback between congregations officiating numerous baptisms, communion services, weddings, and burials.  One such burial was a woman who estimated herself to be a hundred years old who claimed, and Roberts believed, to be Sacajawea.  (Note: South Dakota also claims to be the burial place of Sacajawea.)

While in the Bahamas, Roberts had become engaged to a young church organist named Laura Brown.  They corresponded by mail until the year after Roberts arrived in Wyoming.  She traveled by train and stage to meet him there (in much fairer weather) and they were married on Christmas Day of 1884.  Laura was his faithful partner through his missions.  John and Laura were blessed with five children. 

Roberts also became friends with the Shoshone Chief Washakie, in his early 80s when Roberts arrived.  One story of their friendship comes soon after John’s arrival.  The Chief’s son was involved in a liquor purchase, which led to an argument and culminated in the young man being shot to death.  Two contradictory accounts of the Chief’s response exist: the first account is recorded by a woman who interviewed Rev Roberts late in his life and attributed the account to him.  In her account the elderly Chief, upon hearing of his son’s death, vowed to kill every white man he could find until he himself was killed.  Roberts, hearing of this vow, interceded with the Chief and offered his own life if it would assuage the Chief’s anger.  The Chief’s heart softened and he came to faith as a result of John’s intervention.  The second, less dramatic account comes from Roberts’ children.  In this account, Roberts did visit the Chief after the killing.  During his visit the Chief remarked, “The white man did not kill my son.  Whiskey killed him.”  Regardless of which accounting is true, the two had a remarkable friendship which lasted the remainder of Chief Washakie’s life.  The Chief, in his old age, was a vibrant Christian, leading many to Christ until his death in 1900 at age 102.  He was buried with full military honors at the post cemetery, given his many years as a US Army Scout.

Rev Roberts, early in his ministry, established a school for girls is Fort Washakie with the Chief’s blessing and financing.  It operated as a school until 1949, the year of John Roberts’ death.  He translated the Bible into numerous Native languages.

The success of the Shoshone mission attracted the attention of the Arapaho tribe, which was also settled on the Shoshone reservation.  Roberts energetically expanded his mission and his vision to include them, establishing churches among their people, learning their languages, and translating the Bible for them as well.

The Bishop over his region thought very highly of Roberts and once offered him a more prominent position.  Roberts wrote back, “Thank you, Bishop, but I hope you will never take me away from my Indians.  I prefer to spend my life here among my adopted people.”  Roberts served with full vigor and enthusiasm his entire life.  He was a bridge for the Indian people with the white culture that surrounded them.  He died in January of 1949, and is buried in Wyoming.  His ministry in Wyoming lasted 66 years.

Christian History e-mail: 22 Jan 2022.

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/reverend-john-roberts-missionary-eastern-shoshone-and-northern-arapaho-tribes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Roberts_(missionary)