Ada Fitzgerald Whiddington – died

ON THIS DATE

Ada Ann Fitzgerald Whiddington died, 3/14/1933, at Hendon, England.  She was born in 1855 in England (both exact date & exact location unknown) to Mr & Mrs Robert Fitzgerald.  She married Mark Whiddington & they were blessed with a son, Richard, who reportedly became Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge University.  Ada is thought to have been associated with the Keswick Convention.

This lady is one of many souls who felt inspired to write the desires of their honest souls. One could wish to know more about her, her background, her times but those are left in history’s shadow. What we do have are these words set to music by the famous Canadian turned American A B Simpson (born, PEI, 1843).   

Not I, but Christ, be honored, loved, exalted; Not I, but Christ, be seen, be known, be heard;

Not I, but Christ, in every look and action, Not I, but Christ, in every thought and word.

Refrain

O to be saved from myself, dear Lord, O to be lost in Thee,

O that it might be no more I, But Christ, that lives in me.

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Lettie Burd Cowman – born

ON THIS DATE

Lettie Burd was born 3/3/1870, to Isaac & Margaret Burd, Afton,IA. Isaac was a banker, the home reflected culture & wealth, & their last child, Lettie became a talented, delightful teenager. When she was 14 a Western Union Telegraph operator Charles Cowman, age 16, entered her life. Her parents didn’t approve of the friendship & when Charles was transferred by WUT they were relieved. But he returned with 5 solid WUT yrs. experience & as manager of their Glenwood Springs, CO office. They were married 6/18/1889.

They came back to Chicago & he advanced with Western Union. Lettie after some time was converted to Christ in a ME church.  Charles was impressed with her immediate life change but didn’t have interest himself. Later he was redeemed & the distance he’d felt between their conversions became a happy, holy reunion. They once went to Moody Church & as A B Simpson made appeals Charles turned to Lettie, “This means you & me.” They briefly attended God’s Bible School (Cincinnati) & sailed for Japan in 1901.

Along with Juji Nakada & E A Kilbourne they organized Oriental Missionary Society (1907).  Charles died in 1924, Kilbourne in 1928, & Lettie carried on the work until 1949. Her Streams in the Desert (first published in ’25) has been translated into 15 languages, passing 3,000,000 in sales. The attractive banker’s daughter (she said “In a sense Charles was my savior, he saved me from a life of wealth, leisure & plenty”) gave the world a view of her greater, bigger Savior via her famous devotional text. She died 4/17/1960.

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Author “Nearer My God” – born

ON THIS DATE

Sarah Fuller Flower was born 2/22/1805, at Harlow, Essex, England, the younger daughter of Mr & Mrs Benjamin Flower, editor/owner of The Cambridge Intelligencer.  In 1834 she married William Brydges Adams, a well-known inventor & civil engineer.  She is said to have met William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens, & Leigh Hunt & to have corresponded with Robert Browning who reportedly admired her.

 

She contributed 13 hymns to a book published in 1841 among which is her famous “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”   There is a tradition/story that as the ill-famed Titanic sank, the ship’s band played “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”  If so, it perhaps helped more than one to repent.  If not true one could wish that it were. 😦   She died 8/14/1848 in London.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,

Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

Nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer to Thee!

 

 

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Esther L. Kerr – born

ON THIS DATE 

Esther L. Kerr was born 2/21/1909, in Arizona Territory.  Arizona was a Territory from 1863 until it became the 48^th state, 2/14/1912, one week before Esther turned 3.  Her brother was an evangelist, Phil Kerr.  She married Howard Rusthoi, a minister – together they were called the “revival broadcasters.”  She (they?) attended/participated in a church called Angeles Temple in Los Angeles, California.  She died in Los Angeles, April 8, 1962.  She wrote “It will be worth it all.”

“It will be worth it all when we see Jesus, Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ;

One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase, So bravely run the race till we see Christ.”

Personal note – this is the song our daughter Laura, my wife & I were singing to Mom (Ruth E. Bryan) as she slipped from this world to the next, 2/26/12.

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Author of “…Ninety & Nine” – died

ON THIS DATE 

Elizabeth Cecelia Douglas Clephane died, 2/19/1869, near Melrose, Scotland, the 3^rd daughter of Andrew Clephane, Sheriff of Fife & Kinross. She lived most of life at her birth site 30 miles southeast of Edinburgh. Wrote “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” & “There Were Ninety & Nine.” Clephane was born 6/18/1830.

Sankey spotted “…Ninety & Nine” in a Brit newspaper while with Moody in Scotland, tore out the poem, put it in his pocket & forgot it.  That same day as Moody closed a service (Edinburgh) he asked Sankey to sing. Ira was caught by surprise but the Holy Ghost reminded him of what was in his pocket.  He brought it out & with a prayer, proceeded to composed a tune AS he sang – his first attempt at writing hymn tunes.

“There were ninety and nine that safely lay In the shelter of the fold. But one was out on the hills away,

Far off from the gates of gold. Away on the mountains wild and bare.

Away from the tender Shepherd’s care. Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.”

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Author of “Face to Face With Christ My Saviour” – born

ON THIS DATE

Carrie Ellis Breck was born 1/22/1855 at Walden, VT.  Her family moved to NJ where she married Frank Breck; somewhere between 1910-1920 the new couple moved to Oregon.  There she was a devoted wife, a mother to five daughters and a poetess.  It’s said that she could not “carry a tune” but that did not hurt her ability in po­e­tic rhy­thm – 2000 poems flowed from her pen.  She wrote “Face to Face With Christ My Saviour” “All the World for Jesus” “Nailed to the Cross,” and “When Love Shines In.”  She died 3/27/1934.

“Face to face with Christ, my Savior, Face to face—what will it be,

When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me?”

Refrain

“Face to face I shall behold Him, Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory, I shall see Him by and by!”

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Author of “‘Tis SO Sweet” died

ON THIS DATE

Louisa M R Stead Wodehouse died 1/18/1917, at Penkridge (50 miles fr Um-ta­li) Zimbabwe, Southern Rhodesia.  Born near Dover, England she early sensed a call to missions.  She came to the States (about 1871) and lived for a while in Cincinnati.  Again she felt a pull to missions (China) but was unable to go.  She married a Mr. Stead in 1875, had a baby girl, but lost Stead in a drowning off of Long Island, NY.  About 1880, she went to South Africa and served as a missionary some 15 years.  She there married a South African, Robert Wodehouse.  Around 1895 she was again in the States to recover her health, then in 1901 she went as a missionary to Rhodesia.  Though she labored many years on these fields she is best remember as the author of the hymn “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” said to have been written after seeing her husband drown.

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, And to take Him at His Word; Just to rest upon His promise, And to know, Thus says the Lord!

Refrain

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!

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Avis M B Christiansen – died

ON THIS DATE

Avis Marguerite Burgeson Christiansen died 1/14/1985 in her native Chicago.  She had a grandmother who loved poetry and with her encouragement Avis wrote her first poem at ten.  When on a Lord’s Day at Moody Church she heard Harry Loes sing a new song, she felt God reminded her of her talent and she responded, resulting in two songs.  She married (1917) Ernest C. Christiansen, who later became a vice president at Moody Bible Institute.   She had been born 10/11/1895.  Haldor Lillenas (a foremost Nazarene song writer) wrote the music and Avis wrote the words to:

“It is glory just to walk with Him whose blood has ransomed me;

It is rapture for my soul each day.

It is joy divine to feel Him near where’er my path may be.

Bless the Lord, it’s glory all the way!

Refrain

“It is glory just to walk with Him, It is glory just to walk with Him,

He will guide my steps aright Through the vale and o’er the height,

It is glory just to walk with Him.”

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Helen Cadbury – born

ON THIS DATE

Helen Cadbury was born 1/10/1877 in Birmingham, England.  When she was 12 she attended a Lord’s Day evening service with her father, Richard Cadbury (of the famous chocolate makers), and was converted to Christ.  As is normal, she began witnessing to her school friends. As they became believers they sewed pockets on their dresses in which to carry the New Testaments her father supplied for them (they had started carrying Bibles to school but found them too heavy).  Hence the founding of “The Pocket Testament League.”  When Helen married the song leader Charles Alexander, he took the plan around the world.  Helen died 3/1/1969.

Quote:

“If only we could get people to read the Book for themselves it will surely lead them to Christ.”

– Helen Cadbury

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Five Martyrs

ON THIS DATE

Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian (names arranged alphabetically, not for other reasons) were killed 1/8/1956 in the South American country of Ecuador while trying to reach the Auca Indians for Jesus Christ. 

I remember this event – a modern martyrdom along the Curaray River.   Jim’s widow, Elizabeth, wrote Through Gates of Splendor (1957).   

 

“The happiest day of my life was the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour

for the remission of my sins, duly repented for…”  – Roger Youderian

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