A J Gordon – death, Feb. 2, 1895

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

A J Gordon died this date, 2/2/1895 at Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts.  He was a Baptist and close friend of D L Moody.  A J (Adoniram Judson) Gordon is remembered as composer of the tunes for “In Tenderness He Sought Me” and “My Jesus, I Love Thee.”  Gordon was born 4/13/1836 at New Hamp­ton, New Hamp­shire.

“A young, tal­ent­ed and ten­der-heart­ed ac­tress was pass­ing along the street of a large ci­ty. See­ing a pale, sick girl ly­ing up­on a couch just with­in the half-open door of a beau­ti­ful dwell­ing, she en­tered, with the thought that by her vi­va­ci­ty and plea­sant con­ver­sa­tion she might cheer the young in­va­lid. The sick girl was a de­vot­ed Christ­ian, and her words, her pa­tience, her sub­mis­sion and hea­ven-lit coun­te­nance, so dem­on­strat­ed the spir­it of her re­li­gion that the ac­tress was led to give some ear­nest thought to the claims of Christ­i­an­i­ty, and was tho­rough­ly con­vert­ed, and be­came a true fol­low­er of Christ. She told her fa­ther, the lead­er of the the­a­ter troupe, of her con­ver­sion, and of her de­sire to aban­don the stage, stat­ing that she could not live a con­sis­tent Christ­ian life and fol­low the life of an ac­tress. Her fa­ther was as­ton­ished be­yond mea­sure, and told his daugh­ter that their liv­ing would be lost to them and their bu­si­ness ru­ined, if she per­sist­ed in her re­so­lu­tion. Lov­ing her fa­ther dear­ly, she was shak­en some­what in her pur­pose, and par­tial­ly con­sent­ed to fill the pub­lished en­gage­ment to be met in a few days. She was the star of the troupe, and a gen­er­al fa­vo­rite. Ev­ery prep­a­ra­tion was made for the play in which she was to ap­pear. The ev­en­ing came and the fa­ther re­joiced that he had won back his daugh­ter, and that their liv­ing was not to be lost. The hour ar­rived; a large au­di­ence had as­sem­bled. The cur­tain rose, and the young ac­tress stepped for­ward firm­ly amid the ap­plause of the mul­ti­tude. But an un­wont­ed light beamed from her beau­ti­ful face. Amid the breath­less si­lence of the au­di­ence, she re­peat­ed:

‘My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.’

This was all. Through Christ she had con­quered and, leav­ing the au­di­ence in tears, she re­tired from the stage, ne­ver to ap­pear up­on it again. Through her in­flu­ence her fa­ther was con­vert­ed, and through their unit­ed evan­gel­is­tic la­bors ma­ny were led to God.”

                                        – Alleged incident told by the Mi­chi­gan Protestant Episcopal Bi­shop

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John Burton, Sr. – death, Jun 24, 1822

“Holy Bible, Book Divine”

Holy Bible, book Divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine;
Mine to tell me whence I came;
Mine to teach me what I am.

 

Mine to chide me when I rove;
Mine to shew a Saviour’s love;
Mine art thou to guide my feet;
Mine to judge, condemn, acquit.

 

Mine to comfort in distress;
If the Holy Spirit bless;
Mine to shew, by living faith,
Man can triumph over death.

 

Mine to tell of joys to come,
And the rebel sinner’s doom;
Holy Bible, book Divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine.

 

John Burton, Sr. died this date 6/24/1822, at Leicester, England.  He was a Baptist who wrote a number of hymns and helped compile the Nottingham Sunday School Union Hymn Book a hymnal that saw twenty editions in the next fifty years.  John was born 2/26/1773, at Nottingham, England.

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John Yates – birth, Nov 21, 1837

“Faith Is the Victory”   (stanza 1) 

 

Encamped along the hills of light,
Ye Christian soldiers, rise.
And press the battle ere the night
Shall veil the glowing skies.
Against the foe in vales below
Let all our strength be hurled.
Faith is the victory, we know,
That overcomes the world.

 

John Henry Yates was born this date in Batavia, NY.  Yates was a shoe salesman and later a hardware store manager.  Eventually he became a Baptist minister who was influenced by Ira D. Sankey.  Yates also penned “The Harbor Bell” “The Model Church” and “The Old Book Stands.”

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A Clear Conscience Vote?

“Now, a man with a fixed heart is not only natural, but he is as bold as a lion; he neither fears men nor devils. He now has the courage of his conviction; he will wash out his mouth, and tear off his lodge pin, and vote the Prohibition ticket. Even if he knows that the man that he voted for would not be elected, he would rather vote for a cleanProhi­bitionist and get defeated in the election than to vote for a rum seller and elect him, and you would, too, if you are natural and bold.”

 

– Bud Robinson, Honey in the Rock (Cincinnati: God’s Revivalist Press, 1913), 103.

 

Underlining mine.  You can remove “Prohi­bitionist,” “rum seller” in the above and apply it to the 21^st century.  THINK ABOUT it.  Must we always vote for the lesser of too evils?  (Too is purposely here.)

 

Uncle Buddy was a famous, Tennessee born, Nazarene Evangelist.  He is the holiness preacher I’ve heard most quoted by Baptist ministers. 

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