Oswald J Smith – born

ON THIS DATE

Oswald J Smith was born 11/8/1889, Odessa, Ontario, Canada (at his parents’ home over a train station; his father was a telegraph operator for the Canadian Pacific Railway).  He was converted at a Torrey-Alexander evangelistic campaign in Toronto, 1/28/1906. He felt called to preach and in ‘34 formed the People’s Church (which funneled millions of dollars into missionary work and sent hundreds of young people to mission fields.  Millions of his 35 books were printed, his preaching took him to sixty-six countries.  He wrote 1200+ Gospel songs, hymns and choruses, including “Then Jesus Came,” “God Understands” “The Song of the Soul Set Free,” “Deeper and Deeper,” “Joy in Serving Jesus,” and “God Understands.”  Smith died 1/25/1986. 

Personal note – got to see and hear him at Bible Town, Boca Raton, FL.

Then Jesus Came

One sat alone beside the highway begging

His eyes were blind, the Light he could not see

He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows

Then Jesus came and bid the darkness flee

Chorus

When Jesus comes the tempter’s power is broken

When Jesus comes, all tears are wiped away

He takes the gloom and fills my heart with glory

For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay.

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Joseph Medlicott Scriven – birth, Sep. 10, 1819

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.

Joseph Medlicott Scriven was born this date, 9/10/1819, at Seapatrick, County Down, Ireland.

He was engaged to be married, but his bride-to-be was drowned the night before the wedding.  This was a contributing factor to him moving to Canada in 1844 (1846?). There, some time later, he was again engaged to be married, but the young lady died after a short illness just before the wedding date.

Reportedly, he received word that his mother was ill in Ireland.  He could not go see her but he could write her a poem.  Thankfully, he retained a copy of it and we know it today as the beloved hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

As a member of the Plymouth Brethren, Scriven devoted much time to humanitarian service without remuneration.  In later years he suffered physically and financially, with some deep depression.  He died 8/10/1886 and is buried near Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.

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PUDDLE

When you see a puddle that’s ruddy,    

Don’t contemptuously call it “muddy,”

Unless its near-by-buddy

Is clear.

It may be the “ruddy season,”

Or have another reason,

Why to your eye it’s not pleasin’

My dear.      [1]

                – eab, 2/8/06          

---

[1] Written after seeing a puddle, walking on acreage behind church in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

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Joseph Simpson Cook – birth, Dec. 4, 1859

Gentle Mary laid her Child lowly in a manger;
There He lay, the undefiled, to the world a Stranger:
Such a Babe in such a place, can He be the Savior?
Ask the saved of all the race who have found His favor.

Angels sang about His birth; wise men sought and found Him;
Heaven’s star shone brightly forth, glory all around Him:
Shepherds saw the wondrous sight, heard the angels singing;
All the plains were lit that night, all the hills were ringing.

Gentle Mary laid her Child lowly in a manger;
He is still the undefiled, but no more a stranger:
Son of God, of humble birth, beautiful the story;
Praise His Name in all the earth, hail the King of glory!

Joseph Simpson Cook was born this date, 12/4/1859, at Durham County, England.  He was a Methodist who emigrated as a youth to Canada.  Cook received his education at Wesleyan College, McGill University, in Montreal.  He later served in the United Church of Canada.  He penned “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” in 1919.  He died 5/27/1933, at Toronto, Canada.

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Henry “Harry” Allen Ironside – born, Oct. 14, 1876

Quotes from Ironside’s   Holiness – the False and the True

 In which he describes his attempts to be sanctified and then eventually his rejection of the doctrine of full salvation.  These are not listed with approval but to show his errors.  Some would argue he “learned better” others would fear he did backslide.  His wife was  also a former Salavationist.

“From this time on mine was an ‘up-and-down experience,’ to use a term often heard in ‘testimony meetings.’ I longed for perfect victory over the lusts and desires of the flesh. Yet I seemed to have more trouble with evil thoughts and unholy propensities than I had ever known before. For a long time I kept these conflicts hidden, and known only to God and to myself. But after some eight to ten months, I became interested in what were called ‘holiness meetings,’ held weekly in the ‘Army’ hall, and also in a mission I sometimes attended. At these gatherings an experience was spoken of which I felt was just what I needed. It was designated by various terms: ‘The Second Blessing’; ‘Sanctification’; ‘Perfect Love’; ‘Higher Life’; ‘Cleansing from Inbred Sin’; and by other expressions.

“…Before, I had always held up Christ, and pointed the lost to Him. Now, almost imperceptibly, my own experience became my theme, and I held up myself as a striking example of consecration and holiness!

“As time went on, I began to be again conscious of inward desires toward evil — of thoughts that were unholy. I was nonplused. Going to a leading teacher for help, he said, ‘These are but temptations. Temptation is not sin. You only sin if you yield to the evil suggestion.’ This gave me peace for a time. I found it was the general way of excusing such evident movings of a fallen nature, which was supposed to have been eliminated. But gradually I sank to a lower and lower plane, permitting things I would once have shunned;

“[Owing to a later low state of spiritual experience,] I was tormented with the thought that I had backslidden, and might be lost eternally after all my former happy experiences of the Lord’s goodness. Twice I slipped out of the building when all were in bed, and made my way to a lonely spot where I spent the night in prayer, beseeching God not to take His Holy Spirit from me, but to again cleanse me fully from all inbred sin. Each time I ‘claimed it by faith,’ and was brighter for a few weeks; but I inevitably again fell into doubt and gloom, and was conscious of sinning both in thought and in word, and sometimes in unholy actions, which brought terrible remorse.”

“Again I spent the night in prayer . . . [and believed) that the work of full inward cleansing was indeed consummated, and that I was now, if never before, actually rid of all carnality.

“How readily one yields himself to self-deception in a matter of this kind! From this time on I became a more earnest advocate of the second blessing than ever;

“. . . [a later experience] showed me . . . that the carnal mind was still a part of my being.”

“And now I began to see what a string of derelicts this holiness teaching left in its train. I could count scores of persons who had gone into utter infidelity because of it. They always gave the same reason: ‘I tried it all. I found it a failure.

“Since turning aside from the perfectionist societies, I have often been asked if I find as high a standard maintained among Christians generally who do not profess to have the ‘second blessing’ as I have seen among those who do. “My answer is that after carefully, and I trust without prejudice, considering both, I have found a far higher standard maintained by believers who intelligently reject the eradication theory than among those who accept it. Quiet, unassuming Christians, who know their Bibles and their own hearts too well to permit their lips to talk of sinlessness and perfection in the flesh…

REPEAT – These quotes are not listed with approval but to show his errors. 

Henry “Harry” Allen Ironside was born this date 10/14/1876, in Toronto, Canada.  He was converted at 14 and began to preach.  Ironside was a Salvation Army officer for a time became disillusioned with holiness and joined the Plymouth Brethren.  He pastored Moody Memorial Church (1930-1948).  He was never ordained, authored over sixty books, mostly commentaries, he died 1/15/1951 in New Zealand (on a preaching tour) and is buried there.

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Jonathan Goforth – death, Oct. 8, 1936

If we all had faith to wait upon God in intense believing prayer there would be genuine Holy Ghost revival, and the living God would get all the glory. In Manchuria and China, when we did nothing else than give the address and let the people pray, and kept out of sight as far as possible, we saw the mightiest manifestations of Divine power.

            – Smith, Oswald J. The Revival We Need, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1953,  –  from preface by Jonathan Goforth,

 

…We speak of the manifestations at Pentecost as being abnormal, yet we maintain that Pentecost was normal Christianity.

                Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1964), 10.                                       

 

Our Lord did not permit His chosen followers to witness a word in His name until endued with power from on high. It is true that before that day they were the “born-again” children of the Father and had the witness of the Spirit. But they were not the Lord’s efficient co-workers and never could be until Spirit-filled.

                Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit, (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1964), 11.      

 

There can be no alternative; it is either Holy Ghost revival or apostasy.

                Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit, (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1964), 13.      

 

We cannot emphasize too strongly our conviction that all hindrance in the Church is due to sin.

                Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit, (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1964), 13.      

 

Surely, since the sinless Son of God had to be made sin for us an over‑emphasis upon sin is in the nature of things impossible.

                Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit, (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1964), 16.      

 

Jonathan Goforth died this date, 10/8/1936, at Wallaceburg, Ontario.  He was a product of Knox College, who married Rosalind Bell-Smith and went to China.  Goforth was born 2/10/1859 at Thorndale, (near London) Ontario, Canada.

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Civilla Durfee Martin – birth, Aug 21, 1869

The blood that Jesus once shed for me,
As my Redeemer, upon the tree;
The blood that setteth the pris’ner free,
Will never lose its pow’r.

Refrain

It will never lose its pow’r,
It will never lose its pow’r;
The blood that cleanses from all sin
Will never lose its pow’r.

 It gives us access to God on high,
From “far off places” it brings us nigh;
To precious blessings that never die,
It will never lose its pow’r.

It is a shelter for rich and poor,
It is to Heaven the open door;
The sinner’s merit forevermore,
It will never lose its pow’r.

 And when with all the blood washed throng
We sing in glory redemption’s song;
We’ll pass the glorious truth along,
It has never lost its pow’r.

 Civilla Durfee Martin was born this date, 8/21/1869, at Jor­dan, Nova Scotia, Canada.  She was teacher, pastor’s wife and poet.  She penned “Accepted in the Beloved” “Breath of the Spirit” “God Will Take Care of You” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” “Old-Fashioned Way” “Saved and Kept” “Sitting at the Feet of Jesus” and “Wonderful Love.”  She passed away 3/9/1948 at Atlanta, Georgia

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Edith Margaret Clarkson – birth, Jun 8, 1915

“So Send I You”

So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing,
So send I you to toil for me alone.

So send I you – to loneliness and longing,
With heart a-hungering for the loved and known;
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one,
So send I you  – to know my love alone.

So send I you – to leave your life’s ambitions,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long and love where men revile you,
So send I you – to lose your life in mine.

Edith Margaret Clarkson was born this date 6/8/1915 at Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada.  She wrote “So Send I You” and God of Creation, All-Powerful.  She died 3/17/2008 in Toronto. “So Send I You” has been called the greatest missionary hymn of the twentieth century.

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Greek or JEW

A Greek long, long dead,

Is said to have said,

          “Know thyself.”

The greatest JEW taught

To say what we ought,

          “No” to self.   – eab, 3/9/07

Written in Frontenac County, eastern Ontario, Canada

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Stand Up and Sing!

Stanza 1

What appears to man to be,

A defeat on rugged tree.

Was the triumph of all time and space.

He died that’s to be sure,

But arose to ever endure,

Thus saving the whole human race.  – eab, 2/27/05

 

Written while pastoring the Pilgrim Holiness Church of Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

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