John Newton – wrote

ON THIS DATE

On 10/26/1779 John Newton wrote in a letter:

“The Lord is so rich that He easily can –

so good that He certainly will –

give His children more than He will ever take away.”

 

Newton (7/24/1725 – 12/21/1807) wrote the amazingly popular song “Amazing Grace.”

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Isaac Newton – solved prob., Jan. 26, 1697

Isaac Newton on this date 1/26/1697,  received from Jean [1] Bernoulli (bĕrn yē’), a six month time-limit-problem.  Isaac had the answer before he retired for bed that evening.

 Newton said:

 “Opposition to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice.  Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.” ²

“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being…This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called “Lord God” παντοκρατωρ (pantokratòr) or “Universal Ruler”…The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect.” ³

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[1] Also known as John or Johann Bernoulli (7/27/1667 – 1/1/1748) was a Swiss mathematician (one of the several in his   mathematician family).

²  A Short Scheme of the True Religion, manuscript quoted in Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton by Sir David Brewster, Edinburgh, 1850; cited in; Newton’s Philosophy of Nature, p. 65, Ref. 2.

³ Principia, Book III; cited in; Newton’s Philosophy of Nature: Selections from his writings, p. 42, ed. H.S. Thayer,         Hafner Library of Classics, NY, 1953.

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John Newton – converted to Christ, Mar. 21, 1747

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

John Newton on this date, 3/21 1747 [New Style Calendar], was converted to Jesus Christ.  He, that day, was on a slave ship bound for England.  It hit a vicious sea storm.  Newton soon left the sea life behind and for forty-three (43) years was a sincere minister within the bale of the Anglican Church.

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Glenn Griffith – birth, Aug. 17, 1894

The only place where God works is in the realm of faith…

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 15.

God is looking for somebody that’s looking for God.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 16.

The only way to keep saved is to get sanctified.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 24.

It [sin] pays wages in three installments:             1) It kills the conscience,

                                                                        2) Dries up the fountain of emotion,

                                                                        3) Breaks the power of resistance.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 39.

If men are not stirred to love God, they will trifle until they love something else.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 40.

Glenn Griffith was born this date, 8/17/1894 at Augusta, KS.  He was one of the eleven children of John and Elizabeth Griffith.  His first pastorate was at Newton, Kansas.  He as a compassionate preacher with real tears (in his eyes, not his “voice”) who graced the platforms of many holiness camps including Sea Breeze Camp (FL).  He was a leading influence in the Interchurch Holiness Convention.  “Grif” (as his contemporaries called him) departed this life on 1/12/1976.

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Henry Vaughan – birth, Apr. 17, 1622

“They Are All Gone into the World of Light”

 

They are all gone into the world of light!
And I alone sit ling’ring here;
Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.

 

It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast,
Like stars upon some gloomy grove,
Or those faint beams in which this hill is drest,
After the sun’s remove.

 

I see them walking in an air of glory,
Whose light doth trample on my days:
My days, which are at best but dull and hoary,
Mere glimmering and decays.

 

O holy Hope! and high Humility,
High as the heavens above!
These are your walks, and you have show’d them me
To kindle my cold love.

 

Dear, beauteous Death! the jewel of the just,
Shining nowhere, but in the dark;
What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust
Could man outlook that mark!

 

He that hath found some fledg’d bird’s nest, may know
At first sight, if the bird be flown;
But what fair well or grove he sings in now,
That is to him unknown.

 

And yet as angels in some brighter dreams
Call to the soul, when man doth sleep:
So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes
And into glory peep.

 

If a star were confin’d into a tomb,
Her captive flames must needs burn there;
But when the hand that lock’d her up, gives room,
She’ll shine through all the sphere.

 

O Father of eternal life, and all
Created glories under thee!
Resume thy spirit from this world of thrall
Into true liberty.

 

Either disperse these mists, which blot and fill
My perspective still as they pass,
Or else remove me hence unto that hill,
Where I shall need no glass.

 

Henry Vaughan was born this date (4/17/1622) New­ton-By-Usk, Llan­saintffi­ad, Wales. He later practiced medicine at Breconshire and Newton.  He was influenced by George Herbert.  He also wrote hymns one of which, “My Soul, There Is a Country,” can be heard on TheCyberHymnal

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