Category Archives: The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Hudson Taylor — June 3

Asia, Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. — 1 Corinthians 9:13-17

All about Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)

In 1853 a small boat left Liverpool with Hudson Taylor on board, a gaunt and wild-eyed 21-year-old missionary. He was headed for a country that was just coming into the European/American Christian consciousness: China. By the time Taylor died a half-century later, China was viewed as the most fertile and challenging mission field of all and thousands volunteered annually to serve there.

Taylor was born to a Methodist couple fascinated by the “Far East” who had prayed for their newborn, “Grant that he may work for you in China.” Years later, a teenage Hudson experienced a spiritual birth during an intense time of prayer in which, as he later put it, life stretched out “before Him with unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy.” He felt called to China. He spent the next years in frantic preparation, learning the rudiments of medicine, studying Mandarin, and immersing himself ever deeper into the Bible and prayer.

His ship arrived in Shanghai, one of five “treaty ports” China had opened to foreigners following its first Opium War with England. Almost immediately Taylor made a radical decision (as least for Protestant missionaries of the day): he decided to dress in Chinese clothes and grow a pigtail (as Chinese men did). His fellow Protestants were either incredulous or critical.

Taylor, for his part, was not happy with most missionaries he saw; he believed they were “worldly” and spent too much time with English businessmen and diplomats who needed their services as translators. Instead, Taylor wanted the Christian faith taken to the interior of China. So within months of arriving, and the native language still a challenge, Taylor, along with Joseph Edkins, set off for the interior, setting sail down the Huangpu River distributing Chinese Bibles and tracts.

When the Chinese Evangelization Society, which had sponsored Taylor, proved incapable of paying its missionaries in 1857, Taylor resigned and became an independent missionary; trusting God to meet his needs. In 1861, he became seriously ill (probably with hepatitis) and was forced to return to England to recover. In England, the restless Taylor continued translating the Bible into Chinese (a work he’d begun in China), studied to become a midwife, and recruited more missionaries. Troubled that people in England seemed to have little interest in China, he wrote China: Its Spiritual Need and Claims. In one passage, he scolded, “Can all the Christians in England sit still with folded arms while these multitudes [in China] are perishing—perishing for lack of knowledge—for lack of that knowledge which England possesses so richly?”

Taylor became convinced that a special organization was needed to evangelize the interior of China. He made plans to recruit 24 missionaries: two for each of the 11 unreached inland provinces and two for Mongolia. It was a visionary plan that would have left veteran recruiters breathless: it would increase the number of China missionaries by 25 percent. He was wracked with doubt about the dangers his plan presented. But at the same time he despaired for the millions of Chinese who were dying without the hope of the gospel. While walking along the beach on day, his gloom lifted:

“There the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with him; that as his servant it was mine to obey and to follow him.”

His new mission, which he called the China Inland Mission (CIM), had a number of distinctive features, including this: its missionaries would have no guaranteed salaries nor could they appeal for funds; they would simply trust God to supply their needs; furthermore, its missionaries would adopt Chinese dress and then press the gospel into the China interior. Within a year of his breakthrough, Taylor, his wife and four children, and 16 young missionaries sailed from London to join five others already in China working under Taylor’s direction.

Taylor continued to make enormous demands upon himself. He was accused of being a tyrant and people left for other missions. Yet by 1876, with 52 missionaries, CIM constituted one-fifth of the missionary force in China. Because there continued to be so many Chinese to reach, Taylor instituted another radical policy: he sent unmarried women into the interior, a move criticized by many veterans. But Taylor’s boldness knew no bounds. In 1881, he asked God for another 70 missionaries by the close of 1884: he got 76. In late 1886, Taylor prayed for another 100 within a year: by November 1887, he announced 102 candidates had been accepted for service.

His leadership style and high ideals created enormous strains between the London and China councils of the CIM. London thought Taylor autocratic; Taylor said he was only doing what he thought was best for the work, and then demanded more commitment from others:

“China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women,” …“The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, [and] souls first and foremost in everything and at every time—even life itself must be secondary.”

Taylor’s grueling work pace, despite poor health, ended up with a breakdown in 1900. He also lost his wife and four of his eight children by living like the Chinese. Between his work ethic and his absolute trust in God (despite never soliciting funds, his CIM grew and prospered), he inspired thousands to forsake the comforts of the West to bring the Christian message to the vast and unknown interior of China. Though mission work in China was interrupted by the communist takeover in 1949, the CIM continues to this day under the name Overseas Missionary Fellowship (International).

More

Four-minute YouTube bio [link]

Chinese pilgrimage to Barnsley, birthplace of Hudson Taylor [link]

What do we do with this?

What do you think of Taylor’s passion for evangelism? In some ways he was strikingly anticolonial. In some ways he was self-destructively obsessive. What do you do with that? What do you think God thinks of Hudson Taylor?

The Lord’s mission also ended in Jesus’ “untimely” death. Do you think we are called to imitate him in some way?

Are you aware of a people group who need to hear the truth about Jesus? Are you called to do anything about that?

Kizito — June 3

Africa, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Image result for st. kizito

Bible connection

When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” — Acts 4:17-32

All about Kizito (1872-1886)

Kizito* was the youngest of the Ugandan martyrs who suffered death rather than renounce his faith on June 3rd, 1886. The Ugandan Martyrs refer to a group of forty-five Christians – twenty-two Catholics and twenty-three Anglicans – who were tortured and killed over a period stretching from 1885 to 1887 for their faith.  Christians were persecuted by Mwanda,  the Kabaka (ruler) during this period.  Bugandan territory is now incorporated into the Republic of Uganda.

Priests belonging to the Missionaries in Africa, commonly referred to as the White Fathers (due to their white habits), arrived in Uganda in 1879.  Their mission was met with little resistance at first as they shared their faith among the people of Buganda.  That changed when the Kabaka, Mutesa, died and was succeeded by his son, Mwanga.  Mwanga viewed Christianity as a threat to his power.

The Christian views on morality – especially the teaching that pedophilia was a sin – did not endear them to Mwanda, who was a pedophile and routinely solicited sexual favors from his young pages.  His chief page, Joseph Mukasa was a Catholic who did his best to protect his young charges.  He even had the courage and conviction to confront Mwanga and insist he give up his sinful ways.  Mwanga’s response was to have him beheaded.

Joseph Mukasa was succeeded as chief page by Charles Lwanga who also was a Catholic and who also was vigorous in his protection of the young pages.  Mwanga became increasingly enraged as the pages, Kizito among them, continually refused and rebuffed his sexual advances. Mwanga eventually had the pages brought before him and gave them a choice to renounce their Christian faith and live or choose to keep their faith and die.

Many of the pages including Charles Lwanga and Kizito chose their faith.  There were fifteen in the group who were bound and made to walk two days to Namugongo where they would be killed.  One of the Christians, Matthias Kalemba, was martyred enroute.

Upon reaching Namugongo, Charles Lwanga was the first to be burned at the stake.  The following is a moving excerpt taken from the Catholic News agency:

The executioners slowly burnt his feet until only the charred remained.  Still alive, they promised him that they would let him go if he renounced his faith.  He refused saying, “You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water over my body.”  He then continued to pray silently as they set him on fire.

The other pages were burned alive together.  As they were being executed, their faith remained strong until the end, as they prayed and sang hymns.

The death of these martyrs had quite the opposite effect the Kabaka intended. Many witnessing the horrific deaths of these amazing young men who gave their young lives so willingly for their faith asked to be baptized.

* The Bugandan kinship structure may be unfamiliar to you if you grew up in the United States.

  • Kizito’s birth father was Lukomera of the Lungfish (Mamba) Clan, and his mother, who bore Lukomera nine children before she deserted him and died, was Wanga-bira of the Civet-cat (Ffumbe) Clan.
  • Nyika (or Nyikomuyonga), Guardian of Kabaka Mwanga’s umbilical cord, is often said to be the father of Kizito, but it was by adoption only. The paternal relationship arose from a blood-pact between Nyika’s father Kiggwe and a member of the Lungfish Clan named Mitalekoya.
  • Kiggwe, a descendent of Kabaka Kateregga and a member of the Leopard (Ngo) Clan, was county chief of Ggomba when he made this alliance. Later he incurred the royal displeasure, was deprived of his office and possessions and became virtually an outlaw, because he was out of favor with the Kabaka. In this time of adversity, the blood-pact stood him in good stead.
  • Because of it, the Lungfish Clan gave him and his family asylum and aid, and Mitalekoya became a second father to his son Nyika, who adopted Kizito into royal circles.

More

Uganda martyrs: Tracing the roots of St. Kizito

Mwanga – the king who killed the Uganda martyrs

What do we do with this?

The church in Uganda remains attentive to sexuality. That seems predictable, since some of its foundation is resistance to sexual predators. Most contexts prove dangerous for Christians, if not everyone. What is prowling around like a lion, as Peter sees it, trying to devour your heart and soul?

The main pressure the King of Buganda felt in the time of Kizito was from colonizers. The French Catholics and English Anglicans were in league with their respective country’s rush to “protect” areas of Africa. Muslim traders were eager to have fortified trading posts and a beachhead for Islam. Evangelism coupled with colonization is one of the stains on Christian history. Like Joseph told his brothers, “You meant it for evil but God used it for good.” Africa is now the continent with the most Christians. Have you experienced or done anything evil that God used for good? Praise God for the goodness, and consider what justice and forgiveness mean to you.

Mechthild of Magdeburg — May 28

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)
Sculptor: Peter Paul Metz, 1896. Church of Gordian and Epimachus, Merazhofen, Germany

Bible connection

It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.  I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.  And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows —  was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.  On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me,  even considering the exceptional character of the revelations.  — 2 Corinthians 12:1-7

All about Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1208-c. 1282/94)

Mechthild is the author of The Flowing Light of the Godhead. She is one of the best-known  beguines. For most of her adulthood, she lived in a communal house in Magdeburg (now in Germany). Women became beguines because they had the same aspirations that contributed to the founding of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the same era: the desire to return to the ideals of early Christianity and imitate more closely the lives of the apostles, to be unworldly while living in the world. Beguines were usually under the direction of a parish priest, but because of their similarities  to the Franciscan and Dominican communities, they often associated with them. They were regularly criticized for being loosely overseen and, as mysticism arose among them, were accused of being unorthodox.

In composing her book, Mechthild felt constrained to answer two questions. What gives a woman with no formal education, no special training in theology, and no place in an approved religious order the right to speak to on theological matters and sharply criticize the clergy? What’s more, by whose authority did she write, or why should she expect to be taken seriously?

The few facts we have of Mechthild’s life come from her own works and subsequent introductions to them. Her familiarity  with the literature of the German court places her from a noble lineage at some low or medium level. She says at age twelve she was “greeted” by the Holy Spirit. An infilling continued daily for over three decades. About 1230, as a twentysomething, she left home for a beguinage in Magdeburg. About 1250, in her forties, she revealed to her spiritual director, Heinrich of Halle, the spiritual favors she had been granted. He commanded her to write her book “out of God’s heart and mouth.” For the next ten years she completed five books. During the next ten years, she decided she was not finished and completed two more.

She finished the seventh book at the Cistercian community at Helfta, under the guidance  of its second abbess, Gertrud of Hackeborn. She retreated there about 1270. She became feeble and blind and needed to dictate the final chapters.

A manuscript of Flowering Light was discovered in 1861 in which the Low German vernacular of Mechthild (“low” means northern Germany) had been translated into the High German of Bavaria. Until then the main versions of her work derived from Latin translations by Dominicans in Halle sometime before 1298. In comparing the texts, scholars discovered the Latin translators toned down her criticism of the clergy and some of her erotic imagery. The later manuscript clarified some of her language which was obscure to people who were not Low German speakers from the 13th century.

Mechthild’s work has no antecedents or descendants. Most “revelations” of her time just reported what happened to the mystic. Mechthild uses her revelations as starting points for reflection. She uses every form of writing available in her time to express what the greetings mean:

  • Religious forms: the vision, hymn, sermon, spiritual instruction and tract, prayer, liturgy, litany, and prophecy.
  • Courtly forms: love poetry, allegorical dialogue, dialogue between lovers, the messenger’s song, and the exchange (Wechsel).
  • Other forms: autobiography, drama, epigrammatic poetry and wisdom literature, anecdote, letter, parody, nursery rhyme and polemics.

Love is the force that compels Mechthild to write. She is not coming up with a system of theology.

Quotes:

Prayer is naught else but a yearning of soul … it draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up to the plenitude of God; it brings together these two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.

The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.

Stupidity is sufficient unto itself. Wisdom can never learn enough.

From suffering I have learned this: that whoever is sore wounded by love will never be made whole unless she embraces the very same love which wounded her.

More

The Flowing Light of the Godhead online. This version also available in print. [Goodreads]

Poems collected by the Poetry Foundation [link]

A meditation on her sayings [YouTube]

YouTube purveyor of esoterica spends 30 minutes on Mechthild to good end:

What do we do with this?

Use her poem as your prayer:

I cannot dance, O Lord,

Unless You lead me.
If You wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see You dance and sing—
Then I will leap into Love—
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,

The sweetest Fruit beyond human sense.

There I will stay with You, whirling.

Consider how brave Mechthild was to leave her family and join a radical community. Consider how she felt the need to keep her spiritual life a secret for so long. Consider how she followed the command of her confessor and applied herself to writing her book. Consider how she broke with tradition and found her own voice, even when her kindred spirits came under criticism. Especially if you are a woman, enjoy the story of someone who got through a thick glass ceiling.

Georges Cuvier – May 13

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible Connection

My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding,
if you indeed cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones. — Proverbs 2:1-8

All about Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

Georges Cuvier (Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier) was a Christian who became one of the premier scientists of his time. He established comparative anatomy and paleontology as sciences. As most people of his time, he started with the assumption that God created the world and all creatures/species  bore the mark of his intention. Unlike most people of his time, he compared living animals with fossils and became the first to suggest certain animals had become extinct.

The bust of Georges Cuvier in the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Cuvier is well-known for proposing “catastrophism,” the idea that Earth’s history has been shaped by sudden, catastrophic events. As a result of these events, he surmised, many species became extinct and new species emerged after each world-shaping event. He rejected the new idea of organic evolution, and continued to view species as fixed and unchanging, each one having a specific purpose and function. While Cuvier rejected evolution, his work on extinctions and comparative anatomy influenced later scientists, including Charles Darwin, who built upon his ideas. Darwin wrote to William Ogle in 1832, “Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere school-boys to old Aristotle.”

Georges Cuvier was born in Montbéliard, a French-speaking community in the Jura Mountains, near Switzerland, which was part of the Duchy of Württemberg at the time. During his lifetime, the Duchy was abolished. His parents were devout Lutherans and he remained one for his entire life. He attended the Karlsschule Academy in Stuttgart, Germany, where he learned to dissect animals and developed his interest in natural history. After graduation, he became a tutor for a noble family in Normandy, France. There he met the Abbot Teissier, an agronomist and member of the former Royal Academy of Science. Teissier shared with Cuvier his research on mollusks and, impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge, introduced him to his friends in Paris, where Cuvier settled in 1795 to embark on a brilliant career.

Cuvier was already well-known when, in 1812, he published his opus Recherches sur les Ossements Fossiles des Quadrupèdes (Researches on the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds). He advanced a principle of “subordination of organs” (the organs of a living being affect each other and cooperate to bring about the same action through reciprocal reaction), and he established a new classification for vertebrates. These principles enabled him to reconstruct complete skeletons from bones and fossils, thus proving the existence of fauna so far unknown.

Cuvier invented the science of paleontology. He defended his theory of  cataclycisme (catastrophist scenario) in his Discours sur la Révolution du Globe (Discourse on the Revolutionary Upheaval on the Surface of the Earth) and opposed actualisme, a theory according to which the laws that determined past geological phenomena are identical to those that determine present phenomena.

British geologists made Cuvier an ally in connecting catastrophism to the Bible’s story of Noah and the flood. But there is little indication in Cuvier’s writings that this was part of his science.  Cuvier treated the Bible both as a book with divine authority and as a source of information about nature and history. In doing so, he distanced himself both from scholars finding natural laws in the Bible and from neologists making up theology to match the latest data. For Cuvier the Augustinian principle of “accommodation,” which pre-dates historical criticism, sufficed to keep scripture and geology relatively separate, as his interpretation of texts on the flood and on Old Testament chronology indicate. The accommodation principle suggests God adjusts revelation to fit human understanding and limitations. So theological, scientific or historical understanding are all provisional. God uses language for revelation but the revelation is beyond language and limited human capacity.

Cuvier distanced himself from a speculative geology based solely on Bible texts. For him, the Bible could be consulted for elements of natural history, such as the features of the earth, of organisms and of ancient civilizations. But any responsible use was limited by an awareness of the accommodated nature of the texts. He was working on stronger, empirical alternatives built on the standard belief that God’s work revealed in nature agrees with the revelation in scripture. Cuvier’s use of Bible texts, or of metaphysical ideas in general, is characterized by an insistence that any matter under consideration can stand on its own empirical feet. This means Cuvier is not a “scriptural geologist.” The general idea of geological catastrophes may have been inspired by the story of the Flood, and the definition of biological species by the story of Creation, but the hypotheses stand on their own merit.  (See “Georges Cuvier and the Use of Scripture in Geology” by Jitse M. van der Meer).

Georges Cuvier became a baron in 1818 and Chancellor of his university in 1820. He was President of the State Council and Director of Religious Affairs, and held many other positions and titles. He became one of the most powerful and decorated men of his era.

After he approached Napoleon for the organization of the Lutheran Church in Paris, it  was established in 1806 at the Oratoire des Billettes. In 1824, he was placed in charge of the Faculty of Protestant Theology and in 1828 was appointed director of non-Roman Catholic religions under King Charles X. He encouraged the creation of numerous pastoral positions, especially in the Montbéliard region. His daughter Clémentine devoted much of her time to Protestant charities.

Balzac’s quotation about the man he considered equal to Napoleon is well-known “Cuvier is married to the globe.”

Quotes

Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe. — Discourse on the Revolutionary Upheavals on the Surface of the Earth

To spread healthy ideas among even the lowest classes of people, to remove men from the influence of prejudice and passion, to make reason the arbiter and supreme guide of public opinion; that is the essential goal of the sciences; that is how science will contribute to the advancement of civilization, and that is what deserves protection of governments who want to insure the stability of their power. — Historical Report on Advance in natural Sciences

Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few observations, explained by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and the series of events which preceded the birth of the human race? — Essay on the Theory of the Earth

More

Bio from the Virtual Museum of Protestantism.

Bio from the University of California Museum of Paleontology. [link]

This video shows the development of Cuvier’s assertions about extinction in  eight minutes. [link] 

November 30 is Remembrance Day for Lost Species due to human-caused catastrophe.

Noted paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould  (1941-2002) posited “punctuated equilibrium” as a more accurate view of species development. His views were reminiscent of Cuvier’s catastrophism. “Creationists” use Gould’s argument to make paleontological sense of Noah and the flood, and they have websites [link].

This video mentions Cuvier as part of a history of science lesson leading to Darwin. It is an interesting thirteen minutes! :

What do we do with this?

Would Georges Cuvier pass muster on a roll call of orthodox Evangelicals today? That remains to be seen. He was not an overt proponent for much more than his scientific discoveries. His faith was public, a given, but not something he intended to defend, scientifically. Faith influenced everything he thought and did, but he did not try to make everything fit under its Lordship, so to speak. Is he a lukewarm believer? Do you think he belongs in our historical examples of faith? Do you belong there?

Cuvier is less well known, these days, but in his own time he was very famous. He was involved in church, in politics, and was deeply involved in the scientific revolution impacting every area of thought. When he was 20 the French Revolution began. He was connected to Napoleon who became Emperor when he was 35. He rose to prominence during the Bourbon restoration, when he was made a baron. He died two years into the July Monarchy. His faith and his science survived all the turmoil. May your love and truth do the same.

Nikolaus Zinzendorf  — May 9

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Read Isaiah 58

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

All about Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760)

Nicholas Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf, was born in Dresden in 1700. He was deeply involved in the Pietist movement in Germany, which emphasized personal devotion and the emotional component of life in Christ. This was in contrast to the state Lutheran Church of the day, which had grown to symbolize a largely intellectual faith centered on belief in specific doctrines. Zinzendorf believed in “heart religion,” a personal salvation built on an individual’s spiritual relationship with Christ.

In 2000, German Moravians created a trail of sculptures commemorating the 300th birthday of Zinzendorf. This one features the Count with children, whom he believed modeled the kind of faith we are to have. The gray figures behind represent the rigidness of those leading the old church. Photo taken in Großhennersdorf, Herrnhut, Germany.

Zinzendorf was born into one of the most noble families of Europe. His father died when he was an infant, and he was raised by his Pietist pioneer grandmother, Henrietta Catherina, Baroness von Gersdorff, at her castle Gros Hennersdorf. There are many stories about his deep childhood faith. As a young man he struggled with his desire to study for the ministry and the expectation that he would fulfill his hereditary role as a Count. As a teenager at Halle Academy, he and several other young nobles formed a secret society, The Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed. The stated purpose of this order was that the members would use their position and influence to spread the Gospel. As an adult, Zinzendorf later reactivated this adolescent society, and many influential leaders of Europe ended up joining it. Their number included the King of Denmark, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of Paris.

Zinzendorf was one of the most controversial figures of the early eighteenth century. The crowned heads of Europe and religious leaders of both Europe and America all knew him or knew of him — and either loved him or hated him.

Although born to an aristocratic family, Zinzendorf decided to use his wealth to shelter a group of Christian radicals: the Unitas Fratrum (The Latinized form of the Czech jednota bratrská/society of brethren). This name was was assumed by the branch of the Hussites known as the Bohemian Brethren and their successors, the Moravian Brethren.  During his lifetime, Europe was a tumultuous place. It was unsafe to leave the established state churches. But many people took the risk and amazing things resulted. In 1722 a small band of Jesus-followers who chose not to be part of the state church crossed the border from Moravia to settle in a town they built on Zinzendorf’s estate. They called it  Herrnhut, or “the Lord’s Watch.”

During its first five years of existence the settlement showed few signs of spiritual power. By the beginning of 1727 the community of about three hundred people was wracked by dissension and bickering. So the village was an unlikely site for a revival! Zinzendorf and others, however, covenanted to prayer and labor for the Holy Spirit to move among them. Largely due to Zinzendorf’s leadership in daily Bible studies, the group came to formulate a unique document, known as the Brotherly Agreement, which set forth basic tenets of Christian behavior. Residents of Herrnhut were required to sign a pledge to abide by these Biblical principals. There followed an intense and powerful experience of renewal, often described as the “Moravian Pentecost.”

On May 12, 1727 during a communion service, the entire congregation felt a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, and felt their previous differences swept away. This experience began the Moravian renewal which led to remarkable ministry. Christians were aglow with new life and power, dissension vanished and unbelievers were converted. Looking back to that day and the four amazing months that followed, Zinzendorf later recalled: “The whole place represented truly a visible habitation of God among men.”

A spirit of prayer was immediately evident in the fellowship and continued throughout that “golden summer of 1727,” as the Moravians came to designate the period. On August 27 of that year twenty-four men and twenty-four women covenanted to spend one hour each day in scheduled prayer. Some others enlisted in the “hourly intercession.” For over a hundred years members of the Moravian Church maintained this continual prayer. “At home and abroad, on land and sea, this prayer watch ascended unceasingly to the Lord,” stated historian A. J. Lewis.

In 1731, while attending the coronation of Christian VI in Copenhagen, the young Count met a converted slave from the West Indies, Anthony Ulrich. Anthony’s tale of his people’s plight moved Zinzendorf, who brought him back to Herrnhut. As a result, two young men, Leonard Dober and David Nitchmann, were sent to St. Thomas to live among the slaves and share the good news about Jesus. This was the first organized Protestant mission work, which quickly expanded to Africa, North America, Russia, and other parts of the world. By 1791, sixty-five years after starting their hourly intercession, the small Moravian community had placed 300 missionaries from Greenland to South Africa, literally from one end of the earth to the other.

Members of the Mo­ra­vi­an Church helped populate the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. They are known as an historic Peace Church, as are the Brethren in Christ and Mennonites.

More 

All sorts of goodness at Zinzendorf.com. You need to work at this old website to reveal its treasures.

Zinzendorf in America

Zinzendorf the hymn writer [people singing one at Herrnhut]

Christian History 1) bio, 2) Magazine: Zinzendorf and the Moravians

The early Moravians were accused of sexual impropriety. The criticism may have been appropriate, at times. Here’s an investigation: Wound Worship, “Enthusiasts” and “Sodomites”: A History of Radical Moravians (2019)

1982 movie:

What do we do with this?

Pray: May the Church truly be a visible habitation of God.

The Pietists wanted heart religion. They used Bible study, prayer and intentional community to grow it. They shared resources and went on mission to show it. What do you want? What yearning in your spirit meets the passion of God’s Spirit? Are you still open to a Herrnhut in your future?

Julian of Norwich — May 8

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)
Statue of Julian of Norwich, Norwich Cathedral, by David Holgate FSDC (2010)

Bible connection

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. — Ephesians 3:14-19

All about Julian of Norwich (1342-c.1416)

Julian of Norwich is known to us almost exclusively through her book, Revelations of Divine Love, which is widely acknowledged as one of the great classics on the spiritual life in Christ. Many think she is the first woman to write a book in English which has survived.

We do not know Julian’s actual name. Her name is taken from St. Julian’s Church in Norwich where she lived as an anchoress for most of her life. We know from the medieval literary work, The Book of Margery Kempe, that Julian was known as a spiritual counselor. People would come to her cell in Norwich to seek advice. Considering that, at the time, the citizens of Norwich suffered from plague and poverty, as well as a famine, she must have counseled a lot of people in pain. Yet, her writings are suffused with hope and trust in God’s goodness.

Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love is based on a series of sixteen visions she received on May 8, 1373. Julian laid on what she thought was her deathbed and suddenly she saw Christ bleeding in front of her. She received insight into his sufferings and his love for us.

Julian’s message is one of hope and trust in God, whose compassionate love is always given to us. In this all-gracious God there is no element of wrath. The wrath —

all that is contrary to peace and love — is in us and not in God. God’s saving work in Jesus of Nazareth and in the gift of God’s Spirit, is to slake our wrath in the power of his merciful and compassionate love.

Julian did not perceive God as blaming or judging us, but as enfolding us in love. Famously, Julian used women’s experience of motherhood to explore how God loves us, referring to Jesus as our Mother.

Revelations of Divine Love comes to us in two versions; the first (the short text) was written shortly after the revelations were given to Julian; the second (the long text) was written twenty years later. The long text is greatly expanded to include her meditations on what she had been shown. Today, only seventeenth century copies of earlier manuscripts of the long text, and fragments from the fifteenth century survive.

Julian recounts she was thirty and a half years old when she received her visions and this is how we know she was born in 1342. (An editor to one of the surviving manuscripts speaks of her as a “devout woman, who is a recluse at Norwich, and still alive, A.D. 1413”). There is further evidence to be found in a contemporary will that she was alive in 1416, and that she had a maid who lived in a room next to the cell. Apart from that, we know nothing else about Julian’s life. However, reading Revelations of Divine Love, reveals an intelligent, sensitive and very down-to-earth woman who maintains her trust in God’s goodness while addressing doubt, fear and deep theological questions.

St Julian's Church, Norwich, 2009.jpg
The building where she lived

Interest in Julian’s writings has grown over recent decades More and more people have discovered the significance of her book. Her lyrical language and positive image of God speak to her present-day readers. Her work is well-respected by theologians, historians and literary scholars, and there are now dozens of translations of her Revelations, together with countless commentaries. Modern poets and writers as diverse as T.S. Eliot, Denise Levertov, and Iris Murdoch reference Julian in their writings.

Julian’s Shrine, off Rouen Rd. in Norwich (above), is visited by pilgrims from all over the world.

Quotes

If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.

And all shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be exceeding well.

God, of thy goodness, give me Thyself;
for Thou art enough for me,
and I can ask for nothing less
that can be full honor to Thee.
And if I ask anything that is less,
ever Shall I be in want,
for only in Thee have I all.

Our Savior is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.

Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love.

More

Revelations of Divine Love [audio book]

The series of “praying with” books from the 80’s and 90’s are nice tools for getting in touch with spiritual guides from the past. Here is one for Julian [Goodreads].

Robert Fruehwirth’s book The Drawing of This Love puts Julian into action [Goodreads]. Here’s more teaching from this expert [lecture].

Julian was not alone. Other women of her time were writing down similar experiences. You might like to know her predecessors from among the beguines: Mechthild von Magdeburg (ca. 1207-ca. 1294) and Hadewijch of Antwerp (13th century). Her contemporary, John of Ruysbroeck (1293-1381) writes in and about the tradition Julian resembles.

What do we do with this?

Revelations like Julian’s are available to many people who is seeking. But not having visions do not make you a second-rate follower — besides, Julian offered her! It is possible we  all have some kind of pre-verbal experience with God that informs much of our lifelong walk with Jesus. Try the prayer of imagination.

Spend some time seeking. Let God clarify for you just what you should be hearing. If you really want to take Julian’s example, you will dare to write it all down and meditate on it another day.

Pandita Ramabai — April 5

Asia, The Modern Era (1227-1936),

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati 1858-1922 front-page-portrait.jpg

Bible connection

Shout for joy, you heavens;
    rejoice, you earth;
    burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
    and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
    the Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
    and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
    I will not forget you! — Isaiah 49:13-15

Ramabai on an Indian post stamp

All about Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922)

The Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice name Pandita Ramabai  as one of their favorite saints of all time. She was an Indian activist, evangelist and one of the first modern Pentecostals. Over a hundred years before Malala Yousafzai, she campaigned for women’s right to education, and she was extremely active in helping the poor and those oppressed under the Hindu caste system.

Born in a Brahmin (highest caste) family in south India, in what is now the state of Karnataka, she started to study at an early age and learned Sanskrit along with sacred Hindu texts, astronomy, physiology and more. This was controversial for a woman to do, but her father encouraged her as he saw how much she was learning about society, religion and activism. She came to be called by the honorific title “pandita” which denotes an Indian scholar.

In 1883 she went to England and taught Sanskrit at an Anglican monastery in Wantage. She met Jesus there. “I realized,” she later wrote, “after reading the fourth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, that Christ was truly the Divine Saviour he claimed to be, and no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden women of India.”

As she returned to her home country, she bought a piece of land outside Pune and started a Christian social community for young widows called Mukti, Sanskrit for liberation. She also helped people who were orphaned, disabled or homeless. When a famine hit India in 1896, Ramabai rescued over a thousand people and brought many of them to the Mukti mission.

In 1905, Mukti was transformed by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hundreds were saved at the community, and they prayed, worshiped and studied the Word of God in ecstasy. Miracles started to happen as the Holy Spirit gave gifts to the girls at Mukti. This happened at the same time as the mighty Azusa Street revival was going on in Los Angeles. The groups somehow got in touch with each other, no doubt by God’ grace. In the January 1908 edition of Azusa Street’s paper The Apostolic Faith, this report from Ramabai was provided:

“One Sunday, as I was coming out of the church, after the morning service, I saw some girls standing near the door of a worker’s room. They seemed greatly excited and wondering. I soon found out the cause. A girl was praying aloud, and praising God in the English language. She did not know the language.”

Many Pentecostal leaders, went to Mukti and witnessed the amazing outpouring among the poor and marginalized. The Mukti community became the cornerstone of Indian Pentecostal mission, like Los Angeles was in the United States and Oslo in Europe. Thousands were blessed through what God was doing there. Ramabai continued to preach the Gospel, save the poor and campaign for women’s rights in the power of the Holy Spirit until she died on this day in 1922.

More

  • Here is a nice promotional video from Mukti today:

  • Here is another video with nice pics but probably not in your language. [video]

What do we do with this?

Pray: Lord, help me become as passionate about You and the poor as Pandita Ramabai was, and let her example be an inspiration to many.

Pray for the needy in India and around the world. Thank God for people able to creatively beg the wealthy for money to care for the poor.

Consider again what you think and feel about the movement of the Holy Spirit in the world. It has been counterfeited, monetized and corrupted by power-hungry and greedy people. Does that cause you to disown it? Or does the abuse make its ongoing work even more miraculous?

John Leonhard Dober — April 1

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936),

Bible connection

Read Acts 13:16-52

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
    that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

All about John Leonhard Dober (1706-1766)

Let’s celebrate one of the Moravian Brethren’s first residents in the Americas who then was part of their amazing and extensive missionary efforts in the 1700’s. As you know, the Moravians are still alive and well in the United States. A main center for them is just up the road in Bethlehem, PA.

Leonhard Dober was born on March 7, 1706, in Bavaria, Germany. Like his father, Johann, Leonhard was trained as a potter.

We do not know how his older brother, Martin. heard about a new community in Herrnhut. But when Leonhard was nineteen years old, he walked 315 miles to join him there. The community had been founded by Protestant refugees from Moravia just a few years earlier. By 1727 about half of the population of Herrnhut came from other parts of Germany. Other members of the Dober family soon joined Leonhard and Martin in this vibrant Christian community: their parents, Johann and Anna Barbara in 1730, and their younger brother Andreas in 1733.

In 1731 a life-changing event moved Leonhard in a new direction. A former African slave from St. Thomas named Anton visited Herrnhut. Count Zinzendorf, on whose land the village was built, had become acquainted with Anton in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was employed as a servant. Anton, who was baptized, impressed Zinzendorf and his traveling companions with his accounts of the situation on St. Thomas where Africans lived under the harshest of conditions. Zinzendorf sent Anton to Herrnhut where he told the congregation about his sister on St. Thomas who was “eager to learn about Christianity if only God would send someone to teach her.”

Leonhard felt he should be the person to go to the Caribbean island and tell the slaves about their Savior. The Church, however was not quick to rush into such an enterprise, and it took another year until Dober and David Nitschmann, his fellow missionary, received permission to leave. The day they left Herrnhut, August 21, 1732, marks the beginning of the remarkable missionary work of the Moravian Church.

After being sent out by Count Zinzendorf, the two traveled from Herrnhut to Copenhagen, Denmark, where their plan initially met with strong opposition. When asked by a court official how they would support themselves, Nitschmann replied,

“We shall work as slaves among the slaves.”

“But,” said the official, “that is impossible. It will not be allowed. No white man ever works as a slave.”

“Very well,” replied Nitschmann, “I am a carpenter, and will ply my trade.”

After some difficulty, the missionaries found support from the Danish Queen (a friend of Zinzendorf) and her court. Even though the Danish West Indian Company refused to grant them passage, a ship was eventually procured. They left Copenhagen on Oct 8, 1732 and arrived in St. Thomas two months later on December 13. While in St. Thomas, they lived frugally and preached to the slaves, and had some success.

Some still say they succeeded in selling themselves into slavery and were never heard form again. But Nitschmann returned to Europe four months after arriving. Dober remained until 1734 when he was called back to Germany to become General Elder, a position he held until September of 1741. Other Moravian missionaries continued the work, establishing churches on St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John’s, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, and St. Kitts. Moravian missionaries baptized 13,000 converts before any other missionaries arrived on the scene.

Dober served the Moravian Church in many places. He worked in Amsterdam where he tried to evangelize the Jewish inhabitants of that city (1738-39). He was appointed head of Moravian activities in the Netherlands (1741-45), then in England (1745-1746) and later in Silesia (1751-58). He was also ordained a bishop of the Church in 1747. After Zinzendorf’s death, Dober became a member of the Directorate of the Unity – a position he held until he died in Herrnhut on April 1, 1766.

Dober’s letter describing his motivation for going to St. Thomas says:

Since it is desired of me to make known my reason, I can say that my disposition was never to travel during this time [that period in his life], but only to ground myself more steadfastly in my Savior; that when the gracious count came back from his trip to Denmark and told me about the slaves, it gripped me so that I could not get free of it. I vowed to myself that if one other brother would go with me, I would become a slave, and would tell him so, and [also] what I had experienced from our Savior: that the word of the cross in its lowliness shows a special strength to souls. As for me, I thought: even if helpful to no one in it [my commitment] I could still give witness through it of obedience to our Savior! I leave it to the good judgment of the congregation and have no other ground than this I thought: that on the island there still are souls who cannot believe because they have not heard.

More

A lesson from the Greenbay Sunday School in Antigua:

The movie First Fruits (1982) Tells the story.

What do we do with this?

Herrnhut is a good model, don’t you think? Radical Christians crossing lines of nationality and race, prayer, community and imaginative mission worldwide. That’s good Christianity in any era! How are we doing?

Is God is calling you to some new obedience? What will you do about it? You can start by letting others know — even if it takes a long time to be sent into it, it is good to have someone backing you up (and maybe holding you accountable!).

John Donne — March 31

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)
Young John Donne by an unknown artist ca. 1595

Bible connection

I am a rose of Sharon,
    a lily of the valleys.

As a lily among brambles,
    so is my love among maidens.

As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
    so is my beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
    and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house,
    and his intention toward me was love. — Song of Solomon 2:1-4

All about John Donne (1572-1631)

During his 10-year service as dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Black Plague repeatedly swept through London—three waves—killing tens of thousands with each recurrence. For months Donne thought he would surely be a victim of the disease, himself. This period was just one of his many trying times. Throughout his life, he withstood financial ruin, the destruction of his family, religious persecution, and other plagues. Yet, he became one of England’s greatest love poets, and one of the greatest preachers of the 1600s.

John Donne was born to an old Roman Catholic family when anti-Catholicism was running high in England. At age 2, his grand-uncle was hanged for being a priest. His father died of more natural causes when he was 4. His younger brother Henry died in prison, having been arrested for sheltering a priest. Donne himself, a noteworthy student at both Oxford and Cambridge, was refused a degree at both schools because of his faith.

Donne’s youthful response to these calamities was to reject his Catholicism. But neither did he accept the Protestantism of his family’s persecutors. Instead, he walked the line between cynical rebel and honest truthseeker, listing the pitfalls of various denominations and sects in his first book of poetry, Satires [see complete works online]. At the same time, he lived a brazenly sensual life, writing some of the most erotic English poetry ever written.

Sometime during this period, Donne converted to the Church of England, and in 1596 sailed as a gentleman-adventurer on a naval expedition against Spain. When he returned, he was appointed the private secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, sat in Queen Elizabeth I’s last Parliament, made connections, and continued his lustful ways. Then England’s greatest love poet fell in love.

Her name was Anne More—the niece (by marriage) of the wife of his boss. As she was only 17 (Donne was then nearly 30), they married in secret. Her father was furious and had Donne immediately thrown into jail and removed from his post. Imprisoned, he wrote a characteristic pun, “John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone.”

Donne was quickly released. The lovers reunited and lived in poverty for the next 13 years. Adding to their poverty, Anne bore 12 children (five of whom died in childhood). Donne, plagued by headaches, intestinal cramps, and gout, fell into a deep depression. His longest literary work during that period was an essay endorsing and contemplating suicide: “Whensoever any affliction assails me, methinks I have the keys of my prison in mine own hand and no remedy presents itself so soon to my heart as mine own sword.”

During this time, he also began studying religion more closely. One of two anti-Catholic works he published, Pseudo-Martyr, earned him the favor of King James I because it argued Catholics could pledge allegiance to the king without renouncing their faith.

The object of his poetry now became God, and he employed the same degree of ardor and amorousness as ever, since, He reasoned, “God is love.” He took a page from Solomon, whom he observed “was amorous, and excessive in the love of women: when he turned to God, he departed not utterly from his old phrase and language, but … conveys all his loving approaches and applications to God.”

Thus, even some of his “Holy Sonnets” had amorous overtones:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new …
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Friends encouraged Donne, deemed by some critics to be a pornographer, to become a priest in the Church of England. Donne repeatedly refused, lamenting that “some irregularities of my life have been so visible to some men.” But when King James refused to employ him anywhere but the church, Donne relented. He was granted a doctorate of divinity from Cambridge and took his first parish job in 1616.

The following year, Anne died. Grief-stricken, Donne pledged never to marry again and threw himself at his work. It seems to have done wonders for his vocation. By 1621 he was dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the foremost preacher of his day. One hundred sixty of his sermons still survive.

Older John donne — Late 17th century copy of Isaac Oliver portrait.

In 1623 John Donne fell seriously ill and believed he was dying of the plague. Unable to read but able to write, he penned his famous Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. In it, he records hearing church bells tolling a declaration of death, which he mistook to be an announcement of his own demise. When he realized they were for another, he penned one of literature’s most famous lines: “No man is an island, entire of himself; … therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Eight years later, the bell did toll for Donne, who died of stomach cancer about a month after preaching his famous “Death’s Duel” sermon. Though he has occasionally been accused of an obsession with death (a claim backed up by his 54 songs and sonnets, 32 of which center on the topic), his poetry, sermons, and other writings clearly show his affinity for what lay beyond the tolling bells:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so …
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

More

Poetry Foundation bio

David Barnes reads the Holy Sonnets

An interesting bio from an English magazine editor:

What do we do with this?

Donne is nothing if not passionate. Consider how you FEEL about God and others⁠—and your own plight in this world. There is the sense in Donne’s work of personal, heartfelt relationships⁠—even in the poems there is often a dialogue going on, sometimes internal, often with a person outside the poem. What are your internal dialogues, in particular like? And how do they lead you to relate to God?

Write a poem yourself. What literary art would you use to express your longing for God and the feelings you feel when you live among the tragedies of life?

Charles Wesley — March 29

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:4-7

All about Charles Wesley (1707–1788) 

Charles Wesley was said to have averaged 10 poetic lines a day for 50 years. He wrote 8,989 hymns, 10 times the volume composed by the only other candidate in his league (Isaac Watts). He composed some of the most memorable and lasting hymns of the church:

And yet he is often referred to as the “forgotten Wesley.”

His brother John is considered the organizational genius behind the founding of Methodism. But without the hymns of Charles, the Methodist movement may have gone nowhere. It is commonly said, “The early Methodists were taught and led as much through Charles’s hymns as through John Wesley’s sermons and pamphlets.” Charles preached too!

Charles Wesley was the eighteenth of Samuel and Susannah Wesley’s nineteen children (only 10 lived to maturity). He was born prematurely in December 1707 and appeared dead. He lay silent, wrapped in wool, for weeks.

When he was older, Charles joined his siblings each day as his mother, Susannah (who knew Greek, Latin, and French), methodically taught them for six hours. Charles then spent 13 years at Westminster School, where the only language allowed in public was Latin. He added nine years at Oxford, where he received his master’s degree. It was said that he could reel off the Latin poet Virgil by the half hour.

Next, it was off to Oxford University. To counteract the tepid spirituality of the school, Charles formed the Holy Club, and with two or three others celebrated Communion weekly and observed a strict regimen of spiritual study. Because of the group’s religious regimen, which later included early rising, Bible study, and prison ministry, members were called “methodists.” John was included later.

In 1735 Charles joined his brother John (they were now both ordained) as a missionary in the colony of Georgia—John as chaplain of the rough outpost near Savannah and Charles as secretary to Governor Oglethorpe. Shot at, slandered, suffering sickness, shunned even by Oglethorpe, Charles could have echoed brother John’s sentiments as they dejectedly returned to England the following year: “I went to America to convert the Indians, but, oh, who will convert me?”

It turned out to be the Moravians who could do it. After returning to England, Charles taught English to a Moravian Church bishop, Peter Böhler, who prompted Charles to look at the state of his soul more deeply. During May 1738, Charles began reading Martin Luther’s volume on Galatians while he was ill. He wrote in his diary, “I labored, waited, and prayed to feel ‘who loved me, and gave himself for me.’” He shortly found himself convinced, and journaled, “I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoice in hope of loving Christ.” Two days later he began writing a hymn celebrating his conversion.

At evangelist George Whitefield’s instigation, John and Charles Wesley eventually submitted to “be more vile” and do the unthinkable: preach outside of church buildings. In his journal entries from 1739 to 1743, Charles computed the number of those to whom he had preached. Of only those crowds for whom he stated a figure, the total during these five years comes to 149,400. From June 24 through July 8, 1738, Charles reported preaching twice to crowds of ten thousand at Moorfields, once called “that Coney Island of the eighteenth century.” He preached to 20,000 at Kennington Common plus gave a sermon on justification before the University of Oxford.

On a trip to Wales in 1747, the adventurous evangelist, now 40 years old, met 20-year-old Sally Gwynne. They were soon married. By all accounts, their marriage was a happy one.

Charles continued to travel and preach, sometimes creating tension with John, who complained that “I do not even know when and where you intend to go.” His last nationwide trip was in 1756. After that, his health led him gradually to withdraw from itinerant ministry. He spent the remainder of his life in Bristol and London, preaching at Methodist chapels.

Throughout his adult life, Charles wrote verse, predominantly hymns for use in Methodist meetings. He produced 56 volumes of hymns in 53 years, producing in his lyrics what brother John called a “distinct and full account of scriptural Christianity.” Charles Wesley quickly earned admiration for his ability to capture universal Christian experience in memorable verse. In the following century, Henry Ward Beecher declared, “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s, ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul,’ than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth.” The compiler of the massive Dictionary of Hymnology, John Julian, concluded that “perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, [Charles Wesley was] the greatest hymn-writer of all ages.”

More

The Poetry Foundation examines him as a poet

What do we do with this?

Of course: sing! Any one of the linked songs might help you feel the exuberance Charles is trying to stoke.  Since we are in Lent, maybe you’d like a foreshadowing of what is to come with this karaoke version of Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.

It is worth noting that the French Revolution followed a year after Charles died — May 5, 1789. The Wesleys went with the opportunities their changing world offered and began their own version of the revolution. Many have argued that their spiritual revolution was every bit as effective as the political ones – maybe more long-lasting. It makes us wonder what we have to offer in our present changing world.