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A great nugget of wisdom from the younger John Ryland (1753–1825): “It w[ould] be well if all Christians w[ould] labor earnestly after the investigation of truth, without being unduly influenced either by their attachment to old ideas and phrases on the one hand, or by the affectation of novelty on the other…”[1]
[1] Letter to Samuel Hopkins, February 21, 1803 (Personal possession of Craig Fries, Amsterdam, New York).
Among the King James Bible translators was Sir Henry Saville (1549–1622), who was a mathematician and patristics scholar as well as being the warden of Merton College. When he was drafted to work on the translation of the Gospels, Acts and Revelation—he was a part of one of the Oxford translation companies—he shelved a massive project of a critical edition of the works of John Chrysostom. According to Anthony Walker, the author of the life of John Bois, another of the King James Bible translator, Saville was such a sedulous scholar that his wife “thought herself neglected’ and coming to him one day, as he was in his study, saluted him thus, “Sir Henry I would I were a book too, and then you would a little more respect me.” Ouch! All too real a danger for scholars and would-be researchers…brothers and sisters, take warning! Not long before Saville finished the Chrysostom volumes, he fell ill. His wife’s response was: “if Sir Harry died, she would burn Chrysostome, for killing her husband.” When Bois, who was present, remonstrated with her, she asked, “Who was Chrysostome?” When he answered, “One of the sweetest preachers since the apostles times,” she relented, and said “she would not do it for all the world.” In the final analysis, she perceived the value of her husband’s work, but he should have given her some idea of this long before it got to this point. Or maybe he did, and she did not hear him.
Whatever the case, these two exchanges sound so familiar to all engaged in scholarship, and are a powerful reminder of the need to maintain a due sense of priorities.
For the texts cited, see The Life of that famous Grecian Mr. John Bois 5.14 in Ward Allen, trans. and ed., Translating for King James (Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press, 1969), 141¬142.
In 1990 the Christian publication The Door—a.k.a. the Wittenberg Door—did an interview with Dennis Prager, a practising Jew who at the time was one of the most widely listened to and respected commentators and talk show hosts in Southern California. Part of the interview revolved around the impact of secularism. Asked what was the fruit of secularism, Prager stated, among other things, “the death of roots” and “rootlessness.” As he went on to say about the States—and the same would be true of Canada: “Unfortunately we have many people in this country, Jewish and Christian, who loathe their roots. Rootlessness is a guarantor of the decline of the individual and then of society. People need roots…”[1] How true this is. Remembering and celebrating our past as Christians—and even lamenting aspects of that past—is not the only way to renewal and blessing, but it is one. And as this quote reminds us: to forget our roots is the pathway of spiritual folly and one sure way to spiritual decline. As Walter Wright, a past president of Regent College, has put it: “At the heart of wisdom is building on the accumulated wisdom of the ages.”[2]
I am preparing to give a couple of lectures on the King James Bible. It is a fabulous history. Of course, not everyone appreciated reading it. When it was read by Hugh Broughton (1549–1612)—possibly the most distinguished Hebraist in Europe and who expected to have been among the translators of the King James Bible, but was passed over, probably because of his combative spirit and violent temper—his response was blistering. In an eight-page diatribe, he said: “The late Bible…was sent to me to censure: which bred in me a sadness that will grieve me while I breathe. It is so ill done. …I had rather be rent in pieces with wild horses, than any such translation by my consent should be urged upon poor churches. …The new edition crosseth me, I require it be burnt.” [A Censure of the late translation for our Churches ([Middleburg: R. Schilders, 1611?]), [1, 3].]
Thankfully, it was not burnt and the King James Bible became the central vehicle of biblical knowledge for generations of our Christian forebears. If you want to read more about this most influential of versions, it is probably best to start with the important selection of the prefaces of the various Bibles of the Tudor era and that of the King James Bible in Gerald Bray, Translating the Bible from William Tyndale to King James (London: The Latimer Trust, 2010). This will tell you what motivated the men who translated these various Bibles of the sixteenth century as well as the King James Bible.
Then, there are various studies of the specific history leading up to the King James Bible and its subsequent influence. Among the best and most recent of these are Alister McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (New York: Doubleday, 2001); Adam Nicolson, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (New York: HarperCollins, 2003); Derek Wilson, The People’s Bible: The Remarkable History of the King James Version (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2010); Gordon Campbell, Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611–2011 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); Leland Ryken, The Legacy of the King James Bible. Celebrating 400 Years of the Most Influential English Translation (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2011).
There is, of course, the massive 900-page work of David Daniell, The Bible in English: Its History and Influence (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2003). Daniell is the leading authority on the life and work of William Tyndale, and while he loves Tyndale, he is somewhat critical of the King James Bible as a translation.
This month marks the release of Dr. Haykin's newest book, Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church. The book is published by Crossway Books. From the publisher's website:
This book is an organized and convenient introduction to how to read the church fathers from AD 100 to 500. Michael Haykin surveys the lives and teachings of seven of the Fathers, looking at their role in such issues as baptism, martyrdom, and the relationship between church and state. Ignatius, Cyprian, Basil of Caesarea, and Ambrose and others were foundational in the growth and purity of early Christianity, and their impact continues to shape the church today.
You can pre-order the paperback edition from Amazon.com here. There is also a Kindle edition available for immediate download for only $7.99. If you want to preview the book, Amazon has a "Click to Look Inside Feature" and the Crossway site offers this PDF excerpt. If you have a Kindle, of course you can send your self a sample electronically for free from the Amazon site.
Endorsements:
“Haykin has given us a user-friendly introduction to the early centuries of the Christian church. He illustrates the key elements of the church’s teaching by referring to the lives and teachings of major figures of the time, most of whom are little known to nonspecialists. Ordinary people need to know about these things, and this book is a great place to begin.” —Gerald Bray, Research Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School
“This gem of a study sparkles with polished clarity. Michael Haykin has skillfully unearthed buried treasures among early church leaders. As an experienced guide, he has drawn from his own personal journey and decades of scholarly research. He presents valuable Patristic insights into apologetic engagement, missional work, spiritual formation, use of Scripture, theological discourse, communal worship, personal piety, and approaches to suffering and martyrdom. From the apostolic fathers to the apostle to Ireland, Haykin’s investigations masterfully apply classical wisdom to contemporary concerns.” —Paul Hartog, Associate Professor, Faith Baptist Theological Seminary
“In this introduction, Michael Haykin, an eminent evangelical scholar, opens the door to the riches of early Christianity for evangelicals in a splendidly concise handbook of sorts. Evangelicals, who are experiencing a renaissance of interest in the Fathers, need look no further than this volume for an introduction to many of the most significant figures in Christian history. Readers will be left wanting to learn even more. Evangelicals are indebted to Haykin for this well-written volume.” —Steven A. McKinion, Professor of Theology and Patristics, Southeastern Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina
Dr. Haykin's testimony, as are all Christian testimonies, an illustration of God's grace and providence. Haykin writes in conclusion:
I, who had once been a Marxist, and so committed to bringing fear and violence into the lives of innocent people, was myself brought by God face to face with fear—the fear of my own death—and so shown the inadequacy of the Marxist view of life: it has no answer to the problem of death. But Christianity does: God has raised Jesus from the dead, and so provided a way of deliverance for those, including myself, “who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)
To read this testimony in its entirety, click here.
On August 1, 1804, Andrew Fuller wrote to John Williams (1767-1825), a Welsh Baptist pastor who had emigrated to New York city, the following snippet in a larger letter having to do with the Serampore mission. This is a real gem, with which I am compelled to wholeheartedly agree: “We consider the mission to Bengal as the most favourable symptom attending our denomination. It confirms what has for some time been, with me, an important principle, that when any denomination, congregation, (or individual) seeks only its own, it will be disappointed: but where it seeks the kingdom of God and his righteousness, its own prosperity will be among the things that will be added unto it. I have seen great zeal for what among us is called the dissenting interest; and in such hands the dissenting interest has died. Had they sought more to make men Christians, they should in most cases have been dissenters of their own accord. In fact, I see that in those congregations where the main object is, what it should be, there religion flourishes. The same may be said of Baptists. If the first fruits of our zeal be laid out in making proselytes to that denomination, however right the thing may be in itself, the Lord will frown upon us, and leave us. But if we are mainly employed in making men Christians, we need not fear but they will be Baptists. It is of great consequence to pursue things according to their importance, making that a first concern which is first, and that a second which is secondary. In seeking the salvation of others, a man will man will find his own. He who is exalted as head over all things, obtained that glory by denying himself for the sake of others.”
[cited “Interesting Intelligence from India”, The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, 1, no.4 (May 1805), 97–98].
Ten years ago I included this letter in my The armies of the Lamb: The spirituality of Andrew Fuller (Dundas, Ontario: Joshua Press, 2001), 193–195. But I was citing it from the original copy that was then in the American Baptist Historical Archives that was located in Rochester, NY, but has now relocated to Atlanta, GA. It impressed me then as containing real wisdom, and even more now do I conceive it to be vital to the health of a Christian community of association of churches. I think the principle that Fuller said was an “important” one to be still of great importance.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest influence on my thinking from a twentieth-century figure is the life and writings of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), who died thirty years ago today, on St David's Day, fittingly the day of the patron saint of Wales. He combined a rigourous determination to be fully biblical with a passion for the work of the Spirit individually and corporately. He was a Calvinist, but a warm-hearted one with an intense desire to experience God. I love all of these emphases and identify wholeheartedly with them. And he was baptistic to boot--open membeship, open communion--a Baptist of the Bunyan and Ryland type. Could he be wrong on some issues? Yes, I cannot follow him on his reading of Romans 7 or his understanding of the exegetcial basis for the sealing of the Spirit ( I do not think the sealing a distinct second experience, but oh is he right in describing this experience and our need to know the unction of the Spirit in worship). But there is so much on which he is a great guide and I strongly commend the reading of his life and works to all my readers.
I have moved long enough in Calvinistic circles to know that there is a type of Calvisnism, which has its roots all the way back to a few of the Puritans (note, I say a few, by no means all), that I find to inhabit an unduly narrow world taken up not with the great things of the faith, but lesser matters, and, as a result, their Christian ambience is not at all winsome, but very off-putting. Such I feel is not true to the joy of the New Testament church (it is noteworthy that the great Andrew Fuller saw such in his day and he wrote that marvellous tract on why the Baptists of his day did not have the joy of the New Testament saints). And the Doctor is a great tonic for all trapped in such nugatory circles.
PS In time-honoured Baptist fashion (witness Herman Witsius Ryland, the son of J.C. Ryland, and Jonathan Edwards Ryland, the son of John Ryland, Jr.), I named my dear son after the Doctor: Nigel Martyn Graeme Haykin.
Dr. Haykin recently had the opportunity to address a gathering at the University of Louisville sponsored by The Campus Church on the question: "Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?" Audio of this lecture is available online here.
Katharine Tynan (1861–1931), the voluminous Irish poetess and novelist who was friends with Gerard Manly Hopkins, that greatest of all 19th century poets, and W.B. Yeats—whom she knew well enough to call “Willie”!—once observed—whether rightly or no, I shall leave for the reader to judge—that when it comes to lectures and debates:
“The Englishman likes to sit still and have his mind improved. The Irish want to improve other people’s minds.”
[Twenty-five Years: Reminiscences (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1913), 142].
Another new feature of the website is called "Fuller's Gold." This page will feature recommended books ready by the Center Director, Michael Haykin, and/or the Junior Fellows of the Center (Paul Brewster, Joseph Harrod, Jeff Robinson, Steve Weaver, and Ryan West). The first posting is an annotated list of favorite books ready by Dr. Haykin and the Junior Fellows in 2010. You can access Fuller's Gold here.
Dr. Haykin has decided to add a new feature to this page. It will be called "A few acres of snow." The title of this new feature comes from Voltaire's evaluation of Canada as “a few acres of snow." This new feature can be accessed by clicking on the title in the left sidebar. The most recent posting will be visible underneath the heading "A few acres of snow."
This new page will allow Dr. Haykin the opportunity to reflect as a Canadian Christian on his nation’s history. It is hoped that this feature will benefit Canadians and American readers of this site to learn more about Canada's rich history and serve as a means of stimulating prayer for the nation. To read more about Dr. Haykin's desires for this endeavor, please visit the main page of "A few acres of snow." From there you will be able to access all the posts in this series by the list on the right sidebar of that page. The first post is already up, Claire Welch's Ontario. Please check this site often for updates to this page, and . . . Enjoy!
While Dr. Haykin was at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to speak in chapel for Radical Reformation Day, he also participated in a student forum called "The Grindstone." The topic for discussion was "What is true Biblical spirituality and how can church history inform us?" To listen click here.
Last week, Dr. Haykin spoke at the annual Radical Reformation Day at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. Radical Reformation Day remembers the baptism of George Blaurock by Conrad Grebel and the baptism of others subsequently by Blaurock on January 21, 1525. Dr. Haykin spoke on the subject of friendship using the example of Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliff, William Carey, Samuel Pearce and John Ryland, Jr. To watch the video, click here. To download a MP3 of the talk, click here.
Yesterday, driving into Toronto to teach a course on Andrew Fuller and William Carey at Toronto Baptist Seminary, I fell to thinking about the sovereignty of God in my life: here I am a Christian historian, one of the "Lord's remembrancers," whose paternal grandparents were Kurdish Muslims and whose maternal grandparents were Irish Roman Catholics. If that is grace undeserved, I do not know what is! Then, along the same vein, today is the eightieth birthday of my father, Simon Haykin. I wish to go on record to say that I am forever indebted to his courage and integrity. He came from Iraq and decided at great cost to stay in England and then later brought my sister and I to Canada, for which I am forever grateful. He raised me in the West, gave me Western values and a Western education, for all of which I am deeply grateful. How different life would have been had he gone back to Iraq as he was planning when I was two or so!
Lord thank you that you gave me such a father.
Here is an excellent summation of the piety and theology of the Fathers: "To receive mystically the Trinity and share in God's own triune life by following the commands of Christ, was for the Church Fathers the very purpose of human existence." [A. Edward Siecienski, The Filioque (OUP, 2010), vi].
Rightly Augustine would want to add the phrase "by grace" to this statement: "by grace share in God's own triune life."
I was momentarily concerned about penning what seems to be a trivial "blog-post" about the art of making tea (see previous "How To Make a Decent Cup of Tea"), but then I recalled the Apostolic advice of 1 Cor 10:31 and all was calm!
Normally I would not cite Christopher Hitchens with approval, but I must say this recent piece by him is superb: "How To Make a Decent Cup of Tea: Ignore Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and heed George Orwell's tea-making advice" (http://www.slate.com/id/2279601/). Highly recommended for nearly all of my American (and most of my Canadian friends) who have me over for a cuppa! HT: Jim Parker (my Texan friend).
PS: Had trouble to know how to tag this entry. Maybe I need to start another category and entitle it "Tea"!
In a letter that Andrew Fuller wrote to William Carey on September 16, 1795, he has a noteworthy remark about money. Rhetorically, he asks Carey: “What shall we do with our money, but appropriate it to the service of our God?”
[Cited The Bengal Obituary (Calcutta: Holmes and Co./London and Calcutta: W. Thacker & Co., 1851), 338].
Dr. Sean Michael Lucas has found a great statement in the Autobiography, Correspondence, etc. of Lyman Beecher, D.D., ed. Charles Beecher (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1864), I, 99—at the beginning of chapter 17—about the payment received by the first Puritan minister of East Hampton, Long Island. His annual support was to be ₤45 per annum (later raised to ₤50 and then ₤60 per annum), “lands rate free, grain to be first ground at the mill every Monday, and one fourth of the whales stranded on the beach” (italics added). As Dr. Lucas notes: this “is the only case I ever knew of a minister’s being paid in whales” [“Glad ministerial pay has advanced beyond this...”, reformation21, post December 20, 2010 (http://networkedblogs.com/c3AE3)]. Can you imagine? James’ successor was a Mr. Hunting, related to one of the Marian martyrs, and then came Samuel Buell (d.1798) (Autobiography, Correspondence, etc. of Lyman Beecher, 99-100), whose ordination sermon Jonathan Edwards preached in 1746, and under whose pulpit ministry Sarah Edwards had some remarkable experiences. I wonder if Buell was still being paid in beached whales during his pastorate. One could only imagine him and his mentor, America’s greatest theologian, when the latter visited him, going out to check the beach for stranded whales!
