Loving
greetings in the precious name of our Lord & Saviour &
soon-coming King. We have just celebrated the season when we
reflect on the first coming of our Lord. Those alive at the time
knew the ‘how’ and ‘where’ of His coming.
So with the second coming, we know the ‘how’ and the
‘where’. As with the first coming, we do not know the
‘when’. We are told not to speculate, as ‘of that day
and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but
only the Father.’ [Mark 13:32]
We are however given a number of clues which do not leave
us in darkness that the day should overtake us like a thief. All
passages tell the same story of increasing violence, turmoil and
spiritual darkness. The Lord compares the time of the end to the
days of Noah & Lot [Luke 17:26-37], periods of violence, sexual
depravity and spiritual indifference. In Luke 21:25-26 we learn
that nature itself will be moved & shaken: there shall be signs in
the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress
of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s
hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which
are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Two passages present a very bleak picture of the human
condition, Paul’s 23 evils in Rom 1:28-32 and the Saviour’s
list of 13 in Mark 7:21-23.
But in 2 Tim 3:1-4 we have a particularly sobering picture
of the end times: ‘But know this, that in the last days perilous
times [= times of stress] will come: For men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving,
slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God.’ [Note the three items in italics that encapsulate life in
Britain in 2008!!].
Despite the outward signs of increasing darkness - social
disintegration, violence & disorder on our streets, moral
degradation of our nation, corruption in high places –
we can offer to a needy world a Saviour who is the Light of the World,
whose light shines on in the darkness AND THE DARKNESS HAS NEVER PUT IT
OUT.
In this issue Philip writes prophetically about the Last
Trumpet, and offers some thoughts on sabbatical cycles. We also
include an article on Newton, Cowper & the Olney Hymns by Prof
David Crout, a former colleague of mine from Coventry
The Last Trumpet [PW]
There are three verses in scripture that combine an
end time gathering of God’s people with the sounding of a
trumpet; one is in the Old Testament and two in the New. In this
study we look into the question of whether they are describing the same
or separate events.
The first of these verses is found in Isaiah. “And it will come
about in that day, that the LORD will start His threshing from the
flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be
gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. It will come about also in
that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were
perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of
Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at
Jerusalem.” Isaiah 27:12,13
The preceding chapters 24 to 27 describe the day
when the Lord will act in judgement on the earth. This series of
prophecies begin with the words; Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste,
devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.
Isaiah 24:1. There is coming a time when the earth will be
devastated. When, to use the words of verse 20; “The earth reels
to and fro like a drunkard, and it totters like a shack, for its
transgression is heavy upon it.” Revelation 16:18 describes
this shaking, “as a great earthquake such as there had not been
since man came to be on this earth”. And yet in the midst
of this destruction there are those who “shout for joy” and
“give glory to the righteous one” (Isaiah 24:14,16).
The prophecy flows on in the next chapter to speak of how God has been,
“a defence to the helpless” and “a refuge in the
storm”. The passage continues: “And the LORD of hosts
will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a
banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged
wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which
is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all
nations. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD
will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of
His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken. And it
will be said in that day,
"Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might
save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and
be glad in His salvation." Isaiah 25:6-9. There can be no doubt
about the Second Coming context of these words. The banquet, the
swallowing up of death and the wiping away of tears all speak of the
time when the “Lord for whom we have waited”, returns.
The next chapter is a song of praise to “the
everlasting Rock”, who is their security. It recognises the
necessity of the judgement that has taken place, “For when the
earth experiences Thy judgments the inhabitants of the world learn
righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9, and accepts that the judgement had
also to come on the people of God, “O LORD, they sought Thee in
distress; they could only whisper a prayer, Thy chastening was upon
them. As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
she writhes and cries out in her labor pains, thus were we before Thee,
O LORD. Isaiah 26: 16,17
God warns his people that a time will come when He
will punish the inhabitants of the earth and tells them to hide for a
while; “Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and close your
doors behind you; hide for a little while, until indignation runs its
course. For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the
earth will reveal her bloodshed, and will no longer cover her
slain.” Isaiah 26: 20-21.
Chapter 27 moves on to say that this is the day when
Satan will be punished and Israel will blossom and be fruitful.
At long last Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven and their sins
finally pardoned. But pardon will come after a period of great
suffering. The prophecies culminate with the words with which we
started this study. At the sounding of a great trumpet the sons
of Israel will be gathered and come to worship the Lord in the Holy
Mountain in Jerusalem.
The Jews understand that there are two occasions
when God will sound a trumpet blast. The first occasion was at
Sinai when God made the covenant with Israel, Exod 19:16,19 (also Heb
12:19. The second time is when God will rescue Israel and gather
them to Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:13 and Zech 9:14. The Jews refer to
these as the first and last trumpets. The first trumpet is
remembered at Pentecost when the law was given to Moses. The last
is to be blown at Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, to announce the
coming of the Messiah to rescue Israel at her time of greatest need.
The reading for Rosh Hashanah is taken from Genesis 22 where Abraham is
called on to sacrifice Isaac. The Jews regard this passage as
Messianic but not in the same way as Christians do. They see the
horns of the ram caught in the thicket as symbolic of the first and
last trumpets.
The next time we read of the blowing of a
great trumpet and the gathering of the elect is to be found in our
Lord’s final sermon. "But immediately after the tribulation of
those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS
LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the
heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear
in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they
will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and
great glory. "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT
TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds,
from one end of the sky to the other.” Matthew 24: 29,30
The timing of this gathering is after the
tribulation and the darkening of the sun. Following these events
the sign of the Son of Man will appear and the trumpet will
sound. It is widely accepted that Jesus is referring back to the
Isaiah passage we have just looked at. He is describing the time
when He is coming in judgement on the earth. Similar thoughts are
to be found in the book of Joel. “Multitudes, multitudes in
the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley
of decision. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their
brightness. And the LORD roars from Zion and utters His voice from
Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble. But the LORD is a
refuge for His people and a stronghold to the sons of Israel. Then you
will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion My holy
mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will pass through it
no more.” Joel 3:14-17
As we study these and similar passages the pattern
of events becomes clear: devastation and destruction with a violent
shaking of the earth; the sun will no longer give light and the stars
will disappear. And yet in all this the people who know their God are
singing songs of Joy. Out of the chaos their Lord will gather
them.
We now face the question of whether the next passage
that brings together the sounding of a trumpet and the gathering of the
elect is also describing the same event. “For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus
we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with
these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18
This is part of a passage in which Paul is
encouraging those who mourn those that have died. There is no
need to mourn for when Jesus comes again for He will bring with Him
those who have passed away. At His coming we will be caught up to
be with them. In common with the passages we have already looked
at, the time when Jesus returns is marked by the sounding of a
trumpet. This is added to in Corinthians where the transformation
that takes at this time when the trumpet is sounded is described.
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on
the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
1Corinthians 15: 51-53
The transformation is described as a mystery for it
had not been revealed in the Old Testament scriptures. Paul, a
Jew, sets this transformation at the last trumpet, the meaning of which
the Jews readily understood.
For some the placing of the return of Christ for His
saints so late in the unfolding of prophesied events causes
problems. If the series of events from the tribulation through to
the shaking of the earth have to be fulfilled before Christ returns,
how can His return be imminent, in the sense of being at any moment?
Another problem which arises is that, if we are gathered at the time
when Jesus physically returns, we will still be on the earth during the
time when God pours out His wrath. 1 Thessalonians 5: 9, says,
“for God has not destined us for wrath, but for the obtaining of
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Both these
problems are answered if we read through the passage. The promise
that we are not destined for wrath follows the assurance that at the
sound of the trumpet we will be caught up to be with Jesus. Paul has in
mind that many of his readers will know the Old Testament and the
connection in time between the wrath of God and the coming of the
Lord. They are now alarmed. If we are to be gathered up at
the time of the last trumpet and the coming of the Lord what about the
judgements that will fall on the earth. How will they
escape? The world will be taken by surprise as judgement
overtakes it like a thief in the night. But because we are
vigilant the judgement will not catch us out. We will not escape the
wrath by being in heaven, but by being, “sober, having put on the
breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of
salvation. We are not to look to the Lord for escape, but as a
shelter during the time of trouble.
Jesus taught that there would be an element of
surprise in the timing of His return. We will never be able to
predict the exact time even up to the very end. That is not to
say that His return can be at any moment. Jesus placed his return
very firmly after the tribulation and the shaking of the heavens and
the earth. These must come first. If it is argued that
Matthew 24:31 is not His return for the Church I would say that it is
very strange that Jesus repeatedly encourages us to be vigilant for an
event which he says nothing whatever about. This is the
only return that He ever speaks of.
The Sabbatical Cycles [PW]
“And you shall sow your land for six years and
gather in its yield, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and
lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they
leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with
your vineyard and your olive grove.” Exodus 23:10-11
An important part of the Law of Moses was the Sabbath year when the
land was allowed to rest. It was intended as a year when the land
could recover and also to be blessing to the poor. Every
seventh year the Israelites were to let the land keep a "sabbath of
rest" by not sowing their crops (Lev. 25:2-7). This sabbatical
year was called "the year of shemitah" or "release", since all debts
were remitted that year (Deut. 15:9; 31:10). The Sabbatical year
begins in the autumn on the first of Tishri, the seventh month.
This is the Jewish calendar new year called Rosh Hashanah or to us the
Feast of Trumpets.
The importance of the Sabbath year as part of the Law is emphasised at
the end of 2 Chronicles. Failure to observe the sabbatical years is
given as a reason for Judah being taken into exile by Babylon.
“And those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to
Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule
of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth
of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of
its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were
complete.” 2 Chronicles 36: 20-21
The present day celebration of the Sabbatical Year
With the return of the Jews to Israel in the late
1800’s the question of letting the fields lie fallow for a year
became a burning issue. The early settlers requested that the
rabbinate issue a ‘hetter’ (permit) to allow them to
continue working the land during the sabbatical year of 1889. In
response three respected Rabbis came up with the formula called
‘hetter machirah’. This allowed the Jew to
temporarily sell the land to a non-Jew for the sabbatical year so that
the young and fragile agricultural settlements would not
collapse. The practice of ‘hetter machirah’,
continues to this day. It has always been controversial as it was
seen as more about observing the letter rather than the spirit of the
Law. Some of the ultra-orthodox Jews are fiercely opposed to it.
We are at present in the middle of a Sabbatical
year. The current Shemita year began on Rosh Hashanah of the
Hebrew year 5768, and extends until 29 Elul 5768 (September 13,
2007-September 29, 2008). The dating of the Sabbath years
conforms to a table published by Benedict Zuckermann in 1856, which
lists the sabbatical years in ancient times. His table is
generally accepted as the standard position.
The Final Years
In the Winter 2007 edition of Trumpet Sounds, I set
out my belief that Daniel 9:25 sets out two distinct periods one of 434
years and one of 49 years which should not be added together to make
483 years as is done with many interpretations. I also believe that the
whole prophecy is clearly based on Sabbatical cycles of seven years and
that all the very clever interpretations based on prophetic years, etc.
are a red herring. In that edition of Trumpet Sounds I indicated
that I thought the final period of 49 years started in 1967 with the
Jews capturing the old city of Jerusalem. I have now reconsidered
that position.
1967 was very significant and could be the start
date of the final period, but there is another possible date. It
is a date that seems most notable by its lack of apparent
significance. Although Israel took Jerusalem in 1967, they did
not declare the city to be the capital of Israel for another 13
years. When it did happen it came in as an afterthought through a
private members bill introduced into the Knesset. The Act when it
was passed declared “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the
capital of Israel.” In many ways this Act did nothing to
change anything. Most legal experts considered that the Act did
not change the effective legal status of the city. It would be an
easy date to pass over but for three reasons.
First is the coincidence that the declaration of the
Jerusalem as the Capital followed 13 years after the return. I
believe that the start date for the first period of 434 years was when
Nehemiah returned in 444 BC. This was 13 years after Ezra’s
return to Jerusalem in 457 BC. This is an interesting coincidence
but not over persuasive.
The second reason is of more importance. My initial
conviction that the 49 years represented a separate period leading up
to the Second Coming came from studying the work of Sir Isaac
Newton. But he also stipulated that the 49 years represented a
Jubilee. The period of the Jubilee always starts with a
Sabbatical year. Added to this, those who advocate an
interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy of 70 weeks based on the
normal Sabbath cycle also understand that greater credibility is given
to an interpretation of the prophecy if it should fit the cycle of
sabbatical years. According to Zuckerman’s table 1967 was not a
sabbatical year but 1979 – 1980 was. Therefore this
decree by the Israeli parliament came during a sabbatical year. If this
period began with the Sabbatical year 1979-1980 it will end on Rosh
Hashanah 2029 when the 50th year will begin.
A third reason for taking an interest in this date is the
affect it had on the rest of the world. Following the passing of
the Act there was a resounding rebuff from the United Nations.
Under resolution 478 they declared that the Act was null and void. As a
response every member state was asked to remove their embassies from
Jerusalem, which they promptly did. This global response was
prophetic of the final rallying of every nation against Israel.
It is the response of all the nations of the world that most strongly
points to the significance of 1980.
I am not predicting that Jesus will return in either
2016 or 2029. The Bible states that God has not revealed the time
just as He did not reveal in advance the exact time of His Son’s
birth. If this interpretation of the significance of the seven
times seven years is correct it confirms that the return of Jesus is
very close.
A Seven Year Cycle?
Contemplating the final 49 years caused me to
consider the recent history of Israel within a framework of the Sabbath
years. Were there clear seven-year cycles to which could be
identified? I share my thought for your consideration. I
have used the Jewish calendar years as this is clearer.
5733 (1972/3) Peace
The Yom Kippor War of the autumn 1972 gave Israel a brief period of
peace and security. Following their rapid defeat the Arabs for a
time considered the IDF invincible.
5740 (1979/80) Isolation
In July 1980 Israel declares, “Jerusalem, complete and
united, is the capital of Israel.” This begins a process in
which Israel experiences increasing isolation by the international
community.
5747 (1986/7) Intifada
First Intifada begins in October 1987 lasting through to
1993. The catalyst for the uprising was the ambush by the Israeli
Defence force of seven members of Islamic Jihad in Gaza on 1st October
1980 and the shooting of a Palestinian schoolgirl by an Israeli
settler. The Intifada was brought to an end by the Oslo Accords.
5754 (1993/4) Dividing the Land
The Oslo Accords were signed on the White House lawn in
September 1993. They collapsed in July 2000 with the rejection by
Yasser Arafat of the terms offered by Ehud Barak. The accords
centred on the agreement to create separate Israeli and Palestinian
states.
5761 (2000/1) Second Inifada
The second intifada began in September 2000. The uprising
became global with the September 11th 2001 attack on the World Trade
Centre. This attack began the war on terror. Towards the
end of this period the West has started to realise that it has entered
into a war it can never win.
The Future
We have since the Autumn of last year entered the next seven year cycle. If so what will the next seven years bring?
5768 - 5775 (2007/8 – 2014/5) Collapse of the USA
I believe that the next seven year period will see the collapse
of the USA as a major world power. The new sabbatical year has
already seen a marked change in approach by the USA to Israel,
particularly by President Bush, who is pushing hard for a Middle East
peace settlement before he leaves office. Both in Annapolis and
more recently in Israel a desire to appease the Arabs has become
evident. When the USA rejects Israel she will cease to be a
significant military and economic power in this world. In
consequence Israel will loose the major prop on which she has relied
for her continuing existence. Pray that she will come to rely on
God for her protection instead of the USA.
The next seven years will also see the relentless rise of Islam towards becoming the dominant power in the world.
Hezbollah's Billion Petrodollars [Dr. Walid Phares IAN 11th January]
A few weeks ago, articles published around the world
reported that Hezbollah is undergoing two major changes. Both portend
greater violence from the Iranian-sponsored global terrorist network.
The first change is a shift in leadership
responsibilities. A report published initially in the Saudi owned
Sharq al Awsat said the office of Ayatollah Khamenei appointed
deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Qassim as the new supreme
commander of Hezbollah forces and the personal representative of
the Ayatollah in Lebanon. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, according to
this report remains as secretary general of the organization. Sources
said this change in control and command is because of "differences in
opinions" between Narsrallah and Qassim.
The Hezbollah media arm rushed to deny the veracity
of this shift. But observers with direct knowledge of the
organization's inside structure said Khamenei indeed ordered changes in
Hezbollah's structures, but not because of differences between its
leaders. They said it was in preparation for a potential massive
move by Hezbollah to seize more power in Lebanon and before a possible
clash with the Lebanese Government and the
United Nations over the disarmament
process. ……
The second major change, according to these reports
Hezbollah is a huge increase in annual budget funded by Tehran.
Hezbollah’s funding was elevated from $400 million US to $1
billion. This ballistic leap would enable the organization to crush any
opponent inside Lebanon and engage in worldwide operations against
Western Democracies and Arab moderates. According to
experts in Lebanon, the $400 millions figure was enough to pay for
hundreds of social centers and thousands of salaries enough to insure a
full control over the Shia community, its representatives in Parliament
and buy significant influence inside the Sunni, Druze and particularly
Christiancommunity. ….. But if $400 million can buy Hezbollah a
magic place under Lebanon's sun, what would a $1 billion do? Observers
in Lebanon say: "anything anywhere." Indeed the Moguls of the so-called
"resistance" have been able to create alternative TV and radio
stations, launch multiple dailies, pay for a nonstop sit-in across
Downtown Beirut, and more importantly leap to hyper international
power. (The full article can be read on the website
http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=1577)
John Newton, William Cowper and the Olney Hymns [DHGC]
Near the end of his life John Newton said to a visitor “My
memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things – that I am a
great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.”
These few words encapsulate Newton’s deepest beliefs as a
Christian. They are a distillation of the experiences of an
extraordinary life.
The popular picture of Newton is of a Captain of a slave ship
who, in the terror of an intense storm, gave his life to the Lord,
became a vicar and wrote “Amazing Grace.”
The true story is far more complex and revealing of
Newton’s long and dramatic road to the convictions expressed in
the opening sentence.
Newton was born in 1725 of a merchant captain, and a devout
mother who died when he was seven. Newton abandoned formal education at
the age of eleven to go to sea with his father. At nineteen he was
press-ganged on to a Royal Navy ship but changed to a slaver trading
off the west coast of Africa. He took a post ashore with a trader but
came under the domination of his African wife, the daughter of a local
chief, who, in the trader’s absence, treated Newton abominably,
forcing him into a position lower than her own slaves (hence the line
“A servant of slaves in Africa” on Newton’s epitaph).
He was rescued by a ship, the Greyhound, sailed to America and then
back across the Atlantic to England.
By his own account, Newton was a well of depravity during this
period. He was profane, indulged in all kinds of wickedness and
delighted in destroying the faith of others.
It was during the Atlantic crossing that the Greyhound was
caught in the famous storm. Newton feared for his life. While manning
the pumps, he said to himself “If this will not do, the Lord have
mercy on us.” Struck by his own words he thought “What
mercy can there be for me?”
He was also frightened when he asked himself “What if the
scriptures were true?” He felt that if they were true he could
not be forgiven.
He remembered the verses: “It is impossible for those who
have once been enlightened,………… if they
fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss,
they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to
public disgrace” (Hebrews 6: 4-6).
Then, he remembered other verses that gave him some comfort:
“Which of you fathers, if his son asks for fish, will give him a
snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion? If
you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him? (Luke 11: 11-13).
Newton decided that “….though I could not say in my
heart that I believed the Gospel, yet I would, for the present, take it
for granted”
He concluded that he “…stood in need of an Almighty
Saviour, and such an one as I found described in the New
Testament.”
The Greyhound finally limped into port in Ireland.
Newton took a position as mate on a slaver but soon slipped back
and became worse than he was before “profaneness excepted.”
“The enemy prepared a train of temptations, and I became
his easy prey: for about a month he lulled me asleep in a course of
evil, of which, only a few months before, I could not have supposed
myself any longer capable.”
He fell very ill. He remembered his promises to God and how he
had failed to keep them. He concluded that “the door of hope was
quite shut.” On an island off the coast of West Africa he found a
quiet place where he felt a renewed liberty to pray. He made no more
resolutions “…but cast myself before the Lord to do with
me as He should please.”
He returned to the ship, and “though subject to the
effects and conflicts of sin dwelling in him, yet he was ever after
delivered from its power and dominion.”
He was “enabled to hope and believe in a crucified Saviour.”
Newton had come to faith at a critical moment when he realised
that he could do nothing in his own strength but was totally dependent
on the Lord to raise him up. This realisation explains the powerful
effect on Newton of the revelation that came to him through a Christian
friend, Alex Clunie, when they were together in Antigua during one of
the three voyages that Newton made as captain of a slave ship. It was
Clunie who introduced to Newton the concept of grace as the “free
and unmerited favour of God.”
Newton suffered a seizure after his third voyage which prevented
him from again going to sea. He took a post as Tide Surveyor at
Liverpool, but then took holy orders. He was accepted for ordination by
the Bishop of Lincoln after two rejections by York. His lack of a
university education had been the stumbling block, but, as John Wesley,
a strong supporter of Newton, said:
“His case is very peculiar; our Church requires that
clergymen should be men of learning, and to this end have a university
education; but how many men have a university education and yet no
learning at all?”
Newton accepted a curacy at Olney, Buckinghamshire. He took
under his wing the poet William Cowper, who was in a continuing fragile
mental state. Partly to encourage Cowper and partly to minister to his
parishioners, Newton, together with Cowper, wrote the hymns, over three
hundred in number, that constitute the Olney Hymns.
In the preface to the Olney Hymns Newton says: “A desire of
promoting the faith and comfort of sincere christians, though the
principal, was not the only motive to this undertaking. It was likewise
intended as a monument, to perpetuate the remembrance of an intimate
and endeared friendship.”
Before long, Cowper became so ill that he could no more
contribute. Thus Newton: “My grief and disappointment were great;
I hung my harp upon the willows,* and for some time thought myself
determined to proceed no farther without him.”
*Psalm 137: 2
However, Newton was eventually persuaded to publish. The first
edition of the Olney Hymns appeared in 1779. It contained over three
hundred hymns, most by Newton but with a good representation from
Cowper. The most familiar are probably:
Newton
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
Come my soul thy suit prepare,
Jesus loves to answer prayer
Glorious things of thee are spoken
Zion, city of our God
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear
Cowper
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform
Hark my soul! It is the Lord
‘Tis thy Saviour, hear his word
Jesus, where’ere thy people meet,
There they behold thy mercy seat
Oh! For a closer walk with God,
A calm and heav’nly frame
Newton’s approach to the writing of hymns is instructive. He says:
“There is a stile and manner suited to the composition of
hymns, which may be more successfully, or at least more easily attained
by a versifier, than by a poet. They should be hymns not odes, if
designed for public worship, and for the use of plain people.
Perspicuity, simplicity and ease, should be chiefly attended to; and
the imagery and coloring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be
indulged very sparingly and with great judgement.
He goes on:
“But although I would not offend readers of taste by a
wilful coarseness, and negligence, I do not write professedly for
them.”
Newton, having admitted to what amounts to class consciousness,
then goes on to a statement which explains better than this author
might, why his hymns and Cowper’s have such a universally
powerful effect, devoid though they might be of poetic embellishment.
“As the workings of the heart of man, and of the Spirit of
God, are in general the same, in all who are the subjects of grace, I
hope most of these hymns, being the fruit and expression of my own
experience, will coincide with the views of real christians of all
denominations.”
The extraordinary popularity of Amazing Grace, which comes high
in, or at the top of, most polls of popular hymns, is certainly in
large part because it is indeed the “fruit and expression”
of his own, powerful and dramatic, experience. However, its effect can
also be attributed to a large extent to its marriage to the tune to
which it is nowadays sung. Given Newton’s views about
“imagery and coloring”, one wonders what he might have made
of this; we have no information on the tunes to which Newton’s
parishioners sang his hymns, but presumably they would have been simple
and familiar.
It is characteristic of Newton that he should end his
introduction the the Olney Hymns with a warm dedication to his
parishioners which at the same time speaks to us:
This publication, which, with my humble prayer to the Lord for
his blessing upon it, I offer to the service and acceptance of all who
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, of every name and in every
place, into whose hands it might come; I more particularly dedicate to
my dear friends in the parish and neighbourhood of Olney, for whose use
the hymns were originally composed; as a testimony of the sincere love
I bear them, and as a token of my gratitude to the Lord, and to them,
for the comfort and satisfaction with which the discharge of my
ministry among them has been attended.”
In spite of Newton’s protestations, his hymns make an
impact that shows how poetry comes into being through a combination of
efficient “versification” allied to a powerful and deeply
felt message, even though “imagery and coloring” might be
eschewed. Perhaps this can be illustrated and this piece brought to a
close, by the last three verses of “How sweet the name of Jesus
sounds.”:
Jesus! My Shepherd, Husband, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest and King;
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.
Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see thee as thou art,
I’ll praise thee as I ought.
‘Till then I would thy love proclaim
With ev’ry fleeting breath;
And may the music of thy name
Refresh my soul in death.
A statement about what knowing Jesus means to a Christian,
namely everything; a declaration that final union with Christ will
remove every last barrier to the offering of the praise that is his
due; a declaration of the willingness, through faith, to proclaim the
love of God; a final inward look to the hope that the writer has for
the consummation of his belief in the new life into which his soul will
be released at the end; these are a fitting expression of the life and
work of a great Christian.
David Crout
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