1812
HT: Christian History Institute
Anne Hasseltine and Adoniram Judson were married on February 5, 1812. The next day, when Judson was ordained to do foreign mission work, Anne (whom he called “Nancy”) was beside him. Within a few days they boarded the sailing ship Caravan to sail to India. Judson’s eventual success in Burma (now known as Myanmar), where they ended up, would have been impossible without her language skills and devotion to his life.
On this day, March 14, 1812, while they were still at sea, Anne expressed her deepest desires in a letter that she wrote home.
“I desire no higher enjoyment in this life, than to be instrumental of leading some poor, ignorant heathen females, to the knowledge of the Savior. To have a female praying society, consisting of those who were once in heathen darkness, is what my heart earnestly pants after, and makes a constant subject of prayer. Resolved to keep this in view, as one principal object of my life.”
1937
Arthur Pink is often described as an eccentric. He didn’t really fit in anywhere. Converted to Christ out of a theosophical background (the New Age movement of his day), he became a student of Puritan thought. But his efforts at pastoring churches and evangelization were not successful. Nor did his books sell. A monthly magazine that he edited called Studies in the Scriptures, never topped a circulation of 1,000. The last sixteen years of his life, he spent on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in virtual isolation by his own choice, rejecting formal association with any church.
Explaining his hermit-like existence, he quoted Jesus as saying, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” He went on to ask, “What world hated Christ and hounded him to death? The religious world, those who pretended to be most zealous for God’s glory.” He seemed to take pride in his “persecution,” although some of the men he disagreed with were among the greatest Christians of the century.
Nonetheless, Arthur came to have a significant influence. Upholding Calvinism, he countered a growing trend toward acceptance of Arminian views, even in churches like the Baptists that had traditionally been Calvinist. (In simplified terms, Arminians emphasize man’s free choice in salvation; Calvinists insist on God’s complete sovereignty.)
From his remote hideaway, Arthur issued his scripture studies. He also hand-wrote letters in response to many questions that came his way, sometimes more than forty letters a week. His scripture studies and the Bible studies sparkled with quotable gems.
For example, on this day, March 14, 1937 he wrote in a letter, “Neither the nearness nor the remoteness of Christ’s return is a rule to regulate us in the ordering of our temporal affairs. Spiritual preparedness is the great matter.”
After his death in 1953, Arthur’s Bible studies began to be reprinted. Today there are dozens of these on the market, with sales in the hundreds of thousands. Many of them appear on the web. Their many thoughtful sayings make them memorable:
“The trend of modern theology–if theology it can be called–is ever toward the deification of the creature rather than the glorification of the Creator.”
“We do not ask, Is Christ your ‘Savior,’ but is He, really and truly, your Lord? If He be not your Lord, then most certainly He is not your ‘Savior.’ “
“Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord.”
Through his writings, Arthur Pink had more success after his death than in his life.
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