THIS is worth reading. I cut and paste from my friend Craig:One minister wrote to John Newton (author of Amazing Grace), expressing doubt about Richard Johnson's mission to join convicts to settle Botany Bay (Sydney) -
How is Mr. Johnson's Botany Bay scheme likely to end? I have seen a copy of his feelings on the occasion, and seemed to feel them all myself. It filled me with a thousand thanks that the Lord did not call me to that cross. If Johnson goes, I pray the Lord to go with him, and fit his mind for everything that lies before him.Newton’s reply:
I shall not advise him to consult with you upon this point. Your appointment is to smoke your pipe quietly at home, to preach, and to lecture to your pupils; you are not cut out for a missionary.H/T to Craig.
I, too, must have my tea, my regular hours, and twenty little things which I can have when my post is fixed. I should shrink at the thought of living upon seals and train oil.
Oh! if Johnson is the man whom the Lord appoints to the honour of being the first to carry the glad tidings into the Southern Hemisphere, he will be a great and honoured man indeed.
I stare at a picture of Richard Johson in my Office at York Street.
___________
7 comments:
This would have made a great AMS article.
It can be recycled in a couple of months...
So Justin, are you a "pipe-smoker" or a "seal-eater" ? ;-)
Well done in Sun Herald Sunday Life mate.
Reading you alongside the other guys made for good gospel contextualisation, the gospel looked so appealing amisdt the other options! Great stuff
@Steve-- Thanks mate. I saw you at the Church Planting Convention. Sorry to have missed you, brother.
@Craig --
Mike smokes the pipe, and I eat Seal burgers...
:)
Ummm, is Newton actually rebuking someone here? He does say that he himself must have his tea, and preaching and lecturing pupils is surely not a waste of time. Maybe it's actually a statement about different vocations within ministry.
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