Swift and Beautiful, The Amazing Stories of Faithful Ministers, by David B Calhoun, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 237 pages, £6.25, may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
This book contains four chapters on well-known missionaries, while the other six deal with lesser-known and more recent people. The author wrote a two-volume history of Princeton Seminary describing the period when it was recognised as a reliable institution. He was an able historian and had been a professor of church history in an American seminary. He passed away since the book under review was published.
The first chapter deals with John Eliot (1604-90), an Englishman who emigrated to America and evangelised some American Indian tribes. His labours among them saw some success and, in 1651, a group of Natick Indians adopted a covenant with God which Eliot had written for them.
It reads as follows: “We are the sons of Adam. We and our forefathers have a long time been lost in our sins, but now the mercy of God begins to find us out again. Therefore, the grace of Christ helping us, we do give ourselves and our children unto God to be His people; He shall rule us in all affairs, not only in our religion and affairs of the church . . . but also in all our works and affairs in this world; God shall rule over us. The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. He will save us; the wisdom which God has taught us in His books, that shall guide and direct us in the way. Oh Jehovah, teach us wisdom to find out Thy wisdom in Thy Scriptures, let the grace of Christ help us, because Christ is the wisdom of God, send Thy Spirit into our hearts, and let it teach us; Lord, take us to be Thy people, and let us take Thee to be our Lord.”
Eliot laboured on until he was 82, in spite of numerous discouragements,
including war. He travelled long distances to preach the gospel, besides translating the Bible and other good books into the local language. After finishing his translation of what seems to have been his last book, he was ready to revise some of his earlier work and said, “I am old, ready to be gone, and desire to leave as many books as I can”.
The second chapter is devoted to David Brainerd (1718-1747). During his short life, Brainerd devoted himself to evangelising various Indian tribes in New England, and not without success. For instance, the Indians at Cross-weeksung experienced what Brainerd called “an amazing season of grace”. A brief anecdote illustrates the depth of thankfulness, in at least one Indian woman’s heart, for the blessings of the gospel. She asked Brainerd “whether he was not sent to preach to the Indians by some good people a great way off”. He replied, “Yes, by the good people in Scotland”. She answered “that her heart loved those good people, so that she could scarce help praying for them all night”. The eminent preacher-theologian Jonathan Edwards, in whose home the missionary died, “believed that David Brainerd’s life showed the right way to success in the work of the ministry: by his example of working diligently, praying, denying himself, and enduring hardness with resolution and patience”.
Two Scots get a place in this book. The first is David Livingstone (1813-1873). He went to Africa as a missionary, but his life there was more occupied by exploring that vast continent, but with a view to opening it up for future missionaries, and also in opposing the slave trade. Yet the author notes that “David Livingstone’s example inspired many to serve God in Africa”. The other Scot was Mary Slessor (1848-1915) from Dundee, who did much good work in Nigeria, while suffering greatly from fever. For instance, she rescued children, including twins, whom the local culture would have killed at birth. Yet she clearly went too far, even in the absence of male missionaries, by taking services.
All the others whose lives are recorded in this book were American. Two of them were William Henry Sheppard and his wife Lucy Gantt Sheppard, who went to the Congo. They would have been among the first black missionaries to go out from the United States, and it is no doubt best for people to be evangelised by others from their own ethnic group. Sadly Sheppard had to be disciplined by his Church because of serious sin, but he was later restored and worked among black people in America. But his inclusion is questionable, especially given the “beautiful” in the book’s title.
There are 12 chapters in all, and they are interestingly written. The book should remind us how much of the world still needs the gospel and it should also make us pray for the spread of the good news of salvation everywhere.
However, one would wish that, for instance, a swear word had not been quoted and that the practice of some of these missionaries had been more consistent with Scripture.