William Williams, author of 'Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah', was among the finest and most prolific hymnwriters the British Isles has produced. Yet most people in English churches are unfamiliar with William Williams or the other 800+ hymns because the majority were in Welsh.
William Williams put into verse the spirit and character of the Welsh Methodist Revival of 1762, in which he was a key figure. One of the chief things I appreciate about his hymns is how they articulate the intimate, individual process that goes on between a soul and the Saviour at conversion and throughout a true Christian life - a process which those who went through the Revival had experienced themselves in such a profound way. William Williams' hymns are intensely personal and individually challenging, often written in the first person. This seems to be particularly characteristic of hymns from these times of great revival. W. Vernon Higham's 'I saw a new vision of Jesus', although by a present-day writer, is very much in that tradition. These are not the sort of general, formulaic words that can be happily sung by those merely going through the motions but words for serious, all-out Christianity.
Williams' hymns articulate the utter hopelessness and desperation of our state without God but also express total conviction about the efficacy of Jesus' blood and the security of our eternal salvation. They describe the need for continued, daily dependence on Christ which these spiritual giants understood and practiced so well, but also communicate a deep delight in Jesus Christ and an intense love for him born of a profound understanding and personal experience of the great doctrines of grace. All these were themes which characterised the 1762 Revival.
History has rightly discarded much of the hymnody of past generations but Williams' hymns have an enduring worth and deserve to be known beyond the small circles of Welsh-speaking Christians who know and sing them. Some have been translated into English but most have not. Those translations that do exist are of variable quality. Some are simply clunky and difficult to sing. Others have only loosely conveyed the original words and some, worse still, have watered down Williams' out-and-out Calvinistic theology to fit with the translators' own liberal inclinations.
In appreciation of the blessing that William Williams' works have been to me personally, I'm contributing some English translations in the hope that they will bring his thoughts to a wider audience. In writing these I have tried to be as faithful as possible to Williams' original meaning but at the same time to make them poetic and singable, preserving the original metre so that the original Welsh tunes can still be used. These translations are copyright but are free to use for worship purposes providing users acknowledge the source in any printed materials.
Sunday, 31 May 2015
Agnostics and the Mersey Tunnel
When someone tells me that they are agnostic I always wonder what they actually mean by this. The word 'agnostic' itself is just Greek for the absence of knowledge and that seems to be all that some people are saying when they use the label. They are simply expressing a lack of certainty about spiritual matters. Others seem to be saying not so much that they don't know as they don't care - 'apathetic' rather than agnostic. But there is another group who are what I call 'militantly agnostic'. They are saying, in effect, 'I don't know, I'm never going to know and it is not possible for anyone to know. So don't you dare to try to tell me you know.'
I think it was this last group who Stephen Gaukroger had in mind when he said that 'agnosticism was like the Mersey Tunnel - alright to travel through, but a nightmare to live in!' In other words, agnosticism is alright as a point on a journey but making it your life's position is a bad idea.
When people first begin to think seriously about the meaning of life, describing themselves as 'agnostic' may be an honest articulation of the fact that they are no longer closed to the possibility of the existence of God but are still trying to work things out. There are many people, thank God, who moved from atheism to agnosticism and then to wholehearted belief in Jesus Christ. Agnosticism was a point on their journey from unbelief to belief.
But nothing is sadder than those who have got 'stuck' in agnosticism. Militant agnosticism leads nowhere. To continue the travel metaphor, it sits down and refuses to even look at the map. It refuses to consider the possibility that there might be any way out of the tunnel or that there could be anything better out there. It watches other travellers hopefully passing him by, believing they have found a route out. Yes, there is the possibility that they may be wrong but there is also the possibility they might be right. But the one who sits and refuses to even try any of the exits is certain of only one thing - remaining stuck in that tunnel! Agnosticism offers no light to live by, no moral framework, no greater purpose in anything. The only thing it promises is a life of perpetual uncertainty.
Don't live the rest of your life in a gloomy tunnel! At least look into the claims of Christianity. Get a Bible and find out for yourself what it says and consider the serious implications for you if its message is true. Say to God, "If you are there, reveal yourself to me." But don't waste your life in perpetual indecision and uncertainty.
I think it was this last group who Stephen Gaukroger had in mind when he said that 'agnosticism was like the Mersey Tunnel - alright to travel through, but a nightmare to live in!' In other words, agnosticism is alright as a point on a journey but making it your life's position is a bad idea.
When people first begin to think seriously about the meaning of life, describing themselves as 'agnostic' may be an honest articulation of the fact that they are no longer closed to the possibility of the existence of God but are still trying to work things out. There are many people, thank God, who moved from atheism to agnosticism and then to wholehearted belief in Jesus Christ. Agnosticism was a point on their journey from unbelief to belief.
But nothing is sadder than those who have got 'stuck' in agnosticism. Militant agnosticism leads nowhere. To continue the travel metaphor, it sits down and refuses to even look at the map. It refuses to consider the possibility that there might be any way out of the tunnel or that there could be anything better out there. It watches other travellers hopefully passing him by, believing they have found a route out. Yes, there is the possibility that they may be wrong but there is also the possibility they might be right. But the one who sits and refuses to even try any of the exits is certain of only one thing - remaining stuck in that tunnel! Agnosticism offers no light to live by, no moral framework, no greater purpose in anything. The only thing it promises is a life of perpetual uncertainty.
Don't live the rest of your life in a gloomy tunnel! At least look into the claims of Christianity. Get a Bible and find out for yourself what it says and consider the serious implications for you if its message is true. Say to God, "If you are there, reveal yourself to me." But don't waste your life in perpetual indecision and uncertainty.
Sunday, 17 May 2015
Bruised reeds and smouldering wicks
In Isaiah it is said of the promised Messiah that:
'The bruised reed he will not break,
And the smouldering wick he will not snuff out' (Isaiah 42:3)
I have found this verse both tremendously comforting at points in my Christian experience and and at others uncomfortably challenging.
Tremedously comforting, because I have been that broken staff and that smouldering wick. I know there have been times when my Christian life has been in such a pitiful state that there was nothing more than a glimmer of faith left. When I came to God, I knew I deserved his condemnation for the way I had neglected my spiritual life, yet he did not reject me and snuff out what had once been but coaxed it back to life.
Our faith ought to be like a strong rope securing us to Christ yet so often it is like faulty yarn that varies from thick to thin and sometimes almost peters out altogether. Yet God is also holding on to us. If you feel your Christian life is only hanging by a thread, flee to Christ because he is gentle and merciful to hopelessly broken sticks and barely smouldering wicks.
The verse becomes uncomfortably challenging, however, when it shines its light on my own attitudes to members of my church family. As people who have been shown so much patience ourselves, we ought to be particularly humble and understanding to our fellow believers, shouldn't we? Yet we can be so quick to criticise, condemn or dismiss those who are not living as they should be, or whose attendance has fallen off or who don't seem to be committed to the work of the church. We judge and condemn instead of trying to get alongside people to encourage them to better things. That is how the Messiah would react. He never gives up on people. If you want a further example of that mindset, think of Paul's dogged commitment to the church in Corinth - a bunch of spiritual lost causes if ever there was one! But Paul, who had seen that church come to life through his own toil and tears, was not going to give up on them while there was even the faintest glimmer of life there. And that is just how we also ought to view the spiritual welfare of our fellow Christians.
We too often view our progress in the Christian life as exclusively a process between us and God, yet the Christian race is unquestionably a team event not an individual pursuit. This key preoccupation of the New Testament writers seems to have been almost forgotten in our day, to our great detriment. Verses like 'Encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching' (Heb 10:25) are not simply there to bring a nice fuzzy warm glow to our churches but because mutual concern and support are critical to completing our Christian race. 'Carry one another's burdens' Paul says in Galatians 6 'and so you will fulfill the law of Christ'. I.e. spurring each other on when the going gets tough and picking each other up when we fall, we will help each other to live the life Christ has called us to.
So when we consider those we know who are not living as they ought, rather than dismissing them or letting them drift away altogether from the faith, let's think how we can lovingly get alongside them, encourage them and influence them to better ways. But as James says, let's do so prayerfully and watchfully, so that we will not fall prey to the same temptation that trapped them. That way we will all cross the finishing line together, as a team and with no team members lost by the wayside.
'The bruised reed he will not break,
And the smouldering wick he will not snuff out' (Isaiah 42:3)
I have found this verse both tremendously comforting at points in my Christian experience and and at others uncomfortably challenging.
Tremedously comforting, because I have been that broken staff and that smouldering wick. I know there have been times when my Christian life has been in such a pitiful state that there was nothing more than a glimmer of faith left. When I came to God, I knew I deserved his condemnation for the way I had neglected my spiritual life, yet he did not reject me and snuff out what had once been but coaxed it back to life.
Our faith ought to be like a strong rope securing us to Christ yet so often it is like faulty yarn that varies from thick to thin and sometimes almost peters out altogether. Yet God is also holding on to us. If you feel your Christian life is only hanging by a thread, flee to Christ because he is gentle and merciful to hopelessly broken sticks and barely smouldering wicks.
The verse becomes uncomfortably challenging, however, when it shines its light on my own attitudes to members of my church family. As people who have been shown so much patience ourselves, we ought to be particularly humble and understanding to our fellow believers, shouldn't we? Yet we can be so quick to criticise, condemn or dismiss those who are not living as they should be, or whose attendance has fallen off or who don't seem to be committed to the work of the church. We judge and condemn instead of trying to get alongside people to encourage them to better things. That is how the Messiah would react. He never gives up on people. If you want a further example of that mindset, think of Paul's dogged commitment to the church in Corinth - a bunch of spiritual lost causes if ever there was one! But Paul, who had seen that church come to life through his own toil and tears, was not going to give up on them while there was even the faintest glimmer of life there. And that is just how we also ought to view the spiritual welfare of our fellow Christians.
We too often view our progress in the Christian life as exclusively a process between us and God, yet the Christian race is unquestionably a team event not an individual pursuit. This key preoccupation of the New Testament writers seems to have been almost forgotten in our day, to our great detriment. Verses like 'Encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching' (Heb 10:25) are not simply there to bring a nice fuzzy warm glow to our churches but because mutual concern and support are critical to completing our Christian race. 'Carry one another's burdens' Paul says in Galatians 6 'and so you will fulfill the law of Christ'. I.e. spurring each other on when the going gets tough and picking each other up when we fall, we will help each other to live the life Christ has called us to.
So when we consider those we know who are not living as they ought, rather than dismissing them or letting them drift away altogether from the faith, let's think how we can lovingly get alongside them, encourage them and influence them to better ways. But as James says, let's do so prayerfully and watchfully, so that we will not fall prey to the same temptation that trapped them. That way we will all cross the finishing line together, as a team and with no team members lost by the wayside.
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