Wise Counsel: John Newton's Letters to John Ryland Jr.
ISBN: 9781848710535John Newton (1725-1807) has rightly been called 'the letter-writer par excellence of the Evangelical Revival'. Newton himself seems to have come to the conclusion, albeit reluctantly, that letter-writing was his greatest gift. In a letter to a friend he confessed, 'I rather reckoned upon doing more good by some of my other works than by my 'Letters', which I wrote without study, or any public design; but the Lord said, 'You shall be most useful by them,' and I learned to say, 'Thy will be done! Use me as Thou pleasest, only make me useful.' Indeed, he wrote to his close friend William Bull that if the letters were 'owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering, I may rejoice in the honour He has done me', and not envy the greatest writers of the age.
All but ten of the letters in the present volume have been brought out of undeserved obscurity by Dr Grant Gordon, whose researches in libraries and archives, as well as in little-known nineteenth-century periodicals, have uncovered much material which is certainly calculated to comfort, quicken, and confirm. Of those already in print, one letter is in volume 1 of the Trust's six-volume edition of Newton's Works, and nine more are in volume 2. Three of the nine are also in the Trust's Letters of John Newton, edited by Josiah Bull. The rest should be new to almost all readers.
The particular recipient of Newton's 'wise counsel' in this book was John Ryland, Jr. (1753-1825), Baptist pastor and educator, and close friend of Andrew Fuller, William Carey, and all the pioneers of the modern missionary movement. But in the background stand all the major figures of the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. A list of Newton's friends and correspondents would, in fact, read like a 'who's who' of the Revival. And forming the wider background is a very eventful period of history, from the American Revolution to the French Revolutionary Wars, by way of the colonization of Australia, the first missions to India, and the abolition of the slave trade. Dr Gordon has helpfully set the letters in the context of these events and provided useful background detail.
The reader will discover afresh in these letters, not only mature and wise counsel, but a wholesome emphasis on true Christian experience, a great breadth of Christian sympathy, and a strong confidence in the power of the grace of God, for, as Newton said, 'Grace has long and strong arms!'.
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Author: John Newton lived a tumultuous life on land and sea. His faith-filled mother died when he was a young boy and his sea captain father began taking him on voyages when he was just eleven. For the next two decades, he endured the rigorous life of a sailor. He ultimately deserted that life before the mast, but was captured, press-ganged onto a navy ship and flogged. He then joined the slave traffic industry and suffered a stroke. During a tremendous storm at sea, though, his divine purpose rose up and he recognized his need for the "Almighty Saviour." He began working as a tide-surveyor, where he heard great evangelists speak and he turned to preaching. Letters of John Newton have been published, and The Works of John Newton is available as a four-volume set. Other John Newton books include Jewels from John Newton, Select Letters of John Newton and more. Endorsement: 'Some books are for tasting regularly, not reading through once. One such book is Wise Counsel. Newton was the former slave-trader turned pastor, and the author of Amazing Grace. The flavor of his ministry is such that frequent tastes are better than rare gulps.'
--JOHN PIPER
Additional Information:
| Cover: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 411 |
| Publisher: | Banner of Truth Trust |
| Publication Date: | 2011 |