| The story of the Puritan Revival is that of England itself in the most
heroic period of her history. It is the story of her great uncrowned king,
Oliver Cromwell; of an earnest and sustained endeavour to found the government
of this realm upon the deep, broad base of the Eternal Righteous-ness; of
a time when, in the glowing language of Baxter, "England was like to
become a land of saints, a pattern of holiness to the world, and the unmatchable
paradise of the earth." And it is all this because it is the story
of the English Bible. The real beginnings of Puritanism are seen in London,
when, as the fruit of the sacrificial labours of Tyndale and his brethren,
the Book of God was at last given to the people in their own tongue. The
first six Bibles were set up in the nave of st Paul's, and day after day
crowds flocked to the edifice to drink from the living stream. Good readers
were in great request, and one of these stands out vividly in the page of
the historian, John Porter, a fresh young man, big of stature, to whom the
multitude resorted, "because he could read well and had an audible
voice." Soon that glad and solemn scene was repeated throughout the
whole land, for in every Parish Church the Bible was displayed, chained
in the porch, and, as in the days of Nehemiah, men listened with streaming
eyes to the words of the Book.
But the Book did not remain in the porch. In the form of the small Genevan
version, it entered the homes of the people, and there it was deeply, prayerfully
pondered. It is well that it was so, for the clergy of that day, ere the
Puritan fire reached the pulpit, were faithless shepherds and in many cases
grossly immoral. In Baxter's parish, the vicar, an old blind man, holding
two livings twenty miles apart, never preached at all, but repeated the
prayers by heart (and without heart!) being assisted latterly by his son,
the best stage player and gamester in the country round. Sunday was a day
of revelry. The Morris dancers, in their fantastic dress, entered the church,
gave careless heed to the mumbled devotions, then ran out to play. But,
quietly and surely, the Bible did its Divine work in the homes of the people.
Everywhere men and women, as they read, were awakened and converted.These
converts of the pure Word were marked at once as a peculiar people. A deep
sense of the Holy Majesty of God possessed them. An ineffable light seemed
to spring from the Book and invest them. The awful purity of God, contrasting
with the foul world around them, almost over-whelmed their spirit. It entered
into them and filled them with a tremendous earnestness of moral purpose.
No wonder they appeared to their neighbours as inhabitants of another sphere.
Men tried to find a name for them, and as often before and since, the nickname
they invented stuck fast. They called them Puritans.
In other days Puritanism might have held on in its quiet channels, vitalising
the nation by a gently pervasive influence. But the course of events brought
it into a great and terrible pro-minence. Because of the decisive part it
played in the Civil War, we are apt to think of it as essentially stern
and warlike; but, in truth, Puritanism found its strength in a quiet and
peaceable people. They suffered long and patiently under the cruel tyranny
of the Stuarts. Rather than lift the sword against their unworthy rulers,
a multitude sought refuge in the New World, and, battling with Nature's
grim but honest powers, built up a free and righteous state. In the course
of some ten years, 20, 000 of the best of England's race crossed the Atlantic,
and the great American Commonwealth is the direct outcome of the Puritan
awakening. From the days of the Pilgrim Fathers America has been the Home
of Revival, and there the living waters have again and again appeared to
diffuse a world-wide blessing.
In England itself a strange and wonderful time followed the triumph of Cromwell
and the Puritan host. By the Solemn League and Covenant, the nation bound
itself to God in holy obedience. The Bible was placed on the table of the
House of Commons and recognised as the fount of its laws, the inspiration
of its life. Vital godliness became the indispensable qualification for
public office. Swearing, drunkenness, and impurity were criminal offences.
Every theatre in the land was closed. England became a refuge of the oppressed,
the tower and strength of Protestantism in Europe. It never stood higher
among the nations than in the days of Cromwell's Protectorate.
These were the days of the great Puritan preachers of Owen, Howe, Baxter,
Goodwin, and the immortal Bunyan, whose works have enriched every generation
of preachers since, and whose pastoral devotion has never been surpassed.
In a brief account of one of these we may taste the quality of a Puritan
minister and feel the power of the Puritan Fire. When Richard Baxter went
to Kidderminster it had a population of about 3000, shrewd, hard-headed
weavers, who worked diligently and lived in considerable comfort. Their
vicar was a weak, incompetent man who preached but once a quarter, and then
so foolishly that he roused only the laughter of his audience, while his
curate was a common drunkard seldom out of the alehouse, and ignorant even
of the Children's Catechism. The people, thus neglected, abode in deep spiritual
darkness, ignorant, wild, and ungodly.
When Baxter settled amongst them they gave him a rough reception, but the
utterly selfless spirit of the man soon secured their respect. His was one
of the finest intellects of the time. He was a master of mathematics, physics,
and medicine. But the whole mass of his knowledge, the whole being of the
man, were aglow with the love of God and of his fellows. His whole energy
flowed in one channel; he was always and every where a soul-winner. He preached
with passionate earnestness, and ever, he tells us, "as a dying man
to dying men." Soon the large church was filled to overflowing, and
gallery after gallery had to be added, to the number of five.
How often is the pastor lost in the preacher! Baxter felt that his work
was but half done when he had studiously prepared and forcefully preached
his sermon. He must come into vital, personal, individual touch with his
people, and so he invented his own method of catechising. He arranged that
every family in his parish should come to his house, one by one, and with
each family he spent an hour. Then he took each member apart, and urgently,
tenderly besought him to make immediate decision for Christ. Seldom did
a family leave Baxter's door without tears. The fruit of this labour was
most precious, and filled the faithful minister's heart with an overflowing
joy. Fully a third of the older inhabitants were converted, and the young
received a great blessing. Family worship was set up in almost every home,
and as one passed through the streets, the songs of Zion might be heard
resounding from every quarter. Kidder-minster became a "colony of Heaven"
in the days of the Puritans. The blessing spread to the country around.
The neighbouring ministers especially felt the Heavenly influence, and Baxter
became a shepherd of shepherds to his brethren. "The Reformed Pastor,"
that great Puritan homiletic, contains the gist of his instructions, and
it has inspired and directed some of the noblest ministries of modern times.
This book and his "Call fo the Unconverted," with "The Saints'
Everlasting Rest," are his abiding legacy to the Church. |