From the Pastor’s Study – 6/16/2024
Recently, a church member emailed me questions prompted by a discussion with a coworker.  What is meant by “means of grace?” What are the means of grace? 
First, I explained what I am certain he already knew.  Grace is unmerited favor or undeserved kindness.  It is the only way a person can be forgiven or have eternal life.  Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin.  (Eph. 2:8, 9)
But in addition to eternal life, grace also has to do with our present life.  In II Corinthians, the Apostle Paul prayed that God would remove a “thorn in the flesh” – evidently some kind of physical suffering he was enduring.  God answered his prayer, but did not provide healing.  Instead, He provided strength to endure.  He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”  (II Cor. 12:9)  The Bible assures Christians that through prayer we can find “grace to help in time of need.”  (Heb. 4:16)  God provides spiritual support when we are tempted, discouraged, grieving, or otherwise spiritually weak.  Like saving grace, this strengthening grace is unearned.  Yet God provides it generously.
But still unanswered is the question about means.  We know what grace is, but how does it come?  Some believe it comes through sacraments.  The Bible indicates that it comes by faith through prayer and the Word of God.  Rites or ordinances prescribed in the Bible, such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper, do not provide grace.  They are instead memorials that illustrate and teach. 
That was the extent of my email reply.  But that is not all the Bible says about grace.  Without muddying the waters or contradicting the idea of God’s grace coming by means of faith through prayer and the Word of God, there is a channel of grace that is often overlooked.  (Again, for clarity, God alone is the source of grace.)
Paul wrote to Christians in the Greek city of Corinth telling them about the grace of God in the lives of believers living in Macedonia.  He said these saints were experiencing a great trial of affliction and deep poverty.  And yet, they were extraordinarily generous.  How could people enduring hardships and privation be at the same time joyfully charitable?  The grace of God was bestowed upon them.  (II Cor. 8:1)  The life-changing operation of God made them something they would not possibly otherwise be.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul likens the change God works in a believer’s life to removing a dirty garment, and putting on a new and clean one.  “Putting away lying, speak every man truth…”  (4:25)  “Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor… that he may have to give…”  (4:28)  More than commands to not do one thing and do something else, these are instructions about what we can be by the grace of God.  God’s grace can change a liar into an honest man.  It can make a greedy, lazy man a hard-working, generous man. 
Another verse says, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”  (4:29)  Notice, God’s grace in a person’s life, making the insulting to be encouraging, brings grace to others.  Someone needing encouragement may receive it through the agency of a Christian whose heart and then his words are changed by God’s grace.  The grace someone needs may come to them from God through you. 
During the Italian campaign in World War II, a combat soldier entered a bombed-out chapel.  There he saw a damaged statue of Jesus with the hands and feet broken off.  He took a moment to try to set it up and restore it, but he failed.  Instead, on the wall over the image of Christ he wrote, “I have no hands but your hands, and no feet but your feet.” 
God gives grace to us: grace that saves, grace that strengthens, and grace that flows into the lives of others. .
Channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power flowing through us, Thou canst use us every day and every hour.

From the Pastor’s Study – 5/12/2024
William McKinley was president of the United States during the Spanish American War, and led the nation out of an economic depression into a season of prosperity.  Still, he is little remembered, except for the tragic fact that early in his second term he was assassinated by an anarchist, and was then succeeded by his very colorful vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.  
McKinley was a devout Christian.  He was raised by a devoted mother who lovingly endeavored to pass along her faith to all nine of her children.  She had a special hope that one day her seventh child, William, would be a Methodist bishop.  When McKinley was elected president, she reportedly responded to the news, “Well, that’s all right too.”
McKinley returned his mother’s devotion.  Before the advent of the telephone, during his time in the White House, McKinley either wrote his mother a letter or sent her a telegram every day. 
In early December, 1897, news reached the president that his mother was desperately ill.  He had better come at once if he hoped to see her before she died.  He immediately sent a message by telegram, “Tell mother I’ll be there.”  McKinley took a swift train from Washington D.C. to his home in Canton, Ohio, arriving in time to be at his mother’s bedside and hold her hand as she passed into heaven.  
A newspaper account of the president’s final telegram to his mother inspired a man named Charles Filmore to pen a poem and then set it music.  Sacred songs about home life and motherhood such as My Mother’s Bible, and Where’s My Wandering Boy were popular at the time.  Occasionally pieces like this were employed in evangelistic campaigns to touch the hearts of the wayward, awakening memories of a loving, godly family.  Filmore thought his composition might be another such song.  That hope was realized when Charles M. Alexander, the song leader for Evangelist R. A. Torrey, employed Filmore’s song in revival meetings.  Alexander wanted a new song that could be sung as an invitation hymn following Torrey’s gospel preaching.  When it was first introduced in a large Sunday afternoon service held specifically for railway workers, the response was dramatic.  The tender musical reminder of a loving Christian mother coupled with a pointed Bible message stirred hundreds of trainmen to seek God’s gift of everlasting life through faith in Christ. 
Once, rather than employing Filmore’s song at the conclusion of the service, Alexander sang it as a solo prior to the sermon.  Before the evangelist could begin preaching, men began to “walk the sawdust trail,” desiring to make a decision for Christ.  The teaching, testimony, and prayers of a Christian mother had done the groundwork.  For many in whose youth the seed of the gospel had already been planted and watered, the message of the song called men to embrace their mother’s faith. 
Charles Alexander said that, Tell Mother I’ll Be There, was used by God in his ministry to bring more men to trust in Christ than any other piece of music.
While there were several verses to the song, the first and final ones, along with the refrain, powerfully convey the message and sentiment.
When I was but a little child, how well I recollect
How I would grieve my mother with my folly and neglect;
And now that she has gone to heav’n I miss her tender care:
O Savior, tell my mother I’ll be there!
One day a message came to me; it bade me quickly come
If I would see my mother ere the Savior took her home;
I promised her, before she died, for heaven to prepare:
O Savior, tell my mother I’ll be there!
Tell Mother I’ll be there, in answer to her prayer;
This message, blessed Savior, to her bear!
Tell Mother I’ll be there, heav’n’s joys with her to share;
Yes, tell my darling mother I’ll be there.

From the Pastor’s Study: 9/29/2024
While Grover Cleveland is not remembered as one of America’s great presidents, there are a couple of distinctions that make him unique among the forty-five men to serve as the country’s chief executive.  Most notably, Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve non-consecutive terms.  Four years after he lost his re-election bid to Benjamin Harrison, he ran again and returned to the White House to serve a second term.
Another less important, yet interesting fact about Grover Cleveland is that he did not serve in the military.  Many presidents have no military record.  However, Cleveland’s experience is unusual.  His four immediate predecessors in the White House each had distinguished army service during the Civil War.  However, although he was of age, Grover Cleveland elected to not serve during the conflict.  It was not that he did not volunteer.  He was, in fact, drafted.  But he hired a substitute to take his place.  According to the Conscription Act of 1863, an able-bodied man called upon to serve could, for $150 (about $4000 today) hire a replacement.  A 33-year-old immigrant from Poland named George Bemminsky served in Cleveland’s place.  Bemminsky survived the war.
As strange as the idea of hiring a substitute for military service may seem today, over a century ago, it was common practice – and not just in the United States.  During the Napoleonic war between England and France in the early 1800’s, French men were conscripted into the army by a lottery system.  But if a man’s name was drawn, he could exempt himself from service if he could find a replacement.
One unusual incident involved a French conscript who refused to report for service when his name was drawn.  He insisted that he had been shot and killed in battle two years prior.  Of course, the claim seemed absurd.  Initially the man’s sanity was questioned.  However, he insisted that it was indeed the case.  He demanded that military records be examined.  They would show that he had been drafted before and had been killed in action.  “How is this possible?” authorities questioned.  “You are alive now.”  The man explained that when his name was drawn, a close friend stepped forward and volunteered to go in his place.  The man who was drafted had a large family, while his friend had no dependents.  So, his friend volunteered to go as a substitute.  This expression of generosity was magnified when the substitute was killed in combat.  When the records were reviewed, they confirmed the man’s story.  Because there was no record of the man himself serving, he was being conscripted.  But upon review the government determined there was no legal claim that could be made on him.  He was free.  Had had served – and had died in the person of another.
Although I did not attend church or Sunday School, as a boy I recall hearing about Jesus dying on a cross.  “Christ died for our sins.”  What did that mean?  After all, everyone dies, I wondered.  And crucifixion was not a form of death that Jesus alone experienced.  What made Jesus’ death so important?  Later, as a teenager, someone gave me a gospel tract – a brief religious pamphlet – that explained to me that Jesus was sinless, and yet died as a substitute for sinners.  “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities… the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  (Is. 53:5, 6)  Christ “was delivered for our offenses.”  (Rom. 4:25)  “For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin…”  (II Cor. 5:21)  The Son of God, Jesus Christ, willingly died as a substitute.  He endured the just punishment each of us deserves as guilty before God.  In so doing, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.  Three days later God confirmed the identity of Jesus and the value of His substitutionary death by raising Him from the dead.
The law of God, which demands the ultimate punishment for sin, now has no claim on anyone who trusts in Christ.  They are free from the law of sin and death.  (Rom. 8:2)  They died already, two thousand years ago, in the person of another – Jesus Christ. 

From the Pastor’s Study: 11/17/24
At the close of a recent church service a teenager told me, “I had a hard time staying awake while you were preaching.”  I did not tell him that I knew that already.  Few realize that the pastor on the platform sees the passing notes, the fixation on the cell phone, and the drooping heads. 
Of course, every pastor would rather hear from church members that they found the message timely and helpful.  But sometimes the truth is otherwise.  Sometimes the sermon preached fails to have its intended effect.  Sometimes this happens because people are sleeping rather than listening.
In the Book of Acts a young man named Eutychus dozed off while the apostle Paul was “long in preaching.”  I once heard an evangelist call Eutychus the patron saint of all who sleep in church.  This young man was sitting in a high window during the preaching service, the room evidently being filled to capacity.  When he “sunk down with sleep,” he fell to his death.  Happily, the Lord enabled the apostle to miraculously restore him back to life.  And no, the account of Eutychus is not intended to warn the drowsy that falling asleep in church could be fatal!  However, there are lessons about sleeping in church all Christians should learn.
First, faulting a listener for slumbering during a sermon is not always fair.  In truth, in any congregation there are going to be a few people who are indifferent and perhaps even hostile to the message.  But the Lord did not call preachers to proclaim the gospel only to the sympathetic and interested.  It is the responsibility of the preacher to gain and maintain the attention of everyone. 
Sometimes a preacher communicates, without intending to, that his sermon is not worthy of attention.  A monotone, emotionless lecture may seem to the congregation no different than a dry high school algebra lesson that painfully taxed the capacity to concentrate.  William Quayle, a Methodist preacher from the early 20th century, with a touch of overstatement, wrote, “The sin of being uninteresting is in a preacher an exceedingly mortal sin.  It hath no forgiveness.”  A preacher must faithfully preach the whole counsel of God.  But he needs to preach it as it is – God’s counsel.  He should preach with conviction, fervency, and authority.  The word “preach” means “to declare like a herald.”  The Christian preacher is delivering a “hear ye, hear ye” declaration from the King of kings.  His delivery should permit no mistake on the part of listeners that what is being preached is vitally important and is deserving – demanding of attention.  
There also needs to be a measure of sympathy.  Do not automatically assume the worst.  For some elderly people, sitting still and staying awake for any length of time is difficult.  It may be that the sleepy congregant worked late, or their night’s sleep was disrupted by a crying infant.  It could be that they are genuinely tired, yet they still made the effort to attend church.  Their drowsiness may be testimony, not to indifference, but to faithfulness.
Second, of course, there is the unpleasant reality that some are sleeping in church because they lack an appropriate care for the things of God and their own souls.  They are apathetic to matters of eternal significance, and so easily – and some quite deliberately – give way to dozing off. 
An elderly pastor was reminiscing to a group of seminarians about times of revival he had witnessed in his early years.  One aspiring young preacher asked him, “Where are the great pulpiteers such as there were in bygone days?”  The aged preacher replied that he thought there were still such preachers.  “What is missing are the great congregations.”
Surely, every pastor should aspire to faithfully, fervently, and effectively proclaim the word of God.  But each congregation and each church member should also endeavor to be ready listeners, eager to hear from heaven when God’s man stands on the Lord’s Day to preach.  Listen attentively, expectantly, reverently, responsively.  
“Take heed therefore how ye hear…”  (Lk. 8:18)  “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  (Mt. 11:15)

From the Pastor’s Study: 10/20/24
The recent death of Pete Rose has rekindled a decades-old debate about his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  “Charlie Hustle” was indisputably one of the greatest baseball players of all time.  Some argue that he was the greatest.  However, despite being named an All Star seventeen times and holding the MLB record for number of career hits, in 1991 Rose was declared permanently ineligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The reason?  Rose gambled on baseball games while he was a player and a manager.  He was accused of betting on games in which his own team was playing.  If a gambler can influence the outcome of games on which he is betting, the integrity of the game is forfeit.  This is why for most of the history of American professional sports, even the most remote connection with gambling was strictly prohibited. 
That changed in 2018.  Before then, not only did professional sports leagues ban any relation with gambling, but sports betting was also against the law in every state.  Now most states have legalized it.  Broadcast networks and professional sports welcome gaming advertising as a major source of revenue.  In 2024, an anticipated thirty-five billion (with a B) dollars will be bet on NFL games alone.  What was once universally viewed as a harmful vice is now widely accepted as harmless entertainment.  But is it?
Recently UCLA and the University of Southern California published a research paper on the effects of sports gaming on roughly seven million Americans.  The study showed that in states allowing sports betting, the average credit score has fallen three times the average of the score in states that do not permit it.  Since most people do not gamble, this represents enormous economic harm to individuals that do, sinking the overall average.  The study also showed a marked increase in bankruptcy filing rates, debt collection, and debt consolidation loan costs.  In states that legalized sports betting, automobile loan delinquencies rose nine percent.  This study revealed a clear correlation between gambling and financial damage.
Gambling was once commonly seen as destructive, fostering debt, family dysfunction, and crime.  This understanding has been largely lost.  Most Christians used to recognized that gambling violates biblical principles, but no more.  There needs to be a reminder.
Gambling contradicts the biblical work ethic.  The Scripture identifies two legitimate means of obtaining wealth: inheritance (Pro. 13:22; 19:14), and honest labor (Pro. 10:4: 12:11; 14:23).  When an individual seeks to get rich by circumventing these means, he is seeking something outside the will of God.
Gambling contradicts prohibitions against greed and covetousness.  It is important to understand the three elements in the gambling equation: First, the betting of money or valuables.  Second, the determination of winning by chance or uncertain events.  Third, winners profit at the expense of losers (unlike commerce or business in which both parties gain in a transaction).  The tenth commandment forbids coveting what is rightfully another’s.  (Ex. 20:17)  The Bible warns that those who aspire to get rich quick fall into a trap that brings ruin and sorrow.  (I Tim. 6:6-10)  
Gambling contradicts the truth that God is in control.  Gamblers imagine that outcomes are the result of luck, or good fortune.  It is atheistic to assume that there is no God governing in the affairs of men.  (I Chron. 29:11, 12; Pro. 16:33)
There are several definitions for the word, hustle.  One is, energetic action.  This is where Pete Rose got his nickname.  He played baseball with great intensity.  Another definition of hustle is, a fraud or swindle.  We will never know whether Pete Rose cheated while he played or managed to win at gambling.  What we do know is, like most who gamble, Rose defrauded himself.  His gambling cost him the great honor of enshrinement in Cooperstown.  Gambling lies by promising pleasure and riches when most often it delivers poverty and sadness.  Apparently, Charlie Hustle was a good nickname either way.

From the Pastor’s Study – 2/18/24
Baseball used to be called the “Great American pastime.”  More than a game or a diversion, it was (and to a certain degree remains) a part of the American ethos.  Baseball has been distinguished by characters so colorful that some were given stylish nicknames like “Joltin’ Joe,” “The Splendid Splinter” and “the Say Hey Kid.”  New York Yankee home run hitter George Ruth was so large in the minds of Americans that one nickname alone was insufficient.  He was “Babe,” “the Great Bambino,” “the Sultan of Swat,” etc. 
There have been single moments in baseball so dramatic that they have attained a legendary status and have been given titles all their own.  “Babe’s called shot;” Willie Mays’ “The Catch;” “The shot heard ‘round the world.” 
But baseball is not just characterized by heroes and heroic plays.  It has also been marked by heartbreaking blunders. 
In game six of the 1986 World Series, the Boston Red Sox hoped to end a seven-decade-long championship draught.  With two out in the ninth inning, a slow rolling ground ball went between the legs of veteran infielder Bill Buckner, allowing the Mets to score the winning run.  Boston lost the next game and the series.  For this one error, in spite of the fact that he had a stellar career, Buckner was mercilessly heckled by fans.  He actually sought out psychological counseling to help deal with the depression it brought him.  
Fred Merkle was only nineteen when he played first base for the 1908 New York Giants.  In the final game of the season, Merkle made a baserunning error that allowed the Chicago Cubs to win not only the game but the National League pennant instead of the Giants.  When Merkle died a half century later, the headline in the newspaper obituary highlighted his mistake.
It is not players alone who are guilty of legendary errors.  Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had retired 26 straight.  The 27th Cleveland batter hit a grounder to first baseman Miguel Cabrera who fielded the ball easily.  He then flipped the ball to Galarraga who ran to cover first.  He beat the runner by half a step.  But umpire Jim Joyce called the runner safe.  Players and coaches argued the call.  Television replay showed clearly that the runner was out.  But the call on the field stood.  After the game Joyce tearfully apologized for the bad call.  He even contacted the commission’s office to ask that the call be reversed.  No avail.  Although generally regarded as a fine umpire, Joyce is most remembered for his imperfect call ending an otherwise perfect game.
A popular motion picture fancifully and inaccurately likened baseball to heaven.  But in this one respect there is a similarity between heaven and baseball.  Our errors or sins are part of heaven’s story – its wonder.  Heaven is not a Hall of Fame for the good and obedient.  It is home for sinners saved by grace. 
The apostle Paul made clear that his hope of heaven was not in any way founded on his goodness or his service as an apostle.  He owned himself a “chief” or foremost sinner for whom Jesus Christ died to purchase his pardon.  (I Tim. 1:15)
John Newton could be in a Christian Hall of Fame, if there was one.  He was a preacher, and the author of the best-known Christian hymn, Amazing Grace.  While walking down the street as an elderly man, an approaching friend asked how he was.  Newton famously replied, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.”  Newton recalled what mattered – not his own virtue, but rather his sin and the Son of God.
Heaven is a place of seeming contradiction and beautiful irony.  How?  In heaven there will be no regret, no remorse, no guilt, no shame.  Yet at the same time, heaven will be populated by individuals keenly aware that they are forgiven, clothed in righteousness not their own.  It will be a great assembly of unworthy sinners who for all eternity will acclaim the mercy, love, and grace of their great God and Savior Who promised, “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”  (Heb. 8:12)  

From the Pastor’s Study – 1/21/24
“Women and children first” is an expression representing a code of conduct prioritizing the protection of women and children in a life-threatening circumstance.  It is primarily associated with the sinking of a ship when space in life boats is limited.  When a British troop ship, the HMS Birkenhead, sank in 1852, this code was famously employed.  From that incident came the name for which it is sometimes known – “the Birkenhead drill.”
This ethic is also memorably associated with the sinking of the Titanic.  The “unsinkable” ocean liner struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic on the night of April 15, 1912, and went down in less than three hours.  The captain ordered “Put the women and children in the lifeboats, and lower away!”  1500 passengers and crew died in the catastrophe, the overwhelming majority of whom were men.
While the story of the Titanic is one of disaster, it is also a story of great heroism and of great faith.  Numbered among those who drowned in the tragedy was a Scottish Baptist evangelist named John Harper.  Harper was traveling aboard the Titanic on its maiden voyage to America in order to fulfill a preaching engagement at Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church.   After the liner struck the iceberg and began to sink, Harper, a widower, wrapped his six-year-old daughter, who was traveling with him, in a blanket.  He then carried her up on deck and made certain she was placed safely in a life boat.  Then he employed a unique approach to the Birkenhead drill.  In addition to remaining on the doomed vessel himself, a survivor later recounted how Harper moved about the deck urging, “Women, children, and unsaved people into the lifeboats!”  He also spoke with urgency to individuals still on the ship to turn in faith to Jesus Christ while they could.  Upon hearing Harper’s appeal, one man replied that he had no interest in religion.  Harper removed his life vest and gave it to the man who did not have one.  “You need this more than I do.”  It was John Harper who called upon the on-board orchestra to play the hymn, Nearer My God to Thee, as the ship gradually sank.
Four years after the sinking of the Titanic, a memorial service was held for survivors in Hamilton, Ontario.  There, a young man named Aguilla Webb told a story that was later widely published in a gospel pamphlet entitled, “I was John Harper’s Last Convert.”  While struggling for life in the frigid waters, Webb heard a voice calling out of the dark, “Is your soul saved?”  “No,” he shouted back.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” came the reply.  The appeal was heard several times in the succeeding minutes.  Webb testified that in that hour of desperation he called on the Lord Jesus Christ to save his sinful soul.  Of those not in lifeboats, only six others besides Webb were pulled from the deadly waters to survive.  Webb insisted that his deliverance was providential.  He was spared to tell the story of a heroic servant of God telling others of Jesus in the very hour of death.  
Over the decades, several motion pictures about the sinking of the Titanic have been made.  Unfortunately, none memorialize the faithful witness of John Harper.  However, the Scottish evangelist is not forgotten.  There is a room in the Moody Memorial Church named Harper Hall.  In 1921, a church in Glasgow, Scotland adopted the name Harper Memorial Baptist Church.  The church still exists, and still preaches the gospel.  A few years ago, a surviving letter written by John Harper on Titanic stationery sold at auction to a collector for $50,000.  But it was the letterhead rather than the writer and his signature that brought the high price.
The true memorial to John Harper’s heroics is his abiding testimony, and the souls he won to Christ.  “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” (Dan. 12:3) 

January 29, 2014
“He being dead yet speaketh” (Heb. 11:4)
Recently a photo-copied page from a book published in 1896 was sent to me by the great-granddaughter of Sheldon Ashley. The brief paragraphs on this page gave some fascinating details about the life of a man whose continuing legacy impacts all of us who are a part of Ashley Baptist Church. Alanson Sheldon Ashley was born on October 30, 1806 in Richmond, New York. (Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States at that time.) In his late thirties, driven by the pioneer spirit that was prevalent in our nation at the time, Ashley came to Michigan. He purchased 640 acres in northeast Kent County, in what became the township called Oakfield. The area at that time was an unbroken wilderness covered with thick growing oak and hickory trees. He cleared and cultivated forty acres. He eventually gave this farm to his children.
At the age of 75, Ashley moved on from Michigan to the Dakota Territory to pioneer this new land. He died the following year. There are two things about Ashley that stand out. First, he was a man of strong constitution and indomitable will. He lived what Theodore Roosevelt would have called “the strenuous life.” He was one of thousands of courageous pioneers who carved this great country out of an untamed wilderness. He helped settle the rough country of west Michigan with his rifle, axe, and plow. As an elderly man, he did not retire to a life of ease but ventured further west to attempt to repeat in the Dakota badlands what he accomplished in Michigan. As the old saying goes, “he died in the saddle.” Second, and certainly more significant, Ashley was a committed Christian. He was converted to Christ at 25 and united with the Baptist church in Richmond, New York. When he came to west Michigan, he was instrumental in organizing the First Baptist Church and Society of Oakfield. He served the church as a deacon. He donated the land and contributed generously to the construction of the edifice that stood as the church’s home until 2003. The record states, “Never seeming discouraged, he worked with untiring and fervent devotion for the Master’s cause, and his great loving heart reached out to all his fellow beings, and he fain would have brought them all into the fold.”
Sheldon Ashley was not a pastor or evangelist. He was a farmer by occupation, but he recognized, as all Christians should, that his true calling was to love the Lord Who saved him and serve him without reservation. The record of Ashley’s life concludes, “His oft repeated prayers, his timely words, his noble deeds are all written in the recording angel’s book of life, and, although his lips are silent, he yet speaketh.” Now, over a century since his death, each Lord’s Day as the gospel is preached here at the church that was renamed in his honor, “he yet speaketh.” May God use the memory and legacy of this simple, noble man of God, Alanson Sheldon Ashley, to challenge us to live our lives as he did: to the glory of God and the good of others.