International Tract Distribution Day (6) 

Report

My wife and I agreed that my exercise to "tract" a number of blocks of flats was the seizing of a favourable opportunity. We used to deliver tracts and calendars to these flats some years ago. But with a number of changes in circumstances we had prioritised delivering to roads and streets nearer home.

The only difficulty we envisaged was being able to access the buildings with their sensible security precautions. We left it with the Lord and He opened every door!

The 200 Via Magazines were all used and we felt quite a sense of success in giving a large number of people the opportunity to read the Gospel articles in the magazine so near to the Easter celebrations. If you, dear brethren and sisters in Christ, would pray that these Gospel messages may be used by the Holy Spirit to reach the hearts of many perishing souls to the glory of God and the joy and satisfaction of the Lord Jesus we would be eternally grateful.

If you have any "reports" connected with the I.T.D.D. I would love to hear from you. 

In Him, Tom.

Email Address: tw007q5184@blueyonder.co.uk   

 (6th) International Tract Distribution Day 2022

              18 APRIL 2022   

Dear brethren and sisters in Christ,

As we did last year we are nominating 18th April 2022 as the "International Tract Distribution Day", if the Lord will. This would be the sixth consecutive year despite the various "lockdowns" that were in place during the years 2020 and 2221. Many contributed to this brief ministry, with care and consideration, acting responsibly at those times. ITDD falls on a Monday this year and we hope this will be convenient for many of the Lords' people to engage in this humble service for Him. It is a simple exercise, but we believe it to be significant under the good hand of God.

Personally, I use "Via Magazine" for distribution, and I would thoroughly recommend it. It is replete with the Gospel message, and practical in that it is both undated, and being more sturdy than a tract, it is easier to "post" through those stiff letterboxes that trap your fingers and scrape your knuckles! 

We just lovingly ask for every believer who is physically able, to distribute in any way, by hand, through the letterbox, even by mailing, just ONE Gospel Tract, booklet, magazine, etc. Of course, if you are able to make more available on that day, there is no limit!

The purpose is to "flood" the whole world, on that particular day with the "Words of life" in printed form. The response last year and the previous year during the pandemic remains unknown here in this scene, only eternity will reveal what was accomplished for our lovely Saviour. I must add that we long that He will be glorified, indeed that ALL the glory might be His alone as we make His claims upon the souls of men.

Please may we ask one more thing of you dear saints? Please announce this date in your Assembly giving time for the brethren and sisters to perhaps prepare for it, especially in their prayers; and please announce it nearer the time too, if it is the Lords' will.

Please give us "feedback" if you find the time and are able; it has proved such an encouragement to every one of the Lords' servants in the past.

Thank you to everyone who participated last year, and thank you in advance if you are already burdened to engage in this little venture for Him again this year.

With warmest affection and love in Him,  Tom.

Tom Wyatt

Bristol U.K.

Doors Shut and Lamps Put Out

(2 Chronicles 29: verse 7, principally.)

"And they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered up burnt offerings in the sanctuary to...God."   2 Chronicles 29:7.

While I readily acknowledge that this scripture is addressed to a faithless Israel, and such must be the interpretation, it is my contention that the application of the above expression befits the present condition of the Christian testimony, both generally, and especially among those who "gather to the Name of the Lord Jesus alone."

I hurriedly own to that my knowledge of these things is limited in the main to W.S. England and Wales; but not without information from a good number of other countries including the U.S.A. and Canada, countries in Europe and other continents. What I have learned is sufficient to suggest the picture in my own locality is mirrored all over the world.

But what really distresses me is how many of the "Denominations" put us to shame; locking down later, or indeed not at all! They have opened their doors much sooner too. While many Assembly buildings remain shut temporarily? still, and others have closed down permanently. Our doors have been shut to fellow believers and a desperate world with hearts failing for fear. The light of our testimonies for the Lord has been extinguished. Our worship of, for, and to Him has been "adapted" to accommodate so-called legislation, such legislation as deemed "unlawful." Worse still, many Assemblies have adopted different "patterns" of practice in regard to the "Lord's Supper," even contending that "there is no pattern;" others have just simply ceased from the remembrance of the Saviour/Redeemer, altogether!

Now it is alleged that the use of"Zoom," and similar social platforms designed by this world, is "the Lord's will!" So we may lounge around at home, with no need for care as to how we dress or conduct ourselves during the "meetings." Furthermore, this should be the "pattern" of "gathering" from now on!  

For nigh on two years, we have barred perishing sinners from our places of witness, shutting the doors and putting out the lamps of that testimony. Numerous companies of saints have been scattered abroad due to the closure of those collective testimonies; while countless "seekers" have been unable to "find."

Unless we humble ourselves and own our abject failure before the Lord, where will this all end? What hope is there for revival in the hearts of individual saints, and entire companies of the Lord's people? It appears to be "very little." But we each have the responsibility to "keep His Word and not deny His Name." May the Holy Spirit write it large and indelibly on our hearts, for the glory of the Lord. 

A Personal Request 

On Wednesday 26th January I am to undergo a cataract operation if the Lord will, and although this is generally a routine operation, my cataract is very dense, and I am completely blind in my right eye. I need to be operated on by a Specialist Surgeon, as the operation is said to be "complex." I am trusting that the Lord will undertake for me, but feel happy to ask for His peoples' prayers as well.

Thank you in anticipation of your affection in Christ for one of His own. I hope to update you when I am able as my sight will be affected for one to three weeks apparently. Again all this is "if He will."

No Assembly Testimony 

I have searched quite extensively to discover whether there has ever been a Brethren Assembly in the Kingswood area of Bristol where I have lived for over thirty years. I had known the area for a good number of years before actually residing here, and never remember any suggestion of the formation of an Assembly. Indeed back in the 1970s, I preached in the open-air in this area and the surrounding districts. In that decade there were only two Kelly/Lowe "Exclusive" companies in Bristol, one in Bishopsworth and the other in the Staple Hill area. The same Assemblies continued into the eighties. Eighteen "Open" Assemblies are listed in 1951 and by 1959 the number recorded had increased to 23. None of the lists that I have been able to obtain have any reference to a Brethren Assembly testimony in Kingswood. I realise that the Assembly in Redfield, namely Milton Park Gospel Hall was a reasonable distance for believers to make their way there on foot, provided one lived at the nearer end of the Kingswood area. But most, if not all the other Meetings were too far to walk especially if there were children in their families; and bearing in mind that far fewer had cars in those days.

I also appreciate that Kingswood was a Methodist/Wesleyan stronghold from the i8th Century; those dearly honoured servants of the Lord having faithfully preached the Gospel with Holy Spirit effectiveness. Tragically these congregations are much depleted in number and far, far from the original teaching and practice of those long departed saints. but still no Assembly has ever been formed here.

It has an exercise laid upon my heart for many years, and now with the Covid pandemic causing the surrender of so many testimonies, individually and collectively, it lies yet more grievously there as an awful burden.

I am truly grateful to God for the fellowship enjoyed with Him, the Father, and with His lovely Son; and for the divine provision for the "twos and threes" gathered to the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, alone.

 

An Item of Brethren History

A Bookseller with over two million titles, I believe, contacted me by email this week. I was offered a personal invitation to attend a meeting to consider investment in the company. To my knowledge, I only ever purchased one book from them online and visited their physical outlet maybe twice some years ago, visits which would not be recorded.

I have no interest in any kind of investment and NO MONEY to invest: a really excellent client, I don't think!

But ignoring the invite, I decided to travel to the site to see if their warehouse was significantly better than the last time I visited. It was worse! Presumably, the reason why someone like myself would receive such an invite, a bolt out of the blue.

My wife drove me there and exercised considerable patience as I searched vainly for something, anything of interest. I found three or four books written by Brethren, all of which I already possessed and mine in significantly better condition. As a last resort, I went into a room where there was a collection of "antique, rare, and collectible" books. It basically meant that they were old!

But I did not come away completely fruitless. I found and purchased a book of bound magazines entitled "Wells and Pastures;" with a subtitle, "Wells of Salvation and Pastures of Satisfaction. For Old and Young." Vol. 11. But most interestingly it bore a comprehensive inscription:

Victoria Hall Sunday School 

Queen St. Exeter.

Presented by Mr. Heyman Wreyford

I am omitting the rest of the inscription apart from the date of this Sunday School reward, save for the date: 1891.

A very brief perusal afforded me a precious poem simply entitled: "A Question." The poem was attributed to A.M. (Perhaps Andrew Miller, but I have no evidence to support this suggestion.)  

Darwin and Lady Hope 

On seeing the above book title I was intrigued enough to purchase a copy. As far back as the 1990's I had read a review of another book, this one co-authored by two American writers wherein they outlined their personal understanding of the deathbed scene of Charles Darwin. They were thoroughly convinced that his recantation and his rejection of the "theory of evolution" he had so vigorously promoted and espoused was factual.  

L.R. Croft, the author of the above book was even more convinced that Darwin's deathbed revelation as recorded by Elizabeth Lady Hope was absolutely true. Researching the historical facts and sifting the truth from the various fabrications took him, it seems about twenty or so years. 

It appears to be an almost obsessional crusade for him to exonerate a virtuous Victorian lady, as she certainly was much vilified by Darwin's family and advocates; even to be hounded from England to find refuge in the United States. Croft felt that she had been the victim of awful character assassination and wanted to redress the balance.

His carefully acquired research material is relevant to the facts and appears to be painstaking, accurate, and its results clearly and objectively reasoned. His evidence is compelling. He is a sincere believer in the Lord Jesus, and on this basis alone he is to be believed. I am greatly convinced by his arguments. 

Its fascination for me lies in the various connections with some prominent believers among "Brethren." Reference is made to Sir Robert Anderson, J.W.C. Fegan, and P.H. Gosse. But the greatest intrigue of all is the revelation that Darwin had a Gospel Hall at the bottom of his garden! It was on the edge of his estate and was previously a reading room for the villagers. Darwin gave it to the young energetic believer J.W.C. Fegan whom he admired. The room became known as the Gospel Room, and subsequently as the Downe Gospel Hall!

Now as to the book in a general way. It is mostly very readable, but for its overly repetitive character. I would add that I can see the necessity for some of the facts being repeated. Another simple observation is the length of the book. It is relatively short actually, but there are numerous large gaps between lines as well as paragraphs! The pagination of the book may well have been halved! If this had been the case perhaps it would have cost a good deal less to buy.