I STOOD rather vaguely in a
passage at Westminster Chapel, where I could see some friendly and active women
busy with the arrangements for a tea. One of them, as she passed me, looked
enquiringly and helpfully: 'I've got an appointment with Dr Lloyd-Jones,' I
said. She beamed. 'Aren't you lucky!' she said. That seemed to express for me
something of what the people of that historic church are still thinking of the
beloved preacher who guided them for thirty years.
I agreed with her, and counted
myself fortunate. The Doctor had graciously agreed to journey into Westminster
so that we could plan the present book. It was my first personal
encounter—though I had rejoiced to hear him in the great auditorium yonder. His
immediate friendliness when he greeted me, the kind and full attention which he
gave to my suggestions, were a benediction. I remembered reading, some time
before, a newspaper description: 'His face is a frontier face, mono-lithic of
brow, severely callipered about the mouth, and truculent of chin'—that face was
all kindness as it considered the matter in hand. He spoke quietly, with an
attractive lilt. I could understand Errol Hulse's word in the Sunday
Companion: 'He starts slowly, his voice low. He cruises round the runway
several times before taking off. Imperceptibly the message begins to grip and
soon you are basking in the radiant sunshine of the Word preached with prophetic
fire and unction. . . . The trumpets sound. The walls collapse. The citadel of
the soul lies open to the conquest of truth. Once in full flight he is so
vibrant spiritually, and reaches such peaks of eloquence, that even if you
couldn't hear a word he said you would be impressed by the creative force of his
gestures.' I could see, too, the force of another comment: 'On behalf of his
faith he has no more modesty than an Old Testament prophet, and no hesitation in
loosing bears on the children of darkness!'
I can remember even now the
sensation when the young and successful Harley Street specialist, senior
clinical assistant to Lord Horder at Bart's, threw all this to the winds to
become the leader of the Forward Movement Mission at Sandfields, Aberavon. The
world for which money is everything noted his £225 stipend. He served there for
twelve years. Such a ministry, such skill in opening the Scriptures, could not
go unmarked; and although, as he told his people in his Centenary Sermon at
Westminster Chapel (July 6, 1965) he was certain that he was called to minister
in Wales, 'automatically' refusing every invitation that came from England, he
did feel called to accept an invitation to a Bible Witness Rally in the Albert
Hall. Dr Campbell Morgan was there-the man who had rescued the place which A. E.
Garvie described as the 'white elephant of Congregationalism'—(Jowett compared
it to Charing Cross Station!)—and it is evident that this encounter began the
sequence of events which resulted in the invitation to become Campbell Morgan's
associate pastor in 1938. Morgan was a troubled man a year later: 'I have
brought you here, and this is what I have brought you to ... we are almost
certain to be bombed completely to the ground. We are so near to Bucking-ham
Palace!' But even then, Martyn Lloyd-Jones had a strong conviction that 'this
chapel will
not be bombed!'-so strong that when, on May 11, 1940, following upon a
tremendous raid upon Westminster, Nathaniel Micklem told him that he would
announce him for the evening service at Mansfield College (in addition to the
morning service which he was about to take)—since Micklem was certain that no
Westminster Chapel could possibly still be standing. Lloyd-Jones insisted on
coming back to London, guiding a sceptical taxi-driver past mountains of
rubble-and taking his evening service as usual.
Many of us recall humbly, yet
gratefully, how it created even firmer ties between our people and ourselves, to
stand up under the assaults of war by their side, being with them and helping
them through; and, perhaps equalled only by W. E. Sangster, his wife and he
forged the bonds which hold so firmly between them and their people to this day.
Yes—I was 'lucky' (though I suspect that that actual word is as much anathema to
the Doctor as it is to me!).
His withdrawal from his
pastorate came as a thunderbolt when the people received his letter of May 30,
1968. He felt this to be under the Holy Spirit's guidance; it was not a
consequence of the illness from which he had so triumphantly emerged, but rather
the conviction that he must spend more time on writing. Those who benefit from
the pages of this book will be thankful for the prospect of further writings
such as these.
Many and deserved were the
tributes at the time. 'End of a marathon ministry', said the Methodist Recorder,
where A. E. Gould spoke of 'one of the most influential Free Church ministries
of our time'.
Much could be added here
concerning his preaching. He still preaches in Welsh, and the Welsh think of him
as their preacher par excellence. He is known all over these islands, in Canada
and in the States. He remembers the Hollywood church which did him the tribute
of re-drafting the service order, this normally stressing the anthem more than
the sermon, to give him greater opportunity! He is a pillar of the Evangelical
Library; the Puritan Conference was a tiny group round a blackboard in 1955;
nowadays it is wise to come in extra good time if you want a seat. There is
another large and secret chapter of his activities. 'Was any minister of a large
city church ever so accessible to his people?' a friend has asked, and spoke
also of the 'stream of ministers, missionaries and secretaries of evangelical
organizations' ever keen to receive his counsel. All this takes time.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones never pulls
his punches; the presumptuous scientist straying beyond his sphere, the
politician or publicist who infringes the Crown Rights of the Redeemer, will be
answered in plain words. He is known as a sagacious conference chairman
'deflating the arrogant but uplifting the humble'-and
not suffering fools gladly! When H. F. R. Catherwood published his
Christian Citizen in Industrial Society I regarded this authoritative
tome with awe and respect, for he is one of our leaders in today's industrial
and economic scene. Then I noted that it was dedicated to Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Here, surely, is the preacher's role exemplified. Dr Lloyd-Jones would probably
agree with me that his eminent son-in-law has written here of things which are
as much a closed book to him as they are to me. But the writer had found
inspiration from the preacher; having (under the preacher's guidance) put God
first, he could write more truly of God's world.
Dr Lloyd-Jones told his hearers
at the Centenary that he would sooner preach today than in 1865! and that is
typical of the man. He was made for tough times.
Surely the final picture must
be of those rapt occasions when up to two thousand hearers peopled the famous
old chapel—and these so largely young thinking men and women, armed with Bible
and notebook—or when some twelve hundred would attend the Friday evening Bible
Schools. 'A notable feature', said A. E. Gould (the Methodist Recorder),
'has been the large numbers of young men and women, medical and other students,
and youngsters earning their living in London, who have been consistently drawn
to Westminster Chapel by simple, expository, Bible preaching, in a setting quite
bare of liturgical ornament'.
'Tell me,' I said. 'Is it true
that you preached on Ephesians every Sunday morning for two years?' 'I'm almost
ashamed to tell you,' he said, smiling. 'It was five!' But when the well of
truth is so deep, and the preacher has been gifted, through grace, so that he
may draw, who will not rejoice? When in 1927 he married his beautiful young
doctor-bride, Bethan, he asked for the complete works of Calvin and Owen as a
wedding present! For Martyn Lloyd-Jones the Bible, and the great writings of the
Christian centuries, are all that matters. May this firm, kind, eloquent man be
given many more years in which to expound the Word, in fervent declamation and
on the printed page!
|
Here, for daily meditation, are concise reflections on the
Christian faith selected from the writings of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the
great preachers and evangelical authors of our time. 