John Newton on humility and tenderness of spirit

[Reformed Covenanter]

... The other is, tenderness of spirit towards his fellow-Christians. He cannot but judge of their conduct according to the rule of the word. But his own heart, and the knowledge he has acquired of the snares of the world, and the subtilty of Satan, teach him to make all due allowances, and qualify him for admonishing and restoring, in the spirit of meekness, those who have been overtaken in a fault. Here A is usually blameable; the warmth of his zeal, not being duly corrected by a sense of his own imperfections, betrays him often into a censorious spirit. ...

For more, see John Newton on humility and tenderness of spirit.

 

[Rom]

We had to read "Wise Counsel" for our "Readiness for Pastoral Ministry" class at RPTS. "Wise Counsel" is Banner's collection of the letters Newton wrote to the Baptist minister John Ryland, Jr. over the course of a lifetime.

The class as a whole found them to be quite moving and heart warming, particularly, to watch Newton counsel Ryland from his cage stage as an up-and-coming man for the ministry, all the way to the end of his (Newton's) life. Observing Newton's counsel as the men grappled with not finding a wife (Ryland), the death of wives (both men), children and close kin (both men), the taking of pastoral calls (Ryland), and a difficult father (Ryland), doctrinal controversies (Ryland), and so on - was encouraging (and challenging) to observe for us as men preparing for ministry.

I highly recommend them for anyone who is aspiring to pastoral ministry. Even those who are ministers will learn a lot from Newton's pastoral heart (who was not beyond giving rebuke or two when needed, especially when Ryland was in his "cage-stage" in the earliest days of his ministry).

I told the class that for this divine right Presbyterian to shed a tear at this being said by an Anglican to a Baptist meant I was quite moved:

"I think I love you no less than I should do, if you were an Episcopalian”.

And my favorite quote of Newton's in the book was when his wife died in 1791:

"There is no school like the school of the cross. There men are made wise unto salvation; wise to win souls. In a crucified Saviour are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And the tongue of the truly learned, that can speak a word in season to them that are weary, is not acquired, like Greek and Latin, by reading great books; but by self-knowledge and soul exercises. To learn navigation by the fire-side, will never make a man an expert mariner. He must do his business in great waters. And practice will bring him into many situations, of which his general theory could give him no conception.

I hope my late trial has not been wholly lost on me. I am willing to live while the Lord pleases, for I am his, and not my own. Independent of his will, I see little worth living for. I hope, from henceforth, I shall be a pilgrim and a stranger upon the earth. The world is too poor to repair my loss. It is a wound which can only be effectually healed, by him that made it. And faithful, indeed, are the wounds of such a friend.

But what is the death of a fellow worm, however beloved, [compared] to the death of Jesus! This is the thought which ought to wean us from the world, and to crucify us unto it, and indeed, which alone is sufficient for the purpose! May we die daily, May we live forever. Amen."

John Newton, 26 March 1791

He was truly a remarkable man, converted out of great wickedness to love Jesus Christ by the grace of God.