Lilias Trotter (1853 – 1928) was a British missionary to North Africa. In her early twenties, her artworks were noticed by the renowned art critic, John Ruskin. However, Lilias forsook his offer of artistic greatness to continue her ministry work in London. In 1888, she left England, travelled to Algeria and continued there for 40 years, eventually founding the Algeria Mission Band. She brought the gospel to many remote desert and mountain villages around Algeria, using her creativity and artistic gifts.

[Recorded on October 10, 2024]

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843) is a name that many Christians will have heard, though few may know much about his life. But those who do, remember him for his love for Christ, his personal holiness and fervent prayer and his burden to win the lost. His was a short life, but his memory has been, and remains, an inspiration to many.
[Recorded April 21, 2024]

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was an American theologian and pastor. He and his wife Sarah served in Northampton for 23 years where he played a significant role in the Great Awakening. He preached probably one of the most famous sermons during this extraordinary period of revival. 

For the slides (in PDF format) that accompanied this presentation, click here

CS Lewis (1898 – 1963), known to his friends as Jack, is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lewis was a close friend of JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. Both men served on the English faculty at Oxford University. Lewis fell away from his faith during adolescence but was converted at the age of 32, owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, and he became an “ordinary layman of the Church of England”. Lewis’s faith profoundly affected his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts brought him wide acclaim.

[Recorded March 26, 2023)

Rosaria Butterfield, a former English professor and lesbian activist, came to Christ in what she describes as a “train wreck” conversion. This biography is based on her memoir The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert as well as her other book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key in which Rosaria writes about the necessity of godly hospitality in our post-Christian world.

William Tyndale (1494 – 1536) was an English Biblical scholar and linguistic genius who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation but us best remembered for his translation of the Bible into English.

In 1535, Tyndale was arrested and in 1536, he was convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. 

His dying prayer was that the King of England's eyes would be opened and just one year later Henry VIII authorized the Matthew Bible, which was largely Tyndale's work, with missing sections translated by John Rogers and Myles Coverdale.

John Gibson Paton (24 May 1824 – 28 January 1907), was born in Scotland and become a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific.

Though his life and work in the New Hebrides was difficult and often dangerous, Paton preached, raised a family, and worked to raise support in Scotland and Australia for missionary work. He was a man of robust character and personality and has become an example and an inspiration for missionary work.

[Recorded November 14, 2021]

Elisabeth Elliot  (1926 – 2015) was married to Jim Elliot, who was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Huaorani people in eastern Ecuador.  Together with her young daughter, Valerie, she later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband.
Returning to the United States after many years in South America, she became widely known as the author of twenty five books (including Through Gates of Splendor, Let Me Be a Woman and Suffering is Never for Nothing) and as a Christian speaker.

"I aim to speak plain truths to a plain people! May it please the God of all grace, to accompany my feeble endeavors to promote the knowledge of His truth! If my letters are owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering — I will rejoice." - John Newton

John Newton, well known as the author of the song,  Amazing Grace, was radically changed by the Lord Jesus Christ and became an outstanding witness to that grace that never ceased to amaze him.  From his letters we come to know a man of great humility and wisdom, and though written some 250 years ago, they continue to comfort and encourage those who take the time to read them.

Of Mrs More, the editor of the Letter, Josiah Bull, writes:

THERE are few, if any, of our readers who are ignorant of the history of this distinguished and most useful woman; who have not become acquainted with the remarkable story of the talents and accomplishments which at an early period of life introduced Miss More into the highest circles of the literary and fashionable world, of her religious enlightenment, and of her energetic and devoted labours, in connexion with her sisters, in the establishment of schools in the darkest neighbourhoods around her and over a wide extent of country, and of the great success, notwithstanding bitter opposition, which followed these efforts, and finally of her tracts and other writings which achieved so extraordinary a popularity: truly a wonderful instance of the blessed fruits of talents sanctified and consecrated to the service of God. 

Mr. Newton's acquaintance with Mrs. More commenced in 1787. She had read Cardiphonia. Struck with its truths, and the manner in which they were presented, she sought to know its author, and an interesting correspondence was the result.

[Newton, John. Letters by the Rev. John Newton: Edited by Josiah Bull, Kindle Edition ]

"I aim to speak plain truths to a plain people! May it please the God of all grace, to accompany my feeble endeavors to promote the knowledge of His truth! If my letters are owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering — I will rejoice." - John Newton

John Newton, well known as the author of the song,  Amazing Grace, was radically changed by the Lord Jesus Christ and became an outstanding witness to that grace that never ceased to amaze him.  From his letters we come to know a man of great humility and wisdom, and though written some 250 years ago, they continue to comfort and encourage those who take the time to read them.

These readings are from the edition of letters edited by Josiah Bull and first published in 1869.  

Concerning Miss Flower, the editor writes:

Miss Flower (later Mrs Dawson) was educated at Northampton by Mrs. Trinder, whose school had at that time attained a deserved eminence. Many ladies afterwards known in the religious world, received their first serious impressions under Mrs. Trinder's judicious training. 

Mr. Newton was a frequent visitor at the house, and his addresses to the young people were greatly appreciated by them. It was probably here that he first became acquainted with Miss Flower. 

In 1782, Miss Flower was united in marriage to John Dawson, Esq. of Aldcliffe Hall, Lancaster—a union which was somewhat suddenly terminated in May 1804, Mrs. Dawson surviving till December 1826. 

We are informed that the subject of our notice was possessed of great intelligence and conversational powers, was remarkable for amiability and the cultivation of every Christian grace, and was honoured and beloved by a large circle of friends like-minded with herself.

(Newton, John. Letters by the Rev. John Newton: Edited by Josiah Bull. Kindle Edition.)