Heroes of the Faith: with J.John and Killy

William Holman Hunt is mostly remembered for The Light of the World, that extraordinary portrait of Christ knocking on the door of the soul' although he painted many other striking pieces, often with a spiritual message.

Hunt’s art was compelling, challenging and convicting. Isn’t that what our preaching about Christ should be?

Undoubtedly one of the very greatest physicists – Einstein had his portrait on the wall to inspire him. His studies laid the basis for the Theory of Relativity and modern physics.

Maxwell openly declared his Christian beliefs and throughout his life combined his commitment to his faith with the very highest levels of science.

Some heroes of the faith are forgotten and deserve rediscovery. One of these being Apolo Kivebulaya, a remarkable church worker in Africa for 40 years and a reminder of the way so many African Christians have spread Christianity on that continent.

Gladys put her trust in God and he used her in an extraordinary way. She faced a succession of obstacles, yet in Christ she overcame them all.

Carver was born in Missouri in 1864 and named simply ‘George’ by the Carver family, who owned his parents. George’s father died before George was born and, when a week old, the boy and his mother were kidnapped. The Carvers were able to ransom George, but no trace of his mother was ever found. In a rare reflection on his past the adult Carver was later to say he started life as ‘the orphaned child of a despised race’.

The extraordinary life of Michael Faraday, perhaps the greatest scientist of the nineteenth century, reads like one of Charles Dickens’ novels.

Valentine was a bishop who lived in Italy during the third century and was an important figure during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus (Claudius II) from 268 to 270 ad. The bishop was a promoter of Christian marriage in a culture where the men preferred their relationships to be much more free and easy.

The remarkable story of Lilias Trotter, artist and missionary, deserves to be much better known. Born into a privileged family in London in 1853, Lilias became a believer in Christ in her teens and was soon involved in Christian movements that encouraged her to seek a deeper spiritual life. Wealthy enough not to need to earn a living, Lilias began working as a volunteer in London with working girls by day and with prostitutes at night.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was undoubtedly the greatest preacher of 19th-century Britain and quite possibly the world. He was astonishingly prolific: he preached thousands of sermons, almost all of which were printed and circulated worldwide so that, at his death, some 56 million copies had been printed in nearly 40 languages. Yet Spurgeon’s achievement was not simply one of quantity. He was a godly man who preached God’s truth in a way that was serious and challenging yet overflowed with warmth, passion, wit and humour.

Pandita Ramabai was a truly extraordinary woman: reformer, educator and evangelist.

Although Pandita Ramabai was called by one Indian academic ‘one of the greatest Indians in all history’ she has been largely forgotten by her nation. I think it’s time to remember her.