'Tis an ocean vast of blessing'

“O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!

Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!” begins the classic hymn from 1875. “Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!”

Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus was Samuel Trevor Francis’ (1834-1925) most widely circulated hymn, one he lived long enough to hear sung by congregations around the world, sometimes in different languages. Another hymn the England native wrote,  I Am Waiting for the Dawning, begins,

1 I am waiting for the dawning
Of that bright and glorious day,
When the darksome night of sorrow
Shall have vanished far away;
When forever with the Saviour,
Far beyond this vale of tears,
I shall swell the hymn of worship
Thru the everlasting years.

“Like young Timothy, Trevor benefited from a godly mother and grandmother, who understood the benefits of early child training,” wrote his longtime friend and co-laborer, F. B. Meyer, in a tribute after Francis’ death. “The Bible was their textbook used to teach him to read. One of his earliest memories is of stepping into his mother’s bedroom with his older brother, where they knelt beside her, and listening to her pleading that her sons would ‘grow up to be God-fearing men.’

“As a child of five or six, Trevor lived with his grandmother and aunt at Cheshunt. They poured in Bible truth in the way that the servants at the wedding in Cana filled the water pots. But it would be more than a decade before God would turn the water to wine. He attended religious services regularly and, with his father and older brother, sang the grand old hymns in the choir of Hull Parish. But he was not born again.

“On the threshold of adulthood, his father arranged a career for Trevor. For twelve months he was in an apprenticeship program with a medical doctor in Camberwell, but everything changed when his father died. He dropped out of the arrangement.

“In poor health, the teenager went to stay with his uncle in Hull. There Trevor met a chemist named Mr. Akester who was leading young people’s Bible studies. One day, Akester asked ‘if he would like to see a man buried alive.’ It turned out to be a baptism, with the eccentric Andrew Jukes officiating.

“Jukes was the author of ‘The Law of the Offerings, Types in Genesis, and A Comparison of the Four Gospels.’ Something of a prodigy, Jukes had a sad weakness for speculative interpretations. But despite Jukes’ future blunders and heresies, the assembly was at that time in a healthy state. There in Hull, Trevor had his first brush with an assembly of Believers who met in Scriptural simplicity. Unencumbered by ritual,  he heard clear gospel preaching.

“Soon after, the nineteen-year-old was returning to London: ‘On my way home from work I had to cross Hungerford Bridge to the south of the Thames. It was a winter’s night of wind and rain, and in the loneliness of that walk I cried to God to have mercy upon me. Staying for a moment to look at the dark waters flowing under the bridge, the temptation was whispered to me, ‘Make an end of all this misery.’

" 'I drew back from the evil thought, and suddenly a message was borne into my very soul, ‘You do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?’ I at once answered, ‘I do believe, and I put my whole trust in Him as my Saviour.’ Instantly there came this reply: ‘Then you are saved,’ and with a thrill of joy I ran across the bridge, burst through the turnstile and pursued my way home, repeating the words again and again, ‘Then I am saved; then I am saved.'

“After this great change, Trevor seemed perpetually thrilled. He wrote,

I thought I was saved by my working,
My goodness, my praying, my tears;
I labored with wearisome effort
To conquer my sins and my fears–
Until I at last saw the Saviour,
And knew it was only His blood
That could bring me, a vile, wretched sinner,
Near, near to a heart-searching God.

“In search of a church home,  Francis tracked down the source of a pamphlet, and discovered a congregation in Kennington, in the south of London, which was similar to the congregation he had seen in Hull. There he attended a number of months before he was received into fellowship. If the meeting was overly strict, it was also overly privileged. It was the home assembly of several remarkable saints. Dr. Edward Cronin was in fellowship there. He had been in the nucleus of the Dublin assembly in the winter of 1827-28 with Francis Hutchinson, John Nelson Darby and J. G. Bellett.

"Surely none of these young men had realized the reverberations in the church of God that would result from their inconspicuous beginnings. Only four years later, in 1832, Cronin went to Baghdad to assist Anthony Norris Groves in evangelistic work. There he lost his sister and wife to disease, and was once left for dead after being stoned out of a village.

“William Joseph Lowe also fellowshipped in Kennington. Lowe was about four years younger than Francis. Also raised in a believing home, he was converted in childhood, and Francis would have known him and his family. Lowe was a scholar in the classical languages. Ancient and modern together, he was familiar with ten or eleven tongues.

"In later years Lowe traveled across Europe and aided Darby in his extensive translation work. Darby remarked that Lowe was the best taught young man he knew. After Darby’s death he labored extensively with Thomas Neatby and William Kelly.

“The weighty input these men gave to the Kennington assembly was like the ballast in the boat. The zealous young Francis began to develop. In open-air preaching, especially during the Revival of 1859-1860, his giftedness in the gospel became obvious. He was also a worker in the city missions.

*****

"Later, when Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey conducted their London campaign in 1873-1874, men like F. B. Meyer and S. Trevor Francis were willing helpers. Ira Sankey enlisted Francis’ help directing the singing at several evangelistic meetings. "In one accord with Moody’s fervor, Francis’ poems show an energetic, aggressive faith."

Arise! ye warriors of the cross,
The Master’s word obeying,
Gird on the sword, count all things loss,
Go forth without delaying;
Still forward, ’tis our Lord’s command,
He will forsake us never;
His mighty hand none can withstand,
And He is with us ever.

“During this active career, he authored Eternal Love, Oh Mighty Sea; Hark! A Gentle Stranger Knocketh; Call the Weary Home; Let Me Sing You a Song of Heaven; Jesus, We Remember Thee; Home of Light and Glory; Forward, Christian, Forward; Revive Us, Lord Jesus; Oh, For the Meeting in the Radiant Air; Safe to Land; No Shadows Darken, and many more, some of which are found in the Believers’ Hymn Book and Hymns of Light and Love.

“After a partial loss of sight, the doctor encouraged Francis to take a sea voyage, which became a world tour. The beloved poet sailed to Canada, Australia, Palestine, Egypt, and, accompanied by R. C. Morgan, the first editor of The Christian magazine, to parts of North Africa.

"It was the testimony of those who knew him that during all his seventy-three years in the Christian pathway, Francis was a consistent, fruitful witness in Britain and all other lands he visited. In December of 1925, at the advanced age of 92, he entered into the perfection of the joys he had previously only tasted:

No pain, no grief, no sorrow,
For night hath changed to day;
In God’s eternal morrow
All tears are wiped away.

A collection of his poems, which had appeared in many papers, including The Revival, The Witness, The Christian, Word and Work, Great Thoughts, Life of Faith, was produced under the title of “Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.”

Dr. Thirtle, in The Christian, said: “All his poetical work, as well as his spoken word, was permeated by a realization of the love of Christ, and with a heart desire to see the Saviour’s face.” Now he realizes what he so sweetly penned:
“At Home with the Lord, what joy is this I
To gaze on His face is infinite bliss.”

****

Paul writes in I Corinthians 2:9, [9] But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

“In this verse, Paul talks about the three ways you can know something. By the eye, or empiricism, the ear (rationalism or figuring it out on the basis of reason) and then revelation, explains Jordan. “God can reveal the thing to you, as in verse 10: [10] But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

“Notice the description of the things of God in verse 10. ‘The Spirit searcheth all things.’ That is, He knows everything there is to know. He’s not talking about how the Spirit doesn’t know what’s going on so he looks into it. He’s talking about how there’s nothing held back from what the Spirit of God understands and knows.

“David says to God, ‘Search me and know me. Try me and see if there be any evil way.’ He isn’t saying God doesn’t know what’s in his heart. He’s saying, ‘Come down here and know me and look and see and examine.’ Not as someone who doesn’t know, but as someone who DOES know.

“The spiritual man can personally, experientially enter into all things--‘yea, the deep things of God.’ He knows the doctrines of God inside and out; he even knows the deep things of God. When Paul’s talking about deep things, he’s talking about mystery truth. He calls them that because they’re hidden things and not known.

“Notice how this word ‘deep’ is used in Psalm 92: ‘[5] O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
[6] A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

“The idea there is a brutish man, a natural man, can’t know them. For a thought to be deep, the idea there is that it’s unknown. It’s not understood by others. They’re hidden thoughts. They’re thoughts that are kept back and not made known.

“The mystery truth is that God kept some things secret and hid in Himself so that no one else could know them. They were tremendous in their value and scope but it was also hidden wisdom.

*****

“Romans 11 says, ‘[33] O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
[34] For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller?
[35] Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

“Paul has just spent 11 chapters writing down, delineating, and explaining the judgments and the ways of God. He’s just spent all the previous part of Romans revealing to you the MIND of the Lord.

“In I Corinthians 2, the last verse says, ‘[16] For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

“Where do you have it? In the Word of God. Folks, you wouldn’t know the depth of them if they weren’t revealed to you. You ever thought about that?! You would just SUSPECT that they must be deep, big and wonderful.

*****

“In your Bible, there’s not only the deep things of God; there’s another system of deep things. In the first two chapters of II Corinthians is the conflict between divine viewpoint and human viewpoint. More than that, though, between divine viewpoint and ‘the wisdom of the princes of this world which God’s wisdom has brought to nought.’

“The program of the Adversary is referred to in Revelation 2:24: [24] But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

“Notice, the depths of Satan is associated with a doctrine. There is a wisdom and a set of principles, programs and plans and philosophy that are described in the Bible, not as ‘the deep things of God,’ but rather as the deep things of the Adversary.

“It’s his agenda, his program, his plans, his purposes, his personality, and what he is seeking to accomplish. It has to do with a doctrine.”

A hymn from 1900, written by Selma, Ala., pastor Charles Price Jones, credited with writing 1,000 gospel songs, begins:

Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus
Daily let me go;
Higher, higher in the school of wisdom,
More of grace to know.

(new article tomorrow)