They Knew Their God Book One, Lillias Trotter, John Hyde, Robert Cleaver Chapman

Posted on by

In each of the six-book series, They Knew Their God, the authors, Edwin and Lillian Harvey have been careful to include a wide variety of men and women to illustrate that knowing God is available to every Christian irrespective of nationality, gender, or religious affiliation. Generally, the sketches in each book are placed chronologically. There are some exceptions. Take for instance in the first of this series.

The opening sketch traces the spiritual journey of Nicholas of Basle who was born eighteen years after the subject of the second sketch, John Tauler, who received spiritual help from Nicholas and is therefore placed after him. These men lived before the reformation and were both Roman Catholics. In the third sketch we jump to the eighteenth century and read about Christmas Evans, the “One-eyed Preacher of Wales,” who was a Welsh Baptist. Then we have an English Methodist, William Bramwell, an American Methodist, “Mother Cobb,” Felix Neff, a member of the National Church of Switzerland. These last three were all born in the mid to late eighteenth century. Moving into the nineteenth century, we come to Robert Cleaver Chapman, a Christian Brethren from England, followed by “Holy Ann,” the “Irish Saint.” Next come the Englishman, Isaac Marsden and the American born, Alfred Cookman, both Methodists. These two Methodists are followed by two English ladies: Elizabeth Baxter and Lillias Trotter. Next come two Americans, John Hyde, a Presbyterian, and Samuel Logan Brengle, a well known officer in the Salvation Army. After Brengle comes Sister Eva, born in Germany and who founded a sisterhood at Friedenshort. Sammy Morris from Africa comes next, and then Iva Vennard, an American Methodist deaconess and educator. Last but not least, we have Johanna Veenstra, an American of Dutch descent, who was brought up in the Christian Reformed Church and gave her life for Christ in Africa.
And so the list comes to an end–eighteen saints, each very different from the other, who trod very different paths but reached the same destination: knowing God in an intimate way.—Trudy Harvey Tait.
They Knew Their God is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

Continue reading...