A PERSISTENT FAITH

Two men stand high above Casco Bay on the coast of Puritan Massachusetts. The two are in deep discussion about the floundering relationship that threatens Great Britain and the American colonies. It is a warm July day in New England and the year is 1774.

The newly elected Massachusetts delegate to the first Continental Congress, John Adams, listens intently as Jonathan Sewell begs Adams to stay away from the approaching session of Congress. Britain is “irritable;” she will destroy all opposition.

Britain has “determination on her system,” admits Adams. It is “swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish,” he concludes, but “I am with my country. You may depend upon it.”

The Colonists endured Bunker Hill as that year slowly unfolded. The people watched warily as Sewell relocated back to England. On the other hand, the Colonialists watched the venerable John Adams grow with the changing circumstances and slowly evolve into one of the founding fathers of their emerging nation. ¹ Perhaps better than most, John Adams understood that persistence was more about consistently doing and being one’s best, than in trying to succeed.

Genuine faith calls for more than making noise while achieving nothing. John Adams understood that. Armed with his deep puritan faith, he reviewed his options, and making his choice, he planted his feet. Standing firm in his fixed belief that persistence promised the best dividends on his investment; Adams stood where planted.

I began learning the values found in a persistent faith when I was but a small child. When the church doors opened for worship. I joined my childish voice to that of others in the small congregation that gathered to faithfully participate in the familiar hymns of our worshipping congregation. One of those hymns I have continued to sing across the long years of my adulthood.

The lyrics come from the pen of a minister as he struggled with his own personal tragedy of disablement, loss of career and the resulting suffering of a lifetime. His words describe the persistence and spiritual fortitude required of any of us; if we, like John Adams, successfully complete our life’s journey.             

The hymn-writer, Charles Wesley Naylor, was a largely unknown nineteenth century Protestant evangelist of a small revivalist community of reformers who suffered a career-ending accident. It came totally unexpected; he was blindsided. Nevertheless, it terminated his life as an itinerant tent evangelist and left him in doubt about his Calling, not to mention his standing before God. 

By the grace of God, Naylor eventually discovered a larger-than-life ministry writing from his bed of affliction. God’s gift of divine grace resulted in Naylor authoring  numerous books and hymns and touching multitudes of anonymous readers that needed the fortifying uplift of his encouragement and inspiration.

Out of Naylor’s personal journey on his own bed of anguish and pain, he wrote inspirational books like The Secret of the Singing Heart (Warner Press/Anderson, IN/1954). This proved to be a perennial best-seller in inspirational reading. The lyrical writings of C. W. Naylor lifted readers out of their discouraging periods of defeat, enabling them to sing Naylor’s words of victorious faith that declare,

            I mean to go right on

                        Until the crown is won,

            I mean to fight the fight of faith

                        Till life on earth is done,

            I’ll never more turn back,

                        Defeat I shall not know,

            For God will give me victory

                        If onward I shall go. ²

            Not unlike Naylor. the Apostle Paul persistently pursued missionary journeys that resulted in similar struggles at every turn. As Naylor discovered years later, persistence would win the day, but Paul would face hard places. Keeping his eyes fixed on Christ, and refusing to surrender. Paul saw the stage lights of his life dim, the curtain slowly close off his stage of action, and we hear him conclude, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7 NASV).

I am walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

reminding you that if ever there lived a persevering saint, it must have been Paul! In like manner, may those who come behind me, find me singing persistently and faithfully C. W. Naylor’s word of persistence – I mean to go right on!

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            1 David McCullough, John Adams. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 71.
            2 C. W. Naylor, “I’m Going On,” Worship the Lord (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), pp. 685-686.
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