F.W. Grant Memorial
It is generally agreed that J.N. Darby, William Kelly and
F.W. Grant are looked upon as the three prominent teachers among the early
brethren. By 1880, F.W. Grant had become the leading figure among exclusive
brethren in America. His platform gifts were not of a high order, but as a
teacher he was unexcelled. Though he could go into the deeper truths of
Scripture in his teaching, he never lost his enthusiasm and joy in the gospel.
Many consider him to be superior to J.N. Darby in accuracy and spiritual
insight, though he held himself as a disciple greatly indebted to J.N. Darby,
and the two were close friends.
We recognize the tendency to make much
of man, and thus unknowingly fall into idolatry by giving glory to some
instrument whom in His grace God has seen fit to use, rather than to Himself.
We lean unduly upon the hand that would point us to Christ, and too often make
priests of those who are reminding us that we are all priests. We close our
lips in the presence of the ministry of those who are telling us, "Ye may all
prophesy." Thus we abuse the very gifts given by our glorified Head. One lesson
which we may learn from the removal of beloved and honoured servants of Christ
is not to make too much of these--to "cease from man"--to cling more simply to
Christ alone. Thus will we honour the servant by turning to the Master, and be
kept from the shame of idolatry.
Yet the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews
speaks of our "guides" or "leaders" in verses 7-9,17,24. We are told to
remember those who had passed away, and imitate their faith. We are to obey
those who remain, realizing that they are charged with weighty
responsibilities, and are to salute them in all honour and affection.
Scripture, then, not only warrants but commands the remembrance of those whom
God has given as leaders of His people. To forget them means, too often, to
forget the truth they brought, and paves the way for that "building the
sepulchres of the prophets" by a godless posterity who are indifferent to every
warning spoken by those prophets. There is a sober, discriminating way of
dwelling upon the ministry of faithful servants which encourages our own faith,
quickens the conscience, and stirs us afresh to follow them as they followed
Christ. To remember such is to remember the Word which they taught. There can
be no higher honour to a servant of Christ than to merge him, as it were, in
the truth he ministered. Believers recall the memory of those who have left
their greatness in our hands--the Word of God.
It being now a whole
century since brother F.W. Grant's death, we felt it profitable to publish
another of his many writings, accompanied with some facts as to his life and
ministry of which the present generation may not know. Frederick William Grant
was born in London on July 25, 1834, and passed into the presence of the Lord
on his sixty-eighth birthday in 1902, survived by his wife, three sons and a
daughter. His conversion was occasioned by the reading of the Scriptures
himself, and not through the instrumentality of others, as was reportedly also
the case with J.N. Darby. Brother Grant was educated at King's College School
with the expectation of securing a position in the war office. When this did
not materialize, he went to Toronto, Ontario at the age of twenty-one.
At that time the Church of England was opening parishes in the new parts of
Canada, and F.W. Grant was examined and ordained to the ministry without having
taken the regular college course. According to his son, Frank Grant, his father
was also practicing medicine in Canada at that time, and thus got to know the
owner of a local drug store who was in the assemblies, and kept pamphlets
written by J. N. Darby and other brethren on display in his store. It was from
reading these pamphlets and studying the Scriptures that F.W. Grant received
further light on the Scriptures and left the "systems," by resigning his parish
and taking his place among the so-called brethren who gave no recognition to
clerical titles. He than came to the United States, where he lived in the city
of Brooklyn, NY, and then in Plainfield, NJ, until his death. He is buried at
Hillside Cemetery in Plainfield, NJ.
Brother F.W. Grant's claim for a
permanent place in the hearts of the saints rests--as it does with any, but
with him more ostensibly than with most--in his identification with the Word of
God. He is lost sight of in the precious truth which it was his joy to unfold.
His passion, the desire that consumed him, was to make Christ more precious, to
make His Word more loved, more read, more studied. What views of the Word and
its truths he gave us! What thoughts of Christ! These abide.
His one aim
was to build only the pure Word in all his ministry, and of him it can be said,
"Not I, but Christ." Brother Grant did not believe in passing over truth with a
few vague and glittering generalities. By habit and by faith he was a
painstaking inquirer into minute points which would escape the attention of the
casual observer. He longed for a revival of gospel work among the assemblies.
His heart well-nigh broke at the indifference, the unbelief, the lethargy that
hung like a pall upon many of the beloved people of God. How he yearned over
them! He ministered Christ to the soul! He fed the lambs and sheep with the
tender grass of divine grace, truth and love.
No earnest soul can pass
through this world without being called upon to contend earnestly for the
faith. All who would be loyal to our Lord must expect to endure hardness for
Him. Though brother Grant did not seek controversy, when he felt the truth of
God was involved, he did not shrink from declaring what he believed to be the
Scripture doctrine, and holding to it at all cost.
Any notice of
brother F.W. Grant's ministry would be incomplete without reference to his
ecclesiastical views and position. Of these he made no secret, steadily
maintaining them. He believed in the sufficiency of the name of Christ and the
person of the Lord as the centre of gathering for His saints. He believed in
the presence and competence of the Holy Spirit to order and control the
assembly of God's people without the intervention of human officialism or
unscriptural ordination. Above all, he believed that a right attitude of heart
toward the Lord was indispensable, without which all else was as "sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal." He was not indifferent to the dangers of a place
of separation, "outside the camp" from the sects and divisions of Christendom,
over which he mourned. Not shrinking from the path, he warned against either an
unscriptural narrowness or an equally unscriptural indifference to what he
believed concerned the Lord's honour. He was persuaded that a true basis of
fellowship could only be had in accepting and acting upon all the doctrines of
the Word of God. He did not believe true fellowship could be secured by
ignoring questions of doctrine or discipline upon which saints had formed
different judgments. With largeness of heart to go out, as he did, in love to
saints of God of whatever name, he felt and expressed the need of greatest care
in maintaining scriptural order, according to the truths of the unity of the
Spirit. One matter weighed heavily upon brother Grant. He felt and deplored the
tendency to leave ministry in the hands of the few. He maintained from
Scripture that "ye all may prophesy" is not a dead letter; that every brother,
according to the measure of the gift of Christ, was responsible to use that
gift. It was not that he held any different view upon this than what is common
to the saints, but he felt most deeply about it. He feared the danger of things
crystallizing into form, and warned again and again as to it. May every one of
us hearken to his admonition.
A large number of excellent expositions
were truly Grant's life-work. He had for years been impressed with the absolute
perfection of the Scriptures to its least "jot and tittle"--a truth we all
accept. But with him it became the absorbing thought of his life, and he put it
to the test to the full extent of his powers, often amid weakness and illness.
F.W. Grant left a great legacy to the Church in his many published writings,
the greatest of which is perhaps the Numerical Bible, consisting of seven
volumes of his own Bible translation and accompanying notes, which are based
upon the finding by his study that in every part of Scripture, a significant
numerical structure exists. Sadly, Grant did not live to complete the whole
Bible, though he was restored from a serious illness to complete the New
Testament, along with parts of the Old Testament. When near death he uttered in
prayer, "We fail and are set aside, all human strength passes, but Thou
abidest, Thy Spirit abides, Thy Word abides."
Shortly before his death,
F.W. Grant made a significant statement to his beloved brother in Christ,
Samuel Ridout. Sitting propped in his chair, with the Word of God open before
him, as was his custom through his last weary days, he glanced at his Bible and
said with a deep pathos, "Oh, the Book, the Book, the BOOK!" He had spent every
particle of strength, and all his reserve vitality was gone. He felt this, and
his most acute suffering was the sense of his inability to go on further in the
things of God. It seemed as though he said, "What a fullness there; how little
I have grasped it; how feebly expressed its thoughts." May these words from
this dying servant of Christ lay hold of many a heart. Is it "the Book" with
us? The one Book, always that? Oh, beloved, he speaks to us all still, and
says, "Make everything of the Book!"
Some other titles by F.W. Grant
are - Leaves From the Book, The Atonement, The Crowned Christ, Lessons of the
Ages, The Prophetic History of the Church, Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven,
A Divine Movement, Facts and Theories as to a Future State, Spiritual Law in
the Natural World, The Numerical Structure of Scripture, Genesis in the Light
of the New Testament, Lessons from Exodus, God's Evangel, Deliverance, Peter's
Conversion, The Two Natures, The Sovereignty of God in Salvation, and more. In
addition, in 1880 the monthly magazine, Help and Food, was started with F.W.
Grant as the editor, which position he retained until his death in
1902.
The preceding memorial has been compiled from "Remember Your
Guides" by Samuel Ridout; "At Home With the Lord" by Samuel Ridout; "F.W.
Grant: His Life, Ministry and Legacy" by John Reid.
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