Review: Wise Counsel: John Newton's Letters to John Ryland Jr.
In this video, we continue in our series, Reformation and Revival. We take a look at John Newton's Letters to John Ryland Jr., or Wise Counsel. It is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it to anyone.
You can buy the book here (this is an affiliate link and a we will receive a commission if you buy the book from this link): https://amzn.to/4eOsg3A
Book info
P. #: 404, 411 with an index
Author: John Newton (1725-1807), aged 82
Life: Growing up, Newton was well acquainted with the slave trade and ended up working within it. He initially worked as a sailor and later became a captain of slave ships, actively participating in the slave trade. After his conversion, Newton became an Anglican minister and served as the curate of St Peter & St Paul Church in Olney from 1764 to 1779. He is, of course, known best for his famous hymn, Amazing Grace.
General info about author: Newton was an English evangelical Anglican cleric, a hymn writer, and a prominent slavery abolitionist.
Overall Summary/review:
This is probably one of my favorite books in this series. It is almost like sitting down with Mr. Newton as he pours his wisdom into you. It’s very helpful and covers a very wide range of topics, as they are written throughout a lot of different stages of John Ryland Jr. (p. Xiv-Xv). Theological, Personal, Practical, etc.
It is very well edited by Grant Gordon. His Overview of the Letters really doesn’t do justice to the amount of work he put into this book. (p. Xv). What we find in the book is foot notes, references, explanations, and in some cases page-long stories to fill in the gaps between letters.
One thing that is also always so fascinating to me about the 18th century is how connected everyone was. They used letters to connect with each other and were seemingly even more connected than we are today. Some very interesting and notable connections in this book are William Jay (p. 245), Abraham Booth (p. 155), John Adams (p. 247), and Samual Hopkins (p. 294). And of course his two friends, Andrew Fuller and William Carey are sprinkled throughout the book.
Newton shares some of his wisdom as young Ryland is deep into a theology of hyper-calvinism. He does so in such a way that shows his amazing humility and maturity; by teaching Ryland to not think so strongly about his opinions. (p. 15, 48-49, 345)
As pertains to this series, Newton and Ryland were equally interested and invested in seeing revival come to fruition in their respective lands. (p. 45, 49)
This is truly a book full of wisdom and is an absolute nugget of gold.
Quotes: p. 21, 30, 38, 48, 85, 137, 189, 243, (end with) 67 and 75