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Haslam's journeyWilliam HaslamSelf-converting vicar!HASLAM’S JOURNEY This account of the life of William Haslam, a High Church clergyman converted through his own sermon, makes enthralling reading. Here we have ‘two for the price of one’, for the editor, Chris Wright, has condensed Haslam’s own books, From Death into Life and Yet not I, into one volume. Reducing 214,000 words to 85,000 is no mean achievement. Occasionally the narrative seems disjointed, but on the whole it runs on smoothly, encompassing a ministry of 36 years. Set in a period when God was powerfully at work in Britain, Haslam’s Journey begins in 1842 when, as a desolate young man whose fiancˇe has just died, he starts his first curacy in a Cornish village. His priority is to beautify the externals of worship and to make significant improvements to the church buildings, adding spires, candles, paintings, bells. But at Baldhu, where he moves in 1846, his people are not satisfied, and we follow step by step as God brings this proud young curate into painful self-dissatisfaction until at last he is converted while preaching on the verse, ‘What think ye of Christ?’ Scenes of revival blessing follow, and a characteristic visit from Billy Bray to celebrate is colourfully described. Haslam’s subsequent ministry takes him to Bath, Norwich and London, among other places. Significant blessing with many conversions often accompanied his preaching. But with it also comes intense persecution, usually from local clergy and bishops. We may raise our eyebrows at his warm approval of young Geraldine Hooper’s preaching, and at the remnants of his High Churchmanship. But this account of a work of God is thrilling and highly readable — a particular encouragement in our own day. Faith Cook© Evangelicals Now - April 2006 |