Description

A Miserable Sinner

Samuel Medley was born June 23, 1738, at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England, the son of Guy and Elizabeth Tonge Medley. He came of goodly and prosperous parents. When he was of age, Samuel entered a school at Enfield administered by his maternal grandfather. It is said that “he showed early promise and a keen memory.”

At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to an oilman in the City of London, but he did not like the work. In 1755, England went to war with France and a law was passed that allowed young men to finish out their indentures in the Royal Navy. After the admirable example of his two older brothers, Samuel joined the Navy.

Although Samuel was raised in a religious family, he chose not to practice the faith of his fathers. Instead, “he only used his lively wit for frivolity and worse.” Much like John Newton, he drank in the ways of the sailor and led a wicked life. However, all that would change with a naval battle in the year 1759, off the Portuguese coast, near Port Lagos. The French and English ships were engaged and the battle was pitched. A French cannonball shattered the mizzen-mast close to where Medley was standing. “A large part of his leg had been shot away and he was in a serious condition.”

Despite the efforts of the ship’s surgeon, the wound did not heal. Gangrene set in and Medley was informed that the leg would have to be amputated if there was not improvement by the next day. 

Biographers have said of this event, “This was something of a shock to the wild young man but remembering his grandfather and father’s example he thought he had best pray. He had been leading a very profligate life but perhaps it was not too late. He remembered that he had seen a Bible in his chest and sent a servant to get it. All that night he read the Word and prayed that the Lord would save his leg.

The next morning the doctor returned and found the leg had miraculously improved so much that amputation was unnecessary.” This had a profound catalyzing effect on Samuel Medley. He was discharged from the Navy to heal, both physically and spiritually. Not long after, his grandfather read to him a sermon preached by the great theologian, Isaac Watts. Samuel Medley was converted.

He resigned from the Navy, married Mary Gill, and by 1766, was an ordained minister. In 1772, he accepted a call to minister in Liverpool, the home port of English sailors. Samuel became so popular as a preacher, especially among the seaman, that his chapel had to be expanded, twice, becoming one of the biggest Baptist meetinghouses in the UK.  

Samuel Medley died July 17, 1799. He scribed his own epitaph as follows;

An unworthy preacher of the gospel,

formerly pastor of this church of Christ,

by nature and practice a miserable sinner,

but redeemed by grace and the blood of the Saviour,

  has here laid down his body,

waiting for the bright and morning star.

Come then Lord Jesus.

 From this sailor turned saint came not only a legacy of love, faith, and devotion, but also some of our favorite hymns. Indeed, one of the most compelling testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ ever written and set to music came from his pen. Surely it has stirred your soul also somewhere in your Christian journey. It was this sea-faring convert to Christ who wrote, 

I know that my redeemer lives

What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead.

He lives, my ever-living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love.

He lives to plead for me above.

He lives my hungry soul to feed.

He lives to bless in time of need.

 

Sources:

Medley, Samuel

http://publishdarticles.blogspot.com/2016/04/samuel-medley-1738-1799.html

https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/i-know-that-my-redeemer-lives.html

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/hymns/i-know-that-my-redeemer-lives?lang=eng

 

Copyright Glenn Rawson 2022