Richard Trench Went from Revolutionary to Christian Wordsmith
Richard Trench, romantic and scholarly churchman.
IN 1830, as a young man, Richard Trench joined his friends in a plot to overthrow King Ferdinand VII, the capricious and tyrannical ruler of Spain. The results were disastrous. In the end, Ferdinand executed one of the friends. Trench only escaped because he was on Gibraltar when the plan failed. Uncertain about his future or what to do, he returned to England.
A son of Huguenot exiles, he had studied at Cambridge. There he was numbered among the “Cambridge Apostles,” a group that applied their talents to bringing a higher spiritual and moral tone to the nation. Among their famous members were Frederick Denison Maurice, the Christian Socialist, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, the poet.
Trench was a poet himself and a man who loved words. He translated Latin hymns into English and wrote his own hymns, including “Lord, What a Change Within Us,” which illustrates the power of God in a believer’s life. In 1835, he published The Story of Justin Martyr and Other Poems. That same year, on this day, 5 July 1835, Bishop Sumner of Winchester ordained him as a priest in the Church of England. It was a busy time for Trench as it was also the year that he was married.
As a priest, Trench pored over the Bible, publishing the fruits of his studies. Among his best books were those on the miracles and the parables of the Lord, as well as his famous New Testament Synonyms, which are still in print today. His printed sermons still move the reader. In a sermon on Acts 26:28, Trench captures the horror of Agrippa’s terrible choice: “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.’” He continues, saying:
What did he lose? He lost himself. Christ has demanded, ‘What shall a man profit, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ Agrippa had not gained the whole world—only a miserable little fragment of it; and this but for a moment, for a little inch of time; but in the grasping and gaining of this he had made that terrible loss and shipwreck of which Christ speaks, had lost himself; in other words, had lost all.
In October of 1856, Richard Trench became Dean of Westminster Cathedral. In an effort to reach the people of London for Christ, he instituted evening services. These services were not initially successful, but they did well under his successors. Trench finally became Archbishop of Dublin in 1864, where he had to oversee the disestablishment of the state church (making it the state church no longer). Although not in sympathy with this move, he handled it well. In 1884, weak and ill, he resigned. He lived two more years.
—Dan Graves
----- ------ ------
For more on the reliability of the Bible, see The Bible on Trial: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. Watch at RedeemTV.
The Bible on Trial and The Six Miracles of Calvary (for more on biblical miracles) can be purchased at Vision Video