A Brush with Reality

The following article describing how DeWitt Whistler Jayne ’36 shaped the development of the Wheaton College art department in its formative years was featured in the Wheaton College Alumni Magazine in Spring 1994 and is transcribed below.

A Brush with Reality
by Lynette Hoppe M.A. ’90

Art has almost always been included in the curriculum of Wheaton College. In 1862, the list of college faculty included Miss Emma Strong, teacher of French and drawing. The catalogue of 1866 offered “Drawing and Gymnastics at a moderate charge” to young women enrolled in the Ladies Department. These early efforts at teaching art look suspiciously like something from a Jane Austin novel, where art is seen as a necessary component in “finishing” young ladies properly. Nonetheless, as Wheaton College grew from a fledgling institute to a more established college, courses in art began to find a regular place in the academic program.

One of the persons who helped shape the future of art at Wheaton was alumnus DeWitt Whistler Jayne. Immediately after graduating in 1936, Jayne began as an art instructor at the College, and served in that capacity until 1946. During his tenure, Jayne developed a full art curriculum, helped to formulate the College’s philosophy of art, and in himself brought to the department outstanding abilities in painting and drawing.

Born in Boston on September 18, 1911, to DeWitt Clinton and Ruth Whistler Jayne (Yes, he is a first cousin thrice removed of James McNeill Whistler), DeWitt Jayne grew up with a love for drawing and painting. His love of the sea began early as well, and while still a youth, he began to assemble what became one of this country’s most comprehensive resource files on old sailing ships. He also spent many years studying ships under sail and visiting the world’s great historical ports and harbors.

Jayne began his formal art education at the Philadelphia Museum’s School of Art, where he studied under the first-generation students of the great American illustrator, Howard Pyle. Here Jayne encountered an intense attention to correct detail and a passion to put drawing before all else. This shaped Jayne’s impressive ability to accurately capture a scene and its crucial elements. Such visual mastery combined with DeWitt’s love of the sea made him “one of those rare artists who can accurately depict the rigging of great sailing ships.”

From the School of Art, DeWitt Jayne went to Wheaton College, where he received a bachelor of science degree. Post-graduate studies were conducted at the University of Chicago and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his master of arts in 1962. He also spent two years studying in the studio of Allen Lewis, National Academician, the majority of whose works are now housed in the Wheaton College Special Collections, thanks to a generous donation from Jayne himself, who is a nephew of this master.

After leaving Wheaton, Jayne became studio manager and art director for various advertising and design firms. In 1962 he joined the faculty of California State University, Sacramento, teaching for 15 years before retiring as professor emeritus in humanities.

Among Jayne’s many achievements are commissioned portraits of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Harry Byrd, Fulton Lewis, Jr., and Norman Tallmedge. He also painted numerous faculty portraits for Westminster, Covenant, and Fuller Seminaries including that of Carl F.H. Henry ’38. In addition, he painted portraits of several of the Wheaton College’s own presidents — James Oliver Buswell, Jr., whose portrait hangs in the Heritage Room, Edman East Wing; and Hudson T. Armerding, whose portrait is in the building named in his honor, Armerding Hall.

DeWitt Jayne also spent many years as a freelance book and magazine illustrator and was extensively involved in national advertising through various agencies.

After 50 years of rigorous and continual painting and drawing, Jayne has become an acknowledged master of realistic works of the sea, sailing ships, and genre. In the 1970s he began a new phase of his artistic career by turning to easel painting and the production of finished pastels. He continues this activity today at his home and studio in Santa Barbara. Jayne and his wife, Dorothy ’38, have traveled extensively to find subject material for his paintings and pastels.

At present, various pieces by DeWitt Jayne are on exhibit at the New Masters Gallery in Carmel, California, where he has been represented for 20 years. Works are privately owned by various individuals, including Billy Graham, Mrs. Harry Byrd, and the Honorable Herman Talmadge; and institutions, including Wheaton College, Westmont College, Covenant Seminary, Fuller Seminary, Westminster, and California State University, Sacramento.

“As a painter I think of myself as an illustrator who in my visual statement is concerned with what may be only a momentary glimpse of external reality in space and time,” says Jayne. “I love the play of light on figures and take a keen delight in the shimmer of light on water — a further reflection of the beauty of God’s creation.”

“To this end I have employed the concept of the ultimate biblical statement that ‘God is my light’ in my recent work, an illustration of the text from the Gospel of Mark describing the Transfiguration of our Lord. I think this painting may be unique in its subject matter, and it well may be true that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

On My Mind – Eleanor Paulson

Twenty years ago, the Wheaton Alumni magazine began a series of articles in which Wheaton faculty told about their thinking, their research, or their favorite books and people. Professor Emerita of Communications Eleanor Paulson ’47 (who taught at Wheaton from 1952-1991) was featured in the Fall1992 issue.

http://recollections.liblog.wheaton.edu/2012/03/23/files/OMM-Eleanor-Paulson-Fall-1992-1.jpgCicero described it as “the treasury and guardian of all things.” Shakespeare called it “The warder of the brain.” Charlotte Bronte wrote, “I prize her as my best friend.” The words of Mark Van Doren were, “It holds together past and present, gives continuity and dignity to human life. It is the companion, tutor, poet, library with which we travel.” These authors were referring to “Memory,” which serves to remind us of people, places and experiences we have encountered, and their significance in our lives.

Recently I attended my Wheaton College class reunion. We renewed friendships and shared memories of our college days: of first impressions of Wheaton, orientation and initiation by sophomores who required us to wear “dinks,” carry their hooks, and obey other commands. We remembered classes and special professors who challenged us with the excitement of learning. Beginning classes with devotions made a special impression on many of us.

In addition to classes and hours spent in the library there were trips to the Stupe, friendships to form, athletic events, dorm parties, Washington Banquets, and a Sneak” when we were seniors. We wore our Sunday best for dinner Friday evenings, and afterward attended Literary Society meetings. There were opportunities to be members of the many organizations on campus. Occasionally we took the “Aurora and Elgin” to Chicago, and Mrs. Smith, dean of women, reminded us that “Wheaton women wore hats and gloves.” A special time each day was the chapel service in Pierce. Dr. Edman, “Prexy,” spoke to us on such subjects as: “It’s Always Too Soon to Quit,” “Not Somehow, But Triumphantly,” “Don’t Doubt in the Dark What God Told You in the Light,” and the importance of living “For Christ and His Kingdom.”

Since graduation there have been additional memories added to my storehouse: teaching literature and speech to high school students in Almont, Michigan; teaching evening school at the Detroit Bible College; graduate work at Northwestern University, and then my return to Wheaton to teach. I shall never forget the beautiful spring day when I received a letter from Dr. Nystrom, chair of the speech department, inviting me to come to Wheaton to teach. That was a dream that came true!

For 39 years, I had the wonderful privilege of teaching Oral Interpretation of Literature, Speech for Teachers, Private Lessons, Public Speaking, and directing reading hours, recitals, and readers’ theater programs. I greatly enjoyed working with students in classes and programs, sharing their joys, their concerns, and their interests. They enriched my life in so many ways. In remembering the many students I had the privilege of knowing, I am reminded also of the many selections of literature we shared.

We experienced a sense of wonder as we read CS. Lewis’ “Creation of Narnia.”
We witnessed the transformation and joy of Scrooge as he discovered Christmas.
We shared the friendship between a little prince and a fox in the story by Saint-Exupery.
We shared in the adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlie Brown and his friends, the children in Narnia, Bilbo Baggins, and others.
We became immersed in discussions between the Karamazov brothers on the existence of God and immortality, Christ-like love, suffering, and forgiveness.
We accompanied Christian on his journey to the “Celestial City” in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
We enjoyed the poetic expressions of Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Frost, Hopkins, e.e. cummings, Madeleine L’Engle, Luci Shaw, and many others.
We empathized with the experiences of a vast array of characters.

When we read of Sydney Carton’s death for his friend, Charles Darnay, in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, we were reminded of another death–for us–and of the words of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me shall never die.”

We shared the oral reading of God’s Word, realizing the importance of reading it well, and the need for careful preparation to understand meanings and communicate effectively literary genres, guidelines for living, promises, the majesty of God, and his great love for us.

As I remembered shared literary experiences, I was reminded of Fairlight Spencer’s words in Catherine Marshall’s Christy, “It’s today I must be livin”; and of Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and he glad in it.” Memories “hold past and present together,” but each new day is a gift to be lived to the fullest. With retirement, I have opened a new chapter in my life, with many new opportunities and joys to he experienced. There is a time for remembering, and there is a time to enjoy new experiences.

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For 39 years Professor Emerita Eleanor Paulson taught Oral Interpretation in Literature and other communications courses, and directed reading hours, recitals, and readers’ theater programs at Wheaton College. In 1985, she was honored as Alumna of the Year for “Distinguished Service to Alma Mater.” She retired last spring (1991) and is now occupied with many new activities travel, volunteer work, Bible study, church work, speaking engagements and other opportunities for service, enrichment, and spiritual growth.

Billy Graham on Wheaton College

This interview with Dr. Billy Graham was conducted by Wheaton College student Steve Gieser in Houston, Texas. The interview was edited from two sessions and published in the February 5, 1982, edition of The Record, the campus newspaper.

What impressed you most about your academic experience at Wheaton?

Wheaton was a tremendous time of intellectual expansion for me. I had always failed pretty miserably in my studies during high school. I was academically unprepared for Wheaton, but I soon caught on and became absolutely fascinated with some of my courses. I don’t think there was a single course that I took at Wheaton that I didn’t like.

What were your favorite courses?

I really enjoyed anthropology courses. That was my major. The professor, Dr. Alexander Grigolia, was a Russian immigrant to Germany and had two Ph.Ds and an M.D. degree. He was probably one of the most brilliant professors in anthropology in the United States at that time. He was so absorbed in his subject that many times we would label him “the absent-minded professor.” These courses helped me in my world travels. I had no idea that the Lord was preparing me through these classes to learn to adapt to different tribal situations, different cultures, and different parts of the world that I was to preach to in the years to come.

What did you do besides study?

During my second year, on the recommendation of Dr. Edman, I became pastor of the Gospel Tabernacle. About 300 students and professors came every Sunday morning and evening. Dr. Edman had been the pastor. When he became the president of Wheaton College, he asked me to take over the pastorate. They paid me $15 a week, which was a big help to me in my schooling. I was also invited to preach here and there around the Chicago area. I even tried out for the wrestling team, but I failed. I was too busy. In addition to everything else, I worked on a truck for 50 cents an hour hauling furniture.

What advice would you give students who feel God is leading them into the ministry?

I think a solid grounding in Bible is very important. If you’re going to be a pastor, you need to know your tools. Most students who plan on being pastors go to seminary. And I would encourage them to do that.

Did you go to seminary?

No. That’s the reason I advise them to do that!

Looking back, do you wish you had gone?

Well, I think the Lord planned my life. If I had gone to seminary, I might have been put in a mold. Evangelists should have a little more flexibility. But, if I had done the choosing rather than the Lord, I would have gone to seminary. I think I did miss a great deal by not going. But I try to make it up in constant study and reading.

People often criticize Wheaton students for being “sheltered from the real world.” What do you think?

I would not categorically say that they’re too sheltered. It’s an individual thing. Wheaton, for many young people, is a transition period from what might have been a sheltered home to the real world. For others, the college is too sheltered. I think especially during the freshman and sophomore years there needs to be this transition period, because we’re really not yet adults in a sense, intellectually or emotionally, and I think this is where there needs to be guidance. In the Grecian days, one man would sit and teach with his pupils around him. It was the way that the teacher lived as much as what he taught his students. They were followers of a model. One of the things missing in modern education is this model of professors. Whether or not we are sheltered depends on the model that the faculty give the student. The responsibilty of a faculty member at a school like Wheaton goes far beyond just his ability to teach or his academic background, because the student is also watching how he lives. This makes a great impression on a student.

What are some of the most significant changes you have observed since your time here as a student?

Back in the forties, when I went to school at Wheaton, the mood of the day was that science was going to solve all of the problems of the world. The secular world almost worshiped at the shrine of science. Science has proven, on the one hand, to be a great and wonderful thing. On the other hand, because of man’s heart, it has proven to be a disaster. The age of technology has burst upon us with the blast of the atomic bomb. We can now destroy the world in just a couple of hours. We have the technological breakthrough just over the horizon that could bring paradise to earth. On the other hand, that same technology could bring hell to earth. Well, those thoughts were never in our minds when I was a student. We could get glimpses, but they were only glimpses. Today they are realities. I think we should be concerned about the arms race. I am glad to see President Reagan attempting to reduce arms with the Soviet Union. I think the people on this globe live in constant fear of nuclear war, especially in Europe. And I don’t blame them.

Do you think Christians should get involved in the prevention of nuclear arms?

Yes, I think we must speak out and make our voices heard. I’m not a pacifist, and I’m not for unilateral disarmament. I don’t believe America should tear up all of its arms. But I think we should talk with the Soviets on the destruction of nuclear arms. I don’t have too much hope that they’re going to reduce arms on either side. I think there must be a total destruction. But the possibilities of that are rather slim. The only person that is really going to answer this problem is the Prince of Peace. Still, in the meantime, we as Christians ought to pursue peace.

How should we do this? Should Christians try to influence politics?

Many religious groups have been active in politics for years. I think the Moral Majority has received a lot of publicity because it was really the first time conservatives became politically active.

Do you agree with the Moral Majority?

I don’t fault the Moral Majority for being political, but I don’t agree with the fact that I, as a Christian clergyman, ought to become involved in all these areas. We in the church should set moral guidelines for our leaders, and then let these situations be worked out in guidelines that are biblically based.

Did Wheaton shape any of your views of social action?

Yes. Going to Wheaton was a big turning point in my view on racism. Because when I studied the history of Wheaton, I began to realize that it was really started as an anti-slavery school. Jonathan Blanchard was very closely identified with the early American evangelist Charles Finney and the Beecher family in Boston. Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) had a brother that was a member of the first graduating class at Wheaton. The first time I’d ever gone to school with blacks was at Wheaton. This opened my eye to the fact that we are all equal. So from the beginning of my ministry, I began to take a stand against racism which was very, very unpopular. In the early 1950s in the south, I came under severe criticism.

What would you like to see changed about Wheaton?

Well, I don’t know that much about Wheaton, and this is a terrible thing for a board member to say. First of all, I’m not very comfortable being on the board at Wheaton. I was asked by Dr. Edman. I loved and respected him so much that I accepted, with the understanding that I could rarely attend board meetings, and could not keep up with everything going on. And this has proven to be true. I feel that a board member at Wheaton ought to become involved far more than board members are involved now. I think we ought to note student feelings, and have discussions with students, have discussions with faculty members, and get the whole sense of Wheaton before we sit in a board meeting.

The press seems eager to find fault with you. What’s it like to be in the public eye?

I have to meet the press wherever I go. They’re coming to my home all the time. For instance, the other week, both CBS and ABC spent full days at my home filming. From the very beginning I’ve been in the press. And I’ve run scared. I’ve never lost my fears that I would say something wrong or do something that would bring discredit on the name of Christ. So many people that are in the public eye have what is called “foot-in-the-mouth disease.” It’s very easy to catch. The problem is that the press often misquotes what I say. I have to constantly think, how is this going to sound out of context? When I talk to a reporter, I have to keep in mind that I can never say anything “off the record.”

Over the years, you have been close friends with several of the presidents. What kind of relationship do you have with President Reagan?

We’ve been friends for over thirty years. I met him through his mother-in-law, Mrs. Davis. We were in Phoenix, and I was playing golf. Mrs. David came out on the course and asked if she could see me. So after the game, I went inside and she said she wanted me to meet her new son-in-law, who had just been married for about a year. I said, “Who is your son-in-law?” And she answered, “Ronald Reagan.” “Oh, you mean the film star?” She said, “Yes,” and introduced me to him. That fall in Dallas, Texas, he and I were co-speakers. We became friends then. Ruth and I have visited the Reagans many times at his home over the years. Of the presidents that I have known, like Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan, I was friendly with all of them before they became presidents. I met Nixon through his family. They came to nearly every evangelistic meeting held in southern California. One day I was eating with Senator Clyde Huey of North Carolina., and Senator Huey said, “There goes young Nixon from California.” I said, “Oh, I know his parents,” so he called Nixon over to our table. Nixon was very friendly and said, “I’m going to play golf and we need another partner.” So, that’s how I met him.

What do you do for relaxation?

I jog about two miles every day, even during crusades. At sixty-three, I think I’m in the best health that I’ve been in in my whole life. There’s nothing wrong with me anywhere, so far as I can tell. Except that I don’t have enough hours in the day!

In closing, what advice would you give us as students?

Well, I think the most important thing a person can get out of Wheaton is to develop habits of a devotional life of Bible study and prayer, because that will be your strength through all of your life.

Waterman under the bridge

Recently a small leaflet was unearthed in the faculty papers of former Professor of Theology, G. Henry Waterman. Dr. Waterman received his M.A. (1948) and B.D. (1953) from Wheaton College and Ph.D. from New York University (1966). His professional career began and ended at Wheaton. He taught Greek as a newly minted graduate from 1948-51 and later New Testament Interpretation from 1966 to his death in 1977. In the intervening years, he was a pastor in upstate New York. He taught overseas in the Philippines and was a China missionary with the C&MA church. He worked with the American Bible Society as a translation consultant and was a member of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research, Evangelical Theological Society, and a translator for the New International Version of the Bible. During his tenure at Wheaton, he taught in the shadow of notable biblical scholars and theologians such as, Merrill Tenney, Kenneth Kantzer, Carl Armerding, Millard Erickson, and Gordon Fee.

Although a small hand-written annotation ascribes the leaflet’s orgins to the Biblical, Religious, and Archaeological Studies department, the veracity of its contents titled, “A complete compilation and exposition of all the New Testament passages that support the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory” can neither be confirmed nor denied…

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The Papers of G. Henry Waterman are housed in the Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections and are available for research.

Phil Saint

“Dad taught me the fundamentals of art,” writes Phil Saint, whose father, Lawrence, designed the stained-glass windows at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., “with patience and devotion that I would not have met in any art school. He was a hard taskmaster.” During high school Saint assisted cartoonist Herbert Johnson at The Saturday Evening Post, learning valuable draftsmanship. As a chalk talk evangelist at Wheaton College, Saint drew pictures as he preached in churches and youth camps. Interestingly, Saint was partly color blind, asking attendees to his meetings the color of his chalk, dividing the pieces appropriately on his tray. He recalls fondly, “The Wheaton of 1937 caught me up in a new world of studies, friendships and extracurricular studies.” Amid these activities Saint met his future wife, Ruth Brooker. Graduating with honors, he entered World War II where he distributed New Testaments for the Pocket Testament League. After briefly serving as a missionary in Japan and Korea, he eventually settled in Argentina where he established a conference center and studio.

Curious about his son’s revitalized spiritual life, Saint investigated the claims of Pentecostalism and finally joined them in the late 1960s after receiving a baptism in the spirit, which he called his “spiritual earthquake.” Raised among the cautious Plymouth Brethren, his decision caused considerable consternation among them and some supporters discontinued funding his mission. But Saint never looked back, simply applying his gifts as teacher and artist to Pentecostal denominations. His books include 85 Drawings About the Here and Hereafter and his humorous memoir, Saints Alive, both illustrated with cartoons interspersed with commentary reflecting his conservative positions on religion and politics. Saint’s work has been favorable compared to that of graphic artist Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit. Saint’s brother, Nate, was one of five missionaries martyred in Ecuador in January, 1956. Saint’s sister, Rachel, remained with the mission to continue the work. Phil Saint died in 1993 as the result of a tractor accident at Lake Valley Bible Conference Center in Cordobo, Argentina.

Reflections on Technology

Twenty years ago, the Wheaton Alumni magazine began a series of articles, titled “On My Mind”, in which Wheaton faculty told about their thinking, their research, or their favorite books and people. Head of Public Services John Fawcett ’84 (who worked at Wheaton from 1987-2008) was featured in the Winter 1995 issue.

It’s a rare day that I don’t find an announcement of a new electronic product in my pile of morning mail. CD-ROM databases, multimedia encyclopedias, online journals, World Wide Web pages–just watching all that floats by in the deluge could occupy all of my time. Many of these products are familiar to me, old friends in new guises, like information stairways that have become elevators. For example, an announcement just arrived that Historical Abstracts will eventually be available in its entirety on CD-ROM, all the way back to 1955 (we still have to search it in paper before 1982). Another flier offers us the chance (for a fee!) to search the Encyclopedia Britannica on the Internet. Other resources are tantalizingly experimental, not so predictable–information stairways that are turning into Star Trek transporters: such as a multimedia version of Beethoven’s Ninth–you can follow an analysis of the printed score while listening to the recording. Or the chance that because of congressional budget cuts, the Government Printing Office might cease producing some significant documents in printed form at all; instead, we’d have full text online access the very day they are posted.

Yet in the midst of the excitement of technological novelty, I often entertain this nagging doubt: What does it all mean? Is it possible that the glitz of the “new” beguiles us into believing we’re really making “progress”? Certainly we’re more efficient, faster, more easily quantified. But speed alone does not equal quality, nor data wisdom, nor knowledge character. As Americans, we love the pragmatic, the bold and the different, but we sometimes sacrifice our historical consciousness on the altar of innovation. This realization came home clearly to me during a presentation I recently attended by a codicologist–a scholar who studies manuscripts as cultural artifacts for their historical interest. I was amazed as I watched her open a window on the landscape of fifteenth-century France through the details of a single book its paper quality, its binding, its dedicatory page, even the stitching in its spine! Every age embodies its values in its “books,” whether preserved on vellum, parchment, paper, celluloid, or hard drive. And this embodiment means something.

We’re all familiar with the now widely accepted research that demonstrates that television profoundly shapes children’s learning styles. The MTV-generation perceives differently (for better or for worse) from the comic-book generation. If the medium is indeed the message (a la Marshall McLuhan), then the ascendancy of the computer packs quite a message! Scholars will spend years attempting to comprehend its meaning, but I’m already convinced of one thing: We must never let a computer– as great a blessing as it is when used as a tool–persuade us that cyberspace is ultimate reality. Technology has a curious way of taking on a life of its own. It seems to gain power to control our modes of existence and distract us from the fact that it is only a created thing, ephemeral and vulnerable, fragile. Its “needs” can assume near-personal dimensions.

I’ve often wondered about our culture’s subconscious dependency on electricity, for example. In the shadow of events in Sarajevo, it’s a sobering thought to consider what forms our lives would take if the sophisticated machines we take as life-companions were threatened, Would it be as great a disaster as we imagine? Or might it rend the illusory veil of power that our electronic gadgets seem to give us?

If our fundamental Christian understanding of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ tells us anything, it is that God does not despise matter, but rather redeems it through His Son. God is concerned not only with the spiritual and the abstract, but also with the physical and the concrete. He is not as interested in compressing space and time (what computers do best!) as He is with filling them. When we assume that sheerly by gaining more control over information we will become better people, we fall into one of the oldest heretical traps: the gnostic hope for salvation through disembodied knowledge. If computers are at all dangerous (and they could be), it would be in part because they contribute to this false hope. On the other hand, to ignore the potential benefits of computers would be to fall into the opposite trap: a failure to properly value technology as a redeemable aspect of the created order.

But what does all this have to do with the task of education? Much in every way! Because God in His fullest revelation of Himself came to us in person, not as a scanned image or an http:// site, our task as educators has primarily to do with persons. We certainly don’t despise our God-given ability to abstract, but we circumscribe it within the bounds of the larger reality of our souls. For me, that means that technological hard- and soft-wares, and all the skills requisite to using them, have to be placed at the service of something greater than themselves–or better, Someone Greater for Truth is a Person. It means that life in the presence of God can encompass the full range of human experience–from the task of mastering Microsoft’s latest Windows release to times of repentance and refreshing such as we experienced in the revival services on campus last spring. As I teach and work in the library, mediating historical artifacts and cutting-edge data-retrieval systems to students and faculty, that’s my challenge and my prayer.

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John Fawcett ’84 was the head of public services at Buswell Memorial Library. He received an M.A. in librarianship from the University of Chicago, and completed an M.A. in theological studies at Wheaton. In addition to his work in the Library John taught an introductory research course for students in the history department. He was also involved in ministries of prayer and healing at the Church of the Resurrection of Illinois, where he served as music coordinator. After a long battle with cancer, John William Fawcett died on May 27, 2008 at age 46.

Speechless

Bible translators bear a serious responsibility in conveying the proper meaning of God’s Word in the various languages of humankind. Is it possible that mistranslation, deliberate or accidental, invokes God’s judgment?

In 1989 evangelist Dr. Sam Gipp appeared before a studio audience on the John Ankerberg Show with Dr. Joseph Chambers and Dr. Thomas Strouse, defending the King James Bible and the Byzantine family of manuscripts from which it is translated. They claim that modern translations, based on a separate family of ancient Alexandrian manuscripts, dilute or distort key Bible doctrines, such as the deity of Christ. Opposing the KJV-only position were Dr. Kenneth Barker, head of the New International Version (NIV) translation committee, Dr. Art Farstad, head of the New King James Bible committee and Dr. Don Wilkins, who worked on the New American Standard (NAS). During the exchange Ankerberg mentions the rumor, widely used by KJV advocates, that several editors serving on these committees had “…died, gone insane or lost their voices.” To verify, Ankerberg first asks Barker, who denies the allegation; the question is then posed to Farstad, who also denies it; finally he asks Wilkins, who says, “No, John, nobody lost their voice –” as he speaks, his voice suddenly constricts, at which point he rasps, “I’ve lost my voice!” Ankerberg immediately orders the cameras to stop rolling, back up and re-record, erasing this brief segment of the taping as Wilkins sips water and recovers. Once the cameras are rolling, Ankerberg again asks the question of Wilkins, who calmly responds, “I’ve obviously not lost my voice.” At this statement the audience can be heard giggling, as only minutes before he had been struggling to speak. Since Wilkins’ original reply was erased, only the broadcast response remains. Evangelist Gipp discusses the incident in several YouTube videos.

A similar phenomena is seen in the life of Dr. Kenneth Taylor, author, founder and president of Tyndale House Publishers. During the mid-1960s Taylor decided to recast the formal language of the Bible in modern language, paraphrasing the Gospels with thought-for-thought equivalency. In a chapter called “Voice Problems” from his autobiography My Life: A Guided Tour (1991), Taylor recounts his excitement at seeing the first installments of The Living Bible published. During this time while travelling in Europe, Taylor’s voice began faltering. Sitting in a hotel room in Jerusalem, he wondered whether he ought to complete his translation of the Bible, moving onto difficult sections of the Old Testament and the Epistles. After meeting with Emporer Haillie Selassie of Ethiopia about allowing the Bible to be translated into various Ethiopian languages, Taylor’s voice worsened until he was forced to consult vocal specialists.

After trying various sprays, lozenges and even attending Charismatic healing sessions, he consulted a Jewish psychiatrist, who suggested that the mysterious laryngitis, diagnosed as spasmodic dysphonia, was the result of Taylor’s subconscious guilt for “tampering with the Word of God.” At some level, said the doctor, Taylor felt that God was punishing him.

“Not a few saw my affliction as a blessing in disguise,” he writes, “because it enabled me to concentrate on paraphrasing the rest of the Bible during the next nine years. I continued to pray for healing all of that time and hoped that with the completion of The Living Bible the ‘blessing in disguise’ would be removed. It wasn’t.” For the remainder of his life Taylor tried various experimental treatments, but his voice, reduced to a gravelly whisper, never returned to its vigor.

Translation notes for The Living Bible and the New International Version (NIV) are archived at Wheaton College Special Collections.

A Vibrant Chord in the Abundant Life

The following article details the life of teacher, performer and author Elizabeth Green ’28. The interview was featured in the Wheaton College Alumni Magazine in June 1987 and is transcribed below.

A Vibrant Chord in the Abundant Life
by Jean Harmeling ’78

Elizabeth Green’s zeal for life and learning has blended harmoniously with a distinguished music career full of surprises. At the age of nine, she announced emphatically that she “would never teach.” More than 70 years later, she is recognized as one of the most important and highly esteemed teachers of stringed instruments and conducting in America. Her books are used in classrooms in major universities, and her associations with some of the greatest violinists and conductors in the world still put her in high demand as a lecturer.

“Well,” she comments ironically, her voice always sparking with laughter, “I guess the Lord knew differently.”

Elizabeth Green ’28 never questioned her love for the violin, however. Taught by her father, Albert Green, Wheaton Conservatory’s first director, she gave her first public performance at age five. By the time she reached high school, “she was playing rings around me,” remembers lifelong friend, Leslie Blasius, a Conservatory graduate in 1923. “She had outstanding, remarkable technique at such an early age.”

Elizabeth remembers her years at Wheaton as being “the strongest influence of my life,” not only as a teacher and writer, but in her faith as well. “I owe the depth of my religion to Wheaton.”

After a fire destroyed her family’s home in 1922, she moved into Williston dorm. There she became seriously ill with the flu and nearly died. A prayer meeting was held outside her door all night, and the next day she began to recover. “I believe those prayers saved my life,” she recalls.

Bouncing right back, Green finished her music degree requirements at Wheaton before she finished high school. She was allowed to “walk down the aisle” for the 1923 graduation ceremonies, but since she hadn’t completed the academic requirements for her degree, she stayed on at Wheaton until 1928 when she received a B.S. in philosophy with a minor in physics. Her continued musical studies included viola with Clarence Evans, principal violist with the Chicago Symphony, and violin with Jacques Gordon, concertmaster, also with the Symphony.

After Wheaton, Elizabeth took on the formidable task of teaching stringed instruments in the Waterloo, Iowa, public schools and organizing the Waterloo Symphony in which she also performed. By 1939, she had also completed her master of music degree from Northwestern University.

Impressed with the awards her students were winning at state and national orchestra festivals, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor presented Green with a new challenge. In 1942 she was invited to teach the orchestral program for the Ann Arbor public schools. Accepting the challenge, Green transformed the Ann Arbor High School “orchestra” from a struggling nine-member group into a 60-piece symphony, then left the public schools in 1954 to teach full-time at the University for the next 20 years.

Her performance career expanded as well as soloist and concertmaster with the Ann Arbor and Saginaw Symphonies, experiences she looks back on with special joy. She performed and conducted for numerous other symphonies from around the country, but never gave up her desire for learning more.

From 1949 to 1956, Green spent her summers studying violin with world-renowned Ivan Galamian. During this time, she also helped him write his book Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching (1962). Today, Green is considered a leading authority on Galamian’s methods of violin pedagogy.

Her writing skills were also called upon to finish the late Nicolai Malko’s book The Conductor and His Score (1971). Green had a long association with the great Russian composer. In 1965, four years after his death, the Nicolai Malko Memorial International Competition for Young Performers was established, and Green was invited to be a guest lecturer at the first competition in Copenhagen.

Green’s writing proficiency has produced some of her own books. The Modern Conductor (1961) is now in its fourth edition and already considered a classic. The Dynamic Orchestra was published this year [1987], and Green hopes to add a third volume about her views and experiences as a teacher.

“It’s 50-50,” she says when asked what has given her greatest satisfaction, teaching or performing. She has enthusiastically given her all to both.

“Don’t ever teach an assignment that you yourself are bored with,” is her philosophy of teaching. “When you walk into a classroom, you’re walking onto a stage and the class is your audience.”

Green retired from that stage in 1974. With a little time on her hands, she decided to pursue a lifetime love of painting and earned a fine arts degree from Eastern Michigan University. Now that she’s finally checked that dream off her list, she’s considering slowing down a bit.

But there is that book to write. And pictures to paint. And students still come knocking on her door. “I’ve never been very articulate about my religion,” she says, “but students have always sensed it. They’ve always felt free to come to me with their problems.”

Her advice is both encouraging and practical. “Go after your goal in life, but be prepared to make a living.” Her greater lesson, though, seems to be the vibrant chord of the abundant life that echoes so wonderfully about her.

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Elizabeth Green died September 4, 1995. The Papers of Elizabeth Green are housed in the Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections and are available for research.

A.W. Tozer & Wheaton College

The following passage describes the relationship between A.W. Tozer and Wheaton College and is transcribed from “A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A.W. Tozer” by Lyle Dorsett (Moody 2008).

From 1945 until his death in 1963, Tozer poured seemingly unbounded energy into the younger generation. The Sunday evening services at the church on Union Avenue continued to attract hundreds of students as long as Tozer was there. They came twenty-five miles from Wheaton College, and they drove or took the streetcar from Moody Bible Institute. College-age men and women were eager to listen to an intelligent and articulate speaker who assumed the inerrancy of the Bible and used it to call them to radical obedience.

Tozer’s popularity with students on Sunday nights led to other times of interaction with college-age people. Dr. V. Raymond Edman, President of Wheaton College beginning in 1941, became a close friend to A, W. Tozer. The two men shared many experiences and interests. Edman, born in 1900, was three years younger than Tozer. Bespectacled, balding more than Tozer and slightly heavier, Edman served in the United States Army as an enlisted man in World War I. Whereas Tozer was self-educated, Edman worked his way through university, earning a BA from Boston University in 1922. A Spanish major, Edman developed connections with Dr. Paul Rader when he served as head of the C&MA’s Bible Training Institute in Nyack, New York. Through Rader, Edman connected with the Alliance and after marriage he and his wife went to Ecuador as missionaries. Eventually the Edmans returned to the United States because of Raymond’s health, and he went on to earn an (American History) and a PhD (International Relations) from Clark University in Massachusetts.

In 1937 Dr. Edman joined the faculty at Wheaton College to teach history. In 1941 he was appointed president of the college. Tozer’s name was well known to Edman by the time he we Wheaton, because as a member of the Alliance he had read Tozer’s articles in The Alliance Weekly. The two men met personally by 1940 and became fast friends. Both men understood college women and men and sensed God’s leading to encourage them in their faith. Tozer frequently had Dr. Edman come and preach at Southside Church and he urged the college professor to write for Alliance magazine. Once Edman became president of Wheaton College there was seldom a year that passed–at least until the Tozers moved to Canada in 1959–that the Southside pastor was brought to Wheaton College to speak in chapel.

Tozer shared his pulpit with Raymond Edman, and the latter opened the college podium to Tozer because they manifested almost identical understandings of the Bible. As Alliance men, both fully embraced the denomination’s four pillars of Jesus Christ as Savior Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. Beyond this connection, however, both men stood deeply committed to the belief that all born-again Christians are invited by God into a “deeper life” after conversion. Each man had experienced a personal and transformational work of grace after conversion. And while each man knew that the Spirit of Jesus Christ works uniquely with every soul, they nevertheless knew from Scripture, church history, and their personal experience that the Spirit of Jesus Christ desires to continue to grow in and flow through His chosen people in profound, transformational, and God-glorifying ways that are seldom realized by most Christians.

V. Raymond Edman laid out his views on what he saw as the liberating and fulfilling life in a volume titled They Found the Secret (1960). A collective spiritual biography of twenty people, Edman presented cameo portraits and deeper life experiences of notable Christians such as Amy Carmichael and Dwight L. Moody.

Tozer set forth a similar view, albeit not through historical biographies, but in a series of articles he published in the magazine Christian Life that were published in a little book titled Keys to the Deeper Life (1957). Prior to this, Tozer had expressed his views on the ‘deeper life’ in several chapel addresses at Wheaton College–ten in 1952 and one two years later.

Young people loved Tozer in the same way an earlier generation loved D. L. Moody. Like the world-famous nineteenth-century evangelist, Tozer knew how to communicate with young adults, and he had a sacred anointing from the Holy Spirit to reach people’s hearts as well as minds. Like Moody and Edman, Tozer did not push Pentecostal doctrines or the gift of tongues. Instead, people were told that knowing about Jesus Christ, understanding correct doctrine, and being a good student of the Bible are only part of our calling. The Lord wants His people to “know Him” not just “about Him.” in the spirit of John 17:3, eternal life is to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Tozer, like Moody, urged people to enter into a deeper life with Christ. Tozer often spoke these or similar words:

Tens of thousands of believers who pride themselves in their understanding of Romans and Ephesians cannot conceal the sharp spiritual contradiction that exists between their hearts and the heart of Paul. That difference may be stated this way: Paul was seeker and a finder and a seeker still. They seek and find and seek no more. After “accepting” Christ they tend to substitute logic for life and doctrine for experience. For them the truth becomes a veil to hide the face of God; for Paul it was a door into His very Presence… Many today stand by Paul’s doctrine who will not follow him in his passionate yearning for divine reality. Can these be said to be Pauline in any but the most nominal sense?

Tozer went on to explain this further by quoting The Cloud of the Unknowing, which he argued contained a prayer that expresses the core of deeper life teaching:

God, unto whom all hearts be open…and unto whom no secret thing is hid, I beseech Thee so for to cleanse the intent of mine heart with the unspeakable gift of Thy grace, that I may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee. Amen.

Tozer continued:

Who that is truly born of the Spirit, unless he has been prejudiced by wrong teaching, can object to such a thorough cleansing of heart as will enable him perfectly to love God and worthily to praise Him? Yet this is exactly what we mean when we speak about with the “deeper life” experience. Only we mean that it should be literally fulfilled within the heart, not merely accepted by the head.

Words such as these set ablaze the hearts of thousands of young women and men who, admittedly, were longing for something more. Not that they sought emotional highs or spiritual “experiences.” On the contrary, most of the young people at Wheaton College and Moody Bible Institute had encountered enough excesses in the burgeoning Pentecostal movement. This was not their goal. Rather, they wanted to know Jesus Christ better so that they could make Him known to a world of lost and confused souls.

Tozer’s messages to Chicago-area students became famous. Soon he was invited to fundamentalist and evangelical campuses in other places. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Chicago Alliance pastor spoke at St. Paul Bible College (Minnesota) in 1941. He did Spiritual Emphasis Week services at Wheaton College twice in the 1950s, and also at Fort Wayne Bible College (Indiana) in 1948 and 1954, as well as the baccalaureate address at Houghton College (New York) in 1952. He also spoke at Taylor College (Indiana) in 1960 and Nyack College the same year. Wheaton College honored Tozer with an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1950, and Houghton College bestowed the honorary LLD two years later. Although Tozer never sought to be called “doctor,” he was certainly grateful to be so honored by highly respected Christian colleges like Houghton and Wheaton.

There is no way to measure Tozer’s impact on college people, but the testimonies are nearly legion. Billy Graham remembered going to hear Tozer at the Southside Church several times before he graduated from Wheaton College in 1943, and said he was always deeply blessed, Dr. J. Julius Scott, Professor Emeritus, Wheaton Graduate School, remembered that as a freshman at Wheaton in the early l950s, Tozer’s challenges to “know God Himself,” not just “about God,” left an indelible mark on his soul.23 In the same vein, the late Dr. Bernard King, who graduated from St. Paul Bible College in 1941, said he first met Tozer personally at the college commencement the year we entered World War II. He credited his relationship with Tozer that began at college as being extremely important in his spiritual life and ministry.

Dr. Tozer had a range of influence on high school–age youth that rivaled his impact on college people. He frequently spoke at Youth for Christ rallies on foreign missions and radical commitment to Jesus Christ. Likewise he became one of the most popular speakers at Christian and Missionary Alliance Youth gatherings in places such as New York and Cincinnati, as well as Chicago.

Royalty in Our Midst

Guest posting by Special Collections staff member

The current King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, is known as a stern and tough Monarch. Though his authority is not absolute, he continues to wield considerable influence within his country and beyond. In line with past Kings and Queens of Thailand, he is known for having those who criticize him jailed for 3-15 years under Thailand’s lese-majeste laws. He has been on the throne longer than any living Monarch–since 1946.

It is not as widely known that both the King’s mother (Sangwan Talapat) and father (Prince Mahidol) lived and studied in the United States prior to their marriage in 1920. Sangwan had received a scholarship to study nursing and Prince Mahidol was studying public health at Harvard at the time. This candid photo, dated 1919, shows the Prince and his wife-to-be in front of the home of Mrs. Strong in Hartford Connecticut. Sangwan lived with the Strong family for several months in 1918 and 1919, prior to her engagement and eventual marriage to the Prince. It was apparently Sangwan’s first time to see snow. The photograph is part of the Margaret and Kenneth Landon Collection.

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The Margaret and Kenneth P. Landon Papers are housed in the Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections and are available for research.