In our quest of clarity regarding the human soul it would be a travesty to disregard a solitary life largely forgotten, namely that of Henry Scougal. He was born in 1650, over 360 years ago! But for one little volume, we in the twenty-first century may never have heard of him. The little book is entitled The Life of God in the Soul of Man. We will hear snippets from this small treatise from time to time in this soul-talk series.
Henry Scougal was a most extraordinary man whose life, like a meteor, flamed up for a brief time and flamed out when he was twenty-eight years of age. And yet his life and work cut such a wide path of effectiveness and joy that it is amazing and remarkable to behold. Perhaps the most significant influence of Henry Scougal’s life was his impact on George Whitfield through the book named above. Whitefield said of it, “I never knew what true religion was till God sent me this excellent treatise.” In J. I. Packer’s introduction of the little book, he says, “When a man of Whitefield’s stature applauds a book in such terms, it is our wisdom to sit up and take notice.” Again, Whitefield’s report was, “I must bear testimony to my old friend, Charles Wesley; he put a book in my hands, called The Life of God in the Soul of man, whereby God showed me, that I must be born again or be damned.” So through Whitefield Henry Scougal lived in powerful influence long after his death in 1678. Packer remarks, “Thus God used Scougal to awaken the man who himself came later to be known as the Awakener.”
I want to make this seeming sidelight brief to give you time to think on the subject of Scougal’s brief and splendid treatise and will treat you from time to time with great quotes from his life. In the meanwhile simply allow the title of Scougal’s only known surviving written work to fill your spirit and soul, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Allow the words of that title to roll over your tongue and think of the glorious thought that our great God delights to find a home in our lives. Around this truth gathers the absolute genius of Christianity that no other religion even dares to claim: The union of man with God through the work of Jesus Christ!
I leave you with a quote from Scougal in eighteenth century prose: “Love is that powerful and prevalent passion by which all faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and on which its perfection and happiness depend. The worth and excellency of a soul are to be measured by the object of its love: he who loveth mean and sordid things doth hereby become base and vile; but a noble and well-placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves.”
In closing, let us consider the dynamic reach of the soul of man in the power of love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:10-12).”
Let your soul ruminate on that!
JRT
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