Two weeks ago, I preached at Livermore Reformed Baptist Church. After the morning service, a man approached me waving a book, and asking "Have you read this?" I looked at the cover, saw that it was The Life of John Owen by Orme, and answered "Yes". "What did you think of Janeway?" he asked. "Who?" "John Janeway". "I never heard of him". My friend turned to the back of the book and showed me an appendix I had overlooked. "It the finest thing I have ever read" he told me. "I'll read it" I promised. And so I did. Here's my assessment: My friend was right. This is one of the finest lives I have ever read. Today, I want to tell you something of it. "Something"--I must say--because the work is only 30 pages long. But this is how it should be; for Janeway died young. And was a Christian for less than 6 years. But what years they were! Like the Baptist, this John was "A burning and shining light".

John Janeway was born to the manse of Lilley in 1633. His father impressed upon him the importance of learning, morality, and good manners. John learned his lessons well. From childhood, he was a model of graceful learning. At 17, he entered King's College, Cambridge and so distinguished himself as to be called "the glory of the school and the wonder of the age". But the despite these achievements, John Janeway lacked "the one thing needful".

He sought his father's advice, but without success. For the elder Janeway, though a minister, was unacquainted with the plan of salvation. His professors were equally "in the dark"; as were the preachers he heard. But then, he turned to a book, The Saints' Everlasting Rest by Richard Baxter. The Puritan cut deep furrows into the young man's conscience. Janeway became a man possessed. From several months he pursued salvation as a starving man would food. He turned from Baxter to the Holy Spirit, and read the Bible for himself. There, he found peace--not in good works or sacraments or pious desires--but in Jesus Christ.

"If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold, all things become new". This was more than a memory verse to John Janeway. It was a literal narrative of his life in Christ.

This "new life" showed itself first in a flaming spirit of evangelism. His family, in particular, troubled him. Shortly after his conversion, he wrote to his father, who was struggling under a sense of guilt and fear:

At first glance, perhaps, this letter seems rather impudent, doesn't it. The boy is teaching the father. But the arrogance is only apparent, and not real. He is not lording himself over his father (as some Christians do). He adds:

Janeway's biographer called him "the spiritual father of his natural father". And, more tellingly, his father requested John's presence at his deathbed, and earnestly besought his fellowship and prayers.

This zeal was not confined to his father. He wrote similarly to his brothers and sisters. One letter reads, in part:

These letters display a rare combination of knowledge and passion. He is telling his family the truth. But not coldly, distantly, as though he doesn't care if they believe it or not. Like Paul, he is "beseeching them for Christ's sake, to be reconciled to God". Here is a man who can "speak the truth in love".

God's grace, then, produced in John Janeway a "heart for the lost". But that is not all. It also stirred up within him a "spirit of prayer". His biographer says about him: "Mr. Janeway was mighty in prayer, and his soul was frequently so transported in the duty, that he almost forgot whether he was in the body or out of the body. His converse with God was so familiar, and attended with such Divine consolations to his soul that when he engaged in this duty he found the greatest difficulty to leave it off. In his approaches to God, like Jacob, he wrestled with the Lord, and was very unwilling to rise from off his knees without his Father's blessing. He conversed with God as a man with his friend; and on all occasions of importance sought His direction and blessing".

His prayers were often strikingly answered. When his father lay dying, he was gripped by a spirit of fear. "Oh son, this passing into eternity is a great thing. This dying is a solemn business, and enough to make any one's heart ache, who hath not his pardon sealed..." He besought his son's help. But what could he do? Only this: pray. And so he did. He went to another room and pleaded with God to give his father the grace to die with assurance. He came from the room, and found his father weeping profusely. It seems that God had not heard his prayer. Till finally, his father collected himself and said,

"The desire of the righteous shall be granted". The elder Janeway breathed his last and was numbered among the blessed.

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". But where is that "fervency" to be found? It was found in John Janeway; can it be detected in you?

At 22, John Janeway was ordained to the ministry. His first two sermons were from Job 20:21, "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be and peace; thereby good shall come unto thee".

But they would be his "last two sermons" as well. For John Janeway was stricken with tuberculosis. For some months he was bedridden, coughing up blood, and seeing his already thin build wither away to nothing. But the time was not misspent.

He continued writing letters to his family and friends, and always in a serious vein, with their salvation as his goal. To a brother in the ministry, he wrote,

To his mother, he said,

A minister came to visit him and remind him of the glories of the world to come. Janeway replied,

To his brother,

Another brother, James, told the dying Janeway how much he loved him. John replied,

Near the end, he drew his nine brothers and sisters around him, and--after blessing each of them in turn--wished, "O that none of us may be found among the unconverted on the day of judgment. O, that we may all appear with our honored father and dear mother, before Christ with joy. And that they may say, `Lord, here we are, and the children that Thou hast given us'"

Collapsing into bed after these blessings, Janeway had but one left: "And now, dear Lord, my work is done. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly".

He did. John Janeway died, June, 1657, aged 23 years.

What can we learn from the life of John Janeway?

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them".