F. B. Meyer (1847 – 1929) was a well-known Baptist pastor back around the turn of the twentieth century, but less famous today. Like so many of the great evangelicals of a hundred years ago, he combined in his life things that we have sadly learned to think of as incompatible: a classical education, a romantic attitude to life, a profound spirituality which he called “practical mysticism,” a sense of ecumenical unity across denominational borders, a concern for social action, and a zeal for the preaching of holiness. Did I mention he was a Baptist? Yes, and one who knew what he was about.

He is also probably the person who took an ancient tradition of Christian spirituality and boiled it down to three unforgettable words in an irreversible order: fact, faith, feeling. One of the chapters in his book The Secret of Guidance is called “Fact! Faith! Feeling!” complete with the exclamation points. It may seem like a long way from the Carmelite John of the Cross, with his counsel on the dark night of the soul, and the advice of Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright with his Four Spiritual Laws admonition to keep first things first, fact before faith before feelings. But go back a hundred years and spend a little time with F. B. Meyer, and you begin to see how they are connected.
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