The Upper Room by Bishop J. C. Ryle. Banner of Truth Trust. Price 25/-.
This handsome volume was first published by William Hunt & Company in 1888 and is now reprinted by photo-lithography and published by the Banner of Truth Trust. It contains twenty-one papers, most of which are the substance of pulpit addresses delivered by Bishop Ryle during his forty years’ ministry on important public occasions, and it still well merits the sub-title: “being a few truths for the times”.
The paper from which the volume takes its title is a sermon preached at the opening of St. Agnes’ Church, Liverpool. In it Bishop Ryle invites his readers and hearers to look at the worshippers who gathered in the upper room at Jerusalem, the first place of Christian worship, after the Lord had ascended — the apostles, the women, the Lord’s brethren. He asks us to notice the unity which characterised the meeting and emphasises the devotional habits of the congregation — they “were continuing in prayer and supplication”. Finally he refers to the address given to the congregation by the Apostle Peter. He points out that Peter began his address with a reverent reference to Holy Scripture, taking his stand on the supremacy of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith, that Peter humbly acknowledged the liability of the highest and most privileged ministers of the Church to fall, that he calls upon the Church to fill up the place of Judas, and lastly that Peter declares that a minister and successor of the Apostles ought to be “a witness of Christ’s resurrection”. From these Bishop Ryle proceeds to draw some practical lessons. We should learn to be more thankful for the liberty of the days in which our lot is cast, we should learn the source of true power in the Church; and he entreats his congregation to pray for their Church. His closing words are as true today as ever: “The age needs nothing new. It only needs the bold and steady proclamation of the old truths which were held in the ‘upper room’ at Jerusalem”.
This may suffice to give our readers an indication of the quality of this book. We would mention two further papers particularly. He has a most useful address on “The Duties of Parents” from the text “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. Prov. 22 : 6. From this text he draws a great variety of scriptural, practical and solemn advices to parents — refreshing and as apt for today as for the time when it was first written.
The second address we should like specially to mention is concerned with the rights and duties of lay churchmen. It is both interesting and instructive to see a Bishop of the Church of England regret the fact that the Reformers in England failed to correct the neglect of the interests and position of the laity which had prevailed under Popery. By contrast he refers to what was done by John Knox in Scotland.
These are but illustrations of the interesting and instructive variety of topics discussed in this volume which we heartily commend to our readers. The volume is well got up and it is up to the high standard in this respect for which the Banner of Truth Trust publications are already well-known.
J.M.
Christianity and Culture by J. Gresham Machen (Banner of Truth Trust. Price 1/-.)
In September, 1912, at the opening of the one hundred and first session of Princeton Theological Seminary, Dr J. Gresham Machen delivered an address entitled The Scientific Preparation of the Minister. The address, re-titled Christianity and Culture was printed in the June, 1969, issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine: it has now been published in booklet form with a preface by Dr Francis Schaeffer.
The striking relevance of Dr Machen’s address to our own age, almost sixty years later, is a tribute to the vision of the author. It could, on the other hand, be a testimony to the failure of many Christians to engage in the battles to which he summoned them. In dealing with the age-old problem of the relation between knowledge and piety, between culture and Christianity, the author steers a course between the two unscriptural extremes of “subordinating Christianity to culture” and ignoring culture altogether by “withdrawing from the world into a sort of modernised intellectual monasticism”. In expounding his solution to the problem he states, “The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavour. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. It must be studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made useful in advancing the Kingdom of God”.
In these days when the study of the contemporary intellectual climate, theological science and even doctrinal preaching are regarded by many as aberrations from the essential simplicity of the gospel, it is refreshing to read Dr Machen’s words: “Modern culture is a mighty force. It is either subservient to the gospel or else it is the deadliest enemy of the gospel. For making it subservient, religious emotion is not enough: intellectual labour is necessary”.
The publication of this booklet is timely. Thought-provoking in content and lucid in style, it can be thoroughly recommended.
A.G.
Charity and its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards. Banner of Truth Trust. Price 21/-.
This book consists of an exposition of the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians and is by the eminent Principal Edwards of Princeton. In it Edwards deals very fully with the subject of Christian love or charity which he calls “the very life and soul of all religion”. The Christian reader will wish to know if he indeed possesses this infallible mark of a true Christian profession. This book will be of great service to this end. Besides teaching us what charity really is, Edwards also shows how the other graces of the Spirit are inseparably bound up with the grace of charity. By contrast we learn what a hateful spirit there is in us by nature, from which we need to be delivered.
He is searching as he exposes much of the hypocrisy of the human heart and as he applies the teaching of this great chapter of God’s Word to the individual soul. A reading of the book cannot fail to humble believers under a sense of how little of this grace they possess. It will also be of help to those who desire to show forth more of this grace in their lives. The remarks which Edwards makes on the special gifts of the Spirit which were enjoyed by the early Church should expose the attempt made today in some Church circles to revive interest in these departed gifts as a movement which does not have the sanction of Heaven.
The subject of Christian love is of the utmost importance to the Christian Church and no Christian should neglect it. That this gracious spirit of Christian love would be more in evidence in the Church of God is the great need of today. This book will tend to promote such a spirit. We unhesitatingly recommend it.
D.B.M.
[Obtainable from The Banner of Truth Trust, 78b Chiltern Street, London, WIM 1PS, or the Church Bookroom.]