All books reviewed in this issue may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
Heroes, by Iain H Murray
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 319 pages, £15.00.
The author’s concern is with “spiritual, Christian greatness . . . and with the help it can be to see it in others” and his “hope is that these pages may give young Christians a relish for old authors, and encourage younger ministers of the gospel in the assurance that the Saviour of yesterday is the same today and tomorrow”.
Five chapters outline the character, life and work of men whose names are well known and whose lives and labours are represented elsewhere in substantial Banner of Truth volumes: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Newton, Thomas Charles and Charles Spurgeon. These are not merely brief informative biographical accounts. Generally, the author focuses on a prominent feature of each individual’s life from which lessons of abiding relevance can be drawn. For example, having given a good account of the life, character, trials and preaching of Edwards, Mr Murray concludes that he has left us “an immensely valuable witness to the nature of true Christian experience . . . a framework with which to understand history and the future . . . the truth that Calvinistic orthodoxy cannot advance the gospel and the salvation of men unless it has the power of the Holy Spirit . . . the call to cease looking to men and to live to the honour of God alone”.
In Whitefield the author sees exemplified catholicity of spirit and love to all who love the Lord. The ideal is to have and maintain this spirit. However, we suggest that it is necessary also to contend earnestly for the faith and all its implications for doctrine, worship and the government of the Church, though this may sadly necessitate ecclesiastical separation. Revival movements, including those involving Whitefield, may sometimes have obscured this fact.
Lessons of abiding importance for the Christian ministry are drawn from the life and writings of John Newton – such as the need to recognise that “grace matures slowly”, the usefulness of books and the importance of wisdom and affection in pastoral counselling. The chapter on Thomas Charles appeared previously in the Biographical Introduction to Thomas Charles’ Spiritual Counsels, a valuable volume drawn from his letters and writings. The concluding chapter considers “Spurgeon as an Evangelist”. Having shown that Spurgeon was prepared for gospel ministry by his conversion and the Puritan theology he learned in his youth, the chapter discusses the content of evangelistic preaching and the character of the evangelistic preacher.
Two chapters deal with persons who may be less well known – William Hewitson (from Ayrshire) and Robert Kalley (from Glasgow), whose labours in the Roman-Catholic-dominated Portuguese island of Madeira involved them in what Andrew Bonar described as “the greatest happening in modern missions”, and Charles and Mary Colcock Jones, who devoted their lives “to the spiritual welfare of the African-American people”.
Considerations of health led Hewitson (1812-1850), later Free Church minister at Dirleton, and Kalley (1809-1888), who had been a medical practitioner in Kilmarnock, to Madeira, though M’Cheyne had desired Hewitson as his assistant and Kalley had planned to go to China. Persecution instigated by Roman Catholic clergy drove them and hundreds of others from the island after a comparatively short time. In these few years, through the blessing of God upon the preaching of the gospel, a network of home-based schools teaching people to read, and the searching of the Scriptures, many were converted and a church was established. When persecution scattered hundreds of the people, they formed churches in the places of their exile, principally Trinidad, Brazil and the United States.
The longest chapter gives an account of the lives of Dr and Mrs Jones. Jones (1804-1863) was a Presbyterian minister, by turns a pastor, professor of theology, secretary to the Presbyterian Board of Domestic Missions and missionary to the slaves on various plantations in Liberty County, Georgia, three of which he owned. The chapter includes a brief discussion of the view of slavery held by reluctant slave owners like Jones. It does not specifically draw lessons from the biography but does present him as one described him: “His chief concern was to please God. He lived and moved under the abiding consciousness that God’s eye was upon him. He had the most exalted ideas of the greatness, majesty, glory and holiness of God . . . In his own sight he was nothing and less than nothing . . . He ardently loved the Saviour, and desired that His name should be known and honoured in all the earth.”
While we would qualify an occasional expression we trust that this interesting volume may achieve its avowed purposes. (Rev) H M Cartwright
The Visitor’s Book of Texts, by Andrew A Bonar
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 296 pages, £6.50.
What to say when we visit the sick and sorrowing, and what portions of God’s Word to direct them to, has often been a problem for pastors and Christians generally. The Visitor’s Book of Texts, or, The Word Brought Near to the Sick and Sorrowful, as it is subtitled, was compiled to meet this problem.
Andrew Bonar (1810-1892), begins his introduction: “What we say to the sick should be brief; and when we pray with the sick we should be short”.
After a couple of examples, the writer explains that this book “is formed upon this principle”, and that this applies to the sorrowing as well as to the sick. Before concluding the introduction he gives a helpful list of works that may be consulted by those who deal with the sick and sorrowful.
The book contains three parts. Part 1, entitled, “The Word Brought Near the Sick”, contains 10 chapters which deal with various conditions of sick people. The first three are: “The Believer Is Sick”, “The Sick Believer Troubled”, “The Believer Is Dying”. Then follow several chapters on unbelieving sick people in several different conditions, as well as backsliders.
Part 2 is entitled, “The Word Brought Near to Seven Classes who May Be Found in the Sickroom”. This deals with the recovery from sickness of the believer and the unbeliever, the aged, young men and women, children etc. There is also a chapter, “For Those Attending on the Sick”, and another, “For the Friends of the Sick”. Part 3, “The Word Brought Near to the Sorrowful”, again covers several different types of people and conditions.
Various texts are suggested for all of those conditions, and many helpful comments are also provided. For example, one verse suggested for dealing with the believer dying is Psalm 48:14: “This God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death”. Bonar suggests the comment: “unto death; and over death; ‘not one object of His care / ever suffered shipwreck there’”.
While this is not the sort of book one might want to sit down and read from cover to cover, it is one that pastors and elders might profitably dip into before visits that, in many cases, are not easy. (Rev) W A Weale
Voices from the Past, Puritan Devotional Readings, edited by Richard Rushing
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 418 pages, £16.50. This is a volume of daily readings for a year drawn from the writings of the Puritans. The compiler has been personally thrilled “to read the Puritans on the glory and attributes of God, divine providence, fellowship with God, holiness of life and the mortification of indwelling sin, heavenly mindedness, prayer, evangelistic zeal, and trust in times of affliction”. In producing this book he was motivated by the desire that readers would be stimulated to explore further the writings of these “spiritual giants”.
Thirty-three authors are represented. A bibliography lists the most recent editions of their published works, most of which have been made available by the Banner of Truth Trust or Soli Deo Gloria. There are extensive useful indices of authors, topics and Scripture texts quoted.
The compiler explains that the readings are “sometimes almost exact word-for-word copies of the original”, sometimes the original has been paraphrased “with up-to-date phrases” and sometimes several pages have been condensed into one. He has endeavoured to be faithful to the sense and intent of the author. Personally one prefers to have the exact words of the author whose name a piece bears. One recognises that there is currently an endeavour to interest readers in old writers by presenting their material in more modern literary forms and the compiler is to be credited with acknowledging his method and providing on each page exact references to the originals on which he has drawn. We trust that those introduced to the Puritans by these pages will be encouraged to search out some of the sources for themselves, for on the whole they could not find better guides.
It is to be regretted that the Scripture texts prefacing each excerpt are taken from the English Standard Version. In addition to the inferiority of modern versions to the Authorised Version it strikes one as remarkable that publishers should have to say concerning any version of the Holy Bible that it is “used by permission”.
(Rev) H M Cartwright