Fighting the Good Fight of Faith, by Hugh M Cartwright
Published by Ettrick Press, hardback, 275 pages, £15.00, obtainable from the F P Bookroom.
This book follows the same pattern as Mr Cartwright’s Walking in the Light, published in 2020, and contains 30 prayer meeting addresses. It was prepared by Mrs Catherine Hyde from the notes she took as she listened to the addresses. It consists of five parts: first, a series on “The Whole Armour of God”, from Ephesians 6; then a shorter series on “Union with Christ”; followed by another on the Beatitudes; a further series on “Our Reasonable Service”, from Romans 12:1-2; and finally five addresses on a variety of Scripture texts. As anyone who heard Mr Cartwright should expect, all these addresses are structured in an orderly way, providing an abundance of scriptural teaching which is very clearly expressed.
By way of example, here are some extracts from these addresses. First, in speaking on the blessedness of “the poor in spirit”, the preacher says of them: “The Lord is speaking of the attitude someone has to himself in the presence of God which is a result of being born again. Being poor in spirit includes a realisation of our spiritual poverty. It is the opposite of being proud, self-sufficient, self-righteous, self-confident. Instead the person comes to recognise their spiritual poverty in relation to God. He has nothing, he is nothing, he can do nothing, in the face of the requirements God is making of him.”
In his conclusion to this address, after quoting Christ’s counsel to the Church in Laodicea to buy from Him to supply their spiritual needs, Mr Cartwright states, “Someone may ask, ‘How can I buy, when my great problem is my poverty?’ Well, it’s without money and without price! How can you buy without money? Only by going into debt! That is the gospel way. That is what the poor in spirit are prepared to do – to go into debt to the grace of God. This blessedness is available in the gospel, if the Lord by His grace will bring us to an end of ourselves and to cast ourselves on His resources. O to be beggars at God’s door!”
Here is the conclusion to the address on the verse, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy”: “We have great incentives to be merciful – to be, by God’s grace, the kind of people He wants to be. The most appropriate prayer all our days is that of the publican: ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’. It’s mercy from beginning to end. The gospel is the gospel of God’s grace, and it’s for sinners. His mercy does not forsake His people despite their sins and shortcomings.”
In an address entitled, “A Holy Life is Distinct from the World”, the preacher comments, “Some people think they can mingle with the heathen and not be polluted. They think they can engage in activities that are characterised by denial of God and of God’s authority, and not be tainted. But as far as the Lord’s people are concerned, there are things they cannot do, there are places they cannot go to, there are ways of life they cannot take part in. They cannot, because these things are not consistent with the will of God, and they cannot, because these things are contrary to the instincts of their new nature.”
The last of these addresses is on Psalm 89:15 and is entitled, “The Joyful Sound” – which Mr Cartwright expounds as, in particular, the gospel. Here is the last part of the conclusion to this address: “The way to get this blessing [of the people that know the joyful sound], if we don’t have it, is through the joyful sound. We have to listen. Listen to the sound of the gospel! It is calling sinners into this blessedness. It is calling sinners into the enjoyment of the favour of the Lord. All who are within reach of that sound are being called by it – to come, to sacrifice, to come to God, to come to this place of liberty. Hearken to the gospel! And respond believably. There is no other way into the light of His countenance.
“It’s the same for the believer who is desiring a greater consciousness of this favour. The same gospel, the same sound, revives the soul of the believer, restores the joy of God’s salvation, and renews strength in the soul for the way. Therefore, if there is someone here, and they’re feeling rather like the psalmist, wondering what has happened – well, the way of recovery is to go back to the beginning of the psalm. Consider God, consider His greatness and His majesty, consider His covenant faithfulness and His promises.”
Like Walking in the Light, this book is recommended reading.