Sermons to the Natural Man
W. G. T. Shedd. Banner of Truth Trust. £3.50.
When these sermons were first published in 1876, they were reviewed by Dr A. A. Hodge. His review is given on the dust-cover of this new edition. He considered these sermons of Dr Shedd “if not absolutely the best, yet of the very best doctrinal and spirited sermons” produced in that generation. “We have known much of their power in convincing sinners, and in deepening, widening and exalting the experience of true Christians. Doctrinal preaching although not in fashion is the preaching that we need, and the preaching which always best vindicates itself when put to the test of practice.”
Dr Shedd was a profound student of divine revelation which makes souls wise unto salvation. He was gifted by the Lord with a special style of his own in the wording of his discourses. One outstanding aspect of them is their solemnity. This can be inferred from the titles. Some of them are, “The Future State a Self-Conscious State,” “God’s Exhaustive Knowledge of Man,” “Self-Scrutiny in God’s Presence.” Dr Shedd puts searchingly before readers fallen man’s relation to the immaculate, eternal, holy God and to His laws. He himself, states that these sermons have a mono-chromatic hue, and while one may agree that the one-coloured hue is largely predominant, yet he does not conclude one discourse without pointing to the God-glorying remedy offered to sinful beings — the efficacious self-sacrifice of the Redeemer. He lays emphasis at the same time on the need of being enabled to receive it with mind and heart. The following extracts show how he handles the divine truth of law and gospel.
“The human mind in eternity will have a distinct and unvarying perception of the character of God. . . . In eternity the immaculateness of the Deity will penetrate the consciousness of every rational creature with the subtlety and the thoroughness of fire . . .
The future state of every man is to be an open and unavoidable vision of God. If he delights in the view, he will be blessed; if he loathes it, he will be miserable. This is the substance of heaven and hell. This is the key to the eternal destiny of every human soul. If a man love God, he shall gaze at Him and adore; if he hate God he shall gaze at Him and gnaw his tongue for pain.”
The next quotation is from the sermon — “Sin in the Heart the Source of Error in the Head”: “Sinful man shapes his creed in accordance with his wishes, and not in accordance with the unbiased decisions of his reason and conscience. He does not like to think of a holy God, and therefore he denies that God is holy. He does not like to think of the eternal punishment of sin, and therefore he denies that punishment is eternal. He does not like to be pardoned through the substituted sufferings of the Son of God, and therefore he denies the doctrine of atonement. He does not like the truth that man is so totally alienated from God that he needs to be renewed in the spirit of his mind by the Holy Ghost, and therefore he denies the doctrines of depravity and regeneration. Run through the creed which the church has lived by and died by, and you will discover that the only obstacle to its reception is the aversion of the human heart.”
The final quotation for our present purposes is from the last sermon in this volume, “Faith the Sole Saving Act”: “Faith is an active principle that carries the whole man with it, and in it — head and heart, will and affections, body, soul and spirit. There is no act so all-embracing in its reach, and so total in its momentum, as the act of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this sense, it is a ‘work.’ It is no supine and torpid thing; but the most vital and vigorous activity than can be conceived of. When a sinner, moved by the Holy Ghost the very source of spiritual life and energy, casts himself in utter helplessness, and with all his weight, upon his Redeemer for salvation, never is he more active, and never does he do a greater work.”
Dr Shedd gives as a reason for the need of these discourses in his day “the fact that multitudes are expecting a happy issue of this life, upon ethical as distinguished from evangelical grounds. They deny that they deserve damnation, or that they need Christ’s atonement. They say they are living virtuous lives” (p. viii). May these evangelical sermons be graciously owned by the Triune God in our day when mere ethical preaching is evidently so common.
D. A. Macf.
Sermons Vols. I-X
by Rev. J. C. Philpot. Gospel Standard Baptist Trust.
Price Vols. 1-8 £1.85 each plus 29p postage; Vol. 9 £2.40 plus 29p postage; Vol. 10 (shortly available) £3.50 plus 29p postage; or complete set of 10 Volumes £18.50 plus £2.50 postage.
The Gospel Standard Baptist Trust has now printed no less than ten volumes of Rev. J. C. Philpot’s sermons, the last of these volumes being shortly available when it comes from the press. These are well-bound hard-back volumes so should be long lasting. Some of these volumes have already been reviewed and recommended in the magazine as highly spiritual and edifying experimental discourses. The exercised soul, under God’s blessing, may derive much comfort from them, but not before being searched and emptied of all that is his own.
As is well known, Philpot did not hold the free offer of the Gospel, and so even with those texts where that offer appears to be so patent that it would seem impossible to avoid it, it is still absent. For instance, in Volume 8 in his sermon on Matthew 11:28, he says of God, “He would not lavish His gracious invitations upon an ungodly and rebellious world; and yet in these very invitations, He would use language which, though within the bounds of due circumspection, should fully reach unto and embrace every quickened soul.” Again in his sermon on Isaiah 45:22, in endeavouring to establish who “all the ends of the earth” are, he says, “An expression is Psalm 61:2, throws a light upon the question, ‘From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I’. The ends of the earth, then, represent characters at the farthest possible distance from God in their feelings, at the remotest bound of creation, and separated by all this wide interval from that God whom they desire to fear, and in whose approving smile they long to bask.”
Volume II contains two of Philpot’s well-known sermons — “Winter afore Harvest” and “The Heir of Heaven walking in Darkness, and the Heir of Hell walking in Light.” These two sermons and another sermon, “What is it that saves a Soul?”, are available as single Sermon Booklets at 40p each plus 10p postage.
Titles of other sermons which may appeal to readers are:— Balm in Gilead (Vol. I); Zion’s Gates and the King’s Highway (Vol. IV); The Cry of Jonah out of the Belly of Hell (Vol. V); The Precious and the Vile, also The Bruised Reed and the Smoking Flax (Vol. VI); Wrestling Jacob (Vol. X). These titles may give an indication of what the series contains and we believe that deeply exercised Christians will value the sermons.
D.B.M.
Ears from Harvested Sheaves
by J. C. Philpot. Price £2.00 plus 54p postage.
Through Baca’s Vale
by J. C. Philpot. Price £2.25 plus 54p postage.
These two volumes consist of daily portions selected from Philpot’s works by his daughters. The daily portions in “Ears from Harvested Sheaves” are shorter than the portions in “Through Baca’s Vale.” As they contain choice quotations from Philpot we have no doubt that they will prove helpful to those who read them daily throughout the year. There is just one portion for each day, not two daily portions as found in many daily portion books. We are glad to commend them.
D.B.M.