Publishers: Banner of Truth Trust. Paperback, 150 pages, £2.95. Obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom, 133 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, G3 6LE
THIS book, Revival Year Sermons, has five sermons preached by C. H. Spurgeon when only twenty-four years old to vast congregations, between March and December 1859, and which are entitled; The Story of God’s Mighty Acts (Ps 44:1), The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant (Heb 13:20), The Necessity of the Spirit’s Work (Ezek 36:27), Predestination and Calling (Rom 8:30) and The Minister’s Farewell (Acts 20:26, 27). It also has a ten-page introduction by the publishers.
The book is a reproduction of material initially issued in 1959. The publishers, in remembrance of the stirring events of 1859, are endeavouring to foster a renewed desire for religious revival, promote a return to Calvinistic preaching, and counter hyper-Calvinism on the one extreme hand and Arminianism on the other.
The sermons are described as being typical of Spurgeon’s ministry at the time. Each one centres upon Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the elect, and the Saviour of sinners. Spurgeon abhorred Christ-less preaching: “That is no gospel which has not Christ in it, and the modern idea of preaching THE TRUTH instead of Christ is a wicked device of Satan” (page 82). His preaching discloses a heart full of Christ, and longing that many vile and wretched sinners would savingly find Christ as He offers Himself directly in the Scriptures.
The sermons are also clearly Calvinistic. The five points of Calvinism: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Definite Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Final Perseverance, permeate each one. Also, the humanly irreconcilable Biblical doctrines of Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are discerningly presented. He says, “But he is not faithful to God – I say it solemnly, I do not believe that any man is even faithful to his own conscience, who can preach
simply the doctrine of sovereignty, and neglect to insist upon the doctrine of responsibility. I do assuredly believe that any man who sinks into hell shall have himself alone to curse for it. . . The apostle Paul knew how to dare public opinion, and on the one hand to preach the duty of man, and on the other the sovereignty of God. . . God hath absolute and unlimited power over men to do with them as He pleases, even as the potter doth with clay. . . But when I preach concerning man, and look to the other aspect of truth, I dive to the utmost depth. I am, if you will so call me, a low-doctrine man in that, for an honest messenger of Christ I must use His own language and cry: He that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not on the Son of God’ I do not see that the whole counsel of God is declared unless these two apparently contradictory points are brought out and plainly taught” (page 84).
During that period many people became candidates for baptism and church membership (page 15). However, none of the eligible infants in the congregation were baptised because of Spurgeon’s antipaedobaptistic stance. It is “a great sin to condemn and neglect this ordinance,” says the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF). He also failed to appreciate the distinction between an accredited and an uncontradicted profession of faith in Jesus Christ (page 15). As well, he advocated that the proper mode of baptism was total immersion exclusively (pages 21, 22, 56, 58). The Confession scripturally states that “dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person” (W.C.F. 28:3).
Regrettably, fifteen quotations from man-made hymns are used to support various observations, (the use of Scripture instead would have been more effective), and the heathenish term Sunday is employed on several occasions in preference to the Scriptural word Sabbath. Some misquoted Scripture verses and spelling errors detract a little from the general presentation.
Nevertheless, we wish the book a wide circulation. The sermons are instructive, stimulating and refreshing. They provide a timely reaffirmation of the free offer of the gospel in opposition to its many enemies. The remembrance of revival may stimulate some to be pleading in prayer for the return of preaching which, by the power of God, will have a saving effect upon many.
(Rev.) B. Whear
We rejoice in hope. We have many and express assurances in the Scriptures of the general and universal spread and reign of Christianity, which are not yet accomplished. Nothing has yet taken place in the history of Divine grace, wide enough in extent,… magnificent enough in glory, to do anything like justice to these predictions and promises. Better days, therefore, are before us, notwithstanding the forebodings of many.
William Jay, 1769-1853
Protestant View
Billy Graham’s endorsement of the Church of Rome
THE magazine, Battle Cry USA, reports that before a recent Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, the priest in charge of Roman Catholic outreach praised Graham for making an “extraordinary ecumenical effort to send people to the churches where they live out their way of life”, including the Roman Catholic Church. He lauded Graham for having “publicly voiced his admiration for the Pope”. A list of the Charlotte churches where Crusade counsellors were trained includes the Roman Catholic Church. As the report says, the “Crusade is one more piece of evidence that Graham has been the major twentieth century pied piper leading the evangelical world back to Rome”.
Rome’s influence and the European Union
WHEN history is rewritten it will be seen, we believe, that the Vatican has had its hand on the tiller of the EU since its inception and that the EU is a resurrected form of the Holy Roman Empire. It is a little known fact that the Vatican, although not a member state of the EU, participates in drafting EU policy.
We can be sure that the more power Rome will have, the more our freedoms will be whittled away. Its Syllabus of Errors, which forms part of the ordination vows of every priest, and which he must swear to defend, has several articles which are diametrically opposed to civil and religious freedom. No 15 says that “no man is free to embrace and profess that religion which he believes to be true.” No 24 states, “The Church [of Rome] has the power of employing force and direct and indirect temporal power.” It also asserts that in a legal conflict between civil and ecclesiastical powers that ecclesiastical law prevails.
Rome will never renounce her ambitions for absolute power.
Scottish Roman Catholics and abortion
DESPITE the anti-abortion stance of the Roman hierarchy in England and Scotland, and its guiding its members to vote for anti-abortion candidates in the forthcoming General Election, 70 per cent of Scottish Roman Catholics believe that pregnant women should have the right to choose abortion, according to a System Three Poll for BBC Scotland.
This is yet another sign of lessening submission to the authority of the Church of Rome in Britain. But what replaces it? Not submission to Christ and His word. May the promised day soon come when multitudes in our nation, including Scotland’s 800,000 Roman Catholics, will yield willingly to His beneficent authority. Then they will decidedly reject abortion, not because Rome says so, but because it is contrary to the word of God.