The Covenanter Encyclopaedia, by Dane Love, published by Fort Publishing, hardback, 276 pages, £20.00.
Dane Love is a well-known historian, honorary secretary of the Scottish Covenanter Memorials Association and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. This, his latest publication, leaves us in no doubt as to the depth and breadth of his knowledge of the subject in hand.
The book begins with an 11-page overview of the Covenanting period. The main body of the book contains a comprehensive alphabetical listing of
1An edited comment on John 14:21-26 from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, vol 3.
1All books reviewed here may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
the main areas of the subject. National Grid References are helpfully supplied for all the places referred to, allowing them to be easily pinpointed on the relevant Ordnance Survey map. A “Timeline of the Covenant” is also included with 11 touring routes for visiting prominent Covenanter sites. The book is well researched and illustrated and very nicely presented.
There are three appendices. The first supplies the National Covenant, and the second the Solemn League and Covenant with the Act Against Convincers. The third contains a number of comprehensive lists, including a record of those imprisoned at the Bass Rock and Dunnottar Castle; the Nithsdale Martyrs; those who perished at Deerness and those martyred at the Grassmarket; it also lists the ministers evicted from their churches for their Covenanter sympathies and those named on Covenanter gravestones.
The reviewer has no qualms in recommending this title for those looking at the subject for the first time and for those seeking a deeper understanding of this period in Church history. The author’s previous book, Scottish Covenanter Stories, is also highly recommended; it was received with keen interest and has been reprinted three times since being first published in 2000.
(Rev) J B Jardine
Some Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Alexander Peden, by Patrick Walker, published by the Ullans Press, paperback, 108 pages, £6.99. This attractively produced book would be an asset to any bookcase. The present expanded edition contains many extras not found in the original, which was published in Belfast in 1755. As well as a Foreword, there is a short but comprehensive biographical sketch of Alexander Peden; an essay entitled, “The Unforetold Legacy of the Prophet”; a list of previous editions; a number of historical Covenanter poems; and over 20 illustrations.
The reprint also includes a copy of the letter Peden sent to the prisoners in Dunnottar Castle in July 1685, among whom was Patrick Walker, the author of this work. Much of this letter is timeless and cannot fail to comfort and encourage the reader in the difficult times in which we live. But the jewel of the whole work is Peden’s “Views, Thoughts and Notes upon the Covenant of Redemption”, a superb spiritual and experimental account of the covenant.
Patrick Walker is described in the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology as a well-known Covenanter and author whose “quotations are substantially accurate and his facts and dates correct”. Indeed, the scholar D H Fleming states in his introduction to the Walker’s Six Saints of the Covenant that his writings supply “a series of vivid realistic pictures. . . No one who studies that period can afford to neglect him.” His work on Peden is sufficient proof of this.
The only drawback to the book is its use of a number of archaic words. However, the meaning of most of them can be deduced from the context. This worthy small volume is excellent value for money. (Rev) J B Jardine
The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, by John Carrick, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 477 pages, £17.00.
As the blurb of this book reminds us, Edwards “is widely regarded, not only as America’s greatest theologian and philosopher, but also as one of the greatest preachers. It is a remarkable fact, however, that his preaching has been somewhat neglected.” And the author, who teaches in an American seminary, attempts to redress the balance through a painstaking analysis of various features of Edwards’ preaching.
Dr Carrick directs attention to such aspects of Edwards’ sermons as his God-centredness and his preaching about heaven, besides considering the various parts of individual sermons. Some of the analysis might in itself seem rather tedious but it is relieved by extensive quotation from the sermons to provide examples of the points being made.
The author complains that, in the emphasis other present-day writers give to Edwards’ word-pictures as they offer an interpretation of his preaching, “there is virtually no recognition of the Spirit of God”. Indeed their “interpretation does not, in principle, exclude the implication that any skilful literary artist or homiletician could, almost at will, reproduce such effects of those displayed at Enfield, provided that he accumulate a sufficient number of powerful rhetorical metaphors.” (Enfield was where Edwards’ most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, was preached, with remarkable effects.) Dr Carrick rightly insists that it is “of the utmost importance to note that Jonathan Edwards himself would have undoubtedly insisted that ‘the prime source of power’ was none other than the sovereign Spirit of God”. Whatever help today’s preachers may receive from the detailed analysis of the nuts and bolts of Edwards’ sermons, this last point about “the prime source of power” is the most vital of all.
Simplicity in Preaching, by J C Ryle, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, booklet, 22 pages, £1.50.
Ryle was a master of plain, straightforward writing. So ministers should take him seriously when he advocates simple preaching, but not, he insists, what is childish or vulgar. He emphasises the need to “have a clear view of the subject upon which you are going to preach”, for – quoting Cicero, the great Roman orator – “no one can possibly speak clearly and eloquently about a subject which he does not understand”.
Further, preachers should use simple words and a simple structure; they should speak directly to their hearers and use plenty of illustrations. But Ryle points out that “all the simplicity in the world is useless without prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the grant of God’s blessing, and a life corresponding in some measure to what we preach”.
This booklet is a first-class reminder of what is necessary if preachers are effectively to communicate the truth to their hearers. It also appears as a chapter in Ryle’s book, The Upper Room.
Pastoral Ministry, An Anthology from The Reformed Pastor, by Richard Baxter, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in their Pocket Puritans series, paperback, 118 pages, £3.25.
Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor has been highly regarded through the ages for its forceful counsel to ministers to be faithful in their calling. In his Introduction (identical to that which appears in the Banner edition of The Reformed Pastor) Dr J I Packer quotes praise from various sources (though not all of them are equally orthodox).
The selection of extracts published here originally appeared in As Silver Is Tried by C E Surman in 1947 and has now been “lightly edited”. The extracts are gathered under suitable headings, including “Of the minister’s primary duty” and “Of fitness for our calling”, to give daily readings for 31 days. Notwithstanding Baxter’s doctrinal aberrations, these extracts are solidly scriptural and practical – yet his views on Christian unity may make one somewhat cautious about his remarks under that heading.
One quotation will suffice to illustrate the valuable nature of most of his comments: “Through the whole course of our ministry we must insist upon the greatest, most certain and necessary things, and be seldom and sparing upon the rest. If we can but teach Christ to our people, we teach them all.”