J Julius Wood
Romans 10:17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
When they are told to believe on Christ, there are people who do not know where to begin or what to do. They express a willingness to do something, or anything; but then they are utterly at a loss what to do. It is true that their difficulty originates in their attachment to the works of the law and in the blindness of their mind to the glorious simplicity of the gospel. They could understand you at once if you appointed them some laborious penance, or a work requiring a great effort, the fruit of which was to be salvation; and they would know how to set about performing the penance or accomplishing the work. But when it is said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”, the sinner is often greatly puzzled how to proceed. Now though saving faith is the gift of God, some simple statements can be made about the way in which faith is attained and some directions given to those who are anxious to possess it.
But first, let me ask myself, how far am I really desirous to possess true saving faith? Do I deeply feel that I am sinful, deserving wrath, under condemnation? For what is the use of me inquiring about the way in which I may attain to the possession of faith in Jesus Christ, unless I am conscious of my ruined and dangerous state and am convinced that I can only be saved from
1Taken, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Wood (1800-1877) was at this time minister of New Greyfriars’ church in Edinburgh.
that state through faith in Jesus Christ? O my soul, you have God’s testimony that you are lost and undone, a child of wrath, an heir of hell. Do your own secret convictions, it may be your strong convictions, not agree with that testimony? Be assured, my soul, that you are in the most urgent need of salvation. May the Lord bless your meditation on this scripture which sets forth the way in which the faith comes without which there is no salvation.
“Faith cometh by hearing.” Those unconverted people who think at all about the matter have an impression that faith is some strange, difficult thing, and that it must require laborious work or some vigorous effort or some subtle investigation to attain to it. “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above;) or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach.” Neither is faith bestowed as a reward on those who exercise themselves unto righteousness, for before faith there can be no righteousness at all. Neither is faith obtained by any secret work of the Holy Spirit, apart from the revelation of the divine will. Neither can I attain to the possession of faith by any work, or effort, of my reasoning powers, as I can to the knowledge of a mathematical truth or of a piece of machinery. I cannot work up my mind to possess it.
But “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. God makes known His will to the children of men in a variety of ways. He has communicated with some by voices, dreams, visions. The truths thus received He commanded to be written down, and these writings form the Scriptures. In His providence He has preserved them and sent them forth among the nations, a faithful and full record of the way by which sinners may be recovered to holiness and happiness. Then there is the voice of the living teacher reading the Scriptures, or drawing his statements of divine truth from their pages. Now hearing refers to all these. We hear God, whether speaking to men, as He did of old to the prophets and apostles, or speaking to us by His Word, when we are reading it and pondering its contents, or speaking to us the things contained in the Word by the mouth of His living servants.
Faith comes by this hearing. The sinner simply hears the communication from God – the doctrines, precepts, facts, warnings and promises recorded in the Word, and faith follows from this hearing. To this statement agree all those places of Scripture where we have an account of people coming into possession of saving faith. It was from hearing the Word of God, in the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost, that faith came to the 3000. The faith of the Ethiopian eunuch came from hearing the Word of God, recorded
by Isaiah and explained by Philip. The faith of Cornelius came from hearing the Word of God, in the preaching of Peter. The faith of Mary came from hearing Christ. The faith of Lydia came from hearing the Word of God, in the preaching of Paul. The faith of the men of Antioch came from hearing the Word of God, in the preaching of Paul and Barnabas.
But some will say, You make faith very simple indeed, if it comes merely by hearing the Word of God. True, it is simple in one sense, so simple that its simplicity becomes a stumbling block to many. But in another sense it is not so simple. For the hearing by which it comes must be the hearing of the Word of God. Now many do not hear the statements of Scripture as statements that are made by God; they very seldom think distinctly of the Bible as God’s Word and never own the truths of the Bible as truths invested with God’s authority? Such persons cannot attain to faith because, while they do hear the Word of God, they do not in fact hear it as His Word; it is before their minds only as the word of man – regarded as true perhaps, but lacking the weight of divine authority to give a perfect assurance of its truth and to invest it with importance.
Besides, whilst faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, faith is a grace wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit. While sinners listen to the communications made to them by the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, having communicated spiritual life to the soul originally dead, enables it, in the exercise of its renewed powers, to apprehend and receive the truths presented to it – to apprehend, receive and rely on Christ, who is the sum and substance of these truths.
Since salvation comes through faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, with what faithfulness, affection and fulness, should the Word be preached! Lord, make all ministers feel that theirs is an important work. Holy Spirit, furnish them, quicken them, direct them, bless their preaching.
With what care, desire and diligence we should read and hear the Word! By it, that comes which is our life. Apart from it, we can have no salvation. If we refuse or neglect the Word of God, we must soon sink down into eternal ruin.
With what humility we should receive its statements! How unbecoming are cavilling and opposition in creatures receiving a communication from the Creator! O my soul, sit at the feet of Jesus, and receive and obey His Word with humble gratitude.
Finally, since it is only the Holy Spirit who makes hearing result in faith, let me constantly and earnestly pray for the Spirit to be with me in His quickening, illuminating power, whenever I read or hear the Word.
John Knox’s Writings1
A Review Article by Matthew Vogan
“You are holding in your hands a rare and precious book”, reads the publisher’s description on the jacket of this book. “It contains the choicest practical writings of a man whom God used to transform his native country and bring it into the light and under the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that in spite of constant opposition and grave personal danger.” Knox is well known as a man of resolute action and a most powerful preacher under the Holy Spirit’s mighty operation. He sought no honour, however, for himself, saying: “It hath pleased God of His superabundant grace to make me, most wretched me of many thousands, a witness, minister and preacher”.
We are not apt to think of Knox as a writer, or at least a particularly extensive writer, even though his collected works comprise six substantial volumes. As John Ker observed, “The life of Knox was too busy and troubled to permit him to be a great writer, even had this been his faculty”. Although he published relatively little, his pen was rarely at rest but, as Thomas Thomson notes in the introduction to this book, it was “indefatigable . . . at one time drawing up a manifesto, and at another, penning a treatise, or letter of religious consolation and advice” (p xxix). At certain times, however, even this labour took its toll: “My daily labours must now increase. . . . My old malady troubles me sore, and nothing is more contrarious to my flesh than writing” (p 316).
Knox’s History of the Reformation in Scotland is frequently read and referred to, together with his controversial pamphlets. One literary historian (Kenneth D Farrow) justly maintains that Knox’s History is the first great work of Scots prose. We are unlikely, however, to think of Knox as an author of a quantity of writings valuable for practical Christian experience. Yet, as John Ker observes, Knox’s “practical treatises, which are less read, have great fervour of spiritual feeling”.2 As the five-hundredth anniversary of Knox’s birth approaches (2014), this volume may help us to gain a fuller appreciation of his character and legacy as well as ministering real spiritual help to our souls.
We have here, as the historian Gordon Donaldson notes, “almost for the
1The Select Practical Writings of John Knox, edited by Thomas Thomson, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 295 pages, £16.00. All references in brackets in this article refer to this volume. All books reviewed in this issue are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
2Scottish Nationality and other papers, Edinburgh, 1887, p 33.
first time in Scotland, a quantity of intimate personal letters”.3 What letters they are! Though comparatively few survive, his letters are indeed brief epistles of hope. Usually they are one-to-one letters, mostly to his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Bowes, and therefore more personal. Needless to say, we can find no evidence for the caricature constructed by unsympathetic secular writers – of a harsh, unfeeling fanatic. He can speak freely of his fears and write very candidly of himself, as he did in 1558: “My heart is corrupt, and the hypocrisy thereof in many thousand cases hid from myself, so is my zeal cold, and my love nothing, if it shall be tried by the right touchstone” (p 289).
He writes in striking yet tender terms: “If we should earnestly consider the fruit that shall follow a transitory and a momentary pain, as St Paul calleth the afflictions of this life, they should not so greatly affray [frighten] us. The fruit is called Life everlasting, the Sight of God, and the Fullness of all joy.” “If we knew, I say, what comfort lieth hid under the fearful cross of Christ, we would not be so slack to take up the same. If we knew that life is buried with Christ in His grave, we would not fear to go and seek Him in the same” (p 294).
Iain H Murray makes an acute observation in A Scottish Christian Heritage: “If it were to be asked what is the recurring theme in Knox’s words and writings the answer is perhaps a surprising one. . . . From the first years that we have anything from his pen, we find him engaged in a ministry of encouragement.”4 Encouragement was certainly a key note in Knox’s public epistles, such as Chapter Four, “A Comfortable Epistle, sent to the Afflicted Church of Christ” (pp 103ff). He looked earnestly to the time of deliverance “more than they that watch for the morning” (Ps 130:6). “The sun keepeth his ordinary course, and leapeth not back from the west to the south; but when it goeth down, we lack the light of it, till it rise the next day towards the east again. And so it is with the light of the gospel, which hath his day appointed by God.”
He gives beautiful encouragement to a generation such as our own, when the light of the gospel appears comparatively to be withdrawn: “Alas then, the trumpet hath lost its sound; the sun is gone down, and the light vanished away. But if that God shall strengthen you, boldly to withstand all such impiety, then is there but a dark misty cloud overspreading the sun for a moment, which shortly shall vanish, so that the beams of the sun shall afterward be sevenfold more bright and amiable than they were before; your patience and constancy shall be the louder trumpet to your posterity than were all the voices of the prophets that cried to you” (pp 95-96).
3“Knox the Man”, in D Shaw, ed, John Knox: A Quatercentenary Re-appraisal, Edinburgh, 1975, p 18.
4 A Scottish Christian Heritage, Banner of Truth, 2006, p 26.
One of the key themes in these writings is the evil of idolatry and the duty to avoid it (pp 284ff). In his “Letter to the Faithful in England” (pp 61ff), he emphasises the injunction he frequently makes: “That so you avoid and flee, as well in body as in spirit, all fellowship and society with idolaters in their idolatry”. He was aware this was a hard thing during the persecuting times under Mary Tudor: “You shrink, I know, even at the first” (p 61). Some were in danger of going back to attendance at mass during times of persecution and therefore his warnings are vigorous and unequivocal. It goes without saying that, if this was the duty of Protestants when their lives were at risk, how much more must it be their duty in our day when there is no such threat.
Knox is unflinching in his exposure of the corruptions and guilt of the Romanist leaders in Scotland: “They have violated the law and holy ordinances of the Lord our God; they have opened their mouths against His eternal verity; they have exiled His truth, and established their own lies. They daily persecute the innocents, and stoutly maintain open murderers. Their hearts are obdurate, and their faces are become shameless” (p 154).
Chapter 6 (pp 123ff) contains practical guidance as to how to handle the Scriptures to greatest profit in such circumstances. It is entitled, “A Most Wholesome Counsel how to behave ourselves in the midst of this wicked generation, touching the daily exercise of God’s most holy and sacred Word”. In this volume there are also treatises full of Christian experience, such as his exposition of Psalm 6, which he calls, “A Fort for the Afflicted”. His treatise on prayer is a precious unfolding of the groanings of the heart in this exercise. It is a means whereby “our hearts may be inflamed with continual fear, honour and love of God, to whom we run for support and help, whensoever danger or necessity requireth” (p 50). In another passage he highlights the connection between prayer, precept and promise: “To mitigate or ease the sorrows of our wounded conscience, two plaisters hath our most prudent Physician provided, to give us encouragement to pray, notwithstanding the knowledge of offences committed: that is, a precept and a promise” (p 41).
There are two sermons in the volume, one of which was written from memory and printed after exception was taken by the Queen’s husband, Lord Darnley, to one or two references made by Knox. The royal couple sought unsuccessfully to prevent Knox from preaching. The following noteworthy prayer concludes the sermon: “Give us, O Lord, hearts to visit Thee in time of our affliction; and that albeit we see none end of our dolours [griefs], that yet our faith and hope may conduct us to the assured hope of that joyful resurrection, in the which we shall possess the fruit of that for the which we now travail” (p 247).
In “Answers to Some Questions on Baptism etc” (pp 197ff) Knox handles,
among other things, the perplexed question of whether or not baptism administered by a Roman Catholic priest can be considered valid. Although he considers it to be corrupted by superstition, nevertheless Knox regards it as valid, albeit unlawful. God “maketh our baptism, how corrupt that ever it was, available unto us, by the power of His Holy Spirit” (p 260). He gives various reasons for rejecting rebaptism in such a case, including the fact that it was in the name of the Trinity: “the malice of the devil could never altogether abolish Christ’s institution, for it was ministered to us in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (p 255). He also points to 2 Chronicles 30:6-8, where those circumcised by the false priests of the northern kingdom were “not to be circumcised again; but that only they should turn their hearts to the living God, that they should refuse idolatry, and join themselves with the sanctuary of the living God, which was placed at Jerusalem” (p 260).
The Select Practical Writings of John Knox were first published by the Free Church of Scotland in 1845. This reprint has not altered the original edition significantly but rather enhanced it through fresh typesetting, supplementary notes and a very attractive cover and binding.
Thomson, the original editor, speaks of Knox’s “rich and impressive style” evidenced in this book and says that “as a writer of the old rich English tongue, he had few equals, and certainly no superior, during his own day” (p xxx). In comparison with the writings of the English Reformers, Knox is not at all difficult to read. As Thomson observed: “Knox is a writer for all time, and will be intelligible in every age and especially to those who prize the language of the Bible”. We are sure that those who give careful study to this volume will express agreement with Principal Smeton, a contemporary of Knox: “Certain I am, that it will be difficult to find one in whom the gifts of the Holy Spirit shone so bright to the comfort of the Church of Scotland”.
The Apple Tree1
A Sermon Outline by John Kennedy
Song of Solomon 2:3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
These words refer to Christ, describe His excellency, and tell us what He is to His Church.
The Comparison. This is to show His incomparable superiority to the sons.
1Preached in Dingwall on 6 August 1882, and edited.
The Church looked forward to His incarnation.
Some men limit the revealing power of the Spirit of God.
Abraham saw the day of Christ afar off and rejoiced.
Should not the Church in Solomon’s day do the same.
Among the Sons of Men. His delight was with the sons of men from eternity.
He was among them when the Word was made flesh.
But He was there as the apple tree among the trees of the wood.
He was so in respect to beauty, shade, and fruit.
His beauty excels all in truth, work, life and death.
His Shade. His Divine glory was shaded by human nature.
He shades from wrath by the merit of His blood. His Fruit.
All the blessings of the covenant are connected with Him.
All the promises in the Gospel are in Him.
The Exercise of the Church. She desired Christ.
She came to Him.
She sat under His shadow.
She delighted in His fruit.
She rejoiced in regeneration, justification, adoption and sanctification.
Application. Are you a partner in this mutual love?
Have you made your calling and election sure?
Can you profess your faith and hope?
Grace and Glory.
Book Reviews
The King in His Beauty, The Piety of Samuel Rutherford, edited and introduced by Matthew Vogan, published by Reformation Heritage Books in their Profiles in Reformed Spirituality series, paperback, 202 pages, £7.50.
The main part of this little book is a series of 43 extracts from Rutherford’s writings. A good number of them come from his letters, the best known of these writings. But other extracts come from various volumes of his sermons and a few from his other theological treatises. All the extracts are brief – a maximum of about three pages. Most readers of the present day can expect to have difficulty with Rutherford’s vocabulary, but all unusual words and phrases are explained. This means that The King in His Beauty provides a very useful starter for those new to Rutherford’s writings, and others will find it a helpful reminder of the spiritual delicacies to be found in, for instance, this godly man’s letters.
The book begins with a significant and interesting introduction by the Editor, entitled, “Samuel Rutherford and Christian Experience”. This includes the basic facts about Rutherford’s life, which ended on a day in 1661 when he told those around him: “This night will . . . fasten my anchor within the veil”. But the main part of this piece is an examination of Rutherford’s teaching on the experimental aspect of religion, backed up by numerous brief quotations.
The Editor, for instance, notes that “Rutherford and his contemporaries seem to have been especially eminent in prayer”, and quotes Rutherford himself saying, “Praying without faith is breathing of wind, and sounds without life. . . . But praying with faith is like the breathings of a living man, that is hot and nourishes life, and keeps the body in a vital heat of life as long as it continues in the body.” Altogether this is a very satisfying essay.
A number of illustrations have been included, many of them engravings reproduced from older volumes. However a few of the captions (presumably supplied by the publishers) are inaccurate.
Mr Vogan expresses the hope “that this type of presentation will encourage many to attempt the less-travelled parts of the other spiritually rich writings of the ‘little, fair man’ of whom the English merchant, having heard him preach, could say that he ‘showed me the loveliness of Christ’.” May this hope be indeed fulfilled!
The Scottish Reformation, by David Hay Fleming, published by Reformation Press on behalf of The Scottish Reformation Society, Isle of Lewis Branch, paperback, 143 pages, £6.99.
Scotland has much reason to thank God for the Reformation. This book gives a concise account of the main persons involved and the chief events. The first significant figure was Patrick Hamilton, who suffered martyrdom in 1528. His grasp of Protestant doctrine is highlighted by the quotation: “Whosoever believeth or thinketh to be saved by his works denieth that Christ is his Saviour, that Christ died for him, and that all things pertain to Christ”.
For much of the Reformation period, the Government of Scotland was under the control of Mary of Lorraine, the (French, Roman Catholic) widow of the late King James V. It is instructive to follow in the book the course of providence that gave the Protestant Lords of the Congregation the upper hand in the country, providing the outward conditions which made possible the overthrow of Romanism and the establishment of the true religion in 1560. The most important factor in that course of providence was, of course, the preaching of John Knox and other Protestant ministers, as applied by the
Holy Spirit. Hay Fleming emphasises that “for this result Knox took no credit to himself or his fellow labourers. It was, he said, the strength given unto them by God because they, instead of esteeming themselves wise, regarded their wisdom as foolishness before the Lord, and, laying it aside, followed only that which they found to be approved by Him.”
Hay Fleming was a noted historian who did much research among original documents. In this book, first published in 1903, his quotations preserved the original Scots, but the present publisher has made every effort to ensure that old words and old spellings can be easily understood by the present-day reader. A brief life of the author, by Mr Roy Middleton, has been added, and also some photographs and maps.
If we are to appreciate aright the debt that Scotland owes to the Reformation, we need to be properly informed about it. This book provides a suitable opportunity to learn about some of the great works which the Lord performed in this part of the world. It should encourage us to pray for another course of providence which would result in true religion flourishing in Scotland again.
Christ Is Best, by Richard Sibbes, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in their Pocket Puritan series, paperback, 78 pages, £3.25.
Here is another in this series of little books which can easily be carried around and dipped into when one has just a few minutes to spare. It contains a single sermon by a spiritual giant of the Puritan period who lived from 1577 to 1635. The sermon has been taken from volume 1 of his Works and was preached after the death of a godly man who had been Recorder of Northampton and also an MP. Based on Philippians 1:23, 24, it is packed full of solid teaching.
Sibbes focuses first on Paul’s desire for heaven but, he emphasises, “heaven is not heaven without Christ”. The preacher goes on to expound the other part of Paul’s dilemma: his willingness to abide in this life because it was more necessary for God’s people. So “the lives of worthy men, especially magistrates and ministers, are very needful for the Church of God”. Whatever our spiritual state, Sibbes’ counsel is relevant: “Time is short, but opportunity is shorter. Let us catch at all opportunities.” This title is highly recommended.
Suppose a poor Christian, perhaps poor in this world but certainly poor in spirit, who has long struggled with the evils of life, who has patiently endured the insulting language and disdainful eye of the proud and prosperous, nay, which is far worse, has been distressed with many anxious fears concerning his own future state; such a one, taken from the world, how amazing, how blessed the change, from an earthly cottage to a throne of glory, from a despising world to an approving God, from a frail, diseased dying body to everlasting strength and undecaying beauty!
John Witherspoon