None but Jesus, by John Flavel, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in their Pocket Puritans series, paperback, 168 pages, £3.25.
Rev Fraser Macdonald once described a series of Flavel’s sermons as “fragrant with the love of Christ and aflame with the spirit of true devotion”.2 Now we have this excellent collection of 384 brief quotations from this most readable of Puritan writers. They begin with: “Christ shall be the centre to which all the lines of my ministry should be drawn. . . Of all the subjects in the world, this is the sweetest; if there be any thing on this side of heaven worthy of time and studies, this is it.” And they end thus: “The very last whisper of our departing souls should be this, Blessed be God for Jesus Christ”. Readers will find the few difficult words explained in a glossary at the back.
It is probably best to read this book one or two quotations at a time; it is easy to carry the book with one and pull it out at a quiet moment. Here are a few more choice quotes: “There is a knock of Christ at the heart, which will be the last knock that ever He will give”. “Fear nothing but sin. Study nothing so much as how to please God.” “The law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the law to be regulated.” “Labour after an inward experimental taste of all those truths which you profess.” “Renounce not only sinful but religious self.”
Christ’s Glorious Achievements, by C H Spurgeon, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 184 pages, £6.00.
Although Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was not given to preaching in an expository manner he apparently did occasionally preach through themes and we have a fine example of this in the first four of these seven sermons which were preached on successive Sabbaths in 1876 (vol 22 of his published sermons). The other three sermons, which make up the seven here entitled, Christ’s Glorious Achievements, were preached at other times.
published, Oswald Allis of old Princeton severely criticised the RSV for its liberal content. See Allis’s two penetrating critiques, Revision or New Translation (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1948) and Revised Version or Revised Bible (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1953).
1All books reviewed here, including Evangelical Holiness, are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
2On the back flap of the first Banner printing of Flavel’s Works.
These sermons are entitled, “Christ the End of the Law”; “Christ the Conqueror of Satan”; “Christ the Overcomer of the World”; “Christ the Maker of All Things New”; “Christ the Spoiler of Principalities and Powers”; “Christ the Destroyer of Death” and “Christ the Seeker and Saviour of the Lost”. (The second last of these sermons, we may point out, has the wrong scripture reference at the beginning.)
As the titles suggest, and as Michael Reeves, in his helpful Foreword on Spurgeon brings out, these sermons are full of Christ and of the encouragements His redemptive work yields to the believer and to the earnest seeker. One of the many examples of this is seen in the sermon entitled, “Christ the Maker of All Things New”, on the words, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature . . . ” (2 Cor 5:17).
Speaking of this great change Spurgeon says, “This change is universal in the man; the new man is not full-grown in every part, not in fact in any part, and yet in all the portions of his regenerated nature he is a new creature. I mean this, if any man be in Christ, it is not his mental eye that is a new creation merely, but he himself is a new creation. He has a new heart according to the promise, ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you’. He hath new ears, hearing what he refused to hear before; he has a new tongue, and can pray with it as he never prayed before; he has new feet, and these delight to run in the ways of God’s commandments. I refer, of course, only to his inner man; that is altogether new, and not any one part of it only. If a man be merely enlightened in understanding, what is that? It is good, but it is not salvation; a new brain is not all that is wanted to make a new man. A new man is spiritually new-created from head to foot. Though but a babe in grace, and not fully developed in any one part, yet he is new, ‘created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’” (pp 93-94).
Those sermons are a joy to read and are highly recommended.
(Rev) W Weale