The Three Marys by Alexander Moody Stuart
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 307 pages, £7.25, obtainable from the F P Bookroom.
Alexander Moody Stuart (1809-98), was the minister of St Luke’s Church (later, St Luke’s Free Church) in Edinburgh from 1837 until 1887, when ill health made him retire from preaching. The book was first published in 1862 and the first Banner of Truth edition was in 1984. In warm devotional chapters we are given a most instructive insight into the life and faith of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and Mary the mother of Jesus. On the contents page we have a very helpful summary of each of those chapters.
The first 11 chapters are devoted to Mary of Magdala. Chapter 7, entitled, “Mary the Patient Seeker of Her Absent Lord”, speaks of Mary’s love to her Lord: “Selected messengers from that host [of angels] appeared ‘in divers manners’ at the tomb of Jesus on the morning of the resurrection. For fear of one of them, with his countenance exceeding terrible, the keepers trembled and became as dead men; at the sight of another, Mary’s companions were affrighted, and they run with his message, silent and amazed. But Mary, stooping into the sepulchre, ‘seeth two angels . . . one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain’. The angels at the head and the feet of Jesus agree with the cherubim at each end of the mercy-seat; looking toward each other, and bending over the mercy seat and the ark of the covenant, into which the angels desire to look. . . .
“That cherubim and seraphim should wait as holy ministers around her crucified Lord, seems nothing marvellous to Mary. He is ‘the chiefest among ten thousand’ and ‘altogether lovely’; He is worthy of such attendants; and their appearance does not distract her for a moment from her search, nor arrest one drop of her fast-flowing tears. Their presence had filled the sepulchre with glory and with awe to every other beholder, but to Mary they are simply ministering servants at her Lord’s empty grave” (pp 78,79).
In a later chapter entitled, “Mary Forbidden to Touch Jesus”, we read, “The other women are permitted to touch Jesus; not because they doubted and asked for proof, but because they feared and needed consolation. Jesus saluted them, ‘All hail’; and they drew near, and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him. They were glad when they saw the Lord; but they rejoiced with trembling, they worshipped Him in fear; and Jesus comforts them, ‘Be not afraid’. For their consolation they are permitted to touch Christ’s feet and there is no risk with them of excessive nearness, for they are trembling worshippers; with the fearful women [there is] no risk, and with the doubting Thomas none, whom the touching of Jesus only made to draw back with holy awe. But Mary has no fear to be removed by a closer approach to her Lord; and there is no call for such [an] approach. Without touching she is already nearer to Jesus than the questioning disciple and the trembling women have been brought by means of touching; and therefore it is fit that this satisfaction be withheld” (pp 115,116).
The second Mary that the writer deals with is Mary of Bethany. What he has to say about her is summed up in only five chapters. No doubt the reason is that there is less information on her than on the other two Marys. The main emphasis here is on her sitting at the feet of Jesus and of His commendation of her in response to Martha.
The writer comments on “the one thing needful” with his customary warnings to those without it: “One of the few grand eras opens in human life when a man first discovers that one thing only is needful by him. His soul has been befooled till that time; trifled with, teased, allured, distracted. He is now awakened to one thing great, one thing needful, one thing alone for his soul, for himself. Many have seen it; I have seen it; you have seen it, some of you; you must all see it or perish. In that hour are scattered the hundred lying wants that buzz around us like bees, each calling, ‘You have need of me’, and each leaving us nothing but a burning sting. ‘One thing,’ Mary said, and leaving all things else, in the midst of the manifold preparations for the feast, she hastened to the feet of Jesus to fill the aching void in her soul. One thing needful, O dying sinner! One thing needful for you; and if not quickly found, there is before you one vast yawning want for ever” (pp 151,152).
The third Mary is the mother of Jesus. Much is said about her in 11 chapters, about her faith in the angel’s announcement, her thoughtfulness regarding events as these unfolded, of her being corrected by her Lord and her pain at the cross. Many quotations could be given from those chapters but we give one from the occasion when she and Joseph sought Jesus, on losing Him when returning from the feast in Jerusalem.
“Is Mary’s loss not a lesson to us? Do we not often go up with Christ to our Christian passover, the feast of the Lord’s Supper, and are anxious above all things to have Christ with us in preparing for the feast, that He may manifest Himself to our souls in the breaking of the bread? Nothing else will compensate for the lack of His presence; and we are ever seeking to make sure that He is with us, by not losing sight of Him for an hour. The days are accomplished, as they were with Mary at Jerusalem; the feast is over, and we are to return home again to our usual employments and ways.
“Other things enter quickly into our hearts; other cares, other joys, the very company of our fellow worshippers, but no more with us in the sanctuary; and we take for granted that Jesus also is with us, for like Mary we suppose that He is with us ‘in the company’. We find not his presence throughout the day as before; but we conclude that He must be near, and as soon as we have a little time to seek, we shall find Him again. The opportunity of devotion arrives, and then we seek Him, but we find Him not; for we have not watched and prayed, but have entered into temptation. By taking lightly for granted that Christ is with us we have lost Him, and we may have to seek three days sorrowing ere we find Him again; yet a little watchfulness at first would have kept our feet from falling and our eyes from tears, and ourselves walking before him ‘in the light of the living’” (p 286).
This book, which a number of us will have already read, is highly recommended, having a solemn word for the unsaved and much that is both challenging and instructive for the people of God. (Rev) W A Weale
Salvation Through Jesus Christ by Donald Fraser
published by Reformation Press, paperback, 89 pages, £6.80, obtainable from the F P Bookroom. Donald Fraser was the parish minister of Kirkhill, near Inverness, from 1802 to 1836, beginning his ministry when just 19. He succeeded his father and was himself followed by his eldest son, so that for a period of 110 years, the parish was served by the “Fraser of Kirkhill”, as they were known.
The book under review was Donald Fraser’s only publication. It has never been republished till now. It consists of a series of five sermons preached to his own congregation. The first four are on John 8:36: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”.
The first sermon is headed, “Man’s bondage in an unconverted state”. The preacher first discusses the nature of this bondage, making three main points: its “condemning power”, the polluting power of sin, and Satan’s temptation. Fraser then proves the fact of man’s bondage from Scripture, before concluding with “the evil of this state of bondage”. He asks, “Is it a light thing that the rights of God should be thus alienated, and His honour tarnished? . . . Would that men would pity that soul which is destined to live for ever, though it be in bondage!”
The second sermon begins to consider “deliverance by Christ’s atonement”. Fraser quotes John the Baptist: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”, and states that he was pointing to Christ, as if telling them: “This is He who was prefigured by the paschal lamb, by all the offerings for sin under your law, and especially by the lambs daily slain in the temple for morning and evening sacrifice. This is the true sacrifice for atonement by which the sins of the world are taken away.” After expounding many New Testament passages, the preacher concludes, “How great then . . . is the death of Christ to work human freedom, and how fully does it furnish us with . . . that vast benevolence, by . . . which all other blessings are poured upon us! ‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’” The third sermon continues the subject of deliverance, but focusing on “Christ risen”.
The fourth discourse considers “the mode of securing a personal interest in the deliverance”. Fraser emphasises that salvation is free and does not rest on any human merit or effort. Yet God deals with man as one who has moral responsibility; salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ. “Faith, then, saves us,” the preacher goes on, “not by any virtue in itself . . . but as being the medium of our union with Christ the Son of God, our representative, who by Himself wrought out, and does work, the whole of our salvation.” He sets out these encouragements to believe: the truth of God’s testimony, His graciousness, the incalculable value of the atonement, and God’s faithfulness.
The fifth sermon is based on Matthew 7:21; it deals with “the course of life which the believer in Christ must pursue”. Fraser states, “The salvation which is promised, and which the believer professes to seek” is deliverance not only from the penalty of sin but also “from the power of sin in his soul”.
This book deals with vital doctrines which we all need to grasp. It is good to have these sermons rescued for today’s readers after being out of print for most of the last two centuries.