While we hope that the many works of men like M’Cheyne, Bannerman, and the Bonar brothers have wide circulation, we also realize that not everyone has time or energy to commit to an in-depth reading of all of their works. We are grateful to note that there is a helpful resource now available to keep before us the earnest focus of our forefathers. None Other Name: Daily Devotional Readings from the 19th Century Scottish Ministers, by Leen J. van Valen brings together a curated selection of some of the finest examples of this focus.
As a young Christian I struggled to understand how to engage in religious fasting. That it was expected by Christ was undeniable, “…when ye fast…” (Matthew 6:16). However, when was this to happen? How was I to go about it? How could I avoid the errors of the hypocrites Christ mentioned? Doubtlessly, many today encountered similar questions when various days of humiliation were established over the past several months in light of God’s judgment upon our land and world. While excellent sections in several works exist, few book-length treatments can be found to address the topic. Fewer still are worthy of a Christian’s precious time.
The soul is priceless. “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:37). One need only consider the rich man’s words while in hell, “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24), to realize how highly we should esteem our soul’s salvation. Yet, however highly we ought to concern ourselves about our soul, God’s Word is clear in indicating that many will be deceived regarding their salvation until the final day: “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:23). What help is available to the one wanting to know whether he is deceived regarding his own soul and salvation?
John Flavel was well-acquainted with the things that most men fear. His first wife died in childbirth, along with their child. He was ejected from his pulpit in Dartmouth, England, in 1662 by the Act of Uniformity. Over the following decade he ministered secretly to his parishioners, under danger of arrest, in the woods and at Salstone Rock, an island in the Salcombe Estuary that is submerged at high tide, where the people would “linger in devout assembly till the rising tide drove them to their boats.”
God is sovereign over every detail of this world. This the Scripture asserts plainly throughout its pages. Recent times have challenged the church to maintain consistency in its understanding and application of this doctrine. If the Lord is sovereign over all, he is sovereign over trials, afflictions, and global catastrophes.
“Read Durham on the 53rd of Isaiah at my request,” said John Duncan. “He has much repetition and you may be disgusted with that. But it’s repetition of a very fine thing—the eating of Christ’s flesh and drinking of his blood. Well, that’s what we must be repeating, in fact, all our life long.” Those who desire to take “Rabbi” Duncan’s advice can now avail themselves of a meticulously-edited new edition of these sermons.
The greatest thing in man is mind. But in a fallen world, the best mind degenerates and is subject to all the vicissitudes and decay inherent to our condition. In the twenty-first century, talk of the mind invariably turns to thought of the brain. And what will the physical brain of man be in heaven and in the new earth? This is one of many interesting questions that receives consideration from Rev. Hugh Martin, in one of his letters included in the compendium “Christ Victorious, Selected Writings of Hugh Martin,” recently published by the Banner of Truth Trust.
Few will be familiar with the subject of this biography, William Hamilton Burns (1779–1859). More will be familiar with his sons, William Chalmers Burns and Islay Burns. The father stands less known, not because less faithful, but likely because more ordinary. While less prominent than his sons Islay and, certainly, William Chalmers, he was devoted, godly, and earnest for over fifty years of steadfast labor to God’s glory. But as this brief biography demonstrates, it was not merely his duration but the quality of his labor that warrants our attention.
Banner of Truth has been reproducing a selection of their earlier publications of classic Reformed works in recent years, including this one, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, by George Smeaton. Smeaton (1814–1889) was one of the first-generation Free Church of Scotland ministers in the nineteenth century. At the Disruption of 1843, he left his charge in Falkland to become the minister of the Free Church congregation in Auchterarder, Perthshire. He later served in the chair of divinity in the Free Church College in Aberdeen (1853–1857), before moving to New College, Edinburgh, where he taught New Testament exegesis from 1857–1889. He was highly esteemed as a theologian by his contemporaries and remains so by those familiar with his work today.
What is the church? How is it to function? These questions occupy the minds of many in the church today. The church in action, the church in mission, the church in culture, the church in community – these are topics filling conferences, sermons, and blog posts.
