Yearly Archives: 2009

At the beginning of the final paper at the September 2009 London Conference on John Calvin in the John Owen Centre, Joel Beeke revealed that this was his tenth Calvin conference of the year. He had 10 points in what he introduced as a pep talk, an encouragement to believe in preaching. It was a […]

What do we mean by the sovereignty of God? We believe that God upholds and governs all things ‘from galaxies to subatomic particles, from the forces of nature to the movements of nations, and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons’ all in accord with his eternal, all-wise purposes […]

This work was first published in 1882 by Dr Cuyler (1822-1909), who studied at Princeton Seminary during its ‘golden age’ in the 1840s when Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, Charles Hodge, and J A Alexander were professors (see Princeton Seminary, David B Calhoun). Graduating in 1846 he entered in 1860 on his last and longest charge […]

By the sweat of your face you will eat bread. (Genesis 3:19) In 1776 Adam Smith, a Scottish economist and Deist, a good friend of David Hume the sceptic, wrote his famous book Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations that has profoundly affected the capitalist system in our world. Smith […]

INTRODUCTION I have betrayed John Calvin1. We all have. We betray Calvin every time we talk about him, because Calvin did a lot to stop people talking about him. He once commented, ‘I am unwilling to speak of myself, but since you do not permit me to be altogether silent, I will say what I […]

An extract from Chapter 6 of Paul D. Wolfe’s book, My God Is True: Lessons Learned Along Cancer’s Dark Road,1 pp. 96-101. One . . . aspect of the church’s life that we ought to consider in connection to suffering [is that] the Lord uses faithful preaching to shape the hearts and minds of his […]

A Tale of Two Cities The Christian believer is always living in an inescapable tension! Much as we would love to be free of this tension, until we leave this earthly scene and enter the nearer presence of our great and gracious God, we will be engaged every moment of every day in this tension. […]

You have been called as minister in this congregation and you have been ordained in pursuance of that call. There are many functions which devolve upon you in that particular capacity, but I want to draw your attention particularly to two of these functions because I believe they are the two main functions which devolve […]

The three series of lectures by the famous Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, bound together in Lectures to My Students,1 are doubtless familiar to many in this country and overseas. They were originally published between 1875 and 1894, and therefore were particularly relevant to that time, yet they represent Spurgeon’s mature thoughts on important aspects […]

Events in 1732 made Ebenezer Erskine consider the time ‘a day of trouble’. Twenty years had passed since Parliament had reimposed patronage on the Church of Scotland. This meant that the right to nominate a minister for a vacant congregation lay with, normally, a local landowner. Now the 1732 General Assembly had agreed, in the […]

An extract, with slight editing, from Memoirs of the Rev James Fraser of Brea.1 Being at the University, and being at the age of 17 or 18 years, our minister proposed to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, of which he gave warning the Sabbath preceding the celebration thereof. I purposed (I know not […]

These handsome volumes1 are full of edifying matter relating to the great revival in Wales in the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent development of Methodism in the Principality. First published in Welsh in 1897, they have recently been translated into English and will hopefully reach those who were previously unable to benefit from them and […]

During this the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin I would like to express three ways in which John Calvin is an inspiration to me. First he is an inspiration as a pastor/preacher. John Calvin was a pastor for 27 years. First he served at St Peter’s Church in Geneva from 1536 to […]

1. ‘Much of the Power and Wisdom of God’1 ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ With these words the Bible begins. The doctrine of Creation must therefore have considerable significance in relation to the whole revelation which God has given in the Scriptures. Manifestly, the first two chapters of Genesis focus […]

. . . the woman, whom thou gavest me, gave me the fruit and I ate of it. (Genesis 3:12) You cannot live one moment of one day without experiencing the effects of Adam’s fall into sin. It adversely affects everything. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the civil unrest in Iran, genocide, racism, tsunamis, […]