Yearly Archives: 2018

Everywhere we turn it is evident and inescapable that something is definitely and desperately wrong with us as human beings. We need only to look at the papers, turn on the television, or browse internet news sites for a short while and we will see that day after day tragedy follows upon travesty, with sickening […]

The previous article, in February, discussed some ‘aspects of the Church’: its twofold character as visible and invisible, and its twofold character as catholic and local. All references in the text are to James Bannerman, The Church of Christ, Banner of Truth Trust reprint, 2015. * * * When we come to discuss the actual […]

‘God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.’ — Acts 17:30 A few weeks ago I raised the question of why there is so little preaching of repentance in the modern, western church when the Scriptures are replete with references to it. I suggest three reasons for this. The first has […]

Around 245 years ago, something significant happened in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. A large granite stone marks the spot where the event took place. Sad to say, people walk by this historical marker every day without knowing its significance. They do not know that God did something special in their town on September 29, 1770: […]

Tuesday 20th February was a crisp winter day in Seoul and my body clock was slowly adjusting to a new place. I left London at 10.30, taking the bus and then the tube to Heathrow Terminal 5. Everything went swiftly. I never spoke to anyone, even when attaching my baggage label to my suitcase and […]

If we had access to an ordinary Christian’s bookshelf in nineteenth-century Scotland we would perhaps be surprised at what we would see. In addition to a well-used Bible, we would see books such as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Richard Baxter’s The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Memoirs and Remains […]

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ — Matthew 4:17 In what Biblical scholars call Jesus’ early Galilean ministry (beginning in Matthew 4:12), after his baptism by John and his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus began his ministry in Capernaum which was located on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Matthew […]

‘But we have the mind of Christ.’ — 1 Corinthians 2:16 A Pew Research poll,1 released on December 16, 2015, asked the question, ‘Should homosexuality be accepted by society?’ The percentage who are ‘okay with that’, in all denominations, not just historically liberal ones, but also conservative ones, is very large, and the trend continues […]

As we long for the spiritual recovery that is so much needed in the Church and in the nation, it seems at times that we are living in two parallel worlds. In the one world there is a great output of zeal and energy and some advances are being made; in the other world there […]

An announcement and invitation came via email on January 23. A new two-part feature documentary has been made, entitled Voices of the Silenced. It has taken two years to make, filmed in eight countries and introducing almost forty participants. The documentary challenges the idea that men and women are victims and prisoners of their sexuality, that […]

In John Bunyan’s book The Pilgrim’s Progress, the story begins with Christian discovering news which causes him great alarm. Clothed in rags and with a burden upon his back, he is distressed to learn from a book he has been reading that the city he lives in is soon to be destroyed by fire from heaven. […]

‘Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7 How thankful we should be that the Bible addresses the Lord’s people, […]

On Sunday morning, August 5, 1855, 21-year-old Charles Haddon Spurgeon stepped behind the pulpit of New Park Street Chapel, London, to challenge his congregation to follow the example of one of the saints who had inspired his ministry, the apostle Paul. ‘As a preacher of the word,’ Spurgeon said of Paul, ‘he stands out pre-eminently […]

The obituary of Harry Blamires recently printed in the Times newspaper came as a shock. Not having heard of this writer for years, one assumed he had long passed away, but through he columns of this daily newspaper one learned that he had recently died, 21 November, aged 101 years and 15 days. The obituary was […]

Among the ‘Notes’ in C. H. Spurgeon’s periodical, The Sword and the Trowel, for July 1890, is an item about the state of the Free Church of Scotland at that time. It looks back to the General Assembly of that year, when two divinity professors, Marcus Dods of New College, Edinburgh, and A. B. Bruce of […]