Book Excerpts

In an appendix to his Thoughts on Religious Experience entitled ‘Counsels to Christian Mothers’, Archibald Alexander makes the following interesting remarks: I take pleasure in saying that in no class of society anywhere have I found examples of more pure and elevated piety than among the ladies of Virginia. And I have reason to believe that these […]

The following is an excerpt from The Works of John Knox, Volume 3, pages 217–226. In a letter from Henry Bullinger, the eminent divine of Zurich, addressed to Calvin on the 26th of March 1554, he says, “I have enclosed in this letter the Answer I made to the Scotsman whom you commended to me. You will […]

The following is our ‘Publisher’s Introduction’ to the Writings of Thomas E. Peck, provided by Iain H. Murray. In the small cemetery of Union Theological Seminary, beside a narrow road in the heart of rural Virginia, the earthly remains of Thomas Ephraim Peck were buried in the first week of October 1893. Two years later the […]

Our latest Puritan Paperback volume is Thomas Watson’s Heaven Taken by Storm or The Christian Soldier, Showing the Holy Violence a Christian is to Put Forth in the Pursuit after Glory. It is an extended meditation on, and application of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 11:12: ‘The kingdom of heaven suffereth […]

The thirteenth volume of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Life in Two Kingdoms is a tour de force of Christian teaching on the church, the state, and the individual Christian’s relationship to the ‘higher powers’. One mark of Lloyd-Jones’ treatment is specific, straightforward application. One such application concerns capital punishment—the state’s use […]

Life in Two Kingdoms, volume 13 of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ series of expositions of Romans, covers Romans 13:1–7. This is, as Dr Lloyd-Jones notes, the locus classicus—the classic place—where the Holy Spirit, through Paul, addresses the question of the state: the ‘powers that be’. The following excerpt is taken from pages 51 to 53 of that […]

Hywel R. Jones’ appreciation of Isaiah chapters 24–27, Isaiah’s Oratorio releases today. The following excerpt explains the theme and approach of his volume: Isaiah 24–27 has sometimes been described as his ‘Tale of Two Cities.’ Like Charles Dickens’ well-known novel, they speak of a terrifying urban convulsion which has widespread reverberations. But the difference between […]

The following is from an appendix to Jock Purves, Fair Sunshine: Character Studies of the Scottish Covenanters by S. M. Houghton, former chief literary and editorial advisor to the Banner of Truth Trust. The story of religious covenanting in Scotland covers a long period, beginning in 1557 when certain men did ‘band thame selfis’ to maintain […]

John Howie’s The Scots Worthies offers stirring mini-biographies of the great roll-call of the Christian heroes of Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The following excerpt is the first of these: a short sketch of the life, ministry and death of Scotland’s first Reformation martyr. PATRICK HAMILTON was born about the year of our Lord […]

The following is an excerpt from J. Gresham Machen’s The New Testament: An Introduction to its Literature and History, soon available in clothbound format from the Banner of Truth. This is Chapter 23, ‘The Supremacy of Christ’, which is found on pages 159–167. Study material: The Epistle to the Colossians and the Epistle to Philemon Connection between […]

The Banner will release a new anthology of J. C. Ryle quotes in the next few weeks. The following is the introduction to the work by the compiler, Rev. Daniel W. McManigal (Grace Presbyterian Church, Florida): ‘Of the making of many books, there is no end’ (Eccles. 12:12). What you are holding in your hand […]

What did the Puritans believe about unfulfilled prophecy? Was there a single view, or a range of positions, when it came to the church’s earthly prospects? These and other questions are deftly handled by Iain H. Murray in The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy. The following excerpt, on the future conversion of Israel, […]

The following excerpt is from Frans Bakker’s Praying Always, truly one of the hidden gems of the Banner’s backlist. ‘And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.’ — Luke 18:13 After the Israelites had […]

The following excerpt is from John Calvin’s sermon A Rock of Offence, which is featured in Behold My Servant: Sermons on Isaiah 52:13–53:12, translated from the French by Robert White. Who will believe what we preach? And to whom will the arm of the Lord be revealed? 2 He will grow up before him like a young […]

The following excerpt is from Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (1954; repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth 2019, 2020). The unwearied and effective manner in which Machen brought into sharp focus the centrality of the Christian view of history and its decisive significance for the understanding of the gospel must be noted. […]