Topic Archives: History & Biography

A paper given at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 2008. Its full title was, ‘James Fraser of Alness and the Preaching of the Gospel’. The subject was divided into three sections: (1) James Fraser, the Man; (2) James Fraser’s Magnum Opus, and (3) James Fraser as Preacher and on […]

The Church of Scotland Glasgow Presbytery held a ‘Commemoration of the 450th Anniversary of the Reformation in Scotland’ service in Glasgow Cathedral on 29th June. The address was given by a prominent Roman Catholic, Prof. Tom Devine of the University of Edinburgh on ‘The importance of the Reformation for the Development of Scotland’ and it […]

This book is a history of the 16th century Reformation in Europe. First published in 1882, it was written for teenagers so the text is easy to read. Mr. Lindsay’s thesis is that the Reformation was “a revival in religion animated by the yearning to get near to God”. Yet he also shows how the […]

When Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones died in 1981, John Stott described him as “the most powerful and persuasive evangelical voice in Britain for some 30 years”. Few who know about his life would disagree. Therefore a new book by his biographer, Iain Murray, is a welcome event. This book deals with three of the most significant […]

A good autobiography should educate, edify and encourage. A Day’s March Nearer Home the autobiography of J. Graham Miller succeeds in all three areas. It is being published posthumously due to the faithful labours of Iain Murray, who was allowed access to 19 ring binders of autobiographical notes left by Rev’d Miller. Graham Miller was […]

‘Consider it all joy’ William Carey, the father of modern world missions, was born into a poor family in Northampton, England in 1761. He had no formal education but taught himself to read and write and mastered Latin by the age of twelve. He began his trade in his early teens as a shoemaker and […]

I was born of godly parents on November 9th, 1843, in the village of Hankerton, Wiltshire. My father was a carrier and small farmer, and I was the youngest of nine children. My parents taught me that if I lived to be very old, and then died without repentance, I should go to hell and […]

This is the testimony of a young man from a Christian home recently baptised and received into church membership in London. Having grown up in a Christian family, I have always been taken to church and to children’s clubs. I don’t think there has ever been a time in my life when I didn’t believe […]

Vladimir Radzihovski came as a pioneer missionary to Nizhni Vartovsk in 1993. He has worked there almost alone and his health is now deteriorating. He recently wrote to me as follows: Dear brother in Christ Roger! Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you very much for your care, understanding […]

John Newton first went to sea at the age of just 11. His godly mother had died when he was only 6 and his father was a ship’s captain. After that first voyage he kept on going to sea, and over the years he had many adventures and many difficulties, but his own foolishness lay […]

. . . we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Don and Carol Richardson had come, with their infant son, to the Sawi people of southwestern New Guinea for the purpose of bringing the good news of the gospel to them. After building a house Don set about the task […]

Do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5) . . . speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) . . . through love serve one another (Galatians 5:13). The year 1735 was a remarkable one in the western world.1 In January, while her husband Jonathan was off preaching in other places, the Spirit of […]

It is generally agreed that the two most prominent leaders of the 18th century revival in Wales were Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland.1 They had much in common. They were about the same age; the Lord called them both from darkness to light in the same year (1735); they had a common friend in the […]

These two attractively-bound volumes of Scottish Presbyterian biographies from the seventeenth century1 were originally published by the Wodrow Society in 1845. William Tweedie, the editor, who collected the biographies chiefly from the Library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, was a minister of the Disruption Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. The original Wodrow […]

EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTERS 8 & 9 OF IAIN H. MURRAY’S Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace1 The position of the mixed denominations in the 1960s was far from static. On account of the ecumenical movement, the whole future of denominations was under discussion as it had never been before. When ML-J raised the great Reformation question, ‘What […]