Yearly Archives: 2014

This is an excellent addition to Banner of Truth’s “Let’s Study” series. Like all the others this book seeks to combine explanation of the text with application. Mark Johnson admirably succeeds in this clear and concise commentary. He shows that Paul was writing to a relatively young church that was being destabilised by a mixture […]

A look at the life of John Bunyan, by Pastor Geoff Thomas. HIS CONVERSION John Bunyan had no family influences encouraging him to become a Christian. His grandfather married four times, his father three times, while he married twice. His grandfather was what we might understand to be a kind of ‘travelling salesman’ who left […]

I have now been in the ministry for 37 years and, looking back, deplore the fact that I have made so many mistakes that could have been prevented, had I known better. On the other hand, by God’s grace alone, I have been blessed with a ministry which has been rewarded in the sense that […]

Dr Nick Willborn, editor of the Trust’s recent new title Selected Writings of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, is interviewed by William Hill on the Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary podcast Confessing Our Hope.

Psalm 119 is a large collection of very short prayers, most of which we only pray as we read the Psalm itself. Some of them, however, have so woven themselves into our memories and experiences that we frequently find ourselves praying them at other times. A fine example is the prayer of verse 18: ‘Open […]

Book Review: Beginning Biblical Hebrew: A Grammar And Illustrated Reader, John A. Cook and Robert D. Holmstedt [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013], 324 pages, paperback, ISBN 978 0 80104 886 9. Of the writing of Hebrew textbooks there is no end, and each new production requires explanation and justification. The authors claim that what sets […]

This has been my Ed Clowney week. It began when I was reflecting about how to understand Sabbath better, and remembered I’d never read Clowney’s How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments. There it was, he opened it up, he told us so well just what it meant to rest in Jesus, so pastorally. I couldn’t […]

Sometimes a book surprises the Christian as he reads. A smallish paperback, a modest cover, an eclectic name1 might not at first glance cry: ‘Read me! Read me!’. But when the author’s name is Iain Murray, the Banner men will be eager enough to read it. They know that the modest presentation belies the strength […]

‘Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’ (John 17:3). These words are from the greatest prayer ever prayed, and they tells us the answer to the quest all mankind has been engaged in since the fall of Adam: What is eternal […]

Supposing you were suddenly to find yourself among 7,000 mainly young people, singing without any band, Reginald Heber’s ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!’, and gathered to hear sermons for three days, you might well wonder where you were and what was happening. My own arrival in that situation was not entirely sudden for I […]

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher/theologian, described life as paddling in an ocean ten thousand fathoms deep. How right he was. This thought is no less and even more appropriate to the study of theology, the coherent teaching about himself that God has revealed to us in the Bible. Some of us know the […]

‘There is no danger,’ writes Albert Barnes, ‘that more constantly besets Christians, and even eminent Christians, than pride. There is no sin that is more subtle, insinuating, deceptive; none that lurks more constantly around the heart and that finds a more ready entrance than pride.’ In a remarkable section in one of his letters, one […]

Surely the best books are those that keep close to Scripture, and we have never known a book that keeps closer than this. The Christian’s Great Enemy1 opens up, explains and applies 1 Peter 5:8-11 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may […]

Introduction ‘When through the blood of the everlasting covenant we children of the shadows reach at last our home in the light, we shall have a thousand strings to our harps, but the sweetest may well be the one tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God.’ This thought of A. W. Tozer’s […]

This is a wonderful little book that deals with that daily battle against Satan, the enemy of our souls. John Brown was a faithful preacher of God’s word who ministered in Scotland the first part of the 19th century. Whilst in Edinburgh he expounded all of 1 Peter. This took 16 years. This book is […]

In this small book the author makes the argument for teaching children the catechism regularly from a young age, quoting many well-known theologians as he goes along. The author discusses the history and strengths of the catechism (specifically the Westminster Shorter Catechism), but it is when he writes about its structure and the way it […]

This short booklet is reprint of an article that first appeared in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review in 1862. Having acknowledged that the work and help of the Holy Spirit is indispensable in preaching, the author concentrates on the human aspects that can lead to power in the pulpit. Three areas are discussed: the […]

As according to Paul’s custom he went to them (Acts 17:26). On his second missionary journey, after heeding the Macedonian call to go into Europe and preach the gospel, Paul made his way from Philippi through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica. Luke tells us that according to Paul’s custom he went directly to the Jews, […]

For many years we have been deeply concerned that there are so many people in our congregations who clearly possess the fear of the Lord, and yet who have never found any real assurance of their interest in Christ, and so have never openly professed the Saviour’s name. The sad thing is that so many […]

Here are some choice selections from Banner’s newest book in the Pocket Puritans series: None But Jesus.1 These quotes from John Flavel will give the reader a good taste of the riches found within this small volume. Buy one for yourself, for your friends and for your family members and drink deeply from Flavel’s edifying […]

Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory! (2 Corinthians 4:17). It is good to know that there is a limit to affliction. It is but for a moment – it has its appointed end. Not always will the war go […]

What do people look like who look like Jesus? One part of the answer is this: they bear what is described by the Apostle Paul as the ‘fruit of the Spirit’, namely, ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’ (Gal. 5:22-23). In the days of his flesh our Saviour exhibited this fruit […]

‘an affordable paperback containing some of the most heavenly and sweet teaching I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying . . . You simply will not hear sermons like this today, but you can read 20 here that will move you to “wonder love and praise”.’ – David Morris was thrilled by Richard Sibbes’ […]

I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees (Ecclesiastes 2:5-6). The Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem writes of the futility of living life ‘under the sun’,1 that […]

With a population of some 10 million, Wenzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province, is one of China’s great coastal megacities. A 480km drive south of Shanghai on the East China Sea, Wenzhou is often referred to as ‘China’s Jerusalem’ as it is believed to have the largest Christian population of any city in China – […]