Articles

One of the abilities that we have as human beings (and it’s one that distinguishes us from all the other creatures), is our ability to ponder the future — to wonder, to imagine, to look forward to, to fear what lies before us. And we all do it! Our minds are often turning to the […]

Ol’ Man River — a song from the Kern and Hammerstein musical Show Boat — has suggested both our title and subject. Listen on YouTube to Paul Robeson singing it in the 1936 film version or to William Warfield in the 1951 re-make and enjoy the treat. It movingly expresses the hardships and struggles of […]

Habakkuk asked God to remove wickedness and injustice from a nation that professed to believe in the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity. He was told of God’s purpose to chastise severely this wayward people. The rod with which the Lord would correct them would be a violent invasion by a cruel and bloodthirsty […]

Self-isolation; pandemic; super spreader; coronavirus; COVID-19. Just a few of the words that have become part of everyday conversation in the weeks since the first outbreak of a novel coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019. As of today there are 83,650 confirmed cases and have been 2,858 deaths worldwide, although those […]

The following are Professor Murray’s notes of a sermon which he preached not long before his illness and death. They constitute only an outline, the material being expanded in delivery.  * * * Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the […]

9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall […]

Usage certainly varies. There is the sonorous ‘Amen’ from the pulpit to which the response is total silence. There is the elaborate musical ‘Amen’ which in some congregations is considered to be the appropriate finale to the service. There is a congregational response which ranges from a perfunctory mumble to a virtually non-stop background sound. […]

Deep within the bowels of the library of Princeton Seminary, with his Indiana Jones fedora firmly upon his brow, Dr. Bill VanDoodewaard pulled out yet another archival box. He blew the dust off and lifted the top. Underneath the glow of the singular light bulb hanging above, his eyes widened. His trembling hands reached in […]

William VanDoodewaard talks about editing and publishing Charles Hodge’s sermons and commentaries on Hebrews for the first time. Watch the video below, and then scroll to the bottom of the page for a coupon to use on this title! This book has two parts, both of which contain material not previously published. The first part […]

 It was our Lord who said, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other […]

Banner Trustee and Magazine Editor Ian Hamilton explains why John Calvin’s commentaries are worth reading. If you have never read one, watch the video and consider picking up one of the titles listed below. John Calvin Commentaries

Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson gives a brief overview of Hugh Martin’s life, and discusses some of his important writings and sermons. Books By Hugh Martin

The problem that confronts us all and dwarfs every other is how are we to bring the Word of God to our generation? If the apostles saw fit to appoint others to serve tables that they might devote themselves ‘continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word,’ it is clear that any ministry which […]

And all the multitudes that came together to this sight, when they beheld the things that were done, returned smiting their breasts. — Luke 23:48 Six hours our Lord has hung upon the cross. Upon the cross! We are very nearly at the point at which we can no longer contemplate putting even deliberate murderers […]

‘Blessed by my Master’s name, this disorder’ [a violent sickness from which he was just recovering] ‘found me employed in his service. It seized me in the pulpit, like a soldier wounded in the field. ‘This has been a busy summer with me. In about two months I rode about five hundred miles, and preached […]

Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee. — Deuteronomy 8:2 Forgetting those things which are behind. –– Philippians 3:13 There seems a contradiction in these texts. They seem to be quite opposed to one another. You would almost think that the apostle Paul had broken with Moses so completely […]

I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt labouring people. Christmas day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once […]

The following is an extract from Johnson’s biography of Dabney. * * * From 1886 to 1889 R. L. Dabney’s sight became dimmer and dimmer, until the light went out absolutely. On walking into his own brightly lighted parlor of an evening, he would often ask whether the light was on and that, too, when […]

These extracts are taken from the diary1 of Elizabeth Jollie, 2 the wife of Rev Timothy Jollie, who was the minister of the Non-conformist con­gregation in Sheffield from 1681 to 1714. Mrs Jollie was herself the daughter of Rev James Fisher, the ejected vicar of Sheffield who died in 1666 when Elizabeth was 19 years […]

This second half of the address by the most eminent of all Calvin’s biographers was delivered in the ‘Salle de la Reformation’, at Geneva, in April 1902. It was translated and printed in the Princeton Theological Review, October 1909, from which source it is here reprinted with very slight abridgement. Emile Doumergue (1844-1937) was, at this […]

This address by the most eminent of all Calvin’s biographers was delivered in the ‘Salle de la Reformation’, at Geneva, in April 1902. It was translated and printed in the Princeton Theological Review, October 1909, from which source it is here reprinted with very slight abridgement. The allusions at the opening of the Address are […]

Philip Bennett Power was born in Ireland in 1822. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, and entered the Church of England ministry about 1846, his first charge being at Leicester, where he remained for some two years, during which he began a week-night service in the parlour of a local pub! From Leicester he moved […]

The following is an abridged extract from a chapter in the series on the Epistle to the Ephesians, The Christian Warfare, an exposition of Chapter 6:10-13. * * * We are dealing with the ways in which the devil attacks us in the realm of our experience. We have looked at this problem from different […]

The responsibilities of Christian parents are great. They are commanded to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4). This has never been an easy task — least of all today, when so much of the atmosphere in which our offspring must live is diametrically opposed to God and his […]

Beloved Brother, I write to you, August 5, 1836, in the seventieth year of my age, and in the fiftieth of my ministry, after conversing much with ministerial brethren, earnestly desiring to see our associational union brought into action by representatives of the churches, with a view to promote a determination — 1. To bear […]