Book Reviews

This is a marvellous read. Based on sermons given at various conferences by the author, the book focuses on three areas of Biblical truth: the character of God, the salvation of God and the church of God. Each of the 16 chapters is a model of Christ-centred expository preaching. There is a clear structure to […]

Getting the Reformation Wrong: Correcting Some Misunderstandings James R. Payton Jr. Downers Grove: IVP, 2010 240 pp, paperback, $23.00 ISBN: 978 0 83083 880 6 The Reformation is dear to Reformed people – after all, it contains our historical and theological heritage. However, it is possible to hold misguided notions about this significant sixteenth-century event. […]

Anyone familiar with the writings of John Newton (1725-1803) will welcome this collection of his letters to John Ryland Jr, Baptist pastor in Northampton and Bristol. Most of the letters were either previously unpublished or had appeared only in rare nineteenth-century periodicals. The 83 letters span the period from 1771 to 1803, by which time […]

How we welcome this complete Works of one whose name should be held in grateful remembrance for his selfless, God-honouring life, martyrdom and translation of Holy Scripture. Here are doctrinal treatises (against popery, prelacy and the persecutor Thomas More) and on behalf of true biblical godliness, introductions to and expositions of the Word of God […]

This is a little gem. It is only 21 pages long but contains more wise advice about preaching than books many times the length. J C Ryle, the well known Victorian Church of England minister writes about a subject close to his heart: Simplicity in preaching. In all his own writings (as well as his sermons) Bishop […]

First published 1893. This was the last book written by the celebrated 19th century preacher C. H. Spurgeon. He was working on it until a few days before his death so it contains the last thoughts that he wanted published. Spurgeon takes Jesus is King as this theme. He divides Matthew into just over 100 […]

Almost every young minister of the gospel could do with a Newton. They may not always realise that they need a Newton, but they probably do. To be blunt, they may not always want a Newton; those are the times when they need one most. In Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr., […]

‘Alexander’s choice of subject matter, and the way he handles it, reveals a depth of maturity and humility that only decades of seeking and learning about God could produce . . . a refreshingly original explanation of timeless, Scriptural truths.’ [John Bird on Eric Alexander’s Our Great God and Saviour at the ‘Discerning Reader’ website.] […]

Bucer was to Strasbourg what John Calvin became to Geneva. Bucer was the older Reformer; Calvin learned much from him during his stay in Strasbourg when exiled from Geneva. Eventually Bucer himself was forced out of Strasbourg and became a Professor of Divinity in Cambridge University. This volume has now been translated into English for […]

This treatise1, originally published in 1825 and entitled A View of Evangelical Repentance, is a precious description of the grace of repentance. The name of its author, the highly-esteemed Dr Colquhoun of Leith (1748-1827), will be familiar to many. He traces the grace of repentance to the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, and […]

John Milne (1807-68) was a pastor and evangelist who served the Lord in Scotland and India. He was also one of an outstanding group of ministers who God used to bring about a great awakening in Scotland in the early 1840’s. This account was written just after his death by his friend Horatius Bonar. Horatius […]

This famous book has been reprinted in hardback by the Banner of Truth Trust. It is 784 pages in length. David Brainerd gave himself wholeheartedly to missionary endeavour among groups of American Indians in what is now north-eastern USA. He was spared to this work for only a few years, dying of tuberculosis in 1747 […]

Protestantism can be an embarrassing concept at times . . . For the first twenty years of my life the term was identified with the Troubles which raged around my generation, and the ugly notion of taking aggravated and hostile sides against ‘the other sort’. As school life at a Protestant boys’ school gave way […]

Ian Hamilton was a minister for many years in the Church of Scotland. Since 1999 he has been the pastor of Cambridge Presbyterian Church. His book, The Erosion of Calvinist Orthodoxy: Drifting from the Truth in Confessional Scottish Churches1 has just been reissued in a revised edition with a new introduction, a chapter that details […]

In the history of the church of God, we believe no man is worthy of more honour than William Tyndale. When we think of that dear man, in loneliness translating the Scriptures, often in a musty cellar or draughty attic, what he sacrificed for Jesus’ sake! How different from an eminent minister preaching to hundreds, […]

‘you don’t have to be a member of the Miller family for this autobiography to fascinate, astonish and inspire . . . There is no sense of self-aggrandizement or self-justification . . . Miller honestly chronicles set-backs and disappointments as well as the successes of his ministerial career and is careful to give God all […]

The author’s concern is with ‘spiritual, Christian greatness . . . and with the help it can be to see it in others’ and his ‘hope is that these pages 1 may give young Christians a relish for old authors, and encourage younger ministers of the gospel in the assurance that the Saviour of yesterday […]

Such a simple idea but such a good one! Alison Brown has taken Bible stories that fit with the numbers 1 – 12 and firstly painted a picture of the story and told it very briefly, then repeated the picture on the opposite page for the child to colour themselves. Finally, they are asked to […]

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 […]

‘The Banner of Truth has done the church a great service in reprinting this book. We will all do our own souls a great service if we buy it and read it thoughtfully.’ [Alan Hill on John Colquhoun’s Repentance at The Good Book Stall website] Below are links to selected online reviews of Banner titles […]

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 […]

This is a book from a bygone age that is bang up–to-date. The puritan writer, John Owen, deals with the subject of how to avoid being worldly and instead be spiritually-minded. This book was originally published in 1681, but this is an abridged and simplified version with modern day illustrations, direct language, and simple sentence […]

These two volumes1 were originally published separately in 1895 and 1897 in Welsh, under the title Y Tadau Methodistaidd (The Methodist Fathers). They are now translated for the first time by John Aaron, a school teacher living in South Wales. This must have been a mammoth task but the final result bears no signs of […]

Christianity and Barthianism Cornelius Van Til Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1962 464 pp, clothbound ISBN: 978 0 87552 481 8 This is Dr. Van Til’s second book on Karl Barth and Neo-orthodox teaching. His first, The New Modernism, appeared in 1947. That publication did not receive the attention that it merited. This was […]