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What They’re Saying About Banner Books (2015 No. 3)

Category Book Reviews
Date May 27, 2015

‘Iain Murray’s latest work is a brief, accessible biography of Carmichael, I knew I had to give it a go. I’m glad I did.’ – Tim Challies on Amy Carmichael – ‘Beauty for Ashes’: A Biography.

In the Notes below are links to selected online reviews of Banner titles, mostly posted March/April 2015. The views expressed are of course those of the respective bloggers/reviewers. For each title mentioned, a link is also provided to the appropriate page of the Trust’s online Bookstore, where orders can be placed.

Notes

Amy Carmichael – ‘Beauty for Ashes’ has been popular with several reviewers:

Tim Challies (Toronto, Ontario) at his challies.com blog, says that ‘Murray’s biography is short — almost too short — but it is powerful and tells the story of a fascinating life. There are many things we can, and undoubtedly should, learn from Carmichael’s life.’

Catherine Mackenzie (Scotland) at The Gospel Coalition, found it ‘a healthy alternative to the normal Christian hero-worship titles . . . Murray does introduce us to a woman of faith, foibles, and failings.’

Joey Cochran (St Charles, Illinois) has been reading ‘a remarkable story of a woman of faith and peerless virtue’ with his daughter – see here.

Aimee Byrd, the ‘Housewife Theologian’ (Martinsburg, West Virginia), highlights Amy Carmichael’s attractive personality, beautiful legacy, fighting perseverance, and flawed humanity at Books at a Glance.

‘Reading this book and putting into practice its basic theology will set your church in good stead for handling the contemporary cultural storm’ says Carl Trueman (Ambler, Pennsylvania) of James Bannerman’s recently republished The Church of Christ on his Postcards from Palookaville blog.

He also commends the new Media Gratiae DVD documentary Logic on Fire: The Life and Legacy of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (promoted by the Trust) here. ‘With this, and the Bannerman volume, in the space of two weeks, the Banner is at the top of its game . . . all those involved have given the church of today a real gift for which we should all be grateful . . . It is humbling, challenging, and inspiring.’

Bob Thomas (Mitcham, Victoria, Australia) found Douglas Higgins: Autobiography of a Yorkshire Christian ‘heart-warming’ and ‘a charming book which glorifies God’, in New Life (March 1, 2015, page 16).

Barry Waugh (Greenville, South Carolina), at the Reformed Forum, says of Selected Writings of Benjamin Morgan Palmer: Articles written for The Southwestern Presbyterian in the years 1869-70: ‘the articles in this book show that the work of shepherding is essentially the same despite technological advances and the flow of history. For B. M. Palmer, as today, the gospel must be proclaimed, the converted discipled, and spiritual difficulties counseled.’

Terry Delaney (Mexico, Missouri), has been reading the work of another Southern Presbyterian stalwart – Pleading for a Reformation Vision: The Life & Selected Writings of William Childs Robinson (1897-1982) – and says on his Christian Book Notes blog that it is ‘extremely edifying and challenging’ and a ‘clarion call to take up the torch and defend the faith.’

In an article on Kevin DeYoung’s blog at The Gospel Coalition to encourage the reading of the Puritans – ‘Don’t be scared off from reading the Puritans’Jason Helopoulos (East Lansing, Michigan) uses the Puritan Paperback The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes as an example. ‘It is a Christian classic for a reason.’

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