Topic Archives: Encouragement

The following is excerpted from Help Heavenward: Guidance and Strength for the Christian’s Life Journey, by Octavius Winslow. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become […]

The following sermon text is taken from that preserved by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, with thanks. This sermon was preached the next Lord’s Day after Doctor John Owen’s interment. “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Philippians 3:21 The occasion why I pitch upon these […]

‘Why are you cast down, O my soul? … Hope in God.’ Psalm 43:5 David was in great trials and afflictions, for God allows his children to fall into long and great afflictions and troubles before his deliverance comes. It is implied in the text that David was reproving his soul for being cast down. […]

Perhaps you have been disappointed and distressed by tales in the past year of men, often prominent men, who have departed from the faith. Some have drifted from the truth, others have given themselves to particular sins, several have adopted crass fads and carnal fashions. In some cases, you were sadly unsurprised. In others, you […]

Picture life as a journey, a journey from birth to death. We are born, we live, and we die. That’s how it was for Jesus. Life was a journey for him too. When he made our nature his own, he made our journey his own as well. At both the beginning and the end of […]

To help us in the dealings of our lives we should have such a conception of God as not to limit him in our thoughts. When we are in extremity we must not tie him to this thing or to that thing. He can make matter out of nothing. Why should we limit the unlimited […]

If you would strengthen your faith to suffer great and hard things, study much the book of the Revelation, which is a standing cordial for the relief of the saints, in anti-christian times; and study and read and commend to your children, the Book of Martyrs, where you have examples to the life of the […]

While the metaphorical bucket of cold water may not be a distinctively British phenomenon, it certainly seems to be an outlook that many here have perfected, and doubtless others besides. Some cultures and societies seem easily enthused. In some places you could give people the chance to go out and hit themselves with wet sticks […]

There are several instances in Scripture when people make the wrong calculations or use the wrong measures. Samuel is in danger of doing so when he looks at David’s older brother, Eliab, while searching for the Lord’s anointed. He looks at his appearance and his stature, and is tempted to conclude that he has found […]

We can be creatures of extremes. Sometimes our reading of church history pushes us toward one or the other end of a certain spectrum. We absolutise the light or the darkness. It was never, to paraphrase Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times. To us, it was either the best or the […]

The Bible tells us that God controls everything in our lives and in our world. The problem is, however, that our lives and our world often seem so out of control. We all have a year full of examples of that, don’t we? One of the most helpful places in Scripture to give us perspective on this […]

In 1661, Elizabeth Heywood, a godly wife and mother from Lancashire, lay dying, aged just twenty-seven.1 Her last prayers were for the Church of God, for the Jews to be converted, and for the gospel to reach to all nations.2 Her vision extended far beyond her own situation, her own family and church and nation. […]

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 […]

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 […]

Poverty of spirit should accompany us all our life long, to let us see that we have no righteousness of our own to sanctification; that all the grace we have is out of ourselves, even for the performance of every holy duty. For though we have grace, yet we cannot bring that grace into act […]

On November 18, 1559, at one of the most critical junctures in the history of the Scottish Reformation, John Knox sent to England two letters. The first he addressed to Sir William Cecil, chief secretary of Queen Elizabeth, setting forth very clearly the Scottish Protestants’ need for English help, coupled with a serious warning of […]

There is a moving story about how Charlotte Elliott came to write the well-known hymn, ‘Just as I am, without one plea,’ which has been a blessing to so many. It seems that Miss Elliott, a lifelong invalid, was going through a period of deep depression before her conversion and could not find the way to Christ: […]

Life after death. It is still the case that most people believe in it. In some form and in some place existence will continue beyond the grave. And most expect, too, that they will be happy. Life can be miserable enough for them here. But their comfort is that there — beyond the grave — […]

To do good to others, is an honour that comes from God only. The very desire is Christ-like; and those that are Christ’s have both the desire and the power. If you have lived without Christ, you have done nothing either for God or man in the past. If you would now take Christ, what […]

‘We rejoice in hope of the glory of God’ — Romans 5.2b The cycle that is called a year is an ordinance of God. ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years’ (Gen. […]

November 11th 2018 marked the one hundredth anniversary of the ending of World War One. It had been confidently anticipated that the conflict would be over by the Christmas of 1914. Instead, it dragged on for over four years and proved to be by far the bloodiest conflict in human history to that point. By war’s […]

The August-September edition of Banner of Truth is always something of an occasion — a significant increase in the heft of the envelope flopping on to the doormat, extra features etc — but the current issue has been particularly engaging. In the opening editorial Jonathan Watson hands over the reigns of the magazine to Ian […]

Every semester as I teach college students theology, I have them read one or two excerpts from Jonathan Edwards — and every time, I get one of two responses. First, he’s difficult to read! The second response I get from some students is about how Edwards simply sees life differently than they do. They’re surprised, […]

‘Be zealous’ — Revelation 3:19 This watch-word of Christ, it be not now a word in season, I know not when ever it was, or will be. If God should now send through the earth such surveying angels as Zechariah mentions (Zech. 1) could they return any other observation of their travels than this, ‘The […]

My late Dad bought me a pair of Grenson shoes for my wedding, solid and sensible footwear. They can be buffed to guardsman standard, but are stiff and inflexible and uncomfortable. I wore them to his funeral after my wedding, and have only worn them when I’m conducting funerals in the fourteen years since. Along […]