Topic Archives: Christian Living

I am very grateful to two very old and dear friends of my family. Firstly, to Iain Murray for agreeing to the publication of his address, which as far as I know has never been published before, though some elements of it are in his biography of the Doctor. Below is the transcription of a […]

We Christians are heaven-bound pilgrims. The question is, do we see ourselves that way? Have we fostered this kind of pilgrim mentality in our own lives? If not, impatience may be the culprit. In this respect, many of us have been shaped by our culture more than we care to admit. To put it mildly, […]

The fruitfulness of Brownlow North’s ministry led him to become known as the ‘John the Baptist of the great awakening of 1859’. But this largely forgotten evangelist of the nineteenth century has much to teach us still today. Though these rules were written to help young believers, they remain relevant to Christians of all ages […]

Readers will be interested to know that the Trust is soon to re-issue Robert Traill in two volumes. There are a number of reasons why Traill deserves to be reprinted. First, his long and active life spanned the period of the Puritan Age. Born in 1642, almost on the eve of the Westminster Assembly, he […]

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 […]

Conrad Mbewe talks about building up his library as a young seminarian and how he would find the ‘good books’. With many of us living under stay-at-home orders, we find ourselves, in the Lord’s good providence, cut off from society and the regular flow of life. Although this can be challenging, it also presents a […]

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 […]

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. […]

 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

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The idea that the Christian faith is better felt than thought and believed is a widespread one. Its roots are widespread as well. In Protestantism since the time of Kant it has been axiomatic that God cannot be known, only ‘postulated’ or ‘projected’. This by-now traditional agnosticism has been reinforced by challenges to the meaningfulness […]

The following is taken from the excellent Memoir of John H. Rice, W. H. Maxwell (Philadelphia; 1835), pp. 334-337 * * * Union Theological Seminary, Feb. 13th, 1828 My Dear Jane, I have a thousand times purposed to write to you, since your marriage; but have never yet seen the time when I could fulfil my intentions. […]

‘Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.’ –Ephesians 6:8,9 . . . This […]

‘Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet . . . And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of […]

The second Epistle to the Corinthians is the most personal of all Paul’s epistles. In it he tells us more of his sufferings and his anxieties than in any other. In Chapter 1 he mentions his deliverance from ‘so great a death’, which is taken by Dr B. B. Warfield to refer to his being […]

Prayer should be definite. What a lot of praying there is that prays for everything in general and nothing in particular! I was reading a very good illustration, given by an eminent minister, upon this point. He says, ‘Why was it that the Boers in South Africa were able to hold their own against the […]

. . . every man is bound to profess and practise always what he apprehends to be truth. This has the greater strength, because it comes in the form of an appeal for exact godliness. I do not mean a hypocritical appeal, for this principle has the appearance of godliness to men’s consciences. Yet it […]

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 […]