Topic Archives: Christian Living

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 […]

The word ‘radical’ means, literally, ‘of the roots’. Radical changes are changes that go to the root of things, and radical solutions are not merely ‘cosmetic’ but are concerned with the foundations. Recently, and on certain questions, ‘radical’ has come to have a generally favourable flavour. A radical is taken to be uncluttered in his […]

Wherever there has been conversion with power, the souls that have been reconciled to their Creator will not fail to inquire how they may become ‘perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect’; and every one who seeks to turn a sinner from the error of his way must strive with his whole strength and […]

One of the greatest of the problems that have agitated the Church is the problem of the relation between knowledge and piety, between culture and Christianity. This problem has appeared first of all in the presence of two tendencies in the Church — the scientific or academic tendency, and what may be called the practical […]

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 […]

Never in the history of the church has so much been said to so many with so little effect! We have pronouncements by church leaders and church bodies, elaborate reunion schemes, commissions on this, that and the next, and endless discussion groups. The torrent of words flows on and, for the most part, over the […]

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: […]

Many of us have struggled with temptations and trials in this fallen world. Some of us have been laid low, and have lost a sense of God’s love and our purpose in this life. Sinclair Ferguson discusses this sad reality and gives a couple pointers on how we can encourage believers to remember God’s love, […]