Topic Archives: General Biography

Roger Beckwith A Sermon preached at the Burial service of the Reverend John Herbert Algar, vicar of St Martin and St. Paul, Tipton, at St Paul’s church, on 19th February 2001 My text is the concluding verse of the lesson just read in the Prayer Book Burial service, 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, […]

[This is the first of a five part series originally published in the Banner of Truth magazine under the title “Thomas Hooker and the Dctrine of God.” This portion was in Issue 195, December 1979, pp. 19-29.] Among the multitude of Puritan books which have survived the 17th Century The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan […]

by Sinclair B. Ferguson [For four decades now the Banner of Truth Trust has been committed to republishing and keeping in print the works of John Owen. All over the English-speaking world there exists testimony to the incalculable value of his biblical teaching in many vital areas of Christian doctrine and experience. For some time […]

May 3, 1895 – April 17, 1987 I The Early Years In the northern part of Holland in the province of Groningen is a small town called Grootegast. In the town lived the Reinder Van Til family. The grandfather was an owner and manager of an inn. Reinder also considered himself a theologian. He and […]

J.C.Ryle was fighting on two fronts. He saw not only the dangers that arose from the prospect of the Romanising of the Church of England, but also those which threatened from the growing liberalism and skepticism of the age. He warned not only of the doctrine of the Pharisees, i.e., formalism, tradition worship, and self-righteousness, […]

Dr Ralph Davis is the Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He is to give three addresses at the annual Banner of Truth ministers’ conference in Leicester at the beginning of April. His coming is eagerly awaited. His commentaries on the OT historical books Joshua, Judges and I & […]

When I reflect on my spiritual pilgrimage, Reformed thinkers come to mind who became my mentors. The Dutch theologian Dr. Herman :Bavinck heads the list. I was introduced to his theology through his magisterial work, the four-volume “Gereformeerde Dogmatiek” (1906-1911) [Reformed Dogmatics], a gift from a generous host at whose place I stayed for a […]

A Faith Worth Sharing: A Lifetime of Conversations about Christ, by C. John Miller. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian & Reformed. 1999. 152 pp. $7.95. This book, written by one of the more noteworthy Presbyterian evangelists of the twentieth century, was edited posthumously by Dr. Miller’s daughters, Barbara and Roseann. In an introductory note, they write: […]

“I need not tell you of this who knew him, that it was his great Design to promote Holiness in the Life and Exercise of it among you: But it was his great Complaint, that its Power declined among Professors. It was his Care and Endeavor to prevent or cure spiritual Decays in his own […]

[This testimony of the new American President’s journey of faith been has widely circulated on the Internet. We long that his faith grow and he become a courageous and wise leader of the greatest nation in the world.] Actually, the seeds of my decision had been planted by the Reverend Billy Graham. He visited my […]

How few are the followers of the Lord Jesus with whom we are personally acquainted.Then one day a window is opened upon another life and we are permitted a view of transforming and sustaining grace. So it was when the Times published an obituary of Dr Leigh Ashton (Tuesday, December 19, 2000): “A Life in […]

Just before Thanksgiving I had flown to Greenville, South Carolina, to visit my stepmother and to help my father make some adjustments to living alone after she had moved into a nursing home. When my visit was over I left his house with enough time to drive by some of the places where I grew […]

The Tie No Longer Binds Former President Jimmy Carter’s “resignation” from the Southern Baptist Convention was intended to draw public attention—and it did. After all, it isn’t every day that one of the world’s most famous citizens denounces his denomination. Mr. Carter, now 76, has been America’s most active former president. His efforts at peacemaking, […]

The Forest of Dean is a good base from which to visit sites connected with George Whitefield in Gloucestershire. I took some photographs of the old Bell Inn, the inside and outside of St Mary de Crypt, RodboroughTabernacle (with Whitefield’s walking stick and chair), Whitfield’s Tump (spelt without the middle ‘e’) on Minchinhampton Common and […]

Bishop J. C. Ryle was The Puritan Bishop, that is the Puritan Bishop par excellence, said Dr. James I Packer, Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver, speaking in Liverpool on 9 September at a meeting chaired by the present Bishop of that city. His subject was “J. C. Ryle, the Puritan Bishop”. Dr. Packer […]

Chris Harmse of South Africa is a hammer thrower. He holds the record on the African continent for that event. A big man in every way he had qualified for the South African team during a pre-Olympic event in Croatia on July 15. Then he discovered that the final of the hammer throw took place […]

In the extraordinary opening ceremony to mark the opening of the Olympic Games one of the climaxes of the evening was to see that one word that hung suspended from the giant arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The word was “ETERNITY”. It had also been hanging there on January 1 to greet the dawning […]

The late Dr Arthur Fawcett lectured on Church History in the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow when I was a student there. His doctoral thesis was published by the Banner of Truth as “The Cambuslang Revival”, and a worthwhile read it is. His unusual appearance, including the shocks of pure white hair on either side […]

I would like to briefly mention some aspects of life in Turkey as a follower of Jesus Christ. From a spiritual viewpoint Turkey’s soil is hard, and life as a Christian is certainly not easy. For example, perpetrators of various crimes often seem to go unpunished, but anyone who becomes a follower of Christ (or […]

Renowned scholar learned to love the Bible at his grandmother’s knee. “I’m not really a scholar,” says J. Alec Motyer softly, “I’m just a man who loves the Word of God.” Now retired as principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England, Motyer has spent his professional career studying the Bible. However, he learned to love […]

Two years ago a representative of the Slav Lands Christian Fellowship was invited to western Siberia to see the fruit of an indigenous missionary outreach that had begun seven years before in this previously unevangelised field. He went not as a tourist but to assess the possibilities of co-operating in a practical ways with our […]

John Newton and William Cowper lived for many years in the little town of Olney in Buckinghamshire. The town is in the middle of a triangle of larger towns with Northampton to the north-west, Bedford due east, and Milton Keyes due south. These two men both wrote hymns, some of them the most outstanding in […]

During Easter Week Alec MacDougall of Trinity Baptist Church Gloucester took myself and my nephew David on a history tour of that city. We saw the memorial church, built on a site where George Whitefield preached in the open air. I would guess it was built as a Presbyterian chapel. It’s URC now – and […]

The history of God’s work in Scotland is profuse and brimming with manifestations of God’s power and grace. In my twenty-five years of ministry here it has been my privilege when time and opportunity afforded to take visiting preachers on ‘the grand tour.’ From the castle at St Andrews in the north-east to the various […]

Two hundred years ago was the beginning of the golden age of missionary expansion from Europe and North America. At that time there were 174m professing Christians in the world which had a population of 730m. So Christians set up missionary societies. The first was founded in 1794, plainly called the Missionary Society. This became […]