Topic Archives: History & Biography

‘Consider it all joy’ William Carey, the father of modern world missions, was born into a poor family in Northampton, England in 1761. He had no formal education but taught himself to read and write and mastered Latin by the age of twelve. He began his trade in his early teens as a shoemaker and […]

I was born of godly parents on November 9th, 1843, in the village of Hankerton, Wiltshire. My father was a carrier and small farmer, and I was the youngest of nine children. My parents taught me that if I lived to be very old, and then died without repentance, I should go to hell and […]

This is the testimony of a young man from a Christian home recently baptised and received into church membership in London. Having grown up in a Christian family, I have always been taken to church and to children’s clubs. I don’t think there has ever been a time in my life when I didn’t believe […]

Vladimir Radzihovski came as a pioneer missionary to Nizhni Vartovsk in 1993. He has worked there almost alone and his health is now deteriorating. He recently wrote to me as follows: Dear brother in Christ Roger! Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you very much for your care, understanding […]

John Newton first went to sea at the age of just 11. His godly mother had died when he was only 6 and his father was a ship’s captain. After that first voyage he kept on going to sea, and over the years he had many adventures and many difficulties, but his own foolishness lay […]

. . . we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Don and Carol Richardson had come, with their infant son, to the Sawi people of southwestern New Guinea for the purpose of bringing the good news of the gospel to them. After building a house Don set about the task […]

Do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5) . . . speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) . . . through love serve one another (Galatians 5:13). The year 1735 was a remarkable one in the western world.1 In January, while her husband Jonathan was off preaching in other places, the Spirit of […]

It is generally agreed that the two most prominent leaders of the 18th century revival in Wales were Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland.1 They had much in common. They were about the same age; the Lord called them both from darkness to light in the same year (1735); they had a common friend in the […]

These two attractively-bound volumes of Scottish Presbyterian biographies from the seventeenth century1 were originally published by the Wodrow Society in 1845. William Tweedie, the editor, who collected the biographies chiefly from the Library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, was a minister of the Disruption Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. The original Wodrow […]

EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTERS 8 & 9 OF IAIN H. MURRAY’S Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace1 The position of the mixed denominations in the 1960s was far from static. On account of the ecumenical movement, the whole future of denominations was under discussion as it had never been before. When ML-J raised the great Reformation question, ‘What […]

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer (Acts 1:14). David Brainerd was born in April, 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut and was converted just prior to enrolling at Yale in September, 1739. He was deeply and profoundly affected by the preaching of George Whitefield at Yale in the fall of 1741 at […]

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love (Revelation 2:4). By 1630 Scotland was in need of another revival, a time of visitation by God when a whole community is soaked with his presence. Such had occurred five years earlier in the town of Stewarton under the ministry of David […]

On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. (Song of Solomon 3:1) David Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut in April, 1718 and attended church regularly in the local Congregational Church, as almost everyone did in eighteenth century New England. However when […]

Thomas Scott1, the commentator, that holy man of God, in The Force of Truth2 (which is his personal testimony), says Till the 16th year of my age, I do not remember that I ever was under any serious conviction . . . but about my 16th year I began to see that I was a […]

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. (Proverbs 31:10) Richard Baxter, the tireless, heavenly minded Puritan minister of the seventeenth century, was a confirmed bachelor,1 devoting himself completely to the ministry of the gospel in Kidderminster, England. When going there in 1641 the parish was notorious for godlessness and […]

I have been constrained to consider the crucial importance of humility in the life of the Christian leader. My friend James has been urging on me the value of meditating on the life of Brownlow North, a major evangelist in northern England, Scotland, and Ireland during 1858 and afterwards1. North was the great torchbearer of […]

Just as the world finished marking the 5th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, another natural disaster of epic dimensions shattered the snow-laden news broadcasts within the United Kingdom. A 7.0 earthquake struck just 13kms below the surface of the earth close to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 13th January, bringing down over […]

Ian Murray has rightly titled the book Heroes: it comprises of a number of short biographies of evangelists, some well known and others less well known. All are heroes in different ways, from Spurgeon and Edwards to Hewitson and Kalley who evangelised in Madeira, or Charles and Mary Colcock Jones who evangelised among the slaves on […]

During this year [2009] of commemoration of John Calvin and the many discussions of his remarkable work for the Lord, one element of his ministry has been neglected. Calvin was a counsellor – par excellence. I have just read through all of his letters as they were carefully collected, edited, and published by the Parker […]

Introduction In all the extant biographies of England’s worthies, we rarely hear of one who was ‘more devout and godly’ than the writer ever knew, who not only led ‘a heavenly life himself’, but also ‘very earnestly and heartily’ laboured ‘to persuade others’ to do the same. Yet such a man was John Bradford1 – […]

My father, William Francis Brady, died in hospital in Pontypool just after 2 pm today – Sunday, November 29th. He was 80 years old. Everyone called him ‘Bill’. He’d been unwell for several months and we knew that death would probably take him from us before the end of the year. Obviously, my immediate thoughts […]

It was the first day of July 1866. As John Kennedy stood ready to preach on that Sabbath, in the pulpit of his Dingwall church, he gave out as his text: ‘For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better’ (Phil. 1:23). […]

TIMOTHY OLEINIK went to Siberia from southern Russia eighteen years ago as one of a large mission team of raw recruits visiting Siberia for the first time. He was destined to stay for many years (see what his wife says below)! He has shown himself to be a born leader and enabler of others willing […]

I imagine every Christian as he goes about his daily tasks looks for those occasional indications of the divine hand in his affairs to confirm that his work is of the Lord and not merely some scheme of his own. We are now beginning to build the hospital and because of the high unemployment rate […]

INTRODUCTION I have betrayed John Calvin1. We all have. We betray Calvin every time we talk about him, because Calvin did a lot to stop people talking about him. He once commented, ‘I am unwilling to speak of myself, but since you do not permit me to be altogether silent, I will say what I […]