Topic Archives: Pastoral Biography

RICHARD SIBBES AND THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER ‘Of this blest man, let this just praise be given: heaven was in him, before he was in heaven.’ The third paper at the Westminster Conference 2001 was given by Paul Oliver co-pastor with his father at Bradford on Avon. It was on the theme “The Returning Backslider” a […]

PHILIP DODDRIDGE AND THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION His manual of theology was considered a beacon of orthodoxy The fourth paper given at the Westminster Conference 2001 was on “Philip Doddridge and Theological Education.” It was delivered by Robert Strivens of Banbury. What a fascinating subject. There are really two themes present here, the first being Doddridge himself […]

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: MINISTER OF ST. PETER’S, DUNDEE, 1836 – 1843. THE ONLY POWER THAT CAN BRING A CHILD OF SATAN AND MAKE HIM A CHILD OF GOD, IS GOD HIMSELF. Two men were working beside a fire in a quarry, one day in winter, when a stranger approached them on horseback. Alighting from his […]

IF THEY DO NOT DO WHAT IS RIGHT, THERE MAY BE A MIGHTY BATTLE Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was born at ‘Grasmere’ near Lexington, Kentucky, one hundred and fifty years ago this year on 5th November 1851. He died in February 1921 12 weeks after the death of Abraham Kuyper and 22 weeks before the death […]

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF STEPHEN CHARNOCK by William Symington Stephen Charnock, B.D., was born in the year 1628, in the parish of St. Katharine Cree, London. His father, Mr. Richard Charnock, practiced as a solicitor in the Court of Chancery, and was descended from a family of some antiquity in Lancashire. Stephen, after a course […]

Gentlemen. I have long looked for a suitable opportunity of acknowledging an old debt to a favourite author of mine. But when I proceed to pay a little of that old debt today, I am not to be supposed to put any of you into that same author’s debt. All I wish to do is […]

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 […]

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, […]

“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 […]

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 […]

An Introduction James I. Packer ‘BAXTER, Richard, gentleman; born 12 November 1615, at Rowton, Salop; educated at Donnington Free School, Wroxeter, and privately; ordained deacon by Bishop of Worcester, Advent 1638; head of Richard Foley’s School, Dudley, 1639; curate of Bridgnorth, 1639-40; lecturer (curate) of Kidderminster, 1641-42; army chaplain at Coventry, 1642-45, and with Whalley’s […]

INTRODUCTION AND APOLOGIA “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Never was that proverb more accurate than in this self-initiated enterprise. I have about four words of Dutch. I know about Holland via North America, not because of visits to or discussions with men who live in the Netherlands today. I once exchanged houses […]

There were some weaknesses in Abraham Kuyper. 1. Kuyper’s approach to the Bible was not uniformly helpful because his preaching was not that of the careful exegete. At times his sermons were more like lectures than expository addresses. He would, for example, seize on single words in a text like ‘rooted’ or ‘grounded’ and use […]