The Wanderer

As part of our family holiday, we took a trip through Bunyan territory. The boys were excited by this. Caleb and I have read a large portion of Pilgrim’s Progress, and for family ‘Bible time’ we have been trading on the boys’ obsession with all things warlike and working our way through The Holy War, which they have been loving. Finding out a little more about where John Bunyan was born and lived, and where he was converted, seemed like the natural thing to do.

Taking the scenes in chronological order (for Bunyan), we begin in Harrowden, the hamlet close to which Bunyan was born. The road narrows down to a bridleway at a place called Bunyan Farm, and a quick stroll down the bridleway brings the interested pilgrim to a stream and an entrance to a corn field. A sign suggests that the monument at the site of the cottage where Bunyan was born is to be found within. I trolled in, expecting to find it fairly close at hand. Not seeing anything monumental, I gambolled on gazelle-like through the corn (OK, I ploughed on rhino-style) for about a quarter of a mile, before coming upon the slab of rock commemorating the site (the monument itself was erected for the Festival of Britain in 1951). It is an attractive if fairly ignominious spot, dignified mainly by association.

Moving on, we come to the village of Elstow, where Bunyan was baptized and where he lived with his first wife after he was married.

Now a pleasant, middle-class village, the village green and the church at Elstow are still easily found.

This church in Elstow is where he heard sufficient faithful preaching to stir his soul, and this green where Bunyan was playing tip-cat (an early version of rounders, apparently) when he came under a powerful conviction of sin on account of his disregard for the Lord’s day. A bell-ringer in the church, his sense of his sin made him afraid that the bell he rang would fall on him, so he stood under a beam. He became afraid that the beam too would fall (or be insufficient to protect him), so he took to standing in the doorway, but even that would not salve his conscience. Eventually, he gave up the practice altogether.

Both Elstow and Harrowden are not far from Bedford itself (indeed, are now barely separate from it). It is striking how much of Bunyan’s life was lived out within such a small parcel of land. Moving into Bedford, we come to St John’s church and rectory, where John Gifford pastored the independent church meeting in the building.

Gifford’s own story is remarkable: a hard-living Royalist officer, he narrowly avoided execution after being captured following a battle in Kent. Escaping from custody, he was eventually converted, and became a pastor of the independent church in Bedford. He was, under God, the ideal man to counsel the spiritually-tortured Bunyan. After Bunyan found peace for his soul through true faith in Christ, and not outward reformation and mere religiosity, it was not long before he became the vigorous preacher who “preached what I felt, what I smartingly did feel.” Of course, persecution followed swiftly afterward, and not far up the street from the church building is the bridge over the Great Ouse.

A stroll down the river side for a short distance brings you to the backwater where Bunyan was probably baptised, and a former iteration of the bridge contained a cell where Bunyan may have spent some time imprisoned.

Walking up Bedford High Street, one passes other sites of interest. There is the place where the main gaol was situated, now marked only by a plaque on the ground. Many historians now believe that this was the place in which Bunyan spent the bulk of his imprisonment. Not far away, down a side street, is the church building which sits in the same location as the one in which Bunyan pastored during his times of freedom, and a little further on one can see the place where the cottage stood in which Bunyan and his family came to live.

Finally, at the top of the High Street, stands the well-known statue of one of Bedfordshire’s most famous sons, now a little weathered. Bunyan stands in noble pose, his Bible in one hand and his other resting upon the Word of truth.

He looks out over a town which seems as much in need of the gospel as it did in his day, surveying the hair salons and nightclubs which pepper the town, faced as if challenged by a somewhat salubrious joint selling fake breasts and rubber sixpacks.

It struck me very much as a town which needs the gospel (I speak as a man from Crawley, and hope that I am doing no disservice to any churches in the town which are seeking to carry the good news to those who are dead in sin). Bedford needs a Bunyan again, a man who preaches the truth in Christ which he feels, which he smartingly does feel. Perhaps more accurately, Bedford needs a man powerfully indwelt by the Spirit of the Christ who saved John Bunyan, who trembles before the living God, who knows the horrors of sin and the wonders of grace, and who is prepared to preach those realities with the same fearless faith as Bunyan himself.

I suspect that those of you who hear a fair amount of preaching have experienced this, haven’t you? Somewhere along the line the preacher has been informed that a rhetorical question is a good way to engage his congregation, hasn’t he? And so what does he do? Well, he uses them almost relentlessly, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he make sentences that don’t need to be questions into questions? If in doubt – and perhaps this is the most distressing approach – he even throws in some form of interrogation at the end of most sentences, doesn’t he?

It is possible that he honestly believes that this is carrying his congregation along with him, isn’t it? Isn’t it likely that there is some preacher who – or some school of preaching which –has developed this kind of thing to its mutated art form, and he is merely embracing the method? (Can you guess about whom or where I am thinking?) But hasn’t it almost become a kind of inescapable verbal tic?

It seems as if the preacher is always begging for some kind of affirmation from the congregation, doesn’t it? He sounds as if he cannot state anything without at least checking to make sure that someone agrees with him, doesn’t he? It’s hardly proclamation though, is it? Is this really how a herald of God speaks, as if perpetually unsure that what he says stands on its own authority?

Do you wish he would stop doing it? Do you remember when the rhetorical question had power and purpose? When such was genuinely eloquent, and not part of a series of pointless inquisitions? When it would neatly guide a congregation on to the next point in the sequence? Or when it would leave something hanging pregnantly in the air, inexorably drawing out a conclusion in thoughts that the preacher is not stating in words? Or when a finely poised query would demand that the congregation silently supply a piercing answer that drove into the soul of many of those hearing?

I hope you permit me a brief excursus into parody, but isn’t this the kind of thing we are becoming accustomed to hear?

Well, dear friends, isn’t it a blessing that we read this chapter of God’s Word this morning? It is good to read the Bible together, isn’t it? Will you turn there with me once more? Now, what do we find here? Don’t we find something that warms our hearts? Isn’t this a challenge to our lives? We are also warned here, aren’t we? There is teaching here too, isn’t there? But we are not left without encouragements, are we? And what is this telling us? Isn’t it telling us that we need to be ready to serve the Lord more readily? Are we hearing that? Do we embrace that? Do we? Do we? Or do we?

Aren’t we tempted to bellow, “Get on with it!”? What would apostolic preaching have sounded like if this abomination had gripped the hearts of Peter and Paul? Something like this, perhaps?

Men of Israel, will you hear these words? Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— wasn’t he delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, but taken by your lawless hands, crucified, and put to death? Didn’t God raise him up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it? For didn’t David say concerning him:

‘Did I not foresee the Lord always before my face?
For is he not at my right hand, that I may not be shaken?
Therefore did not my heart rejoice? And was my tongue not glad?
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope, won’t it?
For you will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption, will you?
Haven’t you have made known to me the ways of life?
Won’t you make me full of joy in your presence?’

Men and brethren, may I speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day? Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, didn’t he foresee this and speak concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption? Hasn’t God raised up this Jesus? And aren’t we all witnesses of that? Therefore, hasn’t he been exalted to the right hand of God, and hasn’t he received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and poured out this which you now see and hear?

For David did not ascend into the heavens, did he? Didn’t he say this?

Has not the Lord said to my Lord
‘Sit at my right hand,
Till I make your enemies your footstool’?

Therefore all the house of Israel should know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, shouldn’t you?

Can you imagine anyone in Israel being cut to the heart by a message that depends entirely on them for affirmation? And if they were, what gentle recommendation would Peter offer to be accepted by these judges of all that he said?

We should repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, shouldn’t we? And we shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, shan’t we? For isn’t the promise to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call?

Do you notice how you are almost obliged to take out the second person pronouns and replace them with first person plurals? Can’t you do the same tragic exercise with Paul’s sermon, stripping out all the declaration and proclamation, and leaving it toothless and crawling?

So, preachers, shall we eschew the abuse of the rhetorical question and the overuse of the interrogative? Shall we save rhetorical questions for the occasions when they appropriately and fruitfully demand that our congregations fill the void they leave? Shall we stop begging our congregations to agree with everything we say in the act of saying it, and return to the business to speaking the Word of God with humble authority, as true heralds?

And, for those hearers who have to put up with this, may I suggest at least one solution? What would happen if you offered an audible response – whether yes or no – to every question that the preacher put to you? Might that begin to expose the error of his ways in this regard? Might it not at least reveal to him quite how often he is demanding an empty answer of his congregation?

So, will these few words make any difference to this frustrating practice? Will we at last see the back of the pointless, endless series of queries, and the return of the rhetorical question in its proper form and function? Will the land, or at least the pulpit, be rid of incessant interrogation? I don’t know. Do you?

In The Hidden Life of Prayer (Westminster/Amazon.co.uk/.com), David McIntyre quotes Dr Alexander Somerville as follows:

The greatest, the most successful servants that Christ ever had divided their functions into two departments – ‘We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.’ What would be thought of dividing the twelve hours of our day by giving six hours to prayer for the Gospel and six to the ministry of the Word? Had all Christ’s servants acted thus, could anyone estimate how mighty the results on the world would be today?

The ministry of the Word tends to be a more public function, and the private labour of the study is therefore somewhat readily justified. But wrestling with God is almost entirely a private function, and it is easy to maintain the veneer of public usefulness while skimping on the private labours of intercession. I am not suggesting that giving oneself to prayer and to the ministry of the Word demands an absolutely equal division of labour, but what is the testimony of their relative importance of each one as judged by the proportion of time and energy given to the one compared to the other in the day of a gospel minister? And how much more effective might ministers be if we kept more closely to the apostolic model?

David McIntyre, author of The Hidden Life of Prayer (Westminster/Amazon.co.uk/.com), was a minister who served the same congregation for many years. In his jubilee year, a celebration was held, at which many tributes were paid. McIntyre responded in a speech in which he praised others, before closing with these words:

My ministry must now be nearing its close. I have entered that region which lies along the frontier of the King’s country, where as John Bunyan tells us, the contract between the Bride and the Bridegroom is oft-times renewed. It is a covenant of free grace: not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. On his word, and on his completed work, I rest. (Hidden Life, 11)

This is a good way to end.

Ratisbon  7 7. 7 7. 7 7

Psalm 54
Save me, Lord, by your great name,
Vindicate me by your strength;
Help from you I humbly claim,
Hear me when I cry at length;
Listen to my pleading voice,
Bid my troubled heart rejoice.

Men oppose me all around;
God is not before their eyes;
Christ himself will stand my ground,
When my enemies arise:
He will punish every foe,
And in truth will bring them low.

God, my helper, I will sing:
He has made my troubles cease.
Sacrifice I freely bring,
Praise the gracious Prince of Peace:
He has cast the wicked down,
My Deliverer wears the crown.

©JRW following Henry Francis Lyte

See all hymns and psalms.

Gary Brady passes on a near-tragedy in the life of Richard Baxter:

Another time, as I sat in my Study, the Weight of my greatest Folio Books brake down three or four of the highest Shelves, when I sat close under them, and they fell down on every side me, and not one of them hit me, save one upon the Arm; whereas the Place, the Weight, and greatness of the Books was such, and my Head just under them, that it was a Wonder they had not beaten out my Brains, one of the Shelves right over my Head having the six Volumes of Dr. Walton‘s Oriental Bible, and all Austin‘s Works, and the Bibliotheca Patrum, and Marlorate, &c. (Reliquiae, 1.82)

Clearly the lesson learned is to keep your heavy books on the low shelves.

Can I thank God for this?

Kevin DeYoung asks a good question.

More from the Andrew Fuller Center:

John Angell James (1785–1859) was one of the great Congregationalist preachers of the nineteenth century. His ministry at Carrs Lane Independent Chapel in Birmingham began just after the death of my hero Samuel Pearce (1766–99), whom he seems to have always referred to as the “seraphic Pearce,” a term he probably picked up from John Ryland, Jr. He is little remembered now, though some of his works have been reprinted by the Banner of Truth and Quinta Press in recent years.

In doing work on Samuel Pearce, I found myself re-reading some of James’ Autobiography. One paragraph that I came across is quite striking and quite true:

“I cannot say that I was a very diligent student on my entrance upon the ministry. I was not, it is true, a loiterer or saunterer, but my reading was desultory, for want of a wise and settled plan. I am persuaded that young ministers need a guide through the first two or three years of their ministry, as much as they do at college; and it should be an object with their tutors before they finish their curriculum to give them some directions as to the manner of carrying on their mental improvement when they have entered upon their pastoral occupation.”

Interesting.

Questions, Cromwell and confessions from Michael Haykin.

And here’s a little more on those questions of Reformed Baptist origin.

In our path thro life, tho we meet with so many travelers, & we hope with many who are going to Zion with their faces thitherward; yet, it is not often that we meet with men, whose openness of mind, steadiness of attachment, & spirituality of temper, invite our friendship with…force & sweetness.

So writes Samuel Pearce, friend of Carey, Fuller, Sutcliff, Pearce and Ryland.

Michael Haykin reminds us that the first two would qualities – “openness of mind, steadiness of attachment” – would probably be affirmed by Pearce’s Georgian culture, while the third – “spirituality of temper” – is distinctly Christian.

A similar spirit animated William Ward:

Michael Haykin tells us why Andrew Fuller counts.

Yesterday I began posting some mini-reviews of volumes of pastoral theology. Having covered the As, here we hit the Bs. For some reason, there are lots of As and Bs, as well as Cs, but a smattering of Ds and Es, with a dearth of Qs and Xs, will even things out over time. As previously mentioned, the entire list will eventually appear on the pastoral theology resources page (see sidebar), which I hope you will visit from time to time.

I welcome comments on the list (especially on the pastoral theology page, where I can keep track more readily) and would be particularly interested to know of any other older or newer works of pastoral theology that readers might recommend. Thank you.

Baxter, Richard. The Reformed Pastor. Baxter’s sense of his obligations before God weigh heavily upon him and us in this classic text. Although at times you are almost driven to despair by the felt gravity of the calling and its duties, there is much gold to mine from even the deepest caverns. The sensitive man might wish to keep a complementary volume near at hand to encourage his soul, but anyone with ears to hear will be taught, reproved, corrected, and instructed in righteousness by this treatment of the theme. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Berry, Cicely. Your Voice and How to Use It: The Classic Guide to Speaking With Confidence. The voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with some utterly unnecessary but would-be achingly cool vulgarity, gives helpful counsel on the right use of the voice. Quite technical at points, but something like this would help many of us with such things as pitch, tone, diction, variation, and a host of other pulpit failings that make us hard to hear or listen to. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Bickel, Bruce R. Light and Heat: The Puritan View of the Pulpit. Really two shorter books in one, Bruce Bickel mines Puritan preachers (and some of their successors) for their thoughts on preaching in the first part, weaving it profitably together. The second part is really a comparison of two different kinds of evangelism (Puritanism vs. Finneyism, in essence). There is lots here to stimulate, pointing the reader back beyond the Puritans to Scripture to see whether or not our convictions and the practices that flow from them are what they ought to be. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Blaikie, William Garden. For the Work of the Ministry. Setting out to be brief, complete and practical, Blaikie does a cracking job. One of the old school, in the best sense, treating the nature of the ministry, the call to it, the work of it, the character required in it, with all manner of homiletical and pastoral tips and hints along the way. Not all of its emphases and nuances need to be embraced to find this a real gem. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Bonar, Andrew. The Visitor’s Book of Texts: A Vital Tool for Pastoral Visitation. A very different little book, detailing the various cases which a visiting minister may find when he goes into a home or hospital (or wherever), giving some general counsels for approaching each instance, then highlighting a number of relevant texts, sometimes with thoughts or comments upon particular ones, all intended to help the visitor find appropriate Scriptures and well-directed words for ministering. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Bonar, Horatius. Words to Winners of Souls. An exercise in self-examination of a painful and profitable kind. Bonar deals not only with what we ought to be, but also exposes what we too often have been and remain. He searches the heart, probing and prodding, before pointing us to the remedies for many ministerial sins and the reviving of our hearts and the rejuvenation of our work. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Borgman, Brian. My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching. An odd book, this, essentially consisting of the boiled-down essence of Al Martin’s lectures on preaching filtered through Borgman the redactor. While much of the profit remains of close attention to the Biblical material on preaching and pastoring, joined with telling and apposite quotes from past masters, it seems to me a book that loses too much in translation. There is much here that is profitable, and yet the book as a whole seems unsatisfactory because it is much less than it could have been. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Boston, Thomas. The Art of Manfishing. I think that this was the work of the young Boston intended solely for his own benefit. It therefore has the virtue of unfailing honesty, insofar as any man is honest with himself. There is no show, only a man dealing with his own soul. Boston considers the promise of Christ to make us fishers of men, then looks at the ministerial duty to pursue such a calling, before asking himself how to cultivate such an art. Good stuff. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Bridges, Charles. The Christian Ministry (with An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency). Bridges was ridiculously young to have so much wisdom and insight when he wrote this. With very little of his own ecclesiology intruding, Bridges gives us an overview of the ministry before considering its inefficiency connected with general causes and with the pastor’s own character (guess which bit hurts the most?). He then moves on to give many corrective helps with regard to public and private or pastoral ministry. Deservedly recognised as a classic in its field. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Broadus, John A. (ed. E. C. Dargan). A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. As long as you get the right edition (the Dargan one) you are in for a sustained and meaty treat. A treasure-house of homiletical insights, Broadus ranges far and wide to give us a grand and focused overview of the sermon. Worthy of more attention in an age when the productions of the pulpit are so often bland and diffuse. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Brown, Charles. The Ministry. Another oldie but a goodie. Fairly short and sweet, again he deals with godly character (a signal failing of many newer works), an excellent treatment of public prayer, and some delightful thoughts on pulpit ministry. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Brown, John, of Edinburgh (comp.). The Christian Pastor’s Manual. A collection of addresses by various worthies. When looking at more modern collections, it is striking how some of the same topics concerning preaching come up time and again. Has the virtue of addressing the pastoral calling and character as much as the work of preaching. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Bucer, Martin (trans. Peter Beale). Concerning the True Care of Souls. Bucer is one of the sleeping giants in Reformation studies, and this is the fruit of some twenty-five years of pastoral ministry, in which he sets out the nature of the work of a ‘carer of souls’ in the context of his doctrine of the church. The linking of these two is part of the genius of the whole, which abounds in good things. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

The whole list so far is here.

When my friend Brian Croft visited the UK several months ago we enjoyed much warm conversation about volumes on pastoral theology. In following up that conversation, and at Brian’s suggestion, I began to build a catalogue of pastoral theology volumes, jotting down a few thoughts about them, and then passed them on to a couple of friends. Brian has since urged me to make the list publicly available as a means of serving others, and I am now pleased to do so.

Here begins, then, a personal survey of books from my library on pastoral theology, concentrating on those about which I am substantially positive without feeling the need to avoid a healthy critical spirit. The comments are comments first and foremost on the books, not on men or their ministries, and should be read accordingly, please. I have not generally bothered critiquing or identifying where differences of conviction would have a noticeable impact or impart a certain flavour, as in the spheres of church polity and ecclesiology. I leave it to the reader to wrestle through the implications of different perspectives, and to do for himself the work of accommodating good principles to his own distinctive convictions.

Because of the time it takes to do the editing for this list, I will be posting this in chunks of varying sizes. However, the entire list will be appearing over time (keeping pace with the gradual posting here) on a new page devoted to pastoral theology resources (and see sidebar), which I hope you will visit from time to time.

I welcome comments on the list (especially on the pastoral theology page, where I can keep track more readily) and would be particularly interested to know of any other older or newer works of pastoral theology that readers might recommend. Thank you.

Alexander, Eric J. What is Biblical Preaching? A little booklet with plenty of pithy and profound thoughts to ingest. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Alexander, J. W. Thoughts on Preaching. Though at points one wishes for a little more topical arrangement, reading his paragraphs as a sort of series of extended aphorisms quickly persuades of Alexander’s great insight. His terse and pithy declarations provide much food for thought. The letters to young ministers and the longer studies toward the end of the book give opportunity for slower and deeper development of his profitable thoughts. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Angell James, John. An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times. Written with the very fervency it recommends, Angell James gives us no place to hide in demanding that if we want others to feel what we preach we must first feel it ourselves, not with an artificial excitement, but with a soul-deep earnestness. Read it before you preach to remind you of how much you need God to help you; read it after you preach to keep you humble; read it between sermons to prompt you in your labours. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. Old-skool, and why not! Of course, needs to be forced thoroughly through a Scriptural grid, but pushes you towards good questions even if you must go on to find God’s answers. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Armstrong, John H. The Stain That Stays: The Church’s Response to the Sexual Misconduct of Its Leaders. A persuasive argument for the permanent disbarring from the pastoral office of any man guilty of sexual immorality, and in itself a powerful persuasive to purity. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Ascol, Thomas K., ed. Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry. One of the interesting things about these compendia is that you get to see the men considered to be the great and the good in the time, place and circle of the editor and/or publisher. Our contributors here are some of the men you would expect, and they deliver much good material in the form of letters written to a realistically-imagined Timothy in the spirit of a mentor. This focus provides a degree of coherence and a suspected significant degree of editorial oversight prevents the contributors from treading too much on one another’s toes, while the characters and personal styles of the correspondents provides a pleasing variety. A wealth of good advice for young men is here, thought it serves equally as a series of profitable reminders and correctives for those who have been some time in the way. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

Azurdia, Arturo G. III. Spirit Empowered Preaching: Involving the Holy Spirit in Your Ministry. I remember an older minister introducing himself to me at a conference, and in the course of his conversation recommending this book as one I must read. I took his advice, and recall being stirred, confirmed and prompted to seek and know more of the Spirit’s work in ministry. A good volume. (Westminster / Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Monergism)

I am starting to catch my breath after returning from the US where I spent a few days travelling around with a few appointments in my calendar.

Arriving at Newark airport on a Friday afternoon, I was kindly loaned a car for a few days by a couple of the esteemed in-laws in Montville and instantly headed south and east to Flemington, where Pastor Frank Barker was formally taking his leave of the Grace Covenant Baptist Church and heading south for the sun, leaving his fellow-elder Alan Dunn and the rest of the church to fend for themselves. The church there, together with a number of friends from a variety of places, had gathered to testify of God’s blessing to them through Pastor Barker’s ministry. It was a wonderful evening with many warm testimonies of Pastor Barker’s wisdom and earnestness in ministering to the saints, and a pleasure to be present and to see some of the good things that God gives to his faithful servants before they hear his own, “Well done!”

I stayed over with Alan Dunn and his family, heading back to Montville early the next morning for the memorial service of Mrs Helen Driesse, who had died only a few days before. I know various members of the Driesse family reasonably well, and it was one of those sorrowful pleasures to hear Mrs Driesse so warmly spoken of and fondly remembered. In particular, Pastor David Chanski of the Trinity Baptist Church, Montville, spoke briefly and pointedly from Psalm 139, including the verses on which Mrs Driesse thought every time she took her medicine: “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” When I thanked him afterward, he told me that the substance of the address had been provided by Helen’s husband, Gerry. It was good and deep stuff. I was particularly struck by something else that was attributed directly to Mr Driesse. He told his friends after his wife died in his arms words to the effect that, “I have now completed the main thing that God has given me to do,” namely, the bringing of his wife safely to and through the river to the Celestial City.

Following a reception at which I had the pleasure of meeting various friends who had gathered for the occasion, I then headed back south and east once more, past Flemington and out into Pennsylvania, this time heading for Downingtown with Mitch & Nancy Lush. Pastor Mitch cares for Grace Church, Downingtown, and had invited me to speak in the adult Sunday School class on the new Calvinism, and then to preach morning and evening taking that context into account. It was again a delight to catch up with a few old friends during the day and once the work of the day was done, as well as to spend a delightful day on Monday at Longwood Gardens with the Lushes and mutual friend, the Reuthers, from Covenant Baptist Church, Lumberton.

Later that Monday, I headed back to Flemington, where I spent an evening chatting over Chinese food with Pastor Dunn and some of his family, which included a splendid few miles on Ethan’s motorbike enjoying the wind in the Walker hair. Tuesday morning Alan and I chewed the fat for a few hours before I headed back to Montville to spend a couple of days with one of my wife’s sisters, Priscilla, and her husband, Rich. I took the opportunity to pick up a few gifts for my own family back home, and also managed to get in a couple of P90X exercise sessions with Rich, while Priscilla threw in some additional torture from the sidelines. Aching all over, I eventually left New Jersey for Kentucky on Thursday evening.

Arriving in Louisville for the bulk of my labours while in the US, I was picked up by Darrel Whiteley, who – together with his delightful family – were my first hosts from the Reformed Baptist Church of Louisville, the church which was hosting the family conference at which I was due to preach. Pastor Bill Hughes, another of the preachers at the conference, arrived on Friday evening, and I enjoyed a breakfast with him and with Pastor Jim Savastio of RBC Louisville (who blogs at Main Things) and Pastor Brian Croft of Auburndale Baptist Church (and Practical Shepherding fame) on Saturday morning. I had originally been scheduled to preach at RBC Louisville on that Sunday and at Auburndale the following Lord’s day, but – due to a mix-up, humanly speaking – there was a double-booking, and Brian was able to accommodate me at Auburndale the first Sunday instead. The Lord’s most wise superintendence was immediately evident, in that during that Sunday Brian was suddenly called away to Nashville to minister to the family of one of his closest friends from college, and my presence gave him additional freedom to do so.

Brian in his study

Sunday morning therefore found me en route to Auburndale Baptist Church, in the south of Louisville, where I had a delightful time worshipping with the friends who gathered, preaching on the salvation of the man who had been born blind. Spending the day with Brian and his family, we heard another brother preach in the evening and then gathered from some informal question-and-answer with some of the folks from the church. Brian drove me home through the night of 3^rd July enjoying the slightly premature Fourth of July fireworks. On Monday I spent the day at the home of other friends from RBC Louisville, enjoying the evident buzz in anticipation of the conference beginning the next day.

Heading for the Alumni Chapel

Alumni Chapel begins to fill up

I was sleeping unusually badly, getting little more than four or five hours a night, perhaps feeling something of the buzz myself. Most of my days in Louisville were filled with some sort of preparation for the conference, and a few periods of relaxation, and it was good to finally get to the conference itself. Pastor Hughes kicked off on Tuesday evening in the Alumni Chapel on the beautiful campus of the Southern Baptist Seminary. Sitting there that first night with several hundred people singing their hearts out I did wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew.

My first sermon was on Wednesday morning in the Heritage Hall, on the theme ‘The Way Forward: Encouragements for a Future, Faithful Generation.’ I preached all three sessions from 2 Kings 13No-one could find the air conditioning, and that – combined with the theatre-style lighting, left me in something of a lather by the time the sermon was over. Bill Hughes followed, preserving his gentlemanly demeanour partly on account of the fact that someone had by then found the air conditioning on-switch. I then preached Wednesday night in the Alumni Chapel, swapping over again with Pastor Hughes for our final two addresses on Thursday morning. Then Pastor Stu Johnston took up the baton, preaching Thursday evening and Friday morning on contemporary challenges, and Pastor Jim Savastio earthed the conference on Friday just before lunch. Around the sermons (all available here) there were some excellent meals, some pleasant fellowship, and some vigorous recreation, and I also had opportunity to meet up again with Brian Croft and some other friends. All too soon, it was over, and I moved on again, this time to the home of Charlie Hall and his family. Charlie is another of the pastors at RBC Louisville, and I had a great few days with the Halls, not least in helping some friends who were moving to the area unpack their truck, and a Sunday lunch that morphed from a get-together for a couple of families to a gathering of about thirty or forty in the space of as many minutes. I preached at RBC Louisville all day on the Lord’s day, kicking off with a brief introduction to John Bunyan and his books in the Sunday School, before preaching in the morning on the joining in the death and resurrection of Christ of God’s mercy and truth, righteousness and peace and in the evening on the commissioning of the Gadarene demoniac to go home and speak of the great things the Lord had done for him, and how he had compassion on him.

Heritage Hall after they heard that I was preaching next

The Halls graciously closed the day by lobbing bits of fried egg into my by-then-drooping mouth when I was breathing in the right direction, and I packed my bags and dropped into bed. Jim pitched up early doors on Monday, and I spent a morning with him before arriving at Louisville airport where I headed back home via Newark. I arrived safe and well, although tired (not least on account of the gent sitting behind me who spent the small hours playing some kind of game on the touchscreen nestling in the back of my seat headrest, a game which involved punching the touchscreen every few seconds for about four hours straight), and made it home to my family soon afterward.

Since then, it has been mainly catching up and getting back into the swing of things, my heart warmed by the fellowship of the saints and the evident working of God in the advance of Christ’s kingdom in so many places.

What would you think of someone who sat down to a wonderful meal, beautifully served, who smiled in appreciation, breathed deeply to draw in all the delightful aromas, applauded the service, commended the chefs, and walked away without eating a single mouthful, having nothing to digest and from which to draw nourishment?

How would you respond to a patient impressed with the insight and skill of the doctor to whom they had gone, fulsome in praise of his diagnostic penetration and grasp of the available remedies, praising his ‘bedside manner,’ appreciative of his sympathetic honesty and his compassionate care, treasuring the fact that he had prescribed a particularly profitable regimen of exercises and a particularly effective medication, without having actually observed a single step of the exercises or taken a single tablet of the prescribed cure?

In either instance, you would be justified in saying that the individuals involved had rather missed the point of the transactions in question. There is nothing inherently nourishing about being at the meal table when such a banquet is served – the food needs to be eaten and digested. There is nothing inherently life-giving about a consultation with such a doctor – the advice and the medicine need to be taken.

And yet how easy it is to adopt such an attitude with regard to the ministry of the Word of God. How easy it is to be satisfied with – even to commend ourselves for – the hearing of vigorous preaching, sitting under sermons with searching application, the reading of stirring books that call us to a life of vigorous godliness, being pastored by faithful men who deal sincerely with our souls, and being part of a church built strongly upon Scriptural foundations.

There we sit, revelling in the aromas of good spiritual food, appreciating the fine service, commending those who bring the food to us so appetisingly (especially to other people whom we believe to be sadly malnourished). But do we eat and are we nourished? We praise the skill and insight of spiritual physicians, perhaps even boasting of their gifts and graces, confident that they are prescribing spiritual medicines of the finest quality and exercises of the highest calibre. But do we take the pill and follow the counsel?

There is nothing inherently virtuous in simply being in such a place under such a ministry. To be sure, it is a good place to be. It is the right place to be. But the benefits may be all around us without ever penetrating; the blessings may make no difference to us because we do not imbibe the things taught, we are not eating and digesting the food that is served.

You may know people who have sat in such churches and received such ministry for month upon month, year upon year, even decade upon decade. Why do they still lack spiritual maturity? Why has there been so little evident progress in sanctification? Why is there still that root of bitterness? Why is there so little Christian joy? Why are they still seemingly oblivious to particular weaknesses and sins? Why are so few of the opportunities offered and duties urged being embraced?

It may be because the working assumption has been that simply being there is enough. But it is not.

James calls upon the saints to “lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (1.21). Here is that truly Berean spirit (Acts 17.11) which gives a ready and humble welcome to the Word of God, desiring that it will accomplish its intended purpose and opening the door of our hearts to give it a swift and unobstructed entrance, in order that it may take root in our souls and begin to bear fruit. In order to do this, we must decisively strip off and throw away whatever remains in our hearts of ungodliness, deliberately and unstintingly rooting out the weeds of wickedness in order that the flowers of righteousness may grow, bud and bloom in our souls. Such a reception, fiercely dealing with sin and meekly embracing the truth, will be the means of our salvation as we press on toward heaven.

James then speaks to the problem that we have identified:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (Jas 1.22-25)

It is not enough, says James, to pat ourselves on the back with regard to hearing. The hearing is not an end in itself, but the means to an end. We must be always putting into practice the things that we hear.

Hearing only is the attitude of the student who does turn up to his classes and lectures but is perhaps too careless, too lazy, or too arrogant to assume that he has anything that he must learn and apply. His mere presence does not guarantee any benefit from the things being taught. There may be an occasional, accidental benefit – as of one with a very picky spiritual appetite, or from a piece of food swallowed unintentionally – but there is no sustained and ready embrace of what is consistently given. It is being taught, but it is not being learned. By contrast, the doer, the worker, submits to the authority of the Word of God and grasps and carries out its requirements. He feeds upon the truth and, being nourished, becomes healthy and strong. He repeats the exercises and takes the medicine, and so sustains and increases his well-being. To hear but not to do the Word of God is self-deceit. It gives us a false estimate of ourselves; it allows us to give to ourselves (and to others) the impression that we are walking closely with God when we may not be walking with him at all, let alone following close behind (Ps 63.8). Robert Johnstone says that “to rest satisfied with the means of grace, without yielding up our heart to the power as means, so as to receive the grace and exhibit its working in our lives, is manifestly folly” (Lectures on the Epistle of James, 111). He goes on to refer to Christ’s fearful warning about the hearer only and the doer also in Matthew 7.24-27, claiming that “there is reason to fear that, with great numbers of professing Christians in all sections of the church – persons who attend the house of God, listen with a fair measure of diligence to the proclamation of truth, and, it may be, in intercourse with their friend rather love to talk of sermons and ministers and orthodoxy – this is all; whilst yet they are impressed with the conviction that they are certainly Christians, – nay, perhaps singularly excellent Christians , – forgetting that any degree of religious profession, where the heart is destitute of the love of God, and the life not consecrated to His service, is in His sight utter mockery” (112).

James uses an illustration to drive home this point about hearing and doing. The one who merely hears is like someone who looks briefly and carelessly into a mirror. The mirror gives him something of an accurate reflection of his face but he gives no thought and makes no response to it. It is, perhaps, a passing glance, and he quickly forgets what he has seen. That brief glimpse of reality has no penetrating influence and makes no lasting change upon him: he derives no benefit from the perspective he was granted. The one who actually does is like someone who peers carefully into the mirror and who responds to the dirt and disorder that it reveals, enabling the viewer to correct what is ugly or uglifying and to cultivate true beauty. The reality that he accurately perceives in the mirror has an effect upon him and he acts in accordance with it: he derives lasting benefit from the perspective he was granted.

The Word of God is the mirror: it shows us what is presently wrong and what may be made right. Here, if we take time to consider the truth, we perceive the “perfect law of liberty” and – if we act in accordance with what we see – we will indeed reap the intended benefits in the things that we do, in the demonstrable pursuit of true religion in the salvation of our souls, the day-by-day application of Christianity in the great and small things of life.

James addresses three specific areas in which the hearing must translate to doing if the one professing Christ as Lord and Saviour is not to be self-deceived: the control of the tongue, the care of the needy, the keeping from the world. Have you heard sermons that deal with these directly, or at least touch on them? Has your tongue been reined in, your hand liberated, and your conscience bound? Have your words become purer, your hand freer, and your heart cleaner, as the truth of God has been preached? Think of the last sermon you heard. Was it a brief glimpse into your soul which accomplished nothing more than a passing sense of sin to be dealt with and grace to be cultivated? Can you even remember the applications and exhortations made? Are you making evident progress in response to the Word of God which you hear read and preached and applied?

Perhaps there has been an occasional, temporary response. You have come to the end of a book or a sermon saying, “I really must do something about this,” but the light that has entered your mind has not really penetrated to your soul, and by the time you get up from your chair or finish your journey home all the spiritual impetus has drained away. Perhaps you have been quite satisfied with the resolution to change without the reality of change. Perhaps you have been heartily glad that such applications are made and such exhortations given, but after a brief glance in the mirror you have been quickly persuaded that all is well with you, however much others are called to do. This is to hear but not to do.

How often – perhaps, more accurately, how rarely – do we go from the Word of God without a proper consideration of its application to us, and the matters of practical godliness in which it dictates to us? How grieved are our pastors that after another sermon, or series of sermons, or another conversation, or pointed exhortation privately given, or a pastoral visit to encourage or console or stir up, we are as much persuaded as ever we were that we are just where we ought to be, that he cannot possibly have meant us, and that – perhaps by very virtue of having been present when the words are spoken – we are somehow further on, or at least exonerated from the charges that were laid against others. “After all, I heard him say that it was a sin; more than that, I agreed with him!” Alas, how often do such passing glimpses into the mirror of truth produce nothing more than a self-deceiving self-commendation of the stagnant soul!

How much healthier is the trained and tender conscience that asks, “Is it I?” when the Word of God exposes sin. How much happier is the man who meditates upon the truth of God’s perfect law of liberty and brings forth fruit through pruning and nurturing, whose life is constantly being trained by the Scriptures, who eats the food before him and finds that even that which is bitter can become very sweet, who disciplines his soul to godliness even when the exercise is at first painful to the spiritual muscles, who takes his medicine and finds that his soul is made well.

Being taught and learning are two very different things. The former is necessary but it does not guarantee the latter. The mere spectator must become a true participator. The Word of God is for action rather than speculation. We must receive and obey the truth communicated to us. We must be both hearers and doers. Eat the food. Receive the counsel. Take the medicine. In so doing, you shall live.

It has been quiet on the blog because I have been away preaching in the US of A, of which more in due course, once the work is done and I am, God willing, safely home. To keep things ticking over, here is a passage from Hugh Latimer’s Sermon of the Plough (containing one of his better known phrases) in which he addresses with some directness the labour of the preacher, and which is a healthy reminder in advance of the services of the Lord’s day:

A prelate is that man, whatsoever he be, that hath a flock to be taught of him; whosoever hath any spiritual charge in the faithful congregation, and whosoever he be that hath cure of souls. And well may the preacher and the ploughman be likened together: first, for their labour of all seasons of the year; for there is no time of the year in which the ploughman hath not some special work to do as in my country in Leicestershire, the ploughman hath a time to set forth, and to assay his plough, and other times for other necessary works to be done. And then they also may be likened together for the diversity of works and variety of offices that they have to do. For as the ploughman first setteth forth his plough, and then tilleth his land, and breaketh it in furrows, and sometime ridgeth it up again; and at another time harroweth it and clotteth it, and sometime dungeth it and hedgeth it, diggeth it and weedeth it, purgeth and maketh it clean: so the prelate, the preacher, hath many diverse offices to do. He hath first a busy work to bring his parishioners to a right faith, as Paul calleth it, and not a swerving faith; but to a faith that embraceth Christ, and trusteth to his merits; a lively faith, a justifying faith; a faith that maketh a man righteous, without respect of works: as ye have it very well declared and set forth in the Homily. He hath then a busy work, I say, to bring his flock to a right faith, and then to confirm them in the same faith: now casting them down with the law, and with threatenings of God for sin; now ridging them up again with the gospel, and with the promises of God’s favour: now weeding them, by telling them their faults, and making them forsake sin; now clotting them, by breaking their stony hearts, and by making them supplehearted, and making them to have hearts of flesh; that is, soft hearts, and apt for doctrine to enter in: now teaching to know God rightly, and to know their duty to God and their neighbours: now exhorting them, when they know their duty, that they do it, and be diligent in it; so that they have a continual work to do. Great is their business, and therefore great should be their hire. They have great labours, and therefore they ought to have good livings, that they may commodiously feed their flock; for the preaching of the word of God unto the people is called meat: scripture calleth it meat; not strawberries, that come but once a year, and tarry not long, but are soon gone: but it is meat, it is no dainties. The people must have meat that must be familiar and continual, and daily given unto them to feed upon. Many make a strawberry of it, ministering it but once a year; but such do not the office of good prelates. For Christ saith, Quis putas est servus prudens et fidelis? Qui dat cibum in tempore. “Who think you is a wise and a faithful servant? He that giveth meat in due time.” So that he must at all times convenient preach diligently: therefore saith he, “Who trove ye is a faithful servant?” He speaketh it as though it were a rare thing to find such a one, and as though he should say, there be but a few of them to find in the world. And how few of them there be throughout this realm that give meat to their flock as they should do, the Visitors can best tell. Too few, too few; the more is the pity, and never so few as now.

By this, then, it appeareth that a prelate, or any that hath cure of soul, must diligently and substantially work and labour. Therefore saith Paul to Timothy,Qui episcopatum desiderat, hic bonum opus desiderat: “He that desireth to have the office of a bishop, or a prelate, that man desireth a good work.” Then if it be a good work, it is work; ye can make but a work of it. It is God’s work, God’s plough, and that plough God would have still going. Such then as loiter and live idly, are not good prelates, or ministers. And of such as do not preach and teach, nor do their duties, God saith by his prophet Jeremy, Maledictus qui facit opus Dei fradulenter; “Cursed be the man that doth the work of God fraudulently, guilefully or deceitfully:” some books have it negligenter, “negligently or slackly.” How many such prelates, how many such bishops, Lord, for thy mercy, are there now in England! And what shall we in this case do? shall we company with them? O Lord, for thy mercy! shall we not company with them? O Lord, whither shall we flee from them? But “cursed be he that doth the work of God negligently or guilefully.” A sore word for them that are negligent in discharging their office, or have done it fraudulently; for that is the thing that maketh the people ill.