Bull Hebrew

In the same year that John Newton began his ministry at Olney, William Bull was ordained pastor of the Independent Chapel at Newport Pagnell some six miles to the south of Olney. These two men became great and lifelong friends. According to Brian Edwards' biography of Newton:

"Bull was largely self-taught. As a teenager he taught himself Hebrew with the sole aid of a Hebrew Bible and an old English Bible with Hebrew letters heading the sections of Psalm 119. Once he had discovered that Hebrew is read from the right to left -- and that therefore he must start from the back of the book -- he compared the Hebrew and English words and compiled his own grammar and lexicon! Similarly, at the age of twenty he was given a Latin grammar which he mastered in two weeks, and Greek soon followed."

Hebrew students today often complain about the difficulty of learning Hebrew . . . even with all the advantages that students have today with so many grammars, dictionaries, and so forth. Lord, give us more men like Bull!

Walk the Talk

In his book The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter gives an important warning to ministers:

"One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon . . . It is a palpable error for some ministers, who make such a disproportion between their preaching and their living; who study hard to preach exactly, and study little or not at all to live exactly. All the week long is little enough to study how to speak two hours; and yet one hour seems too much to study how to live all the week . . . Oh, take heed, brethren, of every word you speak, and of every step you tread, for you bear the ark of the Lord -- you are entrusted with his honor! . . . Take heed to yourselves, for the success of all your labours does very much depend on this."

Men of Prayer

E.M. Bounds begins his book Power Through Prayer with the following words:

"We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organisations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. The trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organisation. God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than anything else. Men are God's great method. The church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better men. 'There was a man sent from God whose name was John' . . . What the church needs today is not more machinery, or better, not new organisations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men, He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men -- men of prayer."

Antidote to Fear

I am currently writing a commentary on Joshua for the Welwyn Commentary Series that will be published by Evangelical Press in England. I make the following comment regarding Israel's attitude as they prepare to enter the land of promise:

"The antidote to fear is obedience to God and his word. Believers are called to run the race of life with endurance, fortitude, and Scripture. Christians are not to lose heart, be gripped with fear, or shrink from their task. John Flavel once remarked, 'The upright soul abhors to flinch from his duty, let come on him what will.' The Bible, indeed, encourages believers to 'run with endurance the race that is set before us' (Heb. 12:1). The course may be long, treacherous, and uphill, but that does not matter. For we do not run the race in our own power, but 'I can do all things through him who strengthens me' (Phil. 4:13)."

Brooks on Persecution

Thomas Brooks deals with the issue of the church's persecution by saying:

"It must be granted that afflictions and persecutions has been the common lot and portion of the people of God in this world. Abel was persecuted by Cain . . . and Isaac by Ishmael. That seems to be a standing law, 'All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution,' 2 Tim. 3:12. . . Would any man take the church's picture, saith Luther, then let him paint a poor silly maid sitting in a wilderness, compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, boars, and bears, and with all manner of other cruel, hurtful beasts, and in the midst of a great many furious men assaulting her every moment and minute, for this is her condition in the world. As certain as night follows day, so certain will that black angel, persecution, follow holiness wherever it goes."

"Rabbi" Duncan

I have just finished reading Geoff Thomas' book called Preaching: the Man, the Message, and the Method. He talks quite a bit about the great message that we have as Christians for a broken world. He says the following:

"Know this -- that Jehovah, he is God, and that is good news, and is good news for everyone of you. Remember John "Rabbi" Duncan, the great missionary to the Jews, a Hebrew teacher, and a man who had spent years in the depths of atheistic despair? One day God showed him his grace. He said, "I first saw clearly the existence of God in walking along the bridge at Aberdeen; it was so great a discovery to me; I stopped and stood in an ecstasy of joy at seeing the existence of God." He tole another friend, "When I was convinced that there was a God, I danced on the Brig o'dee with delight."

John Flavel

Lord, the condemnation was yours, that the justification might be mine. The agony was yours, that the victory might be mine. The pain was yours, and the ease mine. The stripes were yours, and the healing balm issuing from them mine. The vinegar and gall were yours, that the honey and sweet might be mine. The curse was yours, that the blessing might be mine. The crown of thorns was yours, that the crown of glory might be mine. The death was yours, the life purchased by it mine. You paid the price that I might enjoy the inheritance.

John Flavel (1671), from his sermon, "The Solemn Consecration of the Mediator," in The Fountain of Life Opened Up: or, A Display of Christ in His Essential and Mediatorial Glory.
Posted on Reformation 21 by J. Taylor.

Market Language

George Whitefield used to say that preachers ought to preach the "market language" so that people would understand. J.C. Ryle commenting on Whitefield and others who preached in the 18th century said the following:

"They preached simply. They rightly concluded that the very first qualification to be aimed at in a Sermon is to be understood. They saw clearly that thousands of able and well-composed sermons are utterly useless because they are above the heads of the hearers. They strove to come to the level of the hearers and to speak what the poor could understand. To attain this they were not ashamed to crucify their style and to sacrifice their reputation for learning. . . In short, they saw the truth of what the great German reformer (Luther) said, 'No one can be a great preacher to the people who is not willing to preach in a manner which seems childish and vulgar to some.'"

Jackson's Mourning

In 1854 when Stonewall Jackson was thirty years old he lost his wife and baby in childbirth. Writing to his sister Laura, Jackson said the following:

"I have been called to pass through the deep waters of affliction, but all has been satisfied. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. It is his will that my dear wife and child should no longer abide with me, and as it is His holy will, I am perfectly reconciled to the sad bereavement, though I deeply mourn my loss. My Dearest Ellie breathed her last on Sunday evening, the same day on which the child was born dead. Oh! The consolations of religion! I can willingly submit to anything if God strengthens me. Oh! My Sister, would that you could have Him for your God! Though all nature to me is eclipsed, yet I have joy in knowing that God withholds no good things from them that love and keep his commandments. And he will overrule this Sad, Sad bereavement for good."

"She has now gone on a glorious visit through a gloomy portal. I look forward with delight to the day when I shall join her. Religion is all that I desire it to be. I am reconciled to my loss and have joy in hope of a future reunion when the wicked cease from trembling and the weary are at rest."

Silas Told

A man named Silas Told, once a sailor and a profane man, was converted through the preaching of John Wesley. He became one of the first Methodist school teachers. Later he devoted much of his life to serving in many of the prison houses in London. He would preach to many of the inmates in all the prisons of London, and he would ride in the death carts with the prisoners who were going to execution. He led many to faith in Christ on those final rides. One example is the story of Mrs. Brownrigg who murdered her apprentice girl named Mary Clifford. Silas led her to Christ, rode with her in the death cart as crowds screamed, hurled taunts, and threw rubbish at her. He stayed by her side until the moment of her execution.

Ben Franklin on George Whitefield

One of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, although not a Christian by any means (he was a deist at best), often heard George Whitefield preach. The two of them became well acquainted. Franklin made the following comments regarding Whitefield's preaching:

"He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at a great distance, especially as his audiences, however numerous, observ'd the most exact silence. He preached one evening from the top of the Court House steps, which are in the middle of Market-street, and on the west side of Second-street, which crosses it at right angles. Both streets were filled with his hearers to a considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards the river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street, when some noise in that street obscur'd it. Imagining then a semi-circle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were filled with auditors, to each of whom I allowed two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand. This reconciled me to the newspaper accounts of his having preached to twenty-five thousand people in the fields."

Whitefield on Election

In his Works George Whitefield makes the following comments on the doctrine of election:

"The doctrines of our election, and free justification in Christ Jesus are daily more and more pressed upon my heart. They fill my soul with a holy fire and afford me great confidence in God my Saviour.

I hope we shall catch fire from each other, and that there will be a holy emulation amongst us, who shall most debase man and exalt the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the doctrines of the Reformation can do this. All others leave freewill in man and make him, in part at least, a Saviour to himself. My soul, come not thou near the secret of those who teach such things . . . I know Christ is all in all. Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Oh, the excellency of the doctrine of election and of the saints' final perseverance! I am persuaded, till a man comes to believe and feel these important truths, he cannot come out of himself, but when convinced of these, and assured of their application to his own heart, he then walks by faith indeed! . . . Love, not fear, constrains him to obedience."