Who Left Who?

Harvard Professor Kirsopp Lake made the following observation:

"It is a mistake often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind. It is the partial uneducated survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians. How many were there, for instance, in Christian churches in the eighteenth century who doubted the infallible inspiration of all Scripture? A few, perhaps, but very few. No, the fundamentalist may be wrong. I think he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum of the church are on the fundamentalists side."

Pastoral Retirement?

John Newton wrote the following to his friend Rev. William Bull in 1802:

"I am now two days in my seventy-eighth year. My health and strength are remarkable for my age; but I feel some symptoms of declining years. The day of opportunity wears away, and the night is approaching when no man can work. But while the Lord enables me to preach, and the people are attentive and willing to hear me in my poor broken way, I ought to be willing to live to the age of Methusaleh, if I might but promote his glory, and be any way useful to my hearers. I am bought with a price, ergo, I am not my own. I wish to say from my heart, Lord, grant that the short uncertain remnant of my time may not discredit my profession, by pride or any evil tempers; and that when the summons shall come, it shall find me ready and waiting."

Ryle on Heaven

"You all wish to go to heaven. I know it. I am fully persuaded of it; I am certain of it. There is not one of you, however false may be his views of what he must believe and what he must do, however unscriptural the ground of his hope, however worldly-minded he may be during the week, however careless when he gets outside that door -- there is not one of you, I say, who does not wish to go to heaven. But I do sadly fear that many of you, without a mighty change, will never get there. You would like the crown, but you do not like the cross; you would like the glory, but not the grace; the happiness, but not the holiness; the peace, but not the truth; the victory, but not the fight; the reward, but not the labour; you would like the harvest, but not the ploughing; you would like the reaping, but not the sowing; and so I fear that many of you will never get to heaven." J. C. Ryle

Valley of Vision

"O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man's creaturely power and goodness, when, if thou didst not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate. This, by bitter experience, thou has taught me concerning myself." Valley of Vision

Whitefield on Puritan Pastors

"Ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross; the Spirit of Christ and of glory then rests upon them. It was this, no doubt, that made the Puritans... such burning lights and shining lights. When cast out by the black Bartholomew-act [the 1662 Act of Uniformity] and driven from their respective charges to preach in barns and fields, in the highways and hedges, they in an especial manner wrote and preached as men having authority. Though dead, by their writings they yet speak; a peculiar unction attends them to this very hour...."

Newton

John Newton wrote the following to a pastor who was having doubts and fears:

"So you preach to others; so you deal with exercised consciences; why not preach so to yourself? Will you point out a ground for their hopes, upon which you are afraid to venture your own? Has He not kept you sound in the faith in wavering times? Does He not preserve you unspotted from the world? Does He not enable and own you in your ministry? Has He not often refreshed you with his consolations? Do you not tell others that the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin? Why then do you give way to doubts and fears?"

Birth

"Sin is brought in with birth, and removed by the new birth."

Saint Augustine

Newton on the Best Christian

John Newton wrote the following to Rev. Joshua Symonds on February 17, 1769:

"Upon a supposition of degrees of glory, I should think it probable, the best Christian will have the highest place; and I am inclined to think that if you and I were to travel in search of the best Christian in the land, or were qualified to distinguish who deserved the title, it is more than two to one we should not find the person in a pulpit, or any public office of life. Perhaps some old woman at her wheel, or some bed-rid person, hid from the knowledge of the world, in a mud-walled cottage, would strike our attention more than any of the doctors or reverends with whom we are acquainted. Let us not measure men, much less ourselves, by gifts and services. One grain of grace is worth abundance of gifts. To be self-abased, to be filled with a spirit of love, and peace, and gentleness; to be dead to the world; to have the heart deeply affected with a sense of the glory and grace of Jesus, to have our will bowed to the will of God; these are the great things, more valuable, if compared in the balance of the sanctuary, than to be an instrument of converting a province or a nation."

Bavinck

"Sometimes we feel almost powerless. With fear and trembling we can only try each day anew to live close to God, and we can pray. More than ever before in our own weakness, we experience that God alone can help us and that he will help, if we pray. Thus, we learn in these tense years to understand again what Paul had learned by prayer and tears, namely, that the power of Jesus Christ is revealed to the fullest only in our weakness, and that therefore -- no matter how contradictory it may appear -- it is possible to take comfort in our own impotence." J. H. Bavinck

Bunyan's Character

Following is a contemporary account of John Bunyan's character:

"He appeared in countenance to be of a stern and rough temper, but in his conversation mild and affable; not given to loquacity or much discourse in company, unless some urgent occasion required it; observing never to boast of himself or his parts, but rather seem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment of others; abhorring lying and swearing, being just in all that lay in his power to his word, not seeming to revenge injuries, loving to reconcile differences and make friendship with all; he had a sharp quick eye, accomplished with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good judgment and quick wit. As for his person, he was tall of stature, strong boned, though not corpulent, somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing his hair on his upper lip, after the old British fashion; his hair reddish, but in his latter days time had sprinkled it with grey; his nose well set, but not declining or bending, and his mouth moderate large; his forehead something high, and his habit always plain and modest. And thus we have impartially described the internal and external parts of a person whose death hath been much regretted — a person who had tried the smiles and frowns of time, not puffed up in prosperity nor shaken in adversity, always holding the golden mean.

In him at once did three great worthies shine: Historian, poet, and a choice divine:Then let him rest in undisturbed dust,Until the resurrection of the just."