Measuring a Minister

When John Newton took the pastorate at Olney in England, the people soon learned that Newton's life as a minister was consistent with his pulpit ministry. Once when he was speaking to a friend he linked the two: "I measure ministers by square measure. I have no idea of the size of a table, if you only tell me how long it is; but if you also say how wide, I can tell its dimensions. So when you tell me what a man is in the pulpit, you must also tell me what he is out of it, or I shall not know his size."

Thunder

A man came on one occasion to the great George Whitefield and asked if he might print his sermons. Whitefield replied, "Well, I have no inherent objection if you like, but you will never be able to put on the printed page the lightning and the thunder." (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

Seth Joshua

There is a story about Seth Joshua, the Welsh revivalist at the turn of the nineteenth century, that helps to illustrate the point that God may indeed be a patient and longsuffering God but his wrath does come upon men. Joshua was to preach in a town one evening, and advertisements appeared announcing his appearance at a local theater. This was a ruse. In reality, an actor was going to play the part of the evangelist and make great fun of him. That night, with the theater packed with people, the actor came on stage and began imitating Joshua, to the great glee of the crowd. As he circled the stage, the actor "fell with a thud and a hushed audience soon discovered that he was dead." Sometimes God's judgment does go forth immediately in the earth; other times it is withheld. But it will come.

Liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity is alive and well on the planet earth. In support of that fact is the recent statement by German New Testament scholar Gerd Luedemann: "The tomb was full and the manger empty." Of course, what he means by that is simply that there never occurred a virgin birth and there was no resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The Apostle Paul responded to similar suspicious teachings in his day, and he said, "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain . . . we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Cor. 15:12-14, 19). The very foundations of Christianity are the historical incidents of the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Much of liberal Christianity, however, proclaims a Christ without a manger, a Christ without a cross, and a Christ without a resurrection. If what these people teach is true, then what hope is there? As Paul said, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins . . . If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Cor. 15:17, 19). But, true believer, do not despair! Paul announces: "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead" (1 Cor. 15:20). Our hope is true and real. No, Prof. Luedemann, we believe that "the tomb was empty and the manger full."

The Horse Stealer

In 1770, George Whitefield was on a preaching tour of New York when an extraordinary event took place. He describes it himself:

"A very peculiar providence led me lately to a place where a horse stealer was executed. Thousands attended. The poor criminal had sent me several letters, hearing I was in the country. The sheriff allowed him to come and hear a sermon under an adjacent tree. Solemn, solemn! After being by himself about an hour, I walked half a mile with him to the gallows. His heart had been softened before my first visit. He seemed full of solid, divine consolation. An instructive walk! I went up with him into the cart. He gave a short exhortation. I then stood upon the coffin -- added, I trust, a word in season -- prayed, gave the blessing, and took my leave. Effectual good, I hope, was done to the hearers and spectators. Grace! Grace!"

Romaine Quote

William Romaine, 18th century Puritan, made the following comment regarding grace:

"O what am I, that such a sinner as I am should be thus highly favoured? A child of wrath by nature, even as others, and by practice, having sinned long with greediness against light and conviction, sinning and sorrowing, sorrowing and sinning, from year to year, a slave to the lust of the flesh, to the lust of the eyes, and to the pride of life, every moment fit and ripe for hell. O what a monument of infinite patience and longsuffering! spared from day to day, and at last called to the saving knowledge of Jesus."

Kinsman

Rev. Andrew Kinsman was once preaching on Sunday in London. A dreadful and heavy rainfall suddenly came, and a number of people who were simply passing by ducked into the church in which he was speaking. One of the people was a young man who was from Kinsman's home town of Plymouth; he listened to the service and then asked Kinsman how his relations were in Plymouth. Kinsman replied that his good aunt and religious mother had recently gone to heaven, "but which way are you going? What would your pious mother say, if she sould miss here William there?" The sermon had had no effect on the young man, but these words of Kinsman sure did. They struck him to the heart, and they were the means of his conversion.

Years later that young man's son came to Rev. Kinsman to have his child baptized. Kinsman, knowing that this man was an unbeliever, told him that he would baptize his child for the sake of his grandfather. Kinsman then told the man the remarkable story of his father's conversion. This so affected the man that he himself was converted hearing the conversion story of his own father!