Valkyrie, The Roaches

Recently I came across several photos on the web of Valkyrie, one of the best climbs on gritstone, so here is a short sequence. Once you reach the top, the view is tremendous.

More from Jonathan Edwards

Here is another extract from John Carrick's, 'The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards'. Once again it seems to have great practical relevance to preaching and ministry today.

‘The Yale co-editors point to “a series of seven special meetings at which Edwards preached from July 1740 to August 1741 to specific age cohorts within his congregation: three sermons for children (aged one to fourteen), two for young people (fifteen to twenty-five), and one each for middle-aged people (twenty-six to fifty) and elderly (over fifty). Edwards saw it as his ministerial duty to preach to the specific needs both of his congregation as a whole and of individual groups within it… He knew that different groups among his congregation required special and specific lessons.”
‘There is an obvious connection between Edwards’ tendency to hold special meetings for different categories of hearers and his tendency to address special categories of hearers in his sermons. It is precisely because “different groups among his congregation required special and specific lessons” that he also frequently addressed different categories of hearers in his Applications. In some sermons the different categories are based upon age, gender, and position; in other sermons they are based upon spiritual condition. Again, in certain sermons there is a cross-fertilization of these two broad categories. The clear, tacit supposition in his mind in such categorization of his hearers is that every congregation is a mixed auditory that consists of different groups which occupy different positions and sustain different relationships. As such they were vulnerable to different temptations, susceptible to different sins, and characterized by different duties. They needed, therefore, to be addressed with different admonitions and exhortations. Edwards thus demonstrates here a theory of discriminating application which recognized and addressed these different spiritual needs.’

A word of wisdom from Spurgeon

‘If I might select out of the armoury of God the best weapon for a Christian to use to spread his Master’s kingdom, next to faith and prayer, I would select holiness. No church ever lived long where holiness was at a discount; and no church, even when it had errors of doctrine, was altogether without blessing, while its adherents walked carefully before God.’

C. H. Spurgeon’s Sermons beyond Volume 63, p.497. From a sermon on ‘Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity’; 2 Timothy 2:19.

An important question

In his book ‘The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards’, John Carrick quotes from a study by Rachel Wheeler of Edwards’ preaching to the Indians of Stockbridge. ‘In preaching to the Stockbridge Indians, the basic preaching of Calvinism had not changed, but the rhetoric, the style and the subjects of the sermons had. Edwards tailored his sermons to fit with what he saw as the particular needs of his congregation. At Stockbridge, he came to rely more heavily on metaphor and imagery. Drawing on the parables of the New Testament, Edwards preached of sowers of seed, of fishermen, of ground too dry for a seed to take, of trees fed by rivers that never ran dry, and of briars and thorns that impeded a traveler’s way…
It is clear in his earlier sermons that Edwards understood the power of story and imagery. But in the Stockbridge sermons, parables and metaphors dominate, suggesting that he believed this method particularly adapted to an Indian audience.’
What sort of adaptation do we need if we are going to speak evangelistically to unchurched unbelievers today?

In Memoriam: Dr Kenneth Dix

On Thursday May 12^th Dr Kenneth Dix passed into the presence of his Saviour. The interment and Thanksgiving Service is to be held on the coming Monday, May 23^rd. The following remarks are what I remember of him and I cannot be sure that my memory is accurate in every detail; I add this now rather than pepper what I say with ‘I believe’ or words to that effect. He was brought up in Ivinghoe, Bucks, in the shadow of the Chilterns and Ivinghoe Beacon. His father was deacon at the Strict Baptist Chapel in the village, and visiting preachers often spent the Lord’s Day in the Dix home. In spite of that he did not understand the proper meaning of ‘Strict and Particular’ until he became an adult. He was a great lover of classical music and J.S. Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ was a determining factor in his conversion. He had a rather whimsical sense of humour and he enjoyed telling me that just before his wedding he received a postcard from a pastor with the cryptic message: ‘Take courage, brother, and don’t be late’! His wife, Jane, was a proficient artist and when he began to give slide presentations of important figures of Christian history it was she who provided the art work. Sadly, she has been an invalid for some years.

He attended evening classes at London Bible College and received the Religious Knowledge Diploma in 1961. He greatly appreciated the lectures of Dr Ernest Kevan and still kept the notes he had taken, at least until a year or two ago. For some years he worked for the Trinitarian Bible Society. He had three pastorates, the last of 14 years at Dunstable Baptist Church. There were 12 members when he was called, but 2 left on his arrival. By the time he retired, by the grace of God membership was in the 60’s. I remember hearing his name quite often during his TBS days, but he seemed to drop off the map when he went to Dunstable. He gave himself to the work of the local church.

He was always interested in history and few others have such a knowledge of the Strict Baptists; he was involved in the Strict Baptist Historical Society right up to his death. However, he also read a great deal by secular historians so that he could place his Christian history in the wider ethos of the times. His PhD, gained in retirement, came from Keele University, though he started out with the intention of doing an MPhil. It was published as ‘Strict and Particular’ by the Baptist Historical Society. He was a quiet, gracious man of God and I thank the Lord for memory of him.

The Ulster Awakening

I recently finished reading ‘The Ulster Awakening’ by John Weir (BoT). I read short extracts prior to reading the Scriptures to help me get into a suitable frame of mind. I have read other accounts of the same time of revival in 1859, but this one is very thorough with extensive quotations from ministers involved in the events that took place. Several points caught my attention. Firstly, while there was great conviction often followed by great joy, the overall impression of the meetings seems to have been one of solemnity; a holy reverence seems to have been the atmosphere of the revival. I cannot help feeling that this is becoming more and more a missing note in our worship. Secondly, the final chapter is on the urgent need of revival in Great Britain. The author refers to statistics which seem to show that just under 50% of the population attended church at that time. He considered this a very serious matter. What would he make of the situation today? How is it we can be so unmoved about the present spiritual condition of our country? Finally, this book shows what God is able to do and has done in the past. Yet the emphasis on revival, and prayer for revival, does not seem to have the profile which once it did. Can anything else adequately meet our current need?

I have just finished reading The Faith Once Entrusted to the Saints? by Geoffrey Grogan (IVP). Grogan celebrated his 85^th birthday a month or two ago after nearly 60 years of teaching, mainly in London Bible College and what is now the International Christian College in Glasgow. It looks to me as if he has put his heart into this volume, certainly his gracious, balanced character shines out of the book. Here is someone contending for the faith who is also wise and understanding. It may be that he could have expressed himself more strongly in places, some of us would have done so, but I think his concern is to win over those who disagree and to help and steady those who have been unsettled by the winds of doctrine blowing through evangelicalism. His three chapters on Open Theism, Penal Substitution and the New Perspective on Paul are first-rate; and I found his discussion of Romans in the latter chapter very helpful. He has a chapter on Scripture and another on Hermeneutics. These chapters are not directed at specific targets in the way the others mentioned are, but there is actually a great deal that is informative and valuable in them, especially for those who would be glad of an overview of modern biblical hermeneutics. They are the fruit of much reading and thought. There is a final chapter entitled Whither Evangelicalism. I loved this sentence as he draws to a conclusion: ‘There are some truths that belong to the circumference of our faith, others that are more central to it, but at its very heart is Christ himself, who has embraced us with his marvellous grace, whom we love, in whom we trust, whose service is our great privilege and our perfect freedom, to whom we give our worship and who will receive that worship to all eternity.’