JUNE 27 2012

Today is my 75^th birthday. I think I ought to be able to say something about reaching such a milestone, but I find it difficult to do so. Clearly, I am very grateful for much in the past, for my parents, wife and family, and to the Lord who is over all my ways. I have to say that there is much that depresses me: the spiritual, moral and intellectual state of our country; the gospel churches with, too often, their disunity, their adaptation to the spirit of the age, their pettiness, the lack of true worship and spiritual power; and then there is myself, but that is between me and the Lord. I would love to think I had learned valuable lessons over the years to pass on to others but they are all on the pages of the Bible anyway. I see the danger of relying on past blessings and of being too self-satisfied. I know, with another Paul, that life must be lived ‘by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’. There is no other satisfactory way to approach the end of one’s days, whenever that may be.

Ernest Kevan

You will find this book on the Banner of Truth website, though its British price has not yet been given. Ernest Kevan was the first Principal of London Bible College (now the London School of Theology).

Church Buildings 2

This is an old photo of Alder Road Baptist Church - I'm not sure whether, strictly speaking, it is in Poole or Bournemouth. The boundary between the two used to run more or less down the middle of the road, and I suppose still does. This was what we today would call a church plant from West Cliff Baptist Church in Bournemouth. I'm not sure when this actually took place but in 1929 my father became student pastor while he was in Spurgeon's College. It was here that he met my mother so I ought to be very grateful for his ministry there. In the past I have visited and also preached there. Appropriately, perhaps, his funeral service was conducted there in 1993. I heard recently that it now belongs to 'New Frontiers', which seems rather anachronistic.

John Owen on the Glory of Christ

When the sun is under a total eclipse, he loseth nothing of his native beauty, light, and glory. He is still the same that he was from the beginning, - a ‘great light to rule the day’. To us he appears as a dark, useless meteor; but when he comes by his proper course to free himself from the lunar interposition, unto his proper aspect towards us, he manifests again his native light and glory. So it was with the divine nature of Christ… He veiled the glory of it by the interposition of the flesh, or the assumption of our nature to be his own; with this addition, that therein he took on him the ‘form of a servant’ – and of a person of mean and lowly degree. But this temporary eclipse being past and over, it now shines forth in its infinite lustre and beauty, which belongs unto the present exaltation of his person. And when those who beheld him here as a poor, sorrowful, persecuted man, dying on the cross, came to see him in all the infinite, uncreated glories of the divine nature, manifesting themselves in his person, it could not but fill their souls with transcendent joy and admiration. And this is one reason of his prayer for them whilst he was on the earth, that they might be where he is to behold his glory; for he knew what ineffable satisfaction it would be unto them for evermore.

Look back with thanksgiving

I remember that at the end of dinner hour at school we were all told to assemble in the hall and before we even got there the rumour spread that the King had died – someone always seems to get to know these things beforehand. Sure enough, the headmaster confirmed the news: ‘The King has died, long live the Queen’. We had the afternoon off; simply, I suppose, as a mark of respect. Well, the Queen has lived long and I think we have a lot to be thankful for as we consider her reign and all the changes through which she has lived and served the nation and Commonwealth. We may theoretically be in favour of republicanism, but we cannot surely deny her stabilising influence as a focal point above and beyond politics, the media and the national and international hurly-burly. I would draw attention to two things. First, she was still quite young when she became the heir to the throne and from that time on she was being prepared, and preparing herself, for service as Queen. Though that hour came much sooner than might have been expected events have proved that she was ready to serve. Whether we like it or not that was a benefit of the hereditary system. Second, and similarly, she did not enter into office because she belonged to a particular political party, she did not have to fight a presidential campaign and raise endless amounts of money, she did not have to make friends of all the influential people she could find. The system could, and has, put unworthy people on the throne, but no other system could produce someone so unspoilt by the jockeying for power that goes on endlessly and so dedicated to her task. We should thank God and pray for her and the future of the nation.

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor

Gary Benfold has reminded me of Don Carson's bio of his father with the above title. Yes, it's an excellent book which in found very enjoyable and helpful, published by Crossway. I should have remembered it... but there it is!

A biography of an 'ordinary' pastor?

I am enjoying reading Iain Murray's biography of Archibald Brown - no relation! That Brown was obviously an exceptional man in a number of ways - and I'm not referring to the fact that he had four wives, in succesion of course. It is interesting, and instructive, to note some of the problems that arose in the Metropolitan Tabernacle after Spurgeon's death. These were partly because Spurgeon himself was also an exceptional person. I rather wonder if it would be a good idea to have a biography of a very 'ordinary' pastor - of whom there have been very many, with an honest account of the difficulties and mistakes he faced; a 'warts and all' biography, in fact. In every generation the vast majority of pastors are ordinary and only have ordinary success - if that is the right word to use. It is wonderfully interesting to read about the Browns and Spurgeons but I'm not so sure their biographies are as useful as that of an 'ordinary' pastor might be.