Exhortations for Pastoral Preaching

By William G. Hughes 

There is great wisdom and great value in convening a fraternal for those men called to the Christian ministry. It provides a place where men can come together and study the things that are precious to the servants of God and learn from one another concerning their pastoral ministry. These practical exhortations were first written with such a fraternal in view and are shared now in hopes of ministering to God's servant pastors in a wider fashion.

Richard Baxter, in his classic The Reformed Pastor, in a section titled "The Pastor's Dedication," writes:

O brethren, watch therefore over your own hearts. Keep up the life of faith and love. Be much at home and much with God. Take heed to yourselves, therefore, lest you should be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach. And lest while you proclaim the necessity of the Savior to the world, your own hearts should neglect Him. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing. And lest you famish yourselves while you prepare their food. Many a tailor goes in rags that maketh costly clothes for others. And many a cook scarcely licks his fingers when he hath dressed for others the most costly dishes. Take heed to yourselves that you believe that which you daily persuade them to believe. 

I believe that we need, as ministers of the gospel, to continually remind ourselves of those things most surely believed among us. There is a great necessity to do this in the day and age in which we live, because the very pressures of life and of pastoral ministry can cause us to neglect our own hearts. We, too, are in danger of what Baxter mentions, the danger of familiarity which often breeds contempt.

I remember the first time I visited the Tower of London to see the crown jewels. In order to see the jewels themselves you must go into a kind of inner sanctum that is extremely well guarded. Here you see the Edwardian crown, various other crowns, the scepter, the orb, the swords of state, etc. They are all in glass cases on round turntables with the light playing upon them. It is almost a breathtaking experience to see for the first time the color, beauty, and magnificence of these crown jewels. I recall looking at them, and my breath was almost taken away, standing there in awe as I gazed intently. Then I looked across and there was one of the Beefeaters you see at the Tower of London. He was standing there yawning as if the whole thing meant absolutely nothing to him.

You see, it is possible to be so familiar with impressive things that they cease to be impressive to you. As Baxter says, we can neglect the very things that we who preach exhort others to do in our preaching. And one of the values of considering our preaching is to nurture our own hearts so that we do not become overly familiar in this undue sense.

I would like to turn your minds to Paul's second Epistle to Timothy in order to remind you of some of the charges he gives to those who labor in His service as ministers of the Word of God. This letter, regarded by many commentators as written just prior to Paul's death, takes on great importance when we consider the author's intention and purpose.

Paul is seeking to encourage Timothy in the ongoing work of the gospel. It seems that Timothy was in Ephesus when this letter was written, although the letter doesn't give us any indication of this.

Paul is quite conscious that he is about to die, and he is anxious for Timothy to come to him in Rome. He writes to him, "Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Come before winter"(KJV). He is longing to see Timothy in order to encourage him in the ministry. In doing this he lays down a number of guiding principles for the young man in the ongoing work of the gospel. What I propose to do in this article is to look at some of these exhortations given to urge Timothy to keep on in the gospel ministry. We will readily see parallels between Timothy's time and ours as we consider these words; In looking at such statements we see how very much like us Paul and Timothy really were. They did not live in some kind of vacuum. Their world was very much like ours in so many ways. And Paul is now an elderly Christian facing suffering and death. His response to these trials and pressures encourages those of us who likewise face them in our own ministries.

As we go through this Epistle we note immediately in the first chapter that Paul had a number of significant disappointments. For example, at the end of verse four Paul is mindful of Timothy's tears but desires to see him again in order that he (i.e., Paul) may be filled with joy! We need, at such times, to read a bit between the lines. Why was Paul, presently, not filled with joy? Why was Timothy filled with tears? Was it because Paul was not filled with joy? In verse 15 he writes: "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes"(KJV).

Consider this with me for a moment. All of those who had believed in Asia through Paul's labors there had turned away, in some manner, from the very man who, under God, had brought them to faith in Christ. Imagine the feelings the Apostle must have had at this time. In 2:9, we read, "Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evildoer, even unto bonds"(KJV). And in 4:10, "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens [for what exact reason we simply do not know] to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia"(KJV). Paul is very conscious of all these things for in 4:14-15, he writes, "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words "(KJV).

Which one of us in the gospel ministry has not experienced these kinds of things? In pastoral work there are those who withstand our words; Paul experienced this too. "At my first defense," he says, "no man stood with me." At his first trial can you imagine that the very men to whom he was a spiritual father did not stand with him. He says, "Not one ...."

As he writes to Timothy he is in a very real situation. Timothy is in the midst of fierce opposition and persecution. He seems, most agree, to be a naturally timid person. He appears to have certain fears and anxieties regarding his own future. Paul's advice to this young man is relevant to all of us who are in the Christian ministry. Whether you are young or old, either in years or in faith, here is help, and definite advantage: Remember the basic humanity of these men of God.

Another reason for considering Second Timothy is that you will consistently find that there are distinct parallels here between Paul's time and our own. The problems that Paul and Timothy were facing are the same kinds of problems that we face in ministry today. As you read through this letter you will find that there was in Paul's own day a repudiation of sound doctrine. There were men who would not listen to sound doctrine. Parallels exist in almost every time since, but none, I think, any more so than in our own day, when so many of the basic fundamentals of the Christian faith are being denied and distorted. Doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, and the bodily resurrection of Christ are all under attack. The Bishop of Durham, not too long ago, spoke of the bodily resurrection as a "conjuring trick with bones." This man is one of Anglicanism's foremost bishops. The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of hell and the eternal punishment of the wicked are also under attack. It is a very sad thing to preach another gospel which is not the gospel. Yet this is exactly what is happening in the professing church in our day. And for this reason this letter is very important to us today.

There was also the problem, that we all face in our ministries, of a general declension in the lives of professing Christian believers. Consider, for example, Paul's words in 3:1-4:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (KJV). 

These verses seem to describe people who are total pagans. Yet Paul is writing of those who have given some evidence of faith and are outward professors of His name. He tells us this in verse five where he says they have a form of godliness. They profess godliness but deny the power of it. The declension found here is true of many in our day as well. Having made profession they have not continued in the power of true godliness. Some, like Demas, had loved this present world too much. Others could not stand up under persecution. Others were not fully grounded in the faith, and consequently they were the target of the enemy.

None of these things should come as a surprise to us. Our Lord's first parable is that of the Sower. If you don't understand this, he said you will understand nothing of the Christian life. He teaches. that there will be those who make profession, have all the appearance of true believers at first, but finally come to nothing. When such declension comes, even when men expect it, it still breaks the heart of a true pastor. You labor over people, pray for them, nurture them through teaching, and then suddenly it all comes to nothing.

How does Paul help Timothy with all of this? His response is summarized in two words: sound doctrine. What is the answer to the problems Timothy would face in ministry? And the problems you and I will face? Sound doctrine.

William Hendricksen gives a very helpful analysis. He says chapter one can be titled, "Hold On to Sound Doctrine," and he makes verse 13 the key verse of the chapter, "Hold fast the form of sound words"(KJV). He then says we can title chapter two, from verse two, "Teach Sound Doctrine." Verse 14 is the key verse in the third chapter, "Abide in Sound Doctrine." Then, in 4:2, "Preach Sound Doctrine."

The whole epistle, then, is focused on this: Teach sound doctrine! Hold on to it, abide in it, preach it. Paul's concern is that the Word of God in all its breadth and depth be applied in every situation and circumstance in which Timothy would find himself. Is there going to be opposition to his ministry? Is there going to be attack from the cults and from atheism and secularism? From humanism and Islam? From materialism and Hindu "New Age" doctrine? What is Timothy to do? He must garrison his heart with the great doctrines of grace: the absolute sovereignty of God in creation, in providence, and in salvation. The God of the impossible, the God of revival. Is he going to encounter personal problems, pastoral problems of anxiety and distress, of bereavement, and so on? Then Timothy must lay hold of the sound doctrine of the glorious hope of the gospel of the resurrection of the dead, of life everlasting, etc. Are you seeking to witness to the lost man and woman of your time? Then lay hold of the glorious gospel doctrine of the person and work of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. Ask the Spirit for His power in declaring these riches. Will you labor where people are blinded by Satan? Well, says Paul here, preach sound doctrine! All of this leads to the key verse of the whole Epistle:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Tim. 3:16-17 K.JV). 

It is most unfortunate that the chapter break comes here where it does. Chapter four and verse one must be linked to what Paul has just said. He writes:

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine (2 Tim. 4:1-2 K.JV).

It seems plain to me that Paul is saying that one's genuine usefulness in ministry is linked inseparably to one's view of Scripture. If you have a high view of the Scripture your ministry will be more effective in the long run. That seems to be part of what Paul is saying. He is saying all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, therefore, it is profitable. You need this high view of Scripture. You need to preach sound doctrine. This is the obvious message of the counsel of Paul to young Timothy.

In Proverbs 29:18 we read, "Where there is no vision the people perish." The context indicates that the vision in view here is that of the prophetic Word of the Lord. Simply put, divine instruction. There can be a famine of the instruction of the Lord. In recent years we have all witnessed the sad and terrible pictures of starving people in places like Ethiopia. Our hearts have been moved. Our nations have sought to alleviate this hunger. But we Christians need to recognize that there is a famine which is much worse. It is the famine of the Word of God. There is a fate worse than death by physical starvation. That is the fate of all those who die outside of Christ. The fate which awaits them is eternal perdition. What could be worse?

When the Word of God goes and there is this kind of famine the candlestick of the church will often be removed. In Europe we see places that once had great light, now without any ministry of the Word of God at all. Here there is the felt darkness of superstition via Romanism. In vast areas of my country, Great Britain, there is no vision. The people perish without the instruction of the Word of God. In one of the most advanced and enlightened countries in the world there is great darkness, and people perish without the vision which comes from the Word of God. One translation says, "The people cast off restraint" (NIV). That is it. A perfect description of much of Western society. Each person does what he pleases because there is no living ministry of the Word of God. Even in so-called "places of worship" we see everything being done except the preaching of the Word of God. Hungry sheep look up and are not fed. They are entertained, but not fed.

Your responsibility as a minister of the gospel is to feed the sheep. Give them the Word of God. William Still, a Scottish evangelical minister, has written a little booklet titled, The Work of the Pastor, in which he writes:

The pastor is called upon to feed the sheep. (Now that may seem quite obvious.) He is called upon to feed the sheep even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and let them do it in Goatland. You will certainly not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness. 

There is an abundance of methods offered in our day for reaching the lost. While we need to reach out to those who are not part of the flock now, we must do so not by appealing to their goatishness, but by offering them sound doctrine. "Preach sound doctrine!"

We must understand, further, that we are laying a foundation in our generation for those who will follow. Timothy worked among the churches of Asia. He encountered much opposition. Paul writes from prison: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day (2 Tim. 4:7-8a KJV).

But he says, "Timothy, you are still here. You must go on." And in a day and age when Christianity was a serious threat, in the eyes of imperial Rome, "Timothy, you must go on doing it. The church will experience persecution. It has and it still will. The blood of martyrs has been spilled and it will be until He comes. But Timothy, you abide in sound doctrine." Timothy would find, as I have often found, that being engaged in the work of the gospel is often very lonely work. This work of the ministry can be one of the loneliest places in the world.

In Iain Murray's second volume of the biography of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones we read an account of several men sitting in the vestry at Westminster Chapel one day having a conversation. One of them said how lonely he really was in ministry. Dr. Lloyd-Jones turned around and said to him, "My dear man; I am the loneliest man in this room." Even for this significantly busy and widely traveled minister there was such loneliness. The calling to pastor can be one which leads you to a kind of felt isolation. When men of like mind are not near for fellowship, and when you must carry the burden of the work by yourself, you feel this deeply. I have experienced this. Men who are fellow leaders but who not once would come and say, "Pastor, how are you?" This can be very difficult. Here Paul is saying to Timothy, "Your own future may have times which are bleak and lonely. But, keep on!"

Now, consider some of the actual exhortations that he gives to this young minister of Christ.

In 1:6 he writes: "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands" (KJV).

The gift of God seems here to be a reference to the divine enduement that came upon Timothy at his ordination. In 1 Timothy 1:18 and 4:14 we read:

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare (KJV). 

Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery (KJV). 

It seems that the Word of God was spoken powerfully at Timothy's ordination in such a way as to set before him much of what was involved in the work of the ministry. Now Paul is saying to Timothy, "Timothy I want you to remember that day. Remember the things that were spoken at your ordination." Do you who minister the Word as shepherds remember the day when you were set apart to the ministry of God's Word? Do you remember how you felt on that important day? Do you ever remember the things spoken at your ordination? How did you feel about Christ? About the souls of men and women? About the pastoral ministry itself? "Well," says Paul, "with the passing of time it is easy to forget the promises you made then, so stir up your mind and remember. Perhaps you've gone through hard times, much discouragement has come your way. Your calling still remains. It is still within you. Stir it up!" The NIV says, "Fan it into a flame. Keep it at white heat." The Greek says, "rekindle, stir up." This is the action necessary to break up a fire that is banked up because the air vent has been closed. The fire may appear to be almost out, yet it still burns ever so slightly. Open the air vent, stir it up. Put the poker in. In a matter of moments the fire will flame up again. The fire wasn't out, though it appeared to be. That is the picture Paul gives us here. The gift is still there, in you. You may encounter opposition and persecution. But "stir up the gift" so that you may use it for the function for which God gave it. The fire cannot go out in the life of those truly of God, and the gifts of God are without repentance. But these things do die down and they need to be stoked up, stirred up.

The real danger in all of this is simply that familiarity can and does breed contempt. We read the Word of God purely for pulpit preparation. We lose the wonder of the message of this book. We become quite academic in it all.

Recently I was listening to Eric Alexander, pastor of St. George's Tron Church, in Glasgow, and he was commenting on the benefit of studying for the pulpit. He said, "Sometimes I am studying my Bible and I have to get up from my desk and walk up and down, overwhelmed by the glory of the message. And to think, I am getting paid to do this! I'm getting paid for doing this!"

We need to meditate more on this word. Meditation is that word which describes the cow chewing its cud. It chews it over and over. The Psalmist says, "When I was musing the fire burned." And elsewhere, "My heart is indicting a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the King: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer" (Ps. 45:1 KJV). He is saying, "I am going to write about the things that I have discovered concerning the King" (my words). He is speaking, I believe, about Christ. But have you noticed that the tense changes in verse two? Here he speaks to Christ and says, "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips." The more he mused about the things of Christ, the more Christ came to him and ravished his heart. And he sat down under His shadow with great delight and His fruit was sweet unto his taste.

Then in 1:8 we read: "Be thou not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner." Isn't it interesting that he doesn't say Nero's prisoner? He says, in effect, "I am the Lord's prisoner." And, he exhorts, "Be thou not ashamed." The work of the gospel is costly and the temptations will come to you as they come to me again and again: Take the lower ground! Avoid the difficulties, escape the hardship, avoid the consequences, spare yourself the trouble, and so forth. If you are to remain faithful to Christ it will cost you. It will involve a great deal of misunderstanding and criticism. There will be times when, particularly for young men, you will feel the intimidation because you believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, and others do not. You might even be regarded as mentally imbalanced, narrow, or too rigid. Even puritanical! Well, these things can be very, very hard. I would suggest to you that one of the more difficult things is to be simply disregarded altogether, to be ignored, as if you were totally irrelevant. Or you may come to the place where people simply patronize you a bit. Have you ever been there?

What does Paul say to Timothy, and to us, in this regard? "Be not ashamed." Never, never be ashamed of the Word of God, of the cause of Christ, of your testimony, of what God has done for you in Christ. Remember, "Whoever is ashamed of Me, I will be ashamed of him," said our Lord. Never be ashamed of this gospel. Preach it plainly.

The third exhortation is to be found in verse 13. We read: "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."

There is a body of truth which has been delivered to the saints; there is a pattern, a good plan. And it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that perish. There is a body of truth that we are called to uphold. We are not to neglect that truth no matter who opposes it. Our services of worship must include the reading and expounding of the Word of God. Never dilute the truths of the Word of God as so many are doing in our time. We are called upon to deliver the whole counsel of God, the whole truth, rough edges and all.

The late professor James Denny, in a sermon on our Lord's temptation, said:

How little Jesus had to lean upon that the churches are tempted to trust in now. How little there is in the gospel about methods and apparatus. We may well believe that He would look with more than amazement upon the importance which many of His disciples now attach to such things. He spoke the Word unto them. That was all. The thrust of the church in other things is really a distrust of the truth, an unwillingness to believe that its power lies in itself a desire to have something more irresistible than truth to plead truth's cause. And all these are modes of atheism. It is not only a mistake, but a sin to trust attractions for the ear and the eyes, and to draw people to the church by the same methods by which they are drawn to a place of entertainment. What the evangelist calls "the Word," the spiritual truth, the message of the Father and His Kingdom, spoken in the Spirit and enforced in the Spirit, told by faith and heard by faith, is our only real resource, and we must not be ashamed of its simplicity. 

Denny refers to "something more irresistible than truth to plead truth's cause." How many, I wonder, in our day have gone down that path? That is a great problem. Paul is saying to us, "Don't give way to anything other than the Word of God." In an age and in a day and generation where people are being swept off their feet by drama and music and dance and mime, we must remember that it is the law of the Lord which converts the soul. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105 KJV).

We have to ask, in this generation, what is my concept of the doctrine of Scripture? Am I content, really and genuinely content, to believe in the Word of God? Am I content to let it do its own work? Look at what Paul says in verse nine: "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

That is what this gospel is all about. The great saving truths of God: His sovereignty, His eternal decrees, His electing grace, His Spirit's calling, His preservation of the saints and their perseverance. These are the doctrines that we are to hold fast to, and these are the doctrines that we are to proclaim. How much confidence do I have in the doctrines of grace? Am I content to preach these doctrines plainly and openly and to let them have their effect in people's lives? It is always the truth of God that will set men free! The Word of God shakes the gates of hell. It brings true reformation to the church.

It was this word that the Puritans and Protestant Reformers preached. Those Scottish folk in the era of great blessing didn't go out unto the moors and huddle in the freezing rain to hear some kind of milk-and-water homily that many men preach today. They went out and stood for hours to hear the Word of God. These men proclaimed the whole counsel of God. And as much as I can understand these things the characteristic of the reformers was always this: They always went right back to the scriptural doctrine of preaching itself. They always followed the biblical pattern. They opened up and unfolded the Scriptures, giving the sense of the text, causing the people to understand as they spoke. The central thing for them was always "What saith the Scriptures?" The Reformation was a return to these writings; it was a recovery of the message of the Scriptures, and it was the preaching and exposition of that message in the way it was practiced in the early church. These reformers maintained, as a basic principle, that Christ and the Scriptures were always inseparable. They meant by this that only in and through the Scriptures can Christ be truly known. Therefore, to communicate a whole Christ, one had to mediate a whole Word in order that men may receive a whole salvation! For Christ is to be found in all the Scriptures. His Master's voice is to be found in every book of the Bible. And we who preach must expound the whole of this Word.

Our Lord exhorts us, "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life. These are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39 KJV). If we are to genuinely bring men to the knowledge of Christ, the only sure way to do it is to preach the Word of God to them. That is why Paul is saying to Timothy. "Hold fast the form of the sound words." Never neglect the preaching of the Word of God for anything else. It is paramount; it is before everything else in your ministry.

His fourth exhortation is found in verse 14 where we read: "That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us" (KJV).

He is saying to Timothy that his responsibility is to not only preach the gospel of God, but to safeguard it as well. You have a responsibility to see to it that the gospel is preserved for the generation which is to come. That word keep is a particular word for shepherds. The incarnation narratives say "There were shepherds in the field keeping their sheep." It is the same word used by Peter in Acts 12, "The keepers, therefore, kept the door of the prison." Timothy is being exhorted to keep the truth of the gospel, to guard it, to safeguard it with his own life. Why? Because of those who would deny it. Humanists in our day tell us that man is the center of things and man is the master of his own fate. We have seen already the fruit of this kind of thinking. The faithful minister, like Timothy, must guard the gospel in such a time.

We are continually being influenced by men who are rationalists, men who attack the very supernatural basis of our faith. Men like William Barclay, the commentator, who was a master of the Greek text, yet denied the miraculous elements of the same text on many occasions. Such teachers add to the gospel. They often teach a salvation by ritual and a gospel of works righteousness. Such error comes through cults and isms that are on the march in our day.

I lived next door, in Glasgow, to two ministers. Three manses in a row on one block. One of these men, a Presbyterian, advertises himself as a Christian clown. He entertains people. That is his "calling," so he says, to be a Christian clown. That is the kind of age in which we live. Men are doing all sorts of stupid things in the name of this gospel, and there are misguided believers everywhere. People will follow such teachers. Paul is urging Timothy to keep this gospel from that sort of thing, from misguided believers who use prophecies to guide them. If this were true then we should close the Bible and go home. If we believe in the sufficiency of the Scripture, then we must guard that doctrine against people who say that they have an extra revelation from God for us today. And Paul is saying to Timothy, "Keep these things and guard these things." The enemy is all around us, and that is why we are told not only to preach and teach with sound doctrine, but to keep it as well.

In conclusion, let me point out some of the motives that Paul gives to Timothy for these exhortations. In verse five he tells Timothy to remember his heritage. He writes: "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also" (KJV).

What is he doing here? He is reminding Timothy of his upbringing, of those who have gone before him. Timothy was converted during Paul's first missionary journey, fewer than 20 years after our Lord's death. It is probable that his grandmother's faith was pre-Pentecost, and thus she would be one of the old economy, one who was looking for and waiting for the coming of Christ. Her daughter Eunice, perhaps to the great sorrow of her mother, had married a man who had no interest in the true and living God, and yet all the time in the background, this believing grandmother was praying for her daughter and praying for her grandson. In due time both Eunice and Timothy were converted.

How much you owe to your forebears you will never ever really know in this life. How many people come to faith in a non-Christian home, only to discover afterwards that their grandparents were believers. We tend to think of people who have no kind of spiritual background; but we forget the providence of God in this. God has promised to bless His faithful people unto the second and the third and the fourth generation for them that love Him.

I recall the story of T. DeWitt Talmadge, a nineteenth-century American preacher. He reflected once that, when he was a boy, every Saturday afternoon his mother would leave the house at 2:00 p.m. She wouldn't come back until a couple of hours later. That happened, he said, all through his childhood into his teen years. He wrote that he later found out that his mother had a holy conspiracy going. She would meet with several other mothers in their district and go to a barn where they would pray for two to three hours for their children. Says Talmadge, "I was the last of the family to be converted." And every child of those mothers was converted to Christ. We must never underestimate the power of God.

Do you know the story of Luke Short in New England? Luke Short was converted sitting at the side of a hedge at the age of 103! He lived to be 106. His gravestone is to be found in New England. "Here lies Luke Short. A child by nature, 106. A child by grace, aged 3." Now the interesting thing is this: Luke Short was converted at the age of 103 through the remembrance of a sermon that John Flavel had preached 70 years before. Seventy years later God brought it to his mind, and that sermon, applied by the Holy Spirit to this man's life, brought salvation to him. We must never underestimate the power of the Spirit of God. Remember your heritage.

Then in verses 9-11 Paul adds: "Remember the things that cannot change." Many changes have taken place in the history of America, I am sure, over the past 25 years or so. I look at my own pastoral ministry in Scotland. When I was 25 years in the ministry I wrote a letter to our people telling them something of what it was like when I was first converted. I was first converted at the age of 19 having been influenced by Anglo-Catholicism. I remember telling my mother that I had been converted, and she looked at me as if I had gone daft. My pattern of life was that every Sunday at 7 a.m I went to a prayer meeting. I came home from that meeting and went back to worship at 10:15 a.m. to share in an open air meeting. At 11 we had morning worship service. Then at 2 I went to a Sunday school meeting and taught young children. At 3 was a Bible class, and then at 5:15 we had another open-air meeting prior to another worship service in the evening. We would have an after meeting after the evening service where we would share testimonies, etc. Then came supper in the home of another believer.

Now that made for a long day! I never felt this was an imposition. It was expected when I was converted that I would stop smoking, going to the theatre and the dance hall. And would give a tenth of my earnings to the Lord. To read the Bible daily was also understood as important. These things were never an imposition to me. Now, years later I understand the dangers of legalism, but I will tell you this: I look back at those people who did not engage in certain things and followed after the Lord in this manner, and I ask myself, "Where are they today?" Many changes have taken place in church life, some for the better. Many of the changes have been for the worse. But remember the things that cannot change. The basic needs of the human heart never change. The answers to that need never change. Paul is reminding Timothy of the unchanging gospel, i.e., of the God who saved us and called us with a holy calling.

What a wonderful thing it is to speak to men and women of the glorious gospel of Christ. I believe in a gospel that saves men and women, and I believe we need to preach it.

As his last exhortation Paul says: "Timothy, keep going on in the things of God. And remember [in verse 18] that day." Remember that a day is coming, that day, when you must stand before God. I remember my own ordination. I was charged from 1 Corinthians 3:13 to remember that every man's work shall be manifest on that day. That day will declare it. My brethren, labor and preach with that day in view. It is still required of a steward that he be found faithful. You may not be successful as the world understands it, but you may be found faithful if you labor in the light of that day. You must give an account. You must herald the truth of this Word of God. In the light of this, my brothers in the gospel ministry, "Preach the Word!"

Author 

William G. Hughes serves as pastor of South Glasgow Baptist Church, Glasgow, Scotland. This article was originally presented in September of 1991 as an address to pastors at the Whitefield Ministerial Fraternal in Wheaton, IL. The Whitefield Fraternal is sponsored by Reformation & Revival Ministries, Inc.

Love's Commendation

By REV. C. H. Spurgeon

A sermon delivered on Sabbath Morning, November 23, 1856, at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."—Romans 5:8.

I shall have nothing new to tell you; it will be as old as the everlasting hills, and so simple that a child may understand it. Love's commendation. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God's commendation of himself and of his love is not in words, but in deeds. When the Almighty God would commend his love to poor man, it is not written, "God commendeth his love towards us in an eloquent oration"; it is not written that he commendeth his love by winning professions; but he commendeth his love toward us by an act, by a deed; a surprising deed, the unutterable grace of which eternity itself shall scarce discover. He "commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Let us learn, then upon the threshold of our text, that if we would commend ourselves it must be by deeds, and not by words. Men may talk fairly, and think that thus they shall win esteem; they may order their words aright, and think that so they shall command respect; but let them remember, it is not the wordy oratory of the tongue, but the more powerful eloquence of the hand which wins the affection of "the world's great heart." If thou wouldst commend thyself to thy fellows, go and do—not go and say; if thou wouldst win honour from the excellent, talk not, but act; and if before God thou wouldst show that thy faith is sincere, and thy love to him real: remember, it is no fawning words, uttered either in prayer or praise, but it is the pious deed, the holy act, which is the justification of thy faith, and the proof that it is the faith of God's elect. Doing, not saying—acting, not talking—these are the things which commend a man.

"No big words of ready talkers,
No fine boastings will suffice;
Broken hearts and humble walkers,
These are dear in Jesus' eyes."

Let us imitate God, then, in this. If we would commend our religion to mankind, we cannot do it by mere formalities, but by gracious acts of integrity, charity and forgiveness, which are the proper discoveries of grace within. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." "Let your conversation be such as becometh the gospel of Christ;" and so shall you honour him, and "adorn the doctrine" which you profess.

But now for this mighty deed whereby God commended his love. We think that it is twofold. We believe the apostle has given us a double commendation of love. The first is, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, Christ died for us"; the second commendation arises from our condition, "In that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

I. The first commendation of love, then, is this—that "CHRIST DIED FOR US"; and as the whole text is double, so this sentence also contains a twofold commendation There is a commendation of love in the person who died—Christ; and then in the act which he performed—"Christ died for us."

First, then, it is the highest commendation of love, that it was CHRIST who died for us. When sinful man erred from his Maker, it was necessary that God should punish his sin. He had sworn by himself, "The soul that sinneth it shall die;" and God—with reverence to his all-holy name be it spoken—could not swerve from what he had said. He had declared on Sinai that he would by no means clear the guilty; but inasmuch as he desired to pardon the offending, it was necessary that some one else should bear the sufferings which the guilty ought to have endured, that so by the vicarious substitution of another, God might be "just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly." Now, the question might have arisen, "Who is he that shall be the scapegoat for man's offence? Who is he that shall bear his transgressions and take away his sins?" If I might be allowed to picture in my imagination (and mark, it is nothing more than imagination), I could almost conceive a parliament in heaven. The angels are assembled; the question is proposed to them:—"Cherubim and seraphim, cohorts of the glorified, ye spirits that like flames of fire, swift at my bidding fly; ye happy beings, whom I have created for my honour! here is a question which I condescend to offer for your consideration:—Man has sinned; there is no way for his pardon but by some one suffering and paying blood for blood. Who shall it be?" I can conceive that there was silence throughout the august assembly. Gabriel spoke not: he would have stretched his wings and flapped the ether in a moment, if the deed had been possible; but he felt that he could never bear the guilt of a world upon his shoulders, and, therefore, still he sat. And there the mightiest of the mighty, those who could shake a world if God should will it, sat still, because they felt all powerless to accomplish redemption. I do not conceive that one of them would have ventured to hope that God himself would assume flesh and die. I do not think it could have entered even into angelic thought to conceive that the mighty Maker of the skies should bow his awful head and sink into a grave. I cannot imagine that the brightest and most seraphic of these glorified ones would for an instant have suffered such a thought to abide with him. And when the Son of God, upstarting from his throne, spoke to them and said, "Principalities and powers! I will become flesh, I will veil this Godhead of mine in robes of mortal clay, I will die!"—I think I see the angels for once astonished. They had seen worlds created; they had beheld the earth, like a spark from the incandescent mass of unformed matter, hammered from the anvil of Omnipotence, and smitten off into space; and yet they had not wondered. But on this occasion I conceive that they ceased not to marvel. "What! wilt thou die, O Word! Creator! Master! Infinite! Almighty! wilt thou become a man and die?" "Yes," saith the Saviour, "I will." And are you not astonished, mortal men? Do you not wonder? What, will you not marvel? The hosts of heaven still are wondering. Though it is many an age since they heard it, they have not yet ceased to admire; and do not you begin to marvel yet? Shall the theme which stirs the marvel of the seraph not move your hearts? That God himself should become man, and then should die for you! "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, Christ should die. Roll that thought over in your mind; ponder it in your meditations; weigh it in your hearts. If ye have right ideas of Godhead, if ye know what Christ is, if ye can conceive him who is the everlasting God, and yet the man—if ye can picture him, the pure, holy, perfect creature, and yet the everlasting Creator—if ye can conceive of him as the man who was wounded, and yet the God who was exalted for ever—if ye can picture him as the Maker of all worlds, as the Lord of providence, by whom all things exist and consist—if ye can conceive of him now, as robed in splendor, surrounded with the choral symphonies of myriads of angels, then perhaps ye may guess how deep was that stride of condescension, when he stepped from heaven to earth, from earth into the grave, from the grave down, it is said, into the lowest "sheol," that he might make his condescension perfect and complete. "He hath commended his love" to you, my brethren, in that it was Christ, the Son of God, who died for us.

The second part of the first commendation lieth here, that Christ died for us. It was much love when Christ became man for us, when he stripped himself of the glories of his Godhead for awhile, to become an infant of a span long, slumbering in the manger of Bethlehem. It was no little condescension when he divested himself of all his glories, hung his mantle on the sky, gave up his diadem and the pleasures of his throne, and stooped to become flesh. It was moreover, no small love when he lived a holy and a suffering life for us; it was love amazing, when God with feet of flesh did tread the earth, and teach his own creatures how to live, all the while bearing their scoffs and jests with cool unangered endurance. It was no little favour of him that he should condescend to give us a perfect example by his spotless life; but the commendation of love lieth here—not that Christ lived for us, but that Christ died for us.

Come, dear hearers, for a moment weigh those words. "Christ died for us!" Oh, how we love those brave defenders of our nation who but lately died for us in a far-off land! Some of us showed our sympathy to their sons and daughters, their wives and children, by contributing to support them, when the fathers were laid low. We feel that the wounded soldier is a friend to us, and that we are his debtors for ever. We may not love war; we may not, some of us, think it a Christian act to wield the sword; but, nevertheless, I am sure we love the men who sought to defend our country with their lives, and who died in our cause. We would drop a tear over the silent graves of Balaclava, if we were there now. And, if it should ever come to pass that any one of them should be called to die for us, should we not henceforth love them? Do any of us know what is contained in that great word "die?" Can we measure it? Can we tell its depths of suffering or its heights of agony? "Died for us!" Some of you have seen death; you know how great and dread is its power; you have seen the strong man bowing down, his knees quivering; you have beheld the eyestrings break, and seen the eyeballs glazed in death; you have marked the torture and the agonies which appal men in their dying hours; and you have said, "Ah! it is a solemn and an awful thing to die." But, my hearers, "Christ died for us." All that death could mean Christ endured; he yielded up the ghost, he resigned his breath; he became a lifeless corpse, and his body was interred, even like the bodies of the rest that died. "Christ died for us."

Consider the circumstances which attended his death. It was no common death he died; it was a death of ignominy, for he was put to death by a legal slaughter; it was a death of unutterable pain, for he was crucified; and what more painful fate than to die nailed to a cross? It was a long protracted death, for he hung for hours, with only his hands and his feet pierced—parts which are far away from the seat of life, but in which are situated the most tender nerves, full of sensibility. He suffered a death which for its circumstances still remain unparalleled. It was no speedy blow which crushed the life out of the body, and ended it; but it was a lingering, long, and doleful death, attended with no comforts and no sympathy, but surrounded with scorn and contempt. Picture him! They have hurled him on his back; they have driven nails through his hands and his feet; they have lifted him up. See! They have dashed the cross into its place. It is fixed. And now behold him! Mark his eyes, all full of tears; behold his head, hanging on his breast. Ah! mark him, he seems all silently to say, "I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; I am brought into the dust of death." Hear him, when he groans, "I thirst." Above all, listen to him, whilst he cries, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" My words cannot picture him; my thoughts fail to express it. No painter ever accomplished it, nor shall any speaker be able to perform it. Yet I beseech you regard the Royal Sufferer. See him, with the eye of your faith, hanging on the bloody tree. Hear him cry, before he dies, "It is finished!"

"See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"

Oh! how i wish I could stir you! If I should tell you some silly story of a love-sick maid, ye would weep; if I should turn novelist, and give you some sad account of a fabled hero who had died in pain—if it were a fiction, I should have your hearts; but this is a dread and solemn reality, and one with which you are intimately connected, for all this was done for as many of you as sincerely repent of your sins.

"All ye that pass by,
to Jesus draw nigh:
To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?"

Bethink you, that if you are saved, it is something to you, for the blood which trickles from his hands, distils for you. That frame which writhes in torture writhes for you; those knees, so weak with pain, are weak for you; those eyes, dripping with showers of tears, do drop for you. Ah! think of him, then, ye who have faith in him; look to him, and as many of you as have not yet believed, I will pray for you, that ye may now behold him as the expiation of your guilt; as the key which opens heaven to all believers.

Our second point was this: "God commendeth his love towards us," not only because Christ died for us, but that CHRIST DIED FOR US WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS."

Let us for a moment consider what sort of sinners many of us have been, and then we shall see it was marvellous grace that Christ should die for men—not as penitents"but as sinners. Consider how many of us have been continual sinners. We have not sinned once, nor twice, but ten thousand times. Our life, however upright and moral it has been, is stained by a succession of sins. If we have not revolted against God in the outward acts which proclaim the profligate to be a great sinner, yet the thoughts of our heart and the words of our lips are swift witnesses against us that we have continually transgressed. And oh! my brethren, who is there among us who will not likewise confess to sins of act? Who among us has not broken the Sabbath-day? Who among us has not taken God's name in vain? Who of us shall dare to say that we have loved the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength? Have we never by any act whatsoever showed that we have coveted our neighbour's goods? Verily, I know we have; we have broken his commands, and it is well for us to join in that general confession—"We have done those things which we ought not to have done; we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and there is no health in us." Now, the sweet thought is, that Christ died for us, whilst he knew that we should be continual transgressors. Men, brethren, and fathers, he did not die for you as those who have committed but one fault, but as those who were emphatically "sinners;" sinners of years' standing; some of you sinners with grey heads; sinners who have persevered in a constant course of iniquity. As sinners we are redeemed, and by it we become saints. Does not this commend Christ's love to us, that he should die for sinners, who have dyed themselves with sin as with crimson and with scarlet; great and continual sinners.

Note again, he has died for us, although our sins were aggravated. Oh! there are some of us here who are great sinners—not so much in the acts we have performed, as in the aggravation of our guilt. I reckon that when I sin, I sin worse than many of you, because I sin against better training than many of my hearers received in their youth. Many of you, when you sin, sin against faithful ministers, and against the most earnest warnings. It has been your wont to sit under truthful pastors; you have often been told of your sins. Remember, sirs, when you sin you do not sin so cheap as others: when you sin against the convictions of your consciences, against the solemn monitions of your pastors, you sin more grossly than others do. The Hottentot sinneth not as the Briton doth. He who has been brought up in this land may be openly more righteous, but he may be inwardly more wicked, for he sins against more knowledge. But even for such Christ died—for men who have sinned against the wooings of his love, against the strivings of their consciences, against the invitations of his Word, against the warnings of his providence—even for such Christ died, and therein he commendeth his love towards us, that he died for sinners. My hearer, if thou hast so sinned, do not therefore despair, it may be he will yet make thee rejoice in his redemption.

Reflect again, When we were sinners, we were sinners against the very person who died for us. "Tis strange, 'tis passing strange, 'tis wonderful," that the very Christ against whom we have sinned died for us. If a man should be injured in the street, if a punishment should be demanded of the person who attacked him, it would be passing strange if the injured man should for love's sake bear the penalty, that the other might go free; but 'twas so with Christ. He had been injured, yet he suffers for the very injury that others did to him. He dies for his enemies—dies for the men that hate and scorn him. There is an old tradition, that the very man who pierced Christ's side was converted; and I sometimes think that peradventure in heaven we shall meet with those very men who drove the nails into his hands and pierced his side. Love is a mighty thing; it can forgive great transgressors. I know my Master said, "Begin at Jerusalem," and I think he said that because there lived the men who had crucified him, and he wanted them to be saved. My hearer, hast thou ever blasphemed Christ? Hast thou ever mocked him, and scoffed at his people? Hast thou done all thou couldst to emulate the example of those who spat in his holy face? Dost thou repent of it? Dost thou feel thou needst a Saviour? Then I tell thee, in Christ's name, he is thy Saviour; yes, thy Saviour, though thus hast insulted him—thy Saviour, though thou hast trampled on him—thy Saviour though thou hast spoken evil of his people, his day, his Word, and his gospel.

Once more, let us remember, that many of us as sinners have been persons who for a long time have heard this good news, and yet have despised it. Perhaps there is nothing more wonderful in the depravity of man than that it is able to forget the love of Christ. If we were not so sinful as we are, there is not one of us here this morning who would not weep at the thought of the Saviour's love, and I believe there is not a solitary man, woman, or child here, who would not say, "I love thee, O my God! because thou hast done so much for me." It is the highest proof of our depravity that we do not at once love the Christ who died for us. There is a story told of the convenanters—of one named Patrick Welwood—whose house was surrounded at a time when a minister had for security been hidden there. Claverhouse's dragoons were at the door, and the minister had fled. The master of the house was summoned, and it was demanded of him, "Where is the minister?" "He is gone; I cannot tell whither, for I know not." But they were not satisfied with that; they tortured him, and since he could not tell them where he was (for in reality he did not know), they left him, after inflicting upon him the torture of the thumbscrew; and they took his sister, a young girl who was living in the house. I believe she did know where the minister was concealed; but on taking her they asked her, and she said, "No, I can die myself, but I can never betray God's servant, and never will, as he may help me." They dragged her to the water's edge, and making her kneel down, they determined to put her to death. But the captain said, "Not yet; we will try to frighten her"; and sending a soldier to her, he knelt down, and applying a pistol to her ear, she was bidden to betray the minister or die. The click of the pistol was heard in her ear, but the pistol was not loaded. She slightly shivered, and the question was again asked of her. "Tell us now," said they, "where he is, or we will have your life." "Never, never," said she. A second time the endeavour was made; this time a couple of carabines were discharged, but into the air, in order to terrify her. At last they resolved upon really putting her to death, when Trail, the minister, who was hidden somewhere near, being aroused by the discharge of guns, and seeing the poor girl about to die for him, sprang forward, and cried, "Spare that maiden's blood, and take mine; this poor innocent girl, what hath she done?" The poor girl was dead even there with the fright, but the minister had come prepared to die himself, to save her life. Oh, my friends, I have sometimes thought that her heroic martyrdom was somewhat like the blessed Jesus. He comes to us, and says, "Poor sinner, wilt thou be my friend?" We answer, "No," He comes to us, and says, "Ah, I will make thee so," saith he, "I will die for thee"; and he goes to die on the cross. Oh! methinks I could spring forward and say, "Nay, Lord Jesus, nay, thou must not die for such a worm." Surely such a sacrifice is a price too large to pay for poor sinful worms! And yet, my hearers, to return again to what I have uttered before, you will hear all this, and nine out of ten will retire from this place, and say, "It was an old, old story"; and while ye can drop a tear for aught else, ye will not weep one tear for Jesus, nor sigh one sigh for him, nor will ye afford him even a faint emotion of love. Would it were different! Would to God he would change your hearts, that so ye might be brought to love him.

Further, to illustrate my text, let me remark again, that inasmuch as Christ died for sinners, it is a special commendation of his love for the following reasons:—It is quite certain that God did not consider man's merit when Christ died; in fact, no merit could have deserved the death of Jesus. Though we had been holy as Adam, we could never have deserved a sacrifice like that of Jesus for us. But inasmuch as it says, "He died for sinners," we are thereby taught that God considered our sin, and not our righteousness. When Christ died, he died for men as black, as wicked, as abominable, not as good and excellent. Christ did not shed his blood for us as saints, but as sinners. He considered us in our loathsomeness, in our low estate and misery—not in that high estate to which grace afterwards elevates us, but in all the decay into which we had fallen by our sin. There could have been no merit in us; and therefore, God commendeth his love by our ill desert.

Again: it is quite certain, because Christ died for us as sinners, that God had no interest to serve by sending his Son to die. How could sinners serve him? Oh! if God had pleased, he might have crushed this nest of rebels, and have made another world all holy. If God had chosen, the moment that man sinned he might have said unto the world, "Thou shalt be burned"; and like as a few years ago astronomers told us that they saw the light of a far-off world burning, myriads of miles away, this world might have been consumed with burning heat, and sin scorched out of its clay. But no. Whilst God could have made another race of beings, and could have either annihilated us, or consigned us to eternal torment, he was pleased to veil himself in flesh, and die for us. Surely then it could not have been from any motive of self-interest. God had nothing to get by man's salvation. What are the attractions of human voices in Paradise. What are the feeble symphonies which mortal lips can sing on earth, compared with the death of our Lord? He had angels enough. Do they not day without night circle his throne rejoicing? Are not their golden harps sufficient? Is not the orchestra of heaven large enough? Must our glorious Lord give up his blood to buy poor worms, that they may join their little notes with the great swell of a choral universe? Yes, he must; and inasmuch as we are sinners, and could by no possibility repay him for his kindness, "God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

But there is another commendation of love. Christ died for us "unasked." Christ did not consider me as an awakened heir of heaven, but as a dead, corrupt, lost, and ruined heir of hell. If he had died for me as an awakened heir of heaven, then I could have prayed for him to die, for then I have power to pray, and will to pray; but Christ died for me when I had no power nor will to lift my voice in prayer to him. It was entirely unasked. Where did ye ever hear that man was first in mercy? Did man ask God to redeem? Nay, rather, it is almost the other way; it is as if God did entreat man to be redeemed. Man never asked that he might be pardoned, but God pardons him, and then turns round and cries, "Return unto me, backsliding children of men, and I will have mercy upon you." Sinners! if you should go down on your knees, and were for months to cry for mercy, it would be great mercy if mercy should look upon you; but without asking, when we are hardened and rebellious, when we will not turn to Christ, he still comes to die for us. Tell it in heaven; tell it in the lower world! God's amazing work surpasses thought; for love itself did die for hatred—holiness did crucify itself to save poor sinful men, and unasked for and unsought, like a fountain in the desert sparkling spontaneously with its native waters, Jesus Christ came to die for man, who would not seek his grace. "God commendeth his love towards us."

And now, my dear hearers, I want to close up, if the Spirit of God will help me, by endeavouring to commend God's love to you, as much as ever I can, and inviting as many of you as feel your need of a Saviour, to lay hold of him and embrace him now as your all-sufficient sacrifice. Sinner! I can commend Christ to thee for this reason: I know that thou needest him. Thou mayest be ignorant of it thyself, but thou dost need him. Thou hast a leprosy within thine heart—thou needest a physician; thou sayest, "I am rich;" but sinner, thou art not—thou art naked, and poor, and miserable. Thou sayest, "I shall stand before God accepted at last"; but, sinner, without Christ thou wilt not; for whosoever believeth not on Christ "hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Hear that, my dear hearers: "The wrath of God abideth on him." Oh! that wrath of God! Sinner, thou needest Christ, even though thou dost not think so. Oh, that the Lord would impress this upon thee! Again, a day is coming when thou wilt feel thy need of Christ if thou dost not now. Within a few short years, perhaps months or days, thou wilt lie upon the last bed that shall ever bear thy weight; soon thou shalt be stayed up by soft pillows; thy frame will be weak, and thy soul full of sorrow. Thou mayest live without Christ now, but it will be hard work to die without him. Thou mayest do without this bridge here; but when thou gettest to the river thou wilt think thyself a fool to have laughed at the only bridge which can carry thee safely over. Thou mayest despise Christ now, but what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan. Canst thou face death, and not be afraid? Nay, man, thou art affrighted now if the cholera is in the city; or if some little sickness is about thee thou shakest for fear; what wilt thou do when thou art in the jaws of death, when his bony hand is squeezing thee, and when his dart is in thy vitals? What wilt thou do then without a Saviour? Ah! thou wilt want him then. And what wilt thou do when thou hast passed that black stream, when thou findest thyself in the realm of spirits—in that day of judgment, when the thunders shall be loosed, and the wings of the lightning shall be unbound—when tempests shall herald with trumpet voice the arrival of the great Assize? What wilt thou do when thou shalt stand before his bar before whom, in astonishment, the stars shall flee, the mountains quake, and the sea be licked up with tongues of forked flame? What wilt thou do, when from his throne he shall exclaim, "Come hither, sinner," and thou shalt stand there alone, to be judged for every deed done in the body? Thou wilt turn thine head, and say, "Oh! for an advocate!" And he shall look on thee, and say, "I called, and ye refused; I stretched out my hand and no man regarded; I also will now laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." Ah! what wilt thou do then sinner, when the judgment-seat is set? Oh! there will be weeping—there will be weeping at the judgment-seat of Christ. And what wilt thou do in that day when he shall say, "Depart, ye cursed;" and when the black angel, with a countenance more fierce than lightening, and with a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, shall cry, "Depart!" and smite thee down where lie for ever those accursed spirits, bound in fetters of iron, who, long long ago, were cast into perdition? Say not, I tell thee terrible things: if it be terrible to speak of, how terrible it must be to bear! If you believe not what I say, I shall not wonder if you laugh at me; but as the most of you believe this, I claim your most solemn attention to this subject.

Sirs! Do ye believe there is a hell, and that you are going there? And yet do you still march heedless on? Do you believe that beyond you, when the stream of life is ended, there is a black gulf of misery? and do you still sail downwards to it, quaffing still your glass of happiness, still merry as the live-long day? O stay, poor sinner, stay! Stay! It may be the last moment thou wilt ever have the opportunity to stay in. Therefore stay now I beseech thee. And if thou knowest thyself to be lost and ruined, if the Holy Spirit has humbled thee and made thee feel thy sin, let me tell thee how thou shalt be saved. "He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ and is baptized, shall be saved. "He that believeth not," saith the Scripture "shall be damned." Do you not like that message? Ought I to have said another word instead of that? If you wish it, I shall not; what God says I will say; far be it from me to alter the messages from the Most High; I will, if he help me, declare his truth without altering. He saith "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned." What is it to believe? To tell you as simply as possible: to believe is to give up trusting in yourself and to trust in Jesus Christ as your Saviour. The negro said, you know, "Massa dis here is how I believe—when I see a promise, I do not stand on de promise; but I say, dat promise firm and strong; I fall flat on it; if de promise will not bear me, den it is de promise fault; but I fall flat on it." Now, that is faith. Christ says, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Faith is to say, "Well, then, sink or swim, that is my only hope; lost or saved, that is my only refuge. I am resolved, for this my last defence,

'If I perish there and die,
At his cross I still will lie'."

"What!" says one, "no good works?" Good works will come afterwards, but they do not go with it. You must come to Christ, not with your good works, but with your sins; and coming with your sins, he will take them away, and give you good works afterwards. After you believe, there will be good works as the effect of your faith; but if you think faith will be the effect of good works, you are mistaken. It is "believe and live." Cowper calls them the soul-quickening words, "believe and live." This is the sum and substance of the gospel.

Now, do any of you say this is not the gospel? I shall ask you one day what it is. Is not this the doctrine Whitfield preached? Pray what else did Luther thunder, when he shook the Vatican? what else was proclaimed by Augustine and Chrysostom, but this one doctrine of salvation in Christ by faith alone? And what did Paul write? Turn ye to his epistles. And what did our Saviour himself say, when he left these words on record—"Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?" And what did he command his disciples to teach them? To teach them this. The very words I have now repeated to you were his last commission. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned."

But again you say, "How can I believe that Christ died for me?" Why, thus,—He says he died for sinners: canst thou say thou art a sinner? I do not mean with that fine complimentary phrase which many of you use, when you say, "Yes, I am a sinner;" and if I sit down to ask you, "Did you break that commandment?" "Oh, no," you will say: "Did you commit that offence?" "Oh, no;" you never did anything wrong. And yet you are sinners. Now that is the sort of sinners I do not think I shall preach to. The sort of sinners I would call to repentance are those whom Christ invited—those who know that they have been guilty, vile, and lost. If thou knowest thy sinnership, so truly Christ died for thee. Remember that striking saying of Luther. Luther says, Satan once came to him and said, "Martin Luther, thou art lost, for thou art a sinner." Said I to him, "Satan, I thank thee for saying I am a sinner, for inasmuch as thou sayest I am a sinner, I answer thee thus—Christ died for sinners; and if Martin Luther is a sinner, Christ died for him." Now, canst thou lay hold on that, my hearer? It is not on my authority, but on God's authority. Go away and rejoice; for if thou be the chief of sinners thou shalt be saved, if thou believest.

"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
Bold shall I stand in that great day.
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
While, thro' thy blood, absolv'd I am
From sin's tremendous curse and shame."

Sing that, poor soul, and thou hast begun to sing the song of Paradise. May the Lord, the Holy Spirit, apply these simple statements of truth to the salvation of your souls.

Who Else? An Appeal for True Preaching!

By R. C. Lucas

Editor's Introduction: This article was originally a letter mailed to encourage evangelical ministers in the Evangelical Minister's Assembly, which convenes in London each June. It retains much of its original letter format and is only slightly altered for publication in this form. R. C. Lucas wrote it to encourage ministers to consider the question, "Who will bring the Word of God to your church if you don't?" 

Writing from King's College,Cambridge, on September 23, 1782, to Mr. J. Venn (the son of the better known Henry) on the occasion of his ordination, Charles Simeon said,

My dearest friend, I most sincerely congratulate you, not on permission to receive 40 pounds or 50 pounds a year, nor on the title of Reverend, but on your accession to the most valuable, most honorable, most important, and most glorious office in the world - to that of an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

It is the hope and purpose of the June Assembly to serve those in the great office of the pastor/teacher. In difficult and confusing times we all need help and encouragement from one another. We need to understand our task and believe it: we need a firm confidence in the fact that we have a great work to accomplish which will not be done if we - and like-minded pastors in all the Protestant churches - do not do it. Let me give seven illustrations of what I mean; there could certainly be several more.

1. Who else but the pastor/teacher can devote himself wholly to prayer and the ministry of the Word?

Christians today, like everyone else it seems, lead very busy lives with all too little time for prayer and Bible study. To be full-time in the church pastorate, to be freed from the daily business of earning one's living, to have a real measure of security in precarious times, to "have time" to think and pray and give oneself to the sacred Scriptures, this is a remarkable gift and provision of God. Like Moses' mother we are paid to do the one job above all others that we longed to have. From time to time I find it salutary to repent of self-pity and gentle grumbling and recognize my astonishing privilege. Therein, of course, lies our heavy responsibility before God and man. As every young minister knows, it is the easiest thing in the world to fritter that precious time away, to find handling the 24 hours of comparative freedom a difficult discipline, and to slip into bad habits that may, in the end, last a lifetime. For instance, to have one's office at home is not always a blessing - for wives as for husbands and it is interesting that American pastors tend to "go to the office" in their church buildings.

It is perfectly possible, however, to be both disciplined and industrious and still fail to do that for which God gave you the time. Parkinson's Law, that "work expands to fill the time available for doing it," applies to parish work as to any other. It requires a steady, almost ruthless, determination in order to maintain any semblance of the apostolic ideal of Acts 6:4. It also requires a "considered neglect" of other duties (how easy it would be if our only distraction were the oversight of arrangements to care for some believing widows!), or rather a delegation of these duties to Christian men. There lies the rub. Many evangelical pastor/teachers take on new charges where at the start, there is not one man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. However, if we do not immediately and perseveringly aim for Acts 6:4, there never will be such men to share the work. We must break into the circle of decay somewhere, not at first expecting sympathy or understanding from an untaught congregation.

I know that this appeal will touch the conscience of all who are truly called by God to the work of the pastor/ teacher. Alas, there are not a few ordained men who discover, later in life, that they never had such a call. Speaking recently to a young minister who shows unusual aptitude for the work of preaching and teaching, I discovered that he had been reading e!gpt chapters of the Bible every day since his conversion (which itself took place in most unpromising and awkward circumstances). In response to my evident surprise he said, "But isn't that sort of thing part of a call to the ministry?" I'm sure that it is! How many chapters one reads every day is not the point. But the authentic sign of "the pastor/teacher to be" is to have set one's heart, with Ezra (7:10), to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes to Israel.

This, then, must be our great priority if there is to be a true rebuilding, in both reformation and renewal, of the churches of our country. We must, very simply, get back to our number one task and priority.

One final word on this point: When I read Lloyd-Jones on Preaching and Preachers (see review in this issue), I remember thinking that Anglican evangelicals would never accept so exclusive a view of the tasks of the minister of the gospel. But I still hope that we are willing to learn, despite our many traditions. It grieves me when I hear Westminster Chapel, in the Doctor's day, described as simply a "preaching shop." That is ignorant, and takes no account of its peculiar position and opportunity. Have such critics ever read The First Forty Years, Iain Murray's brilliant Volume One of the Lloyd-Jones biography? Do they know nothing of his labors in Sandfields, in Wales? There, if you like, was a true living church and community of a rare kind. Not long ago I drove past Port Talbot and slipped off the motor-way in order to find the old Forward Movement church building. Silent and somber, without notices of activity, it was a rather dreary Sight, as were the environs. Even today with new estates, I cannot think that a young minister called to those parts would not feel himself facing a most formidable and uphill task. But, as Luther would put it, it was the Word that did it!

2. Who else, but the pastor/teacher will defend the faith today? 

There is a widely held belief that this is the peculiar responsibility of other church leaders or authorities. Naturally, convictions of this sort have not been helped by the miserable affair of the Durham bishopric. Here we have a bishop who openly denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This has given the church what one calls "academic terrorism," but, thankfully, the churches are becoming tougher in resisting this with vigor.

What may be lacking these days is a sufficient willingness to fight for the faith as, for example, Bishop Gore did in the famous "Hereford Scandal" of 1917. I believe we should encourage our leaders to "take up the cudgels" in their ecclesiastical gatherings. What is needed is not "slops" but strong meat. What a power for good that can be!

However, let us remind ourselves that the bishop of the New Testament is none other than the pastor/teacher of the local congregation! It is worldliness which imagines that the only utterances which enjoy influence are those of important public leaders. After all, how many people really read most of the utterances of such men? Not many in your congregation, my brother, and perhaps fewer in your local community. In any case, few of today's church leaders, understandably in view of the times in which they grew up and were trained, know how to "handle the Bible." Since the Bible is "God preaching," what matters is that His voice is heard! We need not fear for the influence of His voice.

Controversial preaching was never easy. We all cringe at "knife-happy" preachers. (Murray's previously referred to Volume One of the Lloyd-Jones biography provides some of the most helpful treatment of the wrong spirit in denunciatory preaching that I have ever read. I commend it to you who preach.) Nevertheless, controversial preaching is a major feature of the Gospels and Epistles. Christ and His apostles use the utmost plainness of speech in discriminating between truth and error. We must dare, humbly but boldly, to follow.

No doubt God has His own ways of seeing to it that His church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth (see 1 Tim. 3:15). Raising up a young English don at Magdalen, Oxford, in the middle years of this century, Clive Staples Lewis, may prove to have done more for the defense of supernatural Christianity than anything else in our times. And this through children's stories, as well as weightier works!

But in the New Testament there is no doubt about the responsibility of the pastor in this regard (see 1 Tim. 1:3f; 1:18f; 3: 14ff; 4:1ff; 6:3ff; 6:20-21). So let's buckle down to the work afresh. Don't despair when atheists get prime time and receive a hearing. The live churches are still growing, and many grow not just in enthusiasm but in the grand convictions of Athanasius, Calvin, and Luther. The power of clear doctrinal preaching is still very great. God multiplies the loaves and fishes so that thousands are nourished and cease to be sheep without a shepherd.

Incidentally, some of these critics say helpful things. Don Cupitt, a recognized atheist in Great Britain who gets prime time on the BBC, recently wrote, "A new kind of asceticism is emerging, as many of us react sharply against the extreme eudaemonism, the intellectual and emotional softness and self-centredness of popular belief." Yes, indeed! I react sharply for one. The sooner we evangelical pastors, who want biblical standards, clearly and openly renounce "entertainment Christianity" in all its shapes and forms (and they are legion) the better. Our church buildings are not theatres or concert halls. We have serious work to do, teaching the Bible. It won't be easy to resist the amazing modern pressure to turn almost everything, from breakfast on, into entertainment, but it may be exhilarating to try!

3. Who else but the pastor/teacher can bring back to our nation the knowledge of the true God? 

It is useless and unreasonable to expect religious broadcasting to engage in a serious and sustained treatment of scriptural Christianity. It, too, is in the entertainment business. Not that we should fail to support those brave Christians, with requisite skills, who try to stem the tide of religious drivel reaching millions of homes and insert, as they do, some genuine Christian testimony. But experience shows that most producers have little more discernment than the pigeons outside my window who peck hopefully at any grit or garbage in lieu of absent grain.

No, here again it is a growing conviction of mine that if the pastor/teacher does not do this job then it will simply not be done.

We have often been told that it is only our doctrine of Scripture that separates and divides us from fruitful cooperation with non-evangelicals. This is simply not so. It is not issues such as inerrancy that separate us so drastically from our non-evangelical contemporaries, but a fundamental disagreement as to who God is, and what is His name.

Take an obvious example. I once preached a series of five lunch-hour sermons on the anger of God. Purposely, with one exception, I stuck to the New Testament It was an eyeopener to the preacher if no one else! Now no series like this, calmly and clearly taught, will more certainly divide us from the majority of religious teachers today. They tell us frankly that they do not, cannot, and will not believe in this God. Exactly! They are, quite simply, unbelievers, and they do not know it. How can they join in the worship of heaven which so often centers around God's just judgments? The glorious beings around the eternal throne rejoice continually in that pure and righteous wrath that will, in the end, eliminate all that offends and opposes God. "Hallelujah! The smoke from he (the great harlot) goes up for ever and ever" (Rev. 19:3).

In our daily prayers we are required to ask that God will hallow His Name. In our regular teaching ministry we cooperate in the work of making Him known. Through our words (how the angels must envy us!) men and women, boys and girls, may get a first glimpse, awesome yet wonderful in its attractions, of the Eternal God and of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

One reason why I love to move among my more "Reformed" friends is that they think and speak so much of the greatness of God. With them I wilt when the evangelist pleads with young people to be concerned about God, offering every inducement, seemingly ready for any reasonable bid as long as it is made now. In heaven's name, why not tell them rather that, despite their foolish lack of concern, their ignorance and rebellion, God is concerned for them? That is the amazing news - almost too good to be true - that the true God accepts the unacceptable through sheer grace and goodness, for Jesus' sake.

Will you, my brother pastor, not give yourself afresh to this supreme task of declaring the whole counsel of God, lest the churches lose touch completely with the only true God and are consumed by idolatry?

4. Who else but the pastor/teacher can give the Bible back to the British people? 

I gladly recognize the labors of numerous Christian teachers in schools seeking to do the vital work of teaching the Scriptures - similarly in evangelical theological colleges. But the fact is that the Bible seems not to "teach" anything quite so well outside the realm of the local living church. The classroom does not take kindly to "preaching," and the Bible is nothing if it is not a preaching book. is this one reason why scholarship divorced from the preaching situation produces such disappointing commentaries? Whenever I come across a fine commentary - and this can be outside the "conservative" stable, like Cranfield's splendid two volumes on Romans in the new International Critical Commentary series - I say to myself, "This man must preach on Sundays."

I doubt whether we shall see a deep understanding of the Bible spreading out and about among the churches and beyond unless the pastor/teachers themselves become "mighty in the Scriptures." I find that it is in regular preparing and preaching that I come to quite new appreciations of the power of the Bible to speak today, and many of you must find the same.

The truth is that personal "quiet times" and Bible reading notes are not sufficient for Christian people. Teaching in His church is the God-ordained way of opening minds to the truth and truth to human minds. This is primarily a speaking, not a writing, ministry.

For one hundred years, with some bright exceptions, there has been a deepening famine of the Word of God preached in the churches, even in those called evangelical. The chief cost of relieving that famine is the hard labor of the pastor/teacher in prayer and study.

Of course radical biblical criticism is a major reason for a church without a message. But my guess is that it is becoming an increasing irrelevance as living churches and radical theology move out of range of each other. (The obvious exception is seen in the ruining of ministerial candidates in training, like one poor lad who told me on the morning of his ordination examination he had nothing to pass along except his doubts.) When I was a student many dubious notions used to be purveyed on the grounds that they were "assured results of modern criticism." I seldom found then, or since in over 35 years of active ministry, that these new ideas had any power evangelistically or pastorally. And now I think we must be out of our minds if we allow lay leadership or inspiring teachers in our churches to be trained by the degenerate theology offered by such an approach. Of course if we care looking back to giants like Lightfoot, well and good. But what can one say when taking up the Cambridge Bible Commentary series (based on the NEB text) on the letters of Peter and Jude only to find· at the end of 2 Peter an extended note on the Christian hope which tells readers that "The expectation of a last day, when Jesus the Lord will return, must be abandoned. In practice it has been abandoned ...." The man hasn't even done his field work. Or does he never enter into one of today's growing churches, where hundreds, even thousands, in university centers, rejoice to sing of Christ's coming again? Such ludicrous and lamentable theology as I have alluded to has nothing to offer us, except as an explanation for the plight of the older denominations in the West - and, alas, one explanation for the growing anti-intellectualism of charismatic groups and many house churches.

My pastor friend, every time you find yourself in a pulpit, speaking at a wedding service or at a graveside, remind yourself, "I am here to teach the Bible, only thus can I meet the needs of these people and of the hour." You will do this if you share the vision that in every town of any size in our country there should be at least one church (denominational labels don't matter a jot!) where the Scriptures are properly and effectively taught. No children's talk is ever a substitute for it serious sermon (which all from 13 upward can understand)! No missionary speakers unless they, too, teach the Bible. Normally, there should be no preparation at the last minute (Saturday evenings or Sunday afternoons) except last minute touches. (Let's face it, Spurgeon was a genius: we should not follow his extraordinary habits unless we can produce his extraordinary results!) We should not expect to pull any bees from the proverbial ministerial bonnet. Sentimentalism is out for the true preacher of the Word. Unnecessary jesting and unnatural shouting are a hindrance. Pulpiteering, by which I refer to oratory and the "hot air" of much content, is unbecoming to the minister who would teach the Word. And I would add, no lay preaching unless the person preaching is evidently gifted well above the average! Apologies for God's truth are a positive nuisance, and clerical cant will help no listener. And false modesty is out in light of Paul's words regarding Timothy's "letting no one despise" his youth.We are not to give little chats, or dull and endless lecture series. Who is sufficient for these things? You must know the answer to that if you know your Bibles.

5. Who else but the pastor/teacher will train the laity properly? 

I will be brief for a change. The Scriptures know no clericalism. To all the people of God belongs the work of the ministry. This is still a revolutionary truth for most churches if practiced as well as preached. How are Christian people to discover their worth and their gifts? Ephesians 4:11f. is the only answer I know.

Extension courses from good colleges have a useful place. But in my view they arise largely because the pastor/teacher is not doing his job. Living Christian communities offer the best sphere for theological and ministerial training for the layman.

If we stick to our work to the last, and speak the truth in love, other works and workers will ultimately spring up around us, though patience, always linked with teaching, will be necessary (2 Tim. 4:2c).

6. Who else but the pastor/teacher can hope substantially to change the course of the church in our land? 

Space forbids the possibility of expounding this hope in a worthy way. Suffice it to say that recent use of the Davies Dictionary on Liturgy and Worship gave me a curious glimpse of some of the less admirable effects of the "catholic" revival in the Anglican Church these last 150 years. Seventeen pages on vestments with less than a column on the sermon seemed to typify the outlook of this approach. It all seemed leagues away from the gospel and the biblical hopes we have for the churches. Indeed, it often seems to me that decaying tractarianism, with liberalism eating at its vitals, doesn't know how to recognize God's church when it sees it.

The new evangelical' movement is now well past its beginnings, but will it be sustained with biblical integrity and apostolic zeal? Only if we renounce old habits like "biting and devouring one another," as Paul puts it in Galatians 5:15. And only if the pastor/teacher keeps his nerve, his message, and his willingness to suffer for the gospel. It is awfully easy to adjust our position just that inch or so from the line of Scripture in order that we may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. One of the things that makes me apprehensive about "full gospelism" is that it is so acceptable. "Healing," for example, is just the gospel today's world desires since it has an obsession with health and happiness. But Christianity without tears isn't on offer right now. God will wipe away all tears, but that is for the world to come! Meanwhile, we must go forth weeping, sowing in tears, if we hope to reap a harvest and see God do great things for us (Psalm 126).

7. Who else but the pastor/teacher can hope to contribute so effectively to the welfare of our nation today?

It is far too easy to join in the chorus of criticism one hears of the born-again movement in the U.S., and to ask why, if there are so many Christian people in that great nation, so little difference is made. But is that really so? No doubt as American teachers and pastors themselves say, there is superficiality everywhere. But there is also immense influence. The current Presidential election campaign is revealing. Neither side can ignore the convictions of Christians regarding abortion. (The same could not be said in Great Britain!) Who listens to the church in the U.K., or even if they hear its voice, fear its wrath? It is the same old story. Trying to be "relevant" and politically committed, we are ignored, by and large. But seek first the kingdom (and I am not talking about the errant kingdom theology of some evangelicals) and preach the real gospel, in season and out of season, and we begin to see God at work in society. Look at Charles Colson in the U.S. Has any committee or reform group achieved a fraction of what he has for American prisons? Men are born anew through the living and abiding word of God. No preaching of the good news means no new births from above! No new births means no salt and light in the world. No salt and light in society means increasing disintegration, decay, and despair in the secular city.

Many more things could be said. Who else can demonstrate that the evangelism of full value means sowing as well as' reaping? Who else is so well equipped for the big spiritual battles ahead, both with unfaith and with fanaticism? Who else but the man with the sword of the Spirit in his hand and the knowledge of how to wield it?

Author 

Rev. Richard C. Lucas has served as pastor of St. Helen's Bishopsgate, a Church of England ministry in London, since 1962. He is the author of Fullness & Freedom: The Message of Colossians and Philemon (InterVarsity Press, 1980).

John Sutcliff and the Concert of Prayer

By Michael A.G. Haykin

This year marks the bicentenary of the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society. Inevitably, as the story of this epoch-making venture is recounted, the name of William Carey (1761-1834) will be prominent. Given the key role played by Carey in the founding of this Society and the central place that he has since occupied in the evangelical mind, this prominence is completely understandable.

Yet, it would be quite disturbing to Carey himself, who, on his deathbed, rebuked the fledgling missionary Alexander Duff (1806-1878) for focusing attention on him and his achievements. "Mr. Duff," the dying Carey said with a gracious solemnity, "you have been speaking about Dr. Carey, Dr. Carey; when I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey - speak about Dr. Carey's Saviour." [1]

It is also quite misleading to suppose that it was Carey's single-handed effort that brought about the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society and enabled him to accomplish all that he did in India from 1793 until his death over 40 years later. Carey was part of a close-knit circle of like-minded friends, without whom little of what he longed for would have been realized. Christopher Anderson (1782-1852), who was well acquainted with a number of Carey's close friends, maintained during Carey's lifetime that it was the "strong personal attachment" of close friends to one another that lay behind the "usefulness" of the Baptist Missionary Society: "Carey and [Joshua] Marshman and [William] Ward abroad; [John] Sutcliff, [Andrew] Fuller, and [John] Ryland and [Samuel] Pearce at home." [2]

It would require a book-length study to carefully delineate the way in which God used the friendship of these men to advance His kingdom, not only through this missionary endeavor, but also through their participation in the renewal of the Calvinistic Baptist cause after a period of lengthy decline during the mid-1700s. This article has a much more modest goal. It seeks to examine God's employment of one of these friends, John Sutcliff (1752-1814), as a catalyst in the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society and more generally in the renewal of the Calvinistic Baptists at the end of the eighteenth century.

John Sutcliff: His Early Years 

Sutcliff's early nurture in the Christian faith came through his parents, Daniel and Hannah Sutcliff, both of whom attended Rodhill End Baptist Church, not far from Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. [3] But it was not until Sutcliff was 17 that he was converted during a local revival in Wainsgate Baptist Church, where his parents worshiped on alternate weeks Since there was a service at Rodhill End only every other week. The pastor of the church, John Fawcett (1740-1817), had himself been converted through the preaching of George Whitefield (1714-1770) and, personally convinced of many of the emphases of the Evangelical Revival, he would in time become a powerful force for revival in the north of England. After a couple of years under Fawcett's watchful care, Sutcliff devoted two and a half years, from 1772 to May of 1774, to theological study at Bristol Baptist College. He then briefly served in two Baptist churches, one in Shrewsbury and one in Birmingham, before he entered upon what would be his life's ministry at Olney, Buckinghamshire in July 1775.

John Sutcliff began to study in earnest the writings of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) not long after he came to Olney. First introduced to the writings of Edwards by Fawcett, the works of this New England divine exercised a great influence in shaping Sutcliff's theology. It was Edwards's evangelical Calvinism which especially led him to the conviction that certain aspects of the High Calvinism which was then regnant in many Calvinistic Baptist churches were un scriptural. For instance, a number of Sutcliff's fellow pastors denied that it was the duty of Sinners to believe in the Lord Jesus. They reasoned that since the Scriptures ascribe repentance and faith to the working of the Holy Spirit, neither of these can be regarded as duties required of sinners. In practical terms, this meant that the preaching of these pastors omitted "the free invitations of the gospel" and thus "chilled many churches to their very soul." [4] Sutcliff's good friend Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) would later recount his own experience of having grown up under such a ministry. According to Fuller his pastor, John Eve (d. 1782), [5] "had little or nothing to say to the unconverted." [6] Edwards's writings particularly helped Sutcliff to be convinced of "the harmony ... between the duty of ministers to call on sinners to repent and believe in Christ for salvation, and the necessity of omnipotent grace to render the call effectual." [7] Sutcliff soon began to incorporate into his preaching these fresh insights regarding the relationship between human responsibility and divine grace. Some of his congregation, however, were deeply disturbed by what they considered to be a departure from the canons of "orthodoxy," and they began to absent themselves from the church's celebration of the Lord's Supper. But Sutcliff was not to be deterred from preaching biblical truth, and "by patience, calmness, and prudent perseverance" he eventually won over all those in his congregation who stood opposed to his theological position. [8]

Sutcliff's commitment to Edwardsean Calvinism was shared by a number of other pastors in the geographical vicinity of Olney. In particular this included John Ryland, Jr. (1753-1825) at College Street Baptist Church in Northampton, whom Sutcliff had met in the early 1770s, and Andrew Fuller at Kettering Baptist Church, whom Sutcliff first met in 1776 at the annual meeting of the Northamptonshire Association, to which the churches of all three pastors belonged. "A strong attachment to the same religious principles, a decided aversion to the same errors, a predilection for the same authors, with a concern for the cause of Christ at home and abroad" [9] bound these three men together in a friendship which soon began to make its presence felt in the affairs of the Northamptonshire Association.

Jonathan Edwards and the Concert of Prayer 

In the spring of 1784, Ryland shared with Sutcliff and Fuller a treatise of Edwards which had been sent to him by the Scottish Presbyterian minister John Erskine (1721-1803). When Erskine was in his mid-twenties he had entered into correspondence with Edwards, and long after Edwards's death in 1758 he had continued to uphold Edwards's theological perspectives and to heartily recommend his books. Well described as "the paradigm of Scottish evangelical missionary interest through the last half of the eighteenth century," [10] Erskine regularly corresponded with Ryland from 1780 until his death in 1803, sending him not only letters, but also, on occasion, bundles of interesting books and tracts which he sought to promote. Thus it was in April 1784 that Erskine mailed to Ryland a copy of Edwards's An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, Pursuant to Scripture-Promises and Prophecies Concerning the Last Time (henceforth referred to as the Humble Attempt). 

This treatise had been inspired by information Edwards received during the course of 1745 about a prayer movement for revival which had been formed by a number of Scottish evangelical ministers, including such regular correspondents of Edwards as John Mclaurin (1693-1754) of the Ramshorn Church, Glasgow, William McCulloch (1691-1771) of Cambuslang, James Robe (1688-1753) of Kilsyth, and Erskine, then of Kirkintilloch. These ministers and their congregations had agreed to spend a part of Saturday evening and Sunday morning each week, as well as the first Tuesday of February, May, August, and November, in prayer to God for "an abundant effusion of His Holy Spirit" so as to "revive true religion in all parts of Christendom," to "deliver all nations from their great and manifold spiritual calamities and miseries," and "fill the whole earth with His glory." [11] This "concert of prayer" ran initially for two years and then was renewed for a further seven. When Edwards was sent information regarding it, he lost no time in seeking to implement a similar concert of prayer in the New England colonies. He encouraged his own congregation to get involved and also communicated the concept of such a prayer union to neighboring ministers whom he felt world be receptive to this idea. Although the idea initially met With a poor response, Edwards was not to be put off. In a sermon given in February 1747 on Zechariah 8:20-22, he sought to demonstrate how the text supported his call for a union of praying Christians. Within the year a revised and greatly expanded version of this sermon was ready for publication as the Humble Attempt.

The Humble Attempt is divided into three parts. The first section opens with a number of observations on Zechariah 8:20-22 and then goes on to provide a description of the origin of the concert of prayer in Scotland. From the text in Zechariah, Edwards infers that:

There shall be given much of a spirit of prayer to God's people, in many places, disposing them to come into an express agreement, unitedly to pray to God in an extraordinary manner, that He would appear for the help of His church, and in mercy to mankind. and pour out His Spirit, revive His work, and advance His spiritual kingdom in the world, as He has promised. [12]

Edwards thus concludes that it is a duty well-pleasing to God and incumbent upon God's people in America to assemble and, with "extraordinary, speedy, fervent, and constant prayer," pray for those "great effusions of the Holy Spirit" which will dramatically advance the kingdom of Christ. [13]

Part II of the treatise cites a number of reasons for participating in the concert of prayer. Our Lord Jesus shed His blood and tears, and poured out His prayers to secure the blessed presence of His Spirit for His people.

The sum of the blessings Christ sought, by what He did and suffered in the work of redemption, was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in His indwelling, His influences and fruits, is the sum of all grace, holiness, comfort and joy, or in one word, of all the spiritual good Christ purchased for men in this world: and is also the sum of all perfection, glory and eternal joy, that He purchased for them in another world. [14]

Therefore, Edwards rightly concludes:

If this is what Jesus Christ, our great Redeemer and the head of the church, did so much desire, and set His heart upon, from all eternity, and which He died and suffered so much for, offering up "strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7), and His precious blood to obtain it; surely His disciples and members should also earnestly seek it, and be much and earnest in prayer for it. [15]

Scripture, moreover, is replete with commands, incentives, and illustrations regarding prayer for the Holy Spirit. There is, for example, the encouragement given in Luke 11:13: "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" These words of Christ, Edwards observes, imply that prayer for the Holy Spirit is one request that God the Father is particularly pleased to answer in the affirmative. [16] Or one might consider the example of the early disciples who devoted themselves to "united fervent prayer and supplication ... till the Spirit came down in a wonderful manner upon them," as is related in Acts 1-2. [17]

Additional incentives to take part in the concert of prayer are provided by "the spiritual calamities and miseries of the present time." Among the calamities which Edwards lists are King George's War (1744-1748), the disastrous attempt by Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender," to seize the British throne for his father only a couple of years before, in 1745-1746, the persecution of the Huguenots in France, the decay of vital piety, the deluge of vice and immorality, the loss of respect for those in vocational ministry, and the prevalence of religious fanaticism.18 Moreover, Edwards finds the drift of the intellectual and theological currents of his day a further reason for prayer, as men and women rejected in toto Puritan theology so as to embrace theologies shaped by the world-view of the Enlightenment.

Never was an age wherein so many learned and elaborate treatises have been written, in proof of the truth and divinity of the Christian religion; yet never were there so many infidels, among those that were brought up under the light of the gospel. It is an age, as is supposed, of great light, freedom of thought, and discovery of truth in matters of religion, and detection of the weakness and bigotry of our ancestors, and of the folly and absurdity of the notions of those that were accounted eminent divines in former generations; ... and yet vice and wickedness did never so prevail, like an overflowing deluge. 'Tis an age wherein those mean and stingy principles (as they are called) of our forefathers, which (as is supposed) deformed religion, and led to unworthy thoughts of God, are very much discarded, and grown out of credit, and supposed more free, noble and generous thoughts of the nature of religion, and of the Christian scheme, are entertained; but yet never was an age, wherein religion in general was so much despised and trampled on, and Jesus Christ and God Almighty so blasphemed and treated with open, daring contempt. [19]

Yet, Edwards also lists a number of events which show that, though his time is a "day of great apostasy," that should move believers to united prayer just as much as distresses and calamities. [20] Edwards especially highlights such "wonders of power and mercy" as God's granting of military success to the British against the French in the North American hemisphere, and various spiritual revivals on the European continent, in Great Britain, and among the New England colonies. In particular, these "late remarkable religious awakenings ... may justly encourage us in prayer for the promised glorious and universal outpouring of the Spirit of God." [21]

The beauty and benefits involved in a visible union for prayer is yet another motive Edwards gives for complying with his proposal. Unity, Edwards maintains, is regarded by the Scriptures as "the peculiar beauty of the church of Christ." [22] In support of this statement, Edwards refers his readers to the Song of Songs 6:9; Psalm 122:3 and Ephesians 4:3-6,16. Union in prayer would also prove to be beneficial for the church in that it would tend to promote closer rapport between the members of different denominational bodies.

Union in religious duties, especially in the duty of prayer, in praying one with and for another, and jointly for their common welfare, above almost all other things, tends to promote mutual affection and endearment. [23]

Part III, the longest portion of the Humble Attempt, is devoted to answering various objections to the idea of a concert of prayer. These objections range from the charge that the concert is something previously unknown in the history of the church, and therefore suspect, to the assertion that certain eschatological conditions need to be fulfilled before God will answer prayer for such a rich outpouring of the Spirit as Edwards is pleading for. This latter objection launches Edwards into a detailed and lengthy exposition of what was essentially a Puritan perspective on history. [24]

A significant number of congregations in America and Scotland observed the concert of prayer throughout the 1750s. Especially during the French and Indian War (17551760), the concert enjoyed "a considerable vogue among American Calvinists." [25] In 1759, for instance, Robert Smith informed fellow Presbyterians in Pennsylvania that the concert of prayer would prove to be far more effective in hastening the "brightest period of the militant Church's glory" than the military victories won by British forces. [26] Yet, as we shall see, the Humble Attempt would bear much of its greatest fruit long after the death of its author. As Iain H. Murray has noted, "It is arguable that no such tract on the hidden source of all true evangelistic success, namely, prayer for the Spirit of God, has ever been so widely used as this one." [27]

The Prayer Call of 1784 

Reading Edwards's Humble Attempt in the spring of 1784 evidently had a profound impact on Ryland, Fuller, and Sutcliff. Fuller was to preach that June at the annual meeting of the Northamptonshire Association. On his way to the meeting at Nottingham, Fuller found that heavy rains had flooded a number of spots of the roads over which he had to travel. At one particular point the flooded area appeared so deep that Fuller was reluctant to continue. A resident of the area, who knew how deep the water actually was, encouraged him to urge his horse through the water. "Go on, sir," he said, ''you are quite safe." As the water came up to Fuller's saddle, Fuller began to have second thoughts about continuing. "Go on, sir," the man said again, "all is right." Taking the man at his word, Fuller continued and safely traversed the flooded area of the road. This experience prompted Fuller to preach on 2 Corinthians 5:7 at the Association meeting: "We walk by faith, not by sight." [28] During the course of this sermon, which Fuller entitled, "The Nature and Importance of Walking by Faith," Fuller clearly revealed the impression Edwards's Humble Attempt had made upon his thinking when he appealed thus to his hearers:

Let us take encouragement, in the present day of small things, by looking forward, and hoping for better days. Let this be attended with earnest and united prayer to Him by whom Jacob must arise. A life of faith will ever be a life of prayer. O brethren, let us pray much for an outpouring of God's Spirit upon our ministers and churches, and not upon those only of our own connection and denomination, but upon "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours" (1 Cor. 1:2). [29]

At the same meeting, Sutcliff proposed that the churches of the Association establish monthly prayer meetings for the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit and the consequent revival of the churches of Great Britain. This proposal was adopted by the representatives of the 16 churches at the meeting, and on the last page of the circular letter sent out that year to the churches of the Association there was a call for them "to wrestle with God for the effusion of His Holy Spirit." [30] After recommending that there be corporate prayer for one hour on the first Monday evening of the month, the call, most likely drawn up by Sutcliff, continued:

The grand object in prayer is to be, that the Holy Spirit may be poured down on our ministers and churches, that sinners may be converted, the saints edified, the interest of rellgion revived, and the name of God glorified. At the same time remember, we trust you will not confine your requests to your own societies [i.e. churches] or to your own immediate connection [i.e. denomination]; let the whole interest of the Redeemer be affectionately remembered, and the spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe be the object of your most fervent requests. We shall rejoice if any other Christian societies of our own or other denomination will unite with us, and do now invite them most cordially to join heart and hand in the attempt. 

Who can tell what the consequences of such an united effort in prayer may be! Let us plead with God the many gracious promises of His word, which relate to the future success of His gospel. He has said, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them, I will increase them with men like a flock" (Ezek. 36:37). Surely we have love enough for Zion to set apart one hour at a time, twelve times in a year, to seek her welfare. [31]

There are at least four noteworthy points about this Prayer Call. First, very much in evidence in this statement, as well as in the extract from Fuller's sermon, is the conviction that any reversal of the decline of the Calvinistic Baptists could not be accomplished by mere human zeal, but must be effected by the Spirit of God. As Sutcliff noted later in strongly Edwardsean language:

The outpouring of the divine Spirit ... is the grand promise of the New Testament .... His influences are the soul, the great animating soul of all religion. These withheld, divine ordinances are empty cisterns, and spiritual graces are withering flowers. These suspended, the greatest human abilities labour in vain, and the noblest efforts fail of success. [32]

Then there is the catholicity that is recommended with regard to the subjects of prayer. As the Calvinistic Baptists of the Northamptonshire Association gathered together to pray, they were encouraged not to think simply of their own churches and their own denomination, but they were to embrace in prayer believers of other denominational bodies. The kingdom of God consists of more than Calvinistic Baptists! In fact, churches of other denominations, as well as Baptist churches in other associations, were encouraged to join with them in praying for revival.

Third, there is the distinct missionary emphasis of the Prayer Call. The members of the Association churches were urged to pray that the gospel be spread "to the most distant parts of the habitable globe." Little did these Baptists realize how God would begin to fulfill these very prayers within the space of less than a decade.

Finally, the sole foundation for praying for revival is located in the Scriptures. Only one text, Ezekiel 36:37, is actually cited, but those issuing this call to prayer are aware of "many gracious promises" in God's Word which speak of the successful advance of His kingdom. At first glance this passage from Ezekiel hardly seems the best text to support the Prayer Call. Yet, Edwards had cited this very verse in his Humble Attempt and said the following with regard to it:

The Scriptures don't only direct and encourage us in general to pray for the Holy Spirit above all things else, but it is the expressly revealed will of God, that His church should be very much in prayer for that glorious outpouring of the Spirit that is to be in the latter days, and the things that shall be accomplished by it. God speaking of that blessed event (Ezek. 36), under the figure of "cleansing the house of Israel from all their iniquities, planting and building their waste and ruined places, and making them to become like the Garden of Eden, and filling them with men like a flock, like the holy flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts" [vv. 33-38] (wherein He doubtless has respect to the same glorious restoration and advancement of His church that is spoken of in the next chapter, and in all the following chapters to the end of the book) he says, v. 37, "Thus salth the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. "Which doubtless implies, that it is the will of God that extraordinary prayerfulness in His people for this mercy should precede the bestowment of it. [11]

Here, Edwards interprets Ezekiel 36:37 in the light of the larger context of Ezekiel 37-48. According to Edwards, Since these chapters speak prophetically of the latter-day glory of the church - a millennial period in which "love will abound, and glorifying God by word and deed will be characteristic" [34] - then Ezekiel 36:37 must refer to the united prayers of God's people that will usher in this glorious period of the church's history. Edwards had directed his own congregation to "observe what you read [in the Scriptures]. Observe how things come in. Take notice of the drift of the discourse ...." [35] Here, in the Humble Attempt, he was practicing what he preached. Now, while Edwards's particular interpretation of these passages from Ezekiel is open to debate, as Sutcliff later admitted, [36] the principle that he draws from Ezekiel 36:37 is not; namely, that preceding times of revival and striking extensions of Christ's kingdom there invariably occur the concerted and constant prayers of Christians. It is clearly this principle which those who issued the Prayer Call of 1784 wanted to stress, although most of them probably concurred with Edwards's post-millennial vision. The proof of this statement may be found in the fact that when Sutcliff brought out an edition of Edwards's Humble Attempt in 1789, he stated in his "Preface":

By re-publishing the following work, I do not consider myself as becoming answerable for every sentiment it contains. An Author and an Editor are very distinct characters. Should any entertain different views respecting some of the prophecies in the inspired page, from those that are here advanced, yet, such may, and I hope will, approve of the general design. [37]

Revival and Its Fruit 

The Association meetings at which this Prayer Call was issued were held on June 2-3. At the end of that month, on June 29, the church which Sutcliff pastored in Olney resolved to establish a "monthly meeting for prayer ... to seek for a revival of religion." [38] Two years later, Sutcliff gave the following progress report and exhortation regarding the prayer meetings that had been established in his own church and others in the Association: [39]

The monthly meetings of prayer, for the general spread of the gospel, appear to be kept up with some degree of spirit. This, we hope, will yet be the case. Brethren, be not weary in well-doing, for in due time ye shall reap, if ye faint not. We learn that many other churches, in different, and some in distant parts of the land, and some of different denominations, have voluntarily acceded to the plan. We communicate the above information for your encouragement. Once more we would invite all who love truth and holiness, into whose hands our letter may fall, to unite their help. Let societies, let families, let individuals, who are friends to the cause of Christ unite with us, not only daily, but in a particular manner, at the appointed season.

As this text shows, Sutcliff, like his mentor Edwards, was convinced that not simply the individual prayers of God's people presaged revival, but the prayers of God's people when they gathered together to pray in unison. [40] And, as Sutcliff went on to indicate, God was already answering their prayers by providing "an open door in many places, for the preaching of the gospel." [41]

The passing years did not diminish Sutcliff's zeal in praying for revival and stirring up such prayer. For instance, Ryland wrote in his diary for January 21, 1788:

Brethren Fuller, Sutcliff, Carey, and I kept this day as a private fast, in my study: read the Epistles to Timothy and Titus; [Abraham] Booth's charge to [Thomas] Hopkins; [Richard] Blackerby's Life, in [John] Gillies; and [John] Rogers of Dedham's Sixty Memorials for a Godly Life: and each prayed twice - Carey with singular enlargement and pungency. Our chief design was to implore a revival of godliness in our own souls, in our churches, and in the church at large. [42]

And in 1789, the number of prayer meetings for revival having grown considerably, Sutcliff decided to bring out an edition of Edwards's Humble Attempt to further encourage those meeting for prayer. Measuring only six and one quarter inches long, and three and three-quarter inches wide, and containing 168 pages, this edition was clearly designed to be a handy pocket-size edition. In his "Preface" to this edition, Sutcliff reemphasized that the Prayer Call issued by the Northamptonshire Association five years earlier was not intended for simply Calvinistic Baptists. Rather, they ardently wished it might become general among the real friends of truth and holiness.

The advocates of error are indefatigable in their endeavors to overthrow the distinguishing and interesting doctrines of Christianity; those doctrines which are the grounds of our hope, and sources of our joy. Surely, it becomes the followers of Christ, to use every effort, in order to strengthen the things which remain .... In the present imperfect state, we may. reasonably expect a diversity of sentiments upon religious matters. Each ought to think for himself; and every one has a right, on proper occasions, to shew his opinion. Yet all should remember, that there are but two parties in the world, each engaged in opposite causes; the cause of God and of Satan; of holiness and sin; of heaven and hell. The advancement of the one, and the downfall [sic] of the other, must appear exceedingly desirable [sic] to every real friend of God and man. If such in some respects entertain different sentiments, and practice distinguishing modes of worship, surely they may unite in the above business. O for thousands upon thousands, divided into small bands in their respective cities, towns, villages and neighbourhoods, all met at the same time, and in pursuit of one end, offering up their united prayers, like so many ascending clouds of incense before the Most High! - May He shower down blessings on all the scattered tribes of Zion! [43]

In this text Sutcliff positions the Prayer Call of 1784 on the broad canvas of history, in which God and Satan are waging war for the souls of men and women. Prayer, because it is a weapon common to all who are "friends of truth and holiness," is one sphere in which Christians can present a fully united front against Satan. Sutcliff is well aware that evangelicals in his day held differing theological positions and worshiped in different ways. He himself was a convinced Baptist - convinced, for instance, that the Scriptures fully supported congregational polity and believer's baptism - yet, as he rightly emphasizes in the above "Preface," such convictions should not prevent believers, committed to the foundational truths of Christianity, uniting together to pray for revival.

Hard on the heels of the republication of Edwards's treatise came the events leading to the formation of the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen in 1792, later known as the Baptist Missionary Society. Included among the items recommended for prayer in the Prayer Call of 1784 had been "the spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe." As those who heeded the Prayer Call began to make this "the object of ... [their] most fervent requests," God began to answer: first, by providing a man with the desire to go and evangelize peoples to whom the name of Christ was completely unknown, namely, William Carey; and then, by giving other believers - among whom Sutcliff, Fuller, and Ryland were central - the strength and courage to support him as he went and labored. [44] Over the next four decades Carey's example would spur numerous others to offer themselves for missionary service. Of these missionary candidates, a good number would be sent to Sutcliff to be tutored by him in a parsonage seminary which he opened at the close of the 1790s.

In 1794, two years after the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society, John Rippon (1750-1836), pastor of Carter Lane Baptist Church inSouthwark, London, published a list of Calvinistic Baptist congregations and ministers in his Baptist Annual Register. Rippon estimated that there were at that time 326 churches in England and 56 Wales, more than double the number which had existed in 1750. [45] He printed another list of churches four years later, according to which the numbers had grown to 361 churches in England and 84 in Wales. [46] Reflecting on these numbers, Rippon wrote: "It is said, that more of our meeting houses have been enlarged, within the last five years, and more built within the last fifteen, than had been built and enlarged for thirty years before." [47]

Rippon was not exaggerating. There was indeed steady growth among the Calvinistic Baptists during the last four decades of the eighteenth century, but it was not until the final decade of the century that there was a truly rapid influx of converts. [48] It is surely no coincidence that preceding and accompanying this growth were the concerts of prayer that many churches had established in response to the Prayer Call of 1784.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society, F. A. Cox, reflecting on the origins of the Society, stated that:

The primary cause of the missionary excitement in Carey's mind, and its diffusion among the Northamptonshire ministers [was] ... the meeting of the Association in 1784, at Nottingham, [when] it was resolved to set apart an hour on the first Monday evening of every month, "for extraordinary prayer for revival of religion, and for the extending of Christ's kingdom in the world." This suggestion proceeded from the venerable Sutcliff. Its simplicity and appropriateness have since recommended it to universal adoption: and copious showers of blessing from on high have been poured forth upon the churches. [49]

From the vantage point of the early 1840s, Cox saw the Prayer Call of 1784 as pivotal in that it focused the prayers of Calvinistic Baptist churches in the Northamptonshire Association on the nations of the world, and thus prepared the way for the emergence of the Baptist Missionary Society and the sending of Carey to India. Yet he also notes that the "universal adoption" of the concert of prayer by churches beyond the ranks of the Calvinistic Baptist denomination had led to rich times of revival, when God poured forth upon these churches "copious showers of blessing." Later historians would describe this period of blessing as the Second Evangelical Awakening (1790-1830). Some of them, like J. Edwin Orr and Paul E. G. Cook, would concur with Cox and rightly trace the human origins of this time of revival and spiritual awakening to the adoption of the concert of prayer by the Calvinistic Baptists in 1784. [50]

However, in one area Cox's statement is somewhat misleading. In describing Sutcliff as "the venerable Sutcliff he leaves the reader with an idyllic impression of the Baptist pastor. How sobering to find that this man, who was at the heart of a prayer movement that God used to bring so much spiritual blessing to His church, also struggled when it came to prayer. When Sutcliff lay dying in 1814 he said to Fuller: "I wish I had prayed more." [51] For some time Fuller ruminated on this statement by his dying friend. Eventually he came to the conviction that Sutcliff did not mean that he ''wished he had prayed more frequently, but more spiritually." Then Fuller elaborated on this interpretation by applying Sutcliff's statement to his own life:

I wish I had prayed more for the influence of the Holy Spirit: I might have enjoyed more of the power of vital godliness. I wish I had prayed more for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in studying and preaching my sermons; I might have seen more of the blessing of God attending my ministry. I wish I had prayed more for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to attend the labours of our friends in India; I might have witnessed more of the effects of their efforts in the conversion of the heathen. [52]

End Notes

1. George Smith, The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary, p. 303. 
2. The Christian Spirit Which Is Essential to the Triumph of the Kingdom of God. pp.22-27, passim. London: 1824. 
3. Comparatively little research has been done on the life or theology of John Sutcliff. There is a biographical sketch by Andrew Fuller attached to his funeral sermon for Sutcliff: "The Principles and Prospects of a Servant of Christ" [The Complete Works of Rev. Andrew Fuller, ed. Andrew Gunton Fuller and revised Joseph Belcher. Volume I (1845 ed.), pp.342-356. Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988. Kenneth W. H. Howard, who was pastor of Sutcliff Baptist Church in Olney from 19491954, has written a fine biographical piece: "John Sutcliff of Olney," The Baptist Quarterly, 14, pp. 304-309, 19511952. More recently, I have written "Can We Pray and Work for Worldwide Revival? Revival - The Perspective of John Sutcliff (1752-1814)," Reformation Today, Issue No. 104, pp. 9-17, July-August, 1988, and an unpublished manuscript titled "A Habitation of God, Through the Spirit: John Sutcliff (1752-1814) and the Revitalization of the Calvinistic Baptists in the Late Eighteenth Century," both of which examine aspects of Sutcliff's theology. 
4. Susannah Spurgeon and J. W. Harrald, C. H. Spurgeon's Autobiography, 1:310. 
5. For a brief autobiographical sketch of John Eve, see Kenneth AC. Parsons, ed., The Church Book of Independent Church (Now Pound Lane Baptist), Isleham, 1693-1805, p. 255. Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Records Society, 1984. 
6. John Ryland, Jr., The Work of Faith, the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope, Illustrated in the Life and Death of Rev. Andrew Fuller (2nd. ed.), p. 11. London: Button & Son, 1818. 
7. Fuller, "Principles and Prospects" in Works, 1:350.
8. Ibid. 
9. John Ryland, Jr., The Indwelling and Righteousness of Christ No Security against Corporal Death, but the Source of Spiritual and Eternal Life, pp. 35-36. These words are actually used by Ryland of his friendship with Fuller, but they can also be applied to the friendship between Sutcliff, Fuller, and Ryland. In the "Postscript" to this sermon, Ryland describes Sutcliff and Fuller as "my dearest brethren" (p. 47). In his Life and Death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, Ryland states that he always regarded Fuller and "Brother Sutcliff, and myself, as more closely united to each other, than either of us were to anyone else" (p. ix). 
10. J. A Dejong, As the Waters Cover the Sea: Millennial Expectations in the Rise of Anglo-America Missions, 1640-1810, p. 166. Kampen, The Netherlands: J. H. Kok N.V., 1970. 
11. Stephen J. Stein, ed., "Humble Attempt," in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 5:321. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1977. 
12. Ibid., 5:317. 
13. Ibid., 5:320. 
14. Ibid., 5:341. 
15. Ibid., 5:344. 
16. Ibid., 5:347-48. 
17. Ibid., 5:356. 
18. Ibid., 5:357-59. 
19. Ibid., 5:359. 
20. Ibid., 5:362. 
21. Ibid., 5:363. The inclusion of military and political events alongside those more specifically "religious" reveals Edwards's conviction that "God directs the course of history in intimate detail." Michael J. Crawford, Seasons of Grace: Colonial New England's Revival Tradition in Its British Context, p; 231. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Edwards and most of his fellow New England preachers had a "deep-seated conviction, nurtured over three New England generations, that if they did not know their history they did not know God." Harry Stout, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England, p. 136. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. 
22. Edwards, Humble Attempt, 5:365. 
23. Ibid., 5:366. 
24. For a brief overview of Edwards's eschatological perspectives in the Humble Attempt, see Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, pp. 296-99. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987. 
25. Alan Heimert, Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution, p. 336. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1966. 
26. Ibid., p. 336. 
27. Murray, Jonathan Edwards, p. 299. 
28. Andrew Gunton Fuller, ed., The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, 1:117. 
29. Ibid., 1:13l. 
30. John Ryland, Jr., The Nature, Evidences, and Advantages of Humility, p. 12. 
31. Ibid., p. 12. 
32. Jealousy for the Lord of Hosts Illustrated, p. 12. London: W. Button, 179l. 
33. Edwards, 5:348. 
34. John H. Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology, p. 96. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1987. 
35. Stephen J. Stein, "The Quest for the Spiritual Sense: The Biblical Hermeneutics of Jonathan Edwards," The Harvard Theological Review, Volume 70, p. 108, 1977. 
36. See below. 
37. "Preface" to Jonathan Edwards, An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, Pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies Concerning the Last Time, pp. iv-v. 
38. "Baptist Meeting at Olney Minutes," June 29, 1784. 
39. Authority and Sanctification of the Lord's Day, Explained and Enforced, pp. 1-2. 
40. Crawford, Seasons of Grace, p. 229. 
41. Authority and Sanctification of the Lord's Day, p. 2. 
42. Jonathan Edwards Ryland, "Memoir of Dr. Ryland" in Pastoral Memorials: Selected from the Manuscripts of the Late Revd. John Ryland, D.D. of Bristol, 1:17. Abraham Booth (1734-1806) was a well-known Baptist minister in London. His charge to Thomas Hopkins, when the latter was ordained pastor of Eagle Street Baptist Church, London, contains the following admonition, which would not have been lost to Sutcliff and his friends: "With humility, with prayer, and with expectation, the assistance of the Holy Spirit should be daily regarded." ("Pastoral Cautions: An Address to the Late Mr. Thomas Hopkins," The Works of Abraham Booth, 3:178.) Richard Blackerby (1574-1648) and John Rogers (d. 1636) were both Puritan authors. The book of John Gillies (17121796), the son-in-law of John Mclaurin, one of the initiators of the concert of prayer in Scotland, is his Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel, and Eminent Instruments Employed in Promoting It. This book is reputedly the earliest history of revivals. 
43. "Preface," pp. lv-vi. 
44. For the details, see especially Timothy George, Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey, Birmingham, Alabama: New Hope, 1991. 
45. The Baptist Annual Register, 2:16,23. London: 1797. 
46. The Baptist Annual Register, 3:40,42. London: 180l. 
47. Ibid., 3:40. 
48. Deryck W. Lovegrove, Established Church, Sectarian People. Itineracy and the Transformation of English Dissent, 1780-1830, p. 38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 
49. History of the Baptist Missionary Society, From 1792 to 1842, 1:10-11. London: T. Ward &Co./G. &J. Dyer, 1842. 
50. J. Edwin Orr, The Eager Feet: Evangelical Awakenings, 1790-1830, pp. 95, 191-92, 199. Chicago: Moody Press, 1975. Paul E. G. Cook, "The Forgotten Revival" in Preaching and Revival, p.92. London: The Westminster Conference, 1984. 
51. Fuller, "Principles and Prospects," 1:344. 
52. J. W. Morris, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, p. 443. London: 1816.

Author 

Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin serves as Professor of Church History at Central Baptist Seminary, Gormley, Ontario, Canada.