G. Campbell Morgan was one of the leading evangelical preachers of his day. He began preaching at age 13 and by age 26 was teaching at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. He returned to England in 1904 to become pastor at Westminster Chapel in London. He was a contemporary and friend Martyn Lloyd-Jones, F. B. Meyer and Charles Spurgeon.
In this book, Morgan examines the letters to the seven churches of Asia which begin the book of Revelation in the New Testament. Over 1900 years have passed, and yet our churches today face many of the same temptations, struggles and challenges as those faced by these first century believers. Morgan brings home how the messages of Jesus to these early churches are equally applicable to our churches today. Would our own church receive Jesus’ praise? Or does our church need to answer Jesus’ call to repent and return to true worship? (Introduction by MaryAnn)
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession!” Matthew 15:22
We see here, that affliction sometimes proves a blessing to a person’s soul.
This Caananitish mother no doubt had been severely tried. She had seen her darling child vexed with a devil, and been unable to relieve her. But yet that trouble brought her to Christ, and taught her to pray. Without it she might have lived and died in careless ignorance, and never seen Jesus at all. Surely it was good for her that she was afflicted. (Psalm 119:71)
Let us mark this well. There is nothing which shows our ignorance so much as our impatience under trouble. We forget that every trial is a message from God—and intended to do us good in the end. Trials are intended . . . to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees.
Health is a good thing. But sickness is far better, if it leads us to God.
Prosperity is a great mercy. But adversity is a greater one, if it brings us to Christ.
Anything, anything is better than living in carelessness, and dying in sin. Better a thousand times be afflicted, like the Canaanitish mother, and like her flee to Christ; than live at ease, like the rich “fool,” and die at last without Christ and without hope.
Psalm 129:3 The plowers plowed upon my back; They made long their furrows.
Horatius Bonar – (1808-1889), Scottish churchman and poet
Horatius Bonar had a passionate heart for revival and was a friend and supporter of several revivalists, He was brother to the more well-known Andrew Bonar, and with him defended D. L. Moody’s evangelistic ministry in Scotland. He authored a couple of excellent revival works, one including over a hundred biographical sketches and the other an addendum to Rev. John Gillies’ Historical Collections bringing it up to date.
He was a powerful soul-winner and is well qualified to pen his brief, but illuminating study of the character of true revivalists.
Horatius was in fact one of eleven children, and of these an older brother, John James, and a younger, Andrew, also became ministers and were all closely involved, together with Thomas Chalmers, William C. Burns and Robert Murray M’Cheyne, in the important spiritual movements which affected many places in Scotland in the 1830s and 1840s.
In the controversy known as the “Great Disruption,” Horatius stood firmly with the evangelical ministers and elders who left the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly in May 1843 and formed the new Free Church of Scotland. By this time he had started to write hymns, some of which appeared in a collection he published in 1845, but typically, his compositions were not named. His gifts for expressing theological truths in fluent verse form are evident in all his best-known hymns, but in addition he was also blessed with a deep understanding of doctrinal principles.
Examples of the hymns he composed on the fundamental doctrines include, “Glory be to God the Father”…..on the Trinity. “0 Love of God, how strong and true”…..on Redemption. “Light of the world,” – “Rejoice and be glad” – “Done is the work” on the Person and Work of Christ. “Come Lord and tarry not,” on His Second Coming, while the hymn “Blessed be God, our God!” conveys a sweeping survey of Justification and Sanctification.
In all this activity, his pastoral work and preaching were never neglected and after almost twenty years laboring in the Scottish Borders at Kelso, Bonar moved back to Edinburgh in 1866 to be minister at the Chalmers Memorial Chapel (now renamed St. Catherine’s Argyle Church). He continued his ministry for a further twenty years helping to arrange D.L. Moody’s meetings in Edinburgh in 1873 and being appointed moderator of the Free Church ten years later. His health declined by 1887, but he was approaching the age of eighty when he preached in his church for the last time, and he died on 31 May 1889.
A.W. Pink (1886-1952): Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, author of Studies in the Scriptures and many books including his well-known The Sovereignty of God; born in Great Britain, immigrated to the U.S., and later returned to his homeland in 1934; born in Nottingham, England.
FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION
That a third edition of this work is now called for, is a cause of fervent praise to God. As the darkness deepens and the pretentions of men are taking on an ever-increasing blatancy, the need becomes greater for the claims of God to be emphasized. As the twentieth century Babel of religious tongues is bewildering so many, the duty of God’s servants to point to the one sure anchorage for the heart, is the more apparent. Nothing is so tranquilizing and so stabilizing as the assurance that the Lord Himself is on the Throne of the universe, “working all things after the counsel of His own will”.
The Holy Spirit has told us that there are in the Scriptures “some things hard to be understood”, but mark it is “hard” not “impossible”! A patient waiting on the Lord, a diligent comparison of scripture with scripture, often issues in a fuller apprehension of that which before was obscure to us. During the last ten years it has pleased God to grant us further light on certain parts of His Word, and this we have sought to use in improving our expositions of different passages. But it is with unfeigned thanksgiving that we find it unnecessary to either change or modify any doctrine contained in the former editions. Yea, as time goes by, we realize (by Divine grace) with ever-increasing force, the truth, the importance, and the value of the Sovereignty of God as it pertains to every branch of our lives.
Our hearts have been made to rejoice again and again by unsolicited letters which have come to hand from every quarter of the earth, telling of help and blessing received from the former editions of this work. One Christian friend was so stirred by reading it and so impressed by its testimony, that a check was sent to be used in sending free copies to missionaries in fifty foreign countries, “that its glorious message may encircle the globe”; numbers of whom have written us to say how much they have been strengthened in their fight with the powers of darkness. To God alone belongs all the glory. May He deign to use this third edition to the honour of His own great Name, and to the feeding of His scattered and starved sheep.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. (Heb 3:12)
Matthew Henry was a 17th and early 18th Century minister of the Gospel in Chester, England, and died in 1714. Quoting Charles Spurgeon: “First among the mighty for general usefulness we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word, Matthew Henry. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy….”
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) was a 17th and early 18th Century minister of the Gospel and Calvinist biblical exegete in Chester, England, and died in 1714. Quoting Charles Spurgeon: “First among the mighty for general usefulness we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word, Matthew Henry. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy….”
He was born near Wales on October 18, 1662 and was primarily home-educated by his father, Rev. Philip Henry, and also at the Thomas Doolittle academy from 1680-1682. He first started studying law in 1686, but instead of pursuing a career in law he began to preach in his neighborhood.
After the declaration of liberty of conscience by James II in 1687, he was privately ordained in London, and on June 2, 1687, he began his regular ministry as non-conformist pastor of a Presbyterian congregation at Chester. He remained in this position for 25 years. After declining several times offers from London congregations, he finally accepted a call to Hackney, London, and began his ministry there May 18, 1712, shortly before his death.
His reputation rests upon his renowned commentary, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708-10, known also as Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible). He lived to complete it only as far as to the end of the Acts, but after his death other like-minded authors prepared the remainder from his manuscripts. This work was long celebrated as the best English commentary for devotional purposes and the expanded edition was initially published in 1896. Instead of critical exposition, his focuses on practical suggestion, and his commentaries contains rich stores of truths. There is also a smaller devotional commentary on the Bible from Henry known as Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary.
Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 January 31, 1892) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the “Prince of Preachers.” In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times a week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London for 38 years. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon’s which now works globally. He also founded Spurgeon’s College, which was named after him after his death.
Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.
“Is humble walking with God our great concernment? Let us make it our business and our work to bring our hearts unto it all our days. What do we, running out of the way all the day long, spending our strength for that which is not bread? My business is not,—whether I be rich or poor, wise or unwise, learned or ignorant; whether I shall live or die; whether there shall be peace or war with the nations; whether my house shall flourish or wither; whether my gifts be many or few, great or small, whether I have good repute or bad repute in the world;—but only, whether I walk humbly with God or not. As it is with me in this respect, so is my present condition,—so will be my future acceptation. I have tired myself about many things;—this one is necessary. What doth the Lord my God require of me, but this? What doth Christ call for, but this? What doth the whole sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost tend to, but that I may walk humbly with God?”
John Owen – (1616-1683 / Congregational theologian) was by common consent the weightiest Puritan theologian, and many would bracket him with Jonathan Edwards as one of the greatest Reformed theologians of all time.
Born at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, Owen was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he studied classics and theology and was ordained. Because of the “high-church” innovations introduced by Archbishop William Laud, he left the university to be a chaplain to the family of a noble lord. His first parish was at Fordham in Essex, to which he went while the nation was involved in civil war. Here he became convinced that the Congregational way was the scriptural form of church government. In his next charge, the parish of Coggeshall. in Essex, he acted both as the pastor of a gathered church and as the minister of the parish. This was possible because the parliament, at war with the king, had removed bishops. In practice, this meant that the parishes could go their own way in worship and organization.
Oliver Cromwell liked Owen and took him as his chaplain on his expeditions both to Ireland and Scotland (1649-1651). Owen’s fame was at its height from 1651 to 1660 when he played a prominent part in the religious, political, and academic life of the nation. Appointed dean of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1651, he became also vice-chancellor of the university in 1652, a post he held for five years with great distinction and with a marked impartiality not often found in Puritan divines. This led him also to disagreement, even with Cromwell, over the latter’s assumption of the protectorship. Owen retained his deanery until 1659. Shortly after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he moved to London, where he was active in preaching and writing until his death. He declined invitations to the ministry in Boston (1663) and the presidency of Harvard (1670) and chided New England Congregationalists for intolerance. He turned aside also from high preferment when his influence was acknowledged by governmental attempts to persuade him to relinquish Nonconformity in favor of the established church.
His numerous works include The Display of Arminianism (1642); Eshcol, or Rules of Direction for the Walking of the Saints in Fellowship (1648), an exposition of Congregational principles; Saius Electorum, Sanguis Jesu (1648), another anti-Arminian polemic; Diatriba de Divina Justitia (1658), an attack on Socinianism; Of the Divine Original Authority of the Scriptures (1659); Theologoumena Pantodapa (1661), a history from creation to Reformation; Animadversions to Fiat Lux (1662), replying to a Roman Catholic treatise; Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677); and Exercitationes on the Epistle to the Hebrews (1668-1684).
1.Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
2.Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
yet in my dreams I’d be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
3.There let the way appear, steps unto heaven;
all that thou sendest me, in mercy given;
angels to beckon me
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
4.Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise,
out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise;
so by my woes to be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
5.Or if, on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I fly,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
“Nearer, My God, to Thee” is associated with the RMS Titanic, as one passenger reported that the ship’s band played the hymn as the Titanic sank. The “Bethany” version was used in the 1943 film Titanic and in the Jean Negulesco’s 1953 film Titanic, whereas the “Horbury” version was played in Roy Ward Baker’s 1958 movie about the sinking, A Night to Remember. The “Bethany” version was again used in James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic.
The verse was written by the English poet and Unitarian hymn writer Sarah Flower Adams (18051848) at her home in Sunnybank, Loughton, Essex, England, in 1841. It was first set to music by Adams’s sister, the composer Eliza Flower, for William Johnson Fox’s collection Hymns and Anthems.
In the United Kingdom, the hymn is usually associated with the 1861 hymn tune “Horbury” by John Bacchus Dykes. “Horbury” is named after a village near Wakefield, England, where Dykes had found “peace and comfort”. In the rest of the world, the hymn is usually sung to the 1856 tune “Bethany” by Lowell Mason. Methodists prefer the tune “Propior Deo” (Nearer to God), written by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) in 1872. Sullivan also wrote a second setting of the hymn to a tune referred to as “St. Edmund”, and there are other versions, including one referred to as “Liverpool” by John Roberts. Other ninetenth century settings include those by the Rev. N. S. Godfrey, W. H. Longhurst,[9] Herbert Columbine, Frederic N. Löhr, Thomas Adams, and one composed jointly by William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt. In 1955 the English composer and musicologist Sir Jack Westrup made another setting of the text, in the form of an anthem for four soloists with organ accompaniment.
Text: Sarah F. Adams, 1805-1848
Music: Lowell Mason, 1792-1872
Tune: BETHANY
Christian Devotional Readings
Christian Devotional Readings
(J. C. Ryle, “The Gospel of Matthew” 1856)
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to
Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy
on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from
demon possession!” Matthew 15:22
We see here, that affliction sometimes proves
a blessing to a person’s soul.
This Caananitish mother no doubt had been
severely tried. She had seen her darling child
vexed with a devil, and been unable to relieve
her. But yet that trouble brought her to Christ,
and taught her to pray. Without it she might
have lived and died in careless ignorance, and
never seen Jesus at all. Surely it was good for
her that she was afflicted. (Psalm 119:71)
Let us mark this well. There is nothing which
shows our ignorance so much as our impatience
under trouble. We forget that every trial is a
message from God—and intended to do us
good in the end. Trials are intended . . .
to make us think,
to wean us from the world,
to send us to the Bible,
to drive us to our knees.
Health is a good thing. But sickness
is far better, if it leads us to God.
Prosperity is a great mercy. But adversity
is a greater one, if it brings us to Christ.
Anything, anything is better than living in
carelessness, and dying in sin. Better a
thousand times be afflicted, like the
Canaanitish mother, and like her flee
to Christ; than live at ease, like the rich
“fool,” and die at last without Christ and
without hope.
Share this: