Book Excerpts

To assert that the message of the cross is wholly one of divine love (as some have done) is to destroy its meaning. For it is only in the recognition of the holiness of God that the sufferings of Christ, which brought forth the cry, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,’ can […]

The following is the first part of Sibbes’s sermon The Tender Heart, which is published with three other sermons as Josiah’s Reformation in the Puritan Paperback series. “And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel […]

The following excerpt is from The Mysteries of Christianity: Revealed Truths Expounded and Defended, ‘Lecture 6: The Trinity’. This post is the second part of the chapter, and it is recommended that the reader begins with the first part, on the mystery of God’s unity. Having made these remarks on the unity of God in […]

The following excerpt is from The Mysteries of Christianity: Revealed Truths Expounded and Defended, ‘Lecture 6: The Trinity’. ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.’ —Deut. 6:4. ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ —Matt. […]

The following excerpt is the text of Chapter 5, ‘How to Meditate on Heavenly Things’ in Spiritual-Mindedness, a Puritan Paperback by John Owen which has been abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law. The unabridged text of this treatise, originally entitled The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually-Minded, is contained in […]

The following excerpt is from George Smeaton’s Christ’s Doctrine of the Atonement (pp. 157–160). The third exclamation of the conscious sin-bearer was the cry, “My God, My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46.) It was like all His sayings, according to truth; and it becomes us carefully to investigate its import and significance. […]

The following is taken from Thomas Brooks, The Secret Key to Heaven: The Vital Importance of Private Prayer (Puritan Paperbacks). After detailing the great privilege of private prayer, and why it is of the essence of the true Christian life, he anticipates and answers several common objections to its practice: First Objection. But many will […]

The following excerpt is Chapter 2, ‘The Spirit of God’, in The Holy Spirit by John Owen. This Puritan Paperback title is abridged and made easy to read from Owen’s Pneumatologia or A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit, which is 650 pages in the third volume of Owen’s Works. The Holy Spirit has many names […]

The following address, published in Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions, 1942–1977, was given at a conference of leaders of the Crusaders’ Union, Sion College, London, on 7 February, 1942. The presentation of the gospel is a subject which is always important. It is always important because of the eternal consequences that depend […]

The following was given as a radio address for the BBC in Wales, 25 June, 1944 and is featured in Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions, 1942–1977. Nothing is more significant of the great change which has happened in the field of theology during the past twenty years than the place now afforded, […]

Charles Ross’s The Inner Sanctuary: Expositions of John 13–17 is a neglected gem of devotional teaching. The following excerpt, Ross’s comments on John 13:1, amply demonstrate how warm and practical is his treatment of this uniquely beautiful section of Scripture. THE narrative on which we are about to enter has always been regarded by true […]

The following excerpt is the first chapter of The Glory of Christ, R. J. K. Law’s Puritan Paperback abridgement of John Owen’s Meditations on the Glory of Christ which appears in Volume 1 of his Works. When the high priest under the law was about to enter the holy place on the day of atonement, […]

John 17:24 is a text to dwell on, and indeed to dwell in. John Owen, perhaps the greatest Puritan theologian, wrote his Meditations on the Glory of Christ on the themes of this verse, and it was carefully treated of by his contemporaries Anthony Burges in England, who preached six of his 145 sermons expositing […]

Elizabeth Prentiss led a life that was far from easy. She knew hardship, toil, sickness, weakness, and the loss of precious children. Through it all, she received grace to submit to the wisdom and sovereignty of the Lord she loved, and ever longed to love more. The following excerpt, from Sharon James’s Elizabeth Prentiss: More […]

The following was an address delivered at the “Religious Conference,” held in the Theo­logical Seminary, Princeton, on October 13, 1902. Reprinted from The Princeton Theological Review, i. 1903, pp. 81-92. The article forms a part of Warfield’s Studies in Theology (1932, rep. Banner of Truth, 1988), which is currently out of print. WE may as […]