D.R. Needs You to Empty His Basement

Have you purchased your copy of the Horatius Bonar CD-Rom?

I love mine, and Darrin has more for sale! This is a great resource.

The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ: Does Exclusive Mean Intolerant?

University of Calgary political science professor Shadia Drury rightly concludes that in no way can Christianity be construed as “pluralistic and tolerant.”[i] Yet, these are the icons of our culture! Does this make the claims of Jesus politically incorrect? Does it mean that His teaching should be altered to reflect the more modern pluralism and multi-culturalism that defines many parts of this world – in particular Canada? Is Jesus irrelevant because He is intolerant?

Such is what many Christians are tempted to believe and this helps explain why our churches are becoming less and less a light in the darkness and more and more lost in the landscape.

The Apostles preached an exclusive Jesus. No one had a relationship with God like Him. No one was able to reveal God to men like Him. No one can bring God to men except Him.

It was not just the apostles who preached this way, however! Jesus Himself believed and taught the very same thing.

Churches, however, can be as moldable as a California beach – shaped and contoured by the rising tides. The tides of pluralism, therefore, must be resisted; not in the name of Inquisition-like proselytization, but in the name of preaching the Truth.[ii]

With a few rare exceptions, Christians have been the framers of modern tolerance – Jesus Himself taught His disciples to “love their enemies.” This love, however, demands, not precludes the proclamation of the one, true and only way to God – faith in Jesus Christ!

Here is what the Bible says about Jesus…

I. Jesus has an exclusive UNITY with God the Father – no one has a relationship with Almighty God like His!

More than just a “messenger” sent from God, He is equal to God in ways that no mere man could ever be.

John 10

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”[iii]

John 12

44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

John 14

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

John 16

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

25 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

John 17

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

It is a FACT: Jesus Himself is God!!

John 1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

II. Jesus makes an exclusive REVALATION of God the Father – no one brings God to men like Jesus Christ!

Because of the unity between God the Father and God the Son, only the Son can fully reveal the Father. It is in this sense that Jesus can say things like “when you have seen Me you have seen the Father…” only Jesus can reveal the invisible God.

John 6

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

John 15

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Matthew 11

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

1 Timothy 2

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

III. Jesus offers an exclusive SALVATION to God the Father – the only way to get to God is through Him.

Since Christ alone can reveal God, being one with God, it follows that He alone can provide the way to God… or salvation.

Stated Positively….

John 16

27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

John 14

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

John 3

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

1 John 5

11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Stated Negatively…

John 5

22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 8

21 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

John 15

23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

1 John 2

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Luke 10

16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

John 8

³⁹They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing what Abraham did, ⁴⁰ but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You are doing what your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father--even God." ⁴²Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

CONCLUSION:

There is no denying the fact the Bible teaches that Jesus is an exclusive Saviour. No other prophet or speaker has ever claimed to be God – and certainly none have verified that claim with the miracles Jesus performed (such as giving sight to men born blind, walking on water and raising the dead).

Jesus alone is one with God. Jesus alone has seen God and can therefore reveal Him to us. Jesus alone is able to save men from their sins and thus, enable them to have sweet fellowship with God their Maker.

He is an exclusive Saviour.

Acts 4

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Is He YOUR Saviour? Dear friend, read over these words from the Bible again and again. Let them fill up your mind and let them point you to the Saviour of sinners. Turn away from your sins and your self-reliance and put all your hope and faith on the only true Saviour this world will ever know, Jesus Christ.

---

[i] For a detailed report on this claim, see the following website http://report.ca/archive/report/20010219/p48i010219f.html

[ii] For another helpful article on this topic, see Tolerance, Truth-telling, Violence, and Law by John Piper http://www.desiringgod.org/library/topics/culture/tolerance_principles.html

[iii] Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Abortion, Genetics and Guilt

It is great to see Dr. Al Mohler blogging again and even better to see that he agrees with my post on the news that the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommends all pregnant women have their babies screened for Down Syndrome and other genetic problems through amniocentesis.

Mohler writes: "This is a "search and destroy mission" aimed at the elimination of Down syndrome births. The screening is not value-neutral. America has seen a radical drop in Down syndrome births -- not because the syndrome has disappeared, but because the babies are being aborted."

When you combine this testing with the (so-called) neutral advice of the genetic counsellors, one begins to see the real agenda.

Related Items:

Joe Carter posted on the guilt women feel after abortion.

JT has a link to a free resource to pastors.

Duck shot by Florida hunter survives 2 days in refrigerator (In Case You Thought I Was Lying!)

Who utwittingly puts a half-dead duck in their fridge!?!!!

1/22/07 UPDATE: The BBC offers photos of said duck!

Hindu Bath

Two million people are expected to bathe today in in the river Ganges in northern India on the main day of the Ardh Kumbh mela festival. That will make 18 million people in the last two weeks!

From the BBC:

The Mauni Amavasya is a day when sun, moon, Venus and Mercury are in the zodiac of Capricorn, a rare but perfect alignment of planets, devotees believe.

One pilgrim, Shri Mahant Vindgiri, explained why the day was so special.

"The planetary alignment is such that sun rays, when they fall on the Ganges, turn the river water into nectar. So bathing here today is equivalent to drinking nectar," he says.

Some say all amavasyas - or new moon nights - are auspicious for bathing in the Ganges, but Mauni (silent) Amavasya is also special as many pilgrims do not speak until they have had their bath.

"It is believed that on this day taking a bath without breaking your silence will bring the benefit of performing millions of yagnas [ritual offerings]," says Gulab Singh Yadav, a resident of Allahabad.

The saddest part of this ritual is that bathers believe their bathing in the confluence of three of Hinduism's holiest rivers (the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati) will wash away their sins.

-----------------------------------

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Words & Music: Robert Lowry, in Gospel Music, by William Doane and Robert Lowry (New York: Biglow & Main, 1876)

Link to Iain Murray Sermon on "Whitefield and Catholicity"

DavidR left this little tidbit in a comment on a previous post that I did not want to get missed!


"This talk by Iain Murray, on "Whitefield & Catholicity" (20 May 2005), might be of interest to those engaged by these two extended quotes, and sort of brings yesterday's and today's quotes together!"

Do You Need Jesus? Julian Does.

My assistant Julian Freeman has an excellent post today on his need for Jesus - all from the last couple of chapters of Luke. A great encouragement!

Christians Working Together - The Example of Whitefield with Wesley

Still considering how it is that Christians of profoundly different theological slants can work together, I am posting here a lengthy quote from Arnold Dallimore's, George Whitefield (Banner of Truth, vol. 2, 1980. 256-258).

Dallimore spends an entire chapter demonstrating the catholicity of spirit that marked all of the mature ministry of the great evangelist. The more one understands the personal cost involved in this working together, the more impressive it becomes.

Again, Whitefield did not shrink from fully declaring his convictions concerning the matters over which he disagreed with Wesley and others. But this was almost exclusively done in defense of false accusations or the like. He did not spend time initiating critiques of Wesley's errant theology (as Wesley did of him - preaching entire sermons on what he considered to be the errors of Whitefield's calvinism).

The passage I quote from here is describing Whitefield's decision to not establish a counter movement (the calvinistic methodists). There is much to be learned here which I may comment on in the days to come, but for now, read the description painted by Dallimore (a fine Canadian pastor, I might add!).

During his ministry in England in the years immediately after the controversy of 1741—1744, he had devoted himself largely to his own movement. Now, however, having severed his particular ties with one branch of the Revival he was free to assist it in all its branches. In later pages we shall see him preaching under the auspices of Independents, Presbyterians, Baptists and sometimes Quakers, and above all helping Wesley, and this was the work he began to undertake from this time.

In this activity Whitefield sought to preach especially the great underlying truths of the faith, the recognized essential elements of Christianity, and he defined the basis of his collaboration, saying:

‘I truly love all that love the glorious Emmanuel, and though I cannot depart from the principles which I believe are clearly revealed in the book of God, yet I can cheerfully associate with those that differ from me, if I have reason to think they are united to our common Head.”

The tact, however, that while refusing to lead his own movement, Whitefield was assisting others, especially Wesley, drew protest from among his people. Many of them still refused to accept his resignation; they were determined to consider him their leader and some called themselves ‘Whitefieldites.’

They urged him to retain his position, increase his party and continue the prominence of his name. They reminded him that if he failed to do so he would not go down in history in the fame and glory that rightfully were his.

But Whitefield needed no reminding as to the effect of the decision he had made. He had well considered his action and to the pleas of the people he made such replies as:

‘Let my name be forgotten, let me be trodden under the feet of all men, if Jesus may thereby be glorified.’

‘Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted.’

‘I want to bring souls, not to a party... but to a sense of their undone condition by nature, and to true faith in Jesus Christ.’

‘But what is Calvin, or what is Luther? Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all. — So that He be preached.. . I care not who is uppermost. I know my place. . . even to be the servant of all. I want not to have a people called after my name...’

And to an American correspondent who felt that he should be quick to deny the false tales so often told about him lest they permanently damage his reputation, he stated:

‘I am content to wait till the judgement day for the clearing up of my character; and after I am dead I desire no other epitaph than this, “Here lies G.W. What sort of a man he was the great day will discover.”'

It is evident, however, that Whitefield’s decision to relinquish his leadership was one that moved him to the very depths of his being.

When he had first burst into fame at the beginning of his ministry and had been the centre of an almost unparalleled popularity, he had turned a deaf ear to the praise of men and had been concerned only to be worthy of the commendation of God. And in this present renunciation of earthly position this attitude was repeated, and it was not in any reluctance but rather with the deepest willingness and with joy that he turned from the place of prominence and became as he said, ‘simply the servant of all.’

This great renunciation, rare even in the annals of Christianity, has been grievously overlooked. But it marked a further all-important turning point in his life and if we are to have a true knowledge of George Whitefield we must fully recognize and appreciate this extraordinary deed.

Had Whitefield so desired he could have continued to lead his movement and to establish Societies and have made Calvinistic Methodism a powerful and lasting force among the denominations of England. But such prospects he gladly renounced in order that the rivalry might be removed and a new measure of harmony established, thereby

“To force the heathen world to say,

See how these Christians love’

The Holy Spirit and Working With Christians from Other Denominations

The following is an extended quote from Iain Murray's most excellent work, Revival and Revivalsim (Banner of Truth, 1994. Pages 26-30).

Murray is describing one of the primary effects of genuine, Spirit-wrought revival - true Christians of different stripe working together for the progress of the Gospel. Reminds you of something, doesn't it?

"If love is the gift of the Spirit, it follows that an eminent degree of the Holy Spirit’s working will be marked by eminent degrees of love between Christians. A narrow party spirit cannot coexist with a larger giving of the Spirit whose communion extends to the whole body of Christ. Exclusive attention to denominational interests may prevail among Christians in a period of spiritual decline; it never does so in days of enlarged blessing. Thus Davies, like Whitefield[1] and other evangelical leaders, was marked by catholicity of spirit to a conspicuous degree. Some of the most fervent words he ever wrote were called forth by the suggestion that he was primarily interested in building dissent from the Church of England in Virginia. He wrote to the Bishop of London on that subject:

For my farther vindications, my lord, I beg leave to declare that in all the sermons I have preached in Virginia, I have not wasted one minute in exclaiming or reasoning against the peculiarities of the established church; nor so much assigned the reasons of my own non-conformity. I have not exhausted my zeal in railing against the established clergy, in exposing their imperfections, or in depreciating their characters. No, my lord, I have matters of infinitely greater importance to exert my zeal and spend my time and strength upon; — To preach repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ — to alarm secure impenitents; to reform the profligate; to undeceive the hypocrite; to raise up the hands that hang down.

These are the ends I pursue and if ever I divert from these to ceremonial trifles, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.[2]

Davies went on to declare that he made no effort to win over any true Christian from the Church of England and that he would rather that men were ‘made members of the church triumphant in the regions of bliss’ by the preaching of a minister of the Church of England than that they should remain unconverted in a Presbyterian church. But it was his distress that the clergy of Virginia did not prepare men for eternity:

I find to my sorrowful surprise, that the generality of them, as far as can be discovered by their common conduct and public ministrations, are stupidly serene and unconcerned, as though their hearers were crowding promiscuously to heaven, and there were little or no danger; — that they address themselves to perishing multitudes in cold blood, and do not represent their miserable condition in all its horrors; do not alarm them with solemn, pathetic and affectionate warnings, and expostulate with them with all the authority, tenderness and pungency of the ambassadors of Christ to a dying world, nor commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God; that their common conversation has little or no savour of living religion . . . that instead of intense application to study, or teaching their parishioners from house to house, they waste their time in idle visits, trifling conversation, slothful ease, or at best, excessive activity about their temporal affairs ... The plain truth is, a general reformation must be promoted in this colony by some means or other, or multitudes are eternally undone: and I see alas! but little ground to hope for it from the generality of the clergy here, till they be happily changed themselves; this is not owing to their being of the Church of England, as I observed before: for were they in the Presbyterian Church, or any other, I should have no more hopes of their success; but it is owing to their manner of preaching and behaviour. This thought, my lord, is so far from being agreeable to me that it at times racks me with agonies of compassion and zeal intermingled: and could I entertain that unlimited charity which lulls so many of my neighbours into a serene stupidity, it would secure me from many a melancholy hour, and make my life below a kind of anticipation of heaven. I can boast of no high attainments, my lord; I am as mean and insignificant a creature as your lordship can well conceive me to be: but I dare profess I cannot be an unconcerned spectator of the ruin of my dear fellow mortals: I dare avow my heart at times is set upon nothing more than to snatch the brands out of the burning, before they catch fire and burn unquenchably. And hence, my lord, it is, I consume my strength and life in such great fatigues in this jangling ungrateful colony.’[3]

In these passages compassion for men and women are more prominent than catholicity, yet the two belong together, as Davies himself asserted elsewhere. He believed that a real concern to see people made Christians would keep believers from any primary desire to see their own denomination advanced. His own practice certainly exemplified that belief. His preaching in Virginia and North Carolina prepared the way for numbers of Christians who were to be of Baptist, Methodist, and other persuasions in their church connections. A few years later it was common for converts joining Baptist churches to say, ‘At such a time and place I heard the Rev. Mr Davies preach and had my mind deeply impressed.’[4] Had Davies given more prominence to the distinctives of his own church it would have been to the numerical advantage of the Presbyterians, but his prime concern was to serve a much greater cause. And he sought to implant that same cause in his hearers. In a sermon on Acts 11.26, ‘The Sacred Import of the Christian Name’, he argued:

What an endless variety of denominations, taken from some men of character, or from some little peculiarities, has prevailed in the Christian world, and crumbled it to pieces, while the Christian name is hardly regarded?. . . what party-names have been adopted by the Protestant churches, whose religion is substantially the same common Christianity, and who agree in much more important articles than in those they differ. To be a Christian is not enough now-a-days, but a man must also be something more and better; that is, he must be a strenuous bigot to this or that particular church.

Every man will find that he agrees more fully in lesser as well as more important articles with some particular church than others; and thereupon it is his duty to join in stated communion with that church; and he may, if he pleases, assume the name which that church wears, by way of distinction from others: this is not what I condemn. But for me to glory in the denomination of any particular church, as my highest character; to lay more stress, upon the name of a presbyterian or a churchman than on the sacred name of Christian; to make a punctilious agreement with my sentiments in the little peculiarities of a party the test of all religion; to make it the object of my zeal to gain proselytes to some other than the Christian name; to connive at the faults of those of my own party and to be blind to the good qualities of others, or invidiously to represent or diminish them: these are the things which deserve universal condemnation from God and man; these proceed from a spirit of bigotry and faction, directly opposite to the generous catholic spirit of Christianity, and subversive of it. This spirit hinders the progress of serious practical religion, by turning the attention of men from the great concerns of eternity, and the essentials of Christianity, to vain jangling and contest about circumstantials and trifles. Thus the Christian is swallowed up in the partisan, and fundamentals lost in extra-essentials...

Endeavour to find out the truth, even in these circumstantials, at least so far as is necessary for the direction of your own conduct. But do not make these the whole or the principal part of your religion: do not be excessively zealous about them, nor break the peace of the church by magisterially imposing them iupon others. ‘Hast thou faith in these little disputables,’ it is well; ‘but have it to thyself before God,’ and do not disturb others with it. You may, if you please, call yourselves presbyterians and dissenters, and you shall bear without shame or resentment all the names of reproach and contempt which the world may brand you with. But as you should not be mortified on the one side, so neither should you glory on the other. A Christian! a Christian! let that be your highest distinction, let that be the name which you labour to deserve. God forbid that my ministry should be the occasion of diverting your attention to anything else.’[5]

If this emphasis is the New Testament’s own emphasis, it may well be wondered why it has too often ceased to be as prominent in preaching as it was in the ministry of Davies and Whitefield. The answer is surely that catholicity thrives in the large measure of love that marks the churches in days when the Spirit of God is poured out. With few exceptions, the leaders of the work of God in days of revival have always been men of this type.

---

[1] ‘Happy they, who, with a disinterested view, take in the whole church militant, and, in spite of narrow-hearted bigots, breathe an undissembled catholic spirit towards all’; ‘Do not tell me you are a Baptist, an Independent, a Presbyterian, a Dissenter, tell me you are a christian, that is all I want; this is the religion of heaven and must be ours upon earth’. Works of Whitefield, vol. 2, p. 226; Sermons on Important Subjects (London, 1825), p. 684.

[2] Quoted in Foote, Sketches, p. 194. The letter, dated 10 January 1752, at Hanover, ‘was never submitted to the Bishop’s inspection’. Further on the above theme see Samuel Davies, Charity and Truth United; or, The Way of the Multitude Exposed in Six Letters to the Rev. Mr. William Stith, ed. T. C. Pears (Philadelphia: Department of History of the Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1941).

[3] Ibid., pp. 204—5.

[4] Quoted in ‘A Recovered Tract of President Davies’, Biblical Repertory (1837), pp. 349—64. Baptist causes spread rapidly in Virginia in the 176os and ‘70s, aided by preachers of similar spirit to Davies. Their liberty of worship was eloquently defended by Patrick Henry who sat under Davies’ ministry in his youth. See Foote, Sketches, pp. 314-18.

[5] Davies, vol. i, pp. 298—300."

This is a passage that deserves careful re-reading and prayer for the same to happen in our day and age!

Cowper on Snow (I am trying to encourage myself!)

I Will Praise the Lord at All Times
Winter has a joy for me,
While the Savior’s charms I read,
Lowly, meek, from blemish free,
In the snow–drop’s pensive head.

- William Cowper (Hymn 83, Olney Hymns)