On Guard!

I have been sitting on a gratis copy of Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment for about a year now which deserves a recommendation.  This daily devotional guide is a selection from the writings of James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000), late senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA, and is published by Baker Books.  I am not in the habit of using devotional guides, although I own my fair share, but having read a few selections over the past couple of months I decided to take this one to work to keep it within reach on my desk with the hope of making better use of it.

This plan has proven to be a great help to me, and I'd like to note a portion of this morning's reading (September 20).  The title of this selection is "On Guard", and the text under consideration is Acts 5:3 (ESV) - "Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?"

Here is the part that stood out to me:

If we go through periods of special blessing, as these early Christians has, personally or in our church, we can expect Satan or one of his demons to attack us.  It is because Satan does not want the church of Jesus Christ to thrive.  If you are only going through the motions for serving Jesus, Satan will not worry about you very much. If you are not attempting anything important for God, if you are not breaking new ground, not witnessing, not serving in any particularly effective way, Satan will probably leave you alone.  On the other hand, if you really are trying to do something for God--if your church is effective, if you have a strong missions program, if you have people out witnessing, if you are trying to embody the gospel in social programs that minister to the needs of real people and demonstrate the real love of Jesus Christ--Satan will attack you.  You will have to be on your guard against him.

I've been thinking about this most of the day and the Holy Spirit is convicting my heart.  Here are a few of my thoughts.

Boice lays out two options: either Satan is leaving me alone, or he is attacking me.  

But what does it mean that Satan "is leaving me alone"?  I must confess that I'd much rather him leave me alone.  But if he is leaving me alone, what does that say of my relationship to God?  The words of the Son of God spoken in Revelation 3 to the church of Laodicea came to mind:

“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.’”
(Revelation 3:15-18 ESV)

So, being tolerable to Satan leaves me in a position of being intolerable to my Lord and Savior.  Cast in this light, I would prefer the pleasure of God.  And although this means that I must face the attacks of the Evil One, I find fresh encouragement in the concluding words of the Son of God:

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
(Revelation 3:19-22 ESV)

On Guard!

The Supremacy of God in Missions Through Worship

This is one of my all-time favorite excerpts.  I've read it many times and commend it to you for your consideration.

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions. It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. "The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!" (Psalm 97:1). "Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Psalm 67:3-4).

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can't commend what you don't cherish. Missionaries will never call out "Let the nations be glad!", who cannot say from the heart, "I rejoice in the Lord.... I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O most High" (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.

If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!

John Piper. Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions. Baker Books, 1993, pp. 11-12.

Study Material Also Available
DVD Let the Nations Be Glad!	Study Guide Let the Nations Be Glad!

The Supremacy of God in Missions Through Worship

More Resources for Calvin 500

Some of you may have already seen notices of the new set of Calvin's Commentaries to be released by Baker Publishing. They should be available very soon, and you can purchase them from one of the following site:

• Amazon
• Christian Book Distributors (CBD)
• Solid Ground Christian Books

Remember, that Banner of Truth is still offering a great discount on a seven-volume set of Calvin's Tracts and Letters. See here for details.

Crossway has recently released a new biography of Calvin by Robert Godfrey: John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor.

I also recommend Herman J. Selderhuis' John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life (IVP, 2009) which is excellent and well documented.

I have not purchased a copy of Ligonier Ministries' John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine and Doxology, but it also appears to be a superb collection of essays.

Finally, I wanted to note (for those of you who prefer snuggling up at a hard desk with a keyboard :)), Logos has announced a new collection in celebration of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin: The Calvin 500 Collection (97 volumes).


This massive collection contains:

• 45 volumes of commentaries
• 5 editions of the Institutes of the Christian Religion in 3 languages, including the original 1559 Latin edition and the rare Norton translation
• 4 volumes of Calvin's letters and correspondence
• 35 theological tracts and treatises in 8 volumes
• 10 biographies of Calvin
• 20 volumes of secondary literature on the history of Calvinism
• 2 volumes on Calvin from the Library of Christian Classics
• and much more!

For those of you who already own Calvin's Comemntaries, Logos is offering an Upgrade.

Calvin500.com

Check these out. Also, I'd like to hear your recommendations, too. Leave a comment.

More Resources for Calvin 500

Clarification on "Cloth" and "Hardcover"

I'm always glad to increase my knowledge of book terminology and really appreciate Jim Kinney's note posted in the comments at The Shepherd's Scrapbook. While I still have sympathies with the concerns over the use of cheaper covers, I appreciated the careful response provided by Jim Kinney to the Bavinck tearing "party" at TSS. In light of my previous post I've taken the liberty of reproducing his note here.

Friends:

Perhaps I can clarify the situation. Comment number five above, coming indirectly from Jay at RHB, explains our terminology. In the industry “cloth” is indeed used as shorthand for any type of hardback. Books are either cloth or paper. Subtleties such as the actual cover material used on a hardback (paper, kivar, cloth) are not included in our basic descriptions. Nor do we indicate whether the binding is sewn or glued. I suspect the main reason is that our descriptive materials are aimed at meeting the needs of retailers, not bibliophiles.

All four Bavinck volumes were printed with paper (Permalink) covers over boards from the outset. It’s rare for us to use actual cloth over the boards.

I would like to call your attention, however, to the fact that all four of the Bavinck were produced with sewn bindings. We think a sewn binding has a greater impact on a book’s durability than cover material does. Hence, for the Bavinck volumes we chose to invest in a more expensive binding rather than in more expensive cover material.

Baker Publishing Group has been producing high-quality books for seventy years. Economic realities and technological advancements have introduced changes along the way to be sure, but the Baker family and staff members in all departments (editorial, design, production, art, sales, marketing) still retain many of our founder’s old-fashioned values. We’re book lovers and readers and we want our books to be cherished and read. We use high-quality materials and processes with a goal of providing the best possible value and experience to our readers. Of course, there are trade-offs involved. We address them while holding in tension our twin values of quality and value.

Thank you for your interest in our work. May I now be so bold as to gently urge you to stop ripping your Bavincks?

Jim Kinney
Editorial director, Baker Academic

I have not yet purchased the Bavinck set, but it is on my wish list. I'm glad to know that the signatures are smythe-sewn and that each volume has a dustjacket. That is enough to set me at ease about purchasing it. At that, the Westminster Bookstore is currently offering this set at a fabulous price!

Clarification on "Cloth" and "Hardcover"

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Dec. 20, 1899 – Mar. 1, 1981)

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born on this day, December 20, 1899 in Wales. Lloyd-Jones was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London from 1938 – 1968. Tapped by G. Campbell Morgan to be his co-pastor and successor, Lloyd-Jones led Westminster Chapel through the rebuilding years after World War II and became a world-renown evangelical leader. Dr. Michael Haykin says that “Lloyd-Jones was one of the most formative figures of twentieth-century, English-speaking Evangelicalism – which is somewhat ironic since his maternal tongue was Welsh!” (Eusebeia: The Bulletin of The Andrew Fuller Centre for Reformed Evangelicalism, Issue 7, Spring 2007, p. 3).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born in Cardiff and raised in areas associated with the 18^th Century Revival under Calvinistic Methodist preachers like Daniel Rowland and Howell Harris. This influence would grip him in early adult years. Because of economic difficulties the Lloyd-Jones family moved to London, where young Martyn studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. His diagnostic skills earned him the notice of his teacher Lord Horder, physician to the Queen, who invited Lloyd-Jones to be his assistant. It was his work as an M.D. that earned him the life-long affectionate title, “the Doctor.” During his years at St. Bart’s Lloyd-Jones had three life-changing experiences: he fell in love with Bethan Phillips, entrusted himself to Jesus Christ, and decided on the ministry rather than a prestigious career in medicine. While he continued to hold doctors in highest esteem, he concluded that his calling was to help people for eternity, not just temporarily.

In 1927 Lloyd-Jones, with his new bride Bethan, moved back to Wales to become the minister of the Bethlehem Forward Movement church in Aberavon, an industrial community also known as Sandfields. Lloyd-Jones wanted to work among people who weren’t accustomed to attending church. What happened under his ministry there was nothing short of revival. For about eleven years the Lord used this couple to do much good for these people. It was also during this time that the seeds of Lloyd-Jones’ expositional/theological preaching were planted with the discoveries of authors like Jonathan Edwards and B.B. Warfield.

Having closed doors to further ministry based in Wales, the Lord led Lloyd-Jones to London once again, this time as the co-pastor of a large, influential church. When Dr. Morgan died in 1945 Lloyd-Jones became the sole pastor until his retirement in 1968. At Westminster Chapel the Lord greatly expanded Lloyd-Jones’ ministry. After the war residents started flocking back to London, along with a growing number of new faces, students from all over the world. From the late ‘40s through the ‘60s Westminster Chapel practically became a training ground for students preparing for the ministry and other fields of Christian service. Well known preachers and authors from this period include Philip E. Hughes and J.I. Packer.

During his Westminster years Lloyd-Jones lived in several worlds at once. His work with students led to involvement with the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Students and the London Bible College. He chaired the annual Puritan and Westminster Conferences and helped to found The Evangelical Library. In 1957 he helped to found the Banner of Truth Trust, a publishing agency devoted to spreading the Reformed faith through print. Lloyd-Jones’ influence gave new life to many older, hard-to-obtain books, which the Banner reprinted, mainly Puritan books. Much of the popularity of the Puritans today can be traced to Lloyd-Jones’ fervor for these godly preachers.

After his retirement Lloyd-Jones devoted his remaining years to preaching at churches and conferences around the UK and North America. He also worked diligently to prepare his sermons for publication as books. His best known early books of sermons are Spiritual Depression and Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. He edited his Ephesians series and much of his Romans series before he died. Since his death in 1981 many more books bearing his name have been published, with new books appearing every year. Most of these books are transcriptions of his sermons. Some books are transcriptions of other addresses that he gave in different venues. Notable books of this nature are The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors and Knowing the Times. The first book contains his addresses delivered to the Puritan and Westminster Conferences in London. The second contains “Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions 1942 – 1977.” The distinguishing trait of his addresses in Knowing the Times is the prophetic note. Like a skilled physician Lloyd-Jones seemed to have his finger on the pulse of society and knew from Scripture and history where it was headed and what was needed.

One thing that strikes me about Lloyd-Jones’ ministry is his heart for God and for His people. He had a grand vision of the Sovereign God. I don’t remember where I read the quote, but Lloyd-Jones once defended a preacher who preached poorly by saying something like, “I can forgive a man much if he will give me a sense of God.” I get that sense when I read Lloyd-Jones, and I appreciate it greatly.

His heart for people is not a warm, fuzzy feeling that seeks to meet people’s “felt needs.” Lloyd-Jones showed his heart for God and people by accurately expounding God’s Word and applying it to people where they lived. If the Bible is God’s infallible revelation of Himself, it behooves preachers to take great pains to study it, learn it, and expound it. If people are the objects of God’s care, then it behooves preachers to apply God’s Word with fervency and discernment. Lloyd-Jones exemplified this. One of the last volumes to be published in his 8-volume Ephesians series is his exposition of Ephesians chapter 1. Surprised? This volume was preceded by his expositions of the filling with the Spirit and the Christian warfare. Lloyd-Jones explains:

I am ready to confess that in adopting this procedure I may well have been guilty of allowing my pastoral heart to govern my theological understanding, and especially my understanding of the Apostle Paul’s invariable method. My only defense is that in those other volumes I have repeatedly stressed that the teaching could only be understood in the light of the great doctrine which the Apostle lays down in this first chapter. (God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978, p. 5)

Martyn Lloyd-Jones became the effective leader he was by first accepting God’s diagnosis of him and receiving the gospel prescription, then by accurately and powerfully searching out the disease of sin in others and telling them, “There is a balm in Gilead.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Dec. 20, 1899 – Mar. 1, 1981)

W. Robertson Nicoll (October 10, 1851—May 4, 1923)

Happy birthday to William Robertson Nicoll, a man whose name may not be familiar to many students and younger pastors today, but who contributed greatly to the body of theological works in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Nicoll was born on this day in 1851 in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire. He was the son of a very studious pastor and went into the ministry himself, becoming “the most prolific and respected religious journalist in the English-speaking world from 1886 to his death in 1923” (Warren W. Wiersbe, Walking with the Giants, p. 103).

Trained and licensed to preach by the Free Church of Scotland, Nicoll married and settled into a pastoral ministry, eventually becoming editor of a monthly theological journal called The Expositor. However, Nicoll’s health was never good, his lungs being weak, making it very difficult to preach full time. In 1885 Nicoll came down with a serious case of typhoid, which nearly took his life, as it had taken the lives of some of his family. Nicoll resigned his church and moved to the south of England to recuperate.

Since by his gifts and inclination he was more of a writer and editor than a pastor, Nicoll changed his ministerial emphasis and began the great work for which he is mostly remembered. On November 5, 1886 the first issue of the British Weekly was published. This was an influential religious journal which he founded. He authored many books of his own, but it is as an exacting editor that he achieved his enduring legacy. Nicoll edited several large sets of theological books aimed at helping pastors. He enlisted a group of talented, godly writers and produced The Expositor’s Bible, which ran to fifty volumes. Since it employs many different writers, this commentary set is uneven in some areas, but many of the volumes have become classics, like Kellogg’s commentary on Leviticus and Alexander Maclaren’s three-volume commentary on the Psalms. Though old, these volumes have stood the test of time and are still valuable to serious students of Scripture.

Nicoll also edited The Expositor’s Greek New Testament and The Sermon Bible, reprinted as The Sermon-Outline Bible, part of the fourteen-volume “Preacher’s Homiletic Library.” The latter series employed the sermons of well-known preachers of the 19^th Century. One of the best books that Nicoll wrote himself is Princes of the Church, biographical vignettes of famous preachers, including Spurgeon.

As an editor Nicoll was a hard taskmaster, but he and his writers had a significant impact on the scholarship of their day. His work no doubt helped to counteract the liberalism creeping into England from continental Europe. Wiersbe says, “In a very real sense Nicoll was the father of modern religious journalism” (Walking with the Giants, p. 108).

For more information on Nicoll, see Warren Wiersbe’s Walking with the Giants (Baker Book House, 1983). Also look for used volumes of his commentary series. Some of these (the best ones) were reprinted by Klock & Klock and some reprinted by Kregel. It would be expensive to buy The Expositor’s Bible (if you can find the whole set), but you can have the whole content of the set by ordering this CD.

One lesson from the life of W. Robertson Nicoll is that if the Lord sidelines you in one area of service, He isn’t necessarily through using you. Perhaps He is redirecting you into another field. Maybe He wants you to be a writer. Feel free to start by leaving comments. :-)

Please let us know of more resources on either Nicoll or old theological works that are still useful today. Just like Nicoll, our burden at TheoSource is to help the church of our day.

W. Robertson Nicoll (October 10, 1851—May 4, 1923)

David Brainerd (April 20, 1718—Oct. 9, 1747)

David Brainerd, missionary to Native Americans in New England, died 260 years ago today. It is widely believed today that Brainerd suffered from tuberculosis, which was at that time called consumption. Though he died young (age 29) and was a missionary for only the last four years of his life, Brainerd wields an influence that extends far beyond his short life.

David Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut. Orphaned at 14, young Brainerd was more given to soul-searching and performing religious duties than to frolicking with friends. He came at times under conviction of sin and hoped that he was converted, but he didn’t have assurance. After years of struggling to obey God’s law and failing, at age 21 Brainerd’s eyes were opened and God brought him to a saving understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He saw Christ’s sacrifice of Himself as the propitiation for all his sins. All he had to do was believe, and God granted him the faith. The lessons Brainerd learned about his own wicked, deceitful heart during the years of conviction would come into play in his ministry with people who had never heard the Gospel and had never considered themselves sinners.

Brainerd entered Yale to prepare for the ministry, but he was expelled during his junior year. A student overheard him say to a friend that a certain tutor at the school had “no more grace than this chair.” That was all it took, and Brainerd’s hopes for a pastorate were dashed. A law in Connecticut required that all pastors be trained at Harvard, Yale, or a European divinity school. Brainerd testified in his journal that it would be hard seeing his friends receive their degrees when he wasn’t allowed to finish. But the Lord subdued his spirit, and he was content with his situation.

Brainerd still wanted to serve God and continued his preparation for the ministry. He received a license to preach in 1742 and soon afterward, under the auspices of the Scottish Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, became a missionary to Native Americans. Traveling on horseback, and sometimes on foot, he ministered to tribes in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. During this time Brainerd was not a well man. He already had the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life, and being exposed to the elements so often hastened his death.

At first he had little results from his ministry to comfort him. Adversity would reveal things in his heart that repulsed him, and he longed for more holiness and more of the sense of God’s smile on him. Sometimes he was favored with a greater sense of God’s presence, giving him much cause for rejoicing.

After a while he began noticing what he could describe only as a moving of the Spirit among the Indians. Many were becoming concerned for their souls, having been shown the heart-wickedness they were never aware of before. Brainerd had been preaching the doctrines of grace, beginning with the need for salvation: our great and incurable sin before a holy God. The people finally became convinced that they could do nothing to please God or appease His wrath, and the Lord opened their eyes the way He had done with Brainerd years earlier. Looking back on nearly a year of success, Brainerd could only give glory to God for the change wrought in people who, only nine months earlier, had been worshiping false gods and living savage, immoral lives.

David Brainerd was enabled to establish a congregation and a school among the Indians and secured the services of his brother John to oversee the congregation. But his failing health caused him to decide to take a trip in hopes of improving his condition. He visited his congregation once more, but he was never to minister among them again. Brainerd eventually traveled to Northampton, Massachusetts to see Jonathan Edwards, who had preached at Yale when Brainerd was a student. Edwards took in the ailing young preacher, and his daughter Jerusha acted as Brainerd’s nurse until he died.

During his last few months Brainerd sometimes became distressed that he was no longer able to participate in the work of preaching and ministering in the community. Once again he felt the coldness of his own heart and wished for more of God’s presence. He also wished that God would take him and relieve his suffering through death. In those days there was no real treatment for what was bringing Brainerd down, nor was pain medication available.

However, Brainerd learned some spiritual lessons through his illness, things he already believed but that seemed to crystallize under this final adversity. Sometimes we don’t thoroughly believe what we believe until that belief is put to the test. In one journal entry he says, “Towards noon, I saw that the grace of God in Christ is infinitely free towards sinners and such sinners as I was. I also saw that God is the supreme good, that in His presence is life. I began to long to die that I might be with Him in a state of freedom from all sin.” Less than three weeks before his death another spiritual struggle compounded the physical pain he felt. His mind registered an accusation: “you are filthy, not fit for heaven.” Brainerd continues, “Hereupon instantly appeared the blessed robes of Christ’s righteousness which I could not but exult and triumph in.” Brainerd saw that Christ’s grace is all-sufficient; sufficient to lead him from sin to salvation, sufficient to lead him from trial to trial, sufficient to lead him from earth to heaven.

Jonathan Edwards testified that it was his privilege to host this dying saint and to observe his faith. Edwards was so impressed that he edited Brainerd’s diary for publication. I have heard that this book has never been out of print and is a missionary classic that influenced Henry Martyn and William Carey.

Why is a man who ministered a short time in obscurity and died young so influential 260 years later? It is because of the spirituality revealed in his diary. Here is a man learning to be content. Redirected by God through expulsion from college, serving in the wilderness under hard conditions instead of a comfortable pastorate, enduring bad health and seeming lack of success; in all these things David Brainerd learned to submit to God in all of His dealings with His servant. Through it all he learned to delight in God. Brainerd desired two things: to be like God and to be with God. On October 9, 1747 God gave him his desire.

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd is still available. My copy is a paperback from Baker Book House, 1995. It is included in the two-volume Works of Jonathan Edwards by Banner of Truth. It is also available as an audio book.

In addition to the diary I found a good lecture on Brainerd which is available as an mp3 download.

Feel free to inform us of any biographies or other resources on Brainerd.

David Brainerd (April 20, 1718—Oct. 9, 1747)

A Prayer for America

After watching the fury and confusion of a night battle one man wrote these lines:

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

The man was Francis Scott Key, who was near Fort McHenry during the British bombardment in 1814. The words quoted are from “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which Key wrote as a hymn of thanksgiving to God for sparing them and as a prayer that Americans would always “praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.” This hymn, which became our national anthem, was written during a time of national revival, known as the Second Great Awakening. It started in the late 1700s and continued through about the first three decades of the 1800s.

America has seen many large revivals of the work of God in the past; not the man-made extravaganzas common in our day, but large-scale, genuine turning to Christ under a compulsion that can be explained only as the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not to complain in a doleful way about the current state of religious affairs, but to urge Americans from Scripture and our own history to return to God. We truly are a “heav’n-rescued land.” And this is in answer to the prayers of His people all the way back to early colonial times.

Many of those who emigrated here to carve out a life in this country hoped and prayed that this land would be true to God and be blessed by Him. The great New England preacher Cotton Mather wrote a two-volume magnum opus called The Great Works of Christ in America (Magnalia Christi Americana; or, the History of New-England). It opens with these words of introduction by John Higginson, a contemporary of Mather:

It hath been deservedly esteemed one of the great and wonderful works of God in this last age, that the Lord stirred up the spirits of so many thousands of his servants, to leave the pleasant land of England, the land of their nativity, and to transport themselves, and families, over the ocean sea, into a desert land in America, at the distance of a thousand leagues from their own country; and this, merely on the account of pure and undefiled Religion, not knowing how they should have their daily bread, but trusting God for that, in the way of seeking first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof: And that the Lord was pleased to grant such a gracious presence of his with them, and such a blessing upon their undertakings, that within a few years a wilderness was subdued before them, and so many Colonies planted, Towns erected, and Churches settled, wherein the true and living God in Christ Jesus, is worshipped and served, in a place where, time out of mind, had been nothing before but Heathenism, Idolatry, and Devil-worship; and that the Lord has added so many of the blessings of Heaven and earth for the comfortable subsistence of his people in these ends of the earth. Surely of this work, and of this time, it shall be said, what hath God wrought? And, this is the Lord’s doings, it is marvelous in our eyes! Even so (O Lord) didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name! Now, one generation passeth away, and another cometh…. There is also a third generation, who are grown up, and begin to stand thick upon the stage of action, at this day, and these were all born in the country, and may call New-England their native land. Now, in respect of what the Lord hath done for these generations, succeeding one another, we have aboundant cause of Thanksgiving to the Lord our God, who hath so increased and blessed this people, that from a day of small things, he has brought us to be, what we now are. We may set up an Ebenezer, and say, “Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.” Yet in respect of our present state, we have need earnestly to pray, as we are directed, “let thy work farther appear unto thy servants, and let thy beauty be upon us, and thy glory upon our children; establish thou the works of these our hands; yea, the works of our hands, establish thou them” (p. 13).

God has answered such prayers countless times, and will do so again if His people, who are called by His name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways. May multitudes turn to Christ and be freed from the tyranny of sin and self-will. May God continue to have mercy on America and preserve us a nation that will seek Him and reflect His glory.

Some recommended books on the history of Christianity in America:

Mark Sidwell, ed. Faith of Our Fathers: Scenes from American Church History. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1991. Good historical vignettes.

Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, George M. Marsden, David F. Wells, John D. Woodbridge, eds. Eerdmans’ Handbook to Christianity in America. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983. Very informative. Includes pictures, charts and maps.

Thomas J. Nettles. By His Grace and for His Glory. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1986. “A Historical, Theological, and Practical Study of the Doctrines of Grace in Baptist Life.”

Cotton Mather. The Great Works of Christ in America. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1979.

A Prayer for America