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“A s I cannot g e t a D D fo r the w ant o f cash, neither can I ge t an M A fo r the w ant o f learning; therefore I am com pelled to f l y fo r refuge to SS, by w hich I m ean Sinner Saved: or, that I am made w ise to salvation; or, as Luke expresses it, 7 have ha d the know ledge o f salvation by the fo r ­g iveness o f m y sins.

W illiam H untingtonThe Preface to “The K ingdom o f H eaven Taken by Prayer. ”

The Occasional Journal of the Huntingtonian Press No. 33 Autumn 2016

CONTENTS

“There is no th ing ...............................................................EditorDesiring the Lord’s leadings in the ministry.....John Hobbs“My son, give me thy heart”...............................................Henry SantA testing ministry........................Jonathan Ranken AndersonThe mystery of the faith .......................... Thomas H. B. HaylerReview: With Mercy & With Judgem ent......A. G. Randalls

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A o !>■ T) ir y . _ . < )

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Life and Sermons o f John M ’KenzieEdited by M. J. Hyde

530pp, casebound Special Price till March 2017 £18.95 (normally £24.95), plus p&p

Until his death in 1849, John M’Kenzie was co-editor of The Gospel Standard with J. C. Philpot. Born in Scotland, work led him to settle in Preston where he started preaching amongst the Strict Baptists, eventually becoming pastor of the church there. This volume contains a short biographical introduction, M’Kenzie’s autobiographical writings, and 20 sermons.While justly known for his spiritual autobiography “M’Kenzie’s Fragments” (although even that is rare today), M’Kenzie has been unjustly forgotten as a preacher. His sermons have never been gathered together before, and most have never been reprinted since they were issued as pamphlets in the 1840s. They represent the best of Strict Baptist preaching. Experimental divinity, with a sound foundation of doctrine and exposition of the Scripture.We wholeheartedly recommend these sermons to our readers. They are easy to read, and all will profit from reading them. We personally feel that this book will rank amongst the best and most important that the Huntingtonian Press has produced.We hope this book will be in stock before the end of the year.

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Exposition o f Isaiah 9 verses 4-7 by Martin Luther 16pp, £1.45 plus p&p

Translated from the German by Watkin Maddy, friend of Bernard Gilpin, this short work is based on the prophecy-”Unto us a son is born.” The gospel for poor sinners.

The Nature and Extent if Gospel Liberty by George Wright 48pp, £2.45 plus p&p

A rare sermon preached by George Wright, Strict Baptist pastor in Beccles, Suffolk, and contemporary of J. C. Philpot. Examines the vexed question of the believer’s relationship to the law.

“There is Nothing”

A sermon preached at Ebenezer Chapel, Broad Oak, Heathfield, on Lord’s Day morning, 24th January, 2016. Published here by special request.

As the Lord would help me this morning, I would ask you to turn again to the chapter we read, the first book of the Kings, chapter 18, and we will read again at verse 41:

'And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. ”

The words that have been on my mind you will find in verse 43, the answer of the servant: ‘There is nothing.’ When these words first came to my mind, they came with a comfort which we find within the context. Though some may spiritualise and draw allegories from the Word of God in sermons, I feel this morning I must preach from these words in context. What was the context?

These were tremendous times in the history of Israel. A wicked king was on the throne. Ahab had come to reign over Israel, and it is recorded by the Spirit, ‘And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.’ Jeroboam’s sins were those wherewith Israel had been made to sin, and to turn themselves from following after the Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and of Jacob. King Ahab had also taken unto himself a wife,

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Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, King of the Zidonians, and her god was Baal. And Ahab, led astray by his wife (1 Kings 21:25), went in and worshipped Baal in the house which he had built for him in Samaria.

But in the midst of these dark days when Israel had turned to idolatry, and had turned away from worshipping the Lord God, there arose this man, Elijah. He seems to come out of obscurity, to appear on the scene out of nowhere. We read of him at the start of chapter 17 of this book, where his first words were to announce a drought for the sins of Israel. ‘And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.’ So the Lord had sent this drought, and it had not rained from that day.

We can read the accounts of how the Lord wonderfully provided for his servant Elijah in the midst of this drought. He provided for him first at the brook Cherith, when he sent the ravens to feed him there. Then when Elijah saw the brook drying up and the ravens coming no more, he was directed to the widow woman at Zarephath. She had a cruse of oil and barrel of meal, and Elijah encouraged her to make a cake for him first. Consequently she found that in that venturing of faith, that making of the cake for the Lord’s servant, there was a daily provision for her in the cruse of oil and barrel of meal. The oil and the meal wasted not, and so they were supplied for all the days of the famine.

Then we come to this chapter. There had now been three years in which there was no rain upon the face of the earth - a miracle indeed, an answer to Elijah’s prayer. ‘And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab.’ These words must have come to Elijah with great solemnity! We read together of how frightened the Lord’s servant Obadiah was when Elijah said to him, ‘Go up and tell Ahab that I am here.’ Obadiah was fearful for his life. The godly are fearful at times before the ungodly. When the wicked prospers in the earth the godly fear; though we often find, as the poet says, ‘we fear where no fear is.’ But Elijah by faith went boldly up to the king having this promise, ‘Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.’ The promise that the Lord gave to Elijah was conditional. Elijah must venture first to Ahab, must show himself to Ahab, must

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bear witness before the prophets of Baal, that the Lord, he is God and he alone, before the Lord would be pleased to send rain on the earth.

Elijah having accomplished that, is now looking for this rain. He is praying for this rain. He sends his servant to look for this rain, the answer to his prayer. And what was the report his servant came back with? ‘There is nothing.’

I want, as the Lord will enable me this morning, to look at1. What this ‘nothing’ was, the magnitude of this ‘nothing.’2. What Elijah’s posture was in the face of this answer, ‘there is

nothing.’3. How ‘nothing’ became ‘something’, even the ‘sound of abundance

of rain.’

Firstly then, what was this ‘nothing’? We are apt in daily conversation to refer to small things as nothing. Perhaps you do a favour for somebody, and you count it as a very little thing, and you say to them in response, ‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ Nothing is a little thing, something small or of no significance. In fact, nothing means exactly what it says, ‘no-thing’. It is not something that is diminutive, it is a description of the non-existent. Imagine therefore what this must have meant to Elijah when the servant came back and said, ‘there is nothing.’

Now we only comprehend nothing when we compare it to something. We only really understand what white is, when we look at what black is. We only understand light, as we look at it in contrast to darkness. We only comprehend faith, when we look at it in contrast to unbelief. And so it is here. I want to consider nothing in contrast to what that something was, that Elijah was seeking after.

Well, that something was that the Lord would send rain. The servant went up and looked for the sign of rain, he looked for a cloud in the cloudless sky that might bring rain, and he found nothing. But you see, the rain that was to come had been promised by the Lord. And so, Elijah’s nothing was nothing in the face of the Lord’s promise. The Lord had said to Elijah, ‘Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.’ He’d promised to send this rain. And now Elijah went up to look for the fulfilment of that promise, and there was nothing.

Do you know what this nothing is in your own life? Has the Lord ever granted you a promise, has he ever said to you that he will

accomplish something? Yet you go up at the time when you think that something should be brought to pass, and you find there is nothing. The promise seems forgotten by God. There is no answer. He doesn’t send the deliverance that he has spoken to you of. If you have known anything of that in experience, you will understand the pain that this nothing must have been to Elijah when he sent his servant up to see the answer to the promise, and there was nothing. No evidence whatsoever that this promise was being fulfilled.

But then there is more to this nothing than that just that. This promise, as I said before, was a conditional promise. The Lord said to Elijah, T will send rain, if you first go up to Ahab.’ We may make conditional promises with somebody, and if we keep our side of the condition and then the promise is broken, that broken promise seems worse to us than had the promise broken not been a conditional promise. But here there was a condition attached to the promise, and Elijah, against all the fear of going up to Ahab, against the fear of what Ahab might do to him - even to put him to death - had nevertheless met the condition in the promise. You see how hard it must have been. Ahab had sought for Elijah - he wanted Elijah dead. Yet the Lord had delivered Elijah out of Ahab’s hand. Now, after those deliverances, he was told to go up and to show himself to this wicked king. Elijah went, and why did he go? Because he believed the promise. Because he believed that the Lord would send rain on the earth, that the Lord would be true to his promise. And so, having taken his life in his hands, having gone up to the king, having spared not himself nor taken any thought for himself (but having gone up with the same spirit that Esther went up with to king Ahasuerus: ‘if I perish, I perish’), he had seen the Lord’s hand working. But now he came to look for the fulfilment of the promise, having kept his side of the condition. And there was nothing. What a painful nothingl

But worse than that, to make it more painful to him, he had testified of this promise to Ahab, the wicked king. ‘Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.’ Elijah’s faith was so strong that this would be completed, that he had even opened his mouth in front of wicked men and testified that the word of God would be fulfilled. It wasn’t only that rain might come - no, the sound of rain as far as Elijah was concerned was already on its way. The certainty of God fulfilling his promise was so certain, that it was to Elijah as if the rain was already falling. And so

he testified before a wicked king that God would be true to his promise and would send rain on the earth. And yet now, his servant went up to look for the rain, and there was nothing. It is a painful experience when the Lord’s people testify to their faith before the wicked - when they testify of the fact that the Lord has heard prayer in the past, and they believe that he will hear prayer now - and yet in the face of that testimony before wicked men the Lord seems to shut his ear; he does not hear nor send answers. Well if you have known that experience friends, you will know something of the pain that must have entered into Elijah’s heart here when his servant returned and said there was nothingl

But as if to compound it, we know from the Epistle of James that Elijah prayed that the Lord would not send rain. And we read at the start of the 17th chapter of 1 Kings, that Elijah told Ahab, ‘As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.’ And the Lord had remarkably answered that prayer. Every day of those three years that no rain fell on the face of the earth, Elijah woke with a testimony to the fact that God is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. The hymn writer speaks of knowing God, because, ‘I have prayed to him as such, and he has heard my prayers.’ And here Elijah had, every day as he woke up and saw not a cloud in the sky and ‘rain fell not upon the face of the earth,’ a testimony in his soul that God was a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God, because he had heard and answered his prayer. However, Elijah came now and prayed that there might be rain. That is what James tells us, ‘Elijah prayed that there might be rain.’ Yet the servant went up and looked, and he said, ‘there is nothing.’ You know, there is a sense in which it could not have rained without Elijah praying, because had it rained, unbelievers might have said that the stopping of rain was a fluke, and it had just come about by chance. But it needed Elijah to pray again, that the rain might be sent, that the Lord might prove to his servant and to his people, that he alone is the hearer and answerer of prayer. Therefore Elijah here is found praying for rain.

Perhaps you are praying this morning, and you have perhaps been praying for something for many days. You have had answers to prayer in the past, yet there is nothing in answer to your prayer this morning. Has God forgotten? Jeremiah says, ‘I cry and shout,’ yet ‘he shutteth out my prayer’ (Lamentations 3: 8). But he had heard Jeremiah’s

prayers in the past, and he had heard Elijah’s prayers concerning not sending rain. Not only that, but we see wonderful answers of prayer too during the famine which followed the lack of rain. How God provided for Elijah in the famine! Elijah came and prayed when the widow woman’s son had died. He cried to the Lord and said, ‘O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah’ (1 Kings 17: 20-22). The Lord wonderfully heard his prayer. We also read together the prayer of Elijah over the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. ‘Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench’ (1 Kings 18: 36- 38). Such a complete answer to prayer! An answer that went beyond what Elijah had asked for in consuming not only the sacrifice but also the stones, and licking up the water that was round about. Remarkable answers to prayer! Yet now Elijah is praying, and there is nothing, no answer to his prayer.

Lurther, what must have compounded his misery and must have made this nothing of even more greater magnitude, was that the wicked had looked on, they had seen the remarkable answers to Elijah’s prayers on Mount Carmel. And what was their response? ‘When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God’ (1 Kings 18: 39). The Lord had answered prayer openly before the people. They had lived to witness it. It had had that effect on their hearts: it had brought them to testify to the fact that this is the Lord, he alone is God; the Baal that we worshipped, he is not a God. Yet poor Elijah is praying here now, and there seems to be no answer to his prayer. There is nothing. ‘Lord,’ says Elijah’s heart, ‘what will the people think? They have seen prayer answered, and now I’m praying here for rain, and there is nothing.’

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Then, we have to think also of what the effect of God’s wonderful care for Elijah must have had on making this ‘nothing’ into a very great ‘nothing’ for him. We read in the 17th chapter of the remarkable way which the Lord provided for him. John Newton speaks of how the Lord provided for the prophet by the ravens. ‘Sooner all nature should change, than one of God’s promises fail,’ he says. Ravens were more likely to rob the bread from the Lord’s servant, but here they are found bringing him bread. The Lord remarkably cared for his servant. He had remarkably provided for him. He had set his watchful eye and care over the least thing in his life. Elijah could have testified, with the hymn writer, to the fact that, ‘my life’s minutest circumstance is subject to his eye.’ So in looking back over the way the Lord had led him, he couldn’t believe that this lack of answer to prayer, this nothing, was by chance. It was in the Lord’s hands. But perhaps you sometimes have come, like the hymn writer, into those places where he said, ‘Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near, and for my relief will shortly appear.’ Why did he find that unbelief? He was brought to a place where he was found in darkness, and he said, ‘Can he have taught me to trust in his name, and thus far have brought me, to put me to shame?’ Elijah might have said, ‘O Lord, thou didst watch over me and provide for me. I saw food provided when the water in the brook dried up, but now my hope has perished from thee. The remarkable way that thou hast appeared for me before Ahab, thou hast preserved my life, thou hast witnessed plainly before the people and the prophets of Baal that thou alone art God, that thou alone art the prayer-hearing and the prayer-answering God. But now, am I to be put to shame? Lor there is nothing.’

Lastly, in tracing out how terrible this nothing must have been, we note that Elijah still had Ahab and Jezebel to deal with. We see in the opening of the 19th chapter the effect that the news of the slaying of the prophets of Baal was to have on Jezebel. ‘And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’ As Elijah sat there on Carmel, prostrate on the earth, his face between his knees, he had the fears of tomorrow. What was this wicked woman going to say when she learnt that the prophets of Baal had been slain? Was Ahab not going to doubly chase him for his life? And he had told Ahab, that

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there was a sound of abundance of rain, that there was going to be some relieving of the drought which the Lord had sent on Israel, and now there was nothing. Have you come up this morning, friends, in the face of nothing, in the face of unanswered prayer, in the face of a promise that has not yet been fulfilled? Do the fears of tomorrow compound that nothing, do they make it seem even more weighty, even larger than it seemed before? What a nothing this was! What a nothing the Lord’s poor servant was wrestling with!

But friends, what was Elijah’s posture? That is what we would like to notice in the second place. What did Elijah do when he heard the news, ‘there is nothing.’

We note that to start with, Elijah was praying. We read, ‘Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.’ It is a posture of prayer. The praying soul desires to shut out all the things that surround it, to shut out all the things that would keep him from prayer. We know from the Apostle James that Elijah prayed that rain would be sent on the earth, so we see Elijah here praying.

Then, in the face of the answer, ‘there is nothing,’ he could do nothing but carry on praying. Friends, where does your ‘nothing’ drive you to this morning? Have you had to make your ‘nothing’ a matter of prayer during the past week? Is it still a matter of prayer this morning? You see, left to ourselves, left to the unbelief of our hearts, when we have a ‘nothing’ in our life, when there is no answer to prayer when we want it, when the Lord doesn’t appear as we want him to appear or when we want him to appear, we are tempted to give up. Is that your experience this morning? ‘Does Satan tempt thee to give up, to call no more on Jesus’ name?’ Is he telling you there’s no hope? ‘God hasn’t heard your prayer; there’s going to be no answer for you; there is nothing because there won’t be anything; there is nothing because God is not pleased to answer.’ Well, Elijah didn’t give up. He carried on praying. And what was his advice to his servant? ‘Go again seven times.’

We should notice too that Elijah’s prayer was a prayer of watchfulness. I ask you this morning, if you are praying over a ‘nothing’ in your life, are you watching for the fulfilment of your prayer? Are you watching for that nothing to become something? Or do you pray the prayer of unbelief? We ask, but we receive not. Why do we receive not? Because we pray with unbelief - we don’t even

look for the accomplishing, for the fulfilment of our prayers. Unbelief is so insidious. It enters our lives in so many ways. I was once told of a godly, gracious man, who had prayed in a prayer meeting before a Sabbath school outing that the Lord might send them good weather. However, he then got on the bus with his umbrella under his arm, and a little girl asked him, ‘Why have you got an umbrella?’ And she reminded him of his prayer. It was a rebuke for his unbelief in not believing that the Lord would hear and answer his prayer. Friends, that’s us by nature. We pray, but we don’t believe that the Lord will answer. It’s told, if not in words, by our actions. Is it any surprise then when we look and find there is nothing? Or do we not even look and find there is nothing? The Apostle Paul says that prayer should always be joined with watchfulness. He exhorted the church at Colosse, in his letter to the Colossians, that their prayers should be with watchfulness. ‘Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving’ (Colossians 4: 2). Are your prayers joined with watchfulness? Are they so heavy on you, because of the magnitude of the ‘nothing,’ that you are able to do nothing but watch? That was what Elijah was doing. This ‘nothing’ was so great in his life that he must pray and he must continue watching for the Lord to answer that prayer. Elijah’s experience could be described in the 130th Psalm, ‘I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning; I say, more than they that watch for the morning.’ What an ardent watching! What an ardent waiting there will be in real prayer! Well, Elijah here knew real prayer, and he therefore sends his servant seven times, to see whether there was an answer to that prayer, to see whether the ‘nothing’ was becoming ‘something.’

Elijah said to his servant, ‘Go again seven times.’ Now, that may have been a literal seven times, or it may not. The number seven in Scripture, as I am sure I do not need to tell you, sometimes indicates perfection. So here, seven might set forth the sense of going, or praying and watching, till the Lord appears. And the soul who, taught by grace, has to wait for the Lord to answer prayer, will have to testify when the Lord answers that prayer that the Lord never is before his time, he never is behind. ‘As for God, his way is perfect’ (Psalm 18: 30). Perhaps you have found it so, friends, in things you have had to wait a long time for and had to pray about for many years, that when it

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has come to pass, it has been in such a timely, such a perfect manner, that it has that very stamp on it, this is the hand of God.

But seven in the Scripture also indicates something which is indefinite. It is a blessing in several parts of Scripture that it does set forth that which is indefinite. We read of those who should be forgiven seventy times seven times. And if you are a poor debtor this morning, dependent on free grace alone, you will prove every day of your life that you have to come depending on that forgiving grace; grace that is free, not just seven times, but indefinitely, many times. You will have to be made willing every day to be a debtor to grace. To come every day without money, without price, to buy, to eat and to drink, of the provision that’s found in the gospel. It is a good thing, friends that the Lord does not only forgive seven times. We read elsewhere that, ‘He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee’ (Job 5: 19). But we get ourselves into trouble daily. It is a good thing that the numbering there is not a literal numbering. No, it’s not just seven times, but an indefinite number of times.

So seven here may also indicate something indefinite in nature. In prayer we must be ready to pray on until the Lord appears. The Lord does not set times on answering prayer. Some people may have to pray every day of their life to see an answer to prayer, and they may be taken to glory without seeing an answer to prayer. The answer may not follow for many years after they have gone. ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ... they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them’ (Revelation 14: 13). Their prayers follow them. We always want things now, we want answers when we ask, and if we ask and we don’t receive an answer, if we go up and look and there is nothing, we find ourselves cast down to despair. We find ourselves turning away from the throne of grace, we are willing to give up. But the truth of the matter is, the Lord waits that he might be gracious. You have had to prove that the Lord has waited, has watched over your path ‘when, Satan’s blind slave, you sported with death,’ the many years during which you were under the sound of the gospel, yet you said within your heart, ‘I do not want this, I will not have this man to reign over me.’ Yet the Lord patiently waited. If this is so, friends, why is it too much for you to patiently wait at the throne of grace, that you might prove that the Lord yet waits, and waits to be gracious?

Then there is this point. Elijah’s prayer was a prayer that pleaded the promise. The Lord had said to Elijah, ‘Go up, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth,’ and I believe Elijah was pleading the promise here. If you have a promise from the Lord, and you are yet to see the fulfilment of that promise, you will have to plead it in prayer. There are no ifs and buts about the Lord’s wills. The promises, the thing which he has said, shall he not do? ‘God is not a man, that he should lie.’ But the promises have to be pleaded. Consider those wonderful promises in the 36th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, promise after promise. ‘I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean’ (Ezekiel 36: 25). ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you’ (v. 26). ‘Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers’ (v. 28). ‘I will also save you from all your uncleannesses’ (v. 29). ‘I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field’ (v. 30). So many promises that the Lord gave. ‘I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded’ (v. 33). ‘Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places’ (v. 36). Promise after promise the Lord is pleased to give to his people. But what does he say concerning these promises? 7 will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them’ (v. 37). Yes, the Lord is true to his promise. But that promise must be pleaded. If you’ve got a promise that the Lord has given you, and it is laid up, as the unrighteous servant laid up his talent in the earth, you cannot expect that promise to be fulfilled. The Lord gives promises so that they might be pleaded, so that we might reverently hold the Lord to account, to say, ‘Lord, thou hast said, wilt thou not also do?’ ‘Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope’ (Psalm 119: 49). That is what the Lord would have us do. And so, friends, if you’ve got a promise that is unanswered, if you are looking and you are finding there is nothing, remember this: the Lord would have you plead that promise before the throne of grace. I believe that’s what Elijah was doing here, as the servant was going seven times looking for the answer to the promise. Elijah had to plead, ‘Lord, thou hast promised, answer that promise, fulfil it now!’ We should remember that our Lord Jesus Christ also had to plead the promise before the Lather, he also had to pray. ‘The LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the

uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession’ (Psalm 2: 6-8). The Son of God had to ask the Father for what he had been promised in the covenant. Yes, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he trod the path of prayer. He had to plead the promise of the Father, he had to plead the covenant. And the Lord was pleased to answer those cries. We must expect to tread the same path that the Master has trod. ‘The servant is not greater than his lord’ (John 13: 16).

The Lord in his abundant mercy day by day grants us so many things that we have need of. We live in a day of peace and plenty, we get up and there is always food on the table. There is always the means by which we go about our daily living. We have so much that we receive without asking, that it makes us lethargic in prayer. We forget that we have need to pray day by day, as the Lord instructed his disciples, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ (Matthew 6: 11). Yet sometimes the Lord brings his people up sharp. Although the Lord had provided for Elijah day by day with the ravens, and had wonderfully spared him, Elijah here has to wait. Perhaps it was lest Elijah should take these things for granted, lest he should think he was heard for his much asking, lest Elijah would think that the Lord would just fulfil his promise without him asking. Elijah here has to wait. He has to be shown first of all that ‘there is nothing,’ so that he might plead the promise all the more, so that he might be more urgent at the throne of grace.

Remember, in this prayerful condition that we find him here, Elijah sets up an example for the New Testament church. This is brought before us by the Apostle James when he wrote that ‘the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’ (James 5: 16). Elijah ‘was a man subject to like passions as we are’ (v. 17). He was no different to us, though a prophet of the Lord. He had the same nature as you and I have got. He had the same sinful inclinations, the same laziness of spirit when it came to the things of grace, the same lethargy, and the same feet that drag behind, the same tongue that is so slow to speak the praises of the Lord, so slow to ask, so slow to plead, so slow to entreat at the throne of grace that the Lord would yet be gracious. Yet, despite being subject to all these sinful infirmities, Elijah prayed fervently in the face of nothing.

And in the face of nothing, Elijah seems quite happy to wait. I perhaps should be careful to emphasise this point. I have emphasised the magnitude of what this nothing is, and if we have a ‘nothing’ as

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large as this in our lives, we tend to find so much fretfulness and so much murmuring under what we conceive to be the Lord’s rod. But the remarkable thing here is that we read of no fretfulness in Elijah in spite of the magnitude of this ‘nothing.’ Elijah not only doesn’t give up, but he patiently waits. He doesn’t speak harshly to his servant when he returns and says, ‘There is nothing.’ No! He tells his servant gently, ‘Go again seven times,’ while he stays patiently waiting. What a model for us! How far short we come! May the Lord grant you, if you are waiting this morning for an answer to something, if you are waiting for nothing to become something, the same patient and prayerful spirit as he granted to Elijah. The Lord is good to them that patiently wait for him! What an encouragement those words are, that ‘the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry’ (Habakkuk 2: 3).

But then I want to note in the third place that this ‘nothing’ became ‘something’. You see, there came a seventh time when the servant went up to the same place that he’d been before - he looked out onto the same view, the same sky - and what did he see this time? ‘Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.’

Some have conjectured as to what exactly this means, a cloud ‘like a man’s hand.’ I believe that it applies not to the shape but to the size of the cloud. The same word in Hebrew is used in Joshua 1 to describe the sole of the foot (‘Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon’) It refers to the size of the cloud. Often, when the Lord has promised something, when we have been pleading for something, we want it all - everything - at once. Elijah had heard the sound of the rain by faith. We must remember that Elijah had faith in this matter. He had told Ahab ‘there is a sound of abundance of rain.’ That was the sound of faith - there was no cloud in the sky, there was certainly no sound of rain. But Elijah by faith heard the promise being fulfilled. And when we hear the promise being fulfilled we want everything. We want it immediately. But we have to prove so often that the Lord begins to answer only in a small way - a cloud ‘like a man’s hand.’

O that we might not miss the small beginnings of the answer to prayer! We so often pray for something, the Lord begins to answer, we carry on praying because we cannot see the beginning of the answer. It is only in the retrospect, in the looking back, we see the Lord began to answer and we were blind to it. How much

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encouragement we lose, how much blessing we lose, in not noticing that the Lord has begun to answer, because we do not see the small beginnings of the answers to our prayers. What greater encouragement there is to continue praying when we notice the little cloud coming out of the sea, even like a man’s hand! May we not overlook the day of small things in our lives, or the day of small things in the answers to prayer. The hymn writer says concerning the beginnings of our salvation in the birth of Christ, ‘from what beginnings small our great salvation rose!’ Many despised that babe in the manger at Bethlehem. It was not the king that they looked for - one to restore to them the kingdom of Jewry, to overthrow the Romans that had dominion over them. They didn’t see this little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. Friends, are you passing by, are you ignoring the sign of this little cloud?

But, blessed be God, the answers do not depend on us seeing them. If the Lord has begun to answer, whether we see it or not, the answer must be fulfilled. The Lord’s blessings are not little blessings, but they are like the blessings that are set forth in this passage - an abundance of rain; no small shower of light drizzle, but a torrential downpour. Yet we should realise that the Lord’s smallest blessings to us are abundant blessings, and even the smallest answer to prayer in our life, when set against the magnitude of our sins, compared with what our sins deserve, is a blessing undeserved. When we realise that every grace and every favour comes to us alone through Jesus’ blood - when we come to realise that we ask these things and we are heard not for our own sake, nor for any good within ourselves, but for the sake and for the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - then we will be brought to realise that even the smallest answers to prayer, even the smallest cloud that arises out of the sea in answer to the prayer for rain, is a big blessing. It is as the sound of abundance of rain. It is proof that the Lord has not forgotten us, but it is testimony to the fact that ‘there is a God in Israel still, that lives and reigns, and works his will,’ that ‘the L o r d ’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear’ (Isaiah 59: 1).

May this be an encouragement to you this morning, friends, if you’ve got up this morning and you’ve looked, you’ve surveyed the landscape, and you’ve found there is nothing. No, still no blessing, still no answers to prayer. Still those whom you love, and who you pray over daily, are afar off from God. Your state in providence is still

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upside-down. May this be an encouragement to you that something may come in the Lord’s good time. There cannot always be nothing. No, you may have to get up seven times to look and see there’s nothing. But ‘the vision is yet for an appointed time ... though it tarry, wait for it’ (Habakkuk 2: 3). The time will come. The Lord cannot leave prayer unanswered. Why not? Because of the all-prevailing plea that is offered in heaven’s high courts above. May we ever be ready to plead at the throne of grace, that name which the Father loves to hear his children plead, the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ‘For all such pleading he approves, and blesses them indeed.’ Yes, this one ever liveth to make intercession for us. ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4: 16).

This is where Elijah was found. In the face of nothing he didn’t give up, he did not leave off praying, he did not slip into unbelief or despondency of spirit. No, he prayed on. He watched for the answer to his prayer. He pleaded the promise. He pleaded the fact that the Lord had been good to him in times past. And, friends, he had an answer to prayer. May the Lord yet grant you answers to prayer! And if you are in a dark place this morning, if there still appears to be no answer, may you be encouraged by the fact that the Saviour wraps in frowns as well as smiles the tokens of his grace.

Well, friends, this word came to me as I was sitting in my office on Friday. I’d felt empty, I’d been seeking a text to bring before you all week, and in a moment of rashness I said to the Lord, ‘There’s nothing! Nothing to preach from at Heathfield.’ And this word immediately came to me, and in turning to it I found such encouragement. I pleaded with the Lord this morning that as I came with this word, that it may not be to you as nothing, but that it might be as something, even as the sound of abundance of rain. And that it might be an encouragement to you yet, if you have got ‘nothings’ in your life, to go on and plead that the Lord would make those nothings into something. And that you may yet, perhaps even this day, see the cloud arising out of the sea, a small cloud, about the size of a man’s hand.

May the Lord own and bless his Word, and may he bless us together. Amen.

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Desiring the Lord’s Leadings in the Gospel Ministry by John Hobbs

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John Hobbs (1796-1871) was the blind Huntingtonian minister at Haberdashers’ Hall Chapel, Staining Lane, London from 1829 until the year o f his death. In the last years o f her life John Rusk's wife attended the ministry o f Hobbs. When just a few days old Hobbs was blinded by a sad mishap. His brother, who was just three or four years old, put halfpennies on his eyes while their mother was sleeping. This caused such a violent reaction and infection as to destroy his sight.

When Hobbs was a young man Henry Peto introduced him to the ministry of William Huntington, Upon hearing Huntington preach Hobbs writes:

I

A photograph believed to be of John Hobbs

His ministry was made manifest in my conscience, nor have I ever had a single doubt about it from that time ... the Lord was graciously pleased to convince me of sin, and reveal his pardoning love in my heart, before I had ever heard a work of grace described by any one; but Mr Huntington was made instrumental in shedding that divine light upon what God had wrought in me, which confirmed it as being of his own operation... When hearing Mr Huntington, I heard something more than man's voice. It was this, indeed, that I heard with my outward ears, but then I frequently heard more, even the voice of the Chief Shepherd, in, through, and by the word preached. I know it was his voice by the power that attended it.

Henry Peto ran a large and successful building business in London, Ebenezer Hooper says that Peto was the person who also introduced Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister, to Huntington 's

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ministry. Two of Peto’s nephews served as apprentices with him, Samuel Morton Peto and Thomas Grissell. Upon the death of their uncle in 1830 these two ran the partnership of Grissell and Peto, and this construction firm built many of the major buildings and monuments in London, including Nelson’s Column, as well as the fast emerging railways.

The following letter, in which Hobbs describes something of his exercises and leadings with regards to his preaching, is addressed to Thomas Oxenham, who was the Huntingtonian minister at Bethel Chapel, Welwyn.

It was upon reading this letter one evening that I was moved to write the piece of poetry that follows the letter. The particular paragraph that came with some feeling upon my mind and heart is that beginning, uBut to return to the subject of your letter... ” and the sentence that begins, “I know that the human heart is deceitful above all things, etc...” I was most struck by the words, uThe Lord knows that I have no control over my own desires; ” and this inspired the writing of the poem. The first three verses came very readily as I lay in bed so I simply got up and wrote them down, and the next day, with the Lord’s help, I was able to complete the poem.

Henry Sant

Fair Mile, Cobham, September, 1826

To the much honoured, greatly revered, and highly favoured ambassador of the King of Zion, the Rev. Mr. Oxenham, John Hobbs most affectionately wishes abundance of grace, mercy, and peace, ‘from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful Witness, and the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.’

My very dear Sir,I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favour dated Lewes,

September 8th, and allow me to offer my very sincere thanks for the kind advice it conveys. I feel that its contents are weighty and

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important, and have found it sweet to spread the matter before the Lord. I must observe that I have long been favoured to commit my ways unto him by earnest prayer and supplication, to ask counsel of him, and seek direction from him: and to the honour of his divine veracity be it acknowledged, he has never permitted me to seek his face in vain. I have been peculiarly favoured of late, in pouring out my heart before him; and what I am most earnestly desiring, is, not so much to judge from any outward appearances, either encouraging or discouraging, but rather to trace the divine operations, teaching, and anointing of God’s most Holy Spirit in my own heart. When at times I am enabled to enter into the everlasting, discriminating, unparalleled love of my ever-gracious God and Father, so as to feel its sweet and precious influence, my heart melts under the divine impression that he should have loved me with an everlasting love, chosen me in Christ to eternal salvation, and blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him: that, in the execution of his own eternal purpose, he should have been pleased to call me forth with an holy calling when very young, to separate me by his grace from all my natural relations and friends, to teach, instruct, and chasten me out of his law; and finally to bring me to sit down at his ever-blessed feet to receive of his sacred words, and to be found clothed, and in my right mind. He washed me in his most precious blood, gave me the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, shed abroad his own everlasting love in my heart, and condescended to give me the sweetest tokens, manifestations, and assurances of his divine favour. These things, enjoyed in the sweet experience of them, and traced by the eye of faith up to his own everlasting love, will, my dear Sir, form a theme of eternal praise, when all the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing and everlasting joy upon their Covenant Head, when they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away.

But to return to the subject of your letter. Allow me to observe, with all becoming respect, that it does appear that my dear friend has received rather a mistaken impression as to my anxiety about being settled over a people. I know that the human heart is deceitful above all things, and I often think my own is the most deceitful; but my ever- gracious Lord and Saviour is pleased to indulge me to make very free with him. He has commanded me to give him my heart; and how sweet do I often find it to entreat that he will take it and form it for

himself, that he will condescend to reign supreme in my affections, to keep my will in a state of submission to his sovereign good pleasure, and never permit me to seek after that which he has not appointed to bestow. In tracing these things, I sometimes find that faith is greatly encouraged, because the Lord knows that I have no control over my own desires; and I have generally found that when I have been permitted to desire anything contrary to his will, the holy and ever- blessed Spirit suspends his divine operations, particularly at a throne of grace; shyness and distance are produced; nor can the soul get near to the Lord, so as to unbosom, pour out, and make known its desires unto him.

Now, quite the reverse of this has been my happy experience of late. Although I have very frequently been pressed out of measure beyond strength, yet there has been no wrath, guilt, or despair working within; but the Lord has often said, ‘Peace, be still;’ has unfolded the precious love of his heart, and indulged me with such a sweet sense of his divine approbation, that faith has joined her Amen to that precious promise, ‘The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.’ Yet my dear friend will believe me, that even those endearing manifestations do not free the soul from its concern about many things. Nor do I wish they should; because by these things I am kept earnest at a throne of grace, diligent in pleading before the Lord, very watchful of his kind and gracious hand, and tender in observing the inward checks and encouragements, withdrawings and manifestations, contractions and enlargements, which are experienced: ‘Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.’

But I am still wandering from my subject, to which I now return. May I intreat the indulgence of my dear friend, not while I attempt anything like self-justification, but simply lay before him a correct account of the way in which my ever-gracious God and Father has been pleased to lead me as it respects the ministry.

In the year 1814 I went to live near Bridgwater in Somersetshire, where I heard no preaching, nor had I any Christian friend to commune with. Here the Lord was pleased to impress my mind for several years that he would in his own good time send me forth to speak in his great and holy name. In the year 1823 I visited London, where I met Mr Vinall at the house of our esteemed friend Mr Peto. It

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appears that Mr Peto had had impressions on his mind as to my being called to labour in the Lord’s vineyard, even before it had been brought upon my own mind; but he never communicated it to me, nor did I ever name it to him, or to my beloved mother. Before our going to hear Mr Vinall, I was requested to engage in prayer, when the same impression came upon his mind; and after a conversation with Mr Peto, he (Mr Vinall) on the following morning asked me whether I had ever felt any impressions as to my speaking in the Lord’s name. He drew out all my feelings upon the subject, and with much kindness and affection advised my watching the Lord’s hand.

Soon after this, I received two pressing invitations from a Mr Westbrook, the trustee of a chapel at Hounslow, to speak at that place, as they found it difficult to get the word ministered among them. I cannot describe the exercise of my mind for some time, but my dear friend will enter into my feelings. Many fears of rushing forward in presumption, much darkness in my own soul, and at times an irresistible impression that I must go, agitated my mind; till the good Lord was pleased to decide the doubtful point, by applying in a very sweet and powerful manner the 16th verse of the 71st Psalm, ‘I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.’ I simply told the Lord that if he would condescend to be with me, I desired to be devoted to his service, that all the glory might redound to himself; but if not, I begged I might not be permitted to presume in future. Here faith was proved to be the substance of things hoped for; for on the 27th September, 1823, I went to Hounslow with my valuable friend Mr Peto, when the good Lord gave matter for two discourses from the before-cited portion of his most holy Word. On this occasion, a dear friend, the late Mrs Westbrook, who, I have no doubt, is now with the Lord, was closely united with me in spirit, and remained so ever after.

The chapel was then supplied by three other persons and myself; and the congregation increased on my Sabbath from thirty or forty to at least two hundred persons. Many pressing invitations were given me to settle in that place, and a house and garden, the property of Mr Westbrook, were kindly offered me, but I could never see my way clear to settle there.

On the 2nd of the following November, I received an invitation to speak twice at Mayford in Surrey; and in the evening of the same day for the first time at Cobham, where I have since continued, in

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connection with other places. The following December and January I supplied Mr Vinall’s lecture in London, and in February I visited my mother (who then resided in Somersetshire), in consequence of her experiencing severe indisposition, when I told her that it was my firm impression I should never be settled at Cobham. This impression has ever since continued. Since my first speaking, the good Lord has opened more than fifty different places to me, and a few persons here and there have been gathered by the word. In many of them very pressing invitations have been given me to settle - at Brentford in Middlesex, at Richmond, Chertsey, and Woking in Surrey.

I take the freedom of troubling you with this account, to show that no anxiety has been, or is, manifested on my part to be settled over a people, until the good Lord shall be pleased to make it quite plain. In the first two years I was called to speak four hundred and eight times.

On the 18th September, 1825, I received a letter from Chichester, informing me that I had been given out to speak at that place on the following Sabbath, as it was known I was going to Brighton for my health. I spoke from 1 John 2: 27, after which I proceeded to Brighton and Lewes. On the feelings expressed by the friends in these places I forbear making any remark. With my different visits to Chichester you are fully acquainted. The most earnest solicitations have been made from the first by the friends at that place, that I should settle among them, which solicitations have increased to the present time: and I have often admired their affection and ingenuity in contriving means of inducement. But I have always been uniform in telling them that he that believes shall not make haste; nor have I given, nor can I give them any promise, until my kind and gracious Lord shall be pleased to instruct me in his sacred mind and will.

On one occasion, about six or seven years since, when under a very deep exercise, the Lord was pleased most sweetly and powerfully to assure my heart from Exodus 33: 14, ‘And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest;’ and more recently from Isaiah 58: 10, 11, ‘If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.’ These exceeding great and precious promises I call in a peculiar manner my own; and faith sometimes is strong enough to take them in

her hand, and plead them before the throne; nor has the great Author, eternal Finisher, grand Centre, and glorious Object of faith, ever turned a deaf ear to her humble, but earnest and importunate suit.

But I return once more. When I first spoke in London, certain friends expressed a very strong desire that a chapel should be taken for me; but others, with whom I have had the happiness of being more intimately acquainted, rather wished to wait and watch the Lord’s hand.

I began to think that it was not the Lord’s will that I should speak in London; but immediately on the back of this, Staining Lane Chapel presented itself. My mind has been brought into a very great strait, attended with much pleading before the Lord that I might not be permitted to act contrary to his sacred mind and will. I have been induced to say that I desire to leave it here - that if the Lord opened the door for me, and gathered a people together, I could at present feel free to speak among them. Further than this I have not engaged myself by any promise. Here, then, I desire to stand upon my watch-tower, till the Lord’s mind and will shall be fully known. After much self- examination, I do feel that the Lord has graciously kept me from connecting my own natural feelings with that dispensation of the gospel which he has been pleased kindly to call me unto, and I do most earnestly hope that I shall be favoured with an interest in the prayers of my dear friend.

I do not recollect that I can say anything more at present, but express the very sincere desires of my heart that the good Lord will bless you and keep you, that he will be very gracious unto you, and cause his face to shine upon you, that he will lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace; that you and yours may ever be under his watchful eye and his paternal care; that he will spare you long as a blessing to his church and people; that your soul may be as a watered garden, and as a spring of water, whose waters fail not; that you may be favoured with many endearing visitations, precious manifestations, and sweet discoveries of the everlasting love of Jehovah, in his eternal choice of his people, in the gift of his dear Son, and in the precious outpouring of his most Holy Spirit, so that you may dwell on high, and be indulged with many sweet views of the King in his beauty, and of that land which is very far off. That these, with all other new covenant blessings, may abundantly rest upon you

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and yours, is, my dear Sir, the very earnest desire of him who begs to subscribe himself, yours in the bond of everlasting love,

John Hobbs

“My Son, Give Me Thine Heart” (Proverbs 23:26) by Henry Sant

Thou sovereign Lord of all And self-sufficient God,Dost thou to me in mercy call

And ask my heart, so bad?

Yes, God is pleased to ask A sinner’s heart so base.

Why does he make this strange request? Because of his free grace.

But Lord I cannot give,There is no power in me,

It is to self and sin I live,My will it is not free.

The evil of my heart ‘Tis thou dost make me see,

How it is sinful, not in part,But all through, utterly.

And why Lord must I feel My sin so painfully?

Thou dost this wretchedness reveal,To make me look to thee.

Cause me to come to thee Lord, by thy sovereign grace.

That my desires sincere might be:This sinful heart replace.

For thou alone canst save,And Christ alone makes free,

Therefore my heart I would thee have, That I might saved be.

12th March, 1986

A Testing Ministry by Jonathan Ranken Anderson

uBut who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?” (Malachi 3: 2)

The hour is drawing on when the judgment shall be set, and the books shall be opened; and the dead, small and great, judged according to the things found written in the books. In this world, events occur which partially foreshadow the august proceedings of that grand assize, and afford some intimations of the issues in which they shall terminate. Of this description was the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh, and the ministry which he exercised whilst he tabernacled on the earth. In the discoveries then made of the characters of men, may we read a lesson on what will be disclosed, on

a higher and larger scale, in the judgement of the great day. And whoso readeth let him understand.

We freely admit it is a solemn thing to be subjected to such an ordeal as that through which the Jewish people passed, under the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But who that has a proper concern for the welfare of his immortal soul, and a salutary dread of the wrath to come, will turn aside from such an investigation; and prefer agreeable delusions to unpalatable truths; and attractive shadows to unwelcome realities? The truth must come out one day, and advance to its proper term: And is there then any wisdom in the attempt to conceal it now, unless we conceal it for ever? “The Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4: 5).

The ministry of the great Redeemer was peculiarly fitted to try men, and under every disguise they might assume, to detect what they really were. And the same property belongs to every ministry that is formed upon this wonderful model. If we inquire what it is which fits it for producing this effect, we learn from the Scripture that it is light: “But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light” (Ephesians 5: 18).

The sphere in which the light is to shine is determined by him who giveth not account of his matters; and who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind” (John 9: 39).

By many it is thought that, if the gospel is sent amongst a people, it is designed only to instruct the ignorant, reclaim the profligate, and save the lost. But this proceeds upon an extremely partial view of the matter, and is at the variance alike with the testimony of Scripture and the dictates of experience. What the light does in every case is to manifest the true state of things, to lay open what is disguised, and to bring into view what is hidden. A blessed thing it is for sinners when their wretchedness is spread out before their eyes, and that in colours so broad and vivid, as to constrain them, pricked in their hearts, to cry out, “What must we do?”

In the days of our Lord, religious profession had reached an enormous height, but not more so than it has done in our own time. His ministry affected all that came in his way; and so has the ministry of divine truth among us. By the light which he dispensed, men that

appeared to possess the profoundest knowledge, were discovered to be in a state of deplorable ignorance. And even so at this moment, wheresoever the light shines, it detects an amount of ignorance which is truly appalling. We learn something of the state of a people at large from the character of their leaders. The ministry of the Saviour especially touched those among the Jews who held the highest room, and they were pronounced to be blind leaders of the blind. The truth has reached church leaders in the present day, and the same mournful result has been obtained. We hence conclude that “the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4: 6).

To those whose hypocrisy was detected by the ministry of the Saviour, he was the object of the most violent hatred; which, however, tried to conceal itself under the pretext of zeal for church law, and established usage. But the pretext was as vain then as it is in our day; and the men who were under its influence stood convicted, as their successors in crime of the present time stand convicted, of “hating the light, neither coming to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved” (John 3: 20).

The blessed Redeemer had recourse to the consolation that his judgement was with the Lord, and his reward with his God. And a similar consolation is laid open to those who, at however great a distance, seek to follow his steps. “For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isaiah 50: 7).

The Mystery of the Faith: An Address given at the Annual Meeting of the Gospel Standard Societies, 1950

by Thomas H. B. Hayler

uHolding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. ” (1 Timothy 3:9)

Much of this chapter has to do with the minister’s and the deacon’s outward conduct; that is to be well noticed. But the words that I have read for a text set forth the qualification which God the Holy Ghost gives to every minister whom he sends forth in his great Name, and I believe he also gives it to every deacon that in his providence he sets

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in that solemn office. “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”

What is “the faith”? I believe it is this: all that God has revealed of himself in his glorious Trinity of Persons, and all his holy mind and will concerning the sons of men, especially the objects of his choice, as made known in this blessed Book. And certainly every God-sent minister and every God-made deacon will be furnished by him sufficiently for their solemn offices and for the church’s welfare.

Let me speak a little, as helped, of some of the things contained in the mystery of the faith. Just mark the word, that it is a mystery; something that the carnal mind is utterly incapable of being acquainted with: but to God’s ministers, to deacons, to vessels of mercy, it is given to know that mystery by the mighty dealing of the Holy Ghost, as they are quickened into newness of life.

The mystery of the being of God. How profound is this! None can comprehend it, and who can in any measure apprehend it, except the Holy Ghost make it known? “There are gods many, and lords many” (1 Corinthians 8: 15), but there is but one true God, the God of the Bible; and that one true God in three distinct Persons is made known in the Scriptures. What a mystery! Dear Hart writes:

To comprehend the great Three-One Is more than highest angels can.

But an opening of the profound mystery is given to the objects of Jehovah’s choice, and the manifestation of the Trinity in a sinner’s conscience is made exceedingly sweet to him. Revelation of truth in the heart comes with power, and is made sweet to the sinner who receives it; and certainly no man ought to attempt to preach, except that profound mystery is well laid in his bosom. What proofs of the Trinity are in the Scriptures? In creation, just briefly. Said this great Three-One God: “Let us make man in our own image.” But especially in connection with the wonders of grace and salvation does he make himself known in his Trinity of Persons. The Father provided salvation, the blessed holy Son procured it, and the Holy Ghost in his infinite mercy bears witness of it to his people. Now, do we poor ministers speak of that great salvation as we should? I am often weighing up my poor feeble ministry and begging of God, especially now I am coming to the end of my days, that it may please him to help

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me to exalt his great and holy Name more than I ever have. Oh that the Holy Spirit may be upon us poor ministers more abundantly!

And then the profound mystery of the incarnation. Do we preach that as often as we should? You fellow-ministers know about the matter in your own consciences, as I know in mine; and how important it is! How important to speak with fear and trembling of how the great Head of the church became incarnate. I do feel that the greatest part of the Spirit’s work in the covenant of grace is his great part in the incarnation of the Son of God. The Scriptures tell us so solemnly, so sacredly, how it was brought about (Luke 1: 35). It was thus that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And then the great reason of the incarnation. It was for the obtaining by the great Head of the church his people’s redemption. No incarnation, no salvation. I again ask the question. Is that emphasized in our feeble ministry? I hear a little about the ministry, and in a great measure it says so much of God’s providential dealings, and then a building of people on this ground, saying, and young people catching hold of it so readily, that if they love the brethren, they are passed from death unto life, without any right opening of what that really means. John tells us what loving the brethren really means: “Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.” God help us to preach this, that the main evidence of divine life, the great sure ground of being in God’s favour, is application of the atonement. If God give you that seal, how you will love him that begat, and as a consequence will love those that are begotten of him! Oh that we preached more the glory, the beauty, the efficacy of the atonement! And if God makes a minister he will make him first personally acquainted with an interest in that atonement, and if he get that seal, its efficacy, its wondrous power, will be exceedingly dear unto his soul. And as regards the sinner’s redemption, the putting away of sin, being made acceptable unto God, this will be his one theme: “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Woe be to that person that dares to add to that! Woe be unto him that dares to attempt to take away from it! Their attempts will be futile, but daring indeed must such a one be that is left to take such a step. Oh we ministers, if we hold the mystery of that precious part of the faith once delivered unto the saints, there will be a holding of it tenaciously in the fear of God.

Another point the sovereignty of God. Do we preach that as definitely as we should? If we are made ministers, how dear that will

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be unto us, and how we shall believe, right deep down in our hearts, that the great God of heaven has separated the sons and daughters of fallen Adam into two companies! The Scripture says, one company the seed of promise, the objects of Jehovah’s choice; the other the seed of the serpent, who will receive justly Jehovah’s wrath.

“Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” These great things should be abundantly preached, and 1 am persuaded of this, that it would be profitable if the good Lord were to help us the more to cling to this, and talk a little less of those little every-day ups and downs, and ins and outs, that come upon us, which things are sanctified to God’s people, but too often are accepted more than such things should be as sufficient evidence of being a child of God. I have heard people say after a service: “Wasn’t he nice? he did come into my path.” And I have taken the liberty to ask which part of the sermon was so nice to them, and what came so into their path; and the question has been answered after this manner: “Well, it so touched upon such and such a trial, and things that have to do with this time state.” But I said: “Did not he say anything that just touched your soul, that brought, by the Spirit’s blessing, some comfortable measure of hope that you have part and lot in the atonement?” Our time things will end, but the making of our calling and election sure by the Spirit’s sealing of interest in Jesus Christ, that is the main thing. Do we ministers principally speak about that? Well, conscience will answer, but how important it is! Said the great Apostle: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

One other thing the mystery of the Fall Is that preached as it ought to be preached? It is not often that we hear the word “sinner” from the pulpits today. All are “dear friends” and such terms as that. I knew an old friend who sat under the ministry of Daniel Smart. Many years ago, this friend said to me: “When God helped Daniel Smart to say the word 4sinner,’ it used to ring through the heart of many of us.” How many of our congregations are alarmed today from the pulpit with right rendering, Scriptural rendering, of the awful mystery, that sad truth of the Fall? How many are told again and again of their wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, that they have a heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and its wickedness is unfathomable? Several times in my visits to the late Mr J. K. Popham, of Brighton, when

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talking about the ministry, he said: “Two things for the pulpit, in the main sin and salvation, sin and salvation.” Well, the good Lord help us poor ministers to take these things as our subjects more abundantly. I know there will be enough there to last my few days out; enough there to last your days out, however young a minister you may be!

“Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” But this has to do with deacons. What a mercy for a church to have godly deacons, gracious deacons! And how solemn is the office of a deacon! He is the steward of the church. His eye ought to be always wide open, his ears especially wide open, for in the absence of a stated ministry the greatest charge of the deacon is the pulpit. O gracious deacons, how they will seek to keep the pulpit clean and clear, and beg that God will furnish it only with ministers who, through mercy, do hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience! I sadly know of some deacons who say: “We must get a man in the pulpit”; and with some deacons it matters very little who or what that man is. Dear deacons, you had better read good sermons from January to December, than let into your pulpits men that you feel shaky about, men who in your conscience you know do not hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And then, where there is no pastor, how solemn is the office of the deacons, for they should have the first handling of the solemn matter of people being admitted into the church! We do not expect young converts to be doctors of divinity, but we do expect this, that there shall be some clear indication, some sacred manifestation, that God has had to do with them in the weighty matter of conviction of sin, in the emptying of them of all hope in themselves, in making them beggars at mercy’s door. And further, no person should be admitted into the church unless they can give some right manifestation that they have been raised by the Holy Ghost to a living hope in the mercy of God, in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. I have heard some say: “Well, they always attend, and they seem to be so sober,” and things like that; and then on that over-much abused—I will use that word carefully—loving of the brethren, I fear some do get into churches wrongly. Better tell that young person who has but very little evidence of the Spirit’s work in his or her heart, to wait awhile, watch awhile. Deal very tenderly with them, be nurses unto them, in prayerful hope that God may deal with them, as if they be his he surely will in his own time, to qualify them by a right and

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rich measure of experience and assurance, that his thoughts toward them are thoughts of peace, and not of evil.

Well, these are just a few very weighty and solemn things that have been upon my spirit respecting ministers and deacons. The offices are terrible in their solemnity. I have known of some places where they have said: “Well, we must elect Mr So-and-so; he is a very wealthy supporter; he is a business man; he knows just this, and that, and the other.” But how solemn if these be the qualifications of a deacon in the eyes of a church! Oh, that will not be so, if the church is made and kept tender in the sacred fear of God! There will be a watching unto prayer. The office of deacon should indeed be one of great care among us!

Well, suffer these few words, as I hope I have spoken them in fear and in love. It may occasion much heart-searching among us. Good if it does. But I trust that it will not be an occasion of anything offensive among us. The good Lord help us ministers, deacons, members of churches to weigh our cases in this solemn sanctuary balance. May we through mercy, hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Oh! if God increase this among us, I believe we should speedily find improvement in the churches. Improvement, as one of my friends said to me not long ago, must begin with the Holy Ghost working in the closet, working in us as individuals. If our secret religion is healthy, (and God make it more abundant!) that will be manifest when we come together, and it will be sealed beyond all doubt with God’s sweet smile. Oh that it may be so, for his dear Name’s sake. Amen.

Book Review by Andrew G. Randalls

With Mercy and with Judgement by Matthew J. Hyde. Gospel Standard Trust Publications, 515 pages, illustrated, £13.

With Mercy and with Judgement is a paperback of 515 pages printed in double columns with many photographs of the men, their families and Strict Baptist places of worship from all over England who fought and died in the Great War. The price is affordable at £13. The wealth of information the author has collected is astonishing and yet there is so much more to be told. It is a book that one can dip into

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here and there making it easy reading for the average reader. Where ever one reads in this volume they will find interesting historical, social and spiritual matter. Many descendants of these Strict Baptist servicemen will find this a fascinating record of their forefathers and ministers they knew and loved. I cannot emphasize enough the unique nature of this book and its importance, never before undertaken by any historian. Our nation should be made aware of this God fearing generation that were the salt of British life who believed that “righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14: 34).

Dr Hyde has planned the with four measured parts. First, there is a valuable “overview” covering the Strict Baptist response to war, with sections dealing with life in the forces, the war on the ‘home front’, the war and ministers and the end of the war with a good conclusion.

The second part concerns itself with thirty three “diaries and memories” of the soldiers. These are a spiritual treasure house of gracious experience, as well as daily life from the front. Men like Clement Kay Baldwin (p. 125) speak of the help they received from The Gospel Standard magazine, subtitled The Feeble Christians Support. Many more testify to the help they received from the magazine sermons and articles. The Gospel Standard and The Friendly Companion are remarkable depositaries of gospel truth expounding the life and power of godliness in the soul.

The third part is concerned with the letters of thirty seven men who wrote home from the front, with fifteen letters sent to them from parents and friends, also ministers including Mr Carr and Mr Popham.

The fourth and last part closes with a selection of “war poetry”, which is very welcome indeed, making the book a complete compilation of every aspect of the lives of the men who went to war.

There is no distinction made between the various divisions amongst the Strict Baptist churches in England, and this makes this work an honest and full record of these men. That said, there is a preponderance of testimonies from those who adhered to the Gospel Standard, largely because they appear to have left more in writing. However, the substance of this work concerns those of God’s elect who manifested a work of grace in their souls, and came from various Strict Baptist places of worship.

Dr Hyde has left us a very welcome testimony to many whose grandfathers were called to the colours to defend our British liberties.

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This book does not concern itself so much about politics, tactics, campaigns and military strategy (see the Overview) but more about a little known group of men from England who fought and died for their beloved country. Its subject is the men from a Christian denomination who are over looked today by all historians and yet in WWI represented a part of the cream of British manhood whose heartfelt calling was, “Fear God. Honour the king” (1 Peter 2: 17). These service men were men of prayer, Sabbath loving and of a tender conscience, lovers of the “Authorised” King James Bible and Gadsby’s Hymns or some similar collection used in the Strict Baptist churches. They knew no other language but the Bible in English of 1611AD. They loved and embraced the distinctive doctrines of free and sovereign grace against Arminianism and Fullerism. Their church order was strict or restricted communion at the Lord’s Table to those baptized by immersion in water, and members of churches of the same faith and order, whose life and conduct were according to the gospel. These were the men that went to war.

There are 978 reference footnotes. An index to the “The Muster Roll” from The Christian's Pathway is provided for those researching the lives of their forebears. The Index I found a little difficult to follow, but is as far as I can tell complete and very thorough.

The book is well planned and will suit the needs of the average man who is today generally not a great reader but a dipper who likes short pieces. It is well illustrated and the cover design with the poppy on the front is attractive with the contrast of the red and greys. It feels nice in the hand and opens nicely with book mark type covers that tuck easily into the pages. I can thoroughly endorse this book to the reader and recommend it as work of inestimable value to historians and the private reader.

We would like to thank Mr Randalls for submitting this review for publication in the Sinner Saved. We make no claims to perfection, and we have been notified of several mistakes in the first printing of this book. We are pleased to have been able to rectify these in the second printing, but would welcome notification of any other errors any reader might notice (in anything we publish), and also any additional information which we might be able to publish within this magazine, or in a further, supplementary, volume.

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James Abbott, attended the ministry of William Huntington, and after his death joined the congregation of Huntington’s son-in-law Joseph F. Burrell. He wrote prolifically to the members of the fledgling church at Port Vale Chapel, Hertford, and also to the Gilpin sisters at Pulverbach. The book contains much sound, experimental divinity, so characteristic of the lives and writings of the followers of William Huntington. Much of the material contained in this volume has never before been published. It was preserved to us in a manuscript volume, copied out by William Benson of Hertford, and now in the possession of the Gospel Standard Baptist Library.

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“The Sinner Saved" is an occasional publication of The Huntingtonian Press. Our aim is to promote the serious consideration, study and exposition of those doctrines commonly called “Calvinism”. However, it is our concern that the modern day approach to these doctrines has led to an arid intellectual “Calvinism” verging on Sandemanianism, and which we believe to be the bane of the church. We consider that there is a need for what our fathers termed “Experimental Calvinism”, the Calvinism which was preached by men such as (but not exclusively) William Huntington & Joseph Irons (Independent), Robert Hawker & David Doudney (Anglican), William Gadsby & J C Philpot (Baptist), and a host of other such witnesses of the truth.

We invite both subscriptions and correspondence to this journal which if published, must be in general sympathy with the aims and the objects of The Huntingtonian Press. However, the editor reserves the right to reduce the length of any articles/correspondence submitted.

“The Sinner Saved” hereby grants permission for the reprinting of articles in this journal by other publications provided that such reprinted articles are reproduced in full without any editing, that proper acknowledgment citing both the source and the editorial address is given, and a copy of the publication in which any reproduced article appears is sent to the editorial office.

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