Packer on Baxter’s Directory

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The following lengthy quote is from J. I. Packer’s introduction to Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory.. The task of writing an encyclopedia entry on Baxter has given me opportunity to delve some more into the man who in the eyes of many embodies the oversight of souls. This quote provides a great contrast between the pastoral teaching of Baxter and much of what passes for instruction today.”From this standpoint it is possible to see clearly the difference between the ‘how-to’ books that today’s evangelicals write for each other and the ‘how-to’ teaching of the Directory, which is so much wiser and digs so much deeper. Our ‘how-tos’ –  how to have a wonderful family, great sex, financial success, in a Christian way; how to cope with grief, life-passages, crises, fears, frustrating relationships, and what not else – give us formulae to be followed by a series of supposedly simple actions on our part, to be carried out in obedience to instructions in the manner of a person painting by numbers or activating a computer. Wisdom in role-play is all; ‘heart-work’ hardly comes into it. This wisdom is in Baxter, too, though usually in a more sober, searching, shrewd form than we superficial moderns attain to; but his ‘how-to’s’ are regularly concerned with the ‘heart-work’ that is involved in doing what has to be done with the glory of God as your goal, and love and compassion for the needy other as your motive, and a passion for holiness as your driving desire, and a vivid sense of spiritual conflict keeping you humbly distrustful of yourself, and constantly watchful against Satan’s devices, and deeply dependent on Christ every moment. Only a little thought about the models of godliness set forth in the Psalms and the moral teachings of the Epistles is needed to convince one that Baxter and the Puritans were right to zero in on the ‘heart-work’ of right action, and that our generation has been terribly wrong to neglect it. Had we remembered that what makes good works good, according to the Scriptures, is a right form, fixed by law and wisdom, allied to right desires, fixed by the gospel, we might have been spared the egocentric, zany, simplistic, degenerate, half-magic-spell type of evangelicalism which is all that the world sees when it watches religious TV or looks directly at the professedly evangelical community. Such evangelicalism neither honors God nor blesses man. Back to Baxter! would make a good and healthful motto for the Christian leadership of our time.”

Baxter and the Dangers of Pride

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I am convinced that one of the major problems in contemporary American Christianity is pride. I think this is the case in the workings of my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. We so easily cave to the allure of the praise of men. Early we learn that the way forward is to lavish human-centered praise, and we learn to gauge our progress by the amount of exuberant praise received. I need often to be reminded of the Bible’s rebuke of such ways, and historical examples help me.

It is said that after Richard Baxter received a letter full of praise to him, he responded by writing, “I have the remainders of pride in me; how dare you blow up the sparks of it?” While we need not be unkind to those who wish to express appreciation, we can learn from this example of “self-watch” (Baxter’s term). I would dare say that today you are more likely in the circles of church leadership to be rebuked (or ignored, overlooked) for failing to express enough praise than for fawning.

Let us be quick to give appreciation and thanks, but let us be measured and not exaggerated. Love for our brother will call for us to encourage him with thanks, but it will also call for us to be careful about kindling the sparks of arrogance that lie within his heart just as within ours.

Family Driven Faith, Review

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I finished reading this book this weekend and really enjoyed it. My primary overall reaction was, “This book more than any other I have read expresses what my wife and I aspire to for our family.” This book can be of a lot of help to a lot of people.

If you have heard Voddie any time in the last few years you have probably heard some of the material in this book. It is great now to have all of this (and more) in book form. He stresses the role of parents in discipling their own children, the importance of the husband-wife relationship for the children, and the value of children (in contrast to our culture). With these themes he stresses the importance of family worship and the importance of fathers taking the role in teaching their children about God. He powerfully contrasts this with typical priorities among fathers. He encourages having and raising children without being legalistic about how many and how soon we should have them. He talks about how churches fail to help by sustaining the idea that parents need not disciple their own children. There is much of value here and our people (particularly fathers) will gain much in reading this book.

My wife and I came to some of these same conclusions during our time in Scotland. As we prepared to return to a more hectic pace of life in the US we discussed how to maintain what had become important to us. We called it being “family-centered.” Our family, not job or ministry or activities, would be the center of life for us. We wanted our home culture to be the primary culture for our children. By making our home strong and healthy we would be enabled to reach out effectively. But keeping the home central would mean saying no to any number of good things. We continue to struggle to do this well, and this book was a renewed encouragement to me. I found myself being more diligent to look for ways to demonstrate love to my wife, and I was rejuvenated in our efforts in family worship.

Two areas will probably be points of debate concerning this book: schooling and church structure. Voddie is very positive about homeschooling (as am I) but he clearly states that he is not saying this is what all Christians must do. I was glad to see that. Secondly, he advocates having no nursery or any children’s classes at church. This is what is done at his home church in Texas. I, too, am not satisfied with the typical overly segregated church settings. Therefore I appreciate the sentiment. However, I still see a place for a nursery and for children’s classes. At our church we have Sunday School classes for children through age 11. At age 12 a child goes into the adult class with his parents where we cycle through a four year cycle covering systematic theology, church history, bible overview, and the practical outworkings of the faith. Thus Sunday School provides another format for parents to disciple their teenagers as they discus what is going on in class throughout the week. Younger children have their own classes intended to aid parents in their discipleship. Also we have a nursery during corporate worship. We encourage parents to bring their children into the service at 4-5 years of age.
Voddie is careful not to demand churches follow his model exactly but calls for us to consider ways to encourage families in their roles. I wholeheartedly affirm that goal, though we differ in how we go about it.

I hope many people will read this book.

Washington’s First Mission

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Duel in the Wilderness , Karin Clafford Farley
(The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1995), pb., 215 pp.
Ages 10+

This book chronicles George Washington’s expedition into the Ohio country as an emissary of the Governor of Virginia and the King of England to deliver a message to the French who were pushing into territory claimed by the British. This is a true story (obviously filled in in places) of the event which made Washington a known and respected name at age 20. Thus, it has real potential for excitement and adventure but fails significantly. We persevered through this one, and would not commend it to you. There are too many other books on Washington to get bogged down in this one.

What did we not like about it? First, it was simply dull. There is too much psychologizing about Washington’s thoughts rather than telling the story. Also the author has the odd, irritating practice of referring to Washington as “George” whereas she refers to others by their last name. To us that came across as disrespectful. The author seems to be intent on showing the youth and lack of maturity of Washington, at least until the end of the story. Lastly, I was surprised to find multiple instances of profanity in this “children’s book” which we purchased because it was recommended by Veritas Press!

You can find the actual text of Washington’s journal from this trip and a summary of the story here. This will serve you better without having to buy a book.

Missionary Determination

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Here are two other related quotes from The Greatest Century of Missions.

“Missionary service demands dedication, determination and discipline – and these qualities are basically rejected by the television generation.” (p. 127)

“CMS Missionary at Uganda, Alexander Macay, when 27 years old, expressed the singleminded determination common to 19th century volunteers: ‘I want to remind the committee that within six months they will probably hear that one of us is dead. But . . . when that news comes, do not be cast down, but send someone else immediately to take the vacant place.'” (p. 128)

Brothers, we must teach, commend, and exemplify this spirit.

Paton and the Cannibals

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As promised, here is a quote from The Greatest Century of Missions.
In describing the determination of the 19th century missionaries, Hammond relates this great exchange from John Paton.

“Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument was, ‘The Cannibals! You will be eaten by Cannibals!’ At last I replied, ‘Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.'” (133)

Yes! I find myself wishing to have such quick wit, and then more importantly yearning to be marked by such clarity of purpose.

Greatest Century of Missions, review

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Peter Hammond. The Greatest Century of Missions. Cape Town, South Africa: Christian Liberty Books, 1982. pb. 146 pp.

I read this book over Christmas break and have been waiting since then to post something about it. It is such a good book, I have kept putting off writing “until I could really do it justice.” Well, that time may never come so here is an attempt.

This is a dynamic discussion of missions, well-written and crafted to inspire, motivate and challenge. This is not dry, abstract discussion. This is moving sermonic book.

The overall point of the book is to ask what inspired the great missionary thrust of the 19th century so that we might seek to have another such bold advance today. He briefly lays out the evidence for the claim that the 19th century was the greatest century of missions (Carey, Livingstone, etc.). Then he first notes three key, common characteristics of missionaries at this time:
1. Sacrifice and Service- He makes the point that they saw sacrifice and hardship as simply part of the call, and therefore willingly endured things which are hard for us to imagine today. Hammond here chastises our pursuit of comfort.

Hammond writes: “A mission organisation wrote to David Livingstone asking: ‘Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to send other men to join you.’ Livingstone replied: ‘If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come even if there is no road at all.'” (p. 6)

2. They were interested in body, mind and soul. They were not simply seeking professions of faith, but they sought to see the gospel transform all of society. He points to Carey as an example as he sought not only to start churches but to set up schools and to effect local laws.

3. They had an eschatology of victory. He basically is referring to post-millenialism. They expected to see the gospel change the world, instead of expecting the world to deteriorate as so many today do. In the end I am not convinced of post-millenialism, but we ought to learn something about expecting to see the gospel advance instead of the overly pessimistic expectation sometimes produced by certain brands of pre-millenialism. The hope of victory is what drove these pioneers of the past onward, what convinced them that any sacrifice was worth it.

He quotes William Carey- “. . .We are neither working at uncertainty nor afraid for the result. . . He must reign until Satan has not an inch of territory!” (p. 8)Later (chapter 5) he makes the argument that Reformed theology (particularly the sovereignty of God in salvation) is what empowered this great mission advance.

All of these are useful points. The best part of the book though is recounting of missionary examples. Some you probably have heard of before, but having them all in one “well told” source is great. This would be a good book to hand to people to challenge them to think more seriously about our obligation to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

This is long enough for now. So I will post some further quotes in subsequent posts.

Drums of War series

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Drums of War Series, by Peter Reese Doyle
Independence, Vol. 1, pb, 170 pp
Bunker Hill, Vol. 2, pb, 171
A Captive in Williamsburg , Vol. 3, pb,
(Providence Foundation, 1997, 1998)
Ages 6-12+

These three books of historical fiction are set in Williamsburg, VA as the Revolutionary War begins. So, we began reading volume one a day or two before we left for our visit to Williamsburg. We then read the first book while we were there and the next two after we got back home. It was a great combination!

The story centers on two families in Williamsburg, the Hendricks and Edwards. Fourteen year old Andrew Hendricks and his friend Nathan Edwards are the main characters. Their fathers are key participants in the patriot movement and the two boys are particularly keen on each others sisters. The books are intentionally written from a Christian worldview so the faith of the families is evident. There are good examples of faith, bravery, grit, resourcefulness, nobility and sacrifice. My boys (ages 7-10) really got into them. The books are not up to the level of Allen French, but they were good.

These books are great for learning. From our visit to Williamsburg I was struck about how careful and accurate these books were. Readers are introduced to key leaders who are not often talked about in other places as well key battles. I realized that the typical overviews of this era deal almost exclusively with the north once the War begins.

We particularly were excited by reading about Captain Innes in the books. While at Williamsburg we met and heard from one of the actors playing the part of Innes! We did not know if this character was a historical person or a fictional “typical” character. Enough detail was given to him in some of the dramas that I suspected he was a historical figure, but we were delighted to encounter him in the book as the leader of the local militia. Here is a picture we took with Captain Innes- before we read about him in the books!

Many of the locations in Williamsburg are mentioned in these books so they are great to read in relation to a trip to Williamsburg. So we would highly commend both the books and the trip! Our boys loved Williamsburg and these books allowed us to keep thinking through all we saw there.

The Hobbit, Audio

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About a year ago I read The Hobbit to my boys and we all loved it. I recently found this audio version for a great deal (about $5!- not at Amazon). We have only listened to the first few minutes so far but we were taken with it immediately. The reading is really well done. My 9 year old checked yesterday to make sure I was not listening to it without them! He did not want to miss out on any of it.

Listening again to the introduction of Gandalf I was struck particularly by one line:
“Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went.”

I found myself thinking, I want that reputation with my own kids.