The Duke’s Daughter

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The Duke’s Daughter: A Story of Faith and Love,
By Lachlan Mackenzie
Illustrated by Jeff Anderson
(Christian Focus, 2008), hb., 24 pp.
Ages 3-6

This is another book in the same volume as Spurgeon’s Queen Victoria’s Request. Mackenzie was a colorful Scottish preacher in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. However, this book is not up to the same standard as the Spurgeon one.

In this story a duke has a beautiful daughter, and he expects many men to indicate interest in marrying her at an upcoming celebration. However, before any of the young men arrive a beggar pushes himself forward and asks for her hand in marriage. To the amazement of all she accepts and is to be married the following year on the same day. Many, including her father try to get her to change her mind, not understanding what she saw in this beggar. On the appointed day a handsome prince arrives to marry her and everyone realizes- what the young woman had discerned- that the beggar was the prince in disguise.

The gospel point is not real apparent. I assume we are supposed to see that people will not understand what we see in Jesus. However, this sounds too much like what I call the “poor Jesus” approach to evangelism- “Why won’t you just give him a chance?”

I would recommend you purchase the Spurgeon story and skip this one.

Queen Victoria’s Request

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Queen Victoria’s Request: A Story of Grace and Mercy,
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Illustrated by Jeff Anderson
(Christian Focus, 2008), hb., 24 pp.
Ages 3-6

This is a nicely illustrated, engaging story that illustrates the gospel well. Spurgeon in his characteristic way tells a down to earth story of an “old ragged, dirty beggar” who receives a summons from Queen Victoria to come to her palace right away just as he is. He is told that he will stay away at his own peril. People scoff at such an idea and the beggar struggles with thinking that he is not really desired to come or that he should clean himself up first. In the end he trusts the message to mean exactly what it says and he acts on its command. To the amazement of others he is accepted by the Queen and made one of the princes of the court.

The point is clear- the call of the gospel is beyond belief but we must simply take God at His word and act on his call. Furthermore the gospel is not just an invitation. It is a summons, a command. It is not just an offer. God has commanded that we come to Christ and any who refuse to so at their own peril.

This is a good parable for all, and accessible to children. My eight year old read it to my six year old today.

It would have nice to have some sort of preface providing some information about how this story originally came into being. This is a nice book, though, and useful for helping children understand the gospel.

Barnabas and Jonathan

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I have commented previously on my family’s appreciation of the Bible Wise series of Bible stories from Christian Focus. They have recently published two more books in this series, Barnabas: The Encourager and Jonathan: The Faithful Friend, both by Carine Mackenzie. As in all the series, the illustrations are done by Fred Apps, probably our favorite illustrator of Bible books.

Both of these books maintain the high level of biblical fidelity which have marked the series and which makes them the best such series around. These volumes, like some previous ones, also deal with characters who often do not get such specific treatment. So, having a specific book on these two characters is itself a real benefit. Some books in the series make very good biblical theological applications from Old Testament to New Testament, but these focus more on highlighting good qualities of the main character. This is understandable given the characters in view.

I should note one slight hesitation. One picture in the Jonathan book is more graphic than what I have typically seen in this series. The depiction of Jonathan’s death has not simply blood on his chest but also streaming out of his mouth. Now, I have argued elsewhere that we ought not water down biblical stories. But, even my boys were a bit taken back by this picture. Parents should simply be aware of this and make decisions accordingly.

In summary, these are good additions to a wonderful series, and we would warmly recommend them.

Calls to Worship

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Christian Focus has recently published an interesting little book titled, Calls to Worship: A Pocket Resource, by Robert Vasholz. I was interested in this book because I think we fail to think enough about how Scripture can function as a true call to worship.
Bryan Chappell in the foreword makes an excellent point:

“The call to worship is not simply a perfunctory greeting of human cordiality, but is at once a weighty responsibility and a joyful privilege.” (10)

“With a scriptural call to worship God invites us by his Word to join the worship of the ages and angels. God does not simply invite us to a party of friends, or a lecture on religion, or a concert of sacred music – he invites us into the presence of the King of the Universe before whom all creation will bow and for whom all heaven now sings. With the call to worship God’s people are invited to participate in the wondrous praise that already and eternally enraptures the hosts of heaven. This awesome news and great privilege should be reflected with appropriate enthusiasm and joy by the worship leader in the call to worship. Such a call will typically lead directly into a corporate or choral hymn of praise as God’s people respond to the blessings of worship into which they are called. A well-planned call to worship often reflects the theme of the service or the nature [of] the occasion so that the remaining elements of service are a natural outflow of, and response to, the content of the call.” (11)

The book then contains brief (typically two to three lines) calls to worship using biblical language and suited to various occasions in the church. These will no doubt be helpful to many. What I had hoped for, however, particularly after the comments quoted from the foreword, was suggestions about specific direct texts which could be used for calls to worship. I prefer to use full texts (complete Psalms, or discrete portions of scripture) as calls to worship.

In My Place Condemned He Stood

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In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement
By J.I. Packer & Mark Dever
(Crossway, 2008), pb. 188 pp.

I received my copy of this book today and have just enjoyed looking through it. It is primarily a compilation of three classic Packer essays on the atonement. The T4G guys (Duncan, Mohler, Dever and Mahaney) decided to gather these into one volume after reflecting on how beneficial these essays had been to them. I can say that these three essays have also been beneficial to me along the way. The essays are:

“The Heart of the Gospel” from Knowing God– I still remember reading this for the first time and then the basic content of that chapter becoming the sermon I preached at every opportunity for months. It continues to be a key shaping element in my thought.

“The Logic of Penal Substitution”, first delivered as a Tyndale lecture

Packer’s introduction to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ– I suspect I am like many others who have greatly benefitted form this introductory essay even though I never read (completely) Owen’s book itself! This essay is already legendary!

Added to these essays is Dever’s “Nothing But the Blood” which previously appeared in Christianity Today, some brief introductory and concluding essays and some very helpful bibliographic remarks from Ligon Duncan. The annotated bibliography on the atonement will be a very helpful resource.

This is a great book to have and to make available to others.

Jack’s Ward, Horatio Alger

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Jack’s Ward, by Horatio Alger
(New York Book Company, 1909)
Hb., 164 pp
Ages 7+

I am behind in commenting on books we have read- we’re still reading but I have been short on time to write about them.

I purchased this book a few years ago when I found it for a cheap price (though it is falling apart!) because I had heard much about Alger’s novels about boys, adventure and pluck. It was, overall, disappointing, however.

The story does feature a hard-working boy (Jack), who protects his adopted sister. The values of frugality, honesty and diligence are affirmed. However, there were several weaknesses.
First, the story was fine but not all that compelling. It lacked the verve and adventure of other books we have read. We may be spoiled by C. S. Lewis, Allen French and Douglas Bond! Secondly, the language was poor. I understand books written in vernacular, but the slang used here did not add to the story but really detracted from it. Lastly, I was amazed and disappointed by the disrespect shown by Jack to his aunt in particular. Again, I am aware of good boys’ books which represent the main character doing various mischievous things, but the good books eventually make it clear that such things are not right. This story seems to condone a high level of disrespect and even cold heartedness from Jack to his aunt. The aunt is intended to be an unlikeable character which would lead the reader to affirm Jack’s disrespect; but, respect is due to elders whether or not it is deserved.

This is the only Alger book I have read so I cannot comment on them all. This one, however, could be skipped. There is some value in it, but there are plenty other good books to read.

Pursuing Manhood

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Several months ago I mentioned an address I had given to young men here at Union on manhood. That address has now appeared in essay form in the latest issue of the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood under the title, “Pursuing Manhood.” The essay is available on their website as well.
This issue of JBMW is the first issue under their new editor, Denny Burk. Denny’s editorial is available online and he explains the new format of the journal.

Oversight and Preaching

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In my pastoral ministry class we recently discussed John Angell James’ book, An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times. I have previously commented on this excellent book several times. There is so much good in this book, and I heartily commend it (and, fwiw, I do prefer to edition linked here).

By “earnestness” James means what today- due greatly to the influence of John Piper- would be dubbed “passion.” He calls for a whole-hearted devotion to the labor of saving souls, which he is careful to define as including both seeing people come to faith and laboring for their sanctification so that they persevere (previous comment on this point).

Of such earnestness James also writes:

“Good preaching and good shepherding are quite compatible with each other, and he who is in earnest will combine both.” (149)

This is a needed point. If we are in earnest about the salvation of souls we must labor in the teaching of the Word and in the careful oversight of the souls of our flock. These two activities cannot rightly be divorced. Careful oversight may not make us famous since people cannot download our oversight onto their iPods, but our preaching cannot be what it ought to be without this oversight.

Kauflin on Worship Music

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Bob Kauflin’s new book, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), is gaining a lot of attention and rightly so. Through his work at Sovereign Grace Ministries Kauflin is one of the leading voices on worship today.

I knew I would agree with Kauflin on the core issues of worship. I was also delighted to read the following quote about the type of music we use. This is a lengthy quote, so I will simply cite it and plan to follow up with observations in another post. There is much wisdom in this quote.

“As I understand it, the best music enables people to genuinely and consistently magnify the greatness of the Savior in their hearts, minds, and wills. That’s a standard that will never change from culture to culture, generation to generation, church to church.
To flesh out this standard of excellence in your church, you’ll probably have a
musical center that effectively communicates to most people in the congregation. The songs sung in churches in rural Idaho, downtown Manhattan, Nottingham, England, and Bharuch, India are going to sound different. They should.

When it comes to innovations, remember that Scripture doesn’t mandate that we push the envelope, artistically speaking, on Sunday mornings. Artists will always be searching for new and fresh ways to express their gifts, but congregations must be able to hear the message without being distracted by the medium. When we meet to worship God, we’re not aiming to glorify creativity but the Creator.

And as a practical matter, edifying the church means using songs that everyone can sing. What’s on my iPod isn’t always the best place to start when I’m picking songs for congregational worship. I need to think through the musical level of the people I’m leading. I generally look for songs with melodies between a low A to a high D that are easy to learn and hard to forget. I also try to avoid complicated rhythms.” (p. 106)

Martin Rattler

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Martin Rattler, R. M. Ballantyne

This is the second Ballantyne book I have mentioned here. On the first book I gave a longer review. This book has the same basic strengths and weaknesses of the previous volume, though i don’t think the vocabulary is as challenging in this one.

The title of this book comes from the name of the young hero. Ballantyne provides in the early chapters a good picture of an earnest boy who means well though he gets into scrapes. One character illustrates those who do not understand the energy of a boy and other characters illustrate those who can see in a boy promise and the possibility of training and directing his energy rather than simply condemning. These are good pictures in our more feminized age.

The early chapters chronicle a fight between Martin and a larger, older bully where Martin fights to defend his little cat from the bully who intends to drown it. This provides a good example of standing up for the defenseless as well typical responses of bullies.

Eventually Martin and an older friend, Barney, escape pirates and find themselves on the shore of Brazil. There are fascinating descriptions of the forests of Brazil and encounters with various animals including jaguars! Martin and Barney’s encounters with a former monk open the door for strong statements about the need for the Bible and how Catholic priests had withheld the Bible. Ballantyne frequently ties in Christianity, though, as I noted before, not as smoothly or thoroughly as Douglas Bond.

This is a good adventure story which also makes good points about the faith, courage, and resourcefulness as well as introducing its readers to Brazil. We recommend it.