Dan Greenfield

Category: Current Reading

  • Death

    Writing to his son, the Rev. Daniel Baker (1791-1857) said, O my son, never lose sight of death…We should always bear in mind not only that we just die, but that we may die soon, may die unexpectedly. The Life and Labors or the Rev. Daniel Baker, Pastor and Evangelist,…

  • Henry Sloan Coffin, professed “liberal evangelical”

    In The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates (by Bradley J. Longfield, 1991) the author gives short biographies of key men during the controversies in the Presbyterian denomination from 1922 to 1936. The fundamentalists are represented by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) and William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), with Henry Sloan Coffin…

  • “Do we set a high estimation on Christ?”

    Puritan Thomas Watson answers this question in his The Godly Man’s Picture, providing good thoughts for prayer for myself and others (pp. 50-53): 1. If we are prizers of Christ, then we prefer him in our judgments before other things. Gregory Nazianzene solemnly blessed God that he had anything to…

  • Raising depressed preachers’ spirits

    An 18th century Calvinistic Methodist, John Evans from Cilycwm, Wales, “was prone to depression. Once, he and Dafydd Morris were on a journey in Anglesey and preaching at Cerriglleithir, the home of Sion Roland. After the service, John Evans was very uncommunicative. He sat, in a depressed slump by the…

  • Godly Soil

          William Baker describes Midway, GA, where his father, the godly Presbyterian pastor Rev. Daniel Baker (1791-1857), arose from: They were a race, the chief culture of whose heart, conscience, and understanding, was at the family altar, and in the closet; was in the Sabbath sanctuary, that central…

  • The Effect of Unbelief in Ministers

    In Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar challenges us in the Lord’s service: Thus did they preach and thus did they hear in those days of terror and death. Men were in earnest then, both in speaking and hearing. There was no coldness, no languor, no studied oratory. Truly they preached…

  • Preach as a Dying Man to Dying Men

    In Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar now directs us toward needed actions in the Lord’s service: Many of our readers have seen, we doubt not, a small volume of Vincent, the non-conformist minister, respecting the great plague and fire in London. Its title is “God’s Terrible Voice in the City.”…

  • Labor On Until the End

    In Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar now directs us toward needed actions in the Lord’s service: “When do you intend to stop?” was the question once put by a friend to Rowland Hill. “Not till we have carried all before us,” was the prompt reply. Such is our answer…

  • Labor with Zeal and Love in the Lord’s Harvest Field

    In Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar now directs us toward needed actions in light of our sins and failures: In the fifth and sixth centuries, Gildas and Salvian arose to alarm and arouse a careless church and a formal ministry. In the sixteenth, such was the task which devolved…

  • Revival in the Ministry

    In Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar now directs us toward needed actions in light of our sins and failures: “Take heed unto thyself,”—1 Timothy 4:16. It is easier to speak or write about revival than to set about it. There is so much rubbish to be swept out, so…

  • The Spirit Dishonored and Christ’s Mind Absent

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the thirteenth and fourteenth of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of dishonoring the Spirit and being without the mind of Christ: We have not honored the Spirit of…

  • We Have not Been Men of Prayer

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the twelfth of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of being flippant, self-centered, and proud: We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered amongst…

  • We Have Not Preached as We Should Nor Honored God’s Word

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the tenth and eleventh of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of note preaching as we should nor honoring God’s Word: We have not fully preached a free gospel.…

  • We Have Been Flippant, Self-Centered, and Proud

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the seventh, eighth, and ninth of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of being flippant, self-centered, and proud: We have been wanting in solemnity. In reading the lives of…

  • We Have Been Cold and Timid

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the fifth and sixth of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of being cold and timid: We have been cold. Even when diligent, how little warmth and glow! The…

  • We Have Been Selfish and Slothful

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the third and fourth of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of being selfish and slothful: We have been selfish. We have shrunk from toil, difficulty and endurance, counting…

  • We Have Been Carnal and Unspiritual

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar identifies the second of 14 specific sins that we must confess, that of being carnal and unfaithful: The tone of our life has been low and earthly. Associating too much and…

  • Confess Unfaithfulness

    Having considered the many and numerous failures in serving the Lord, in his Words to Winners of Souls Horatius Bonar then lists 14 specific sins that we must confess: Let us, as they did, deal honestly with ourselves. Our confessions ought to be no less ample and searching. We have been…

  • Remember and Repent, Part 5

    Horatius Bonar finishes relaying the 1651 Church of Scotland’s confession of ministerial sins in his Words to Winners of Souls: “Bitterness, instead of zeal in speaking against malignants, sectarians, and other scandalous persons; and unfaithfulness therein. Not studying to know the particular condition of the souls of the people, that…

  • Remember and Repent, Part 4

    As I relayed in my first post I have found great benefit in prayerfully working through Horatius Bonar’s excellent  Words to Winners of Souls. I would challenge you as Bonar continues relaying the 1651 Church of Scotland’s confession of ministerial sins to prayerfully examine your own labors for Christ. “Not entertaining that…