What Various Hindrances We Meet

I stumbled across this text by William Cowper in Hymns of Grace and Glory the other night, where it is set to the tune Maryton by H. Percy Smith.
What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy seat;
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there.
Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw,
Prayer [...]

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No place for levity

Tozer’s sixth Hebrews sermon “Therefore…” is a good one. His text is the beginning of Hebrews 2, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” I love it when Tozer picks on trivial things and reminds us that this life we Christians live is serious.
We [...]

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We even rejoice as we die

In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, early Greek apologist Justin Martyr recounts his conversation with a Jewish man and his companions. Written in the mid second century, it is an important document for understanding early Christianity, not least of all because of the many examples of how some ancient Christians handled the Old Testament.
One [...]

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CCW Podcast 5: Spurgeon, part 2

I have posted a new episode of my podcast, the second of two parts reading C. H. Spurgeon’s sermon “Omniscience.” You can download it for yourself here.

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How much more, when we speak to the King of kings

In the tract “Public Prayer” by John Newton, he admonishes us not to be irreverent in the manner with which we pray:
Contrary to this, and still more offensive, is a custom that some have of talking to the Lord in prayer. It is their natural voice indeed, but it is that expression of it [...]

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I must think nobly of God

In his third sermon in his series on the book of Hebrews, “The Godhead of the Eternal Son” (preached June 25, 1961), A. W. Tozer connects Christian entertainment-pseudoworship with the idolatry of pagan worship. The argument begins by noticing that in Romans 1, part of the downward spiral of the unregenerate is in thinking wrongly [...]

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There is nothing new under the sun

Can you guess when the following was written? (My apology if this seems too easy.):
Who can charge with murder or cannibalism men who are known to be unwilling to countenance even lawful homicide? Who is not held in thrall by armed contests and beast-fights, especially when they are sponsored by yourselves? But we consider the [...]

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CCW Podcast 4: Spurgeon and Francke

This week features the first of a two part series reading the sermon “Omniscience” by Charles Hadden Spurgeon, as well as a brief excerpt from a sermon by August Hermann Francke.
You can find more information posted here, or simply download the podcast.

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O Love, How Deep

This 15 century Latin hymn was translated by Benjamin Webb (1819-1885) is often sung to the tune DEO GRACIAS (AGINCOURT SONG).
O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!
He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower [...]

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Weekly pithiness (9/17/06)

“We [Christians], on the other hand, consider life in this world as brief and of little worth.” – Athenagoras (Embassy for the Christians 12 [ACW 23; trans. Joseph Hugh Crehan; Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1956], 19)

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More Robert Greenberg

Sorry. I can’t resist posting this one.
Robert Greenberg, in his third lecture “The Middle Ages–Darkness, Change, and Diversity” in Part 1, “The Ancient World Through Early Baroque” of his Teaching Company series “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” says that the role of church in the early Medieval church was twofold:

To create a [...]

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Get rid of the internet

Are you free in Christ to have internet access? Yes. But Albert N. Martin, in his sermon “A Fresh Look at Christian Liberty #21″ (!) offers these sobering words of warning concerning whether or not every Christian should have internet access:
Internet access. It is drawing down into a vortex of bondage into sensuality and all [...]

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Greenberg’s three corollaries of early Christian church music

In his 2d lecture, “The Ancient World and the Early Church,” in the Teaching Company series How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, Dr. Robert Greenberg lists three essential corollaries of the nature and use of music in the worship of the early church.
1. Music must remind the listener of divine and perfect beauty. [...]

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A venture into the realm of podcasting

I listen to quite a bit of audio, and am particularly fond of listening to good books and lectures. For someone like me, who finds a great deal more enjoyment in the things of the past than the things in the present, the paucity of older Christian writings and sermons available in audio format is [...]

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