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Billy Sunday, the Man and His Message

This is called “the authorized edition” of Sunday’s biography, copyrighted in 1914 by L.T. Myers.  It is interesting in that Sunday was still preaching when this was written and Ellis knew him personally and heard him often.  The text contains many pages of actual sermons by Sunday, including an eye-witness account of the invitations.  The […]

Life and Writings of the Rev. John Gill ...

Biographies of good men are always a rich find in used bookstores.  This is a reprint of the biography of John Gill (1697-1771), written by his successor, John Rippon.  Both men pastored the London church that would become known by a later successor, Charles Spurgeon.  Gill was one of those voluminous writers and the first […]

John Bunyan: The Glorious Dreamer

I found this 1900s biography of the English Baptist in a used bookstore in Scotland.  This is one of “The Splendid Lives Series” that the London Sunday School Union published at the turn of the last century.  Bunyan was born in Elstow, England in 1629 to a poor “tinker’s” (metal worker’s) family.  He was converted […]

Plain Mr. Knox

This is a powerfully written history of the life and career of the spiritual father of the Church of Scotland (Skeffington & Sons, London, 1960).  Knox, of humble birth in Haddington, Scotland in 1513, would live in one of the most tumultuous times of English-Scottish history.  A converted Catholic (and life-long deadly foe), Knox was […]

Three Score & Ten

I found myself reading one more book by Havner because this is his autobiography—or at least as close to one that he ever came.  He was born in 1901 and preached his first sermon at 12 years old.  He remained in the SBC all of his life and traveled among quite a list of preachers:  […]

Finney On Revival

I have a curious interest in Charles Finney and his ministry.  First because there is no doubting his huge impact on American revivalism.  Second, his name constantly appears as a primary cause of today’s misuse of methodology, invitations and easy believism.  Third, I wish I had half his power in preaching. I was disappointed with […]

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (abridged)

Every Christian ought to have this classic in his/her library.  This abridged version (95 pages) is only a synopsis of the original work (371 pages) and should be used only as a “brush up” to remind you of these events.  These are the accounts of the early church persecutions, the Inquisition, and the days of […]

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

This autobiographical sketch of Bunyan’s conversion and call to the ministry reads as if he were a character in his own Pilgrim’s Progress.  His intense struggle to come to salvation is mostly foreign to us in a day of easy believism.  But no convert to Christ could not identify with the relief and joy that […]

Surprised By Joy

I read this “biography” of Lewis’ conversion from atheism to Christianity when I was working with some atheists.  To read of his struggles in giving up old prejudices in favor of  Christianity, is a help when speaking to our own generation, most of whom think and act like atheists!  He writes, “This was a religion […]

Character Counts

I have enjoyed the books I have read by Os Guinness.  In this one, he is merely the editor and introduces four biographers who write on George Washington, William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  The four biographies are divided among about 150 pages.  I enjoyed the book for two reasons:  You get a quick […]