Listening to the Giants

One of my favorite sections of the biography is when A.T. Pierson presents a list of 24 important steps, steps that he believes were essential in the spiritual formation of George Müller. Here are steps 13-18:   13. His companions in service. Two most efficient co-workers were divinely provided: first his brother Craik so like-minded with himself, and secondly, his wife, so peculiarly God’s gift, both of them proving great aids in working and in bearing burdens of responsibility. History doesn’t speak much of Mr. Craik, but to be as like-minded as George Müller says volumes about this man. In a similar way, history speaks little about George Müller’s wife. This amazing woman entered into marriage agreeing to a life of voluntary poverty, desiring to “help” her husband live out God’s plan for him. Here are Müller’s words about her at her funeral: “She was God’s own gift, exquisitely suited to me even in natural temperament. Thousands of times I said to her, ‘My da...

In 1950, J.I. Packer, O. Raymond Johnston and the legendary D. M. Lloyd-Jones began what would be known as the Puritan Conferences. These conferences lasted for roughly 20 years and are undoubtedly the reason for the resurgence of puritan theology and puritan reprints. Here is an excerpt from the mouth of Packer himself: “The interests of the Conference are practical and constructive, not merely academic. We look on the Puritans as our fellow-Christians, now enabled to share with us, through the medium of their books, the good things which God gave them three centuries ago…And the question which we ask is not simply the historical one; what did they do and teach? (though, of course, that is where we start); our questions are rather these: how far is their exposition of the Scriptures a right one? And what biblical principles does it yield for the guiding of our faith and life today? The second half of each session of the Conference is devoted to discussing the contents of the paper ...