Test All Things
Earnestly Contending For The Faith Which Was Once Delivered Unto The Saints
William Gadsby (1773-1844) The LORD recorded the lives of many of His saints and in Hebrews 11 honours their memory. God honours those who honour him and honour His Son, and...
A friend, calling on Ebenezer Erskine during his last illness, said to him, “Sir, you have preached to others all these years; what are you now doing with your own soul?”...
“I depend wholly and alone upon the free, sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love of God; the firm and everlasting covenant of grace; and my interest in the persons of the Trinity for...
Back in the early 1990s I was involved with a tiny congregation that was a part of a large national reformed “denomination”. We had some wonderful sermons and Bible studies and many...
When I shall be summoned to the great tribunal, what will be my plea, what my dependence? Nothing but Christ! Christ, I would say, has been wounded for my sins, therefore...
The below is an extract from the memoir of Joseph Hatton who was editor of the Gospel Standard magazine for two short periods and a shepherd of Christ’s flock in Redhill,...
I am bound to speak well of my Physician — He treats me with great tenderness, and bids me in due time to expect a perfect cure. I know too much...
I never had a better idea of believing in Jesus than I once had from a poor countryman. It struck me very forcibly at the time. Speaking about faith, he said:...
In the last few weeks of his life, John Newton, author of the famous old hymn “Amazing Grace,” became so weak that he had to stop preaching and eventually was confined...
“The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to...
I remember, that after my poor heart had wandered from the sweet enjoyment of the LORD, and I had got entangled with some flesh-pleasing idols, the LORD brought me feelingly into...
My impatient expectation of finding great things all at once was disappointed. Especially I found that the earnest spiritual violence, with which I made sure of taking the kingdom of heaven...
A well-loved preacher in his secular calling, had an agricultural implement business which he and his father worked. Through difficult times when money was short, a court order was issued against...
In one of the small country towns in Devon stands a Baptist chapel almost 200 years old. A recent visit left me with the feeling that on this occasion something was...
It has always been a wonder of wonders to me that the LORD should ever have set His love upon me, a stranger and foreigner indeed, knowing nothing of real religion...
On Dartmoor there stood a lonely farmhouse where a godly farmer lived. The whole family always went to the service on Sunday morning. One Sunday, there was a little girl who...
I remember when I was a boy, eight years old, I had a whooping cough very bad indeed for a long while. My mother was going to meeting one Sunday, and...
On the day before he died, he exclaimed, “Is there not an appointed time to man? Sweet Jesus, thou art my strength, my support, my salvation, my salvation. Tell my dear...
I shall never forget one memorable season of trouble that I was in many years ago. I cannot tell the depths of distress I was plunged into. I wished to have...
A 9-year old boy lay on his sick bed and his Mother (Mum) writes: He was very pleased to receive letters, so one evening I felt a mind to write to...
A law was passed in France in 1598 that granted French Protestants (called Huguenots) freedom from persecution. This is referred to as the Edict of Nantes. However, in the year 1685,...
I remember going up Duke Street into Smithfield, and a temptation darted four times into my mind: “What, a young man like you, to mope about religion! It is time enough...
A young man named George Gorton, who lived at Stow-on-the-Wold, had been in great spiritual distress. Happening to come across William Gadsby’s The Perfect Law of Liberty, under God’s blessing he...
“I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.” (Psalm 119:31) ——————– I know by soul experience that sticking to God’s testimonies has kept me from many...
There is sometimes in men’s minds a kind of confusion in this matter. They are in a certain path, from which they want to be extricated; they are under a trial,...
Here is the testimony of an elderly believer, whose age had begun to take its toll on her memory. She had once known much of the Bible by heart. Eventually, only...
It is a terrible stain on the reputation of the white man, that for so many years, the practice of slavery of the black race was encouraged. Thankfully this bondage has...
Some years ago, a young minister was about to take up his first pastorate. It was in a very run-down part of a large city, and as soon as he and...
The following circumstances were related by a gracious lady, shortly before she died. She was visiting in Dorset and had been asked by the friend with whom she was staying, to...
I heard of a man who during the Great Depression lost his job, his wife, his home, and his fortune. He hung on tightly to the one thing he did have...
A minister visiting the island of Sicily was caught in a sudden fierce thunderstorm. He entered the first cottage he could reach to get out of the heavy rain. He was...
On April 19th, 1778, on attempting to speak, his hoarseness became so extreme that he was obliged to descend from the pulpit after naming his text. After the above day he...
On one occasion Christmas Evans employed a man to sell his old horse for him at a horse fair. After a time he called to see what was happening, and found...
The story is told of a minister who treated Christmas Evans most unkindly. Soon afterwards this minister was charged with a crime and taken to court. On the day of the...
A carrier in a large Yorkshire town heard his carter one day swearing dreadfully at his horses. The carrier was a man who feared God, and he was shcoked to hear...
John Macdonald was an eminent Christian, much given to prayer, and known as, “the man who would fight only on his knees.” A misunderstanding arose between him and his landlord, who...
It may come as a shock to many of us to realize that, such is the spiritual darkness which reigns in India, there are many villages, particularly in the South around...
There was lately put into my hands a very short tract of two pages called, “The Converted African.” A lady called on a minister, and said… My dear sir, I never,...
It has been said of Mr Isbell, who laboured as the Lord’s servant at Bath for many years, that the sleepiness of many of his hearers was a great trial to...
My experience with Harold – By Jim B. The long history of his failed predictions, and heretical doctrines. ——————————————————- I started listening to Family Radio and Harold Camping in 1980, he...
My dear Friend, I take up my pen to write you some account of the last days of our dear departed friend and brother, John M’Kenzie, believing that to you and...
I hope never to forget the night the Lord brought my soul out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the gospel. It was on a Lord’s day evening. I went...
From the autobiography of John Kershaw (1792-1870). —————————————————– My next-door neighbours were my greatest persecutors, especially the man’s wife. The enmity of this woman’s heart against me and my family because...
From John Warburton’s Mercies of a Covenant God. ———————————————– For many years John Warburton’s great trial was that his wife, whom he had married when he was unregenerate, was a complete...
If William Gadsby honoured the Lord in his life, the Lord honoured him in his triumphant death. He was able to preach on his last Sabbath on earth, thus fulfilling a...
We are reminded of the sore poverty that some of the saints of God had to endure in a former generation. Work was now very bad, and provisions immensely dear. We...
I HAVE had it laid upon my mind for a very long time to write a little of the LORD’s dealings with me, particularly when I have been reading the experiences...
You have so repeatedly requested that I would transmit to you in writing the very remarkable case of the poor penitent, whose last moments I attended in my parochial capacity, and...
They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. (Psalm 22:31) I remember to have had natural convictions when very...
Phoebe Brown’s life (1783-1861) was one of poverty and sadness. Orphaned at the age of two, she was brought up by a relative who kept the county gaol, and she had...
A few interesting memories of an old barber in Chatham – By John Kershaw, 1865. “The Lord will provide.” The following circumstances will demonstrate this fact. Many years ago, being engaged...
A remarkable account of how a wicked man was cut down by the power of God’s grace in the very act of persecuting his godly wife. ______________________________________ Between forty and fifty...
“By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8) Of my old respected friend, Lieut. R., I cannot tell you...
The autobiography of Isaac Lewis (1823-1896), for over twenty years pastor at Staplehurst, in the county of Kent, England. I was born in the parish of Burnham, in the county of...
The experience of Edward Blackstock (1791-1852) The name of my father was Samuel Blackstock. He was a native of Scotland, born near Dumfries in 1752. When a young man, he and...
It pleased God to deliver me from the Arminian snare before I was quite eighteen. Antecedently to that period, there was not (with the lowest self-abasement I confess it) a more...
William Gadsby once preached at Rochdale from the text, “Lord, help me!” Having read his text, he took off his spectacles, and, in his usual, deliberate way, looked round on the...
By John Kershaw On one occasion I was invited to preach at Keighley during the holidays in Whit-week. A friend was to meet me with a horse, on the road between...
Life of the Author I was born in the Weald of Kent, as is related in the sequel of this narrative. My father was a day-labouring man, who worked for seven...
William Gadsby’s Broken Leg – His own account, 1840. I had for some time fixed that I would spend a few days at Buxton, having before proved that the waters and...
It came to my mind again recently that I can find no hope or consolation of any kind in anything that I have done or am. There is not a single...
“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Galatians 6:14) I cannot, and, God helping me, I will not, while the Lord...
Like most people in our country, I was raised in my parents’ religion. I was taught the “10 Commandments” at an early age. I was taught and read all the religious...
In popular religion a convert is often called upon to give his or her testimony. Whenever these opportunities arise, most people begin telling the story of their own personal conversion. The...
The desire of my soul is to die rejoicing that God’s just and holy law, broken by me in thought, word, and deed, has been fulfilled for me by the Lord...
During the year 1936, Mr. Popham was taken ill. On his return to chapel, he made the following remarks: —————————————————— Before we commence, I should like to say three words. First,...
I was brought up amongst the sect calling themselves Independents, so that all my earliest attachments were to that people. The ordinance of baptism I was taught to believe was that...
From John Warburton’s “Mercies of a Covenant God.” ———————————— I shall now relate another sore trial that I passed through (It was about 1830), which was one of the keenest I...
John Kershaw’s account of the early days of his pastorate. ———————————————————– After I commenced my pastoral labours, the Word was much blessed, and for some months things went on tolerably well....
One evening I had been out preaching about seven miles from home, and when I was returning, it being late before I reached home, O what a keen feeling of hunger...
The early experience of John Kershaw of Rochdale (1792-1870), taken from his autobiography. ———————————————- I had many inward cryings to the Lord before I began to go aside for private prayer....
Why Do You Love God? The way you answer this seemingly simple question gives great insight into your hope of justification before the true and living God. Have you ever seriously...
From the autobiography of John Kershaw. ——————————————— The next place I went to supply was Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield. I set out on the Saturday, having fifteen miles to walk. Part of...
From John Warburton’s Mercies of a Covenant God. ———————————————– For many years John Warburton’s great trial was that his wife, whom he had married when he was unregenerate, was a complete...
The Christian Indeed; Described in a Letter From Gaifer on his Conversion to Christianity in England, To Aly-Ben-Hayton, his Friend in Turkey. We speak that we do know. The Third Edition....
When it comes to this important life and death issue of justification and eternal life, most religious people rely upon experiences they’ve had and emotions they have felt to convince themselves...
By John Kershaw It will be seen from the following narration that when I first heard of “election” I was upon “Old Covenant” ground. One Sunday evening I went with my...
Test All Things 