Most of the Banner of Truth Trust’s biographies are worthwhile in at least one way – they show the mighty, saving works of the Holy Spirit in history. So they are encouraging to faith, and they lead us to pray for God to work today; they dissuade us from thinking that just doing church work “right” in one way or another is enough, they put us off thinking that even something really good like “teaching the Bible” is some sort of magic or leads to automatic blessing. OK so far.
Yet, many of their titles are limited or even marred by flaws – surprise surprise, they are written by fallible people! They are sometimes limited by being very broad brush, not granular enough; and though one is led to believe that in a short space of time in some village a long time ago suddenly 20 were converted, one is left wanting more detail, partly just to be fully convinced it was as great a work as the writer makes out. Other times there is some granularity and yet one hears virtually nothing of the flaws and sins in the lives of the heroes; it’s hagiography, and there is even on occasion the idea behind the scenes that we can’t let the innocent Christian public of today know some of the dreadful stuff in the lives of folk greatly used by God. Of course, this is a wrong and unbiblical notion. And thirdly, occasionally, when reading a Banner biography or chunk of church history, especially one written these days, I am led to think, “What I’m getting here are one or two burdens, even hobby horses of the modern author, who is selecting facts from the past to bolster their case; I’d rather read unedited stuff from the past, please.”
Well, the recently published memoir of Alexander Moody Stuart, a fresh edition of something written by his son Kenneth in 1899, falls into none of these disappointing categories; and so I highly recommend it, having been persuaded by Sinclair Ferguson on the BOTT’s podcast to buy it. I’m not asking him for my money back.
Moody Stuart lived and ministered in times of great blessing from the Spirit in Scotland – the 19th century. So there are plenty of the wonderful works of the Lord to wonder at and be encouraged by. And this account goes into lots of detail, including details of what was going on in the mind and soul of Moody Stuart, as well as details of how many were brought to faith or changed by the Spirit. It’s a thoroughly granular account of things, so one is not only encouraged by being convinced that the Spirit did mighty things in our world, but we also learn lots of lessons about piety, repentance, sin, temptation, the work of the devil, preaching, pastoring, you name it; it’s a feast of practical theology for the mind, as well as encouragement for the heart.
In addition the weaknesses and sins of the main character are not hidden; he has good self-knowledge, and this is not hagiography. Go buy it, read it, and benefit.
Now we are God's children 