I vividly remember the Christian bookstore....Grand Bible Bookstore I believe it was called....in New Castle, Pennsylvania. This was around 1990. I would travel the 30 miles often. You see I discovered that they had these books scattered in their collection....that had this figure of a man in a long robe....holding the Bible aloft....on the spine. There was something about these books.....so much so that I would look for that figure of a man. It turned out that this was a publisher called Banner of Truth books. Long story short....they helped lead me into the Reformation.
Anyway....Banner publishes a series called....Puritan Paperbacks.....inexpensive little paperbacks.....filled with pure gold. If I have enticed you to try one of these books....consider choosing first....A Sure Guide To Heaven....by Joseph Alleine....an English Nonconformist pastor....who died young....34 years old.....imprisonment and persecution hastening it....this in 1668. His writing was clear....very clear....and O the challenging thoughts he put to paper! One was that there is a difference between conviction....and conversion! Where do you hear that today? We should hear it in our pulpits....and there was a difference between sanctified....and civilized! He wrote...."I should be a false and faithless shepherd if I should not tell you..." These profound thoughts....with great expounding upon them....are everywhere in the book.
There was something else....in that he was concerned that one might read books like A Sure Guide To Heaven....and think that the author is describing the conversion of some kind of great Christian. Alleine dispelled this by writing...."The conversion described is not a high attainment of some advanced Christians, but every soul that is saved undergoes this change," J. I. Packer gave a similar thought in that someone once described the Puritans as...'giants'....whereas Packer said that these men were not....giants.....but rather all of us are mere Pygmies in comparison....the reasoning that it should be the norm among believers that their devotions are so heavenly....but today.....sadly....such is not the case. Alleine's book describes conversion....in such a way that you will have to read slow.....so as to take in the thoughts that will challenge you....like you may have never been challenged before.
Anyway....Banner publishes a series called....Puritan Paperbacks.....inexpensive little paperbacks.....filled with pure gold. If I have enticed you to try one of these books....consider choosing first....A Sure Guide To Heaven....by Joseph Alleine....an English Nonconformist pastor....who died young....34 years old.....imprisonment and persecution hastening it....this in 1668. His writing was clear....very clear....and O the challenging thoughts he put to paper! One was that there is a difference between conviction....and conversion! Where do you hear that today? We should hear it in our pulpits....and there was a difference between sanctified....and civilized! He wrote...."I should be a false and faithless shepherd if I should not tell you..." These profound thoughts....with great expounding upon them....are everywhere in the book.
There was something else....in that he was concerned that one might read books like A Sure Guide To Heaven....and think that the author is describing the conversion of some kind of great Christian. Alleine dispelled this by writing...."The conversion described is not a high attainment of some advanced Christians, but every soul that is saved undergoes this change," J. I. Packer gave a similar thought in that someone once described the Puritans as...'giants'....whereas Packer said that these men were not....giants.....but rather all of us are mere Pygmies in comparison....the reasoning that it should be the norm among believers that their devotions are so heavenly....but today.....sadly....such is not the case. Alleine's book describes conversion....in such a way that you will have to read slow.....so as to take in the thoughts that will challenge you....like you may have never been challenged before.
