It was at a Soli Deo Gloria conference....a yearly conference sponsored by the Puritan literature publishing house....Soli Deo Gloria....SDG. The time period was in the early 90s....and the main speaker might have been John MacArthur or John Gerstner...I can't remember because I tried to attend the Pittsburgh conference as often as I could. I was standing at the book table....perusing the great books....wearing a name tag. I can't remember who struck up the conversation....either he saw where I lived or I saw that he was from East Liverpool, Ohio. We talked for a while....both having the same interests....and my wife and son and I wound up attending his Presbyterian church.....for he was a pastor....for about twelve years until circumstances led him to move to a church in Indiana.
He was my age....and combed his hair in a combover. He wore a robe in the pulpit....and was in the process of writing a book on the Puritan Thomas Boston. He spoke with a slight stutter and monotone. To this day he has never used a computer. He writes letters on the back of advertisements or old church programs. How does that sound so far....combover....slight stutter....monotone voice...robe....no email....no smart phone?
I have to segue just a little bit. I had one very good friend in the church....whose family sat next to us in the second pew. He was a night-shift city editor of a small newspaper....which paid very little. This pastor would walk up to the pulpit....take off his jacket or sweater and put on the robe....and begin to preach.....gloriously.....like an old-time Puritan. At the end of the sermon.....my friend and I....no one else that I know of in the church....would just sit there and breath in and out for a few minutes....such was the solemnity and yet joyfully glorious sermon that we just heard. When the pastor moved on....we moved on....and my friend moved on. He has since in his career been the managing editor and the executive editor of various newspapers in mid-size America cities.
This pastor is retired now....retired as a pastor but not as a minister....and has moved south. We vacationed together in the past but now we just exchange an occasional letter. I am adding a sermon here from the man who God gave to London....(and the world)....a few decades after He took Charles Spurgeon home to glory. I chose this sermon because after listening to it....I had to just sit there for a few minutes because of the solemnity of the moment. It reminded me of the years in the church of the Puritan pastor born too late....but then it wasn't too late....for it effected and blessed my family and I and select others so very much!
