Online shape note song books

Several years ago I posted links to Old song books online. Here are some more shape note song books I have found online since then.

• Class, Choir and Congregation: for Singing Schools, Conventions, Normal Schools, Chorus Choirs and Congregations, A. J. Showalter, editor (Dalton, GA: A. J. Showalter Co., 1888)
• Dortch's Gospel Voices, No. 1: for Sunday Schools, Church Services, Gospel and Evangelistic Meetings, Young People's Societies, Etc., David Elijah Dortch, editor (Nashville, TN: The Southwestern Company, 1900)
• Favorite Songs and Hymns: a Complete Church Hymnal, Homer F. Morris, et al., editors (Dallas, TX: Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Co., 1939)
• Happy Praise: Our Second 1956 Book for Singing Schools, Conventions, Etc., J. R. Baxter, Jr., et al., editors (Dallas, TX: Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Co., 1956)
• New Life; or, Songs and Tunes for Sunday Schools, Prayer Meetings, and Revival Occasions, R. M. McIntosh, W. G. E. Cunningham, editors (Nashville, TN: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1879)
• Songs of Zion: the New Official Hymnal of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, W., T. Dale, New York, NY: A. S. Barnes Co., 1915
• Sweet Fields of Eden: for the Sabbath School, John Harrison Tenney, Aldine S. Kieffer, William B. Blake, editors (Dayton, VA: Ruebush, Kieffer & Co., 1882)
• The Temple Star: for Singing-Schools, Conventions, Choirs, Day-Schools and Musical Societies, B. C. Unseld, Aldine S. Kieffer, editors (Singer's Glen, VA: Ruebush, Kieffer & Co., 1878)

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Early church devotion; Translation/Paraphrase by Gerard Moultrie (1864)

1. Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

2. King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

3. Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

4. At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Philpot devotional: Light in the darkness

"Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." Psalm 112:4

We often get into such dark paths, that we seem altogether out of the secret, and feel as if there were no more grace in our souls, than in one altogether dead in trespasses and sins. And whether we look back at the past, or view the present, or turn our eyes to the future, one dark cloud seems to rest upon the whole; nor can we, with all our searching, find to our satisfaction that we have one spark of true religion, or one atom of grace, or one grain of vital godliness, or any trace that the Spirit of God has touched our consciences with his finger.

Now, when we are in this dark, benighted state, we want light; we want the blessed Sun of righteousness to arise; we want the south wind to blow a heavenly gale, and drive the mists away; we want the clouds to part, and the light of God's countenance to shine into our souls, so as to shew us where we are, and what we are, and make it clear, that base and vile as we are, yet that we are interested in the love of the Father, the blood of the Son, and the teachings of the Holy Ghost. And when his word begins to distil like the rain and to drop like the dew, when the Lord himself is pleased to speak home one sweet testimony, one little word, one kind intimation—what a change it makes! The clouds break away, the fog clears off, the mists dissolve, and the soul becomes sweetly persuaded of its interest in the blood and love of the Lamb.

J. C. Philpot (1802-1869)

Throwing the ball back and forth

Below is a link to a post by Dave Miller and a response by Edward Dingess:

Racial Reconciliation Dodgeball – Responsibility and Solutions -- "I have watched with dismay as many in our midst have played what seems to me to be a form of dodgeball with issues related to racial reconciliation."

Thoughts on Dave Miller’s Racial Reconciliation Dodgeball in the SBC -- "Dave Miller lists three responses to the racial issue that he calls dodgeball responses."

The chains of ecclesiastical bondage, and other quotes

The posting of quotes by human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources. (I try to confirm the sources that I give, but may miss on occasion; please verify if possible.)

"The chains of ecclesiastical bondage are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." -- Richard V. Clearwaters

"Like edged tools in the hands of children, feigned arguments are always likely to do more evil than good." -- Jesse Mercer

"The more I lied for the purpose of showing that I lied, the more convinced became they that I was a paragon of veracity." -- Léo Taxil

"There is no limit to human stupidity." -- Léo Taxil

"For Christians what it means to 'win' has been redefined by the cross." -- Eugene Boring

"God does not exist outside of time, He just cannot be measured by time. Time is a measurement of things that have a beginning and an ending point." -- Mark Fenison

"The cross is the cornerstone, capstone, touchstone, and loadstone of Christianity." -- David Lewis Allen

"The miracle of Christ's sacrificial death is that the priest and the victim have become one." -- Fleming Rutledge

"God chose not the clever strategies of the politically oriented, neither the sophisticated arguments of the philosophers, nor even the oratory skills of the talented rhetoricians to save the lost; rather, he chose the foolishness of preaching." -- Edward Dingess

Why Christians Are Abandoning the Orphanage

Worth thinking about:

Why Christians Are Abandoning the Orphanage -- “A new focus on the family is changing how Christians care for abandoned and neglected children.”

“What was designed as a temporary solution to address a crisis became a permanent problem,” Ruslan Maliuta, international facilitator of World Without Orphans said. The temporary solution is the orphanage, while the goal should be to get the children out of orphanages and into families.

In the last century, Christian organizations proliferated orphanages as a quick solution to swelling numbers of abandoned children in poor countries where corrupt or inefficient governments weren’t providing adequate social services. That has left Christians today as the dominant provider of orphan care in much of the world.

Even in early 20th-century America, “the church had a leading role in building orphanages to take care of children,” said Jerry Haag, president of the 112-year-old Florida Baptist Children’s Homes (FBCH). “They didn’t have parents who could take care of them through the Depression era.”According to WWO, orphans were historically defined by the loss of both parents, usually through death. UNICEF eventually broadened the definition to include children who have lost only one parent—a definition that would seem to have support in the Bible, which uses the words “orphan” and “fatherless” interchangeably.

Good News began efforts to strengthen biological families, accepting children only as a last resort. It also worked to remove any parental rights over abandoned children, enabling them to be moved into foster care or adopted. With the church’s encouragement, families from churches in and around their city have adopted more than 100 children. (Dudnik and his wife, Tamara, adopted Sergey.)

God’s freedom and ours

I recently read God’s freedom and ours: 10 points for thinking about Calvinism by Curtis Freeman. Freeman is neither Predestinarian nor Calvinist, so I found a couple of his statements particularly intriguing and well-worded.

• No one is as free as they think, nor is God as un-free as most people are comfortable with.
• God is not just one agent acting among other agents, but rather is the condition, cause and course of all freedom.

William Bell Gillham

Last Monday Rachel Hall posted about a tune book of which I had not heard, by William Bell Gillham, the Aeolian Lyrist: a New Collection of Psalm and Hymn tunes adapted to the Various Metres in General Use; with a few Anthems and Set Pieces, W. B. Gillham, Cincinnati, OH: Applegate and Co., 1853.

"In 1854 [apparently, 1853, rlv] William B. Gillham, Columbia, Tennessee, published the Aeolian Lyrist (printed by Applegate & Co., Cincinnati, and by the Cumberland Presbyterian Board in Louisville) in shapes the three novel ones of which are described as follows..."

"My mother had a cousin, the Rev. Wm. B. Gillham, at one time pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Columbia, Tenn., and author of a music book, "The Aeolian Lyrist," who had a similar experience to my own. He was brought up in the same church I was [Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church], and was educated in that church for the ministry. But when he took up the study of theology and began to compare his Confession of Faith with the Bible, with its plain "whosoever will" doctrines, as he afterwards wrote me, he had not been a Calvinist, and so entered the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, placing himself under the care of the Tennessee Presbytery, which presbytery I also joined in April, 1870, at Athens, Ala., being licensed by this same presbytery in April, 1872, at Madison, Madison County, Alabama." -- From page 6 in The Difference in Creedal Statement Between the Confessions of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church; Accompanied by An Earnest Plea for the Perpetuation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church with its " Whosoever Will " Doctrines, William Thomas Dale, Franklin, TN: W. T. Dale, 1905

"MALE AND FEMALE SCHOOL.  Vernon, Alabama.
"The Trustees of the Vernon High School take pleasure in announcing that they have made an arrangement with REV. W. B. GILLHAM to take charge of their Institution for the ensuing school year – to commence on the 1st Monday in November.  Mr. Gillham’s long and successful experience as educator of the youth of both sexes warrant us in giving him our highest endorsement and soliciting for our School a liberal patronage..." -- From The Vernon Pioneer, February 23, 1877

A couple of Gillham's songs can be seen in Songs of Zion: the New Official Hymnal of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church by W., T. Dale. 

• YONGST C.M., No. 21 on page 17
• EXPIATION L.M., No. 73 on page 46 (written by Gillham and arranged by Dale)
• GILLHAM C.M., No. 243 on page 138 is written by W. T. Dale and (probably) named for W. B. Gillham

Lollards and such

Haphazard historical habitats I've hit upon:

• An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, Volume III -- Johann Lorenz Mosheim, translated by Archibald Maclaine
• Historic background and annals of the Swiss and German pioneer settlers of southeastern Pennsylvania, and of their remote ancestors, from the middle of the dark ages, down to the time of the revolutionary war -- "In 1315 a Waldensean teacher called Lolhard at his trial in Austria said he could find 80,000 persons who believed in his religion."
• Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians -- "Martyrs Mirror, the classic 1660 Dutch religious history, memorializes the godly lives and glorious deaths of thousands of early Christians, especially European Anabaptist martyrs between 1524 and 1660."
• Singleness in Modern Culture -- "The pastor is preaching marriage to the skies, while seemingly forgetting that roughly 30% of his congregation is, in point of fact, unmarried."
• The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards -- "The text that follows is literally translated from the Middle English, at the cost of some archaisms and obscurities, a few of which are explained in italicized glosses."

Series on the call to preach

While searching online for information written on the call to preach, I found this three-part series at 9Marks. It was written by Bobby Jamieson, of whom the blurb says is a PhD student in New Testament at the University of Cambridge, and had served as assistant editor for 9Marks. Linking this series is not an endorsement of all the views of Jamieson, but I think you will find it interesting. I hope to follow up with something of my own on the subject.

The Double Presumption of Calling to Ministry -- "Calling language typically refers to a sense of divine guidance: “I think God is calling me to do this”."
Eldering, Economics, and Calling to Ministry -- "But there’s a wrinkle in this fabric: not all elders are paid, so not all elders serve full-time. In fact, Paul commended his own example of bi-vocational ministry to the Ephesian elders."
Reframing “Calling”: Words to Churches and Aspiring Pastors -- "I think one of modern evangelicals’ most damaging, widespread assumptions is that the only real ministry is done by those who do it full-time."

America’s point-man, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• America’s point-man on religious liberty is contentious -- "Why Sam Brownback divides religion-watchers."
• Archaeology team uncovers new evidence of ancient Christianity in Kazakhstan -- "The new discoveries provide context for the previously discovered stones and identify an associated Christian community."
• Ben Shapiro: Why The Left Protects Islam -- "Why does the left seek to support radical Islam so ardently? Because the left believes that the quickest way to destroy Western civilization is no longer class warfare but multicultural warfare: Simply ally with groups that hate the prevailing system and work with them to take it down."
• GOP bill would ease enforcement against political activity by churches -- "House Republicans added a provision to a spending bill that would bar funds for the IRS to enforce the law prohibiting churches and other nonprofits from endorsing political candidates."
• How Embedding Women With Contraception May Keep Them In Poverty -- "...if that which is holding back poor young women is unplanned pregnancy, and poor young men aren’t subject to the same constraints, then they ought to be miles ahead of their sisters and girlfriends. But they’re not..."
• Pulling down Confederate statues does nothing to change society -- "The whole enterprise of taking down statuary to appease the ideological passions of a talkative handful is silly...This business of digging up the dead and exhibiting their shortcomings has no predictable end."
• Selfies and Divorce in the Digital Age-- "Divorce is one of the ugliest words in the English language. Its specter haunts countless marriages."
• That Ye May Marvel, or, The Significance of Bible Numbers-- "It is nowhere stated in so many words that THREE stands for the resurrection, FOUR for the first creation, FIVE for grace, EIGHT for the new birth."
• The Meaning of "KOSMOS" in John 3:16-- "The word "kosmos," and its English equivalent "world," is not used with a uniform significance in the New Testament. Very far from it. It is used in quite a number of different ways."
• Three Fundamentalists I Have Known -- "Why these three? It was through reading both about these men and what they wrote that I became a fundamentalist."
• Three Reasons God is a Cessationist -- "6000 years at least of world history and only 200 years where people could do miracles?"
• Too Good Not to Share-- "The Gospel of Jesus is too good not to share."
• What Makes a Baptist Church an Independent Baptist Church?-- "Some believe that all Baptist churches are the same and believe and practice the same thing."
• Why Christians Are Abandoning the Orphanage -- "A new focus on the family is changing how Christians care for abandoned and neglected children."
• Your atheism isn't going to keep your kids from believing in God -- "...in any case, the data does suggest that religion has a somewhat easier time transmitting across generations than irreligion does."

Philpot: Perplexed, but not in despair

"Perplexed, but not in despair." 2 Corinthians 4:8

Oh! what a mercy, amidst every degree of inward or outward perplexity, to be out of the reach of Giant Despair; not to be shut up in the iron cage; not to be abandoned, as Judas or Ahithophel, to utter desperation and suicide, and, after a long life of profession, concerning faith to make awful shipwreck!

Now the child of God, with all his doubts, fears, sinkings, misgivings, and trying perplexities is never really and truly in despair. He may tread so near the borders of that black country that it may almost be debateable land whether he is walking in despair or upon the borders of it; for I believe many children of God have at times come to the solemn conclusion that there is no hope for them, for they cannot see how they can be saved or have their aggravated sins pardoned.

And though this be not black despair, nor such utter, irremediable desperation as seized Saul and Judas, for there still is a "Who can tell?" yet it certainly is walking very near the borders of that dark and terrible land. I cannot tell, nor do I believe any can, how low a child of God may sink, or how long he may continue under the terrors of the Almighty; but we have the warrant of God's word to believe that he is never given up to utter despair, for the Lord holds up his feet from falling into that terrible pit, and being cast into that sea to which there is neither bottom nor shore.

J. C. Philpot (1802-1869)

After death, what then?

The question “After death, what then?” primarily turns minds toward the answer, “heaven or hell.” As Charles Wesley wrote in his Hymn 59 in Hymns for Children (1763): “Soon as from earth I go, What will become of me? Eternal happiness or woe Must then my portion be!”

A secondary, yet important, concern is “What will I leave behind?” Sunday during my sermon I thought of the following song by Sherrill Brown,[i] but could only remember the distinct question. It is not in our church book, but I found it in the Mull’s Singing Convention Book, No. 5.

1. After I leave for worlds unknown, over the border line;

Never again on earth to roam, what will I leave behind?

2. Will I be missed by those I love, or have I been unkind?

Have I been true to God above, what will I leave behind?

3. This is my prayer, O Lord, today, let me be wholly Thine;

And when I am called from earth away, let heaven then be mine.

Chorus: Leave behind, yes, leave behind, what will I leave behind?

After I leave for worlds unknown, what will I leave behind?

Will I leave behind care or unconcern?

Jerusalem’s king Hezekiah, during the last 15 years of his life, is an interesting case study of one’s attitude toward a future of which he will not be part. 2 Kings 20:19 records his response to Isaiah’s prophecy that the wealth of the kings would Judah would be carried into Babylon, as well as his male descendants being carried into captivity and made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. “Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?” His response is a mixed signal. “Good is the word of the Lord” expresses resignation to the will of God. But it is tinctured with a bit of “après moi le deluge” – what happens after his disappearance matters little to him.[ii] Hezekiah has gratitude of the “peace and truth” in his days but thinks little on the consequences to his descendants. Hezekiah may find peace in the facts that (1) postponement of judgment is evidence of God’s mercy; (2) the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy assures Hezekiah he will have male offspring to sit upon his throne; and (3) there is some rest for the nation, since their current struggles will not be immediately followed by another. Yet Hezekiah is a study in contrast. When he found his future was shorty ending in death, he turned his face to the wall and prayed and cried and sought God. When he found Judah’s future end in defeat by Babylon, he simply agreed to it.

In contrast Joseph, also resigning to the good word of the Lord, made future plans in what seems a strange request. One who had spent 93 years of his life in Egypt and only 17 in the promised land (Genesis 37:2) identified himself and his future – even the future of his bones – with God’s people and God’s promise, “God will surely visit you.” Hebrews 11:22 – “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.” Compare Genesis 50:24-26. We should have some concern for the future of our families, our churches, our countries, our world. When I am dead, all else is not dead. God’s work is this world is much larger in time than my little threescore and ten. What I can, I should “pass it on.” See 2 Timothy 2:2.

Will I leave behind a witness, good or bad?

If we are remembered, we will leave behind some witness, whether it be good or whether it be bad. Adolf Hitler in a sense still speaks to us. His witness is evil, “turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways.” (Cf. Psalm 37:38.)

Abel, the first recorded man to physically die, killed by his brother, is an example of a lasting witness for good. Hebrews 11:4 – “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” As Watts says, “The living know that they must die; But all the dead forgotten lie.” But some of the dead are remembered – what they did, what they wrote, what is written about them, what is said of them. By his faith and offering Abel has something to speak to us. By serving God now, in the time he has given us, we may have something good to say after we are gone. Of David it is said, “he had served his own generation by the will of God” Acts 13:36. God’s principle sets the future in the minds of the past, that they prepare a witness for it. See Psalm 78:4-7.

We do not know what the future holds. Someday God will bring the time of this old world to a close. He shall do so as he pleases, but in the meantime we should not live if all of time is wrapped up in us. Consider, when you are gone, “What will I leave behind?”

---

[i] Copyright 1958, Stamps Quartet Music Co., Inc., Dallas, Texas in Happy Songs: Our First 1958 Book for Singing Conventions, Singing Schools, Sunday Schools, Etc., John T,. Cook, editor; Here are two versions that can be heard on YouTube, by the Chestnut Grove Quartet and Elder Jason Lowery. Other songs by Brown include “A Little Touch of Heaven,” “God Will Wipe Our Tears Away,” and “I Will Meet You There.”

[ii] “Après moi le deluge” is a French expression meaning “after me (let) the deluge (come).” The phrase is usually attributed to King Louis XVI. It refers to the excessive lifestyles of the French aristocracy and its continuing detriment to France. Let the deluge come; it makes no difference to me. So Hezekiah seems to suggest that what happens after his death matters little if the kingdom can enjoy good days under his rule.

More Thornton

Awhile back I made a post on Georgia Baptist preacher Vincent Redman Thornton. I'm adding here a few minor discoveries from the South Western Baptist.

The Christian Index brings the painful intelligence of the death of Elder Vincent R. Thornton, who died suddenly of paralysis, on Friday, 4th of April, 1856. He was one of Georgia's most faithful, useful and able ministers. 

"Death of a Minister," in the South Western Baptist, Tuskegee, Alabama, Thursday, April 24, 1856, page 3

It was my happiness, in those early years, to be associated with some of the ablest men in our denomination in this State, now passed away...[V. R.] Thornton was the most profound thinkers, the deepest theologian I have ever known, and withal, a most cordial, companionable person.  

Excerpted from "Passages in the Life of an Old Georgia Preacher, No. 2," in the South Western Baptist, Tuskegee, Alabama, Thursday, January 13, 1859, page 3

Shortly after I became a Baptist, I was in company with Vincent Thornton, when some asked him, if a particular thing (then mentioned) was in accordance with Baptist usage. His answer made a deep impression on my mind. "It is according to Baptist usage, (said he) but not according to the Bible."

Excerpted from "Doctor Crawford's Reply," in the South Western Baptist, Tuskegee, Alabama, Thursday, January 12, 1860, page 2

Passages in the Life of an Old Georgia Preacher

In 1830, and about that period, a great controversy raged among the Baptists of Georgia, ostensibly on the subject of doctrine, but really on the subject of Missions. The Atonement was the great question---James Henderson being the leader of the limited Atonement party, and Cyrus White the champion of those who believed in its universality...There was a third party, with Jesse Mercer and the Georgia Association as a nucleus...The writer took an active part in the religious conflicts of those days, and he...is also thankful that experience has taught him to look with more charity on those who differ from him, than he could then exercise. Even good men, when they become arrayed in opposition to each other, are apt to run into errors and excesses. The writer has strong hope that Mercer, White, Henderson, and other Christians of their times, have met in that country where they "see eye to eye," and where they shall dwell together in perfect harmony forever...

Excerpt from "Passages in the Life of an Old Georgia Preacher, Number 3," in the South Western Baptist, Tuskegee, Alabama, Thursday, January 20, 1859, page 1 (Signed with the pen name "Harrison")

Favorite Songs and Hymns, and other music links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Favorite Songs and Hymns: a Complete Church Hymnal -- "Homer F. Morris, et al., editors, Dallas, TX: Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Co., 1939"
• How blowing into a straw can save your voice -- "...it seems everyone in the voice community knows about the magical straw technique..."
• Hymns to the Living God -- "Welcome to our collection of free, downloadable hymns! These hymns are offered in two formats: 8.5×11 and half sheet."
• “Much More than the Songs”: The Sacred Harp Photographs of Robert Chambless -- "One particular photographer got me thinking about how, and why, we document Sacred Harp visually."
• Music for the Church: Mark Dever Interviews Keith Getty -- "An interview with songwriter Keith Getty"
• Queering Southern Gospel: A Review of Douglas Harrison's Then Sings My Soul -- "White southern gospel music seems like a strange source of pleasure for a 'gay, secular humanist academic,' as Douglas Harrison identifies himself."
• The “market” for our hymnal -- "In every stage of the process of producing this hymnal, we have intentionally not made any decision based upon who or how many people would purchase the hymnal."
• The Sacred Harp (1844) -- "Index to The Sacred Harp, compiled by Benjamin F. White and Elisha J. King in 1844"
• The Twentieth Century Looks at William Billings -- "What of the charges that his music was crude, archaic, illiterate; his fuging tunes pitiful imitations of the classic fugue, merely an American innovation without roots or culture?"
• Why Sing? -- "Jesus is saying, therefore, that the essence of worship, regardless of the outward physical forms, is spiritual response of our affections to truth about God as revealed in His Word."

More Baptist web sites

Below are links to more Baptist web sites that I have run across through discussions, research and for other reasons. Have a look see.

• Arkansas State Association of Missionary Baptist Churches -- "Affiliated with the American Baptist Association."
• Atlantic Independent Baptist Fellowship -- "The Atlantic Independent Baptist Fellowship is a fellowship of pastors with no official membership."
• Baptist Church Planters -- "The history of BCP is the story of how visionary men and women have established sound fundamental Baptist churches throughout North America for almost two decades."
• The Baptist Missionary And Education Convention -- "Promoting knowledge of the great needs of Texas Christians."
• Bethlehem and Pine Barren Baptist Associations -- "Southern Baptist Churches in partnership on mission together serving Monroe and Wilcox Counties, Alabama."
• Big Harpeth United Primitive Baptist Association -- "We have churches in the Middle Tennessee area, Kentucky, and Indiana."
• Birmingham Independent Baptist Fellowship -- "We are not a denomination and each church operates independently of each other."
• Central Missouri Association of United Baptist Churches of Jesus Christ -- "We have quarterly meetings in our Tabernacle In Bunker, Missouri."
• Christian Fellowship Missionary Association -- "The Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Association exists to inspire and equip member churches to do evangelism, missions, ministry, discipleship, and worship within a fellowship of cooperation."
• Confessional Baptists of the Southwest -- "On Sunday, November 6, the first meeting of the newly formed regional association, Confessional Baptists of the Southwest (CBS), was held in Gilbert, Arizona."
• Consolidated Missionary Baptist State Convention of Arkansas -- "Any Missionary Baptist Church or Association of the State of Arkansas is eligible for membership in this Convention."
• Cumberland Association of Primitive Baptist Churches -- "Cumberland Association of Primitive Baptist Churches is an established religious organization based in Nashville, TN."
• Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Association -- "...after much prayer and consultation, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Association (F.B.F.A.) was founded August 22, 1962."
• Georgia Association of Confessional Baptists -- "All members of the Georgia Association of Confessional Baptists are full subscriptionists to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith."
• Georgia State Association of Free Will Baptist -- "Our desire is to worship the Creator, serve Him and others, and bring the the knowledge of the Savior to the people of our state."
• Independent Baptist Fellowship -- "The Independent Baptist Fellowship is first and foremost exactly as the name denotes, a fellowship of Independent Baptists."
• Indian Creek Primitive Baptist Association -- "The Indian Creek Primitive Baptist Association was organized on Saturday before the third Sunday in September, 1870."
• Landmark Missionary Baptist Association of Michigan -- "We are an association of independent local New Testament churches in Michigan."
• Michigan Association of Regular Baptist Churches -- "We presently [July 2017] have 210 churches in our State Association, the majority of which also belong to the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches on the national level."
• Nebraska Association of Regular Baptist Churches -- "The Nebraska Association of Regular Baptist Churches is an independent, fundamental, Baptist association of churches in voluntary fellowship who hold to the historic Biblical doctrines of the Christian faith as found in the Holy Scriptures."
• Midwest Independent Baptist Pastors’ Fellowship -- "The purpose for the establishment of the Midwest Independent Baptist Pastors’ Fellowship shall be to encourage one another..."
• Old West Florida Primitive Baptist Association -- "We have been called to be a local body of believers to celebrate God and connect with one another through worship and fellowship..."
• Paint Union United Baptist Association -- "The Paint Union Association is one of the oldest Baptist associations in the eastern part of Kentucky..."
• Southwest Association of Missionary Baptist Churches -- "Churches of Texas, New Mexico & Arizona Fellowshipping Together"
• Sovereign Grace Baptist Association of Churches -- "We are an association of churches that believes that God is sovereign in all things including the salvation of sinners."
• Spurgeon Baptist Association of Churches -- "We are a non-geographic association seeking to include any like-minded body of believers so that together we might better fulfill the great commission of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."
• Tri-State Independent Baptist Preachers Fellowship -- "We are a fellowship of local Independent Baptist pastors, evangelists, missionaries and preachers that seek to encourage each other while we labor for Jesus Christ in our respective callings."
• 13th  District Missionary Baptist Association -- "A member of the Louisiana Missionary Baptist State Convention and National Baptist Convention USA, Inc."

Our relationship, and other quotes

The posting of quotes by human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources. (I try to confirm the sources that I give, but may miss on occasion; please verify if possible.)

"Our relationship with God is not a matter of reward, but of love. And that’s why we can enjoy such staggering freedom in his presence." -- Steve Brown

"Having a good conscience about the text doesn’t require agreement with others; it requires being faithful to pursue truth at all costs to the best of your abilities." -- Daniel B. Wallace

"Measure not God’s love and favour by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof." -- Richard Sibbes

"Education is going from an unconscious to a conscious awareness of one's ignorance." -- Usually quoted as "Someone has said"

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." -- often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but apparently by Gerald R. Ford

"By the cross we know the gravity of sin and the greatness of God’s love toward us." -- John Chrysostom

"There are two classes of preachers, those who make a convenience of truth, and those in whom truth has wrought a conviction." -- Richard V. Clearwaters

“Whenever truth compromises with error it is always truth which has to give up something for error has nothing to give up to begin with." -- Robert T. Ketcham

"The compromise road is a road pockmarked with many tragic pitfalls for those who enter it." -- William E. Ashbrook

"God is completely sovereign. God is infinite in wisdom. God is perfect in love. God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about." -- Jerry Bridges

"Consider what you owe to God's immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once." -- Charles Spurgeon

A prudent man foreseeth the evil

“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.” Proverbs 22:3

Noah, warned of God, prepared an ark to the saving of his household. Lot, admonished by the angels, fled out of Sodom. So there is a fleeing from the wrath to come. How careless, how secure, and unconcerned are we until quickened with spiritual life! Solomon speaks of those who sleep on the top of a mast, where one jerk of the wave, or one turn of the sleeper may precipitate him into the boiling ocean. God’s anger is gathering against a wicked world. Who will escape this fearful storm of eternal, unmitigated wrath? Those who flee to Jesus. Who flee to Jesus? Those only who feel their need of him. How are they made to feel their need of him? By the flashes of God’s anger. Whence issue these flashes? Out of the thunder-cloud of God’s holy law—the revelation which he has made of his anger against transgressors. How necessary then to feel the application of the law to the conscience, to experience what Job calls, “the terrors of God,” that Jesus Christ, who is a “covert from the tempest,” may be seen and fled unto! It is like the warning given in Egypt of the grievous hail: “He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field” (Exodus 9:20-21). Faith credits what unbelief derides. As is their nature and operation, so is their end. Faith ends in salvation; unbelief in perdition.

J. C. Philpot (1802-1869)

Church Still Works, and other reviews

The posting of book reviews does not constitute endorsement of either the books or book reviews that are linked.

• Book Interview: Church Still Works -- "I was curious to find out what our churches are really doing that makes a difference."
• Book Review: Conscience, by Andy Naselli & J. D. Crowley -- "The book’s most prominent strength is its clarity."
• Book Review: Pastoral Preaching, by Conrad Mbewe -- "In less than 200 pages, Conrad covers much ground in his Scripture-saturated arguments."
• Book review: Perspectives on Christian Worship -- "Perspectives on Christian Worship presents five views on worship as seen through five distinct branches of the evangelical community."
• Book Review: ‘The Closing of the Liberal Mind’ -- "Holmes traces the transition of the American political left from its origins as a philosophy rooted in the classical liberal ideals of free speech and unfettered discourse to one that increasingly relies on censorship and intimidation to silence dissenting opinions."
• Book Review: The Crook in the Lot, by Thomas Boston -- "Puritans such as Thomas Boston knew great suffering."
• Book Review: 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, by Tony Reinke -- "...how our smartphone technology can—and most likely already has—influenced how we live our lives."
• “Evangelical” Is Not a Political Term -- "It is worth saying here just how good much of The Evangelicals is. FitzGerald is a deft and beautiful writer, and her book is often page-turning..."
• John Sailhamer's The Meaning of the Pentateuch: A Review Essay -- "Even before the generation of this digital excitement, I had been looking forward to this book for several years."