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    A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte
    A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte
    A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte

    By Michael A. G. Haykin

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    About this ebook

    Michael A. G. Haykin provides an excellent primer on Reformed Evangelical spirituality by opening a window to the life and work of Alexander Whyte. Haykin's biographical essay introduces the reader to Whyte and to the high premium he placed on vibrant Christianity. The remainder of the book presents 28 selections from various written works by Whyte that display his burning zeal for the devoted life. For those who are not familiar with Whyte but interested in acquainting themselves with him and the spirituality of the Reformed tradition, this book will make a reliable introduction.

    A Consuming Fire is the first book in a series called Profiles in Reformed Spirituality, being co-edited by Joel R. Beeke and Michael A.G. Haykin. This series is designed to introduce the spirituality and piety of the Reformed tradition by presenting descriptions of the lives of notable Christians with select passages from their works. This combination of biographical sketches and collected portions from primary sources gives a taste of the treated subjects’ contribution to our spiritual heritage and some direction as to how the reader can find further edification through their works.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherReformation Heritage Books
    Release dateSep 20, 2015
    ISBN9781601782779
    A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte
    Author

    Michael A. G. Haykin

    Michael A. G. Haykin (ThD, University of Toronto) is professor of church history and biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and director of The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He has authored or edited more than twenty-five books, including Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church.

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      Book preview

      A Consuming Fire - Michael A. G. Haykin

      A Consuming Fire

      A Consuming Fire:

      The Piety of Alexander Whyte

      of Free St. George’s

      by

      Michael A. G. Haykin

      with George McGuinness

      Reformation Heritage Books

      Grand Rapids, Michigan

      A Consuming Fire

      © 2006 by Michael A. G. Haykin

      Published by

      Reformation Heritage Books

      2965 Leonard St. NE

      Grand Rapids, MI 49525

      616-977-0889 / Fax: 616-285-3246

      e-mail: [email protected]

      website: www.heritagebooks.org

      ISBN 978-1-60178-277-9 (epub)

      10 digit ISBN 1-60178-002-8

      13 digit ISBN 978-1-60178-002-7

      Profiles in Reformed Spirituality

      Series editors

      Joel R. Beeke and Michael A. G. Haykin

      For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from

      Reformation Heritage Books at the above address.

      To

      Dr. Glendon Thompson,

      for

      his friendship and companionship,

      his strength and support

      in Gospel labors

      at Toronto Baptist Seminary,

      from 2003 till now.

      Table of Contents

      Profiles in Reformed Spirituality

      Acknowledgments

      The Piety of Alexander Whyte (1836-1921)

      1. Neglecting God

      2. Experiencing one’s own sinfulness

      3. The Strappado

      4. Such is the kingdom of Satan

      5. The melancholy temperament

      6. Christ and Moses

      7. The blood of Christ

      8. ‘Rock of Ages’

      9. Magnifying Jesus Christ

      10. The Great Revelation

      11. Ashamed of the Gospel

      12. The chief end of man

      13. Eyes spangling

      14. The element of time in our devotions

      15. The secret burden

      16. Evangelical humility

      17. ‘Incomparable Thomas Goodwin’

      18. Divinity students

      19. Knowledge needed

      20. Knowing a good minister

      21. The school of experience

      22. The school of personal experience—for all

      23. Being watchful

      24. Pastoral visitation

      25. Look to yourselves

      26. Sincerity

      27. Books without depth

      28. To the congregation of St. George’s United Free Church

      Selected Bibliography

      Profiles in Reformed Spirituality

      Charles Dickens’ famous line in A Tale of Two Cities—it was the best of times, it was the worst of times—seems well suited to western Evangelicalism since the 1960s. On the one hand, these decades have seen much for which to praise God and to rejoice. In His goodness and grace, for instance, Reformed truth is no longer a house under siege. Growing numbers identify themselves theologically with what we hold to be biblical truth, namely, Reformed theology and piety. And yet, as an increasing number of Reformed authors have noted, there are many sectors of the surrounding western Evangelicalism that are characterized by great shallowness and a trivialization of the weighty things of God. So much of Evangelical worship seems barren. And when it comes to spirituality, there is little evidence of the riches of our heritage as Reformed Evangelicals.

      As it was at the time of the Reformation, when the watchword was ad fontes—back to the sources—so it is now: the way forward is backward. We need to go back to the spiritual heritage of Reformed Evangelicalism to find the pathway forward. We cannot live in the past; to attempt to do so would be antiquarianism. But our Reformed forebearers in the faith can teach us much about Christianity, its doctrines, its passions, and its fruit.

      And they can serve as our role models. As R. C. Sproul has noted of such giants as Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards: These men all were conquered, overwhelmed, and spiritually intoxicated by their vision of the holiness of God. Their minds and imaginations were captured by the majesty of God the Father. Each of them possessed a profound affection for the sweetness and excellence of Christ. There was in each of them a singular and unswerving loyalty to Christ that spoke of a citizenship in heaven that was always more precious to them than the applause of men.1

      To be sure, we would not dream of placing these men and their writings alongside the Word of God. John Jewel (1522–1571), the Anglican apologist, once stated: What say we of the fathers, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Cyprian?… They were learned men, and learned fathers; the instruments of the mercy of God, and vessels full of grace. We despise them not, we read them, we reverence them, and give thanks unto God for them. Yet…we may not make them the foundation and warrant of our conscience: we may not put our trust in them. Our trust is in the name of the Lord.2

      Seeking then both to honor the past and yet not idolize it, we are issuing these books in the series Profiles in Reformed Spirituality. The design is to introduce the spirituality and piety of the Reformed tradition by presenting descriptions of the lives of notable Christians with select passages from their works. This combination of biographical sketches and collected portions from primary sources gives a taste of the subjects’ contributions to our spiritual heritage and some direction as to how the reader can find further edification through their works. It is the hope of the publishers that this series will provide riches for those areas where we are poor and light of day where we are stumbling in the deepening twilight.

      Joel R. Beeke

      Michael A. G. Haykin

      1. An Invaluable Heritage, Tabletalk, 23, no. 10 (October 1999): 5–6.

      2. Cited in Barrington R. White, Why Bother with History? Baptist History and Heritage, 4, no. 2 (July 1969): 85.

      Acknowledgments

      In 1999, when Joshua Press of Dundas, Ontario, began a series of selections from the works of various Reformed authors that was entitled Classics of Reformed Spirituality, my friend George McGuinness—who was pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, at the time—suggested that the series include one of his favorite authors, Alexander Whyte. Undoubtedly the fact that Whyte was a fellow Scotsman played a part in George’s suggestion! George actually went on to draw up a sketch of Whyte’s life, some of which has been incorporated into the biographical outline in this book, and provided a dozen or so extracts from Whyte’s books. Though only a few of these extracts are included in the present volume, George’s manuscript was what got me reading Whyte, and I am deeply grateful for this exposure to one of God’s giants from the late nineteenth century. It was because of George’s formative role at the outset of this project and his contributions to the final product that I have included his name with mine on the title page.

      The bulk of this work was completed during a time of study and teaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary during the summer of 2002. I am deeply grateful to that seminary and its leadership for my ongoing involvement as a visiting professor. But I would be very remiss not to mention my own seminary, Toronto Baptist Seminary, where I serve as Principal. This school and its leadership—in particular, its President, Dr. Glendon Thompson, to whom I have dedicated this small work—has also encouraged my involvement in literary projects like this one and for that I am deeply grateful.

      The title of the book was suggested by certain remarks made by Rev. Kenneth Stewart during a sermon I heard him preach at Dowanvale Free Church of Scotland on the Lord’s Day, May 16, 2004.

      May the vision of God that filled the horizon of Alexander Whyte’s life captivate all who read these extracts from the pen of that godly man.

      Michael A. G. Haykin

      Dundas, Ontario

      September 2, 2006

      To know [Dr. Whyte] was to know what the Covenanters were like in their most splendid hours. This may seem to lay too much stress on the sternness of him. He could be stern certainly, and then if you were its object you felt a gale

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