Eleven years ago we promised: “We will remember them.” Thousands of precious lives taken by vile murderers in just a few hours. Today we keep that promise, thankful for the public ceremonies and church services that revive our failing and fading memories.

We will remember them because if we forget we will be the poorer for it and the nation will be the weaker. Grave social, moral, emotional and even spiritual loss will follow.

We wish we could remember better. Not just the blood-soaked events in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. But also the blood-soaked events at Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha. In 1 Corinthians 15v1-2, the apostle Paul warns that the consequences of forgetting the Gospel are not just grave but fatal:

I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain.

In response, the Puritan Richard Steele preached a sermon on that text entitled: “What are the hindrances and helps to a good memory in spiritual things?”

Steele began by describing the double wound that sin inflicted upon our memories:

1. We remember what we should forget: unprofitable things, hurtful things, sinful things.
2. We forget what we should remember: our Creator and what He has done for us, our Redeemer and what He has done for us, the truths of religions, the duties of religion, our sins (to loathe them), our vows to God and promises to others, the church of God, our latter end.

He then lists some of the ways we can further injure and weaken our memories:

1. Limited understanding: unless we clearly know something we will never remember it.
2. A carnal, careless heart: which remembers useless songs better than edifying sermons.
3. A darling sin: that monopolizes our thoughts and debauches our faculties.
4. Excess of worldly cares: they stuff the memory and leave no room for spiritual matters.
5. Gluttony and excess alcohol: both damage the brain and the body, though food works more slowly than drink.
6. Violent emotions such as anger, grief, and fear: all such emotions change our body chemistry, with knock-on effects on the brain.
7. A multitude of undigested notions: Puritan-speak for “information overload!”

Isn’t it amazing how ahead of scientific curve some of these old Puritans were! We see their beautiful holistic balance even in some of the memory repair treatments Steele proposed:

1. A balanced climate: the brain thrives when the envornment is not too hot or too cold, not too dry or too damp.
2. A sober diet: the heathens show up believers here by demonstrating that a sparing and temperate diet improves the mental faculties.
3. A quiet mind: is like a clear still pool where you can see all the fish.
4. Audible repetition of Gospel truths: especially to be done with the family at the end of each Lord’s Day.
5. Writing out truth: Writing out the sermons you hear helps memory, prevents distraction, and stops drowsiness.
6. Exercising the memory: just as a muscle can be made stronger by use, strengthen your memory with different challenges.
7. Mourn over your forgetfulness: just as we would expect an employee to apologize for forgetting his duties, so we humbly confess our spiritual forgetfulness.
8. Pray: Ask God for the promised Holy Spirit to keep the Gospel before your mind (Jn. 14:26)
9. Diligent attention: if the mind wander in hearing, the memory will be weak in remembering (another way of saying, “don’t multi-task”)
10. Value the Gospel: the more we love something, the more we will remember it.
11. Serious meditation: read for a few minutes, shut the book, then think on what you read for a few minutes before going on and the precious truths will abide with us.

We will remember them. Precious truths and precious lives.

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If you had the choice between private Bible reading and prayer, or going to church, which would you choose?

The Puritans would choose church.

Surprising isn’t it. We all know the Puritans’ welcome emphasis on private devotion and personal godliness. But they actually rated public worship even higher. For example, David Clarkson, colleague and successor to John Owen, preached a sermon on Psalm 87v2 entitled Public worship to be preferred before private, and gave 12 reasons why:

1. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private.
God is glorified by us when we acknowledge that He is glorious, and He is most glorified when this acknowledgement is most public.

2. There is more of the Lord’s presence in public worship than in private.
He is present with his people in the use of public worship in a special way: more effectually, constantly, and intimately.

3. God manifests himself more clearly in public worship than in private.
For example, in Revelation, Christ is manifested “in the midst of the churches.”

4. There is more spiritual advantage in the use of public worship.
Whatever spiritual benefit is to be found in private duties, that, and much more may be expected from public worship when rightly used.

5. Public worship is more edifying than private.
In private you provide for your own good, but in public you do good both to yourselves and others.

6. Public worship is a better security against apostasy than private.
He who lacks or reject public worship, whatever private means he enjoy, is in danger of apostasy.

7. The Lord works his greatest works in public worship.
Conversion, regeneration, etc., are usually accomplished through public means.

8. Public worship is the nearest resemblance of heaven.
In the Bible’s depictions of heaven, there is nothing done in private, nothing in secret; all the worship of that glorious company is public.

9. The most renowned servants of God have preferred public worship before private.
The Lord did not withdraw from public ordinances, though they were corrupt. Public worship was more precious to the apostles than their safety, liberty, and lives

10. Public worship is the best means for procuring the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments.

11. The precious blood of Christ is most interested in public worship.
Private worship was required of, and performed by Adam and his posterity, even in a sinless state, but the public preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments have a necessary dependence on the death of Christ.

12. The promises of God are given more to public worship than to private.
There are more promises to public than to private worship, and even the promises that seem to be made to private duties are applicable and more powerful for public worship.

You might want to print this out and put it beside your alarm clock for next Sunday morning.

Or click through to read the sermon here.

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You have a choice.

Option 1: The tiniest sin imaginable, a sin that would bring you tremendous wealth and other material pleasures.

Option 2: The greatest suffering imaginable, for rejecting that one tiny sin.

Your selection, please. Or maybe you want to read this first.

In his sermon on Moses’ choice of Christ’s reproach instead of the pleasures of Egypt (Heb. 11:25), the Puritan Thomas Manton argues that the healthy Christian will choose the greatest affliction before the least sin. He then gives a number of reasons “why the greatest affliction is better than the least sin.”

1. In suffering the offence is done to us, but in sinning the offence is done to God; and what are we to God?

2. Sin separates us from God, but suffering and affliction doesn’t, and therefore the greatest affliction is to be chosen before the least sin.

3. Sin is evil in itself, whether we feel it or no; but affliction is only evil in our sense and feeling.

4. Affliction brings inconvenience upon the body only, and the concerns of the body; but sin brings inconvenience upon the soul.

5. An afflicted state is consistent with being loved by God; but a sinful state is a sign of God’s displeasure.

6. Affliction may be good, but sin is never good.

7. There is nothing that debases a man more than sin.

8. Afflictions come from God, but sin from the devil.

9. Affliction is sent to prevent sin; but sin must not be committed to prevent affliction.

10. The evil of suffering is for a moment, but the evil of sin is forever.

11. In sufferings and persecutions we lose the favor of men, but by sins we lose the favor of God.

12. To suffer is not in our choice, but to sin, that is in our choice. Afflictions are inflicted, sins are committed.

13. An afflicted man may die cheerfully, but a man in sin cannot.

14. Sin is contrary to the new nature; but affliction is only contrary to the old nature

15. When you deliberately choose sin, it will within a little while bring greater affliction.

Still want to stick with your choice?

Read Manton’s full explanation below (Vol. 14, 450-454), or access the 22 volumes of his Collected Works in different online formats here.  

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Danny Hyde recently organized a conference on 17th Century Spirituality in the 21st Century where the guest speaker was Dr Carl Truman of Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia.

Here’s the audio on one page. The addresses seem to have a helpful balance of theology, history, spirituality, and practice.

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