The picture is Whitefield Chapel in Savannah, Georgia, where the Rev. Robert E. Baxter was preaching at the Organizational Meeting of the Kirk O' the Isles Presbyterian Church where Dr. Michael A. Milton was the Founding Pastor. Mr. Baxter is making a characteristic point--AIMING HIGH!


Note: Dr. Michael A. Milton, close friend of Pastor Bob, is now Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the great Churches of America. To go to that web site click on this link: First Presbyterian Church Chattanooga. There you will see Dr. Milton's picture and can find access to some of his sermons.

Aim High is my modern paraphrase and abridgment of the old classic published in 1650 by Richard Baxter, entitled, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest. This modern paraphrase was published in 1977, before the U. S. Airforce started using the motto in its ads.

The book is available now online at www.gracegems.org

More information about the online book, AIM HIGH, 

and other excellent books and quotes can be found

at the bottom of this page where I have also included

a faster link to the AIM HIGH.

This book has helped healthy Christians to look up and meditate on their eternal life in Christ. It has also encouraged dying Christians to look up to their heavenly home. It lifts our vision to heaven. It obeys Colossians 3:1-2, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (NKJV)

Richard Baxter’s devotional classic, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, has inspired Christians for centuries. Hardly anyone reads it today because of its old language and style. So I paraphrased it in modern language and abridged it for our fast-paced life. It has been a helpful book for people with fatal diseases. I wrote it to meet that need. In the back of the book I have included an Appendix of “Helpful Passages for the Sick, Troubled, or Dying,”

When Richard Baxter wrote the book, he was in such bad health that he lived in continual expectation of death. It was for his own use that he fixed his thoughts on this heavenly subject. He testified that it benefited him more “than all the studies of my life.” Afterwards he preached on the subject regularly and finally published the book in 1650.

Baxter pointed people to heaven, and the result was more heavenly living on earth. My modern version, Aim High, has been used as a required text book for students in Theological Seminary, but it is written simply for any layman in vigorous language. A boy under 7 years old was able to read it, though he said the first chapter was hard for him.

My publisher back in 1977 thought to appeal to the public by billing the book as an answer to “transcendental meditation.” Although that TM craze has faded, the message of this book teaches us the practical value of meditating on God’s revealed promises.

I hired a professional photographer to accompany me to the rare book room of a library where I held the fragile pages of Richard Baxter’s own third edition, published in 1652. He took photographs of the book. One of the photographs of a page from that original was supposed to appear on page 15 of my book. The heading on that page says, “A LOOK AT RICHARD BAXTER’S OWN WORK.” To my chagrin, the page is blank! The publisher neglected to include it. However, the rest of the book makes up for it.

Here are a few quotations from the book.

“If we lacked nothing, we would not depend on God so much, nor call upon Him as earnestly. How little would He hear from us, if we had whatever we wanted! God would never have had such songs of praise from Moses at the Red Sea, nor from David after deliverance from enemies, nor from Hezekiah after healing from sickness, if they had been the choosers of their own condition. Reader, haven’t your own highest praises to God been the result of your dangers and troubles?”

“Troubles speak forcefully, and will be heard even when preachers cannot. Troubles are God’s most effective means of keeping us from losing our way to our rest.”

“The noblest of Christians are they whose faces are set most directly for heaven…. The countries far north are cold and frozen because they are distant from the sun. What makes such frozen, uncomfortable Christians, but their living so far from heaven? …. When the sun in the spring draws nearer to our part of the earth, how do all things congratulate its approach…. The plants revive, the birds sing, and all things smile upon us. If we would but try this life with God, and keep these hearts above, what a spring of joy would be within us; how we would forget our winter sorrows; and how we would praise our great Creator. O Christian, get above. Those who have been there have found it warmer!”

“One man on his death bed, when he was asked whether he was willing to die or not, replied, ‘Let him be loathe to die, who is loathe to be with Christ.’ May that be our conviction also. The Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us, and shall we be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for ourselves and Him? Christ came down to raise us up.”

If these updated words of inspiration and courage from Richard Baxter cause you to ponder whether you will go to heaven when you die, I urge you to read the page entitled “A HOPE OF HEAVEN?” Just click on that file and read about it. You will see that it is as simple as “A, B, C.” And it’s FREE! Free for us, but it was costly for Christ.

To order a copy of the book send $4.00 (includes postage) by check or money order to Robert E. Baxter, 3012 West Main, Dothan, AL 36305.  The whole book of 191 pages for only $4.00!

To read the entire book free, just click on this link to go there. http://www.gracegems.org/book4/Baxter.htm

Also read the other great classics by Puritan authors at the excellent web site:  http://www.gracegems.org/