BOREHAM
and Other Favorite Authors
Meet My Favorite Authors
By Robert E. Baxter
You can tell something about a person by the company he keeps.
Some of my favorite authors are Richard Baxter, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Frank Boreham, C. S. Lewis, and Donald Grey Barnhouse. I can tell they are my favorites because I have more books by them and quote them more often in my sermons. I appreciate the opportunity to recommend them to you.
Let me tell you how I have been helped by reading their books.
Richard Baxter
(1615 – 1691)
Although I do not know of any blood relationship with my namesake, this famous Baxter of the 17th century, wrote the great classic on heaven, entitled, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest. That permanently impressed me with a heaven-directed attitude. My life here is only the prelude to eternal life there, thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ. Richard Baxter wrote over 120 books. I have found His little books, The Reformed Pastor and Baxter’s Call, as well as his massive book, A Christian Directory, to set a high mark at which to aim in my own ministry.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
(1834 – 1892)
I love the way this “Prince of Preachers” takes a passage of Scripture or a text and brings out the meaning of it and so forcefully applies it. I like his humor too. He isn’t dull. I find it better to read what he preached on a text after. I have prepared my sermon on it. If I read Spurgeon before, I will see no other way to develop it myself. If I read it after, I gain new insights with which to adorn my own message. Long ago I bought the 64 volumes that contain most of the sermons he preached in the long, illustrious career of this pulpiteer. I cherish his Treasury of David on the Psalms and the book he wrote for his students. I like the way his Reformed faith enhances his preaching so that when he gives the invitation it is not pleading with people to save themselves but calling upon God to draw sinners to Himself. His little book, Revival Year Sermons shows his love for the doctrines of sovereign grace, a conviction that empowered all of his preaching.
Frank W. Boreham
(1871 – 1959)
I have 40 of the books that this author wrote. Though he wrote his books in Australia, he wrote mostly about his experiences as a Pastor in New Zealand where he served twelve years, and in Hobart, Tasmania where he served ten years. Throughout the 44 years of my ministry I have been warmed by Boreham’s pastoral heart, the way he helped his troubled parishioners, and the touch of humor throughout. Spending much time with him and his preacher friend, John Broadbanks, whom he frequently quotes, I have unconsciously developed some of his style in preaching as well as his approach to ministry. I look forward to meeting Mr. Boreham in heaven, but I hope to read all of his books first.
Frank W. Boreham was born on March 3, 1871, and died in 1959. He had a gift which quite literally touched millions. He was a born writer. He was an avid reader himself, reading a book a week in his earlier years. He sat under such famous preachers as Spurgeon, Moody, Meyer, Parker, Pierson, Weaver, Moorehouse, Matheson and North and was molded by their teaching, as I have been by his. As a young student he had many interviews with James Hudson Taylor for work in China with the China Inland Mission. With great disappointment Boreham was turned down for missionary work because of health reasons, but soon, the guidance of God led to New Zealand.
His autobiography, MY PILGRIMAGE, published in 1940 and reprinted in 1950, tells his story! My copy of the book has a nice picture of the distinguished, mustached gentleman, and a beautiful picture of his godly wife is included on page 16. He writes in the introduction to his autobiography, “There is no drama like the drama of reality; no lure like the lure of life,… The man whose biography is not worth writing has never yet been born.”
He preached his first sermon at the age of seventeen. In 1894, he was sent to Mosgiel, a small Scottish settlement in New Zealand, where he served for twelve years. Boreham was, the most popular Christian essayist of his day.
He is a preacher’s preacher. Once when he was introduced to a group of ministers in Edinburgh, Scotland, the man who introduced him called him “the man whose name is on all our lips, whose books are on all our shelves, and whose illustrations are in all our sermons.” I know I have gladly welcomed many of his illustrations into my sermons over the years.
I urge you to visit the links below to read more about Boreham and his books. Some are still in print and can be bought quite reasonably. A good place to start would be to read his autobiography. I have seen it listed on the Internet for sale at between $10 and $40.
Books by Boreham
Why Boreham’s writings are classics
Another source of Boreham’s Books
C. S. Lewis
(1898 - 1963)
Many preachers would list this brilliant Oxford professor as one of their favorite authors. So do I. He has influenced me all through my ministry. I like his wit, his creativity, and the depth of his wisdom. He comes to the Bible as a converted atheist who knows it is God’s true word. He buttressed my unshakable conviction of the truth of the miracles in the Bible. I recommend his autobiography Surprised by Joy to people who are looking for something to help an unbelieving “intellectual” fool. Lewis has been there, and he knows the joy of Jesus in his life. His book on Miracles is classic. Who has not enjoyed his clever satire, Screwtape Letters, in which he masterfully mocks the devil?
Donald Grey Barnhouse
I heard this preacher on the radio from Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He was on the radio over thirty years. I subscribed to his magazine, Eternity. He was the master of illustration. In 1927, he saw the need to teach the great doctrines of the Bible in a clear and interesting way. He specialized on the book of Romans. If he did nothing else for me, he gave me an understanding of how powerful good illustrations are for conveying the truths of the Bible in a memorable way. His evangelistic question is still used widely around the world—“If God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?” When Dr. Barnhouse asked that question on the radio, he caught the ear of a man who become the preacher of our largest congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America—Dr. D. James Kennedy. He has used that question in his Evangelism Explosion around the world. If I were telling about contemporary authors whom I love to read, Dr. Kennedy would be on my list.
These are some of my author friends. They have influenced me in many ways. If you don’t like them, you may not like me either. They all loved the Lord Jesus, believed His Word, and served Him with excellence. And I, for one, am better off because of what they wrote.
If you want to contact me
send an e-mail to
Bob.Baxter@gmail.com
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