A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte

By Michael A. G. Haykin

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: Sep 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781601782779

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.

Book preview

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: [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]

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