Released in the UK March 2012
Released in the US May 2012
Large trade paperback | 208 Pages
9781845507831 • £9.99 $14.99
BISAC – BIO018000
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) is highly–valued by contemporary preachers and Bible users. Here we get a closer look at the life of Matthew Henry by an author who has had a life–long interest in Matthew Henry and his writings. Matthew Henry was the son of a Puritan pastor who had been silenced by the government of the time. Nevertheless Philip Henry, a godly man reared his family on Christian principles and Matthew followed the Lord from an early age. Although it was difficult to find suitable ministerial training, Matthew Henry eventually studied for the ministry. With government opposition relaxing, he became a Presbyterian pastor in Chester in 1687 and later in London from 1712. It is astonishing to note the amount of preaching and writing that he accomplished despite suffering from ill–health and knowing intense sorrow in his family life.
Allan Harman
Allan Harman has had a life-time interest in exposition of the biblical text. He is Research Professor at the Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. He has lectured and preached in many countries and served as the senior editor of the Reformed Theological Review, Australia's oldest theological journal until he retired at the end of 2013.
9781857924930 |
9781845502454 |
9781857920161 |
9781527102668 |
"This is a fascinating and well researched biography of one of the great fathers of expository preaching. It will refresh the spirit of all who read it."
John Benton
Director of Pastoral Support, The Pastors’ Academy, London Seminary, London, UK
of great spiritual value. Henry deals with subjects such as pardon, peace, grace, afflictions, death and heaven from a covenantal perspective. His notes are relatively full, and with Harman's unobtrusive editing (including translation of phrases in Greek, Latin and Hebrew), are easily read. Much more than a historical curiosity, these sermons by the great biblical commentator are full of sound theology and helpful personal application.
This volume is highly recommended for personal spiritual reading, for the student of the history of preaching (they are after all an outstanding example of consecutive puritan preaching), as a guide to an accurate theological understanding of some of the main themes of the Bible, and to provide much inspiration for sermon construction and preparation.
It is exactly 350 years since Matthew Henry was born. My edition of his world-famous Commentary on the whole Bible extends to six large volumes and was published 175 years ago. I have prized and read and quoted it for almost 60 years, but I knew little or nothing about Matthew Henry's life. Allan Harman has put the whole Christian world in his debt by researching and writing this excellent and fascinating biography of a man outstanding in scholarship, preaching, prayerfulness, godliness and faithful pastoring of the same church for twenty years. Here we learn of his home and of the great privilege of being a son of his pastor, mentor and model, Philip Henry ('He brought up his children in the fear of God, and with much tenderness', Matthew tells us). His life had many trials and sorrows personally, and he lived through a most difficult period of church history (his birth coincided with the year of the Great Ejection). But his was a life of extraordinary fruitfulness. I found the story enthralling and deeply encouraging, and I earnestly hope that the book will have the widest readership. I for one am heartily grateful to Allan Harman and Christian Focus for it.
Eric Alexander
Conference speaker and formerly minister St George's Tron, Glasgow for 20 years