Hello all. I've been reading posts here for some time and joined a month or so ago. I'm a little shy to even make comments here as I haven't found much sympathy with many writers I've been helped by and come to love. I like and read the Puritans, but have also been helped by Wesley, Tozer, and a few of the "mystics", among others. I understand having reservations about some things these folks taught, but I think they had something that may be lacking in many of us whose doctrine is, perhaps, more accurate. It seems God overlooked their doctrinal "shortcomings" and blessed them to an unusual degree. I'll probably mostly post in the poetry section as I really dislike debating. Maybe someone will find a blessing in some old poems I've found. Please excuse the following brief defense of some of those who may yet be a help to us, if taken with a grain of salt and spirit of discernment.


Perhaps, my dear brother, you have been reading Rutherford’s letters, and you have said to yourself. “Alas! I cannot hope to enjoy such communion with Christ as Rutherford enjoyed.” But why should you not? Read our text again: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” You, my dear sister, may have read the life of Madame Guyon, and you have said, “What an angel in human form that woman must have been!” But if you draw nigh to God, you may have as much love to Christ as she had, and you may enjoy as much fellowship with Christ as she had, for “he will draw nigh to you.” You have envied Mary because she sat at Jesu’s feet, or you have wished that you had been John, to lean your head upon your Master’s bosom: well, you may do both these things in a spiritual sense, and that is better than the carnal. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” To you, even to you, the very feeblest of those who resist the devil, will God draw nigh if you draw nigh to him. – Spurgeon

'Once', Martyn Lloyd-Jones recalled, 'Dr. Tozer and I shared a conference years ago, and I appreciated his ministry and his fellowship very much. One day he said to me: 'Lloyd-Jones, you and I hold just about the same position on spiritual matters, but we have come to this position by different routes.' 'How do you mean?' I asked. 'Well,' Tozer replied, 'you came by way of the Puritans and I came by way of the mystics.' And, you know,' said Lloyd-Jones, 'he was right.'

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Daniel
Baptist
Oregon