Introduction
Part 4
How Shall
They Hear?
1959
Introduction
Most people today are out of touch with the Christian message. How shall they hear? Of all the problems that face our churches, this is surely the most insistent. The following five papers, which were read at the tenth Puritan and Reformed Studies Conference in December, 1959, the centenary year of the 1859 revival in Ulster and Wales and the quatercentenary of John Calvin’s Institutes, are now published in this form in the belief that they point the way towards its solution.
How shall they hear? Each paper suggests part of the answer.
They will hear through the labours of men who, like John Calvin, give their lives unstintedly to spread and defend biblical truth; men who, with Paul, when faced with error, give place “by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue . . .”(Galatians 2:5).
They will hear through the preaching of a broad-based, God-centred gospel which confronts them with the glory of the Father and the Son, and in God’s name commands their faith and repentance.
They will hear through the witness of churches which are notorious for their consistent godliness, which are intolerant of sin within their ranks, and walk humbly in the fear of the Lord.
They will hear through the outpouring of the sovereign Spirit of God in revival.
Apart from these things, they will not hear. If then, we desire that they should hear, it is for these things that we must work and pray.
L. Lupton’s paper on The Geneva Bible has been omitted, since it formed part of a book which, it is hoped, will in due course be published separately. Some of Dr. Hughes’ material, not reproduced here, will be found in the essay, “The Pen of the Prophet,” which he contributed to the quatercentenary symposium, John Calvin, Contemporary Prophet (Baker, Grand Rapids, 1959).