Living Faith

Pocket Puritans Series

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 07/20/2009 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended. Wisdom from centuries ago counsels you to make use of your faith.

 I would always cringe when my well-meaning former pastor would recommend Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs' book on contentment. While it is an excellent, Christ-centered treatise on the topic, it is beyond the average contemporary Christian’s attention span or level of understanding. I remember how excited folks would be to pay a mere five dollars at the church bookstall for the Puritan Paperback version published by Banner of Truth, only to return the book a week or two later with the most quizzical facial expressions. Encouragements to "stick with it and you’ll get used to the writing style" would only rarely result in the perplexed reader giving the book a second try. Into this breach steps Banner of Truth with their new series, "Pocket Puritans."

Every page of Living Faith, a small booklet adapted and paraphrased from The Sermons of Samuel Ward by Richard Rushing, brims with exhortations to its readers to make use of their faith. Faith is often viewed as one of those ephemeral Christians terms falling into the column of "Spirituality" but having little to do with daily life. Such a view, though widespread, is woefully and tragically unbiblical. In this booklet Ward seeks to rehabilitate a thoroughly practical (he would likely have called it "experimental" along with his fellow Puritans) view of faith.

Part One, entitled "The Just Shall Live By Faith," delineates the difference between a person of faith and one who lacks faith. Ward explains how the outward appearances of the two persons might seem roughly equal. Both the person of faith and the one lacking faith may live a hundred years, plant crops, raise children and build grand buildings. But Ward says of the one without faith: “it would be better not to have lived at all.” Harsh words perhaps, but Ward’s urgency is understandable. He isn’t content for his hearers to have lived a “good life” but a life of faith. Eternity hangs in the balance between the two.

Some golden quotes from Part One:

Faith finds its luster in action, and not just in notion. It enters our hearts and not just our heads.

Among all the gifts of God, there is nothing more useful than faith. It is profitable for this life and the life to come.

Faith is not just the midwife to bring you into joy and peace, and then you may let it go. It is more like a nurse or foster mother to bring you on to full maturity in them. Faith is even sweeter in its mature fruit than in its beginnings.

Part Two, entitled "The Folly of Neglecting Faith," concerns the widespread disuse of faith in the Christian life. A contemporary illustration might be driving through Texas summer heat without using your vehicle’s air conditioning. Sweltering when relief is at hand is folly, and so is neglecting to use your faith in your daily Christian walk. In fact, it could be said that Ward is being charitable to his hearers in this section, for in Romans 14 Paul goes much further, saying that whatever is not from faith is actually sin. This alone should drive us to exercise our faith on a regular basis.

Part Three, entitled "Faith Gives Abundant Life," describes how the use of faith is integral to growing up in Christ through affliction:

Faith tackles great obstacles. Small boats do well in calm conditions, ordinary men can stand up to a light breeze, but when a heavy tempest blows, and wave after wave crashes in, nature yields, spirits faint, hearts fail. To stand up against such storms and to live and reign is the work of faith, which has the Word as its compass and Christ at the helm. The greatest adversities are but the exercise and luster of faith…Therefore when a storm rises, immediately run and awaken your sleeping faith. Knock at faith’s door! Say, "Faith! Now do your work!"

Part Four, true to its subtitle, is "A Final Encouragement to the Exercise of Faith." Here Ward gives some practical directions as to how to exercise faith. Start living by faith today, he advises, and resolve not to waste another day in faith-less living. Use it today to become truly content, happy, and cheerful. Do not mistake a life of faith with a perfect life, but allow faith to begin to dictate your pleasures in life instead of your senses and your eyes.

The booklet ends with a brief biography of Ward written by the Victorian Anglican bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle. Wistfully Ryle explains that the known details of Ward’s life are few, but the overall picture remains one of Ward’s Christ-centeredness and passion for saving the lost.

In a nutshell, why read this book? Ward provides the answer: by exercising faith, "you will be able to live in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life, with much more comfort to yourself and credit to the gospel than strangers to the life of faith think possible."

As one growing in the daily exercise of faith, I encourage you to read this booklet, whether you are a regular imbiber of Puritan literature, or a novice who needs to develop a taste for the Puritan writing style. You cannot do better than the Pocket Puritans series from Banner of Truth.