The Best Lecture Ever! Marshall on Boston

Honestly, I've never had such an interest in any cassette (now a CD) as I have had in the lecture given by John E. Marshall on the life and ministry of Thomas Boston. I have probably listened to it 2 dozen times since 1999. Last year, my cassette tape broke, so I bought two more, gave one to my son-in-law's father, and lost the other one! Yep. Then they disappeared off the computer. What was I to do? I really wanted another copy. Thanks to my research-queen-of-a-wife, I not only found a CD, but also discovered a wonderful resource for "over 15,000 messages from more than 40 organizations." It's called soundword.com. 

The picture here is obviously of John Marshall. It is found on the front cover of The Banner of Truth biography published in 2005. He is preaching in the open air in Trafalgar Square, London.  

Consideration 1:  It is difficult to separate us from our work sometimes. I bought the message for Thomas Boston, and came to love both him and his lecturer in the process. Now, I have Marshall's biography and am anticipating getting to know this brother. He went home to be with his Lord 29 August 2003. 

Does this not speak to us as well? As ambassadors of Christ, we no doubt affirm our Lord as precious. But are we not also intimately associated with him? People learn of Christ first through us. What would they know of Jesus by the way we represent him? It behooves us to live so as to reflect well upon our Subject in every message. 

Consideration 2: What about Thomas Boston? Let me simply say that I (along with Marshall) cannot see how the life of Boston would not serve as a tremendous encouragement to anyone in the ministry. His godly tenacity and sensitive conscience paved the way for a very self-correcting life-style, the kind that reveals a true but honest servant in the battle of grace. He fought demons within and without, just like we do. Read Memoirs of Thomas Boston and you will quite literally find prayerful pleading and dependency upon God on every page! As wonderful a life as he lived, the issues he faced, far from putting him out of touch with the common minister actually make reading him indispensable.   

I close with this quotation from his biographer, Andrew Thomson:

The assertion is not likely to be challenged that, if Scotland had been searched during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, there was not a minister of Christ within its bounds who, alike in his personal character and in the discharge of his pastoral functions, approached nearer to the apostolic model than did this man of God. It is a fact that, even before he died, men and children had come to pronounce his name with reverence. It had become a synonym for holy living. 

 Oh, Lord, raise up more godly men like Thomas Boston today!