A hundred years ago, the great New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen sounded the alarm about educational freedom in America. He believed that the state had begun to encroach in a most grievous way upon the sphere of the family, assuming duties it had no warrant to perform.

Machen's words of caution are most timely for us. We live in an epoch in which, informed by UN policy goals, western governments are showing fresh determination to become arbiters and guarantors of the education of each and every child. This week we look in detail at what is happening in the UK, and consider what a faithful Christian response to these pressures might look like.

Featured resources:

– Excerpt from J. Gresham Machen, 'Shall We Have a Federal Department of Education?'

– Excerpt from Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (1954, repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987, 2020), p. 468.

– Joshua Kellard, 'When the State Presumes to Educate', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issues 743–4 (August–September 2025).

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In this short bonus episode, we read an apt New Year meditation from the pen of Professor John Murray: 'Memory and Prospect.'

Featured Resource:

– John Murray, 'Memory and Prospect', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 172 (January 1978).

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This week we review some of the ground we have covered on the podcast in 2025, and read an article from our editor, Mark G. Johnston, 'When Preachers Sing the Blues'.

The article reminds us that the charge to preach God's word is often, perhaps always, accompanied by a heavy spiritual burden. While the Lord's grace is sufficient for every preacher, that sufficiency is proved in and through very trying times. May this editorial be a spur to all to pray for ministers and elders, and an encouragement to them to keep going, even in the darkness.

Featured resource:

– Mark G. Johnston, 'When Preachers Sing the Blues,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 748 (January 2026).

Most-downloaded episodes of 2025:

5. The Life of John Newton

4. A Holy Minister: Robert Murray M'Cheyne

3. The Seafarer's Friend: John Flavel

2. The Prince of Puritans: John Owen

1. Let's Study Romans, with Sinclair B. Ferguson

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Maurice Roberts, who edited the Banner of Truth Magazine for many years, is noted for his poignant editorials. This one, from the December 1994 issue of the magazine, is typically probing and helpful. Are we battle-weary? Are we disappointed? Are we, dare we admit it, spiritually sleepy?

If so, Rev. Roberts' article can help us see our need and seek the Lord for the grace of repentance and the gift of renewal.

Featured Resource:

– Maurice Roberts, 'Are You Battle-Weary?', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 375 (December 1994).

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The gospel of God is to be offered freely to all. Accordingly, all who hear the gospel have a warrant to believe it. As Samuel Rutherford wrote, 'reprobates have as fair a warrant to believe as the elect have.'

This week we consider the offer of the gospel made freely by God, addressed to every sinner—indeed, addressed to you and to me.

Featured resources:

– Iain H. Murray, 'The Free Offer of the Gospel,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 11 (June 1958).

– Robert Murray M'Cheyne, excerpt from his sermon 'The Acceptable Year of the Lord' on Isaiah 61:1–3, found in Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1844, repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1966, 2024), pages 583–4.

Banner Resources on the Free Offer of the Gospel:

Andrew Fuller, 'The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation' in The Works of Andrew Fuller (clothbound, 1012 pages)

Iain H. Murray, Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching (paperback, 168 pages)

John Bunyan, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved (paperback, 144 pages)

John Murray, The Free Offer of the Gospel (booklet, 32 pages)

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This summer the Trust brought out a new, retypeset edition of William Cunningham's Historical Theology (1863). This week we read its new introduction by Banner Trustee Donald John MacLean, to find out why this work is of unique value to the 21st Century reader.

Read Material:

– 'William Cunningham's Historical Theology – An Introduction', Donald John MacLean, in William Cunningham, Historical Theology (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1960 and 2024). First edition 1863.

Buy the work (2 volumes): https://banneroftruth.org/store/theology/historical-theology-3/

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The poor are a priority to God, and must be a priority for us, too. This week we focus on this aspect of the biblical witness with the help of Peter Barnes (Revesby Presbyterian Church, NSW, Australia) and Thomas E. Peck, the nineteenth-century Southern Presbyterian minister and teacher.

Featured resources:

– Peter Barnes, 'Looking After the Poor: Biblical Principles', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 502 (July 2005).

– Thomas E. Peck, 'The Gospel Preached to the Poor' in The Writings of Thomas E. Peck (repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1999), Vol. 1, pp. 25, 27–8.

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There are many pitfalls in preaching. One area which many preachers struggle with is application. And yet, in a sense, application is the whole of preaching. David Vaughn's letter to a fellow Christian leader in the December 2025 issue of the magazine addresses this very subject.

Featured resources:

– David Vaughn, 'What can we learn from John Knox?', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 514 (March 2006). Excerpted from A Scottish Christian Heritage.

Resources Mentioned by David Vaughn:

D. A. Carson and J. D. Woodbridge, Letters Along the Way (Wheaton: Crossway, 1993), p. 99-100. Available free as a pdf.

A. T. Pierson, The Divine Art of Preaching, (New York: The Baker and Taylor Company, 1892), pp. 24-27.

Jay Adams, Review of John Stott's Between Two Worlds in The Journal of Pastoral Practice, Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1986), p. 62.

The Works of Jonathan Edwards, (repr. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), vol. 1, p. cxc.

Ron Taylor anecdote from an article in The Journal of Pastoral Practice, Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (Vol. 4, No. 4, 1980), p. 109.

John Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1896), p. 230.

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