AP

“Come, everyone

who thirsts,

come to the waters.”

After the Scriptures, perhaps the most fruitful ground for spiritual growth is the stories of believers down through the ages. Their troubles, victories, despairs and hope in God for the “better country” (Hebrews 11:16) becomes the fibre that God uses to strengthen us in our own day. 

Thomas Boston was timid by nature, yet he has left a great impression upon many lives. D.D.F. MacDonald said:

“Boston did more to fan the flame of true piety in Scotland than that of any other single minister in his generation.” Boston’s friend, Ralph Erskine, said that he had a “golden pen.” Another contemporary, Thomas Davidson, said of Boston: “The acquaintance I had with him, and the frequent opportunities I had of hearing him preach, I look upon as one of the greatest privileges with which I was favoured in my early days, and which I still reflect on with great pleasure.” 

If this is true, then Boston is someone we should greatly desire to know. We must ask: Why did he leave such a strong impression upon so many godly people? The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 11:1 where the Apostle Paul said: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” God’s design for us to grow in Christlikeness, involves imitating the lives of those closer to Christ than we are. Surely, Boston is such a person. The depth of God’s imprint on his life is a legacy to us.  

This series is based on Boston’s memoirs, which he compiled in 1730, nearly two years before his death. He divided his memoirs into twelve sections, with each section covering consecutive periods of his life. I plan to devote a short chapter to each of these twelve sections. 

We should remember that Thomas and his wife, Katharine, whom he dearly loved, parented ten children, of whom only four survived infancy. The sorrow, which was their burden to bear, only God knows. Yet, in addressing his memoirs to his remaining children, he said this to them: 

I own… but you will find yourselves children of the covenant, devoted unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… therefore I charge… to cleave to this God as your God, all they days of your lives, as being His only, wholly, and for ever…

And now, my dear children, your lot is fallen in a sinning time, beyond the days of my fathers… [But I] beseech you… See the absolute necessity of regeneration, the change of your nature, by union with Jesus Christ the second Adam… Labour for the experience of the power of religion in your own souls… and cleave to the Lord, His way of holiness… If your mother, undoubtedly a daughter of Abraham, shall survive me, let your loss of a father move you to carry the more kindly and affectionately to her… 

The Lord bless each one of you, and save you, cause His gracious face shine on you, and give you peace; so as we may have a comfortable meeting in the other world! Farewell.

T. BOSTON 

Let Boston’s charge and blessing to his children extend to us as well. 

– Graham Barnes