A Candle Against the Dark

Robert M. Copeland and D. Ray Wilcox | Crown & Covenant Publications, 2022, 238 pp., $27 | Reviewed by Meg Spear

As an admissions intern at Geneva College years ago, I gave tours to prospective students. Part of my spiel always involved the school’s staunch antislavery stance, noting that Geneva had been a stop on the Underground Railroad from her earliest days, when the college was located in Northwood, Ohio. Little did I know then how deeply this belief was embedded in the history and heart of the RPCNA!

Crown and Covenant’s new release, A Candle Against the Dark, co-authored by D. Ray Wilcox and Robert M. Copeland, clearly illumines the passionate work of Reformed Presbyterians against the deep darkness of slavery in the United States.

The book is firmly grounded in the primary-source research that Ray Wilcox did for his graduate work in 1948. Wilcox was a graduate of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and he pastored numerous RP congregations. Three of those congregations had deep involvement in the Underground Railroad, and Wilcox interviewed and corresponded with many surviving family members to preserve their stories.

Dr. Robert Copeland, a retired music professor and longtime ruling elder in the RPCNA who has spent decades researching genealogies and RP history, faithfully builds on Wilcox’s research from more modern publications and presents a fascinating account of this small denomination’s remarkable fight against slavery. The accounts are thoroughly documented in extensive footnotes and bibliography.

Early Reformed Presbyterians in America traced their roots directly to the Covenanters of Scotland. Their legacy was strong political dissent against overreaching government authorities, and they were adept at preserving their identity through scattered “societies.” They believed passionately in the freedom and equality of all men. Their ancestors had proven their willingness to die for the honor of Christ as mediatorial king of nations, and the American Covenanters followed suit.

Believing that racism was a sin, early Reformed Presbyterian ministers performed interracial marriages, baptized converts of all races, and admitted Black believers as members of their congregations. Among colonial Covenanters, there were no known Loyalists. They strongly supported the Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges that “all men are created equal,” but they later consistently opposed the Constitution of the newly formed United States since it failed to acknowledge Jesus Christ and protected the slave trade.

Although there was a broad antislavery sentiment across many denominations in the early days of the new nation, it appears that very few of them required behavioral changes of their members. This was not the case in the Reformed Presbyterian churches, and, in 1801, the Reformed Presbytery decided that slaveholders could not participate in communion until presenting legal evidence that all their slaves had been freed.

In so doing, the denomination became the first to stand publicly and uniformly against the institution of slavery as RP ministers shared the stage with renowned abolitionists at large rallies across the nation, decrying the institution of slavery as an evil in itself, not simply as an unfortunate plat-form for other abuses.

Many personal stories are recounted of urban and rural Reformed Presbyterians across the nation sheltering runaway slaves in numerous ways. It is heartening to see so many common people boldly living out their faith against wicked laws.

I was glad to learn of the significant effort made by the denomination to provide housing, education, and gospel-centric missions for newly freed men and women. To this end, numerous outposts were established in the South, with the most fruitful work being in Selma, Ala.

I was especially intrigued by the parts of the book that provide helpful review and commentary of the interactions of the RP Church with well-known historical figures and events, including John Brown, Henry Clay, President Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and the Dred Scott decision.

I appreciated the concurrent commentary published by The Covenanter magazine through the years, and I was pleasantly surprised by the book’s appendix, which lists the 118 Reformed Presbyterian congregations in the United States from 1800 to 1865.

Reading this book served as an encouraging reminder that God does work through individual people who stand firm on the truth of Scripture. It has greatly deepened my appreciation for these spiritual forebears. It should even prompt us, amid our cultural struggles against ungodliness, to contend for biblical principles as we seek to advance God’s kingdom on earth.

** Expect Something Beautiful: Finding God’s good gifts in motherhood**

Laura Booz | Moody Publishers, 2021, 237 pp., $11.99 | Reviewed by Meg Spear

In almost 30 years of parenting, I have read numerous books on this subject. A few have been truly helpful, but perhaps none has stirred my heart as did Laura Booz’s book Expect Something Beautiful: Finding God’s Good Gifts in Motherhood.

I found myself weeping tears of grief and tears of joy as I eagerly read its pages. Laura speaks as a friend and mentor still in the trenches, winsomely casting a vision for mothers to see the joys and trials of their everyday lives as fulfilling God’s greater purposes.

She frames motherhood as “a relationship with a person—handpicked by God—for us to love,” and she beautifully urges mothers to envision their ordinary tasks as God-given missions, meeting others’ needs and bearing God’s image as they care for those given to them.

Since our expectations profoundly shape our experiences and our perspectives, it is vital to have the right expectations of motherhood.

The first section of the book is rooted in essential expectations of the Christian life: expect Jesus to be our close companion, expect God to give us what we need from His Word, expect God to listen to us as we pray, expect to be devastated by sin and comforted by God’s mercies, and expect Jesus to grow something beautiful in us. Her suggestions on how to practically experience these blessings while managing a busy household are particularly insightful.

The second part of the book delves into the fruit that the Spirit cultivates in us as we rest in the essentials. We learn to love our families well, to be strengthened by joy, to experience the peace of Jesus in the midst of storms, and to patiently wait on the Lord. We learn to bestow kindness, to grow our appetites for goodness, to see God’s faithfulness every day, to gently enter the messiness of our children, and to cultivate self-control over the long haul. And, over all the experiences, we can expect countless opportunities to worship God, even when we cannot see fruit in the ways we would like.

Through the book, she relates parts of her own story, including struggles with infertility and the grief of a stillborn child. She also tackles hidden heart issues: the cycle of compare and despair, the downward spiral of “mom guilt” into “mom shame,” and the internal narrative of self-pity that clouds the atmosphere of the home. In the midst of it all, Laura constantly points us to the risen Christ.

I highly recommend this book to moms who are conscious of their own weaknesses and want to grow in their ability to see God’s work in their lives.

** Holier Than Thou**

Jackie Hill Perry | B & H Books, 2021, 192 pp., $17.99 | Reviewed by Lindsay Mann

“If God can’t sin, then He can’t sin against me. If He can’t sin against me, shouldn’t that make Him the most trustworthy being there is?” These thoughts led Jackie Hill Perry, Christian author, teacher, and poet, to write her new book. Her purpose in the book is twofold. First, to paint a beautiful and awe-inspiring picture of God and His holiness as revealed in Scripture. Second, to call fellow humans to forsake idolatry and to worship this holy, holy God, thus being made more holy themselves. Jackie wants her readers to know absolutely that there is no one better, no one more satisfying, no one more faithful, and no one more holy than God.

Holier Than Thou is a relatively short read, containing just seven chapters. In the first several chapters, Jackie expands on different aspects of God’s holiness, including His moral perfection, transcendence, and justice. Her remarks on God’s transcendence were particularly helpful to me. God is a self-existent being, separate from sinful humans and the fallen creation. Jackie points out that so often we project our nature on God and expect Him to behave like we do. Our thoughts of God are tainted by our intimacy with sin and sinners.

Jackie writes, “In our attempt to make sense of God through our human lenses, we’ve lowered the bar for who God is.…We want God to be just like us because maybe then, faith wouldn’t be such a task. But He can’t and He won’t because He is too holy to be like anyone other than Himself.” Our false beliefs about God and His holiness need to be corrected through His holy Word. Jackie implores her readers to go to Scripture and let it communicate God’s true nature.

While Jackie draws significantly from the works of A. W. Tozer, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, John Owen, and Thomas Chalmers, Holier Than Thou is unique. Jackie’s writing is poetic, colorful, and imaginative. She has her readers step into the sandals of a terrified Israelite quivering at the foot of a smoking Mount Sinai, and an awestruck Moses marveling at the burning bush. Bible stories that I’ve known most of my life became more vivid and meaningful through Jackie’s telling of them.

Finally, Holier Than Thou forced me to confront my own sin. I have treated the Holy One as ordinary, living some days without a thought of His holiness. I am eternally grateful that, because of God’s holy justice, Jesus Christ paid for my sins so that I could be forgiven and have a relationship with my holy, holy God. Holier Than Thou left me profoundly grateful for God’s holiness and eager to grow in my own.

** The Pastor as Counselor: The call for soul care**

David Powlison | Crossway, 2021, 59 pp., $7.99 | Reviewed by Phil Pockras

This little book is by a now-deceased and well-known Christian counselor, protégé of Jay Adams, and former executive director of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation in Philadelphia, Pa. He was also a seminary classmate of mine in Westminster Theological Seminary. While a student, Dr. Powlison evinced a caring and empathetic heart and a wonderful grasp of God’s Word and wise application of it to the problems of people tempted by and overwhelmed with their sin. When I was offered the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at it.

When you see that it is a short book, easily read in an afternoon by a pastor or ruling elder, you might wonder how valuable it might be. Another gift that Dr. Powlison had was the ability to say much in a few words. I was convicted all over again on the necessity of this part of the pastorate and God’s enabling the man He calls to undershepherd His flock to do this work. David supplied much valuable and relevant Scripture data, as he did while counseling, and you will profit by first reading this book, then praying for God to apply it to your heart, and in a few weeks reading it again.

A further way that the message of this little book can be hammered home is to look up the Scripture passages cited. I was particularly convicted by considering, again, Leviticus 19:17: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.”

As noted in the helpful foreword by another eminent Christian counselor, Ed Welch, David was a polymath—that is, he knew a lot of stuff on a lot of subjects. He’d have been a champ on Jeopardy! This is reflected in the appendix, which is basically a very useful annotated bibliography compiled by David and faculty members of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. The end notes are well worth reading over. The book concludes with a Scripture index, something always useful.

I highly recommend this book to all elders. It will profit church members, too, though the book is explicitly titled to and pointed at elders.

** What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the gospel is good news for our physical selves**

Sam Allberry | Crossway, 2021, 208 pp., $17.99 | Reviewed by Sam Spear

In one sense, this little book about the body according to God’s Word is full of simple observations and does not plow much new ground. Fearfully and wonderfully made, male and female, the curse of death, and the bodily resurrection are well known to us. In another sense, though, given the evangelical church’s struggle to deal with recent questions about the body within Christendom, this study by Sam Allberry is quite helpful. Allberry explores how the body and soul are related, how to think about disability and affliction, and how to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

The book is organized in three parts—Created Bodies, Broken Bodies, and Redeemed Bodies. At 10 chapters and 185 pages, it is a quick read. It is set up for individual study rather than for class or group study, and provides a general index and a Scripture index.

There are several sections that are helpful. One section addresses the postmodern idea of a radical division between our “true” selves and our bodies as is commonly portrayed in books, virtual reality, and movies. The section then explores its impact on our ability to see our bodies as gifts. Gender dysphoria, the binary nature of sexuality, and intersexual biology are discussed. In another interesting section, Allberry considers the ways that Scripture treats some of the non-physical differences between the sexes. Discussions of body shame, degenerative disease, and the nearness of death will challenge some and encourage others. Christ’s nearness to us in our bodily suffering is shown to be an encouragement to all.

Allberry quotes John Stott to sum up the importance of our bodies, not as a place where our real self lives, but as part of who we are and how we can be instruments of righteousness: “Our feet will walk his paths, our lips will speak the truth and spread the gospel, our tongues will bring healing, our hands will lift up those who have fallen, and perform many mundane tasks as well—like cooking and cleaning, typing and mending; our arms will embrace the lonely and unloved, our ears will listen to the cries of the distressed, and our eyes will look humbly and patiently towards God.”

The book reminds us to consider our bodies as the Apostle Paul did, as something to train up for godliness, something to cherish, something to spend for the Kingdom, and something awaiting further glorification.