©2006, Banner of Truth Trust, 404 pages in hardback.

What happened to the Christian witness in Scotland?  How could a land once be marked for generations by its desire to serve and honor the living God, and today be consumed by apathy for that precious Name?  This is a question Murray answers in this important work.

First, Murray traces some of the leading people God used to sow good Gospel seed on the Spirit-prepared soil of human hearts.  His narrative is full of apt quotations, anecdotes, and accurate history written in an appealing style.

Sketches of the lives of John Knox, Robert Bruce, Thomas Chalmers, John MacDonald, and Horatius Bonar provide insight into God’s good providence in raising up faithful pastors committed to truth even in the face of great trials and persecution.  Many others could be named to show how God used particularly gifted individuals to meet the needs of the day and hour.  Knox and Bruce sought to be faithful preachers in the midst of unfriendly civil rulers.  Chalmers challenged men to deeper spiritual lives through his preaching, his pen, and his professorship at St. Andrews.  He impacted laity and future ministers alike.  His focus on a parish concept of ministry brought laity and pastors face to face often.  God blessed these visits with Gospel advance.  MacDonanld’s and Bonar’s ministries were visited with spiritual revivals and were marked by a focus on God’s love and the importance of sanctification for clergy and laity.

One would expect true Gospel growth to overflow into a zeal for missions.  In the book’s second section, the author turns attention to many fields where missionaries labored sacrificially.  God gave great success in the New Hebrides and in southern and central Africa.  Particular attention is given Robert Moffat, David Livingstone’s father-in-law, whom God used over a fifty-four year period to construct wide spiritual inroads into Africa.

The knowledgeable Murray pulls back the curtain of history and reveals some of the struggles these men encountered as they taught, preached, and lived out God’s word.  We need this reminder that the world is at enmity with the Gospel.  We may confront hostility today in the midst of faithful witness.

Attacks on the Gospel may come from the world, but often opposition originates from within the church.  This is one of the issues Murray examines in the book’s final section.  Prior to the climactic chapter, the author examines issues that others have seen as problematic in the church.  Scotland’s reformed Christians failed to aggressively seek Christian unity outside their denominational bounds. Next,  Murray looks at the relationships existing between  ministers and  ruling elders.  He also delves into the role, or lack thereof, of warmth in doctrinal preaching.  All of these are issues have relevance to reformed churches today.

Murray’s final chapter is devoted to the root cause, humanly speaking, of Scotland’s spiritual demise. This danger  threatens every Bible-believing denomination.  Remember that each generation is only one generation removed from unfaithfulness.  The author notes that the spiritual slide into liberalism can occur incrementally and often undetected.  By the time theological weakness is evident, the battle has already often been lost.  

The title of this book is quite appropriate.  God gave Scotland a rich heritage that was not easily won.  Our nation and a number of reformed denominations were greatly influenced by Scottish immigrants.  Reformed readers can learn of this heritage by reading Murray’s book.  Christians from any denomination can appreciate reading about God’s work in men of days gone by and how He chose to build His church.  The many accounts of revival will be an encouragement to readers.

Murray has written more than a historical work.  At the end of each chapter he draws a number of applications that readers can ponder for their situations.

A general application that I took from this book is that no denomination or church is immune to the temptation to err and even to err greatly.  Murray writes with a passion for God and with an awareness of the sinful nature that exists in churchmen of every age.  He clearly demonstrates that God builds His church.  We must constantly under-gird the work of the church with prayer.  Remember that God uses those the world would pass over to do great work for Him.

Review ©2007 Byron Snapp, Hampton, Virginia