‘The Scriptural method of exposition so well carried out by Bridges renders all his writings very suggestive to ministers. While explaining the passage in hand, he sets other portions of the word in new lights.’– C.H. SPURGEON

Book Description

Charles Bridges’ commentary on Ecclesiastes shows that this neglected book of Scripture is:

• Relevant for today. Our land needs to be awakened to the futility of seeking happiness without God.
• Clear when interpreted in the light of its overall theme.
• Suitable not merely for ‘the light-hearted and thoughtless’ but for ‘the most eminent saint of God’.
• Necessary. ‘On no account could we have spared this book from the canon. It has its own sphere of instruction and that of no common value’.
• Harmonious with the New Testament. ‘We cannot fully enforce and apply Ecclesiastes except by the aid of Gospel light’.
• Sanctifying. The message of the book is designed to bring men to complete consecration to God, as Bridges declares: ‘The men that we want are lively, warm, real men- men who have a daily contact with a personal living Saviour- men whose religion is the element in which they breathe, the principle by which they work- men who think of life as the seed time for eternity’.

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‘The best work on the Proverbs. The Scriptural method of exposition so well carried out by Bridges renders all his writings very suggestive to ministers. While explaining the passage in hand, he sets other portions of the word in new lights.’ — C. H. SPURGEON

Book Description

The Book of Proverbs, in Bridges’ view, ‘is not generally estimated at its just value’. The author of The Christian Ministry does not favour a purely technical study of the text, but gives a homiletical and practical treatment. ‘The best work on the Proverbs’, was C.H. Spurgeon’s verdict on this commentary. ‘Whilst explaining the passage in hand, he sets other portions of the word in new lights’.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869) was one of the leaders of Evangelical party in the Church of England in the last century. He was the vicar of Old Newton, Suffolk, from 1823 to 1849, and later of Weymouth and Hinton Martell in Dorset. Although The Christian Ministry is Bridges’ bestknown literary work, his expositions which included Ecclesiastes and Psalm 119 as well as Proverbs, are highly valued.

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Charles Bridges, one of the outstanding evangelical writers in the Church of England in the nineteenth century, issued his Exposition of Psalm 119 in 1827 when he was 33 years of age. The popularity of the work may be judged by the fact that it passed through at least twenty-four editions before his death in 1869. It is pre-eminently a book of the heart. In its original Preface, Bridges tells us that his main design in writing it was to ‘furnish a correct standard of Evangelical sincerity for the habitual scrutiny of his own heart’, corresponding to ‘the several graces of the Christian system’, which the psalm itself describes. Not surprisingly, a magazine of a century ago told its readers that the Exposition’s ‘appeals to the heart are such as to approve themselves to the experience of every devout believer in Christ.’ C. H. Spurgeon goes so far as to say that the Exposition is ‘worth its weight in gold.’ Psalm 119–’twenty-two pearls upon one string’, as Bridges calls it–has ever retained a strong fascination for exercised souls. Jonathan Edwards, Bishop Cowper, Henry Venn, Henry Martyn, William Wilberforce–to name but five–have testified to its charms. Luther said that he would not exchange one leaf of it for the whole world. Philip Henry told his children that to love it would ‘bring them to be in love with all the rest of Scripture.’

Bridges uses this psalm, structured according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, to teach both the ABC of Christian experience and the maturity to which that experience must lead. He does so, says Spurgeon, ‘with surpassing grace and unction.’ Isaac Watts, in his paraphrase of the psalm, sums up what might well be called the spirit in which Bridges wrote his book, in the words:

‘When nature sinks and spirits droop,
Thy promises of grace
Are pillars to support my hope,
And there I write Thy praise.’

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‘This book has been my companion for almost fifty years. First published in 1830, it is arguably more needed now than then. It is a classic, serving as a guide to all who are aware of the perils and privileges of pastoral ministry.’ — ALISTAIR BEGG

‘People ask me, “What’s the very best book for Ministers?” Overall for the ministry, and for passionate preaching, and how to preach to different kinds of people – there’s nothing like The Christian Ministry.’ — JOEL BEEKE

Book Description

The revival of the Church seems to be closely connected with the condition of its ministry. Bridges sub-titled the study of the Christian Ministry, ‘An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency’, and, rightly used, it is well suited to promote a faithful and effective ministry.

The Christian Ministry is Bridges’ best known literary work, but his expositions of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Psalm 119 are also highly valued.

Bridges begins by considering the general and personal cause of ministerial ineffectiveness, and goes on to examine comprehensively preaching and pastoral work. This book was one of the few which the godly Robert Murray M’Cheyne took with him to the Holy Land, and, in its field, it is without an equal.

‘To enlighten the mind and affect the heart are the two main ends of the Christian ministry. The first demands wisdom and plainness, the second fervency, as the spirit of scriptural preaching. This combination exhibits the minister as “a burning and a shining light” … imparting the spiritual light of divine truth, as well as the spiritual heat of divine fervour … Nothing, says Baxter, is more indecent than a dead preacher speaking to dead sinners the living truth of the living God.’–  CHARLES BRIDGES, in The Christian Ministry, p. 318.

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Review

• Review by Joey Cochran

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