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"Jesus commanded them, saying . . . .freely ye have received, freely give."
(Matthew 10:7-8)
Believing the above Scripture is true and applicable, not only for those to whom
it was originally spoken, but also for all God's people throughout all ages, we
have prayed, worked and wished for the time when we could do something toward obeying
this verse by giving away some of the really great sermons from the past. We have
considered this to be one of the best ways that we could help "feed" Christ's sheep.
For a long time our desires have exceeded our abilities. But the Lord has been pleased
of late to stir up some of His people to help us in this work and to contribute
financially to this specific cause and so now, by His mercies, we are able to actually
begin making these desires a reality. The Lord willing, in the next 30 days we plan
to begin making available "without charge" complete copies of some of the best historic
sermons and particular Biblical studies we've been privileged to discover in our
search for Truth.
These will be sermons, essays, etc., that were originally preached and/or published
through the years from 1600 to 1900. If all goes as planned you should find sermons
and essays by such men as William Kiffin, Hanserd Knollys, Benjamin Keach, Hercules
Collins, Samuel Richardson, John Spilsbury, John Norcott, Israel Atkinson, Abraham
Booth, John Stephens, John Brine, John Gill, John Martin, Benjamin Wallin, Benjamin
Beddome, John Ryland, Sr., J. C. Philpot, John Foreman, William J. Styles, William
Button, Joseph Kinghorn, S. E. Pierce, Isaac Backus, Oliver Hart, Abel Morgan, John
F. Bliss, Gilbert Beebe, Patrick H. Mell, Jesse Mercer, etc., etc.. We are also
planning to make available complete copies of essays and selected chapters from
magazines, journals and books that address specific Biblical and historical issues
but our main republishing focus will be upon sermons. If one reflects upon
what the Scriptures teach about the God-ordained utility and effectiveness of preaching
for gathering (1 Corinthians 1:18-21; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) and edifying (Ephesians
4:11-16) God's people then our focus on sermons will be understandable. For a number
of reasons, we will not be able to prepare and upload these sermons to our web site
as fast as we would like. For one thing, they all have to be re-typeset, digitized
and converted to HTML formats before they can be uploaded to the Internet. Also
for the more contemporary items, copyright status and permission to reprint will
have to be obtained from copyright owners. But limitations being what they are,
we will make every effort to get them ready as quickly as we can. As the Lord brings
us to mind, please remember to pray with us and for us in these matters. If you
are a mind to support this work financially, all gifts and donations are tax deductible.
From the beginning the Lord, through His tender mercies, has sustained this republication
work and now He has been pleased to make it possible for us to enlarge our efforts
to help "feed" His sheep. We hope all our friends, republication society members,
supporters and casual visitors will feel free to come by often and visit this "Free
Materials" section of our web site. For all those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness"
we pray the Lord will bless their search among these choice "gleanings" so they
can find their most needed, "portion of meat in due season".
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