CHRIST VICTORIOUS:
Selected Writings of Hugh Martin
By Matthew J. Hyde and Catherine E. Hyde
Banner of Truth. 425 pages. £??
ISBN 978 1 848 712 522
Hugh Martin was ordained into the Free Church of Scotland during its earliest years and was one of the ‘galaxy’ of brilliant ministers who served with such distinction after the Disruption of 1843.
Ill health caused him to resign from the pastorate aged only 42, but he continued to preach and write for the remaining two decades of his life. The Banner of Truth have previously published two other volumes of his works. This book offers a selection of his sermons, essays and all of his known correspondence.
Prior to reviewing this book, I cannot recall knowing who Hugh Martin was and may have confused him with that other – and perhaps better known – early Free Church writer, Hugh Miller! This book is not in any way biographical, though it does direct the reader to biographical accounts of his life. The sermons and articles are well written as he scales the heights and plumb the depths of profound theology.
As might be expected of a 19th century man of reformed and evangelical convictions, his prose is dense, but with flashes of literary flair and colour. The editors of the book identify three loci of Martin’s thinking which are of perennial relevance – the Trinity, the relationship of the Word and the Spirit, and the atonement.
This book will be of help to the teacher and student of church history. It would also serve well as a devotional aid with each sermon or essay offering ‘strong meat’ for the reader to digest throughout the day.
I would have benefited from a brief summary of his life to give each chapter context. I was, however, impressed with the publication of his correspondence. On the 30th January 1877 he wrote: ‘I was purposing this morning to devote the afternoon to letter writing’. How many of us in this generation of social media and e-mail would devote a whole afternoon to reading and responding to letters from other Christians?
The final chapter of the book is a 25-page letter he wrote to his daughters on the ‘the prophetic office of Christ’? Who among us might show such concern for the spiritual wellbeing of our nearest and dearest?
The book may sometimes feel like heavy going, but there is no doubt Martin was a theological heavyweight and today’s church would benefit from his teaching and his example.
