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James Stalker
James Stalker (February 21, 1848 – February 5, 1927) was a Scottish preacher, scholar, and author whose calling from God within the United Free Church of Scotland ignited a passion for biblical exposition and evangelistic preaching across five decades. Born in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, to a joiner father and a mother whose details are unrecorded, he grew up in a modest Presbyterian family. Converted during the 1873 Moody and Sankey revival at age 25—an event that left an evangelical glow on his ministry—he excelled at the University of Edinburgh, winning prizes in every class, and studied divinity at New College, Edinburgh, later spending summers at Berlin and Halle under theologians like Tholuck and Dorner. Stalker’s calling from God was affirmed with his ordination in 1874, leading him to serve as minister of St. Brycedale Free Church in Kirkcaldy (1874–1887) and St. Matthew’s Free Church in Glasgow (1887–1902), where his sermons called vast audiences to faith with commanding eloquence and devotional depth. Appointed Professor of Church History at United Free Church College in Aberdeen (1902–1926), he preached to students and delivered the 1891 Yale Lectures on Preaching, published as The Preacher and His Models, emphasizing the preacher’s divine commission. Author of over 20 works, including The Life of Jesus Christ (1879) and The Life of St. Paul (1884), he became Scotland’s most renowned preacher in America. Never married, he passed away at age 78 in Aberdeen, Scotland.
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James Stalker delves into the concept of forgiveness and the removal of defilement through the Gospel of Christ. He emphasizes how conscience, like a stern guide, leads us to Christ, who has the power to heal and cleanse us from all sin. Stalker highlights the transformative power of Christ's yoke compared to the burdensome yoke of the law, and how only those who have experienced a defiled conscience can truly appreciate the cleansing power of Christ's blood. Ultimately, he portrays the journey of conscience finding peace and reconciliation at the foot of the cross.
Change Is Christ's
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Ps. 32:1). Can this defilement be removed? This surely is the question for every child of Adam; for what conscience is there which has not been stained with sin? It is a question which the conscience itself cannot answer. Conscience prescribes our duty and rewards us if we perform it. If we fail, it fills us with alarms and forebodings, but it cannot tell how these may be removed. This honor belongs to the Gospel of Christ. Like the law, conscience is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Conscience may be compared to a stern guide, who gives a lantern to a cripple and orders him to go the way which the light reveals on pain of death; but it has no concern for his pitiful inability to surmount the difficult path. It is Christ who heals the cripple, putting strength into his feet and anklebones, so that he walks and leaps and praises God. Yet it is questionable if anyone can appreciate the blood which cleanseth us from all sin who has not felt the shame and pain of a conscience defiled, or if anyone can understand the easiness of the yoke of Christ who has not felt his bones broken by the yoke of the law. Though conscience does not of itself know the way to reconciliation, yet it wanders restless and excited till it catches sight of Calvary, when its eye kindles like that of the exile who sees on the horizon the cliffs of his native land; and, when it reaches the cross, it pitches its tent there forever.
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James Stalker (February 21, 1848 – February 5, 1927) was a Scottish preacher, scholar, and author whose calling from God within the United Free Church of Scotland ignited a passion for biblical exposition and evangelistic preaching across five decades. Born in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, to a joiner father and a mother whose details are unrecorded, he grew up in a modest Presbyterian family. Converted during the 1873 Moody and Sankey revival at age 25—an event that left an evangelical glow on his ministry—he excelled at the University of Edinburgh, winning prizes in every class, and studied divinity at New College, Edinburgh, later spending summers at Berlin and Halle under theologians like Tholuck and Dorner. Stalker’s calling from God was affirmed with his ordination in 1874, leading him to serve as minister of St. Brycedale Free Church in Kirkcaldy (1874–1887) and St. Matthew’s Free Church in Glasgow (1887–1902), where his sermons called vast audiences to faith with commanding eloquence and devotional depth. Appointed Professor of Church History at United Free Church College in Aberdeen (1902–1926), he preached to students and delivered the 1891 Yale Lectures on Preaching, published as The Preacher and His Models, emphasizing the preacher’s divine commission. Author of over 20 works, including The Life of Jesus Christ (1879) and The Life of St. Paul (1884), he became Scotland’s most renowned preacher in America. Never married, he passed away at age 78 in Aberdeen, Scotland.