Brownlow North (1810 - 1875AD)
 

Brownlow North, English evangelist of the Free Church of Scotland.

“The great secret of his success, coupled with the fact that he possessed natural eloquence, and subject to the sovereignty of the Divine Spirit, who uses whom He will, undoubtedly lay in his doctrine commending itself to the intellects and hearts of men. For Brownlow North was a great doctrinal preacher. He was eloquent, but his eloquence consisted in the clear, powerful, and earnest statement, exposition, and application of great doctrines. He had not the thrilling pictorial power of Dr. Thomas Guthrie, the marvellous fecundity of illustration and the musical voice of Charles Spurgeon, the telling command of simile and analogy of William Arnot, or the exhaustless fund of anecdote of D. L. Moody. With Brownlow North doctrine was everything. His style was terse and plain, but unadorned. He had no rounded  periods, no graceful similes, no oratorical peroration. Often voice and words both failed him in the climax of his most earnest appeals. His power lay in the solemn and forcible statement of his doctrines, in his convincing proof, and in his thrilling application of them. And what is remarkable is that he derived his theology mainly for himself from a study of the Holy Scriptures. He drew it from no schoolmen, creeds, or confessions. He preached therefore, not in the technical terminology of divines, but in the language of Scripture and of ordinary every-day life.” [extract from his biography by Rev. Kenneth Moody-Stuart.]

BROWNLOW NORTH:

THE STORY

OF

HIS LIFE AND WORK.

BY THE REV.

KENNETH MOODY-STUART, MA.,

MOFFAT.

POPULAR EDITION.

London:

HODDER AND STOUGHTON,

27, PATERNOSTER ROW.

 MDCCCLXXIX.

PREFACE.

______

THIS Memoir of the late Brownlow North, B.A. Oxon., does not profess to be a biography in the strict sense of the term, but rather a record of his spiritual experience, and his labours for the advancement of Christ’s cause, with an estimate of the character as well as the results of his teaching. On this account the chronological order has not been adhered to except in the opening chapters and those at the close. Elsewhere the arrangement is topical; but as the dates are always inserted when known, the reader can for himself refer each letter or incident to its own year. On this account also only letters of a religious nature have been inserted, or the portions selected from his general correspondence have been confined to extracts bearing upon his labours, or his religious experience and counsels.

The extent of the valuable recollections furnished for this volume by many friends, to whom the Author returns his grateful thanks, and whose contributions are acknowledged as they are successively inserted, must no doubt, to some extent, interfere with the unity of the book as a composition. On the other hand they greatly add to its value, both as being penned by more competent hands than those of the compiler, and as presenting the reader with a truer portrait of Brownlow North than could be furnished by any likeness sketched by a single writer.

In order to admit of this new edition being published in a cheaper form, and also to make the volume more useful and acceptable to a wider circle of readers, certain curtailments of the letter-press of the first edition have been effected. These consist principally in the more or less complete omission of five chapters, which were formerly printed in small type, to indicate to the eye that they did not form a part of the direct narrative, and which it was from the first intended to omit, in the event of a new edition being called for. As the chapters now omitted or curtailed, constituted more specifically the “Records” from which the first edition took its title, it has been deemed desirable to adopt the present subsidiary title instead of that used in the earlier and more extended edition, viz., “Records and Recollections.” The chapters referred to are chapters v. and vi., on the History of Lay-preaching, and the Proceedings of the Free Church General Assembly at the Public Recognition of Mr. North as an Evangelist, a portion of the latter chapter having been retained, including Mr. North’s own Address; and chapters xiv. and xv., containing extracts from Mr. North’s annotated Bible, of which, however, many samples are inserted at pp. 76, 77, and elsewhere throughout the volume. Chapter xviii. is also removed, but all the most interesting and important of the incidents and characteristics narrated in these Reminiscences by personal friends are now incorporated in the regular course of the narrative.

The names of the persons, portions of whose spiritual experience have been recorded, have never been published without their own permission, or in cases where they have deceased, without the sanction of their surviving relatives. In instances where it was hopeless to trace the writers after the lapse of years, the names, or correct initials, have been suppressed, and their place supplied by the earlier letters of the alphabet in order.

This record of Brownlow North's words and work is given to the public, with the prayer that it may prove a means of building up in their most holy faith many of those who were awakened, quickened, or edified under his ministry, and that it may prove a channel of saving blessing to some who never heard the gospel message from his lips, so that by it he being dead may yet speak.

Rev. Kenneth Moody-Stuart

Moffat, 1879.

Brownlow North, the Story of his Life and Work. pdf book (1.4mb)

CONTENTS.

I. BROWNLOW NORTH'S EARLIER YEARS. (111k) pdf (75k) docx (33k)
II. BROWNLOW NORTH'S CONVERSION. (140k) pdf (87k) docx (39k)
III. FIRST PRIVATE EFFORTS TO WIN SOULS. (141k) pdf (96k) docx (40k)
IV. EARLY EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. (145k) pdf (91k) docx (40k)
V. WORK IN EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW, AND RECOGNITION AS AN EVANGELIST BY THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. (148k) pdf (123k) docx (48k)
VI. BROWNLOW NORTH'S POST-BAG. (188k) pdf (79k) docx (41k)
VII. BROWNLOW NORTH'S PORTFOLIO. (239k) pdf (82k) docx (44k) 
VIII. BROWNLOW NORTH'S THEOLOGY AND PREACHING. (162k) pdf (105k) docx (44k)
IX. BROWNLOW NORTH'S THEOLOGY AND PREACHING CONTINUED. (143k) pdf (59k) docx (34k)
X. WORK IN IRELAND AND IN LONDON. (133k) pdf (92k) docx (37k)
XI. HARVEST WORK IN VARIOUS FIELDS. (117k) pdf (92k) docx (38k)
XII. REMARKABLE CASES OF IMPRESSION AND CONVERSION. (131k) pdf (97k) docx (41k)
XIII. LATER EVANGELISTIC WORK IN LARGE TOWNS OF ENGLAND. (126k) pdf (77k) docx (35k)
XIV. LAST YEAR OF EARTHLY LABOUR. (80k) pdf (59k) docx (29k)
XV. LAST DAYS AND DEATH. (146k) pdf (85k) docx (38k)