I wrote to Mr Dickson to ask what his church affiliation was so that I could bring our dealings to the attention of the church. Instead I received an acrimonious email from Mr Dickson’s assistant, a Martin Fulner, who now denies his previous statement that the money had been used to pay their taxes. He now also claims that the stock which they took from us so eagerly did not even fetch the figure which he had previously stated and that most of the stock was rubbish! And this despite that fact that he wanted to come for a second trip to take more stock.

Mr Fulner writes in justification of their actions, “You should never have got involved if (sic) a profession that you dont know the slightest thing about…… The truth which hurts you is that we may have saved you tens of thousands of pounds by making you realise that this stock is worthless”

So Mr Fulner, who does not know me from Adam, knows the limits of my knowledge of the secondhand book market, and they by their theft have helped me to realise that the stock I carried was worthless!! So precious a ministry they have, and I am truly grateful to both for such a valuable lesson.

So fine a gentleman is Mr Fulner that he claims he is willing to pay the £3,000 from personal money, even though they claim they have made a loss on the deal, provided I remove from this blog all mention of our dealings!! Forget the fact that the deal was to share the proceeds on sale and not any profit or loss. This is Intended, I am sure, as another lesson to me to ensure that I deal in future with men of character. So glad to know that they care for my sanctification!

I will tell you what Mr Fulner and Mr Dickson - in the  interest of truth I am prepared to replicate on this blog our entire email correspondence and the notes of all telephone conversations we have had so that the readers can judge for themselves the truth of the matter!

Conclusion: Thieves are always unscrupulous, even if they call themselves Christian.

Found HERE

HALL (THOMAS). Commentary on 2 Timothy III. and IV. Folio. Lond.,1632—1658. 8/.

NOW FOUND - Download here

Spurgeon said of this work:

Hall is often found in union with Barlow, completing the Commentary on 2 Timothy, as he completed Amos, (No. 840.)-He is a masterly expositor, of the old-fashioned school.

“The Mischievous effects of Slandering”, sermon preached at St Giles November 15, 1685 by Edward Fowler DD. Download it HERE

A Sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons November 6 1689 - P Birch D.D - Download it HERE

The Confession of Faith composed by reverend Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster, together with the Larger and Lesser Catechisms 1658. Download it HERE

Therapeutica Sacra, showing briefly the methods of the diseases of the conscience concerning Regeneration 1697. David Dickson. Download it HERE

The poor man’s help and young  man’s guide - William Burkitt 1693. Download it HERE

To this day (2009-12-17) we have still had no response from Mr Dickson, despite further chases, and it is now clear to us that the money is not going to be paid to us.

Should Mr Dickson still be listed as a “Christian” dealer?!

May the Lord judge between us!

… which we hope to incorporate at some point into the main website:

THE WORKS OF EBENEZER ERSKINE

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Life and Diary of Ebenezer Erskine

SERMONS AND PRACTICAL WORKS OF RALPH ERSKINE IN TEN VOLUMES

Vol 1

Vol 2

Vol 3

Vol 4

Vol 5

Vol 6

Vol 7

Vol 8

Vol 9

Vol 10

Gospel Sonnets or Spiritual Songs

For Poole’s English Annotations (number 51 under whole Bible Commentaries) and John Allen’s Spiritual Exposition - volume dealing with section from Joshua to Psalms (number 1 under whole Bible Commentaries).

The long awaited DVD set is ready!

The special price on the first 100 orders is £155 per set of 10 DVDs. Thereafter the price will be £199 per set. Postage and Packing will be additional and will be charged at cost.

For friends who registered their interest in the DVD set by the 21 November 2009 we will keep the special introductory price open until 30 June 2009. Thereafter the price will be the full price.

This is a wonderful set at a very competitive price, containing many priceless works and will make a wonderful present to a minister, lay preacher or serious bible student. So why not order your set today?

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We write this article with great sadness, but feel constrained to do so, because to our mind it reflects the moral malaise that infects so much of the Christianity that we find in the UK.

As many of our readers will know, we have had a very large stock of secondhand and antiquarian Christian books which we have not personally had the time to take to market. Over the years we have tried to find others who might have been able to help, or even to sell the entire stock to dealers at a modest fraction of their real value in order to recover some of the costs that we have incurred, knowing that we just would not be able to give our time and attention to this precious ministry. We had never seen the venture as anything but a ministry and would have been prefectly happy just to break even.

In any event, earlier this year following a telephone discussion with Mr Dickson (of Livingstone House, 16 Edward Street, Kilsyth, G65 9DL. Scotland U.K) and his helper Martin, it was agreed that they would come to view the stock to see what, if anything, they could do to help. On the appointed day they arrived, examined the stock and they wanted to strike a deal. We shook hands on a deal under which they would take responsibility for bringing the entire stock (including the non Christian books) to market, or find an outlet for them and for their troubles they would take 50% of any proceeds.  They had come with a lorry, obviously expecting a deal, and they took some 60-80 boxes of books which were listed in the next few months. Since we did not have time to list all the books that they were taking, they agreed that they would list the books and account to us for all books taken and those that were sold.

Since the original list was published we have been chasing Mr Dickson and Martin for an account, but nothing has been forthcoming. When we asked about the book sales we were informed that they were reneging on their agreement and would not now be able to help us with the rest of the stock! Then we were informed that we were only due a modest £3,000 from the sale of the books. Even so, despite promises that we would have the money, including one from Mr Dickson who told us that he would deal with it personally, nothing has materialised. In early July Martin even had the audacity to inform us that our share of the proceeds had been used by them to settle their personal tax liabilities!!

We remember a time when a gentleman’s agreement was honoured even by unbelievers. In the morally lax days in which we live, we might expect the unconverted not to feel obligated by any such agreement, but it comes to something when even professing Christians capitulate to such moral laxity. But then to add insult to injury by using money that did not belong to them to settle their tax liabilities beggars belief. Is this not theft? Can this possibly glorify God? I wonder what church Mr Dickson attends, and whether, if this news were made known to the church, it will affect in any way his standing in his church? Somehow I doubt it.

What sad days we live in when professing Christians privately commit crimes without their conscience feeling outraged!

With great sorrow of heart we have to add that over the years the biggest disappointments that we have experienced have been at the hands of those who profess the name of Christ; those who claim to have real religion in their soul! What a sad indictment of present day Christianity!

We hope eventually to have a page dedicated to Bibles and Bible Study reference material (excepting commentaries). As we are some distance from this page appearing on the website because of time pressures, we thought we should post links to some important Bibles available online.

Theodore Beza

We have no way of verifying that the above is genuinely the Beza bible, and we are therefore taking at face value the claim that this is the case.

Breeches Bible

KJV 1611 in 2 volumes

Vol 1

Vol 2

KJV 1611 - 1 volume edition with important notes

Wycliffe:

vol 1
vol 2
vol 3
vol 4

The Englishman’s Greek New Testament; giving the Greek text of Stephens 1550, with the various readings of the editions of Elzevir 1624, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth: together with an interlinear literal translation, and the Authorized Version of 1611 (1896). Samuel Bagster.

The youth of today have grown up accepting as irrefutable the post-modern notion that morality is relative, and that differing or even conflicting views are nevertheless of equal weight and that provided no physical harm is done, then one’s own morals should be a private matter and none should dare challenge or question them.

Sadly, this cultural paradigm shift, once confined to Academia, has filtered through to the rest of society and we find these views promulgated in our education system, the media etc.

In this climate we have seen the rise of a political class which has seen itself as immune from public censure and many of whom have over the years perpetrated immoral acts and survived to carry on in their political posts. It is not surprising therefore that many of this political class have felt immortal and grown not only more daring in their personal immorality, but have succeeded in downgrading public morality by example and by legislating many of these views into our statute books. In the early years such attempts were met with opposition, but by attrition and devilish tactics (e.g. pushing forward such legislation under the guise of equality!) such opposition has been rendered ineffective.

What then has changed for the public’s moral sensibilities to be suddenly aroused and expressed in such vehement terms at the disclosure of the expenses scandal? Why should the public, who have been so forebearing, suddenly feel indignation because politicians have been found to have their hands in the public purse? Surely, this was widely known, even if we had no substantive proof. The rules for expenses claims were in the public domain, the weaknesses of the system had been discussed in parliament and had been covered in the press. There should have been nothing in the recent revelations which should have shocked, let alone led to such a show of anger. In any event the acceptance of post-modern notions of morality should have ensured that these revelations amounted to nothing more than a damp squib.

But, to our great surprise and for no evident reason, the public’s sense of morality has been touched and the expression of anger is leading not only to widespread political unrest, but also to a questioning of the whole political process, the need for uprightness of character in public office and the re-establishment of public standards. Many people that we have spoken with are also beginning to question the basis of morality and whether post-modernism is really the answer.

The only things post-modernism has succeeded in doing is to desensitise people to wickedness and ironically, in the name of tolerance, to make people intolerant to all viewpoints (especially those with religious pre-suppositions) opposed to post-modernism!

Are we now witnessing the demise of post-modernism? And if so, what will replace it?

Our prayer is that it will indeed mark the beginning of the end for post-modernism and that in its wake there will be a return to biblical morality and to a wide spread awakening. Dear reader, will you join us in this prayer?