"A prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel"

Professor Frederick S. Leahy - theologian, pastor and author passed away yesterday evening.

I suspect he won't be known to many of you. But let me recommend that you get at least one of his books - "The Cross He Bore - Meditations on the Sufferings of the Redeemer." It is perhaps the book that best sums up the heart of man - brief, yet each phrase weighted to perfection and packed with theological insight and observation on his most esteemed of topics - the cross of Christ. Prof Edward Donnelly wrote in the forward, "Here is satisfying truth, painstakingly quarried and crafted for the needs of God's people." It is one of those books that has had the most impact on me as a Christian.

Until I read this book I don’t think I had begun to grasp what Christ had gone through on the cross, and in the events leading up to it, for our sake. One line always stands out for me “Gethsemane is not a field of study for our intellect. It is a sanctuary of our faith. Lord, forgive us for the times we have read about Gethsemane with dry eyes.”

You can read my review here.

The following exchange from the life of Puritan Richard Rogers could have been from the lips of Prof Leahy:

"Mr Rogers, I like you and your company very well, but you are so precise."
"Oh Sir," said Rogers "I serve a precise God"

Whether it was in writing or in preaching or in lecturing he was a precise man - in the best and most magnificent sense of the word. A phrase of his contained more than paragraphs of many other men. He was a man of immense theological insight and astuteness. He stood no speculation, or compromise on God's word. He loved to plumb the depths of the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring nuggets to the surface for the rest of us.

He was an immensely clear thinker, with a quick and easy sense of humour and a gentle pastor's heart.

I would commend his writings to you. They can be purchased ether through Amazon, or through the Reformed Presbyterian Bookshop.

Satan Cast Out
The Cross He Bore
Is it Nothing to You
The Victory of the Lamb
God, Satan and the Jews - The place of the Jews in Prophecy and History
Biblical Baptism