Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 03:3 (Summer 1994)
Article: An Argument for Learning
Author: Jim Elliff

RAR 3:3 (Summer 1994) p. 105

An Argument for Learning

Jim Elliff

Wise men store up knowledge (Prov. 10:14).

One of the immense edifices on the skyline of Christian history over this century was the eminent leader, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981). He is noteworthy not only because he was a great preacher and the pastor of Westminster Chapel of London, but also because of his zest for learning. Having begun as a physician of exceptional quality, he carried over into his Christianity and ministry this unceasing hunger to know more. In a delightful little book titled Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Man and His Books, I found this humorous cameo of Lloyd-Jones as a indefatigable learner, given by his daughter as a portion of a public address:

I remember staying in Wales. I was again fairly young, it was the mid 1930’s, on that lovely sandy beach in Borth. It was a boiling hot day. (I know we always tend to think it was like this when we were children, but this really was a boiling hot day.) I was gamboling about in a bathing costume, and digging and paddling and all the rest of it. Everybody else was on the beach, in the amount of undress that was allowed in the mid-1930’s. We were all hot, and there we all were in this glorious sunshine sunbathing, as I said, and playing. In front of a rock, over to one corner of the beach, was my father, fully clothed, in a gray suit with a hat upon his head, his usual hat, shoes, socks, waistcoat, the whole thing, sitting bolt upright, leaning against the rock and reading.... 1

I identify. Not that I have the acumen of a Lloyd-Jones, and certainly not because I like to wear a waistcoat and hat, but because I have the hunger to know, to think, to acquire substantial understanding of the nature of God and the way He works in His universe and with man. In fact, I find it a bit frustrating not to make better advances. Time is much too fugitive, my schedule too uncooperative, and my mind too sluggish, for making all the progress I would like.

Perusing the half-price books at the antique mall one day, I remarked that I loved books and could not pass them by,

RAR 3:3 (Summer 1994) p. 106

etc., and that television seemed to steal so much from people. You know the line of thinking. The kind woman who was sitting close by was candid in saying that she just could not get along without television and that she watched it incessantly. I said, not to be impressive, but to emphasize a great loss experienced by the Western world, that we in our home had chosen to get rid of our television ten years ago, and that it was, for us, an extremely wise decision.

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