An Ark for All God's Noahs: In a Gloomy, Stormy Day

We live in difficult days and in trying times. This book, with its quaint yet vivid title, points us to the One in whom Christian men and women have always found the strength to persevere come what may. Taking Lamentations 3:24 as his starting-point – ‘The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him,’ – Thomas Brooks expounds the attributes of God with the aim of comforting those who have felt not only the stresses and strains of daily life but also the searing pain of loss in its various forms. God, he says, ‘is a portion that is exactly suited to the condition of the soul in its desires, needs, wants, longings and prayers. All the soul needs is found in God. There is light to enlighten the soul, wisdom to counsel the soul, power to support the soul, goodness to supply the soul, mercy to pardon the soul, beauty to delight the soul, glory to ravish the soul, and fullness to fill the soul.’

Publisher: Banner of Truth
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781848715738

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Little is known about Thomas Brooks as a man, other than can be ascertained from his many writings. Born, probably of well-to-do parents, in 1608, Brooks entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1625. He was licensed as a preacher of the gospel by 1640 at the latest. Before that date he seems to have spent a number of years at sea, probably as a chaplain with the fleet. After the Civil War, Brooks became minister at Thomas Apostle's, London, and was sufficiently renowned to be chosen as preacher before the House of Commons on 26 December, 1648. Three or four years later he moved to St Margaret's, Fish-street Hill, London, but encountered considerable opposition as he refused baptism and the Lord s Supper to those clearly 'unworthy' of such privileges. The following years were filled with written as well as spoken ministry. In 1662 he fell victim to the notorious Act of Uniformity, but he appears to have remained in his parish and to have preached the Word as opportunity offered. Treatises continued to flow from his agile pen. In 1677 or 1678 he married for the second time, 'she spring-young, he winter-old'. Two years later he went home to his Lord.

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Thomas Brooks is entranced by the wonder and unsurpassed value of God in Christ. This is such a wonderful, pastoral book. I enjoyed it because it made me look upward to my portion- God himself. Highly recommended. Helkias Mapimhidze