Murray on MacArthur

I bought this welcome biography last year when it came out but mislaid it and so have only just read it. I am eager to commend it to those who've not had a chance to read it, especially preachers. Macarthur is one of the major preachers of our day and apart from one or two aberrations stands where the best Reformed Baptists stand. The book's strength is that it is both informative and analytical. We get a full picture of the way the ministry has grown over the years and its present vastness. Murray clearly greatly respects his subject but is not afraid to criticise or disagree when he finds that necessary yet without getting in the way. He is also interested in the bigger question of what God is doing in all this. Our indebtedness to Iain Murray, which is already great, goes up anther notch, therefore.

The Lottery

I was reminded recently of this quotation from George Orwell's 1984.

They were talking about the Lottery. Winston looked back when he had gone thirty metres. They were still arguing, with vivid, passionate faces. The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made a living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets.