“search the scriptures” John 5:39

Author –

Keith Clayton
Articles by this Author
2008 China’s Year!
A report compiled from several sources concerning the Beijing Olympics and Christian testimony There is no doubt that evangelicals saw the Beijing Olympics of 2008 as a great opportunity to enter and …
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 4
Report
A Body
(5) A BODY THE human body is a wonderful unity, not merely because of the physical connection of its parts, but by the presence in all parts of One Pervading Life. This may be less obvious in relation…
Keith Clayton
Figures of the Assembly
1954 Volume 6 Issue 3
Exposition
A Family
(4) A FAMILY Tn the preceding article an attempt was made to show – what should mark an assembly in its character as a house; now we wish to show that it should also be a home for God’s family. There …
Keith Clayton
Figures of the Assembly
1954 Volume 6 Issue 2
Exposition
A Hospital
No one can form an adequate Idea of what a local church should be unless he Is prepared to view It from the many angles suggested In the New Testament and then try to form a composite picture. This ar…
Keith Clayton
Figures of the Assembly
1954 Volume 6 Issue 4
Exposition
A Hunger for the Word
On the 17th May, 1881, Oxford University Press published the Revised Edition of the New Testament which was awaited by the public with great interest and one million copies were sold in that one day! …
Keith Clayton
1999 Volume 54 Issue 4
History
A Library for Biblical Research
A LIBRARY FOR BIBLICAL RESEARCH has been established at the Bishopston Gospel Hall, Bristol, to aid Christians in their studies. Arrangements are in the experimental stage but it is hoped to make the …
Keith Clayton
1960 Volume 11 Issue 2
Report
A Situation we must face
As a new generation arises, assemblies are being sub-jected to subtle but relentless pressure to abandon some long-held convictions and to accept practices which have hitherto been regarded as inconsi…
Keith Clayton
1956 Volume 7 Issue 8
Contemporary Issues
Accounts of the Year ended August 31st, 1959
THROUGH THE CONTINUED KINDNESS of Mr. L. W. Moscrop we are able once more to present a certified account of income and expenditure. The growing demand for PRECIOUS SEED has naturally involved a corres…
Keith Clayton
1960 Volume 11 Issue 1
Editorial
An Appreciation of Ivan Steeds
Our brother Ivan Steeds has come to the time when he feels, on account of family needs, no longer able to continue on the committee of the magazine. Ivan has always given fully and freely of his time …
Keith Clayton
2004 Volume 59 Issue 1
Testimony
Are you hooked on logic?
‘Be not wise in thine own eyes’, Prov. 3. 7. One day a scientist asked an old preacher why the Bible version of creation defied logic. Smiling, the preacher replied, ‘The reason God came from nowhere …
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 1
Exposition
Be Neighbourly
LET every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification “ Horn. 15. 2. It is the believer’s business to be the most con-siderate, sympathetic, courteous and companionable of people, withi…
Keith Clayton
1955 Volume 7 Issue 2
Devotional
Bethany Residental Home
During 1985 a Hampshire farmer in the south of England was approached by the Trustees of Bethany Residential Home in Ealing, London, to see if he knew of suitable land in Hampshire upon which a new Re…
Keith Clayton
2004 Volume 59 Issue 3
Report
Bethel Gospel Chapel
BETHEL GOSPEL CHAPEL, MONTREAL, CANADAIn the early years of the twentieth century a number of immigrants arriving from the United Kingdom who had met in simple fashion to worship the Lord in the ‘Old …
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 4
History
Bexley Christian Assembly
On 29th April 1770, when Captain James Cook, commanding the HM Bark Endeavour, sailed into Botany Bay he would have seen rising up from the western shore a great area of forest bounded by a long ridge…
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 3
History
Brierfield, Lancashire
Brierfield is an Urban District lying between Burnley and Nelson under the shadow of the 1'ennines. in the north-east of Lancashire. It is a town of weaving where once the Master of the Mill, often of…
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1955 Volume 6 Issue 8
History
Canley – Coventry
ON 3rd November a new hall was opened in a housing estate at Canley, near Coventry, when about 200 friends from neighbouring assemblies enjoyed apt messages from J. W. Laing and H. Bell. The next day …
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1957 Volume 8 Issue 4
History
Celebrating 100 years of service for The Western Counties and South Wales Evangelisation Trust
This year commemorates the centenary of the Western Counties and South Wales Evangelisation Trust. Formed in 1904, the Trust was established following the exercise of brethren in the West of England a…
Keith Clayton
2004 Volume 59 Issue 4
Report
Choice Gleanings
A Calendar with a difference This morning, as believers around the globe lift up their hearts to God to begin their day, a familiar component of that process will be the Choice Gleanings calendar. The…
Keith Clayton
2004 Volume 59 Issue 4
Organisations
Code name: Confusion
‘Come near to Me, hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning’, Isa. 48. 16. The Bible Code was introduced in 1988 by three Israelis and then popularized in 1997 by Michael Drosnin’s bo…
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 2
Exposition
Copimg with difficulties within a marriage
Pastoral Articles are provided as and when we put together contributions from believers involved in the particular difficulty that is highlighted. They are set out so as not only to state the particul…
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 3
Exposition
Crediton – from 1850 to 1956
In the year 1850 – when bull-baiting was still countenanced in Crediton – Robert Gribble, of Barnstaple, preached the gospel in the open air at Crediton Fair and it is recorded that he was roughly han…
Keith Clayton
1956 Volume 7 Issue 8
History
Crossroads
I seem to have come to the Crossroads, And know not which way to turn, So I look into my Father’s face, My direction from Him to learn. I seem to have come to the Crossroads, And overhead clouds dark …
Keith Clayton
2002 Volume 57 Issue 2
Poetry
Deep-Water Faith!
DEEP-WATER FAITH! ‘NEVERTHELESS AT THY WORD I WILL …’, LUKE 5. 5 After they fished all night and caught nothing, Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets …’, Luk…
Keith Clayton
2002 Volume 57 Issue 1
Exposition
Denis Clapham
21st June 1925 – 19th April 2007 It is with a sense of loss that we record the homecall of our brother Denis Clapham. For almost thirty years he was closely associated with the work of Precious Seed b…
Keith Clayton
God’s Right-Hand Man
2007 Volume 62 Issue 2
Report
Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
The many learned attempts which have been made to reconcile divine sovereignty with human responsibility have done little more than shift the emphasis, relieving some of its difficulties only at the e…
Keith Clayton
1957 Volume 8 Issue 6
Exposition
Don’t make a mistake
No Christian is greater than his prayer life. The people who are not praying are playing. If the Elders are not praying, the sheep are straying. The platform can be a shop window to display one’s tale…
Keith Clayton
1955 Volume 7 Issue 4
Devotional
Dr John Heading
We are pleased to say that John Heading has consented to join us on the Committee. Those of our readers who are already familiar with the spiritual character of his written and oral teaching will shar…
Keith Clayton
1962 Volume 13 Issue 1
Editorial
Dwindling Assemblies
WHEN some assembly dwindles pessimists regard It as evidence of a general tendency, forgetting that it is a mistake to base generalisms on a particular case. Not only is it a fact that quite a number …
Keith Clayton
1957 Volume 8 Issue 5
Contemporary Issues
Eastern Counties Missionary Home
Readers will be interested to learn that a fund has been established to purchase and furnish a home in the Romford, Essex, area for the use of missionaries home on furlough.Further information can be …
Keith Clayton
1959 Volume 10 Issue 4
Editorial
Emptied to be Filled
Oh, to be but emptier, lowlier, Mean, unnoticed and unknown, And to God a vessel holier, Filled with Christ, and Christ alone, Naught of earth to cloud the glory, Naught of self the light to dim, Tell…
Keith Clayton
2001 Volume 56 Issue 4
Poetry
Empty Chairs
It happens to all preachers at one time or another. It’s bound to happen again, eventually. It’s awkward. It’s a little embarrassing. It can be so discouraging. There’s little we can do to complete…
Keith Clayton
2000 Volume 55 Issue 3
Contemporary Issues
Faskally House and Trust
The history of Faskally House, Pitlochry, goes back to 1831, the date above the front entrance doorway. Having passed through five different owners, it was bought in 1996 by Faskally Christian Trust, …
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 3
History
Figures of the Assembly – Part 1: Ye Are the Temple of God (1 Cor. 3. 16)
This expression was applied to the company of believers at at Corinth, and not to the individual believer. True, a similar expression, “the temple of the Holy Ghost,” is applied to the body of the ind…
Keith Clayton
Figures of the Assembly
1953 Volume 5 Issue 6
Exposition
Figures of the Assembly – Part 2: A School
We are in danger of falling into a quite unjustifiable complacency with our level of spiritual knowledge and intelligence. It might not be difficult to suggest causes for this unwarrantable frame of m…
Keith Clayton
Figures of the Assembly
1953 Volume 5 Issue 7
Exposition
Figures of the Assembly – Part 3: A House
In our consideration of varied aspects of assembly life, we come now to a figure which suggests salutary lessons in a day when popular ideologies tend to militate against a proper regard for order, ev…
Keith Clayton
Figures of the Assembly
1953 Volume 5 Issue 8
Exposition
God is …
He is the First and Last, the Beginning and the EndHe is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of allHe is the Architect of the universeand The Manager of all times.He always was, He always is, and H…
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 2
Poetry
God’s Sovereign working in the Telugu Desh
Probably the most fruitful field in India, from the point of view of gospel work, at the present time, is the Telugu area. Over the whole of that vast area, souls are being saved in large numbers, and…
Keith Clayton
1955 Volume 7 Issue 4
Report
Golden Bells
Children’s Magazine Golden Bells is a children’s outreach magazine published to present the gospel and teach the word of God to the young people living in today’s world. The main purpose of the magazi…
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 4
Report
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Psalm 23. 2
The only creature that has more trouble sleeping than we do is a sheep. Everything must be just right: no wolves, no insect pests, and no hunger. Since sheep can’t find pasture, deal with pests or pro…
Keith Clayton
2004 Volume 59 Issue 4
Exposition
Holiday Evangelism
Earnest young men have often proved the value of devoting a holiday to helping in Gospel work in the villages of our land, enjoying a complete change of environment, getting healthy exercise serving t…
Keith Clayton
1959 Volume 10 Issue 2
Report
Home for Elderly Believers
A house in Bristol has been vested in a Trust of fourteen responsible brethren from local assemblies, with a view to providing a home for about eight aged people. Christians interested in such a worth…
Keith Clayton
1959 Volume 10 Issue 3
Editorial
Home Workers Fund
(Relief in Age, Sickness and Necessity)The Council of the above have asked us to draw the attention of our readers to this Fund the purpose of which is to help evangelists and teachers, who through il…
Keith Clayton
1963 Volume 14 Issue 1
Editorial
Homecall of A. C. Hinton
We deeply regret to inform our readers of the sudden home-call on August 19th, of our highly esteemed colleague, Mr. A. C. Hinton, at the age of 66. Interested in ‘Precious Seed’ from its inception, h…
Keith Clayton
1960 Volume 11 Issue 5
Editorial
I cannot understand
I cannot understand The why and wherefore of a thousand things. The crosses, the annoyances, the daily stings. I cannot understand – But I can trust, And perfect trusting perfect comfort brings. I can…
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 2
Poetry
If God should go on strike
It’s just a good thing God above has never gone on strike, Because He wasn’t treated fair on things He didn’t like. If He had ever once sat down, And said, ‘That’s it. I'm through. I’ve had enough of …
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 1
Poetry
In a Devon Coastal Town (Seaton)
"But, Monty, we have asked twice for the room and they have refused it, what is the use of asking again ?” Two young men, who had been demobbed after the first world war, were discussing the possibili…
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1955 Volume 7 Issue 4
History
Income and Expenditure
READERS WILL BE INTERESTED to know that during the year 1957-8 our circulation increased by 12 per cent to 14,000, and that the gifts received rose in almost exactly the same ratio. By the careful use…
Keith Clayton
1959 Volume 10 Issue 1
Editorial
Income and Expenditure
As THIS MAGAZINE is supported by free-will offerings we feel that supporters are entitled to a yearly financial statement and we have been able to supply regular certified accounts through the kindnes…
Keith Clayton
1958 Volume 9 Issue 2
Editorial
Is this your Gospel Meeting?
Does it not often happen at our public preaching’s that when the formal address is delivered, a hymn sung, and a word of prayer offered, all disperse, without any attempt at individual work? I speak n…
Keith Clayton
1955 Volume 7 Issue 5
Devotional
Look for God’s Look for God’s hand in it!
‘THIS IS THE LORD‘S DOING, AND IT IS MARVELLOUS IN OUR EYES’, MATTHEW 21. 42. Sometimes the rejection of others turns out to be ‘the Lord’s doing’. After Joseph had been betrayed by this brothers and …
Keith Clayton
2002 Volume 57 Issue 2
Exposition
Loughton, Essex
THE BIRTH OF AN ASSEMBLY usually makes an interesting and instructive story and for that reason we have, from time to time, given a number of such stories, to illustrate how wondrously God works when …
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1959 Volume 10 Issue 5
History
Matthew 24. 42
‘Keep watch … you do not know … what day your Lord will come’ The ocean liner ‘Californian’ was within 1,500 miles of Boston Harbour when a crew member observed flashes of light from a distant steamer…
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 3
Exposition
Merrion Hall, Dublin
Two horses drawing one of the Dublin city trams were called ‘Moody’ and ‘Sankey’. Such was the effect, on the ordinary people of Ireland and particularly in the Dublin area, of the spiritual revival t…
Keith Clayton
2006 Volume 61 Issue 2
History
Mill Green Gospel Hall
The Assembly at Mill Green Gospel Hall, Ingatestone, Essex is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the building of the hall in 1902. The work in the area began around 1895 with meetings conducted by M…
Keith Clayton
2002 Volume 57 Issue 4
History
Musbury, Devon
In our previous issue we recorded the remarkable story of the conversion of a farmer’s son, Walter Wills, at the age of 17. Now follows the story of how God continued to work after the conversion of h…
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1958 Volume 9 Issue 5
History
Musbury, Devon
IN THE RURAL VALLEY OF THE AXE there are several assemblies within a radius of about six miles from the charming village of Musbury, which owe their existence to a remarkable work of God, the story of…
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1958 Volume 9 Issue 4
History
New Committee Members
The continual expansion of ‘Precious Seed’ has made it necessary to seek additional help and with that In view we have invited three more brethren to join the Committee. Mr. F R A N K H O L M E S Is k…
Keith Clayton
1958 Volume 9 Issue 7
Editorial
New Hall for Lynmouth
Friends have been inquiring what progress has been made in replacing the hall which was completely washed away in the disastrous flood of August, 1952. Naturally the reconstruction of the devastated v…
Keith Clayton
1956 Volume 8 Issue 1
Report
Nursing a Grievance
Have you never had a grievance – a real, substantial grievance ? Were you never wronged in pocket or reputation ? Were you never wounded in the house of your friends ?Has no Christian brother ever tre…
Keith Clayton
1955 Volume 7 Issue 3
Devotional
Our Future Programme
READERS WILL BE INTERESTED to know that PRECIOUS SEED Committee met for a three-day Conference at the beginning of last October to deal thoroughly with important matters for which adequate time could …
Keith Clayton
1960 Volume 11 Issue 1
Editorial
Our Programme for 1961
PROBABLY MANY OF OUR READERS have forgotten the Report we gave of a Conference of Committee Members in October 1959, held with a view to making improvements in the magazine; others have been patiently…
Keith Clayton
1960 Volume 11 Issue 6
Editorial
Parkside Hall, Maidenhead
During 2006 the assembly enjoyed times of real blessing and thanksgiving celebrating 50 years in the current Hall. There was an Open Day at the beginning of September when some of those who attended v…
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 4
History
Please Don’t Forget This Time
Six YEARS AGO some of our friends complained (to us or to others!) that we had ceased to supply them with the magazine. Most of them felt sure it was because they had not recently given toward expense…
Keith Clayton
1958 Volume 9 Issue 6
Editorial
Prayer
Prayer should be characterized by: Perseverance – Continue in prayer, Col. 4. 2. Reality – Call upon Him in truth, Ps. 145. 18.Anticipation- Look out for the answers, Ps. 5. 3 (Newberry margin). Yearn…
Keith Clayton
1962 Volume 13 Issue 1
Exposition
Priter Way, Bermondsey – A Story of Dockside London
History reveals that in the early days in Rome, Christians met in vaults and catacombs under that city to escape detection, but who has heard of Christians gathering regularly for 25 years, in an arch…
Keith Clayton
How it Began
1955 Volume 7 Issue 1
History
Proclamation
The Christian outreach at the Royal Bath & West show took place at the end of May this year. The show takes place over a four-day period and attracts in excess of 150,000 people on an annual basis…
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 3
Report
Report of Gospel Work & Other Assembly Activity
The Promise. “Co ye … and, lo, I am with you alway.” Matt. 26. 19. The Fulfilment. A.D. 33. “The Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following."Mark 16. 20. A.D. 41. “ The hand o…
Keith Clayton
1954 Volume 6 Issue 2
Report
Reports of Gospel Work and Other Assembly Activities
Be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him.2 Chron. 29. 11. I have put My words in thy mouth, and X have covered thee in the shadow of Mine hand.Isa. 51. 1 He…
Keith Clayton
1954 Volume 6 Issue 3
Report
Resignation of Mr L. F. Morice
ALTHOUGH NO REFERENCE to the fact has ever been made in these pages, some of our readers know that, for several years our esteemed brother Mr. L. F. Morice, of Bristol, although busy with other Christ…
Keith Clayton
1958 Volume 9 Issue 2
Editorial
Scripture text posters
The outreach known as ‘Scripture Text Posters’ commenced in 1937 as a result of an exercise by the late Mr. William Fry, an elder in the assembly then meeting at Merrion Hall, Dublin, Ireland. At that…
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 2
Report
Slow Down
‘God … rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done’, Gen. 2. 2. We live in an action-oriented world, and it seems that simplifying our lives has never been more complicated! Doesn’t …
Keith Clayton
2007 Volume 62 Issue 4
Exposition
Special Notice
We regret to inform our readers that, owing, no doubt, to pressure of work in recent years, our Secretary, Mr. C. Gahan, has had a breakdown in health and has been ordered complete rest for the time b…
Keith Clayton
1956 Volume 7 Issue 8
Editorial
Spending and being Spent
(Urging the serious re-examination of the responsibilities of those who take the lead among the people of God),IN apostolic times the spiritual care of God’s people was taken as a very serious busines…
Keith Clayton
1956 Volume 8 Issue 3
Devotional
Statement of Accounts for Year End August 1960
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO GOD for the practical support of appreciative readers which so far improved our financial position that we were able to finish our year with a credit balance of £223 18s. 1d.When it…
Keith Clayton
1961 Volume 12 Issue 1
Editorial
Tell Yorkshire
BRETHREN IN YORKSHIRE have united with a resolute determination by the help of God to carry out a Five Year Plan for reaching the whole of this vast county with the Gospel.In the light of remarks else…
Keith Clayton
1960 Volume 11 Issue 6
Report
The Benefits of Belonging
‘Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they are ever praising You’ Psalm 84. 4 NIV. Did you hear about the man who was shipwrecked and discovered many years after on a desert island? He’d built …
Keith Clayton
2002 Volume 57 Issue 3
Exposition
The Bow Assembly, Devon, England
The origin of Junction Road Meeting Room, now Bow Gospel Hall, may be traced to the early days of the establishment of local assemblies, an unnamed homeworker being listed as working here in the early…
Keith Clayton
2008 Volume 63 Issue 2
History
The Greater London Crusade
Although we gladly recognize that, there is a great deal of earnest gospel work undertaken by many agencies, we have always thought it right to devote the Reports Section of “ Precious Seed “ to the a…
Keith Clayton
1954 Volume 6 Issue 6
Report
The Holy Spirit
A city full of churches:Great preachers, lettered men!Grand music, choirs and organs,If these all fail, what then?Good workers, eager, earnest,Who labor hour by hour, But where, oh where, my brother,I…
Keith Clayton
1959 Volume 10 Issue 5
Poetry