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

The Indispensable Man

One day when you’re feeling important,One day when your ego’s in bloom,One day when you take it for grantedYou’re the best qualified man in the room. One day when you feel that your goingWould leave a…

Keith Clayton

2007 Volume 62 Issue 1

Poetry

The Teignmouth Gospel Hall

Teignmouth – popularly known as the Gem of South Devon, is in quite close proximity to the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. The chapel building that eventually became the Gospel Hall was built in 1790. …

Keith Clayton

2003 Volume 58 Issue 4

History

Travelling On My Knees – 2 Corinthians 1.11.

Last night I took a journeyTo a land across the seas.I didn’t go by ship or plane -I travelled on my knees. I saw so many people thereIn bondage to their sin,And Jesus told me I should go,Some of thes…

Keith Clayton

2003 Volume 58 Issue 3

Poetry

Views from the News

Schools A school could be sued if its sex education classes do not treat homosexuality as morally equivalent to heterosexuality. A legal action could be taken if a school refuses to teach in citizensh…

Keith Clayton

2007 Volume 62 Issue 2

Report

Walk Before God

See Genesis 17. 1. Walk before God, and perfect be; Care not for human eyes, Which only what is outward see; To heaven’s standard rise. Be not afraid to let thy ways – Each thought, each word, each de…

Keith Clayton

2008 Volume 63 Issue 4

Poetry

We Consider Blessed Those Who Have Persevered

We hear a lot about the promises, but not much about the process. Yet it’s when we’re in the process of reaching the promise that the enemy easily stumbles us. That’s because we’ve become a bunch of ‘…

Keith Clayton

2003 Volume 58 Issue 2

Exposition

We Count Them Happy That Endure

SCOTT PECK says, ‘It’s in meeting and solving problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. Wise people learn not to dread, but to welcome the pain of problems’. Sociologists who study resiliency, t…

Keith Clayton

2005 Volume 60 Issue 2

Contemporary Issues

What is Relational Evangelism?

Some writers, emphasizing the kind of relationships we should develop with unbelievers, call it ‘friendship,’ ‘one-on-one’ or; ‘personal’ evangelism. Other writers, stressing our attitude in these rel…

Keith Clayton

2008 Volume 63 Issue 2

Exposition

Who says the Word of God is not important?

‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom’, Col. 3. 16 NKJV Too many of us are suffering from spiritual malnutrition, and it shows up when a crisis hits us. For your soul to prosper, G…

Keith Clayton

2004 Volume 59 Issue 2

Exposition

Why and Wherefore?

WITH the appearance of this issue, “Precious Seed” enters upon its twelfth year of service and we cannot let the occasion pass without recording our gratitude to God for all the help received during t…

Keith Clayton

1956 Volume 8 Issue 2

Editorial

Winshill Gospel Hall

Burton on Trent – England Centenary Year The saints gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ at Winshill, Burton on Trent, give thanks to God this year for 100 years of testimony. The work commen…

Keith Clayton

2004 Volume 59 Issue 2

Report

Yorkshire Christian Camp

In 1946 two men from a local assembly in West Yorkshire decided to try a weekend camp for a few boys, with the aim of encouraging them in spiritual things. Being deemed a success it was repeated later…

Keith Clayton

2009 Volume 64 Issue 1

Report

Zeal

There is a zeal which is good, and which renders the soul highly acceptable to God. This is a zeal which is a celestial lire the true temper and heat of all the affections to God and Christ. It is a z…

Keith Clayton

1955 Volume 7 Issue 4

Devotional