A. J. Gordon Books: A Reading Guide to All Six and Where to Start
A. J. Gordon (1836–1895) was pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston for twenty-five years, a co-worker of D. L. Moody and the founder of the school that became Gordon College. He wrote fewer books than many preachers of his day, but nearly every one became a standard work on its subject. TheWay Library has six of them, all free to read: two on the Christian's life in Christ, one on the Holy Spirit, one on the second coming, one on divine healing, and the story of the dream that changed his ministry. For his life story, see who was A. J. Gordon.
Where to start
If you're new to Gordon, start with How Christ Came to Church. It's short, it's personal, and it includes a sketch of his life by his friend Arthur T. Pierson.
Then choose by what you need:
- For the Christian life: In Christ, then The Twofold Life.
- For the Holy Spirit: The Ministry of the Spirit.
- For the Lord's return: Ecce Venit.
- For healing and the prayer of faith: The Ministry of Healing.
For his best lines from all six, see our collection of A. J. Gordon quotes. Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from.
The Christian life
In Christ; Or, The Believer's Union with His Lord
Gordon's most loved book, from 1880. He starts from the little phrase "in Christ," which the New Testament uses again and again, and argues that it's the key to the whole Christian life. Then, in ten chapters, he follows the believer's union with Christ through crucifixion, resurrection, baptism, life, standing, prayer, communion, sanctification and glorification. What happened to Christ, he says, happened to the believer in Him.
Christian experience is the making real in ourselves, of what is already true for us in Christ.
In Christ, chapter I
The chapter on Prayer in Christ is one of the best short treatments of praying in Jesus' name. Read In Christ.
The Twofold Life: Or, Christ's Work for Us and Christ's Work in Us
A companion to In Christ, from 1883. Gordon sets side by side what Christ has done for us and what the Spirit does in us, in paired chapters: regeneration and renewal, conversion and consecration, salvation and sealing, sonship and communion, righteousness and holiness, peace with God and the peace of God, power for sonship and power for service. He fills the book with testimonies from older writers to show that the teaching isn't new. His plea is that believers go on from life to "life more abundant."
We do not work for life, but from life; we do not by our own power attain unto Christ, but we receive Christ in order that we may have power to attain.
The Twofold Life, chapter VIII
The Holy Spirit and the church
The Ministry of the Spirit
Gordon's study of the Holy Spirit's work in this age, from Pentecost to Christ's return, published in 1894 with an introduction by F. B. Meyer. He treats the Spirit as Christ's representative in the church: His coming, His sealing, filling and anointing of believers, His communion with them, His government of the church's ministry, worship and missions, and His conviction of the world in sin, righteousness and judgment.
Conscience is the witness to the law; the Spirit is the witness to grace.
The Ministry of the Spirit
It's one of the classic books on the subject, and it's in our list of the best books on the Holy Spirit. Read The Ministry of the Spirit.
How Christ Came to Church: The Pastor's Dream
Published in 1896, the year after Gordon died. It opens with Pierson's life sketch. Then Gordon tells his dream: a poor stranger came into his church one Sunday, listened closely to the sermon and slipped out, and Gordon learned afterward that it was Jesus. In the chapters that follow he explains what the dream taught him: that Christ is truly present by the Spirit when His people meet, and that worldly entertainments and fund-raising shows have no place in His house. Pierson closes the book with chapters on how the dream explains the man.
Yet Christ is still Christ; and he has never outgrown the print of the nails.
How Christ Came to Church, In Thy Light
Read How Christ Came to Church.
The Lord's return
Ecce Venit: Behold He Cometh
Gordon's 1889 book on the second coming, from a premillennial view. He argues that the Lord's coming in glory is one of the great themes of the New Testament, and that the early church lived with an "uplifted gaze," watching for its Lord. He traces how that hope was lost and later revived, warns of Antichrist and a "mock millennium," and then describes the first resurrection, the translation of the church, the marriage of the Lamb, the restoration of Israel and the millennial kingdom.
Christ is not only coming in power at the last day, but the power of His coming is to be constantly operating in the present day.
Ecce Venit, The Power of His Coming
You'll find it alongside other classics in our guide to the best Christian books on the second coming. Read Ecce Venit.
Healing
The Ministry of Healing: Miracles of Cure in All Ages
Gordon's case that God still heals the sick in answer to the prayer of faith. He builds it as a series of testimonies: Scripture, reason, the church fathers, the Waldenses and Moravians, theologians from Augustine to Bengel, missions, and the healing homes of his own century. Two closing "verdicts" weigh the evidence with candor and caution, and the conclusion describes the prayer of faith as an act of deep self-surrender.
The faith which saves us is the simplest exercise of the heart; the prayer of faith which saves the sick is the most exacting.
The Ministry of Healing, chapter XII
It was widely read in its day and after. Read The Ministry of Healing.
A note on these editions
In our copy of The Ministry of the Spirit, the chapter breaks were lost when the book was scanned, so nearly the whole text sits in one long section, with a few page markers left in. All the words are there. Ecce Venit and In Christ also have some scattered misread words.
Why read Gordon today
Gordon wrote to help ordinary believers take hold of what they already have in Christ, and he wrote with warmth. Begin with How Christ Came to Church to meet the man, then read In Christ slowly. All six books are on the A. J. Gordon author page.