Alexander Maclaren Books: A Guide to All 43 and Where to Start

SermonsCommentaryBible StudyDevotional

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) preached for forty-five years at Union Chapel in Manchester, England, and nearly everything he published began as a sermon. That's a lot of books. TheWay Library has forty-three of them, all free to read: daily readings, prayers, a life of David, his commentaries on the Psalms and Colossians, sixteen books of sermons, and nineteen volumes of his Expositions of Holy Scripture, which take you through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. For his life story, see who was Alexander Maclaren.

This guide sorts them so you can find what you need.

Where to start

If you're new to Maclaren, start with Music for the Soul, a page a day for a year, chosen from his sermons. It gives you the best of him in small portions.

After that, choose by what you want:

• To study a book of the Bible: find it in the Expositions of Holy Scripture list below. For the Psalms, use his Expositor's Bible volumes.
• To read sermons straight through: start with The Secret of Power or The God of the Amen.
• For prayer: Pulpit Prayers.
• For a short book with a story: The Life of David.

Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from. For many more, see our collection of Alexander Maclaren quotes.

Devotional books

Music for the Soul: Daily Readings for a Year

One reading for each day of the year, each opening with a Bible text and giving a page of Maclaren's warm exposition. He returns again and again to the love of God in Christ, the new life given by faith and joy in God.

Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God.

Music for the Soul, October 18

Read Music for the Soul.

Leaves from the Tree of Life

Forty-nine short devotional papers, each on one text, from the tabernacle's altar of incense to Simeon's song and Moses' sons Gershom and Eliezer. Good for a few minutes a day. Read Leaves from the Tree of Life.

Pulpit Prayers

A hundred and fifty-eight prayers Maclaren offered in public worship: adoration, confession, thanks for Christ and His Spirit, and intercession for the church and the sorrowing. They're a model for anyone who leads others in prayer, and a help in private prayer too. Read Pulpit Prayers.

The Life of David

David's life told through his psalms, in four stages: the shepherd youth, the exile, the king, and the years of sin and chastisement. Maclaren sets the psalms beside the history and shows how each season shaped David's faith. It's short, about four hours. Read The Life of David.

Expositions of Holy Scripture

This is Maclaren's largest work: sermon-expositions on the whole Bible, gathered in his last years. Each piece takes a passage or verse, explains it and applies it. You don't read these straight through. You turn to the passage you're studying or preaching. Here they are in Bible order.

Old Testament

• Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers: over a hundred studies from creation to Balaam, with special attention to Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses.
• Deuteronomy to Second Kings 7: Moses' last words through Joshua, the judges, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon to Elijah and Elisha.
• Second Kings 8 to Ecclesiastes: the rest of Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
• Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes: fifty-six studies on these four books, from Esther's venture to Job's worship in sorrow and wisdom's call. It overlaps with the volume above.
• Psalms: some eighty sermons, from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150, on trust, prayer and communion with God.
• Isaiah and Jeremiah: from Isaiah's temple vision through the Servant Songs to Jeremiah's last days in Jerusalem.
• Ezekiel, Daniel, the Minor Prophets and Matthew 1–8: Ezekiel's dry bones, Daniel, Hosea to Malachi, then the nativity, the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer.

The Gospels and Acts

• St. Matthew, chapters 9 to 28: eighty-two sermons from the call of Matthew to the Great Commission. (The catalog lists this one simply as Expositions of Holy Scripture.)
• St. Matthew, chapters 18 to 28: forty-three sermons from greatness in the kingdom to the mountain in Galilee. It overlaps with the volume above.
• St. Mark: about eighty sermons on what Mark shows of Christ's power and love.
• St. Luke: ninety-seven sermons from the announcement of John's birth to the Ascension.
• St. John, chapters 1 to 14: the Word made flesh, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the bread of life and the start of the Upper Room discourse.
• St. John, chapters 15 to 21: the true vine, Christ's high priestly prayer, the cross and the resurrection appearances.
• The Acts: nearly a hundred sermons reading Acts as the work of the ascended Christ through His church.

The essential fact of Pentecost is neither the sound and fire, nor the speaking with other tongues, but the communication of the Holy Spirit.

Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts, The Abiding Gift and Its Transitory Accompaniments

The Epistles and Revelation

• Romans and Corinthians, to 2 Corinthians 5: peace with God by faith, the Spirit in Romans 8, love in 1 Corinthians 13 and the resurrection body.
• 2 Corinthians 7 to 1 Timothy: Christian giving, strength in weakness, the fruit of the Spirit, joy in Philippians and Paul's charges to Timothy.
• Hebrews 7–13 and James: Christ our priest, the heroes of faith, the Father's discipline, and faith that works.
• Ephesians and the Epistles of Peter and John: salvation by grace, Paul's prayers for the church, Christ our example and the love of God in 1 John.
• 1 John 5, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation: mostly the letters to the seven churches and the promises to him that overcomes, ending with the new Jerusalem.

The Expositor's Bible

For The Expositor's Bible, a commentary series for general readers, Maclaren wrote the volumes on the Psalms and on Colossians and Philemon. These go through every verse in order, unlike the sermon-expositions.

• The Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms 1–38, Vol. 2: Psalms 39–89 and Vol. 3: Psalms 90–150. For each psalm he gives his own translation, then traces its structure, setting and meaning for the Christian. This is one of the best older commentaries on the Psalms for devotional reading.
• Colossians and Philemon. Twenty-six chapters on Colossians and its picture of Christ as Creator, Head of the church and Reconciler, and six on Paul's letter about the runaway slave Onesimus.

If a life be rooted in God and a heart delight in His law, that life will be prosperous and that heart will be at rest.

The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1, Psalm I

Books of sermons

These were published through his ministry, each named after its first sermon. Any of them is a good place to hear Maclaren preach.

• The Secret of Power: twenty sermons; the title sermon finds the secret of power in faith.
• The God of the Amen: thirty-three sermons on God's faithfulness, secret faults, Psalm 91 and the names of God.
• The Beatitudes and Other Sermons: seven sermons on the Beatitudes, then varied texts.
• The Unchanging Christ: twenty-eight sermons opening with Hebrews 13:8.
• The Conquering Christ: fourteen sermons, from the Lamb of God to Abram's tent and altar.
• Christ's Musts: thirty sermons on the divine "must" in Jesus' words and other texts.
• After the Resurrection: ten sermons on the risen Christ's appearances, then sixteen more.
• Christ in the Heart: five sermons on Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3, then others.
• Last Sheaves: twenty-seven sermons, including eight on John 13.
• Paul's Prayers: thirty sermons, starting with Paul's prayers for the Thessalonians and the grace of God in Titus 2.
• Sermons Preached in Manchester: twenty-four sermons on the Christian life, the brevity of life and the hope of Christ's appearing.
• The Wearied Christ: thirty-one sermons, beginning with Jesus at Jacob's well.
• Triumphant Certainties: thirty-one sermons, opening with the "we know" statements of 1 John 5.
• Week-Day Evening Addresses: eighteen short weeknight talks, each on one verse.
• A Year's Ministry, First Series: twenty-six Manchester sermons, from hope and faith to what faith makes of death.
• The Victor's Crowns: thirty-two sermons, starting with seven on the promises to the overcomer in Revelation 2 and 3.

God's faithfulness demands, and is only adequately met by, our faith.

The God of the Amen, The God of the Amen

A note on these editions

Most of the sermon books and several of the Expositions were restored from scans of the original printings and are still being proofread. Christ in the Heart has the most damage, especially in the Bible texts at the head of each sermon. Paul's Prayers, Sermons Preached in Manchester and the volume on John, Jude and Revelation also have scattered misread words.

Why read Maclaren today

Maclaren is clear, warm and close to the Bible. He shows you what a passage says and then why it matters, and he always ends at Christ. Begin with Music for the Soul, then go to the volume of the Expositions for whatever book you're reading. All forty-three books are on the Alexander Maclaren author page.