Who Was James H. Brookes? St. Louis Pastor and Bible Teacher
James H. Brookes was an American Presbyterian pastor who lived from 1830 to 1897. He spent almost forty years preaching in St. Louis, Missouri, and he became one of the best-known Bible teachers in the country. He led the Niagara Bible Conference, a summer gathering where pastors and lay people spent days studying Scripture together, and he edited a monthly magazine called The Truth. He wrote more than two hundred books, booklets and tracts, on how to be saved, on the Bible's inspiration, and above all on the return of Christ. He also helped shape a young lawyer named C. I. Scofield, who went on to produce the Scofield Reference Bible.
Here's a fuller look at his life, what he taught, and which of his books to start with.
Early years
James Hall Brookes was born in Pulaski, Tennessee, on February 27, 1830. His father died when James was very young. He studied at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and graduated in 1853. He spent a short time at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dayton and St. Louis
In April 1854 Brookes was ordained and installed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Dayton, Ohio. A few years later he was called to St. Louis, and he preached his first sermon at the Second Presbyterian Church there in February 1858. He later led the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church, which became the Washington and Compton Avenue Presbyterian Church. He stayed in St. Louis for the rest of his life.
St. Louis was a growing river city, and Brookes became a well-known voice in it. He was a plain, earnest preacher who loved to open the Bible and let it speak. He gave his people careful teaching, and he pressed the gospel on the unconverted every Sunday.
The way of salvation
Brookes wrote a great deal for people who wanted to know how to be saved. His The Way Made Plain walks an inquirer from the need of salvation, through why sincerity and good works can't save, to Christ the Saviour of all who believe, and on to assurance. He wanted his readers to see that nothing at all stands between a sinner and Christ:
God met the sin-bearing Jesus at the place of a skull, and there once and for ever settled the question of the believer's salvation, and we had nothing to do with it.
The Way Made Plain, Christ the Saviour of the Believer
And he wanted believers to rest on God's word for their assurance, not on their feelings:
You know you were a condemned and ruined sinner by believing that word; you know Christ came to die for a lost world by believing that word; and you may know you are saved, if you trust in Jesus Christ, by believing the same word.
The Way Made Plain, Assurance of Faith
The Lord's return
Brookes is best remembered as a teacher of prophecy. He believed that Christ will come again personally and visibly, and that He comes before the thousand-year reign described in Revelation 20, not after it. In his day many Christians expected the gospel to win the world first and Christ to return at the end. Brookes argued from Scripture that the church should be looking for the Lord Himself, at any hour. His book Maranatha, or The Lord Cometh, named from Paul's Aramaic word for "the Lord comes," went through many editions and became one of the most widely read books on the subject.
He believed this hope changes a Christian's daily life:
From that time he lives under the very eye of his coming Lord.
Maranatha, or The Lord Cometh, Power of the Doctrine
Niagara and The Truth
For many years Brookes led the Niagara Bible Conference, which met in the summers and settled for a long time at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario. Speakers there taught through whole books of the Bible and gave careful attention to prophecy. Brookes largely wrote the conference's fourteen-point creed in 1878, a short statement of the faith that begins with the inspiration of Scripture.
His magazine, The Truth: or, Testimony for Christ, carried Bible studies, sermons and news of the conference, and it became a leading voice for premillennial teaching in America until his death. Historians count Brookes among the founding fathers of what came to be called dispensationalism, alongside men like D. L. Moody, A. J. Gordon and Scofield. Scofield came to Christ in St. Louis as a grown man and learned the Bible at Brookes's side.
Defending the Bible
Brookes lived through the years when the higher criticism from Germany began to reach American churches, and he answered it head on. Is the Bible True? is a set of seven addresses replying to David Friedrich Strauss's Life of Jesus, on the canon, the character of Jesus, the resurrection and alleged contradictions in the Gospels. Is the Bible Inspired? sets out the church's historic belief and then lets Scripture testify about itself. He was sure the whole Bible is God's word:
The only possible answer is that Scripture contains the very words of God, and hence it is clothed with His divine perfections, even in human form.
Is the Bible Inspired?, The Old Testament in the Epistles of the New
He wasn't defending a religion so much as a Person:
No attempt is here made to defend what is called Christianity, but only Christ; no effort is put forth to justify the conduct of His professed followers, but only to vindicate the truth of His word.
Is the Bible True?, The Bible Its Own Witness
His death
Brookes kept preaching and writing to the end. He died in St. Louis on April 18, 1897. It was Easter Sunday, the day the church celebrates the risen Lord he had spent his life looking for.
Why he's still read
Brookes wrote simply, and he wrote for ordinary church members. He could make the way of salvation clear to a seeking heart, and he could lay out the Bible's teaching on Christ's coming so that the reader longed for it. His influence on American Bible conferences, prophecy teaching and the Scofield Bible was enormous, and readers who share his hope still turn to him.
Where to start
TheWay Library has six of his books, all free to read. If you're new to him, start with The Way Made Plain, his clearest book on salvation and assurance. For his teaching on the Lord's return, read the short Till He Come, then Maranatha, or The Lord Cometh. For his defense of Scripture, try Is the Bible True?, then Is the Bible Inspired? and the tract Chaff and Wheat.
Our guide to James H. Brookes's books explains each one, and our collection of James H. Brookes quotes gathers his best lines. For more on his favorite subject, see our guide to the best Christian books on the Second Coming. You'll find all his books on the James H. Brookes author page.