Library/Office Tour 2025
Welcome to the 2025 library tour! It's been a couple of years since my last one, and people have been asking, so here it is. If it ever seems like I'm bragging, just click away. It isn't worth watching for that.
Reference
The first shelf hasn't changed much: the Complete Biblical Library New Testament (Greek), Spurgeon's Treasury of David (I really like these), and Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, which I picked up this year and have been really enjoying. On the other side: Matthew Henry's commentaries, an encyclopedia, Calvin's commentaries on the whole Bible (the complete set, also new this year and very exciting), and Lockyer's "All" series, a nice reference set. Below those, Edwards, various books I will review or have reviewed, the Summer of Scots books, and a dictionary.
We also redecorated the table with a new lamp, and a book of world-famous paintings we flip through each day. My Bible, some William Jay and the first volume of Schaff live there too. And as I mentioned last time, the theme of my library is mostly horses, so you'll see them scattered throughout.
Systematics, Ryle and the Puritans
Up top are mostly systematic theologies: John Stock's Handbook of Revealed Theology, Beeke's Puritan set and his Reformed Systematic Theology, Berkhof, Calvin's Institutes, Sproul's The Holiness of God, and Discussions of Theological Questions. (Of the horse bookends, one's cast iron and one's plastic.)
Next shelf: almost all the works of J. C. Ryle. I'm missing several volumes of Home Truths, which are very hard to find, but I'm hoping to find them eventually. And A Tender Lion by Bennet Rogers, which I read this year. There's a very heavy cast-iron horse, a Petra Publications mug (shameless plug), Robert Traill, Gurnall's The Christian in Complete Armour, and the complete works of Augustus Toplady.
Old books and favorites
Next: several of Mark Twain's main works in a set about a hundred years old that looks brand new, an old John Wesley, a very old edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, a very old Spurgeon, and two volumes of William Romaine's works from 1796. Below that, some of my favorites: The Practical Philosophy, Fault Lines, Faith and Life, Disciplines of a Godly Man and Schaeffer's A Christian Manifesto.
Above: the works of Andrew Fuller, a couple of volumes of John Owen, the latter two volumes of William Bates (the first ones are very hard to find), John Witherspoon (I absolutely love Witherspoon and I'm rereading him this year), a volume of Dabney's works, and several of B. B. Warfield's books.
Jay, Spurgeon and Charnock
Almost all the works of William Jay, including Domestic Duties Considered (and Prayers for the Use of Families, which is out on the table). We're missing some sermons from the complete works, but as far as I can tell Sprinkle never reprinted them. Then Spurgeon's sermons, Lectures to My Students, and Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God: very in-depth, and a nice read. Plus an old-fashioned Lego horse and a very wide variety of other horses.
Biographies
A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (I talked about it with R. A. Young not long ago), Elizabeth Prentiss by Sharon James, The Lives of the Puritans (by Thomas Brook, I think), the Dallimore George Whitefield volumes, and one of my all-time favorites, Lloyd-Jones's The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors. Tucked underneath, more biographies and American history.
The top shelf and the desk
Up top: art I've done, an owl puppet for some reason, a statue of a man with a lamb (not Jesus; I'm not breaking the second commandment!), Lego birds, and two staples of my library, Ryle's Autobiography and the Westminster Confession. Next to them is a horse we joke will be me one day: no shoes, just walking around with his books. To the right are cowboy boots and hats and a leather horse collected over the years, various hymnals, a sneak peek at what I might review this year, and Bible translations and study Bibles.
On the table: a crocheted horse, my reading Bible, a wind-up 19th-century clock I found at a thrift store, and my ESV Study Bible. I also finally replaced the clock that never worked with one that chimes. It chimes 15 minutes behind, but whatever! And over the desk where I record, my portrait of theologians: Ryle on the left, Spurgeon on the right, and Dr. Everhard in the middle.
Downstairs I also have the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, which I picked up at a used book sale last year and was very excited about.
That's the whole library, how it's changed over the last couple of years, and some of what I'm hoping to read and review. Happy new year!
Soli Deo Gloria!
