A Book Recommendation: The Fountain of Life by John Flavel

By Joshua Mills

There are many books that you could spend your time reading. I am sure, if you are reading this blog, you have many books in your home. But how many books in your home are given to understanding the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ? To each of our shame, it is not many.

May I recommend one book for you to read?

If there was one book outside of the Bible that you should read, let it be The Fountain of Life: A Display of Christ in His Essential and Mediatorial Glory by John Flavel.

In forty-two sermons, Flavel seeks to mine the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. He does so in a way that is warm and heart-stirring. Each page is beautifully written to display the beauty of Jesus Christ.

To give you a taste for this book, let me give you a few quotes:

“Let me tell you, the whole world is not a theatre large enough to show the glory of Christ upon, or unfold the one half of the unsearchable riches that lie hid in Him. These things will be far better understood, and spoken of in heaven.”
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“Look often upon Christ in this glass; He is fairer than the children of men. View Him believingly, and you cannot but like and love Him.”
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“The knowledge of Christ is profound and large; all other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean; no creature hath a line long enough to fathom the depth of it; there is height, length, depth, and breadth ascribed to it, yea, it passeth knowledge… Though something of Christ be unfolded in one age, and something in another, yet eternity itself cannot fully unfold Him… It is the most sweet and comfortable knowledge; to be studying Jesus Christ, what is it but to be digging among all the veins and springs of comfort? And the deeper you dig, the more do these springs flow upon you. How are hearts ravished with the discoveries of Christ in the gospel?… O then study Christ, study to know Him more extensively. There be many excellent things in Christ, that the most eagle-eyed believer hath not yet seen… Study to know Christ more intensively, to get the experimental taste and lively power of His knowledge upon your hearts and affections.”
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“O what a fair One! What an only One! What an excellent, lovely, ravishing One, is Christ! Put the beauty of ten thousand paradises, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all the trees, all flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one; O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet, it should be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths. Christ is heaven’s wonder, and earth’s wonder.”
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After that wonderful, Christ-exalting prose, has your appetite for reading this work been stirred? One must only read a few pages each day to be spiritually helped. Flavel will take you on a journey of beholding the glory of Jesus Christ from every angle. It will be well worth it!

I journeyed with Flavel over two years in my morning devotions. Others have done a forty-two-day devotional track, digesting a sermon per day. Will you join in on the journey?

Sources

1. John Flavel, The Works of John Flavel: The Fountain of Life, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1982), xviii.
2. Ibid., xix.
3. Ibid., 36–39.
4. Ibid., 68.