Joseph Charles Philpot M.A. was born on the 13th September 1802 at Ripple Rectory in Kent. He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, and was subsequently elected a Fellow. He went on to Ireland as a tutor for a private family, and, having been saved by grace, began his ministry in the Church of England.
He seceded from that Church in 1835, and the same year aligned himself with the Strict and Particular Baptists, being baptized by John Warburton on his 33rd birthday. He became pastor of the Stamford and Oakham congregations in 1838 and ministered faithfully until poor health ended his pastoral ministry in 1864. He went to his reward on 9th December 1869, a beloved and respected leader amongst the Strict and Particular Baptists where his memory is still cherished.
As well as his pastoral work, he was also editor of the Gospel Standard which gained considerable influence and prominence under his leadership. The organisation still publishes his works, and much of what we have from him today was first written for that publication.
These devotions have been available on various websites for some time, but to my knowledge there has not been a printed edition using the King James Version of the bible available for many years.
I believe the devotions are very close to the original publications, with only some paragraph divisions and occasional sentence splittings added by this arranger to make the devotions easier to follow for 21st Century readers. Philpot’s original but now veteran language and grammar has been left largely unaltered with only the spelling being returned to British English, some archaic words very carefully replaced, and no simplification.
The Scripture quotes at the beginning of each portion use the original King James Version, with a few of the contractions removed to print the full verse rather than just a couple of words. Philpot himself often paraphrased, tending to follow the pattern of the Geneva Bible of 1560, so where odd words differ from the KJV in the body of his portions, this may well be the cause and origin.
A handful of the devotions seem quite short, and may have been truncated in the past. However, checking all the versions available to me has not revealed any additional text, so any missing text may now have been lost forever.
I trust that you will find these devotions as encouraging and challenging as I do, and that they will strengthen you in your faith as they have done for many thousands of Christian readers over the years. The truth contained within them is as precious and real today as it was when first written, and remains fresh and pertinent with repeated reading.
You will be able to re-read this volume many times during your life and will always be surprised to find something new that you missed first time round.
Noel PogsonMay 2017