BOOK DESCRIPTION

Whether newly ordained or nearly retired, every pastor will benefit from the wise counsel of this book. Based in part on his experience as a pastor for over twenty-five years, and in part from his notes from Archibald Alexander’s Princeton Seminary class on pastoral ministry, Thomas Murphy sets forth the duties of the pastor in expansive and practical detail. Though written twelve years after the end of the US Civil War, this work remains relevant. The chapters on the pastor in his closet and the pastor in his study are alone worth the price of the book.

ENDORSEMENTS

 “I love this book and am thrilled to see it being reprinted after languishing in obscurity for more than a century. As the pastor of Frankford Presbyterian Church (one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia) for forty-six years, Thomas Murphy was a leading churchman in the nineteenth century. Murphy’s book is to pastoral theology what Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ famous lectures are for preaching: inspiring, challenging, comprehensive, opinionated, practical, and spiritual in the deepest sense of the word. I can’t imagine a current or future pastor who wouldn’t be helped immensely by reading this book. It is one of the best things I’ve ever read on the nuts and bolts — and the privilege and the joy — of pastoral ministry.”

— Dr. Kevin DeYoung

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Murphy (1823–1900) was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and arrived in the United States in 1834. After graduating from Princeton College in 1845, he attended Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained as pastor of Frankford Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving there from 1849–1895. In addition to Pastoral Theology, he wrote several works of history, biblical study, and practical theology.