Room C37

In a university bedroom, an 18-year-old Sinclair Ferguson was prompted to study the books of the Bible and the great Christian classics. Today, he imparts lessons from this experience to encourage a new generation of readers.

We started thinking yesterday on Things Unseen about places that matter to us—or, actually, places that matter to me. And my hope is that if I share with you some of the places that have been important to me, it might stimulate you to think about the places and ways that God has come to you and blessed you. Yesterday I talked about a pulpit, and today I want to talk about a study bedroom I occupied for a year when I was eighteen.

In college and university residences in the United Kingdom, students usually have a study bedroom of their own with perhaps some shared facilities with other students. My room was numbered C37, block C in the residence, third floor, room seven. I haven’t been back in that room since I was a student, and I’m sure they don’t have a plaque that says, “Sinclair Ferguson once studied and slept here.” But the memory of that room is sacred to me because of several life-changing things that happened in that small space. Some of them are actually too private to share, but I think maybe one of them, or actually a couple of related moments are worth sharing.

As I said, I was eighteen, I was in my second year at university. I was studying philosophy and psychology. And actually, I think I was reading Martin Luther’s comment that Romans is a key to the whole Bible, when the thought struck me, “If that’s true, it means that while the whole Bible is inspired by God, there are some parts of it, some books in it, that function like a set of keys that open up all the other books.” So while I’d been reading the Bible for about ten years at that time, for the first time, it struck me, “What I need to do is to give special attention to those key books, to spend more time studying them, trying to master them, or better, let them master me and the way I think and the way I feel and act.”

And so that was what I did. In fact, one of the memories that makes me smile was that later in the academic year, I went to the local Christian bookshop with some prize money I’d got from the philosophy department and spent it not on Plato, or Aristotle, or Immanuel Kant, or even the Scottish philosopher, David Hume, but on Christian books that would help me to pursue this new idea: studying the Bible and getting hold of the key books. I remember one of the books I bought with a smile, wondering what my philosophy professors would think about it, was Professor John Murray’s commentary on Romans.

The second thought that came to me in that room was prompted by the first. I thought, “I wonder if what is true of Scripture is also true of other books, Christian books.” You understand, there was no course in a Scottish university on the great books of Western civilization. And it wasn’t those books I was thinking about; it was Christian books. And I made a decision: I would try to read some of the great Christian books. Even if I felt a little embarrassed talking with fellow students who were discussing the latest Christian paperback, I’d be prepared to say, “I’m sorry, I haven’t read that,” and I would try to read the great books that had transformed the church.

Now, do not misunderstand me. I’m not saying, “Don’t read the latest Christian paperbacks.” Actually, I’ve written some of them myself, so my publishers wouldn’t bless me for saying that, would they? But I think I did learn a lesson in those teenage years: if you do read Christian books, make sure you read some of the ones that have lasted through the years and made a lasting impact on Christians for generations. And you’ll maybe not be surprised to learn that it was that same year that I not only bought John Murray on Romans, but John Calvin’s great work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. And looking back, I really feel those purchases and reading them have repaid themselves many times over because they were books that not only instructed me, but modeled for me how to think in a biblical way.

So, that happened in room C37. I have other very personal reasons for thanking God for what happened in that room. But those thoughts about the Bible and about reading certainly proved to be life-directing. So, I wanted to share them today. And if you’re a teenager or a young student listening, then maybe those thoughts could be life-changing for you as well. I certainly hope so.