Over at Logos, I notice that Dan Phillips' book on Proverbs is now available for pre-order.  That is something to which we Logos users can look forward in the new year.

While tomorrow is the big day, business here will continue as normal.  Thanks to the wonders of technology, there will be a new Mortification of Spin available here first thing in the morning.   Purdey is away on some kind of PCA black ops assignment, so it is just Todd and myself, dressed as you can see as Santa's little helpers and full of seasonal goodwill and cheer, discussing the importance of ruling elders in the local church.


Meanwhile, over at my other internet haunt, David Bentley Hart's latest First Things article is available for free download.  As we move into 2014, the centenary of the start of the First World War --- a war that fundamentally redefined Europe, from the nature of international relations to philosophy, literature and indeed religion --- we can surely anticipate a year of very thoughtful reflection on this event from many perspectives.  Hart has to be one of the most thoughtful and provocative writers around today and this  piece is powerful, not least these lines, which I quoted in my sermon on Sunday night:

All memory is tragic in the end: The failures, humiliations, betrayals, sufferings, or calamities that we recall for the most part cannot now be undone; the joys, triumphs, discoveries, and raptures that we recall are for the most part long gone. All memory is haunted by the traces of a fall from grace or of an Eden to which we cannot return.