On this episode of Five Minutes in Church History, we are talking about the hymns of James Montgomery

Boyce. Dr. Boyce was born in 1938 in Pittsburgh. Well, McKee's port, to be exact, just slightly south

in East of Pittsburgh. He died in 2000. He was trained at Harvard University then off to Princeton

Seminary then off to the University of Basel, where he earned his doctorate. From 1968 to 2000,

he was pastor of the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition to pastoring

that church so faithfully for those decades, he also was the founder of the Philadelphia

Conference on Reformed Theology. He was involved heavily involved in the International Council

of Biblical Inherency, and he served as the chairman of the ICBI from its run, starting in 1977

all the way until 1988. He was the author of over 50 books. He was the founder of the Alliance

of Confessing Evangelicals. He was a significant figure in the Cambridge Statement, which was a statement

that reaffirmed and restated the five solas here at the end of the 20th century. Dr. Boyce married

Linda and McNamara. They had three daughters. Well, on Good Friday of 2000, he received a diagnosis

of advanced stage liver cancer, and he died on June 17, 2000. In those final months, he wrote hymns.

Long time friend, in fact, they called each other foxhole buddies of Jim Boyce or C. Sproul.

He spoke of the four marks of his friend Jim's ministry. The first mark was inspiration and

authority of the Bible. The second mark was the doctrines of grace. The third mark was preaching,

and specifically the expository preaching of the Word of God. And fourthly, that fourth mark

godly worship in the life of the church. RC remembers how he loved to sing hymns

standing next to Jim on a platform at a conference or there at 10th church. RC would remember how Jim

would stand up on his toes and how he would raise his voice in exuberant praise. Well, in addition

to singing hymns, as I mentioned, James Montgomery Boyce also wrote hymns. In those final months of his

life, he would write 14 hymns in all, 12 hymns, and an additional two hymns for children. Each of

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