Book Reviews - The Amazing Cross and The Royal Sufferer (When I Survey

Book Reviews - The Amazing Cross and The Royal Sufferer (When I Survey)

14 April, 2025
Reformed Free Publishing Association

As we look forward to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Reformed Free Publishing Association this June at the PRCA100th conference, we'll be featuring a number of book reviews from years past on the RFPA blog. If you find any old reviews of RFPA books—in such publications as The Banner, Torch and Trumpet, Christian Renewal, and more—please email them to ashley@rfpa.org! Our thanks to Gary VanDerSchaaf, who tracked down the following review for us.

The following review was written by Wm. Hendriksen on the books The Amazing Cross (1943) and The Royal Sufferer (1945) by Herman Hoeksema. Both of these books have recently been republished in the Lenten anthology When I Survey... (Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing, 2025). This brief review was originally published in the September 21, 1945 edition of The Banner.

THE ROYAL SUFFERER, $1.50; THE AMAZING CROSS, $2. Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Mich.

[These] two volumes are books for the Lenten season. The titles of the chapters of The Amazing Cross are as follows:

Part I. The Amazing Judgment: The Judgment of the World, The Judgment of the Church, The Judgment of the Political Worldpower, The Judgment of the People, The Hour of Execution, Risen Indeed.

Part II. Amazing Obedience: Laying Down His Life, Voluntary Serving the Father's Glory, Forcing the Issue, Before the Gates of Hell, Voluntary Self-Surrender, Refusing to Come Down, The Place Where the Lord Lay.

These two books are among the very best that I have read on the general subject of our Lord's suffering. They have the following characteristics:

They are deeply devotional and practical.
They stress the divine, not the human aspect; that is, we are made to see Jesus as our Lord who voluntarily laid down his life, and not as a mere martyr, however virtuous or courageous.
They are expository; that is, they seek to delve into the meaning of the text. This is lacking in almost all Lenten volumes.
The style is very clear and very simple. The thought is generally rich and original. All in all, a fine piece of work!

All this does not mean that we endorse every statement in these two books. The books, nevertheless, are two of the finest Lenten volumes we have seen. We have read them with delight.

We have tried earnestly to give a fair, impartial review of these books. All in all, we regard them to be worth-while volumes. We congratulate the author and the publisher.

- Wm. Hendriksen

Click the image or this link to order When I Survey... (2025)!

_______

Please note: If you own a copy of the 2018 The Amazing Cross and/or the 2019 The Royal Sufferer, please contact your congregation's RFPA Agent, call the RFPA at 616-457-5970, or email mail@rfpa.org to trade these books in for a FREE copy of the new, 3rd edition When I Survey.