Project Description

A devotional reading for every day of the year from father and son James Kyle and Ian Richard Kyle Paisley

The Lord Bannside Foundation, 2020, h/b, 408pp, £20 (plus postage).

Available from the Bannside Library, 135-139 Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3HX. Message, text, voicemail, WhatsApp on 07553 388253 leaving name and full postal address (incl postcode).

Published to coincide with the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland, this book of daily readings consists of the writings of James Kyle Paisley (1908-73) and his son, Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Lord Bannside (1926-2014). Together, their ministries spanned the full century of Northern Ireland’s history.

Although both were loyal Ulstermen, the book reminds us that “their first and deepest allegiance was to the Captain of their Salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ” and this is confirmed in every one of the daily readings. Drawn and edited from the two men’s private notebooks and Bibles, all the readings are Christ centred and warmly devotional, and each one provides the reader with an excellent thought for the day. The first month is drawn from Ian Paisley’s writings and the second month from James Kyle Paisley’s, and so on alternately throughout the year.

I never met James Kyle Paisley, but I had the privilege of knowing Dr Ian Paisley. As a teenager, I was greatly influenced by his politics, but it was his gospel preaching that awakened me and led me to faith in Christ.  He and his father “being dead yet speaketh” through these daily readings which, as the book says, “are as suited for this day as they were when these two men of God lived and served”.  This is a book full of gospel truth and therefore of great help to saved and unsaved alike.

The book has been tastefully designed by Dr Paisley’s daughters Rhonda and Cherith, and the foreword is written by Baroness Eileen Paisley, who expresses the hope that these readings “will inspire your days and help you on your onward journey”.  As I make my way through the year with this book, I am certainly being inspired and helped. I have spoken to several others who have said the same thing.

Wallace Thompson