History Books

CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION A question which every author ought to ask of himself before he sends forth his work, and one which must occur to every thoughtful reader, is the inquiry, Cui bono?—what justification has one for treating the subject at all, and why in the particular way which he has chosen? To the pertinency of this question to the present treatise the author has been deeply sensible, and... more...

I. THE LAND OF THE COVENANTS. All history is interesting and much of it is inspiring. Scotland furnishes a large measure of that quality of history, that awakens the soul, and appeals to the faculties by which life is transfigured with moral grandeur. History yields its best results when we use our best powers in pursuing its paths. Let the creative genius, a healthy imagination, be employed restoring... more...

CHAPTER I. THE DUTY OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. Fellow Christians, Whilst I invite you to accompany me in a free and full investigation of one of those tenets and practices which keep asunder the Roman and the Anglican Church, I am conscious in how thankless an undertaking I have engaged, and how unwelcome to some is the task in which I call upon you to join. Many among the celebrated doctors of the Roman... more...

RENWICK'S LIFE James Renwick was the child of godly parents in humble life. His father, Andrew Renwick, was a weaver, and his mother, Elizabeth Corson, is especially mentioned, like the mother and grandmother of Timothy, or like Monica, the mother of Augustine, as a woman of strong faith, and eminently prayerful. As several of her children had died in infancy, she earnestly sought that the Lord... more...

CHAPTER I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT THE TIME OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. Upwards of a quarter of a century before the Birth of Christ, the grandnephew of Julius Caesar had become sole master of the Roman world. Never, perhaps, at any former period, had so many human beings acknowledged the authority of a single potentate. Some of the most powerful monarchies at present in Europe extend over only a fraction of... more...

CHAPTER I THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.—Psalm cxviii, 22. The colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven were grounded in the system which became known as Congregational, and later as Congregationalism. At the outset they differed not at all in creed, and only in some respects in polity, from the... more...

From the foundation of the monastery by Peada, a.d. 655, to its destruction by fire in the reign of Henry the First;—embracing a period of 461 years. The history of our monastic establishments is but little regarded and as little known. The obscurity in which all monastic institutions is involved renders it difficult to give any certain and positive information respecting the origin of the building... more...

INTRODUCTION  "The pleasant books, that silently amongOur household treasures take familiar places,Are to us, as if a living tongueSpake from the printed leaves, or pictured faces!" The aim of the Author in preparing this volume has been to put in a form, convenient for preservation and future reference, a brief historical sketch of the work and workers connected with the founding and... more...

THE LETTERS OF THE POPES AS SOURCES OF HISTORY. Cardinal Mai has left recorded his judgment that, "in matter of fact, the whole administration of the Church is learnt in the letters of the Popes". I draw from this judgment the inference that of all sources for the truths of history none are so precious, instructive, and authoritative as these authentic letters contemporaneous with the persons... more...

INTRODUCTION. The Presbytery, soon after their erection, being convinced of the expediency and necessity of emitting a judicial testimony, to discover to the world the principles upon which, as a judicatory of the Lord Jesus Christ, they stood, in opposition to the different, so called, judicatories in the land; together with the agreeableness of these principles to the Word of God, the only rule of... more...