“The most deceived man of all is he whose mind is influenced by the Evil Spirit and yet he believes that he is besought by the Good Spirit. We hope to reach some of such persons whose eyes are color blind and whose ears are so impaired that they alone cannot distinguish between the voices that are calling them downward and those that are calling them upward.
“This weightiest chapter ever penned by Inspiration yields up its lessons best when literally understood, and when explained by the laws of common sense.
“In this volume the author has sought to show not only how false is the assertion that modern scientific discoveries refute the Mosaic accounts of the Creation, Fall and Deluge, but that they marvelously corroborate and impregnably fortify these oldest archives of our world’s history.
“This convulsion will be the work of the three frogs; that is, the Popish ultramontanes, the political reactionaries, and the atheistic revolutionists. Each party has its own cherished project, which it will strive to the utmost to realize.
“Why did I leave the ministry when I left the Congregational church? Because, in the first place, my New Theology and Higher Criticism had destroyed my faith in the perfect, divine authority of the Bible; and in the second place, they had destroyed my faith in the perfect deity of Christ.
“Popery, age after age, retires deeper and deeper into the darkness. In proportion as the light increases, the Papacy drops thicker and yet thicker veils betwixt itself and the world. Whenever its designs are in danger of being discovered, it folds over them the skirts of its sable mantle.
“I always revered Dr. Morris as one of God’s chosen men. His great age seemed phenomenal; his exuberant spirit, ready wit and natural humor made him popular, and drew men to him… He was possessed of good sound common sense, and well calculated to be a leader and a counselor.
“The Ministers of the temple of truth, it has been said, are of three kinds: first, those stationed at the gate of the temple to constrain the passers-by to come in; secondly, those whose function is to accompany inside all who have been persuaded to enter, and display and explain to them the treasures and secrets of the place; and, thirdly, those whose duty is to patrol round the temple, keeping watch and ward and defending the shrine from the attacks of enemies.
“America does not realize what an inheritance she has received from Luther and the Lutheran Reformation. The best way to understand Luther is to have Luther himself speak. His writings are so extensive that there is no trouble in finding something profitable for almost every occasion and condition in life.
“For nearly [three] hundred years Starck’s Daily Handbook has been a standard book of devotion; and it is not likely to be superseded by anything superior for many years to come.
“This introduction business is seldom a satisfactory affair. Once when I was introduced as the main speaker, it was not much of an occasion, I was wondering what a remarkable man the chairman was talking about.
“These sermons were preached in the Church of the Holy Communion, Philadelphia, to a congregation consisting in part of University and college students. In preaching it was impossible to disassociate from my mind the struggles through which many of these young people were passing and the battles which I was asked to help them fight during the week.
“One evening when a company of children and older people were looking at funny cat-pictures and telling cat-stories, a little ten year-old girl asked: ‘Why can there not be a Cats’ Arabian Nights Story Book?
Edward Bishop Elliott (1793-1875) “graduated from Cambridge in 1816 and he served in various positions as a minister for the Church of England. He ultimately settled at St. Marks Church in Brighton.
“The ‘Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America,’ …has been kindly admitted as a textbook in almost all theological seminaries of the Lutheran Church in this country… As in the previous edition, so in this one, it has been our aim to furnish a textbook that would serve as a guide for instruction in theological seminaries.
“Twice we heard Henry Watterson deliver his classical lecture on Abraham Lincoln. At the most dramatic point in the address the speaker discussed the problem, how to account adequately for the great president.
“…there are many people today who are wandering in doctrinal fogland, and do not know what they believe; or, if they think they have any real convictions, they have pared them down to what they call ‘the irreducible minimum.
Hutter’s Compend has been a beloved handbook of the Christian Faith for many Christians over many years. It’s well suited for people at all levels of knowledge.
The translator, Henry Eyster Jacobs, has this to say about it:
“Criticism has reached certain conclusions regarding various Books of Scripture. The older narratives are declared to be mere legends, and the history generally is described as tradition tinctured by the time when it was put into writing.
“It is an unquestionable fact that the intimately related prophecies of Daniel and John contain seven divinely given interpretations, and it is evident that these must constitute the only infallible basis of exposition.
“If ever any man was competent to write on true Christianity, that man was John Arndt. It had become his very life; it entered into the very center of his own experience; it was an essential part of his being, and hence it was only necessary to let the mouth utter that, of which the heart was full.