Farrar, F. W. The Witness of History to Christ, Five Sermons Preached before the University of Cambridge, being the Hulsean Lectures for the year 1870. London and New York: MacMillan and Co., 1871. First Edition. [11851]
Plum pebble publisher's cloth, bright gilt spine title, binding shows very little wear and is clean, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. Bookplate of "Williams Proudfit Teachers' Library," no other library matter. viii, [4], 207 clean pages, tight. Very good. Hardcover.
Five lectures plus four appendices.
The Lectures are I. The Antecedent Credibility of the Miraculous, II. The Adequacy of the Gospel Records, III. The Victories of Christianity, and IV. Christianity and the Race. The appendices are On the Diversity of Christian Evidence, Confucius, Buddha, Comte.
The bookplate is associated with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Williams Proudfit was a student of the Class of 1877, who was killed in 1875 in a carriage accident. His parents donated in his name for several additions to the Institute.
Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903), born at Bombay, India. Educated at King William’s College, Isle of Man, King’s College, London, and at Cambridge, Farrar was ordained in the Anglican Church and served with distinction, being appointed Dean of Canterbury in 1895. “As a teacher he had the admiration of his scholars, and as an ecclesiastic he discharged his duties with peculiar efficiency. His sermons, though written hastily and marked by somewhat exuberant eloquence, were listened to by thousands. His rare powers of advocacy were specially devoted to the improvement of public school education and the cause of total abstinence…he defended the doctrine that though there may be for some an endless hell because they resist the grace of God beyond the grave, there is no hell of material fire, and for the great majority, through God’s mercy and Christ’s sacrifice, a complete purification and salvation.” – Schaff-Herzog.
