Hall, Robert; Gregory, Olinthus & Belcher, Joseph [editors]. The Works of the Rev. Robert Hall, A.M. (Vol. IV). New York: Harper & Brothers, 1854. [11287]
Worn full leather binding, 9 1/4 x 6 inches, two black leather spine labels, joints cracked and weak, gouge to leather at the middle of the front board. Marbled page edges and end papers; private library label of C. G. Wilson. 686 pages, index to the set, tidemark in the long margin in much of the text, foxing, text block is tight. Fair. Hardcover.
This volume contains Reminiscences of the Rev. Robert Hall, by John Greene, Esq. (pp. 11-102); Notes of Sermons, 92 in number; Expository Discourses on the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians; several letters, and "Gleanings," short extracts on 16 subjects.
Robert Hall (1764-1831), “one of the most eminent of modern divines.” – Allibone. An English Baptist, the son of a Baptist minister, and something of a child prodigy. “Before he was nine years of age he had perused and reperused, with intense interest, the treatises of the profound and extraordinary thinker, Jonathan Edwards, on the ‘Affections’ and on the ‘Will.’ About the same time he read, with a like interest, ‘Butler’s Analogy.’ Before he was ten years old he had written many essays, principally on religious subjects, and often invited his brothers and sisters to hear him preach.” – Dr. Olinthus Gregory.
At the age of 12 he was sent to the boarding school of the Baptist minister John Ryland. He began preaching publicly at age 16 and after 12 years of arduous labor suffered a mental collapse. After a two-year rest he returned and enjoyed a long and fruitful ministry both in the pulpit and the press.
"From Calvinism he advanced to Arminianism, and was rather a dualist than a trinitarian, never losing faith in the divinity and atonement of our Lord...Hall's fame rests mainly on the tradition of his pulpit oratory, which fascinated many minds of a high order. His eloquence recommended evangelical religion to persons of taste. Dugald Stewart commends his writings as exhibiting 'the English language in its perfection,' which is certainly extravagant praise. His conversation, of which some fragments are preserved, was brilliant when his powers were roused by intellectual society." - DNB.
