This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xviii contributions to literature A well-known firm of Edinburgh publishers,1 in issuing, -- before the Assembly of 1893, a list of books written by ministers of the Free Church, quoted The Methodist Times as saying that "the Free Church is the most theological and literary Church in the world." It would be presumptuous in the Free Church to accept so generous a testimony as literally true, but we may at least claim for it that its intellectual activity has never been inconsiderable, and that it has no great cause to be ashamed of its contributions to literature. In proposing to deal with this subject, our first idea was simply to give a list of books known to have been published by Free Churchmen, but it was easy to see that such a catalogue could never be made interesting reading, and we have accordingly come to the conclusion to try a plan of classification. A plan like this, however, has its own difficulties. It is not always clear where books should be placed, and it is more than probable that some will be found under headings to which they do not properly belong. It is also more than likely that publications will be overlooked which ought to have been mentioned. Care has been taken to prevent this mistake; but, in case of any misunder1 Messrs. T. & T. Clark. standing, we must at the outset explain that no endeavour has been made to give the titles of the innumerable sermons and pamphlets which from time to time have been issued to the world, and that we do not undertake to give the names of all the works of the different authors. There is another preliminary explanation which is necessary. In the following lists it has seemed to be impossible to confine the writers to those who are at this moment, or who continued all their...