Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

The following book is a biography of an American woman named Elizabeth Prentiss. She was well known for her hymn 'More Love to Thee, O Christ' and the religious novel 'Stepping Heavenward'. Her writings enjoyed renewed popularity in the late 20th century.

'The name of Thomas Erskine is one of the more significant landmarks on the map of nineteenth-century British theology. Erskine, though, is little read these days, and there has long been a need for an in-depth authoritative treatment of his thought in order to rekindle our interest. Don Horrocks has provided just such a study. Horrocks' focus on Erskine's soteriology opens up distinctive perspectives on a raft of key theological themes from the doctrine of God to the nature of faith and religious experience, and the authoritative sources for theology. In addition, this informative study captures the mood of that early-mid nineteenth-century intellectual milieu which Erskine's thought both embodies and transcended. Unmatched in its analysis and evaluation of Erskine's contribution.' - Trevor Hart, Professor of Divinity, St Mary's College, University of St Andrews, Scotland 'Don Horrocks is a born researcher who writes with clarity and interest. This book is a splendid contribution to the growing conversations concerning previously neglected theologians. Thomas Erskine's precocity has come of age and I can think of no better a presentation of his context and theology than that offered by Horrocks.' - Graham McFarlane, Lecturer in Systematic Theology, London School of Theology, UK 'Thomas Erskine is one of the seminal but neglected theologians of nineteenth-century Scotland. In his study Don Horrocks introduces us to Erskine's thought in a thematic way that is at once lucid, scholarly and stimulating. It should be on the bookshelf of every serious student of the period.' - Nick Needham, Lecturer in Church History, Highland Theological College, Dingwall, Scotland 'Don Horrocks' work provides a searching analysis of this key nineteenth-century theologian. It is likely to be the first recourse on the subject for many years to come.' - Meic Pearse, Associate Professor of History, Houghton College Don Horrocks spent twenty-five years in business in corporate banking and management consultancy. He completed his Ph.D. on which this work is based at London Bible College in 2002. He has headed up the Evangelical Alliance's Policy Commission for four years. He was appointed Public Affairs Manager for the Alliance in September 2001. He has edited books on transsexuality and on GM Crops and Foods for the Evangelical Alliance Policy Commission. A Research Associate at London School of Theology, he is married with three children.

This is the first book to attempt a theological portrait of a pivotal generation in the history of the English Free Churches. It does so through a dual strategy: firstly, studying the theological development of key leaders over several decades; and secondly, capturing the state of the Unions -- Congregational and Baptist -- through the freeze frames provided by their biggest denominational controversies in the 1870s and 1880s respectively. Archetypal Victorians whose working lives stretched through most of that long reign, in the 1860s this generation inherited leadership from a predecessor that had eked out the dying momentum of the Evangelical Revival. Bathed in the formidable energy of a newly discovered Romanticism, they wrestled strenuously with the fresh challenges it exposed them to while engaged in lengthy ministries in thriving city churches. They variously tried rejecting and embracing the liberal transformation of their evangelical heritage, or even, in the case of R.W. Dale, somehow achieving their synthesis. Yet in the end neither he nor C.H. Spurgeon, nor anyone else, really found an expression of Christian faith that the next generation could take up and build with, and their successors were to preside over the first obvious stages of a long, deep, and traumatic decline. At a time when this period is again being scrutinized for that elusive 'answer', the author will not claim to have tracked it down there; but the conclusion nonetheless indicates that this study surprisingly helped open up vistas much broader than those of the nineteenth-century debates.