 |
|||||
|
Book Search
 | | ELIJAH OF THE ALPSThe Story of William Farel the Swiss Reformer William M. Blackburn William Farel (1489-1565) was a French evangelist, and a founder of the Reformed Church in the cantons of NeuchGtel, Berne and Geneva, and the Canton of Vaud Switzerland. He is most often remembered for having persuaded John Calvin to remain in Geneva in 1536, and for persuading him to return there in 1541, after their expulsion in 1538. Together with Calvin, Farel worked to train missionary preachers who spread the Protestant cause to other countries, and especially to France. Farel was a fiery preacher and an energetic critic of the Roman Catholic Church. In the earliest years of the Reformation in France, he was a pupil of the pro-reform Catholic priest, Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples. While working with Lefevre in Meaux, he came under the influence of Lutheran ideas and became an avid promoter of them. He was forced to flee to Switzerland because of controversy that was aroused by his writings against the use of images in Christian worship. The opposition of the bishop forced him to leave Geneva in 1532, but he returned in 1533 to lead a public disputation in favor of the Reformation. The people declared in favor of Farel and his colleagues, and in 1535 the town council formally proclaimed the adoption of the Reformation. Farel entreated Calvin to assist in the organization of the new Protestant republic. The two men drew up a statement of doctrine and immediately instituted widespread reform of church practices. These measures were too sudden and too strict to be generally accepted, and Calvin and Farel were forced to leave Geneva in 1538. Farel went to Basel and then to NeuchGtel, where he worked unceasingly for the return of Calvin to Geneva, which he achieved in 1541. Throughout his life he remained a confidant and consultant of Calvin Interesting to note that as Calvin's friend, Farel was a promoter of Lutheran ideas in his youth. Today Calvinism and Lutheranism are two complete separate denominations, but Farel's relationship with both would show they had more in common than what is shown today. THE REFORMERS TRILOGY 50% SG NEW SGCB LATEST NOW AVAILABLE TO SHIP  SGCB Price: $12.95 (list price $25.00)Order with THE REFORMERS TRILOGY SGCB Price: $30.00 (list price $62.00)Includes the Biographies of Huss, Farel & Zwingli Add a Copy of THE ITALIAN REFORMER by W.M. Blackburn SGCB Price: $10.00 (list price $25.00)THIS PRICE FOR THOSE WHO ORDER "THE REFORMERS TRILOGY" |
| ||
 click for details | | THE PATRIOTIC REFORMER The Life and Times of Ulrich Zwingli William M. Blackburn "No other reformer struck out a more original and independent course than Ulrich Zwingli (1483-1531). No other man attempted to be, at the same time, a preacher, author, statesman, military patriot and reformer. Why he gave such varied direction to his noble energies, and how well he succeeded in his efforts, it is partly the design of the present volume to show. His personal history is full of interesting incidents; his character rich in admirable qualitites; his public life conveys a lesson upon the mingling of religion and politics which it may be well to ponder in later times. The author has endeavoured to set forth the man and his friends as they grew in piety and laboured together in studying the Word of God, teaching and preaching the truth, and restoring the Church to the foundation of Christ and his Apostles. If the good seed of divine truth shall be found in the sheaves of this gleaning, and there be a soil for it in the reader's heart, the Lord may bless the volume now committed to his care." -from the Author's Preface THE REFORMERS TRILOGY SGCB LATEST NOW AVAILABLE TO SHIP SGCB Price: $12.50 (list price $25.00)Order with THE REFORMERS TRILOGY SGCB Price: $28.00 (list price $62.00)Includes the Biographies of Huss, Farel & Zwingli Add a Copy of THE ITALIAN REFORMER by W.M. Blackburn SGCB Price: $10.00 (list price $25.00)THIS PRICE FOR THOSE WHO ORDER "THE REFORMERS TRILOGY" |
| ||
 | | THE JOHN THE BAPTIST OF THE REFORMATION: A Memoir of John Huss, the Bohemian Reformer and Martyr Translated from the German by Thomas O. Summers with an Introductory Note by J.H. Merle d'Aubigne John Huss (a.k.a. Jan Hus) is regarded to be one of the earliest known religious thinkers and reformers in the world. A philosopher and a Master at Charles University (Prague), Huss was greatly influenced by the writings and teachings of John Wyclife. He made a number of followers during his time, who came to be known as Hussites. Reformers, in the later years, looked up to Huss for his unswerving commitment in the face of the church's cunning brutality, due to which he had to face extreme consequences. Condemning Huss' uprising, the Church first excommunicated him and then burned him to death, after an unfair trial. This brief account of his life will serve as a wonderful introduction to the life of this great hero of the faith. Despite incredible cruelty that lasted for many months, even some of his enemies acknowledged his humility and godliness. This book would be very useful to use in Family Worship as the chapters are all brief and to the point. Famous Church Historian J.H. Merle d'Aubigne said the following about Huss - "John Huss preached in Bohemia a century before Luther preached in Saxony. He seems to have penetrated deeper than his predecessors into the essence of Christian truth. He prayed to Christ for grace to glory only in his cross and the the inestimable humiliation of his sufferings. But his attacks were directed less against the errors of the Romish church than against the scandalous lives of the clergy. Yet he was, if we may be allowed the expression, the John the Baptist of the Reformation. The flames of his pile kindled a fire in the church that cast a brilliant light into the surrounding darkness, and whose glimmerings were not to be so readily extinguished." The following powerful testimony if found in Foxe's BOOK OF MARTYRS - "The bishops appointed by the Council [of Constance] stripped him of his priestly garments, degraded him, put a paper mitre on his head, on which was painted devils, with this inscription, 'A ringleader of heretics.' Which when he saw, he said: 'My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, did wear a crown of thorns; why should not I then, for His sake, again wear this light crown, be it ever so ignominious? Truly I will do it, and that willingly.' When it was set upon his head, the bishop said: 'Now we commit thy soul unto the devil.' 'But I,' said John Huss, lifting his eyes towards the heaven, 'do commend into Thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ, my spirit which Thou has redeemed.' When the chain was put about him at the stake, he said, with a smiling countenance, 'My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of this rusty one?' When the faggots were piled up to his very neck, the duke of Bavaria was so officious as to desire him to abjure. 'No,' said Huss, 'I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency; and what I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood.' He then said to the executioner, 'You are now going to burn a goose, (Huss signifying 'goose' in the Bohemian language) but in a century you will have a 'swan' which you can neither roast nor boil.' If he were prophetic, he must have meant Martin Luther, who shone about a hundred years after, and who had a swan for his arms. The flames were now applied to the faggots, when our martyr sung a hymn with so loud and cheerful a voice that he was heard through all the cracklings of the combustibles, and the noise of the multitude. At length his voice was interrupted by the severity of the flames, which soon closed his existence. Then, with great diligence, gathering the ashes together, they cast them into the river Rhine, that the least remnant of that man should not be left upon the earth, whose memory, notwithstanding, cannot be abolished out of the minds of the godly, neither by fire, neither by water, neither by any kind of torment." THE REFORMERS TRILOGY 50% SG NEW SGCB LATEST $5.00 Sale 5s NOW AVAILABLE TO SHIP - 50% Off SGCB Price: $6.75 (list price $12.00)Order with THE REFORMERS TRILOGY SGCB Price: $30.00 (list price $62.00)Includes Biographies of Huss, Farel & Zwingli |
| ||
 click for details | | THE ITALIAN REFORMER: The Life and Martyrdom of Aonio Palearioand the Book "The Benefit of Christ's Death" William M. Blackburn AONIO PALEARIO (1500-1570) is a little known Italian Reformer and a teacher of Greek and Hebrew when he came to embrace the doctrine of Jusfificfation by faith alone in Christ alone. In addition to the exicitng life of Aonio Paleario and his friends, this edition contains his most famous book THE BENEFIT OF CHRIST'S DEATH, which he wrote to teach his fellow contrymen that "those who turn with their souls to Christ crucified, commit themselves to him by faith, acquiesce in the promises and cleave with assured faith to him who cannot deceive, are delivered from all evil, and enjoy a full pardon of all their sins." The book was soon sought for and eagerly read in all parts of Italy. Forty-thousand copies are said to have been sold in six years. Of course it attracted the attention of the Inquisition, and was speedily prohibited, and burned by the tens of thousands. "The book of Paleario," says Jules Bonnet, "had none of the poignant irony or satirical tone of Savonarola. The author carefully abstained from all controversy, in order to make known the doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, the nature of which he explained and the fruits of which he described with the deepest feeling. 'The Benefit' is not so much a book as an outpouring of the heart." "The Italian Reformer was burned at the stake for the teaching in this book and his riveting testimony before his persecutors rings down the centuries as a call to reformation and revival. A rare work by a rare author, now happily rediscovered for a new public." - Gordon Keddie Vergerio, an old Italian writer quoted by the editor of the English edition of 1860, stated that "there is scarcely a book of this age, so sweet, so pious, so simple, and so well fitted to instruct the ignorant and weak, especially in the doctrine of justification." William M. Blackburn (1828-1898) adds our indebtedness to him by this outstanding book that brings back a name nearly forgotten from the times of the Reformation. This book will stand alongside his books on Farel, Zwingli and Calvin and will once again cause his name to be known in our day as it was in the nineteenth century. CALVIN 500 CELEBRATION BIOGRAPHIC SPECIAL REFORMERS TRILOGY b50 NOW AVAILABLE TO SHIP SGCB Price: $12.50 (list price $25.00)50% Off Order with THE REFORMERS TRILOGY SGCB Price: $40.00 (list price $87.00)THIS PRICE INCLUDES ALL FOUR TITLES: Huss, Farel, Zwingli & Paleario |
