_History of the Methodist Episcopal Church_ and
_Errors of Hofkinsianism_; and Leonard {600} Withington (1789-1885),
author of _Solomon's Song Translated and Explained_, a valuable
exegetical work.

In a second group of leading writers on religion, coming nearer the
middle of the nineteenth century we find as doctrinal authors: Archibald
Alexander (1772-1851), author of _Evidences of Christianity_; Hosea
Ballou (1771-1852), the Universalist preacher and author of _An
Examination of the Doctrine of Future Retribution_; Nathaniel W. Taylor
(1786-1859), the author of _Lectures on the Moral Government of God_, in
which there is a marked divergence from the strict school of Calvinistic
theologians; Gardiner Spring (1785-1873), a tower of strength in the
pulpit of New York for over fifty years, and author of _The Bible Not of
Man_; Alexander Campbell (1788-1865), whose _Public Debates_ contain the
record of his distinguished career as a controversialist and mark the
formation of the religious society called Disciples of Christ; Robert J.
Breckenridge (1800-1871), whose work on _The Knowledge of God Objectively
and Subjectively Considered_ gave him great distinction; George W.
Bethune (1805-1862), who, besides several hymns, wrote _Lectures on the
Heidelberg Catechism_; and James H. Thornwell (1811-1862), of the
Southern Presbyterians, who left an able _Systematic Theology_.

Those whose works were of a more practical nature are: Samuel Miller
(1769-1850), whose most telling book was _Letters on Clerical Habits and
Manners_; Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), the {601} celebrated father of his
more celebrated son, and author of _Sermons on Temperance_; Thomas H.
Skinner (1791-1871), professor in Andover and later in Union Theological
Seminary, who wrote _Aids to Preaching and Hearing_, and translated and
edited Vinet's _Homiletics and Pastoral Theology_; Charles G. Finney
(1792-1875), of Oberlin, whose _Lectures on Revivals_ embody the
principles on which he himself conducted his celebrated evangelistic
labors; Francis Wayland (1796-1865), the Baptist divine and author of a
text-book on _Moral Science_, who also wrote _The Moral Dignity of the
Missionary Enterprise_; Ichabod S. Spencer (1798-1854), whose _Pastor's
Sketches_ have a perennial interest; Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-1889),
who, besides other books on the classics and law, published _The Religion
of the Present and the Future_; Bela Bates Edwards (1802-1852), of
Andover