prefIce. 



Church History is a greatly neglected study. 

 It is rarely taken up even in the course prescribed 

 in our Church schools. With the exception of 

 occasional parochial discourses, very little effort is 

 made to instruct our congregations as to the origin 

 and the development of the Church. 



One of the reasons for this general neglect of 

 what is admitted to be a really interesting and im- 

 portant study, is the lack of suitable volumes upon 

 the subject. 



Not that there is a scarcity of Church Histories, 

 but they are usually too erudite and too large to 

 command the attention of other than regular stu- 

 dents. Young people in our schools, and th« 

 general reader, can hardly be interested in the 

 minute details of controversies, or in the exact shad* 

 ing of heresies, or in the connected history of obscure 

 points, but might be interested in viewing the great 



