HELPS TO THE STUDY OF PRESBYTERIANISM OR, AN UNSOPHISTICATED EXPOSITION OF CALVINISM, WITH HOPKINSIAN MODIFICATIONS AND POLICY, WITH A VIEW TO A MORE EASY INTERPRETATION OF THE SAME. TO WHICH IS ADDED A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF THE AUTHOR; INTERSPERSED WITH ANECDOTES.
Knoxville, T. F. S. Heiskell, Printer, 1834. 12mo, original leather-backed cloth with gilt spine label [worn and rubbed]. xiii, [blank], [15]-299, [1 blank] pp. Browned, else Very Good.
Brownlow "had, he said, as strong a voice as any man in east Tennessee. When not in controversy he was a peaceful and charming man, but his fearless and ruthless honesty in expressing his opinions made him always a storm center" [DAB]. "For ten years he served as an itinerant preacher, but his intense interest in public questions, and a natural gift of pungent speech soon led him into political as well as religious controversy" [Id].
These qualities are demonstrated in Brownlow's autobiography, written when he was not yet thirty years old. He describes his conversion to Christianity, which occurred in Abington [a Virginia town near the Tennessee border]; his travels; his observations of the Baptists [whose custom of feet-washing he found distasteful: "never did I, before or since, see as many big dirty feet, washed in one large pewter basin full of water!"]; his confrontations with "impetuous little bigots;" his stay at the home of an Indian slaveholder; slander suits; his difficulties with the Hopkinsians, who named a dog after him; his impressions of Andrew Jackson; his loathing of Nullification and love for the Union; and other vivid impressions gathered during his travels as an itinerant minister.
FIRST EDITION. Howes B882aa. Allen 1113. TN II 527. Item #41554
Price: $350.00