Elements of Theology

This volume is believed by the Author, to contain a brief, yet entire view of Christianity, as a system of Revealed Religion. The outline comprehends the evidence of its divine origin, the doctrinal truths it reveals, the duties it commands, and the institutions it establishes.
It has been one leading object to adapt the work to common readers, and it is believed that it will be found to be suited to interest, instruct and profit Christians generally. At the same time, however, the Author has had his eye upon the wants of our young men, who need a course of reading to prepare them for the Ministry, and he believes their wants are largely met, so far as theology is concerned. Of the necessity of such a work to put into the hands of those who are preparing for the Ministry, and who have just entered the Ministry, the Author's own experience is, to him, sufficient proof. He honestly believes that such a volume placed in his hands when he entered the Ministry, would have saved him years of mental labor and solicitude, by which he has gathered and collated the contents of this volume.
It is true there are volumes of Theology, but the Author has never seen any which he has found, as a whole, adapted to his own wants. They are constructed upon a different system of doctrinal truth, or they are largely occupied with an examination and refutation of old and long since exploded errors, while the real living questions of our time and country appear to have been unknown to the writers. Theology, representing, not the true science of God, but only the conceptions of the human mind in regard to God, like everything else is undergoing perpetual changes, so that the most interesting questions now under discussion, are, in many particulars, different from what they were half a century ago, or even twenty-five years ago. The advantage claimed for the present work, is, that it meets the questions now before the public mind that it deals with the living world.