Neale, Rollin H. Advantages of Difficulties: A Sermon delivered at the dedication of the Baptist Meeting House in Southington, Ct., October 31, 1833. New Haven: Press of Whitmore & Buckingham, 1834. First Edition. [10641]
Recently bound in brown cloth, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, bookplate & small ink stamps of Yale University Library, 21 pp., no wrapper, light foxing. Good. Hardcover.
The text is Philippians 1:15-18. The author relates how difficulties are beneficial, and gives as one example, the national strength gained through the American Revolution. He tells of the difficulties of the early Baptists in America, and how they were punished by church & civil authorities. He tells his hearers that Christian civility towards other denominations should not equal indifference to the Truth, for which they must always take a stand.
He warns specifically against "the new divinity" and says "The advocates of the new divinity, if they do not entirely reject several important gospel truths, yet through them into the shade. They seldom speak of the doctrine of election, unless it be to explain it away...A system o theology which conveys to the irreligious the impression that they can change their own hearts, independent of the Spirit of God, and which throws into the shade important gospel truths, must of necessity be regarded by the pious, as a bold and dangerous innovation."
Rollin Heber Neale (1808-1879), b. Southington, Conn.; d. Boston, Mass. He was educated at Columbian College in Washington, D.C. and at Newton Theological Institution, and while a student at both cities, he was also the pastor of a congregation. For nearly forty years, from 1837 to 1877, he was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston.
"Few pastorates in Baptist churches have been so long, and few have been more harmonious. The labors of Dr. Neale, extending on through all these years, have been greatly blessed, his church, under the ministrations of their pastor, having been favored with many precious revivals of religion...For many years he was a 'visitor' and overseer of Harvard University. He always took an interest in public affairs, and from the pulpit expressed his views on the great moral questions of the day. He was known to be a minister of a kind and catholic spirit, and while he held a very warm place in the hearts of his own brethren in the ministry, he had the respect and affection of the clerical profession of all denominations in Boston and its vicinity." - Cathcart.
