Balme, J. R. The Mirror of the Gospel. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1850. Second Edition. [10531]
"With the Author's kind regards, Octr. 6. 1858" inscribed on the ffep.
Green cloth with floral pattern, bright gilt title to front, a little wear to the edges, 14 x 9.3 cm (5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches). End paper hinges sprung, 134, vi., clean pp. Good. Hardcover.
"In this Mirror of the Gospel we see its nature, divine origin, adaptation, power, spirituality, virtues, agency, efficiency, prospects, consummation; and truly it is an excellent little book, written evidently by one who understands the gospel, and loves the gospel, and desires that its blessed influence may pervade every heart." - Baptist Reporter, September, 1845.
Joshua Rhodes Balme, an English Congregational minister who emigrated to America about 1851 and founded the Salem Street Baptist Church in Chicago, "in Mrs. Balme's school-room." The church was short-lived, "as a sufficient number of members did not rally to the standard of Mr. Balme, [and] he surrendered he project and left the city." - Andreas, History of Chicago (1884).
J. R. Balme wrote books on Gospel themes, and during the American Civil War he described slavery and the war in several different books published mainly for the British reader. The preface of his American States, Churches, and Slavery (1862) finds him writing from Glasgow, we believe as an agent for an Anti-Slavery society. In it he describes himself as "a descendant of the Puritans."
