Adams, John Watson; Parker, Joel. Sermons on Various Subjects with A Biographical Sketch of the Author. Syracuse: Stodard and Babcock, 1851. [10515]
Teal pebble publisher's cloth decorated in blind, gilt title to spine, 8 x 5 1/4 inches, headband chewed with loss. Steel-engraved portrait with tissue guard & printed signature. 363 pp., foxing to the portrait, lighter elsewhere; last blank leaf torn with loss at bottom corner. Good. Hardcover.
The Biographical Sketch takes up the first 52 pages, with 14 sermons following.
John Watson Adams, D.D. (1796-1850), b. Simsbury, Connecticut; d. Syracuse, New York. He graduated at Hamilton College (1822), taught school for a time at Manlius, NY; after which he went to New York City to study theology with Rev. Gardiner Spring. (1785-1873). He then pursued theological studies at the Auburn Theological Seminary, and in 1826 was ordained and installed over the First Presbyterian Church in Syracuse, NY, a post held until his death. Beginning in 1841 he served on the Board of Overseers for Hamilton College.
"Dr. Adams was one of the most unambitious men whom I have ever known in the ministry; he was indeed ambitious to do good and promote the honor of his Master, but for the applause of men I never could see that he cared a rush. As a preacher, he had a deservedly high reputation. He could not be considered as eminently popular, but his sermons were always rich in evangelical truth, and written in a style of great perspicuity and precision so that it was the fault of the hearer if he was not profited." - Dr. R. W. Condit, in Nevin, Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1884).
