An interesting set of lectures and addresses by influential Westward Expansion Methodist circuit rider and educator, John Dempster [1794-1863].

Born in Florida, His father, Rev. James Dempster, was bred a Presbyterian, and educated at the University of Edinburgh, but became an associate of John Wesley, and was sent by him to the United States as a missionary. He died while John was a child, and the boy, became a peddler of tin ware, but after his conversion, in 1812, begum to study diligently. He entered the itinerant, ministry of the Methodist Church in 1816, and soon distinguished himself as a powerful preacher.

After laboring in western New York and Canada, he went as a missionary to Buenos Ayres in 1835, but returned in 1842, and had charge of Churches in New York City for three years. In ]847 he was one of the founders of the Biblical institute at Concord, N. H., now the Boston University theological school.

He filled the chair of theology there till 1854, but felt the call and need to plant an educational institution in the west. Hfounded the Garrett Biblical institute at Evanston, Illinois, and was its senior professor from 1855 till his death. Plans for establishing institutes in Omaha and California failed, owing to the financial crisis of 1857. 

The lectures include on the unique educational needs of ministers in the West, on the role of the supernatural and miraculous in Christianity [camp-meetings, revivals, etc.], on the moral character of ministers, etc., Uncommon on the market. 

Dempster, John. Lectures and Addresses. By Rev. John Dempster, D. D. With and Appendix, Containing the Funeral Sermon and Memorial Services Occasioned by the Death of the Author. Edited by Rev. D. W. Clark, D. D. Cincinnati. Published by Poe & Hitchcock. 1864. 383pp. + 70pp.

A good + copy, bound in cloth, generally solid, with light foxing.