Biography Religious Books

Howell Harris was brought up to regard the Nonconformists as "a perverted and dangerously erroneous set of people." Hardly a promising start for a man who was to play a major role in the Welsh Revival. Yet in these extracts from his writings and diaries we can read the thoughts of Howell Harris before, during and after his own conversion. We can see God breaking through the barriers separating "church and chapel", and discover Christians of different denominations preparing the country for revival. Wesley, Whitefield, Harris. These great 18th century preachers worked both independently and together to preach the Living Gospel. This book is a vivid first-hand account of the joys, hardships and struggles of one of these men -- Howell Harris.

Prophet Adam is believed to have been the first human being and (Prophet) on Earth, in Islam. Adam's role as the father of the human race is looked upon by Muslims with reverence. Muslims also refer to his wife, Hawa (Eve), as the "mother of mankind". Muslims see Prophet Adam as the first Muslim, as the Qur'an states that all the Prophets preached the same faith of Islam (Submission to One God).

The Qur'an and hadith give the same account of the creation of Adam and Eve. Synthesizing the Qur'an with Sunni hadith can produce the following account. According to the Qur'an, when Allah (God) informed the angels that he was going to put a successor on Earth, they questioned whether the human would cause blood shed and damage, but he told them that he knew what they did not. He created Adam from clay and breathed life into him. Hadith add that he was named Adam after the clay he was made out of, or the skin (adim) of the earth. Returning to the Qur'an, when God asked all the angels to prostrate before Adam, they all obeyed, except Iblis (Lucifer). He said, "I am made from fire, when Adam is from clay. I am better than him. I am not going to prostrate before him."

Sunni hadith say that while Adam was sleeping, God took a rib from him and from it he created Eve (Hawa); however, while the creation of Adam and Eve is referred to in the Qur'an, the exact method of creation is not specified. The Qur'an then says that God commanded that Adam and Eve not eat from one tree in the garden of Eden, but Iblis (Lucifer) was able to convince them to taste it. They then began to cover themselves because they now knew that they were naked. For this, God banished Adam and Eve to earth; non-canonical Sunni hadith say that fruits were turned to thorns and pregnancy became dangerous. Non-canonical Sunni hadith also say that Adam and Eve were cast down far apart, so that they had to search for each other and eventually met each other at Mount Arafat.

In Islamic theology, it is not believed that Adam's sin is carried by all of his children. Hadith say that once Prophet Adam was on earth, God taught him how to plant seeds and bake bread. This was to become the way of all of Adam's children, Prophet Adam proceeded to live for about 1000 years.

J. Hudson Taylor is known as a key influencer in modern missions – what is less known but more important is that his “methods” were to trust in the Lord utterly and completely. He chose to forgo financial support from his parents and other well-meaning individuals, but instead waited on the Lord in all things. He even went hungry rather than mentioning needs to those who would gladly have given, so strong was his faith in the Lord as the only true source of all provision.The Lord proved his faithfulness, providing in such a way as to show that the He indeed is good and wants to give good gifts to his children – even more than an earthly father. As a result of J. Hudson Taylor’s faith, countless others caught the vision, and the beginnings of a massive “missionary revival” was born. As you read this man’s recollections of his own life, you will be inspired to trust completely on the only One who is genuinely able to provide, and perchance you will catch a bit of the urgency for lost souls that caused this man to forsake all for the sake of others."China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women … The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, [and] souls first and foremost in everything and at every time—even life itself must be secondary."About the AuthorJ. Hudson Taylor’s father was deeply stirred about the spiritual state of China, and though he was an earnest and successful evangelist at home, his circumstances prevented him from ever going to China. But he was led to pray that if God should give him a son, he might be called and privileged to labor in the vast, needy empire. That prayer was answered when at 21 years of age, J. Hudson Taylor boarded a ship to China. Today, he’s remembered as a pioneer to modern missions, and his initial mission is still going strong, more than 150 years after it began.

Innocent III (elected 1198, died 1216) has long been thought the greatest pope of the high Middle Ages.He launched the Fourth Crusade, sent an army against the Albigensians, and convened the Fourth Lateran Council. In his struggle with the most powerful monarchs of western Europe to assert the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power, he excommunicated King John, placed England under an interdict, forced Philip Augustus of France to take back the wife he had repudiated, and had the Emperor Otto IV deposed.But how solid is his reputation? To what extent was he personally responsible for the events of his reign? How far did he influence the massive changes of his time — the claim of the papacy to intervene in European affairs, and to act as universal arbiter and lawgiver? Were the great challenges that he met new? Was it particular circumstances that made it possible for him to leave his imprint on Europe? Who were his advisers?This book, published in 1994, was the first reassessment of Innocent’s career for nearly forty years. In it, Jane Sayers looks into Innocent’s background and complex character. She examines his record as a temporal ruler struggling to establish a firm hold on the Papal States. She considers the influences on him, traces the development of his thought, and shows how he was influenced by the past. She stresses the important part that propaganda played in his dealings with secular rulers, and how firm belief in law led him to attempt the reform of the Church and the regulation of the behaviour of ordinary people through ecclesiastical legislation.Professor Sayers also explores Innocent’s response to the rising challenge to orthodoxy — for, by the early thirteenth century, the idea of returning to the simplicity of the early Church, embracing poverty and dispensing with priests, swept over the Mediterranean lands, encouraging lay people to explore the possibilities of an alternative Christianity. Were these movements (Humiliati, Waldenses and Cathars among them) heretical? Could the same forces be channelled within orthodox Christianity?Finally, she considers Innocent’s response to the wider world — his attitude to the crusading movement, and his role in the disastrous crusade of 1204, when Christian fought Christian, and Constantinople, the capital of eastern Christendom, fell not to the forces of Islam but to crusaders from the West.Eyewitness accounts and the output of the pope’s chancery reveal the constant strains on the pope and his government. Innocent faced many crises, but he had the personality to take advantage of opportunities and to rise to meet challenges. He was a pope with a vision of Europe — and Jane Sayers does justice to his complex and many-faceted career in this engrossing study.Jane Sayers is Professor of Archive Studies at University College London.