Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt

This book is in good condition. There is some wear on the front, back, edges, and spine of the cover boards. There is little bumping or fraying on the cover boards. The pages are yellowing, but clear of any markings, except the owner's stamp on the title page. The front inside cover board is signed by the previous owner, also.

"William Glendinning pressed a razor against his pulsing throat and awaited the worst. He did not even try to pray, that recourse having failed since he had first sunk into despondency more than a year earlier, in 1784. For the likes of him, he knew, there could be no mercy now, even though heaven's gate once had seemed within his reach. Only a few years after emigrating to the Chesapeake in 1767, Glendinning had been saved, plucked by his conversion to Methodism and the call to preach from an obscure, rootless lot as a journeyman tailor. A sawed-off, scrawny Scot whose speech rolled off his tongue in a thick burr, he struck Methodist leaders as less choice a recruit than the beefy, native-born farm boys who could withstand the rigors of a traveling ministry, and less choice still than the stray scions of genteel families who might lend the church some respectability. But with all the determination of one accustomed to being underestimated, Glendinning set about to prove his worth. During the years spanned by the American Revolution, he spread the Methodist message throughout the Chesapeake. And despite the strain of constant travel, preaching, and pastoral work, Glendinning, eager to grow in wisdom, and grace, steeped himself in study of the Bible and learned theological treatises...." - Chapter One from Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt