A Gothic-Style Carved Oak Verger's Desk Box, 18th century. 14 x 25-1/4 x 18-1/4 inches (35.6 x 64.1 x 46.4 cm). ...

Description

A Gothic-Style Carved Oak Verger's Desk Box, 18th century
14 x 25-1/4 x 18-1/4 inches (35.6 x 64.1 x 46.4 cm)
A chip carved bible box associated by family history with American minister Gardiner Spring (1785 -1873).

A lifelong friend of the Gilder family, Gardiner Spring was among the front rank of American preachers, and a writer himself. His father, Samuel Spring, was a notable Congregational minister who had served as a chaplain to the troops during the War of American Independence, and from 1777 to 1819 was minister at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Gardiner Spring was born in Newburyport in 1785. He attended Berwick Academy and Yale, and then taught for a short period in Bermuda, while devoting his leisure to the study of law. In 1880 he was admitted to the Bar. But, sensing the call of God to the work of the ministry, he proceeded to Andover Theological Seminary (which his father had helped to found). In 1810 he was ordained pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City, where he remained until his death 63 years later.

Spring's first four years of ministry were uneventful, but during the next two decades he experienced waves of revival under his faithful preaching. Apart from his pulpit labours, much of his energy was devoted to Bible, Tract and Home Missionary societies, and also to his own work as an author. His books include The Attraction of the Cross (1846) and The Power of the Pulpit (1848), both reprinted by the Trust. He was appointed to the Board of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1814. He died in August, 1873.


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