Excerpt from A Popular History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America This volume is designed to trace concisely but clearly the History and Principles of the Presbyterian Church from the time of Henry VIII. to the close of the General Assembly of 1899. The effort has been to present the facts in such history, and note their influence; meanwhile, to give special attention to the all-important phase of the inner Christian life of the Church. In ascertaining the knowledge in respect to the latter subject, attention has been directed, as occasion required, to the lives and labors of leading men in the ministry, as well as laymen, around whom clustered influences for good, that often extended far and wide in their respective communities, and even to the Church at large. The author has availed himself of highly important and original documents pertaining to the Congregationalists and Presbyterians during the Colonial period. (See authorities consulted.) When preparing his "Four Hundred Years of American History," the attention of the author was often drawn to the influence of the Presbyterian Church during the last half century of the Colonial times and also during the current growth of our national life. This influence was felt upon the domestic and Christian as well as upon the political life of the people. In our country, governed as it is by representatives elected by the people themselves, the moral connection between political and church life is consistent and peculiarly intimate. It therefore comes within the scope of this history to trace the influences, good or bad, of the events and policies, whereby the condition of public affairs has incidentally aided the progress of the Church, and sometimes had a retarding effect, as in the case of war or of financial or industrial disturbances whereby all the citizens were more or less affected. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.