Winter Break

Several weeks ago, I started this blog to share the interesting books I've been finding in the Wheaton stacks.  I was really looking forward to it... and then, like the typical college freshman, I was caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of finals week.  I'm home now in sunny Florida, but I thought I'd take the time to mention a book I purchased at my local public library's bookstore the other day for a hefty sum of fifty cents: an old Bible (King James Version) that seems to have been published in or before 1875.

What actually drew me to this book was the fact that it had an inscription on the inside (you'll begin to notice a pattern--I really enjoy books with inscriptions).  This particular inscription is very short; it simply says "Christmas. 1875."  While this does not seem like much, it's actually really useful, since this copy does not have the date printed on it anywhere.  The printing year should be on the title page before either the Old Testament or the New Testament (or both), but it is mysteriously absent.  I do not, however, have any doubt that this book was printed in the 19th century.  The paper is consistent with the 19th century books I've been working with at school, and the printing company, Eyre and Spottiswoode, Ltd. was the printer "to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty" in the Victorian Era (according to the title page of this Bible, and backed up by Wikipedia.  I plan on doing a bit more research on this company when I get back to Wheaton, since I wasn't able to find much about it in a quick internet search).

The book as a physical object it also pretty interesting.  It looks like leather, but I'm not so sure it's real.  It has flaps that cover the edges of the pages, and the front cover says "Welcome A. Smith." I learned from a woman at my church that Welcome was a Puritan virtue name that dates back to the 1600s.  The cover also folds over the edges of the pages as protection--something I've never seen before.  The books of the Bible are also printed along the edges of the pages on the side to mark where each book is located.

My favorite thing about this book, however, is what I found in the back.  Several of the old books I've found have poems or letters tucked inside the covers.  This one has some of the lyrics to the hymn "When All They Mercies" written out on a sheet of paper and tucked inside the back cover.  The lyrics of this hymn were written by Joseph Addison in 1712 and have been sung to different melodies over the past 300 years.  Here are the stanzas that the previous owner of this Bible wrote out:

When all they mercies O my God
My rising soul surveys
Transported with the view I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.

Unnumbered comforts to my soul
Thy tender care restored
Before my infant heart conceived
From whom those comforts flowed.

Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ
For is the least a cheerful heart
That tastes those gifts with joy.

Through all eternity to Thee
A joyful song I'll raise
For O, eternity is too short
To utter all thy praise.

Here's a link to the full lyrics:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/h/e/whenallt.htm