Four Lectures, with Diagram
By George Hucklesby
Undated, c.1880
A notably scarce late-Victorian work on biblical prophecy and the Second Coming, particularly desirable for its striking full-page coloured prophetic diagram/frontispiece.
The work comprises four lectures:
The Hope of the Believer
The Hope of the Church
The Hope of Israel
The Hope of Creation
This appears to be a genuinely scarce edition.
The University of Manchester's Christian Brethren catalogue records the same undated, 83-page A. M. Sparks edition with frontispiece. A specialist bookseller offering another example of this edition reports locating only three copies in UK institutional collections.
Copies also appear only infrequently on the commercial market. For that reason, “scarce” seems an appropriate description, although no claim is made that only three copies survive overall.
One of the most attractive and historically interesting features of the book is the coloured diagram facing the title page.
Designed to illustrate Hucklesby's prophetic scheme “at a glance”, it traces the course of biblical history and prophecy from eternity and Creation through the Fall, the age of law, Israel, the Church, the Second Coming, the Millennium and the eternal state.
The accompanying “Explanation of the Chart” describes the various colours and symbols employed, and the lectures themselves refer back to the diagram.
It is a particularly appealing survival from the nineteenth-century evangelical interest in biblical prophecy and prophetic charts.
Hucklesby's lectures present a strongly premillennial interpretation of biblical prophecy, including a dispensational distinction between the Church and Israel.
Subjects include the personal return of Christ, the resurrection and transformation of believers, the hope of the Church, God's future purposes for Israel, the Millennium, Satan's final defeat, the Great White Throne and the eternal state.
The third lecture, The Hope of Israel, is particularly explicit in distinguishing God's purposes for His “heavenly people” and His “earthly people”, making the book an interesting early source for collectors and students of the history of Brethren, premillennial and dispensational thought.
The book is undated.
The title page states that copies could be obtained directly from the author at:
42 Twisden Road, Kentish Town, N.W.
and gives the printer as:
A. M. Sparks, 49 St. Nicholas Street, Ipswich.
Bibliographical evidence dates this edition to approximately c.1880. As no date or edition statement appears on the title page, no definitive first-edition claim is made here.
In attractive green cloth, with an elaborate Victorian black floral and geometric design to the front board.
The title “Four Lectures on the Second Coming of the Lord” is prominently lettered in gilt, with “By George Hucklesby” beneath in black script.
Patterned endpapers.
A pleasing surviving copy of this scarce work, retaining the important coloured prophetic frontispiece, but with a condition issue at the front which should be noted carefully.
The front endpaper, coloured frontispiece and title page are all still attached, but are loosening and must be handled with care. They are not presently detached, but this section is vulnerable and should be opened gently.
The cloth shows general age-related rubbing, marking and wear, including wear to the corners and spine ends. The decorative front board nevertheless remains attractive and the gilt title is still clear.
Internally there is general age-toning and occasional minor marking consistent with age and use. The text remains clear and readable.
The coloured prophetic diagram is present, an important feature as the text was specifically issued “with diagram” and refers repeatedly to it.
Please study all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.
Pages: 83
Size: approx. 190 × 128 × 10 mm
Weight: approx. 181g
George Hucklesby (1855–1934) was associated with the Christian Brethren tradition and wrote on biblical prophecy and the Second Advent. His work reflects the considerable interest among nineteenth-century evangelical Christians in the personal return of Christ and the interpretation of unfulfilled biblical prophecy.
The Second Coming of the Lord is particularly interesting for its treatment of the Church and Israel and for the survival of its accompanying coloured prophetic chart.
An appealing and scarce piece of Victorian evangelical and prophetic literature, well suited to a collection concerned with the Christian Brethren, the Second Advent, premillennialism, dispensationalism or the history of nineteenth-century biblical interpretation.
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