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The Westminster Larger Catechism, along with the Westminster Shorter Catechism, is a central catechism of Calvinists in the English tradition throughout the world. The Westminster Shorter Catechism was to be easier to read and concise for beginners and the Larger Catechism was to be more exact and comprehensive. The Catechism was completed by the Westminster Assembly in 1647. It was then adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1648 and (with modifications relating to the civil magistrate) by the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia in 1788....

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Religion

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Martin Luther strove to give a verse by verse exegesis of the Epistle to the Galatians in the work. The original work, written in Latin in around 1516, was much longer. This translation by Theodore Graebner strove to produce a copy of the work in a format and with wording much more applicable to the general English-speaking American public. (Summary by Timothy Perkins)...

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Religion

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“The Elements of Style (1918) by William Strunk, Jr. is an American English writing style guide. It is one of the best-known and most influential prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage, and often is required reading in U.S. high school and university composition classes. The original 1918 edition of The Elements of Style detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten elementary principles of composition, “a few matters of form”, and a list of commonly misused words and expressions. This book, printed as a private edition in 1918 for the use of his students, became a classic on the local campus, known as the little book, and its successive editions have since sold over ten million copies. This version is based on the public-domain text from 1918, which was originally uploaded to Wikibooks and wikified by Wikibooks:User:Lord Emsworth in 2003. In January 2006, Kernigh transwikied the text from Wikibooks:Elements of Style to Wikisource.” (Summary by Wikipedia and Wikisource)...

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Languages

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Op Walcheren is een reisverslag uit de reeks 'Wandelingen door Nederland met pen en potlood'. Er worden 3 wandelingen beschreven. Een stadswandeling door Middelburg. Een korte wandeling van Middelburg over Oost- en West Souburg weer terug naar Middelburg. En een lange wandeling van Middelburg naar Domburg en weer terug. De wandelingen worden voorafgegaan met een verslag van de treinreis van Rotterdam naar Middelburg. (Samenvatting geschreven door Marcel Coeders)...

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Travel

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A book reminiscent of the days when football was gaining popularity in America by MHAIJH85

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Memoirs

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Contra Gentes is the first of a two volume work published by Athanasius of Alexandria prior to the outbreak of the Arian controversy (ca. 319). It focuses especially on pagan beliefs and worship concluding with a defense of the Christian view of God and creation -- especially creation by the eternal Word. In this way, the ground is prepared for the second volume of his work, now published separately under the title De Incarnatione Verbi. (Summary by Jonathan Lange)...

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Ancient Texts

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A second helping of Alphabet Books! This collection has a wide-ranging variety of short books, and not only for younger readers, but also for young and not so young adults. Opening with a book based on the colorful language of London's street vendors, this collection winds its way through a book of tongue-twisters, two primers of nonsense poetry by the inimitable Edward Lear, and early readers from 19th century England. For older readers, there is the biting, sardonic humor of Hilaire Belloc's satirical alphabet verses. There is even a Baseball ABC, a recording which will be released in time for the World Series playoffs! Soup's on! (Summary by Denny Sayers)...

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Children, Instruction, Poetry

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This book, written in the mid 19th century and illustrated by Charles H. Bennett, provides an entertaining introduction to topics in science for children. In each chapter, the author uses a popular myth or fairy tale to lay the groundwork for an equally fascinating fairy tale of science full of interesting facts and real life examples. (Summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

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Children, Science, Fairy tales, Myths/Legends

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De Imitatione Christi (De navolging van Christus) is een middeleeuws boek dat handelt over hoe je een goed christen wordt. Het werd in de vijftiende eeuw geschreven door de Nederlandse augustijn Thomas a Kempis. Dit werk was na de Bijbel het meest verspreide boek van de late Middeleeuwen en wordt ook nu nog door veel christenen gelezen. (bron: Wikipedia, kattekliek)...

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Religion

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Hosea was the son of Beeri and a prophet in Israel in the 8th century BCE. He is one of the Twelve Prophets of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, also known as the Minor Prophets of the Christian Old Testament. We know practically nothing about the life or social status of Hosea. According to the Book of Hosea, he married the prostitute Gomer, the daughter of Diblatayim, at God's command. He lived in the Northern Kingdom in the period 740–725 BCE. In Hosea 5:8 ff., there is a reference to the wars which led to the capture of the kingdom by the Assyrians (ca. 734–732 BCE). It is not certain if he has also experienced the destruction of Samaria, which is foreseen in Hosea 14:1. Hosea's family life reflected the adulterous relationship which Israel had built with polytheistic gods. His children's names made them like walking prophecies of the fall of the ruling dynasty and the severed covenant with God — much like the prophet Isaiah a generation later. Hosea is often seen as a prophet of doom, but underneath his message of destruction is a promise of restoration. (From Wikipedia)...

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Religion

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Rosa Luxemburg war eine bedeutende Vertreterin der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung und des proletarischen Internationalismus. Sie gehörte zu den Gründungsmitgliedern der KPD, deren Programm sie hauptsächlich verfasste. Während des ersten Weltkriegs verbrachte Rosa Luxemburg drei Jahre und vier Monate im Gefängnis, ein Jahr im Berliner Weibergefängnis (Barnimstraße), dann zwei Jahre und vier Monate in Berlin, Wronke und Breslau. Während dieser Zeit schrieb sie viele persönliche Briefe an Sophie Liebknecht, die einen tiefen Einblick in die starke Persönlichkeit dieser ungewöhnlichen Frau geben. Die Leser lernen den Reichtum ihres unermüdlich quellenden Herzens kennen. Sie sollen sehen, wie diese Frau, über ihren eigenen Leiden stehend, alle Wesen der Schöpfung mit verstehender Liebe und dichterischer Kraft umfängt, wie ihr Herz in Vogelrufen erzittert, wie Verse beschwingter Sprache in ihr widerklingen, wie Schicksal und tägliches Tun der Freunde in ihr geborgen sind. (Aus der Einleitung) Am 15. Januar 1919, nur zwei Monate nach ihrer Freilassung wurde sie unter teils ungeklärten Umständen zusammen mit Karl Liebknecht von rechtsradikale...

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Biography

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A good candidate for 'the most under-appreciated work by Mark Twain' would be 'The Treaty With China,' which he published in the New York Tribune in 1868. This piece, which is an early statement of Twain's opposition to imperialism and which conveys his vision of how the U.S. ought to behave on the global stage, has not been reprinted since its original publication until now. (the online, open-access Journal of Transnational American Studies published it in the spring, 2010). (Introduction by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Twain scholar and Director of American Studies at Stanford University, used by permission) (Transcription by Martin Zehr for the Journal of Transnational American Studies, American Cultures and Global Contexts Center, UC Santa Barbara - http://escholarship.org/uc/acgcc_jtas)...

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History

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Sailing voyage from England to Portugal in the mid Eighteenth Century, by one of the premier humorists, satirists, novelists and playwrights of his age. It was to be his last work, as his failing health proved unable to persevere much longer after the voyage. ( Summary by JCarson )...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Travel

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Charles Foster Kent was one of the premier scholars in Jewish Studies at the turn of the century. He was particularly well-known for his comparisons of early Christianity to its Jewish roots. He also wrote several distinguished histories of Israel, the Jewish people, Torah studies, and the development of oral Torah. (Summary by Kirsten Ferreri)...

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History, Religion

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Part of a initiative to develop a free language-learning resource. This book is old, but the basics haven't changed too much. All the French content is spoken by native French speakers. The book includes sections on vocabulary, nouns, adjectives, verbs and phrases, and will still prove useful. Some of the phrases are dated but hilarious. If you need a flannel petticoat, or to chastise your washerwoman, this book is definitely for you! (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Languages, Instruction

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Rome having been stormed and sacked by the Goths under Alaric their king, the worshippers of false gods, or pagans, as we commonly call them, made an attempt to attribute this calamity to the Christian religion, and began to blaspheme the true God with even more than their wonted bitterness and acerbity. It was this which kindled my zeal for the house of God, and prompted me to undertake the defence of the city of God against the charges and misrepresentations of its assailants. This work was in my hands for several years, owing to the interruptions occasioned by many other affairs which had a prior claim on my attention, and which I could not defer. However, this great undertaking was at last completed in twenty-two books. Of these, the first five refute those who fancy that the polytheistic worship is necessary in order to secure worldly prosperity, and that all these overwhelming calamities have befallen us in consequence of its prohibition. In the following five books I address myself to those who admit that such calamities have at all times attended, and will at all times attend, the human race, and that they constantly recur i...

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Literature, Philosophy, Religion

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Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch. The Hebrew title, [spoken] words, is taken from the opening phrase, These are the words...; the English title is from the Greek and Latin, both meaning second law, a mistranslation of the Hebrew phrase mishneh ha-torah ha-zoth, a copy of this law, in Deuteronomy 17:18. The book consists of three sermons or speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of Moab, shortly before they enter the Promised Land. The first sermon recapitulates the forty years of wilderness wanderings which have led to this moment, and ends with an exhortation to observe the law (or teachings); the second reminds the Israelites of the need for exclusive allegiance to one God and observance of the laws he has given them, on which their possession of the land depends; and the third offers the comfort that even should Israel prove unfaithful and so lose the land, with repentance all can be restored. One of its most significant verses is Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, which has become the definitive statement of Jewish identity: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the ...

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Religion, History

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When the self-proclaimed Mahdi (“Guided One”) gathered Islamic forces and kicked the Anglo-Egyptians out of the Sudan, he unleashed a backlash. With the image of the heroic General Charles Gordon dying at Khartoum, the British public was ready to support a war to reclaim the lost territories. And when the political time was right, a British-Egyptian-Sudanese expedition led by the redoubtable Herbert Kitchener set out to do just that. The river involved was the Nile. For millennia, its annual flood has made habitable a slender strip, though hundreds of miles of deserts, between its tributaries and its delta. Through this desolate region, man and beast struggled to supply the bare essentials of life. Though this same region, the expedition had to find and defeat an enemy several times larger than itself. The young Churchill was hot to gain war experience to aid his career, and so he wangled a transfer to the 21st Lancers and participated in the last successful cavalry charge the world ever saw, in the climactic battle of Omdurman. He also had a position as war correspondent for the Morning Post, and on his return to England he used hi...

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War stories, History

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1862 Anna Leonowens accepted an offer made by the Siamese consul in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching, to teach the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. The king wished to give his 39 wives and concubines and 82 children a modern Western education on scientific secular lines, which earlier missionaries' wives had not provided. Leonowens sent her daughter Avis to school in England, and took her son Louis with her to Bangkok. She succeeded Dan Beach Bradley, an American missionary, as teacher to the Siamese court. Leonowens served at court until 1867, a period of nearly six years, first as a teacher and later as language secretary for the king. Although her position carried great respect and even a degree of political influence, she did not find the terms and conditions of her employment to her satisfaction, and came to be regarded by the king himself as a rather difficult woman. In 1868 Leonowens was on leave for her health in England and had been negotiating a return to the court on better terms when Mongkut fell ill and died. The king mentioned Leonowens and her son in his will, though they did not receive the legacy. The new monarc...

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Memoirs, Travel