The Bross Lectures are an outgrowth of a fund established in 1879 by
the late William Bross, lieutenant-governor of Illinois from 1866 to
1870. Desiring some memorial of his son, Nathaniel Bross, who died in
1856, Mr. Bross entered into an agreement with the "Trustees of Lake
Forest University," whereby there was finally transferred to them the
sum of forty thousand dollars, the income of which was to accumulate
in perpetuity for successive periods of ten years, the accumulations
of one decade to be spent in the following decade, for the purpose
of stimulating the best books or treatises "on the connection,
relation, and mutual bearing of any practical science, the history
of our race, or the facts in any department of knowledge, with and
upon the Christian Religion." The object of the donor was to "call
out the best efforts of the highest talent and the ripest scholarship
of the world to illustrate from science, or from any department of
knowledge, and to demonstrate the divine origin and the authority of
the Christian Scriptures; and, further, to show how both science and
revelation coincide and prove the existence, the providence, or any
or all of the attributes of the only living and true God, 'infinite,
eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness, and truth.'"
The gift contemplated in the original agreement of 1879 was finally
consummated in 1890. The first decade of the accumulation of interest
having closed in 1900, the trustees of the Bross Fund began at
this time to carry out the provisions of the deed of gift. It was
determined to give the general title of "The Bross Library" to the
series of the books purchased and published with the proceeds of the
Bross Fund. In accordance with the express wish of the donor, that
the "Evidences of Christianity" of his "very dear friend and teacher,
Mark Hopkins, D.D.," be purchased and "ever numbered and known as
No. 1 of the series," the trustees secured the copyright of this work,
which has been republished in a presentation edition as Volume 1 of
the Bross Library.
The trust agreement prescribed two methods by which the production of
books and treatises of the nature contemplated by the donor was to be
stimulated:
1. The trustees were empowered to offer one or more prizes during
each decade, the competition for which was to be thrown open to
"the scientific men, the Christian philosophers and historians of
all nations." In accordance with this provision, a prize of $6,000
was offered in 1902 for the best book fulfilling the conditions of
the deed of the gift, the competing manuscripts to be presented
on or before June 1, 1905. The prize was awarded to the Reverend
James Orr, D.D., professor of apologetics and systematic theology in
the United Free Church College, Glasgow, for his treatise on "The
Problem of the Old Testament," which was published in 1906 as Volume
III of the Bross Library. The second decennial prize of $6,000 was
awarded in 1915 to the Reverend Thomas James Thorburn, D.D., LL.D.,
Hastings, England, for his book entitled "The Mythical Interpretation
of the Gospels," which has been published as Volume VII of the Bross
Library. The announcement of the conditions may be obtained from the
president of Lake Forest College.
2. The trustees were also empowered to "select and designate any
particular scientific man or Christian philosopher and the subject on
which he shall write," and to "agree with him as to the sum he shall
receive for the book or treatise to be written." Under this provision
the trustees have, from time to time, invited eminent scholars to
deliver courses of lectures before Lake Forest College, such courses
to be subsequently published as volumes in the Bross Library. The
first course of lectures, on "Obligatory Morality," was delivered
in May, 1903, by the Reverend Francis Landey Patton, D.D., LL.D.,
President of Princeton Theological Seminary. The copyright of the
lectures is now the property of the trustees of the Bross Fund. The
second course of lectures, on "The Bible: Its Origin and Nature,"
was delivered in May, 1904, by the Reverend Marcus Dods, D.D.,
Professor of Exegetical Theology in New College, Edinburgh. These
lectures were published in 1905 as Volume II of the Bross Library.
The third course of lectures, on "The Bible of Nature," was delivered
in September and October, 1907, by Mr. J. Arthur Thomson, M.A.,
Regius professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen.
These lectures were published in 1908 as Volume IV of the Bross
Library. The fourth course of lectures, on "The Religions of Modern
Syria and Palestine," was delivered in November and December, 1908,
by Frederick Jones Bliss, Ph.D., of Beirut, Syria. These lectures
are published as Volume V of the Bross Library. The fifth course
of lectures, on "The Sources of Religious Insight," was delivered
November 13 to 19, 1911, by Professor Josiah Royce, Ph.D., of Harvard
University. These lectures are embodied in the sixth volume. Volume
VII, "The Mythical Interpretation of the Gospels," by the Reverend
Thomas James Thorburn, D.D., was published in 1915. The seventh
course of lectures, on "The Will to Freedom," was delivered in
May, 1915, by the Reverend John Neville Figgis, D.D., LL.D., of
the House of the Resurrection, Mirfield, England, and published as
Volume VIII of the series. In 1916 Professor Henry Wilkes Wright, of
Lake Forest College, delivered the next course of lectures on "Faith
Justified by Progress." These lectures are embodied in Volume IX.
In 1921, the Reverend John P. Peters, Ph.D., of Sewanee, Tennessee,
delivered a course of lectures on "Spade and Bible." These lectures
are embodied in Volume X. The present volume is comprised of lectures
delivered November 3 to 6, 1921, before Lake Forest College, on the
occasion of the inauguration of the President.
HERBERT McCOMB MOORE,
_President of Lake Forest University_.