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, {vi} 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 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 I 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 {vii}
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 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 next decennial prize will be awarded in 1915, and 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 {viii} 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 in process of publication 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 present
volume.
JOHN SCHOLTE NOLLEN,
_President of Lake Forest College._
Lake Forest, Illinois,
_March_, 1912.
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