"Where'd I put that sermon?"

Several years ago I picked up one of the real gems of my meager library -- a 3-volume first American edition of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Published in Philadelphia in 1816. Nice quarto size, leather bindings in decent condition with red title blocks on the spines. And that wonderful old book smell.

My copy is made all the more interesting because I know who owned it for a large part of the 19th century -- the Rev. Charles Chapman. Who is he, you ask? I had no idea until I read the carefully typed (on a manual typewriter) paragraph about his life that a prior owner pasted inside the cover of Volume II. (The pasted paragraph in Volume I is about John Calvin, with whom I was already slightly familiar!)

Youngest child of the Saybrook, Conn. family of deacon Wm. Chapman. Graduated from Hamilton college, class of 1826. Studied theology at the Auburn, NY school. Ordained by the Onondaga and Delaware Presbyteries, 1831 and 1832. Married Elizabeth H. Porter of Hamden, NY. Preached at Downsville NY. later at Meredith Square (now Meridale) later at Rock Stream, Yates county NY, died there.

Born 1804, died 1883. Father of Wm P Chapman, and Charles B Chapman, both of Norwich NY. Brother of Benj Chapman, or Norwich NY. Grandfather of RC Chapman.

When about 1822 or 23, the Rev Charles Chapman was a young student in Hamilton, his brother Benjamin, had become established in business at Norwich NY, had built his Homestead, and was helping his young brother through college at Clinton.

Rev Charles Chapman inherited the Puritan theology, but like his brother Ezekiel, tempered it with a genial liberalism that expressed a more modern thought.

So, you'd like to know what Rev Chapman may have preached on? Well, someone (and my money is on the Rev Chapman) has helpfully tucked into the early part of Volume II a sermon outline written out in longhand with an old fashioned ink pen. (See photo at right.) It's a sermon on I John 3:3, and the emphasis seems to be on avoiding false hope. I regret to report that Rev Chapman saw lots of ways that hope might be false, but didn't spend much time on how to achieve true hope!