SPEIRS, James, editor and publisher. ~ Sown in the spring-time. Addresses delivered to the New Church Sunday School, Camden Road, London. London: James Speirs, 1879.
8vo (162 × 100 mm), pp. viii, 3-169, [1], complete despite there being no pp. [1-2], pagination includes initial advert leaf. Original publisher’s decorative cloth gilt, upper cover with a roundel depicting a sower at work in the fields. Slightly rubbed, but a nice, bright copy.
James Speirs was a prolific evangelical speaker and publisher, whose printed output suggests he was an important figure in the Victorian Sunday School movement. Sown in the spring-time collects 12 addresses aimed at a juvenile audience by Speirs and others (R.L. Tafel, Alfred J. Johnson, Samuel Teed and Charles A. Faraday) several on a theme of natural metaphor: “About Hares and Tortoises”; “The Horse and its correspondence”, “The Serpent and its correspondence” and “Trees”. COPAC and Worldcat lists editions of 1876, 1877 and 1879. Worldcat lists 2 copies of this edition (Graduate Theological Union Library and Urbana College) but COPAC lists none in the UK