# Need help finding a book.



## youthevang (Aug 6, 2005)

I was doing a search on a certain book with no prevail and I was wondering if one of you may be able to direct me in the right place. I am looking for Charles W. Baird's book _The Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches_. Does anyone know where I maybe able to find this book? Thanks.


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## blhowes (Aug 6, 2005)

> _Originally posted by youthevang_
> I was doing a search on a certain book with no prevail and I was wondering if one of you may be able to direct me in the right place. I am looking for Charles W. Baird's book _The Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches_. Does anyone know where I maybe able to find this book? Thanks.


I searched around a bit, found a lot of places that recommended the book, but none that sold it.

I did find a site called Find in a Library that listed the following places that may let you borrow the book:

Andover Newton Theol School 
Episcopal Divinity School
Harvard University, Divinity School Library 
Boston University
College of the Holy Cross
Providence College, Phillips Memorial Library
Gordon-Conwell Theol Seminary

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by blhowes]


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## youthevang (Aug 6, 2005)

Thanks.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 7, 2005)

Charles W. Baird and his brother Henry M. Baird were the two preeminent American Huguenot historians. Charles' book is called "Eutaxia or the Presbyterian Liturgies," 1855. A revised edition, under the title "A Chapter on Liturgies," was published in London, in 1856, by the Rev. Thomas Binney. Charles also published "A Book of Public Prayer," compiled from the Authorized Formularies of the Presbyterian Church, as prepared by Calvin, Knox, Bucer and others, 1857. I found the book for sale at Abebooks.com under the title "Chapter on Liturgies" for $200. 



> Charles W. Baird: Eutaxia and liturgy
> Presbyterian Heritage article by James H. Smylie
> 3/7/05
> 
> ...



[Edited on 12-17-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 7, 2005)

Some of these places may be of help, especially the search engines:

http://www.apuritansmind.com/BookLinks.htm


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 17, 2005)

> Aside from his pulpit labors he has accomplished much valuable literary work, as the following list of his publications will show: "Eutaxia or the Presbyterian Liturgies," 1855. A revised edition, under the title "A Chapter on Liturgies," was published in London, in 1856, by the Rev. Thomas Binney. "A Book of Public Prayer," compiled from the Authorized Formularies of the Presbyterian Church, as prepared by Calvin, Knox, Bucer and others, 1857. Dr. Charles W. Shields, in "Liturgia Expurgata", refers to these books as "the two learned and valuable works of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, to who belongs the credit of a first investigator and collector of the Presbyterian Liturgies."


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 24, 2006)

Hughes Oliphant Old quotes from Baird's work in _Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Ministers_. Not surprisingly, it is also referenced by Jeffrey Meyers in _The Lord's Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship_.

This book is pretty hard to find, but I have learned that _Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies_ was reprinted in 1957 by Baker Book House.

[Edited on 7-24-2006 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## NaphtaliPress (Jul 24, 2006)

The following interesting section dealing with Baird appears in Frank J. Smith, Ph.D., D.D. with Chris Coldwell, "The Regulative Principle of Worship: Sixty Years in Reformed Literature Part One (1946"“1999), _The Confessional Presbyterian,_ 2.106. This is a substantial piece and some nice things have been said about it. Available at http://www.cpjournal.com 



> Winward is also one of a number of writers, the most notable being W. D. Maxwell, and more recently D. G. Hart, who repeat the contention that Calvin believed in the necessity of set forms. This mistaken conclusion has been corrected by Dr. Rowland S. Ward in his recent lecture on the Westminster Directory for Public Worship.
> 
> 
> > It has been claimed by Charles Baird that Calvin highly approved set forms of prayer from which ministers should not be allowed to vary offering the following translation from Calvin´s Latin letter of 1548 to Lord Somerset"¦. However, the standard English translation made in 1858 (shortly after Baird wrote) indicates the reference is to the importance of a set Catechism, not to a form of prayers.
> ...


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## R. Scott Clark (Jul 24, 2006)

I've seen used copies of the chapter and the larger vol. 

Have you searched Bibliofind, bookfinder, abe, antiquarian, biblio, alibris?

I've found bookfinder.com to be the most useful lately.

rsc


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 4, 2006)

J.W. Alexander, letter dated June 13, 1855, _Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D. D., Constituting, with the Notes, a Memoir of His Life_ (1860), p. 208:



> If the Eutaxian Liturgy come into actuality, the only result will be to train people for the "Common Prayer."


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## polemic_turtle (Oct 4, 2006)

Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches for $27. Actually was reprinted by Wipf & Stock last month, it says. Wow, what a coincidence, huh?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 4, 2006)

> _Originally posted by polemic_turtle_
> Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches for $27. Actually was reprinted by Wipf & Stock last month, it says. Wow, what a coincidence, huh?



Wow! Good find, Tyler!


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## polemic_turtle (Oct 4, 2006)

Glad I can help!  I found the new reprint through Froogle on Walmart's site. Although they didn't have it, they had the ISBN, which turned up the book. Cheers!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 4, 2006)

For the record, the new reprint ISBN is 1597529079.

It is also available at the sources listed here and can be obtained directly from Wipf & Stock here ($21.60).

[Edited on 10-5-2006 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 5, 2006)

> _Originally posted by polemic_turtle_
> Glad I can help!  I found the new reprint through Froogle on Walmart's site. Although they didn't have it, they had the ISBN, which turned up the book. Cheers!



Wal-Mart surprises me sometimes. First, Turretin, now this. Go figure!


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## R. Scott Clark (Oct 5, 2006)

just received several copies.

rsc




> _Originally posted by youthevang_
> I was doing a search on a certain book with no prevail and I was wondering if one of you may be able to direct me in the right place. I am looking for Charles W. Baird's book _The Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches_. Does anyone know where I maybe able to find this book? Thanks.


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## Philip A (Oct 10, 2006)

I just got my copy in the mail today. Lookin' so good!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 12, 2006)

I got my copy too. It's good for historical reference purposes. I'm glad to finally have it in my library. I agree very much with J.W. Alexander's remark, however. The goal of Baird's book is the promotion not of reformation but of liturgical innovation in worship under the guise of Reformed 'tradition.' 

There is a helpful historical analysis of this book by Julius Melton in _Presbyterian Worship in America_.

On a lighter note, I found this anecdote (pp. 83-84) by Baird amusing:



> We may be allowed to vary these souvenirs by adducing one of the more lively cast. It is connected with the baptismal service. When the famous Claude was pastor of the church at Charenton, near Paris (about the middle of the seventeenth century), he was called on one occasion to perform the marriage ceremony between two Huguenots in high life; of whom the bridegroom was a decrepit septuagenerian, leading to the altar a young girl of some sixteen summers. As the minister saw this ill-matched couple advancing up the aisle to meet him, whether by accident or design we cannot say, he opened his book to the baptismal form, and addressed the disconcerted bridegroom with the interrogation: "Dost thou here present this child to be baptized?"


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## MW (Oct 12, 2006)

but with hand over face.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 23, 2007)

_Eutaxia_ is available online here.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 22, 2007)

Baird's book is now available at Reformation Heritage Books.


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