(This book, "Observations in the East, chiefly in Egypt, P...)
This book, "Observations in the East, chiefly in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor Volume 2", by John Price Durbin, is a replication of a book originally published before 1845. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible.
https://www.amazon.com/Observations-chiefly-Egypt-Palestine-Syria/dp/5519189994?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=5519189994
John Price Durbin was born on October 1, 1800 in Bourbon County near Paris. He was the son of Hozier and Elizabeth (Nunn) Durbin, both children of some of the first settlers in that region. Left in his thirteenth year by his father’s death to the care of his mother and the clemency of the world, the eldest of five sons, he was shortly apprenticed; but an urge to the ministry and a display of native talent led to his being licensed as a preacher, November 19, 1818.
Durbin began his itinerary on the Limestone Circuit of the Kentucky Conference, and during the next seven years held various charges in Indiana and Ohio, being ordained deacon in 1822, and elder in 1824. Conscious of his deficiencies he spent every minute available in the study of English, oratory, theology and the classics, managing, without interrupting his duties, to do work at Miami University, and at Cincinnati College, which in 1825 granted him a degree.
Immediately he was appointed professor of languages at Augusta College, Kentucky, one of the earliest Methodist experiments in education.
In 1831 Durbin was appointed professor of these at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, an office he did not fill because of his election to the chaplaincy of the United States Senate. This same year he edited Thomas Wood’s Mosaic History of the Creation of the World. He was now launched on a career of national prominence which included the editorship of the Christian Advocate and Journal (1832 - 34); the successful steering of Dickinson College through the opening years of its Methodist history (1834 - 45) pastorates and presiding eldership in Philadelphia (1845 - 50); and finally his most distinguished service to American Methodism, secretaryship of the Missionary Society (1850 - 72).
A trip abroad in 1842 resulted in Observations in Europe (1844) and Observations in the East (1845), well-written books that went through numerous editions.
He was a member of seven General Conferences, covering twenty-eight years.
At the first of these, 1844, in the case of Bishop Andrew, which led to the disruption of the church, he made a long-remembered stand against the Southern delegation, supporting the resolution advising the Bishop to desist from the exercise of his office while connected with slaveholding; yet he was not a radical abolitionist, for he opposed the expulsion of slaveholders from the church and indorsed the Colonization Society.
He was also an early advocate of theological schools and lay representation.
(This book, "Observations in the East, chiefly in Egypt, P...)
It was said of Durbin that he lived two lives each so eminent that his fame in the one dimmed that of the other. In spite of physical limitations, for he was small of stature, unprepossessing in appearance, with a voice inclined to be thin and high-pitched, he early came to be regarded as one of the greatest preachers of his day.
On September 6, 1827 Durbin married Frances B. Cook, the daughter of Alexander Cook of Philadelphia, her younger sister subsequently becoming his second wife.
