Best Selling Books by John Howe

In this enchanting picture book, Stella and Sam are spending the day at the beach. Stella has been there before and knows all the sea''s secrets, but Sam has many questions. "Does a catfish purr? Does a sea horse gallop?" Stella has an answer for them all. The only thing she isn’t sure of, and neither are we, is whether Sam will ever come into the water. Exquisite watercolors bring a day at the beach alive in this perfect summer story. Gently humorous, Stella, Star of the Sea also captures the special relationship between a young girl and her baby brother — a responsibility that can be both lots of fun and very trying.

Winner of the John Gilmary Shea Prize of the American Catholic Historical Association

The Digital Puritan is a quarterly digest of carefully selected Puritan works which provides a steady diet of sound Puritan teaching. The language has been gently modernised to render it more readable, while still retaining much of the flavour and character of the original text. Hundreds of helpful notes and Scripture references (in the English Standard Version®) are included as end-notes; no internet connection is needed. The following articles appear in this summer 2014 edition: 1. Self-Denial – in which Isaac Ambrose expounds Mark 8:34, showing that self-denial must be a cardinal feature of Christ’s true disciples. 2. The Almost Christian – George Whitefield shows from Acts 26:28 that having the trappings of religion is not the same thing as having true saving faith. 3. God’s Regard for His Own Glory, Seen in the Saving of Sinners – in which Stephen Charnock illustrates the rich glory of God as can only be seen in his redemption of sinful men. 4. Charity, in Respect of Other Men’s Sins – John Howe teaches from 1 Corinthians 13:6 that believers should never rejoice over the failings or misfortunes of others, and should be predisposed to grant them the benefit of the doubt. 5. A Word to the Aged – comforting and insightful teaching from William Bridge for those who have nearly run their course. The Puritans in Verse: A Psalm of Praise – Richard Baxter.

This newly typeset and modernized work, one of Howe’s most popular which was originally published in 1674, is taken from Psalm 37:4 “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine Heart.” Howe demonstrates the object to be delighted in (God), the access sinful men have to God (through Christ), and how God is to be considered man’s delight. He shows that the soul must delight in God, and that proper instrument of conformity arises from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, he gives a number of directions for improving in religion, of motives and principles of a religious life, and directions on having a sole dependence on God. This points the sinner to a holy, consistent practice of delighting in God. This is not a scan or facsimile, and contains an active table of contents for electronic versions.

Historians typically single out the hundred-year period from about 1050 to 1150 as the pivotal moment in the history of the Latin Church, for it was then that the Gregorian Reform movement established the ecclesiastical structure that would ensure Rome’s dominance throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. In Before the Gregorian Reform John Howe challenges this familiar narrative by examining earlier, "pre-Gregorian" reform efforts within the Church. He finds that they were more extensive and widespread than previously thought and that they actually established a foundation for the subsequent Gregorian Reform movement. The low point in the history of Christendom came in the late ninth and early tenth centuries—a period when much of Europe was overwhelmed by barbarian raids and widespread civil disorder, which left the Church in a state of disarray. As Howe shows, however, the destruction gave rise to creativity. Aristocrats and churchmen rebuilt churches and constructed new ones, competing against each other so that church building, like castle building, acquired its own momentum. Patrons strove to improve ecclesiastical furnishings, liturgy, and spirituality. Schools were constructed to staff the new churches. Moreover, Howe shows that these reform efforts paralleled broader economic, social, and cultural trends in Western Europe including the revival of long-distance trade, the rise of technology, and the emergence of feudal lordship. The result was that by the mid-eleventh century a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church was assuming a leading place in the broader Christian world. Before the Gregorian Reform challenges us to rethink the history of the Church and its place in the broader narrative of European history. Compellingly written and generously illustrated, it is a book for all medievalists as well as general readers interested in the Middle Ages and Church history.

Diary of an expedition begun on 26 October 1819, led by John Howe and with Myles as a guide, to find a new route from the Hawkesbury to the Hunter Valley; Howes then sent Myles and another local Aboriginal man to find a more passable route; Howes second party, including Myles and Mullaboy, set out on 5 February 1820 on another expedition to the Hunter.