Wonderful association copy of a rather scarce little work urging not only that people go to the mission field, but, and this quite innovative for the time, that they go taking larger groups that include people to teach trades and skills, entire families or groups of families going to a field together. This solved multiple problems; the natural loneliness, but it also gave the missionary something tangible to give them as a token of the intangible, and in healthy situations, gave people an opportunity to see what the Gospel does in a marriage, in a community, etc.
The present copy belonged to Rev. John Dozier Sands [1815-1909]. Born in England, he was sent with the British Army to quell the Papinian Rebellion in Canada. When it was resolved, the offer to stay was made and Sands did. He enrolled in the Grand Signe Academy, mastered French and began work as an independent missionary in Montreal, handing out French Bibles and engaging the French Catholic populace with Scripture. He did so completely unaffiliated with any missionary agency.
While doing so, he was urged by others to pursue vocational ministry. He entered Yale in 1844 and graduated 1847. He first pastored in Vermont, but sensed a call to the missionary frontier, and left to preach in Iowa in 1855. At the outbreak of the Civil War, with his experience and age [46 years old] he could easily have been appointed an officer. He chose instead to enlist as a Chaplain to the Nineteenth Regiment Volunteers of Iowa and was often found on the front line with a musket in hand leading the young men of the infantry.
After the war, he resumed his ministry and over and again, though offered preferment, chose to pastor struggling churches at the edges of society.
Also inscribed by Mrs. A. H. Sands of Basil, Ohio. This likely the wife of Rev. A. H. Sands, the Baptist Chaplain in the Civil War, though it's not entirely clear what the relation between John Dozier Sands and A. H. Sands is.
Slaughter, W. The Missionary Work; Or, a Book for the Times. Dayton, Ohio. Trustees of the United Brethren Printing Establishment. 1856. 144pp.
Solid, a bit chipped at corners and head and tail of spine. Minor to moderate foxing throughout. Very solid.
