By Roy Mohon
On this CD there are 80 works by 50 authors in the Puritan tradition consisting of 22,000 pages. Familiar names include J. C. Ryle, William Guthrie, R. L. Dabney, B. B. Warfield, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson, Charles Hodge and John Owen. The content can be searched in relation to a particular passage of scripture instantaneously. The CD self starts and a click on Get Started gives a menu bar from which one can click on Bible Lookup. The user can then select a Bible Book of his choice followed by the Chapter of interest. The text appears in the left-hand window and one can scroll to any verse. Clicking on the verse number provides a list of the works in which the verse is cited. Clicking on the works one by one takes the user to the paragraph in each work where the text is cited. This can provide the user with a rich source of comment upon the verse. Obviously not every verse of the Bible is cited in the 80 works and in some citations the author merely refers to the verse without detailed comment. However, the reviewer found that a thirty-minute session on a passage of scripture yielded valuable comments helpful for sermon preparation and providing suitable quotations. The copy and paste facility enables any of the material to be transferred to a word processor. This is a valuable resource for preachers, lecturers and students but will also interest computer literate Christians who want to conveniently access the Puritan tradition without a large expenditure on books. The reviewer has not done a specific costing but to purchase 80 books at an average cost of £7 each would be over £500. All of this can be secured for under £30! Further details can be found at http://www.puritannica.com including facilities for UK purchase.
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