The Larger Life

A pastor’s book rather than a scholar’s, The Larger Life: A Book of the Heart appeared in 1900, an early devotional work by Oliver Huckel (1864-1940), the University of Pennsylvania-educated Congregational clergyman who led Baltimore’s Associate Congregational Church for twenty years. The book offers short meditations on the inner life, aimed at general readers rather than theologians, in the warm uplift style popular with turn-of-the-century American congregations. Huckel was a prolific author, and three years after this volume he began the verse retellings of Wagner’s operas, nine volumes in all, that became his best-remembered work. The Larger Life shows the pastoral side of that career, a quiet book of encouragement from a minister who believed plain spiritual counsel belonged on every nightstand. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.