H. Clay Trumbull Books: A Guide to All 5 and Where to Start
H. Clay Trumbull (1830–1903) was a Civil War chaplain and, for almost thirty years, the editor of The Sunday School Times in Philadelphia. He wrote dozens of books. Some are scholarly studies of Bible lands and ancient customs, like The Blood Covenant. But the books most readers still turn to are his practical ones, written out of a lifetime of talking with people one at a time. For his life story, see who was H. Clay Trumbull.
TheWay Library has five of his books, all free to read. Each one stands alone, so you can start with whichever fits your need.
Where to start
Start with Individual Work for Individuals. It tells how Trumbull came to Christ and why he spent fifty years speaking to people one by one. It's the key to everything else he wrote.
Then choose by what you need:
- To understand prayer better: Personal Prayer.
- To raise children well: Hints on Child-Training.
- To help someone who doubts: How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters.
- For missionary stories: Old Time Student Volunteers.
Personal evangelism
Individual Work for Individuals
This is Trumbull's own record of personal work. He argues that few people can preach to crowds, but anyone can speak a timely word to one person, and that this is usually the better work. Then he tells his own story: as a young railroad clerk in Hartford, he was won to Christ by a hesitant letter from a friend, and soon after he resolved to speak to at least one person about Christ whenever he could. The chapters that follow give examples from his travels, his boarding house, army camps and Bible classes, along with talks he gave on personal work at Northfield.
Not every man can be a great preacher to a great congregation; but every man can speak a timely word to an individual, if, indeed, his heart be set on so doing.
Individual Work for Individuals, chapter 1
The book is short, humble and direct. If you've ever wanted to talk with a friend about Jesus and didn't know how to begin, read this. This edition was restored from a scan and has some misread words. Read Individual Work for Individuals.
Prayer
Personal Prayer: Its Nature and Scope
A book in two parts, published after his death. The first part takes on the questions that trouble thoughtful people about prayer: what prayer is, what we may pray for, the limits of what God has promised, praying in Jesus' name, praying for others and leading others in prayer. His central point is that we are to pray with faith in God, not to put our faith in prayer itself.
Prayer is not to be depended on; but God is.
Personal Prayer, chapter 7
The second part tells answers to prayer from his own life and his friends' lives: boyhood lessons of trust, how God settled his place in the war, how he was led to the editor's chair, and help sent in the night. He offers them as illustrations, not proofs. It's one of the most balanced older books on prayer, and a good one to pair with the best Christian books on prayer. Read Personal Prayer.
Family
Hints on Child-Training
Thirty short chapters of practical counsel for Christian parents. Trumbull offers hints rather than a system. He explains the difference between teaching a child and training one, urges parents to train a child's will rather than break it, and writes wisely about saying no, honoring each child's individuality, self-control, faith, the Lord's day, reading, companions and courtesy. Some of his best chapters are the gentlest: never punish in anger, never scold, and deal tenderly with a child's fears and sorrows.
Every child has the instinct of faith, as surely as it has the instinct of appetite.
Hints on Child-Training, chapter 14
Parents still pass this book around more than a century later. It's also listed in our guide to the best Christian books on marriage and family. Read Hints on Child-Training.
Doubt and faith
How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters
A practical guide for helping people troubled by doubt, drawn from real conversations. Each chapter takes one kind of difficulty and shows how Trumbull answered it. Some doubters were dwelling on what they doubted instead of what they believed. Some were waiting to feel something "break" inside, or to be good enough to join the church, or to have more faith. Some feared they had committed the unpardonable sin. Others couldn't believe in miracles or in any spiritual world. Again and again he points them away from their own feelings and toward Christ and plain obedience.
As to his will, he did not have to give it up, but only to lift it up.
How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters, chapter 3
It's written for pastors and Christian workers, but anyone who struggles with assurance will find help here. Read How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters.
Missions
Old Time Student Volunteers: My Memories of Missionaries
Short sketches of about forty nineteenth-century missionaries Trumbull knew or met, mostly American pioneers. He recalls what he saw as a boy in the face of Adoniram Judson, and he writes of Robert Moffat in Africa, Hiram Bingham in Hawaii, Peter Parker in China, James Calvert among the Fiji cannibals, Cyrus Hamlin in Turkey and many less famous men and women. The closing chapters compare missionaries with other men and ask what foreign missions have done for the churches that send them.
But the men of that day were men of sublime faith and love and hope; and we have more to learn from them than from the progress that is making in our day.
Old Time Student Volunteers, chapter 1
Each sketch is only a few pages, so it's a good book to read a little at a time. For more, see our list of the best missionary biographies. Read Old Time Student Volunteers.
Why read Trumbull today
Trumbull is warm, sensible and close to real life. He doesn't write from theory. He writes from conversations on trains, in army tents and in sickrooms, and he always comes back to trusting God and pointing people to Christ. Begin with Individual Work for Individuals, then read Personal Prayer. For his best lines, see our collection of H. Clay Trumbull quotes. All five books are on the H. Clay Trumbull author page.