A Handful of Stars

Renowned Baptist preacher Frank W. Boreham was known for his unusual ability to spin moving religious lessons from the stuff of everyday life. In the unique collection A Handful of Stars, Boreham takes this approach a step further. Drawing on excerpts from famous novels and nonfiction works, the author summarizes each work’s theme and then relates it to a Christian concept or parable. Frank W. Boreham (3 March 1871 – 18 May 1959) was a Baptist preacher best known in New Zealand, Australia, and England. (His birth coincided with the end of the Franco-Prussian War and he could say in later life that, «Salvoes of artillery and peals of bells echoed across Europe on the morning of my birth.») He was one of 10 children. Boreham heard the great American preacher Dwight L. Moody during his youth. Another remarkable occasion was when he was badly injured and spent considerable time in hospital recovering, nursed by a Roman Catholic woman who widened his insight of ecumenism. Boreham became a Baptist preacher after conversion to Christianity while working in London. Boreham was probably the last student interviewed by Charles Spurgeon for entry into his Pastor’s College. After graduation, Boreham accepted a ministry at Mosgiel church, Dunedin, New Zealand, in March 1895 and there began his prolific writings initially for the local newspaper. He later was a pastor in Hobart, Tasmania, and then on mainland Australia in Melbourne at Armadale and Kew. He notionally retired in 1928 at age 57, but continued to preach and write. During Billy Graham’s evangelistic campaign in Australia in early 1959 Graham sought out Boreham in particular for a discussion, due in great part to Boreham’s widely read and respected writings.