1737 · Suffering & providence
The Crook in the Lot
“Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?” Thomas Boston took this verse from Ecclesiastes 7:13 and wrote about the “crooks” in everyone's lot: illness, loss, disappointment, the things in life that won't come straight however hard we try.
He wrote from experience, after years of family illness and the deaths of several of his children. The book is gentle and honest, and has comforted readers in hard times for nearly three hundred years.
- About 3 hours to read (47,000 words)
- Rewards a slower read
- Anyone going through a hard season, or caring for someone who is.
Read it your way
Free to read and download. Paperbacks are coming soon. They will be printed on demand and sold at cost: we make nothing on them.
For churches, schools and local printers: the print-ready files are exactly what we send to Lulu, with the cover's spine sized to the page count. Print as many as you like.
Then & Now
See every correction
This book is already in modern English. Compare it with its source and see each small correction the editor made.
The source text
1. They think soberly and meanly of themselves; what they are, 2 Cor xii. 11; what they can do, 2 Cor. iii. 5; what are they worth, Gen. xxxii. 10; and what they deserve, Lam. iii. 22. Viewing themselves in the glass of the divine law and perfection, they see themselves a mass of imperfection and sinfulness, Job xlii. 5, 6.
Today
1. They think soberly and meanly of themselves; what they are, 2 Cor 12:‸11; what they can do, 2 Cor 3:‸5; what are they worth, Gen 32:‸10; and what they deserve, Lam 3:‸22. Viewing themselves in the glass of the divine law and perfection, they see themselves a mass of imperfection and sinfulness, Job 42:‸5, 6.
About this edition
Faithful, and easier to read
Boston's The Crook in the Lot in full, from Samuel M'Millan's edition of his Whole Works (1848), transcribed for this edition from two scans and checked against the page images; M'Millan's few misprints corrected, the 1811 printing agreeing.
97.4% of the words are exactly as in the source. The rest are small corrections, each one recorded.
Open Then & Now- First published
- 1737
- Made from
- M'Millan's Whole Works of Thomas Boston, vol. 3 (Aberdeen, 1848)
How this edition was made
Sources
- Our transcription of The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, ed. Samuel M'Millan, vol. 3 (Aberdeen, 1848), pp. 495-590, as ThML: how it was made in source/SOURCES.md
- CCEL ThML: Thomas Boston, The Crook in the Lot, a modernized revision (Institute of Practical Bible Education etext, 2000), untouched; a witness only, used as a hint in the OCR correction
Checked against
- M'Millan's 1848 volume, the University of Michigan scan: its OCR the second reading in the transcription (source/SOURCES.md)
- The Crook in the Lot, Philadelphia 1811, archive.org scan: M'Millan's misprints corrected where it agrees (source/proofread-report.md)
- The Crook in the Lot, 1782 and London 1791 printings, archive.org scans, consulted in the transcription; no scan of the 1737 first edition was found
- Source files
- This edition on GitHub
- Licence
- Public domain (CC0): copy and share freely
- Found a mistake?
- Tell us
About the authorThomas Boston 1676–1732Minister of Ettrick in the Scottish Borders.