Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people,

events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history.

Let's get started.

Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history.

Last week we were looking at John Wannamaker as a way to get at this story of philanthropy,

this story of church history that often doesn't get told.

Well this week I want to look at two brothers, Lyman and Milton Stewart,

and there are many enterprises in philanthropy, but specifically look at a series of books

that they not only funded, it was in fact their idea.

The Stuart brothers, Lyman and Milton, grew up in an area of Pennsylvania that came

to be called Oil City. It was called that because of the discovery of Oil Wells there, and this

was the business of the Stewart brothers.

They eventually sold their oil company to standard oil and moved out to California and

started yet another oil business. Lyman was probably the more entrepreneurial of the two brothers,

and maybe as many of his business ventures succeeded,

that many also failed.

But nevertheless, there we have the Stuart Brothers. They were both

Presbyterians, very committed to their churches, very committed to their

denomination, and funded all sorts of initiatives within the church. They also funded missions. They were very much engaged

in China and they were especially engaged in the funding of publication of Chinese Bibles. They

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