(Ebook) IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics:

Use and Interpretation, Sixth Edition by

Morgan,George A.,Barrett,Karen C.,Leech,Nancy
L.,Gloeckner,Gene W. ISBN 9781138578210,
1138578215install download
https://ebooknice.com/product/ibm-spss-for-introductory-
statistics-use-and-interpretation-sixth-edition-12115020

Download more ebook instantly today at https://ebooknice.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

Start reading on any device today!

(Ebook) IBM SPSS for introductory statistics : use and interpretation by George A
Morgan; et al ISBN 9780203842966, 9780415882293, 0203842960, 041588229X

https://ebooknice.com/product/ibm-spss-for-introductory-statistics-use-and-
interpretation-4921952

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) SPSS for Introductory Statistics Use and by George A. Morgan, Nancy L.
Leech, Gene W. Gloeckner, Karen C. Barrett ISBN 9780805847895, 0805847898

https://ebooknice.com/product/spss-for-introductory-statistics-use-and-1088872

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) SPSS for intermediate statistics: use and interpretation by Nancy Leech,
Karen Barrett, George A Morgan ISBN 9780805847901, 9781410611420, 0805847901,
1410611426

https://ebooknice.com/product/spss-for-intermediate-statistics-use-and-
interpretation-925586

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook by Loucas, Jason; Viles, James ISBN
9781459699816, 9781743365571, 9781925268492, 1459699815, 1743365578, 1925268497

https://ebooknice.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-6661374

ebooknice.com
(Ebook) Using IBM® SPSS® Statistics for Research Methods and Social Science
Statistics by William E. Wagner ISBN 9781506389004, 1506389007

https://ebooknice.com/product/using-ibm-spss-statistics-for-research-methods-
and-social-science-statistics-44938648

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) How to Use SPSS: A Step-By-Step Guide to Analysis and Interpretation by

Brian C. Cronk ISBN 9781884585791, 1884585795

https://ebooknice.com/product/how-to-use-spss-a-step-by-step-guide-to-analysis-
and-interpretation-1387036

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Introductory Statistics for Health and Nursing Using SPSS by Louise
Marston ISBN 9781847874832, 1847874835, 1847874827

https://ebooknice.com/product/introductory-statistics-for-health-and-nursing-
using-spss-2405740

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics by Andy Field ISBN
9781529630015, 9781529630008, 1529630010, 1529630002, B0CHB9CBJN

https://ebooknice.com/product/discovering-statistics-using-ibm-spss-
statistics-56766018

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) How to Use SPSS®: A Step-By-Step Guide to Analysis and Interpretation by

Brian C. Cronk ISBN 9781138308541, 1138308544

https://ebooknice.com/product/how-to-use-spss-a-step-by-step-guide-to-analysis-
and-interpretation-7011144

ebooknice.com
IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics
IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics is designed to help students learn how to analyze and
interpret research. In easy-to-understand language, the authors show readers how to choose the
appropriate statistic based on the design, and to interpret outputs appropriately. There is such a
wide variety of options and statistics in SPSS, that knowing which ones to use and how to
interpret the outputs can be difficult. This book assists students with these challenges.

Comprehensive and user-friendly, the book prepares readers for each step in the research process:
design, entering and checking data, testing assumptions, assessing reliability and validity,
computing descriptive and inferential parametric and nonparametric statistics, and writing about
results. Dialog windows and SPSS syntax, along with the output, are provided. Several realistic
data sets, available online, are used to solve the chapter problems. This new edition includes
updated screenshots and instructions for IBM SPSS 25, as well as updated pedagogy, such as
callout boxes for each chapter indicating crucial elements of APA style and referencing outputs.

IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics is an invaluable supplemental (or lab text) book for students.
In addition, this book and its companion, IBM SPSS for Intermediate Statistics, are useful as
guides/reminders to faculty and professionals regarding the specific steps to take to use SPSS
and/or how to use and interpret parts of SPSS with which they are unfamiliar.

George A. Morgan is Emeritus Professor of Education and Human Development at Colorado

State University. He received his Ph.D. in child development and psychology from Cornell
University. In addition to writing textbooks, he has advised many Ph.D. students in education and
related fields. He has conducted a program of research on children’s motivation to master
challenging tasks.

Karen C. Barrett is Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State
University, where she teaches research methods and statistics classes as well as classes in her
research area. She is also Professor of Community & Behavioral Health at Colorado School of
Public Health. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of
Denver. Her research takes a functional approach to studying emotional and motivational
processes and their influence on development; family and cultural influences on emotion
regulation; and the development of social emotions such as guilt and shame.

Nancy L. Leech is Professor of Research and Evaluation Methods at the University of Colorado,
Denver. She teaches graduate level courses in research, statistics, and measurement. She received
her Ph.D. in education with an emphasis on research and statistics from Colorado State University
in 2002. Her area of research is promoting new developments and better understandings in
applied, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research.

Gene W. Gloeckner is Professor, former IRB Chair, former School of Education Director, and
one voyage Semester at Sea Dean. He received his Ph.D. and B.S. from The Ohio State
University and M.S. from Colorado State University. Much of his writing and teaching has
focused on issues in quantitative and mixed research methods. He has served as the academic
advisor for over 60 doctoral graduates.
“Written clearly and packed with illustrative examples, this book provides readers with a
comprehensive yet easy-to-follow introduction to SPSS. It covers many of the descriptive
and inferential analyses students will likely encounter in an entry-level course. Graduate
and undergraduate students alike will appreciate the practical advice that it offers
throughout. It provides clear guidance for developing research questions, selecting the
appropriate test, and interpreting the results. This book is a must-have guide for any person
who desires to learn the basics of SPSS software.”—Janelle L. Gagnon, Mount Holyoke
College, USA

“I have been using the earlier versions of this book for many years. The students loved it.
Using this book they found it stress-free to understand basic statistics. The book is easy to
read even for non-native English speakers. The real research examples really help students
to understand the most important statistical concepts. This revised edition includes
updated screenshots and instructions for the most recent SPSS version. This is the best
introductory SPSS book I have ever used or read.” —Krisztián Józsa, Professor of
Education, University of Szeged, Hungary
IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics:
Use and Interpretation
Sixth Edition

George A. Morgan
Karen C. Barrett
Colorado State University

Nancy L. Leech
University of Colorado Denver

Gene W. Gloeckner
Colorado State University
Sixth edition published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2020 Taylor & Francis

The right of George Morgan, Nancy Leech, Gene Gloeckner and Karen Barrett to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by Erlbaum Associates 2001

Fifth edition published by Routledge 2013

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Morgan, George A. (George Arthur), 1936- author.
Title: IBM SPSS for introductory statistics : use and interpretation / George Morgan [and three
others].
Description: Sixth edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019007110| ISBN 9781138578227 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138578210 (pbk.)
| ISBN 9780429287657 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: SPSS for Windows. | SPSS (Computer file) | Social sciences--Statistical
methods--Computer programs.
Classification: LCC HA32 .S572 2020 | DDC 005.5/5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019007110

ISBN: 978-1-138-57822-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-57821-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-28765-7 (ebk)

Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the authors.

Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/morgan

 Contents
Preface .............................................................................................................................................ix

1 Variables, Research Problems, and Questions ........................................................................... 1

Research Problems .............................................................................................................. 1
Variables.............................................................................................................................. 1
Research Hypotheses and Questions ................................................................................... 5
A Sample Research Problem: The Modified High School and Beyond (HSB) Study ........ 7
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................... 14

2 Data Coding, Entry, and Transformation ................................................................................. 15

Plan the Study, Pilot Test, and Collect Data ..................................................................... 15
Code Data for Data Entry .................................................................................................. 17
Problem 2.1: Check the Completed Questionnaires ......................................................... 19
Problem 2.2: Define and Label the Variables ................................................................... 22
Problem 2.3: Display Your Dictionary or Codebook ........................................................ 27
Problem 2.4: Enter Data .................................................................................................... 28
Alternative Problem 2.4: Downloading and Using Data Collected Online ....................... 29
Problem 2.5: Count Math Courses Taken ......................................................................... 31
Problem 2.6: Recode and Relabel Mother’s and Father’s Education ................................ 33
Problem 2.7: Reverse Low Pleasure Items for Pleasure Scale Score ................................ 37
Problem 2.8: Compute Pleasure Scale with the Mean Function ....................................... 39
Problem 2.9: Check for Errors and Normality for the New Variables .............................. 40
Describing the Sample Demographics and Key Variables ................................................ 42
Using Figures to Help Describe the Data .......................................................................... 44
Saving the Updated HSB Data File ................................................................................... 45
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................... 46
Extra SPSS Problems ........................................................................................................ 46

3 Measurement and Descriptive Statistics .................................................................................. 47

Frequency Distributions .................................................................................................... 47
Levels of Measurement ..................................................................................................... 48
Descriptive Statistics and Plots ......................................................................................... 54
The Normal Curve ............................................................................................................. 60
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................... 63
Extra SPSS Problems ........................................................................................................ 63

4 Understanding Your Data and Checking Assumptions ........................................................... 64

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)..................................................................................... 64
Problem 4.1: Descriptive Statistics for the Ordinal and Scale Variables .......................... 66
Problem 4.2: Boxplots for One Variable and for Multiple Variables................................ 71
Problem 4.3: Boxplots and Stem-and-Leaf Plots Split by a Dichotomous Variable ........ 75
Problem 4.4: Descriptives for Dichotomous Variables ..................................................... 79
Problem 4.5: Frequency Tables for Each Type of Variable .............................................. 81
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................... 84
Extra SPSS Problems ........................................................................................................ 85

5 Selecting and Interpreting Inferential Statistics ....................................................................... 86

General Design Classifications for Difference Questions ................................................. 86

v
vi CONTENTS

Selection of Inferential Statistics ....................................................................................... 88

The General Linear Model ................................................................................................ 93
Interpreting the Results of a Statistical Test ...................................................................... 94
An Example of How to Select and Interpret Inferential Statistics .................................. 100
Writing About Your Outputs ........................................................................................... 102
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 104
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................. 104

6 Methods to Provide Evidence for Reliability and Validity ..................................................... 106

Measurement Reliability ................................................................................................. 107
Measurement Validity ..................................................................................................... 108
Problem 6.1: Cohen’s Kappa to Assess Reliability with Nominal Data ......................... 109
Problem 6.2: Correlation and Paired t to Assess Interrater Reliability ........................... 113
Problem 6.3: Exploratory Factor Analysis to Assess Evidence for Validity ................... 116
Problem 6.4: Cronbach’s Alpha to Assess Internal Consistency Reliability................... 124
The Use of Factor Analysis and Alpha to Make Summated Scales ................................ 132
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................. 133
Extra SPSS Problems ...................................................................................................... 134

7 Cross-Tabulation, Chi-Square, and Nonparametric Measures of Association ...................... 135

Problem 7.1: Chi-Square and Phi (or Cramer’s V) .......................................................... 136
Problem 7.2: Risk Ratios and Odds Ratios ..................................................................... 142
Problem 7.3: Other Nonparametric Associational Statistics ........................................... 145
Problem 7.4: Eta .............................................................................................................. 147
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................. 149
Extra SPSS Problems ...................................................................................................... 150

8 Correlation and Regression .................................................................................................... 151

Problem 8.1: Scatterplots to Check the Assumption of Linearity ................................... 153
Problem 8.2: Bivariate Pearson and Spearman Correlations ........................................... 158
Problem 8.3: Correlation Matrix for Several Variables .................................................. 161
Problem 8.4: Bivariate or Simple Linear Regression ...................................................... 165
Problem 8.5: Multiple Regression ................................................................................... 168
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................. 174
Extra SPSS Problems ...................................................................................................... 174

9 Comparing Groups with t Tests, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Similar

Nonparametric Tests ............................................................................................................. 175
Problem 9.1: One-Sample t Test ..................................................................................... 177
Problem 9.2: Independent Samples t Test ....................................................................... 178
Problem 9.3: The Nonparametric Mann–Whitney U Test .............................................. 183
Problem 9.4: Paired Samples t Test................................................................................. 186
Problem 9.5: Nonparametric Wilcoxon Test for Two Related Samples ......................... 188
Problem 9.6: One-Way (or Single Factor) ANOVA ....................................................... 191
Problem 9.7: Post Hoc Multiple Comparison Tests ........................................................ 195
Problem 9.8: Nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis Test.......................................................... 202
Problem 9.9: Two-Way (or Factorial) ANOVA.............................................................. 205
Interpretation Questions .................................................................................................. 212
Extra SPSS Problems ...................................................................................................... 213
 IBM SPSS FOR INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS vii

Appendices

A. Getting Started and Other Useful SPSS Procedures

Don Quick ................................................................................................................... 214
B. Writing Research Problems and Questions ...................................................................... 226
C. Answers to Odd Numbered Interpretation Questions
Jessica Gerton ...............................................................................................................231
D. Glossary
Jessica Bochert .............................................................................................................240
For Further Reading ................................................................................................................. 248
Index ........................................................................................................................................ 250
 Preface
This book is designed to help students learn how to analyze and interpret research. It is intended to
be a supplemental text in an introductory (undergraduate or graduate) statistics or research methods
course in the behavioral or social sciences or education and it can be used in conjunction with any
mainstream text. We have found that this book makes IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows easy to
use so that it is not necessary to have a formal, instructional computer lab; you should be able to
learn how to use the program on your own with this book. Access to the IBM SPSS program and
some familiarity with Windows is all that is required. Although SPSS is quite easy to use, there is
such a wide variety of options and statistics that knowing which ones to use and how to interpret
the printouts can be difficult. This book is intended to help with these challenges. In addition to
serving as a supplemental or lab text, this book and its companion, IBM SPSS for Intermediate
Statistics (Leech, Barrett, & Morgan, 5th ed., 2015) are useful as reminders to faculty and
professionals of the specific steps to take to use SPSS and/or guides to using and interpreting parts
of SPSS with which they might be unfamiliar.

The Computer Program

We used IBM SPSS 25 in this book. Except for enhanced tables and graphics, there are only minor
differences among SPSS Versions 10 to 25. In October 2009, IBM bought the SPSS Corporation
and changed the name of the program used in this book to IBM SPSS Statistics. We expect future
Windows versions of this program to be similar so students should be able to use this book with
earlier and later versions of the program, which we call SPSS in the text. Our students have used
this book, or earlier editions of it, with all of the earlier versions of SPSS; both the procedures and
outputs are quite similar. We point out some of the changes at various points in the text.

In addition to various SPSS modules that may be available at your university, there are two versions
that are available for students that you can rent for 6 or 12 months online. Statistics GradPack
enables you to do all the statistics in this book plus most of those in our IBM SPSS for Intermediate
Statistics book (Leech et al., 2015) and many others (there are a few statistics that are not included,
so you may want to check before deciding to purchase).

Goals of This Book

Helping you learn how to choose the appropriate statistics, interpret the outputs, and develop skills
in writing about the meaning of the results are the main goals of this book. Thus, we have included
material on
1. How the appropriate choice of a statistic is influenced by the design of the research.
2. How to use SPSS to help the researcher answer research questions.
3. How to interpret SPSS outputs.
4. How to write about the outputs in the Results section of a paper.
This information will help you develop skills that cover the whole range of the steps in the research
process: design, data collection, data entry, data analysis, interpretation of outputs, and writing
results. The modified high school and beyond dataset (HSB) used in this book is similar to one you
might have for a thesis, dissertation, or research project. Therefore, we think it can serve as a model
for your analysis.

The Web site, www.routledge.com/cw/morgan, contains the HSB data files under the Student
Resources tab used throughout this book (hsbdata and AlternativehsbdataB). Two other datasets
(called CollegeStudentData.sav and ChapterSixData.sav) are used for the extra statistics problems
at the end of most chapters, and DataFastTrack.sav and DataRegularTrack.sav are used in

ix
x PREFACE

Appendix A for the merging of two data files. Appendix A shows how to download these files
from the website to your computer.

This book demonstrates how to produce a variety of statistics that are usually included in basic
statistics courses, plus others (e.g., reliability measures) that are useful for doing research. We try
to describe the use and interpretation of these statistics as much as possible in nontechnical, jargon-
free language. In part, to make the text more readable, we have chosen not to cite many references
in the text; however, we have provided a short bibliography, “For Further Reading,” of some of the
books and articles that our students have found useful. We assume that most students will use this
book in conjunction with a class that has a textbook; it will help you to read more about each
statistic before doing the assignments.

Overview of the Chapters

Our approach in this book is to present how to use and interpret the SPSS statistics program in the
context of proceeding as if the HSB data were the actual data from your research project. These
chapters are organized in very much the same way you might proceed if this were your project. The
goal is to use this computer program as a tool to help you answer these research questions.
(Appendix B provides some guidelines for phrasing or formatting research questions.) Chapter 2
provides an introduction to data coding, entry, basic transformations to turn the raw data into
variables, and how to check data for errors. We developed Chapter 2 because many of you may
have little experience with making “messy,” realistic data ready to analyze. In this revision, we
added information about how to use SPSS to analyze online data. Chapter 3 discusses measurement
and its relation to the appropriate use of descriptive statistics. This chapter also includes a brief
review of descriptive statistics to prepare you for Chapter 4.

Chapter 4 provides you with experience doing exploratory data analysis (EDA) and basic
descriptive statistics and figures that are appropriate for the level of measurement of the variables.
We calculate a variety of descriptive statistics, often to check certain statistical assumptions. Much
of what is done in this chapter involves preliminary analyses to get ready to answer the research
questions that you might state in a report.

Chapter 5 provides a brief overview of research designs (e.g., between groups and within subjects).
This chapter also provides flowcharts and tables useful for selecting an appropriate statistic. Also
included is an overview of how to interpret and write about the results of an inferential statistic.
This includes not only information about testing for statistical significance but also a discussion of
effect size measures and guidelines for interpreting them.

Chapter 6 provides examples of how to check your data for evidence of reliability and validity
using several statistics provided by SPSS; e.g., Cohen’s kappa and Cronbach’s alpha. The chapter
also provides an introduction to exploratory factor analysis used to reduce a large number of
variables to a more manageable number.

Chapters 7 through 9 are designed to answer the several research questions posed in Chapter 1 as
well as a number of additional questions. Solving the problems in these chapters should give you a
good idea of the basic statistics that can be computed with this computer program. Hopefully,
seeing how the research questions and design lead naturally to the choice of statistics will become
apparent after using this book. In addition, it is our hope that interpreting what you get back from
the computer will become clearer after doing these assignments, studying the outputs, answering
the interpretation questions, and doing the extra statistics problems.
 IBM SPSS FOR INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS xi

Our Approach to Research Questions, Measurement, and Selection of Statistics

In Chapters 1, 3, and 5, our approach is somewhat nontraditional because we have found that
students have a great deal of difficulty with some aspects of research and statistics but not others.
Most can learn formulas and “crunch” the numbers quite easily and accurately with a calculator or
with a computer. However, many have trouble knowing what statistics to use and how to interpret
the results. They do not seem to have a “big picture” or see how research design and measurement
influence data analysis. Part of the problem is inconsistent terminology. We are reminded of Bruce
Thompson’s frequently repeated, intentionally facetious remark at his many national workshops:
“We use these different terms to confuse the graduate students.” For these reasons, we have tried
to present a semantically consistent and coherent picture of how research design leads to three basic
kinds of research questions (difference, associational, and descriptive) that, in turn, lead to three
kinds or groups of statistics with the same names. We realize that these and other attempts to
develop and utilize a consistent framework are both nontraditional and somewhat of an
oversimplification. However, we think the framework and consistency pay off in terms of student
understanding and ability to actually use statistics to help answer their research questions.
Instructors who are not persuaded that this framework is useful can skip or modify Chapters 1, 3,
and 5 and still have a book that helps their students use and interpret SPSS.

Major Changes in This Edition

The major changes in this edition are based on extensive feedback from students in our classes.
Based on this feedback, we added a new alternative 2.4 to Chapter 2, which describes how to
download data collected online and how to upload it to SPSS and transform “string data” (words,
rather than numbers) often obtained using free online platforms to numerical data that can be
analyzed using SPSS. We moved the information on how to do basic transformations of data to
Chapter 2 as well, so that the new Chapter 2 enables the reader to take all of the most commonly
needed steps to get data ready to analyze in SPSS. We also have added the relevant parts of the
inferential statistic selection chart and effect size chart from Chapter 5 to each chapter that involves
inferential statistics. We have included more information about why we make the choices we do in
each computer problem in the book. In addition, we now have only one chapter on basic (one
dependent variable) difference question inferential statistics, so that students and researchers can
find whichever analysis they need in the same chapter. We also updated the windows and text to
IBM SPSS 25, and we have attempted to correct any typos in the 5th edition and clarify some
passages. Although this edition of our IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics was written using
version 25, the program is sufficiently similar to prior versions of this software that we feel you
should be able to use this book with earlier and later versions as well.

Instructional Features
Several user-friendly features of this book include
1. Both words and the key windows that you see when performing the statistical analyses. This
has been helpful to “visual learners.”
2. The outputs for the analyses that we have done so you can see what you will get (we have
done some editing, as shown in Appendix A, to make the outputs fit better on the pages).
3. Callout boxes on the outputs that point out parts of the output to focus on and indicate what
they mean.
4. For each output, a boxed interpretation section that will help you understand the output.
5. Chapter 5 provides specially developed flowcharts and tables to help you select an
appropriate inferential statistic and interpret statistical significance and effect sizes. This
chapter also provides an extended example of how to identify and write a research problem,
research questions, and a results paragraph.
xii PREFACE

6. For the statistics in Chapters 6–9, an example of how to write about the output and make a
table or figure for a thesis, dissertation, or research paper using the 6th edition (2010) of the
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is provided.
7. Interpretation questions for each chapter that stimulate you to think about the information in
the chapter.
8. Several Extra Problems at the end of each chapter for you to run with the SPSS program.
9. Appendix A provides information about how to get started with SPSS and how to use several
commands not discussed in the chapters.
10. Appendix B provides examples of how to write research problems and research questions or
hypotheses.
11. Answers to the odd numbered interpretation questions are provided in Appendix C.
12. Datasets on the book webpage www.routledge.com/cw/morgan are available and are listed in
Appendix A. These six realistic datasets provide you with data to be used to solve the chapter
and Appendix A problems and the end of chapter Extra SPSS Problems.
13. A Resource Web site is available to students and instructors. To access the site please visit h
www.routledge.com/cw/morgan. Some of the material is password protected and available
only to instructors to aid them in teaching the course. Instructors will find the following items
available for each chapter: PowerPoint slides, Additional Activities/ Suggestions for
Instructors, and the answers to the even numbered Interpretation Questions found in the book
(the odd answers are in the book itself). Both students and instructors can access the following
material that is provided for each chapter: Chapter Study Guides, Extra SPSS Problems, and
Chapter Outlines. Students and instructors, as well as researchers who purchase copies for their
personal use, can also access the data files by visiting www.routledge.com/cw/morgan.

Major Statistical Features of This Edition

Based on our experiences using the book with students, feedback from reviewers and other users,
and the revisions in policy and best practice specified by the APA Task Force on Statistical
Inference (1999) and the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual (2010), we have included
discussions of
1. Effect size. We discuss effect size in each interpretation section to be consistent with the
requirements of the revised APA manual. Because this program doesn’t provide effect sizes
for all the demonstrated statistics, we often have to show how to estimate or compute them by
hand.
2. Writing about outputs. We include examples of how to write about and make APA-type
tables from the information in the outputs. We have found the step from interpretation to
writing quite difficult for students so we put emphasis on writing research results.
3. Data entry and checking. Most of Chapter 2 on data entry, variable labeling, and data
checking is based on a small dataset developed for this book. What is special about this is that
the data are displayed as if they were on copies of actual questionnaires answered by
participants. We built in problematic responses that require the researcher or data entry person
to look for errors or inconsistencies and to make decisions. We hope this quite realistic task
will help students be more sensitive to issues of data checking before doing analyses.
4. Descriptive statistics and testing assumptions. In Chapter 4 we emphasize exploratory data
analysis (EDA), how to test assumptions, and data file management.
5. Assumptions. When each inferential statistic is introduced in Chapters 7–9, we have a brief
section about its assumptions and when it is appropriate to select that statistic for the problem
or question at hand.
6. All the basic descriptive and inferential statistics such as chi-square, correlation, t tests,
and one-way ANOVA covered in basic statistics books. Our companion book, Leech et al.,
(2015), IBM SPSS for Intermediate Statistics: Use and Interpretation (5th ed.), also published
by Routledge/Taylor & Francis, is on the “For Further Reading” list at the end of this book.
 IBM SPSS FOR INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS xiii

We think that you will find it useful if you need more complete examples and interpretations
of complex statistics including but not limited to Cronbach’s alpha, factor analysis, multiple
regression, and factorial ANOVA that are introduced briefly in this book, as well as many
that are beyond the scope of this book.
7. Reliability and validity assessment. We present some ways of assessing reliability and
validity in Chapter 6. More emphasis on reliability, validity, and testing assumptions is
consistent with our strategy of presenting computer analyses that students would use in an
actual research project.
8. Nonparametric statistics. We include the nonparametric tests that are similar to the t tests
(Mann–Whitney and Wilcoxon) and single factor ANOVA (Kruskal–Wallis) in appropriate
chapters, as well as several nonparametric measures of association. This is consistent with the
emphasis on checking assumptions because it provides alternative procedures for the student
when key assumptions are markedly violated.
9. SPSS syntax. We show the syntax along with the outputs because a number of professors and
skilled students like seeing and prefer using syntax to produce outputs. How to include SPSS
syntax in the output and to save and reuse it is presented in Appendix A. Use of syntax to write
commands not otherwise available in SPSS is presented briefly in our companion volume,
Leech et al. (in press).

Bullets, Arrows, Bold, and Italics

To help you do the problems, we have developed some conventions. We use bullets to indicate
actions in SPSS windows that you will take. For example:

• Highlight academic track and math achievement.

• Click on the arrow to move the variables into the right-hand box.
• Click on Options to get Fig. 2.16.
• Check Mean, Std Deviation, Minimum, and Maximum.
• Click on Continue.
Note that the words in italics are variable names and words in bold are words that you will see in
the windows and utilize to produce the desired output. In the text they are spelled and capitalized
as you see them in the windows. Bold is also used to identify key terms when they are introduced,
defined, or important to understanding.

To access a window from what SPSS calls the Data View (see Chapter 2), the words you will see
in the pull down menus are given in bold with arrows between them. For example:

• Select Analyze → Descriptive Statistics → Frequencies.

(This means pull down the Analyze menu, then slide your cursor down to Descriptive Statistics and
over to Frequencies, and click.)
Occasionally, we have used underlines to emphasize critical points or commands.
We have tried hard to make this book accurate and clear so that it could be used by students and
professionals to learn to compute and interpret statistics without the benefit of a class. However,
we find that there are always some errors and places that are not totally clear. Thus, we would like
for you to help us identify any grammatical or statistical errors and to point out places that need to
be clarified. Please send suggestions to [email protected].
xiv PREFACE

Acknowledgments
This IBM SPSS book is consistent with and could be used as a supplement for Gliner, Morgan, and
Leech (2017), Research Methods in Applied Settings: An Integrated Approach to Design and
Analysis (2nd ed.), which provides extended discussions of how to conduct a quantitative research
project as well as understand the key concepts. Or, this SPSS book could be a supplement for
Morgan, Gliner, and Harmon (2006), Understanding and Evaluating Research in Applied and
Clinical Settings, which is a shorter book emphasizing reading and evaluating research articles and
statistics. Information about both books can be found at www.psypress.com.

Because this book draws heavily on these two research methods texts and on earlier editions of this
book, we need to acknowledge the important contribution of three current and former colleagues.
We thank Jeff Gliner for allowing us to use material in Chapters 1, 3, and 5. Bob Harmon facilitated
much of our effort to make statistics and research methods understandable to students, clinicians,
and other professionals. We hope this book will serve as a memorial to him and the work he
supported. Orlando Griego was a co-author of the first edition of this SPSS book; it still shows the
imprint of his student-friendly writing style.

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of the many students who have used earlier versions
of this book and provided helpful suggestions for improvement. We could not have completed the
task or made it look so good without our technology consultant, Don Quick, and our word
processor, Sonia Nelson. Linda White, Catherine Lamana, and Alana Stewart, Sophie Nelson and
several other student workers were key to making figures in earlier versions. Jikyeong Kang, Bill
Sears, LaVon Blaesi, Mei-Huei Tsay, and Sheridan Green assisted with classes and the
development of materials for the DOS and earlier Windows versions of the assignments. Lisa
Vogel, Don Quick, Andrea Weinberg, Pam Cress, Joan Clay, Laura Jensen, James Lyall, Joan
Anderson, and Yasmine Andrews wrote or edited parts of earlier editions. We thank Don Quick,
Jessica Bochert, and Jessica Gerton for writing Appendices for this edition. Jeff Gliner, Jerry
Vaske, Jim zumBrunnen, Laura Goodwin, James Benedict, Barry Cohen, John Ruscio, Tim Urdan,
and Steve Knotek provided reviews and suggestions for improving the text. Bob Fetch and Ray
Yang provided helpful feedback on the readability and user friendliness of the text. Finally, the
patience of our spouses (Terry, Grant, Susan, and Hildy) and families enabled us to complete the
task without too much family strain.

The screen shots of the many SPSS windows are reprinted by courtesy of International Business
Machines Corporation, © SPSS, Inc., an IBM Company. SPSS was acquired by IBM in October
2009.
 CHAPTER 1

Variables, Research Problems, and Questions

Research Problems
The research process begins with an issue or problem of interest to the researcher. This research
problem is a statement that asks about the relationships between two or more variables; however,
almost all research studies have more than two variables.1 Appendix B provides templates to help
you phrase your research problem and different types of research questions. It also provides
examples from the expanded high school and beyond (HSB) dataset that is described in this chapter
and used throughout the book.

The process of moving from a sense of curiosity, or a feeling that there is an unresolved problem
to a clearly defined, researchable problem, can be complex and long. That part of the research
process is beyond the scope of this book, but it is discussed in most books about research methods
and books about completing a dissertation or thesis.

Variables
Key elements in a research problem are the variables. A variable is defined as a characteristic of
the participants or situation in a given study that has different values. A variable must vary or have
different values in the study. For example, sex at birth can be a variable because it normally has
two values, female or male. Age is a variable that can have a large number of values. Type of
treatment/intervention (or type of curriculum) is a variable if there is more than one treatment or a
treatment and a control group. The number of days to learn something or to recover from an ailment
are common measures of the effect of a treatment and, thus, are also potential variables. Similarly,
amount of mathematics knowledge can be a variable because it can vary from none to a lot.

However, even if a characteristic has the potential to be a variable, if it has only one value in a
particular study, it is not a variable; it is a constant. Thus, ethnic group is not a variable if all
participants in the study are Asian American. Gender is not a variable if all participants in a study
are cis-female.

In quantitative research, variables are defined operationally and are commonly divided into
independent variables (active or attribute), dependent variables, and extraneous variables.
Each of these topics is dealt with briefly in the following sections.

Operational Definitions of Variables

An operational definition describes or defines a variable in terms of the operations or techniques
used to make it happen or measure it. When quantitative researchers describe the variables in their
study, they specify what they mean by demonstrating how they measured the variable.
Demographic variables like age, gender, or ethnic group are usually measured simply by asking the
participant to choose the appropriate category from a list.

1
To help you we have identified the variable names, labels, and values using italics (e.g., age and female) and have put in bold the terms
used in the SPSS screens and outputs (e.g., Data Editor). We also use bold for other key terms when they are introduced, defined, or
are important to understanding. Underlines are used to focus your attention on critical points or phrases that could be missed. Italics
are occasionally used, as is commonly the case, for emphasizing words and for the titles of books.

1
2 CHAPTER 1

Types of treatment (or curriculum) are usually operationally defined much more extensively by
describing what was done during the treatment or new curriculum. Likewise, abstract concepts like
mathematics knowledge, self-concept, or mathematics anxiety need to be defined operationally by
spelling out in some detail how they were measured in a particular study. To do this, the investigator
may provide sample questions, append the actual instrument, or provide a reference where more
information can be found.

Independent Variables
There are two types of independent variables, active and attribute. It is important to distinguish
between these types when we discuss the results of a study. As presented in more detail later, an
active independent variable is a necessary but not sufficient condition to make cause and effect
conclusions.

Active or manipulated independent variables. An active independent variable is a variable, such

as a workshop, new curriculum, or other intervention, at least one level of which is given to a group
of participants, within a specified period of time during the study.

For example, a researcher might investigate a new kind of therapy compared to the traditional
treatment. A second example might be to study the effect of a new teaching method, such as
cooperative learning, compared to independent learning. In these two examples, the variable of
interest is something that is given to the participants. Thus, active independent variables are given
to the participants in the study but are not necessarily given or manipulated by the experimenter.
They may be given by a clinic, school, or someone other than the investigator, but from the
participants’ point of view, the situation is manipulated. To be considered an active independent
variable, the treatment should be given after the study is planned so that there could be a pretest.
Other writers have similar but, perhaps, slightly different definitions of active independent
variables. Randomized experimental and quasi-experimental studies have an active independent
variable.

Attribute or measured independent variables. An independent variable that cannot be

manipulated, yet is a major focus of the study, can be called an attribute independent variable. In
other words, the values of the independent variable are preexisting attributes of the persons or their
ongoing environment that are not systematically changed during the study. For example, level of
parental education, socioeconomic status, age, ethnic group, IQ, and self-esteem are attribute
variables that could be used as attribute independent variables. Studies with only attribute
independent variables are called nonexperimental studies.

Unlike authors of some research methods books, we do not restrict the term independent variable
to those variables that are manipulated or active. We define an independent variable more broadly
to include any predictors, antecedents, or presumed causes or influences under investigation in the
study. Attributes of the participants as well as active independent variables fit within this definition.
For the social sciences and education, attribute independent variables are especially important.
Type of disability or level of disability may be the major focus of a study. Disability certainly
qualifies as a variable because it can take on different values even though they are not given by the
researcher during the study. For example, cerebral palsy is different from Down syndrome, which
is different from spina bifida, yet all are disabilities. Also, there are different levels of the same
disability. People already have defining characteristics or attributes that place them into one of two
or more categories. The different disabilities are characteristics of the participants before we begin
our study. Thus, we might also be interested in studying how variables that are not given or
 VARIABLES, RESEARCH PROBLEMS, AND QUESTIONS 3

manipulated during the study, even by other persons, schools, or clinics, predict various other
variables that are of interest.

Other labels for the independent variable. SPSS uses a variety of terms, such as factor (Chapter
9) and grouping variable (Chapter 9), for the independent variables. In other cases (Chapters 7
and 8), the SPSS program and statisticians do not make a distinction between the independent and
dependent variable; they just label them variables. For example, technically there is no independent
variable for a correlation or chi-square. Even for chi-square and correlation, we think it is
sometimes conceptually useful to think of one variable as the predictor (independent variable) and
the other as the outcome (dependent variable); however, it is important to realize that the statistical
tests of correlation and chi-square treat both variables in the same way, rather than treating one as
a predictor and one as an outcome variable, as is the case in regression.

Type of independent variable and inferences about cause and effect. When we analyze data
from a research study, the statistical analysis does not differentiate whether the independent
variable is an active independent variable or an attribute independent variable. However, even
though most statistics books use the label independent variable for both active and attribute
variables, there is a crucial difference in interpretation.

A major goal of quantitative scientific research is to be able to identify a causal relationship between
two variables. For those in applied disciplines, the need to demonstrate that a given intervention or
treatment causes a change in behavior or performance can be extremely important. Only the
approaches that have an active independent variable (randomized experimental and, to a lesser
extent, quasi-experimental) can provide data that allow one to infer that the independent variable
caused the change or difference in the dependent variable.

In contrast, a significant difference between or among persons with different values of an attribute
independent variable should not lead one to conclude that the attribute independent variable caused
the dependent variable to change. Thus, this distinction between active and attribute independent
variables is important because terms such as main effect and effect size used by the program and
most statistics books might lead one to believe that if you find a significant difference, the
independent variable caused the difference. These terms can be misleading when the independent
variable is an attribute. Of course there are other causal connections in life, such as a person pushing
another person and causing them to fall. We are focusing here on quantitative research probability
of one variable causing another variable to change.

Although nonexperimental studies (those with attribute independent variables) are limited in what
can be said about causation, they can lead to solid conclusions about the differences between groups
and about associations between variables. Furthermore, if the focus of your research is on attribute
independent variables, a nonexperimental study is the only available approach. For example, if you
are interested in learning how self-identified ethnic boys and girls differ in learning mathematical
concepts, you are interested in the attribute independent variable of self-identified ethnicity.

Values of the independent variable. SPSS uses the term values to describe the several options or
categories of a variable. These values are not necessarily ordered, and several other terms,
categories, levels, groups, or samples, are sometimes used interchangeably with the term values,
especially in statistics books. Suppose that an investigator is performing a study to investigate the
effect of a treatment. One group of participants is assigned to the treatment group. A second group
does not receive the treatment. The study could be conceptualized as having one independent
variable (treatment type), with two values or levels (treatment and no treatment). The independent
variable in this example would be classified as an active independent variable. Now, suppose
4 CHAPTER 1

instead that the investigator was interested primarily in comparing two different treatments but
decided to include a third no-treatment group as a control group in the study. The study would still
be conceptualized as having one active independent variable (treatment type), but with three values
or levels (the two treatment conditions and the control condition). This variable could be
diagrammed as follows:

Variable Label Values Value Labels

1 = Treatment 1

Treatment type 2 = Treatment 2

0 = No treatment (control)

As an additional example, consider sex at birth, which could be an attribute independent variable
with two values, male and female. It could be diagrammed as follows:

Variable Label Values Value Labels

0 = Male

Sex at Birth

1 = Female

Note that in SPSS each variable is given a variable label; moreover, the values, which are often
categories, have value labels (e.g., male and female). Each value or level is assigned a number
used to compute statistics. It is especially important to know the value labels when the variable is
nominal, that is, when the values of the variable are just names and thus are not ordered (e.g.
political affiliation, instead of a continuous variable like height in inches where the levels would
be obvious.
Dependent Variables
The dependent variable is assumed to measure or assess the effect of the independent variable. It
is thought of as the presumed outcome or criterion. Dependent variables are often test scores,
ratings on questionnaires, readings from instruments (e.g., electrocardiogram, galvanic skin
response, etc.), or measures of physical performance. When we discuss measurement in Chapters
2 and 3, we are usually referring to the dependent variable. Dependent variables, like independent
variables, must have at least two values; most of the dependent variables used in this book have
many values, varying from low to high so they are not as easy to diagram as the independent
variables shown earlier, for example score on a 100-point test.

SPSS also uses a number of other terms for the dependent variable. Dependent list is used in cases
where you can do the same statistic several times for a list of dependent variables (e.g., in Chapter
9 with one-way ANOVA). The term test variable is also used in Chapter 9 for the dependent
variable in a t test.

Extraneous Variables
These are variables (also called nuisance variables or, in some designs, covariates) that are not of
interest in a particular study but could influence the dependent variable. Environmental factors
(e.g., temperature or distractions), time of day, and characteristics of the experimenter, teacher, or
 VARIABLES, RESEARCH PROBLEMS, AND QUESTIONS 5

therapist are some possible extraneous variables that need to be controlled. SPSS does not use the
term extraneous variable. However, sometimes such variables are “controlled” using statistics that
are available in this program.

Research Hypotheses and Questions

Research hypotheses are predictive statements about the relationship between variables. Research
questions are similar to hypotheses, except that they do not entail specific predictions and are
phrased in question format. For example, one might have the following research question: “Is there
a difference in students’ scores on a standardized test if they took two tests in one day versus taking
only one test on each of two days?” A hypothesis regarding the same issue might be: “Students
who take only one test per day will score higher on standardized tests than will students who take
two tests in one day.”

We divide research questions into three broad types: difference, associational, and descriptive, as
shown in the middle of Fig. 1.1. The figure also shows the general and specific purposes and the
general types of statistics for each of these three types of research question. We think it is
educationally useful to divide inferential statistics into two types corresponding to difference and
associational hypotheses or questions.2 Difference inferential statistics (e.g., t test or analysis of
variance) are used for approaches that test for differences between groups. Associational inferential
statistics test for associations or relationships between variables and use, for example, correlation
or multiple regression analysis. We utilize this contrast between difference and associational
inferential statistics in Chapter 5 and later in this book.

Difference research questions. For these questions, we compare two or more different groups,
each of which is composed of individuals with one of the values or levels of the independent
variable. This type of question attempts to demonstrate that the groups are not the same on the
dependent variable.

Associational research questions. Here we associate or relate two or more variables. This
approach usually involves an attempt to see how two or more variables covary (for example, if a
person has higher values on one variable, is she or he also likely to have higher, or perhaps lower,
values on another variable). An associational question could instead ask how one or more variables
enable one to predict another variable.

Descriptive research questions. These are not answered with inferential statistics. They merely
describe or summarize data for the sample actually studied, without trying to generalize to a larger
population of individuals.

Fig. 1.1 shows that both difference and associational questions or hypotheses explore the
relationships between variables; however, they are conceptualized differently, as will be described
shortly.3 Note that difference and associational questions differ in specific purpose and the kinds
of statistics they use to answer the question.

2
We realize that all parametric inferential statistics are relational so this dichotomy of using one type of data analysis procedure to test
for differences (when there are a few values or levels of the independent variables) and another type of data analysis procedure to test
for associations (when there are continuous independent variables) is somewhat artificial. Both continuous and categorical independent
variables can be used in a general linear model approach to data analysis. However, we think that the distinction is useful because most
researchers utilize the dichotomy in selecting statistics for data analysis.
3
This similarity is in agreement with the statement by statisticians that all common parametric inferential statistics are relational. We
use the term associational for the second type of research question rather than relational or correlational to distinguish it from the general
purpose of both difference and associational questions/hypotheses, which is to study relationships. Also we want to distinguish between
correlation, as a specific statistical technique, and the broader type of associational question and that group of statistics.
6 CHAPTER 1

General Purpose Explore Relationships Between Variables Description (Only)

Specific Purpose Compare Groups Find Strength of Summarize Data

Associations, Relate
Variables

Type of Question/Hypothesis Difference Associational Descriptive

General Type of Statistic Difference Associational Descriptive Statistics

Inferential Statistics Inferential Statistics (e.g., mean,
(e.g., t test, ANOVA) (e.g., correlation, percentage, range)
regression)

Fig. 1.1. Schematic diagram showing how the purpose and type of research question
correspond to the general type of statistic used in a study.

Table 1.1 provides the general format and one example of a basic difference question, a basic
associational question, and a basic descriptive question. Remember that research questions are
similar to hypotheses, but they are stated in question format. We think it is advisable to use the
question format for the descriptive approach or when one does not have a clear directional
prediction. Use the hypothesis format when you have a specific prediction based on the literature
or theory. More details and examples are given in Appendix B. As implied by Fig. 1.1, it is
acceptable to phrase any research question that involves two variables as whether or not there is a
relationship between the variables (e.g., is there a relationship between political affiliation and math
achievement or is there a relationship between anxiety and GPA?). However, we think that phrasing
the question as a difference or association is preferable because it helps one identify an appropriate
statistic and interpret the result.

Complex Research Questions

Some research questions involve more than two variables at a time. We call such questions and the
appropriate statistics complex. Some of these statistics are called multivariate in other texts, but
there is not a consistent definition of multivariate in the literature. We provide examples of how to
write certain complex research questions in Appendix B, and in Chapters 8 and 9, we introduce two
complex statistics: multiple regression and factorial ANOVA. Complex statistics are discussed in
more detail in our companion volume, Leech et al. (2015) IBM SPSS for Intermediate Statistics.
 VARIABLES, RESEARCH PROBLEMS, AND QUESTIONS 7

Table 1.1. Examples of Three Kinds of Basic Research Questions/Hypotheses

1. Basic Difference (group comparison) Questions

• Usually used for randomized experimental, quasi-experimental, and comparative
approaches.
• For this type of question, the groups of individuals who share a level of an active
independent variable (e.g., intervention group) or an attribute independent variable (e.g.,
math grades – high) are compared to individuals who share the other levels of that same
independent variable (e.g., control group or math grades – low) to see if the groups differ
with regard to the average scores on the dependent variable (e.g., aggression scores).
• Example: Do persons who experienced an emotion regulation intervention differ from
those who did not experience that intervention with respect to their average aggression
scores? In other words, will the average aggression score of the intervention group be
significantly different from the average aggression score for the control group following
the intervention?

2. Basic Associational (relational) Questions

• Used for the associational approach, in which the independent variable usually is
continuous (i.e., has many ordered levels).
• For this type of question, the scores on the independent variable (e.g., anxiety) are
associated with or related to the dependent variable scores (e.g., GPA).
• Example: Will students’ degree of anxiety be associated with their overall GPA? In other
words, will knowing students’ level of anxiety tell us anything about their tendency to
make higher versus lower grades? If there is a negative association (correlation) between
anxiety scores and grade point average, those persons who have high levels of anxiety will
tend to have low GPAs, those with low anxiety will tend to have high GPAs, and those in
the middle on anxiety will tend to be in the middle on GPA.

3. Basic Descriptive Questions

• Used for the descriptive approach.
• For this type of question, scores on a single variable are described in terms of their central
tendency, variability, or percentages in each category/level.
• Example: What percentage of students make a B or above? What is the average level of
anxiety found in 9th grade students? The average GPA was 2.73, or 30% had high anxiety.

A Sample Research Problem:

The Modified High School and Beyond (HSB) Study
The file names of the dataset used throughout this book are hsbdata.sav, which stands for high
school and beyond data, and AlternativehsbdataB.sav, a modified version of the same dataset. They
are based on a national sample of data from more than 28,000 high school students, but this dataset
is a sample of 75 students drawn randomly from the larger sample. See Appendix A, Getting
Started, for how to download these files to your computer. The data that we have for this sample
include school outcomes such as grades and the mathematics achievement test scores of the
students in high school. Also, there are several kinds of standardized test data and demographic
data such as mother’s and father’s education. To provide an example of rating scale questionnaire
data, we have included 14 items about mathematics attitudes. These data were developed for this
8 CHAPTER 1

book and thus are not really the math attitudes of the 75 students in this sample; however, they are
based on real data gathered by one of the authors to study motivation. Also, we made up data for
religion, ethnic group, and SAT math, which are somewhat realistic overall. These inclusions
enable us to do some additional statistical analyses.

The Research Problem

Imagine that you are interested in the general problem of what factors seem to influence
mathematics achievement at the end of high school. You might have some hunches or hypotheses
about such factors based on your experience and your reading of the research and popular literature.
Some factors that might influence mathematics achievement are commonly called demographics;
they include ethnic group, and mother’s and father’s education. A probable influence would be the
math courses that the student has taken. We might speculate that grades in math and in other
subjects could have an impact on math achievement.4 However, other variables, such as students’
IQs or parents’ encouragement, could be the actual causes of both high grades and math
achievement. Such variables could influence what courses one took and the grades one received,
and they might be correlates of the demographic variables. We might wonder how spatial
performance scores, such as pattern or mosaic test scores and visualization scores, might enable a
more complete understanding of the problem, and whether these skills seem to be influenced by
the same factors as is math achievement.

The HSB Variables5

Before we state the research problem and questions in more formal ways, we need to step back and
discuss the types of variables and the approaches that might be used to study the previous problem.
We need to identify the independent/antecedent (presumed causes) variables, the
dependent/outcome variable(s), and any extraneous variables.

The primary dependent variable. Because the research problem focuses on achievement tests at
the end of the senior year, the primary dependent variable (or Target) is math achievement.

Independent and extraneous variables. Father’s and mother’s education and participant’s
ethnicity and religion, are best considered to be input (the SPSS term), antecedent, or independent
variables in this study. These variables would usually be thought of as independent rather than as
dependent variables because they occurred before the math achievement test and do not vary during
the study. However, some of these variables, such as ethnicity and religion, might be viewed as
extraneous variables that need to be “controlled.”

Many of the variables, including visualization and mosaic pattern scores, could be viewed either
as independent or dependent variables depending on the specific research question because they
were measured at approximately the same time as math achievement. We have labeled them Both
under Role. Note that student’s class is a constant and is not a variable in this study because all the
participants are high school seniors (i.e., it does not vary; it is the population of interest).

Types of independent variables. As we previously discussed, independent variables can be active

(given to the participant during the study or manipulated by the investigator) or attributes of the
participants or their environments. Are there any active independent variables in this study? No!

4
We have decided to use the short version of mathematics (i.e., math) throughout the book to save space and because it is used in
common language.
5
New to version 18 of the program was the Role column in the Variable View. SPSS now allows the user to assign the term Target to
dependent variables, Input for independent variables, and Both for variables that are used as either or both independent and dependent
variables.
 VARIABLES, RESEARCH PROBLEMS, AND QUESTIONS 9

There is no intervention, new curriculum, or similar treatment. All the independent variables, then,
are attribute variables because they are attributes or characteristics of these high school students.
Given that all the independent variables are attributes, the research approach cannot be
experimental. This means that we will not be able to draw definite conclusions about cause and
effect (i.e., we will find out what is related to math achievement, but we will not know for sure
what causes or influences math achievement).

Now we examine the hsbdata.sav file that you will use to study this complex research problem. We
have provided on the Web site described in the Preface these data for each of the 75 participants
on 38 variables. The variables in the hsbdata.sav file have already been labeled (see Fig. 1.2) and
entered (see Fig. 1.3) to enable you to get started on analyses quickly. This file contains data files
for you to use, but it does not include the actual SPSS Statistics program to which you will need
access in order to do the problems.

The Variable View

Fig. 1.2 is a piece of what is called the Variable View in the Data Editor for the hsbdata.sav file.
It also shows information about each of the first 17 variables. When you open this file and click on
Variable View at the bottom left corner of the screen, this is what you will see. We describe what
is in the variable view screen in more detail in Chapter 2; for now, focus on the Name, Label,
Values, and Missing columns. Name is a short name for each variable (e.g., faed or alg1).6 Label
is a longer label for the variable (e.g., father’s education or algebra 1 in h.s.). The Values column
contains the value labels, but you can see only the label for one value at a time (e.g., calculus in
high school 0 = not taken). That is, you cannot see that 1 = taken unless you click on the gray square
in the value column. The Missing column indicates whether there are any special, user-identified
missing values. None just means that there are no special missing values, just the usual system
missing value, which is a blank. Appendix A shows how to get this data.

Fig. 1.2. Part of the hsbdata.sav variable view in the data editor.

6
The variable Name must start with a letter and must not contain blank spaces or certain special characters (e.g., !, ?, ‘, or *). Certain
reserved keywords cannot be used as variable names (e.g., ALL, AND, EQ, BY, TO, or WITH). The variable label can be up to 40
characters including spaces, but the outputs are neater if you keep labels to 20 characters or less.
10 CHAPTER 1

Variables in the Modified HSB Dataset

The 39 variables shown in Table 1.2 (with the values/levels or range of their values in parentheses)
are found in the hsbdata.sav file. Also included in Table 1.2, for completeness, are seven variables
(numbers 40–46) that are not yet in the hsbdata.sav dataset because you will compute them in
Chapter 2. Note that variables 34–39 have been computed already from the math attitude variables
(19–32) so that you would have fewer new variables to compute in Chapter 2.

The variables of ethnic and religion were added to the dataset to provide true nominal (unordered)
variables with a few (4 and 3) levels or values. In addition, for ethnic and religion, we have made
two missing value codes to illustrate this possibility. All other variables use blanks, the system
missing value, for missing data.

For ethnicity, 98 indicates multiethnic and other. For religion, all the high school students who
were not protestant or catholic or said they were not religious were coded 98 and considered to be
missing because none of the other religious affiliations (e.g., Muslim) had enough members to
make a reasonable size group. Those who left the ethnicity or religion questions blank were coded
as 99, also missing.

Table 1.2. HSB Variable Descriptions

Name Label (and Values)

Demographic School and Test Variables
1. acadtrac academic track (0 = fast track, 1 = regular track)
2. faed father’s education (2 = less than h.s. grad to 10 = PhD/MD)
3. maed mother’s education (2 = less than h.s. grad to 10 = PhD/MD)
4. alg1 algebra 1 in h.s. (1 = taken, 0 = not taken)
5. alg2 algebra 2 in h.s. (1 = taken, 0 = not taken)
6. geo geometry in h.s. (1 = taken, 0 = not taken)
7. trig trigonometry in h.s. (1 = taken, 0 = not taken)
8. calc calculus in h.s. (1 = taken, 0 = not taken)
9. mathgr math grades (0 = low, 1 = high)
10. grades grades in h.s. (1 = less than a D average to 8 = mostly an A average)
11. mathach math achievement score (-8.33 to 25).7 This is a test something like
the ACT math.
12. mosaic mosaic, pattern test score (-4 to 56). This is a test of pattern
recognition ability involving the detection of relationships in patterns
of tiles.
13. visual visualization score (-4 to 16). This is a 16-item test that assesses
visualization in three dimensions (i.e., how a three-dimensional object
would look if its spatial position were changed).
14. visual2 visualization 2. The visualization test rated by a second researcher
who observed the same test.
15. satm scholastic aptitude test – math (200 = lowest, 800 = highest possible)
16. ethnic ethnicity (1 = Euro-American, 2 = African-American, 3 = Latino-
American, 4 = Asian-American, 98 = other or multiethnic, 99 =
missing, left blank)

7
Negative test scores may result from a penalty for guessing.
 VARIABLES, RESEARCH PROBLEMS, AND QUESTIONS 11

17. religion religion (1 = protestant, 2 = catholic, 3 = not religious, 98 = chose one

of several other religious affiliations, 99 = left blank)
18. ethnic2 ethnicity reported by student (same as values for ethnic)
Math Attitude Questions 1–14 (Rated from 1 = very atypical to 4 = very typical)
19. item01 Motivation “I practice math skills until I can do them well.”
20. item02 Pleasure “I feel happy after solving a hard problem.”
21. item03 Competence “I solve math problems quickly.”
22. item04 (low) motiv “I give up easily instead of persisting if a math problem is
difficult.”
23. item05 (low) comp “I am a little slow catching on to new topics in math.”
24. item06 (low) pleas “I do not get much pleasure out of math problems.”
25. item07 Motivation “I prefer to figure out how to solve problems without
asking for help.”
26. item08 (low) motiv “I do not keep at it very long when a math problem is
challenging.”
27. item09 Competence “I am very competent at math.”
28. item10 (low) pleas “I smile only a little (or not at all) when I solve a math
problem.”
29. item11 (low) comp “I have some difficulties doing math as well as other kids
my age.”
30. item12 Motivation “I try to complete my math problems even if it takes a
long time to finish.”
31. item13 Motivation “I explore all possible solutions of a complex problem
before going on to another one.”
32. item14 Pleasure “I really enjoy doing math problems.”
33. mosaic2 Mosaic pattern test 2. The score rated by a second researcher who
observed the same test.
New Variables Computed From the Previous Variables
34. item04r item04 reversed (4 now = high motivation)
35. item05r item05 reversed (4 now = high competence)
36. item08r item08 reversed (4 now = high motivation)
37. item11r item11 reversed (4 now = high competence)
38. competence competence scale. An average computed as follows: (item03 +
item05r + item09 + item11r)/4
39. motivation motivation scale (item01 + item04r + item07 + item08r + item12 +
item13)/6
Variables to be Computed in Chapter 2
40. mathcrs math courses taken (0 = none, 5 = all five)
41. faedRevis father’s educ revised (1 = HS grad or less, 2 = some college, 3 = BS or
more)
42. maedRevis mother’s educ revised (1 = HS grad or less, 2 = some college, 3 = BS
or more)
43. item06r item06 reversed (4 now = high pleasure)
44. item10r item10 reversed (4 now = high pleasure)
45. pleasure pleasure scale (item02 + item06r + item10r + item14)/4
46. parEduc parents’ education (average of the unrevised mother’s and father’s
educations)
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
its reverses. Pius VII. never received such pecuniary contributions
as have been forwarded to Pius IX. in his necessities; and if the
French bishops were now summoned to a council, their conduct
would, beyond doubt, be more dignified and more influential than
was that of their predecessors in 1811.

Why such changes in a situation itself in effect unchanged? Whence

these hesitating measures, this embarrassed attitude of the
adversaries of the Christian faith and of the Christian Church? What
cause at the same time gives such boldness and even success to
their defenders?

Each age has its own peculiar and characteristic mission, and one
from which it cannot escape; every human being has his share in
it, whether he knows it or not. As a consequence of the truths and
the errors, of the good and evil, of the triumphs and reverses of
the preceding centuries, the nineteenth century has before it a
special task, which will employ all its energies, and which will also,
I hope, constitute its glory. It has both in the State and in the
Church found the two supreme forces that preside over man's life,
and over that of society, Authority and Liberty, in violent conflict, in
turn intoxicated with victory, or vanquished, ruined. It is the
mission of the nineteenth century to make them live together, and
live in peace; or at least in an antagonism entailing upon neither
any mortal danger. The recognition of, and respect for, authority;
the acceptance and guarantee of freedom; these are the imperative
necessities which our age is called upon to feel and to satisfy, both
in State and Church. Nor does this imply, as is often pretended, any
inconsistency or any compromise of principle or any policy of
expedients; it is not by inconsistency that great questions are
settled, it is not by expedients that we content the cravings of
men's souls, or calm the anxieties of human society; for mankind
yields genuine submission and feels real confidence only where it
believes in the existence of truth and justice. The recognition,
veneration, and guarantee of the different rights which co-exist
naturally and necessarily in human societies—of the rights, both of
individuals and of the State—of the rights of religious society and of
civil society—of the rights of little local societies as well as of the
grand general society—of the rights of conscience as well as of
tradition—of the rights of the future as well as of those of the past
—these are the dominant principles of which the nineteenth century
has to insure the triumph. Triumphs assured, if Liberals and
Christians are both of them determined to accomplish it!
Notwithstanding all the violent emotions of party, and of all our
differences on intellectual and social subjects, the consciousness of
this situation is ever before our minds; and whether we admit it or
not, the alliance of the liberal movement with the movement of
awakened Christianity, is the grand measure and the grand hope of
the day.

A Catholic priest, now a bishop, inquiring the origin of the actual

disputes of religion, and their probable issue, expresses himself as
follows:—"Free institutions, freedom of conscience, political liberty,
civil liberty, individual liberty, liberty of families, of education, and of
opinions, equality before the laws, the equal division of imposts and
of public charges, these are all points upon which we make no
difficulty; we accept them frankly; we appeal to them on solemn
occasions of public discussion; we accept, we invoke the principles
and the liberties proclaimed in 1789; even those who combat those
principles and those liberties admit that liberty of religion and free
education have become acknowledged, self-evident truths (des
verités de bon sens)." [Footnote 13]

[Footnote 13: De la Pacification religieuse. By the Abbé

Dupanloup, pp. 263, 294, 306. Paris, 1845.]

This Catholic, this bishop, is no timorous priest, disposed to make

every sacrifice for the purpose of conciliation. It is the same priest,
who, from the first attack made upon the constitution of the
Catholic Church, has always distinguished himself by the warmth
and ability with which he has defended it. The Papacy, its rights, its
temporal independence and spiritual sovereignty never had a
champion more resolute, more opposed to weak concessions or
fallacious compromises, more constantly intrepid in the breach than
the Bishop of Orleans.

When the contest was warmest, the Pope (Pius IX.) published his
"Encyclical" of the 8th of December, 1864. Exempt from every
feeling of prejudice and hostility, and having no connection or
relation with the Papacy to make me pause, I feel no hesitation in
saying what I think of this document, at once the occasion and the
pretext for such a stir. In my opinion the error was a grave one.
Regarded as doctrine, the "Encyclical" was dignified and yet
embarrassed, positive and yet evasive; it confounded in the same
sweeping condemnation salutary truths and pernicious errors, the
principles of liberty and the maxims of licentiousness; it made an
effort to maintain, in point of right, the ancient traditions and
pretensions of Rome, without avowing in point of fact that the
ideas and potent influences of modern civilization were the objects
of its declared and unceasing hostility. In a system like that of the
present day—a system of publicity and freedom of discussion—this
manner of proceeding, its inconsistencies, its reticence, its
obscurities, whether arising from instinct or premeditation, have
ceased to be good policy, and in fact serve no purpose whatever.
As a measure to meet a particular emergency, the "Encyclical" of
the 8th of December 1864 did not resemble that of Gregory XVI. in
1832; it was not called for by such extravagances as those of the
Avenir, or those of the Abbé de la Mennais; no urgent necessity,
no public exigency required that Rome should pronounce itself; the
debate between the Catholic Absolutists and the Catholic Liberals
was of ancient date, and was evidently destined to long duration;
the Papacy could not flatter itself that it could put an end to this
contest by any peremptoriness of decision; her indulgent
consideration was as due to the one party as to the other.
Doubtless the Catholic Liberals had not shown less zeal for her
cause, nor had the services which they had rendered been less
important; it was not a moment of peril for Rome, and Rome was
bound in justice, without any open declaration at least, to maintain
toward them an attitude of reserve. The party, even before the
publication of the "Encyclical," had earned, as it still merits, her
gratitude and her esteem; neither M. de Montalembert, nor the
Prince Albert de Broglie, nor M. de Falloux, nor M. Cochin, nor any
of their friends had imitated the example of the Abbé de la
Mennais; nor has one of them shown subsequently any irritation, or
even uttered a word of complaint; they have maintained a
respectful silence. The Bishop of Orleans has done even more. A
man of action as well as of faith, he thought in the midst of the
storm excited by the "Encyclical" of the 8th of December, that he
was bound to consider the perils rather than the faults, and that it
became a priest who had supported liberty to support authority
also when the object of attack. He threw himself into the arena to
cover the Papacy at all hazards with his valiant arms: after having
played the part of a sagacious counselor, he played that of a
faithful champion, and he inflicted upon her adversaries blows so
sturdy, that the latter were in their turn obliged to put themselves
upon their defense, even in the midst of the success that the
"Encyclical" had insured them.

The Bishop of Orleans is probably reserved for many other

struggles; he may even be hurried by a warlike temperament to
carry the war into a field where it is uncalled for; but I shall be
both surprised and grieved if he do not always remain what he is at
this moment in the Church of France, the most enlightened
representative of its mission, moral and social, as well as the most
intrepid defender of its true and legitimate interests.

Whether the matter in debate concerns religious or social affairs

and contests, parties are liable to two errors of equal gravity: they
may misapprehend their respective perils, or their respective
strength. Wisdom consists in a just appreciation of these perils and
of these forces, and it is upon such an appreciation precisely that
success itself depends. The actual perils to which Catholicism is
exposed are evident to all. It owes its development and its
constitution to times essentially different from the present. It
adapts itself with reluctance to the principles required and the
demands made upon it in this age. Its antagonists think and assert
that it will never so adapt itself. Most of the lookers-on, who are
indifferent or vacillating—and their number is great—incline to
believe its antagonists in the right. This is the trial through which
Catholicism is at this moment passing. To pass through it
triumphantly, it has two great forces to rely upon; the one is, the
reaction in favor of religion occasioned by the follies and the crimes
of the Revolution, the other is, the liberal movement that took
place among the Catholics after the faults of the Restoration, and
the new opening made for them by the Government of 1830. The
Concordat built up again the edifice of the Catholic Church;
Liberalism is laboring to penetrate its sanctuary, and, without
impairing its faith, to obtain for it once more the sympathies of civil
government. Let sincere Catholics reflect well upon their course, for
here is their main stay, here their best chance for the future; let
them maintain with a firm hand the strong constitution of their
Church, but accept frankly, and at once claim, their share also in
the liberties of their age; let them take care of their anchors and
spread their sails, for this is the conduct prescribed to them by the
supreme interest, which should be their law, the future interests, I
mean, of Christianity.

The time has been short, but the experiment has been made and is
successful. I have now enumerated the principal events connected
with religion which have taken place in the course of this century in
the bosom of the Catholic Church of France. In spite of the
obstacles, the oscillations, the deviations, and the faults that are
remarkable, the awakening of Christianity is evident. Under the
influence of the causes which I have pointed out, Christian faith
has evidently made progress; Christian science, progress; Christian
charity, as shown by works, progress; Christian force, progress;
progress incomplete and insufficient but still progress, real, and fall
of fruit, symptomatic of vital energy and future promise. Let not the
enemies of Christianity deceive themselves; they are waging a
combat of life and of death, but their antagonist is not in extremis!
 II. Awakening Of Christianity In France.

I pass without any transitional stage from the awakening of

Christianity in the Roman Catholic Church to the awakening of
Christianity in the Protestant Church. What need of a transition? I
am not quitting the Christian Church. With respect to their claims
as Christians, Protestant nations have been put to the test. They
have had, like Catholic nations, to pass through violent struggles, to
combat evil tendencies, to undergo perilous trials; but the peculiar
characteristic of Christianity, the simultaneous action of faith and of
science, of authority and liberty, has received a glorious
development in the bosom of Protestant nations. England and
Holland, Protestant Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and
the United States of America, have had their vices, their crimes,
their sufferings, and their reverses; but, after all, these States have
in the last four centuries labored with effect at the solution, in a
Christian sense, of that grand problem of human society—the moral
and physical progress of the masses, as well as the political
guarantee of their rights and liberties. And in these days the States
to which I have alluded resist effectually the shocks—now of
anarchy, now of despotism, which alternately trouble the peace of
Christendom. As for the Christian Faith itself, if, in Protestant
countries, it does not escape the attacks elsewhere made upon it,
neither is it without its powerful defenders and faithful followers. In
those countries, Christian Churches are full of adherents, and the
cause of Christianity finds every day valiant champions to devote to
its service the arms which science and liberty supply. There is on
the part of the Romanists a puerile infatuation upon this subject,
which makes them absolutely close their eyes to facts; by an error
fatal to themselves, they persist in imputing the fermentation in
society, and the abandonment of religion, to the influence of the
Protestant nations—nations among whom these two scourges are
combated with at least as much resolution and effect as elsewhere.
It is not my wish to institute disparaging comparisons, or to foment
a rivalry opposed to the spirit of Christ's religion. Protestantism is
not, in Christendom, the last, neither is it the sole bulwark of
Christianity; but there exists none that is stronger, that offers fewer
weak points to assailants, or that is better provided with faithful
and able defenders.

At the commencement of this century, and in the years which

followed the promulgation of the Concordat, the Protestants, like
the Catholics in France, thought only of the re-establishment of
their worship and of the liberty of their faith. A liberty the more
precious in their eyes, as it followed upon two centuries of
persecutions and of sufferings of which we cannot, in these days,
read the accounts without mingled sentiments of astonishment, of
indignation, and of sorrow. Faithfully should men guard the memory
of such outrages; they would be infinitely better than they are if
they had always present to their minds the vivid pictures of the
iniquities and woes which fill the page of their history; and evils
would not so soon recur if they were not so soon forgotten. The
system of Terrorism under the Revolution had confounded Catholic
and Protestant in a common oppression; it had abolished the forms
of worship of each, denied all free expression of opinion to
Christians; and without distinction condemned to the same scaffold
the "pastors of the desert" and the bishops of the Court of
Versailles—Rabaut Saint-Etienne as well as the nuns of Verdun.
When this terrible regime had ceased to exist, neither party had
religiously or politically any desires or pretensions that were not
extremely moderate: the one thing regarded by all as the sovereign
good was, the right to live without molestation and the liberty to
address their prayers to God in the light of day. No other subject so
seriously interested them; and they heartily wished to show their
gratitude and deference to the Government, which, while it gave
security to their bodies, permitted their souls to breathe freely. The
condition of the Protestants was in one sense better than that of
the Catholics, for the former were now experiencing the joy, not
only of a deliverance but of a positive conquest; they had just
escaped as well from the system of Terrorism, as from the ancient
régime; they had lost nothing to regret; no revengeful feeling made
them desire a reaction; their sole aspiration was for the
consolidation of their rights, and of their new acquisitions. "You
who lived, as we did, under the yoke of intolerance," (thus they
were addressed in 1807 by M. Rabaut-Dupuy, formerly president of
the legislative body, and the last surviving son of one of their most
estimable pastors,) "you, the relics of so many persecuted
generations, behold! compare! It is no longer in the desert and at
the peril of your lives that you render to the Creator the homage
which is his due. Our temples are restored to us, and every day
beholds new ones erected. Our pastors are recognized as public
functionaries; they receive salaries from the State; a barbarous law
no longer suspends the sword over their heads. Alas! to those
whom we have survived it was permitted, it is true, to ascend
Mount Nebo, and to obtain thence a glimpse of the promised land,
but it is we alone who have taken possession."

What wonder if, on the morrow after the Concordat, which had
procured them the free exercise of their faith and the impartiality of
the law, the Protestants acquiesced without difficulty in the
incomplete organization with which the new system had left their
Church, and that they troubled themselves little with the attacks
made upon its independence and its dignity!

But this modest enjoyment of their new privileges did not render
them indifferent to their ancient belief, and they returned to the
open practice of Christ's faith simultaneously with the acquisition of
their liberty. In 1812, in the midst of the profound silence which
reigned throughout the Empire, a professor of the faculty of
Protestant theology at Montauban, M. Grasc, attacked, in his
teaching, the dogma of the Trinity. Earnest remonstrances were
instantly made from the general body of the Protestants in France;
a great number of consistories, among others those of Nîmes, of
Montpellier, Montauban, Alais, Anduze, Saint Hippolyte, pastors and
laity, addressed their complaints, some to the "Doyen" of the
faculty of theology, others to M. Gasc himself, demanding, all of
them, the maintenance of the doctrine of the Protestant Church.
The grand master of the University, M. de Fontanes, "earnestly
invited the professor not to depart from it," and M. Gasc himself
admitted that his teaching ought to be in conformity. The spirit
which had animated the Reformation in France in the sixteenth
century was still living in the nineteenth; and under the new-born
system of liberty, the Awakening of Christianity announced itself by
a summons to the faith.

When, under the Restoration, France had regained her political

liberty, it was not long before that liberty bore its natural fruits in
French Protestantism; it was accompanied, both on religious and
political subjects, by the manifestation of discordant ideas and
discordant tendencies, which were soon to struggle for victory. As
at epochs of great intellectual crises eminent men emerge who
represent dominant ideas, so now M. Samuel Vincent and M. Daniel
Encontre immediately appeared in the Protestant Church: both
were pastors, and each worthily represented one of the two
principles which naturally develop themselves in the bosom of
Protestantism, faith in traditions and the right of private judgment;
principles different without being contradictory; principles which
may subsist in peace provided they remain respectively in their
proper places, and within the limits of their rights. M. Samuel
Vincent was a man of a mind remarkably comprehensive and of
great versatility and fecundity; but his habits at the same time were
those of a student, fitting him rather for intellectual meditation than
qualifying him either for expansive sympathies or for action; he was
versed in the philosophy and erudite criticism of Germany, at that
time novel and rare to France; he made the essence of Christianity,
according to his own expression, "to consist in the liberty of
inquiry." [Footnote 14:]
[Footnote 14: Vues sur le protestantisme en France, par
M. Samuel Vincent. 2e édition, p. 15. Paris, 1859.]
He rejected all written articles of faith, every limited idea of
religious unity, and claimed within the Church, for both pastors and
congregation, the greatest latitude in matters of opinion and of
teaching. But when he clung closely to this view of the subject, and
was pressed to indicate the extreme point to which, within the
Church itself, the diversity of men's individual beliefs might be
carried, his embarrassment became extreme, for he had too much
sense to admit that this diversity had no limit, and that a Church,
whether Protestant or not, could exist without certain articles of
faith common to all its members, and recognized by them all.
"Protestantism," said he himself, "must not be merely a negation; it
should also have its real and positive side; it must be beyond all
things a religion; that is to say, it must be in the possession of the
means to endure and of the means to edify men by the
propagation of a doctrine benevolent and Christian. … Christianity is
the basis of ecclesiastical teaching." [Footnote 15]

[Footnote 15: Vues sur le protestantisme en France, par

M. Samuel Vincent, pp. 17, 22.]

When, after having laid down this principle, M. Samuel Vincent

inquired how the Protestant Church could remain a Church, and a
Christian Church, in the midst of the independence of individual
beliefs, he found no other way out of the difficulty than "to
determine," he said, "by conventions, oral and unwritten, a certain
number of opinions that each man should, in the interest of the
general peace, be entreated to keep to himself." [Footnote 16]

[Footnote 16: Vues sur le protestantisme en France, p.

24.]

How strange a proceeding, how difficult of realization, to prescribe

with once voice silence and liberty! M. Samuel Vincent did not
attempt to determine what those opinions were which, in order to
maintain the existence of a Christian Church in the midst of the
broadest system of free inquiry, "each man should be entreated to
keep to himself." As for himself, he professed his faith in the
supernatural, in the revelation of the Old and of the New
Testaments, in the inspiration of the Scriptures, in the divinity of
Jesus Christ; in the grand historical facts as well as in the moral
precepts of the Gospel; he was one of the pastors, too, who signed
the remonstrance of the consistory of Nîmes, for the irregularity in
preaching of which Professor Grasc had been guilty. Did M. Samuel
Vincent regard every opinion contrary to these great evangelical
doctrines as an opinion which each man should, in the interest of
the general peace, be entreated to keep to himself? I doubt
whether he would have dared to engraft upon the liberty of
judgment such a reservation; but I doubt at the same time if he
would have persisted in regarding as true and faithful pastors of
the Protestant Church, men who should have openly deserted and
combated, in its most essential foundations, that Christian faith
which he himself professed. He dreaded almost equally "unity
defined," and "dissent declared." He would have remained in the
embarrassment into which those inevitably fall who neither accept
one basis and manifesto of a common faith, nor admit the moral
necessity of a separation into free and distinct Churches when a
common faith does not exist. [Footnote 17]

[Footnote 17: The principal works of M. Samuel Vincent

are: 1. Vues sur le protestantisme en France, première
édition. 2 vols. 8vo. 1829. A second edition, in 1 vol.
12mo., was published in 1859 by M. Prévost-Paradol.

2. Observations sur l'unité religieuse et observations sur

la voie d'autorité appliquée a la religion, (1820,) contre
l'Essai sur l'indifférance en matière de religion de l'Abbé
de la Mennais.

3. Meditations ou recueil de sermons, 1829.

 4. Mélanges de religion de morale et de critique sacrée.
A periodical published from 1820 to 1825.]

No such embarrassment was experienced by M. Daniel Encontre

when he began his career to serve the movement of awakened
Christianity in the bosom of French Protestantism. I will not venture
here to cite the precise words, harsh and severe, employed by him
on the 13th of December, 1816, at Montauban, in his capacity of
"Doyen" of the faculty of Protestant Theology, respecting those
termed by him "the pretended ministers of the Gospel, disbelievers
in the Gospel and in the divinity of Jesus Christ." He regarded
harmony of faith and language, harmony between shepherd and
flock, as the first law of religious society. Born in a grotto of La
Vaunage, to which his mother had fled to escape from the flames
of persecution; devoted from his birth by his father, the Pastor
Pierre Encontre, to the service of a "preacher in the desert," M.
Daniel Encontre belonged to that class of indomitable Protestants
who cling to their faith through all the perils, sufferings, and
sacrifices which it entails. His first steps in life seemed to indicate
in him other aptitudes, and to promise for him a different career.
After having studied divinity at Lausanne and at Geneva, and been
consecrated by his father himself to the ministry of the Gospel "in
an assembly in the desert," he seemed to doubt his own vocation;
for while performing the functions of his ministry he devoted
himself to the study of mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the
classical languages, with an enthusiasm eager to become familiar
with every department of knowledge, and encountering no
hinderance from, internal obstacles or from preconceived opinions.
Having established himself at Montpellier, where his taste for
science found subjects of gratification, he led there, during the dark
days of the Revolution, a life very obscure, and at the same time
most laborious; giving lessons to the master masons upon stone-
cutting, imparting instruction, rendering the aids of religion to
Protestants, celebrating the baptismal and marriage services, and
pursuing at the same time his labors in geometry, botany,
philosophy, divinity, literature, and even poetry. When order began
to be re-established, he was led by his own natural tastes and the
counsel of his friends to select as his career that of public
instruction. He competed for and obtained, first the appointment of
professor of literature at the École Centrale of Montpellier; then
that of the higher mathematics, at the Lycée and in the faculty of
science, of which he was nominated "Doyen." As his merits
established themselves by repeated proofs, his reputation
increased; the papers of learned societies were filled with his
contributions, and the École Polytechnique with his pupils. "I have
met in our department," said Fourcroy, "two or three heads equal
to his, but not one superior." M. de Candolle gladly selected him to
aid him in his "Researches respecting the Botany of the Ancients;"
and M. de Fontanes has more than once spoken of him to me as
one of the men who most honored the University. But in him,
neither the mathematician, the botanist, nor the philologist took
precedence of the Christian. At one time as expounder of Moses
and of Genesis, [Footnote 18] at another as a writer defending the
Apostles, accused of being a copyist of Plato. [Footnote 19] he
neglected no occasion of placing his scientific attainments at the
service of Christianity;

[Footnote 18: Dissertation sur le vrai système du monde

comparé avec le récit que Moïse fait de la création.
Montpellier, 1807.]

[Footnote 19: Lettre à M. Combes-Dounous, auteur d'un

Essai historique sur Platon. Paris, 1811.

A remarkable essay of M. Daniel Encontre, "sur le Péché

original," was published, after his death, in 1822, and he
left a great number of manuscripts, among others a
"Traité sur l'Église," (600 pages,) written in Latin;
"Etudes théologiques," a Hebrew Grammar, a "Cours de
philosophie," a "Cours de litérature Française," a "Flore
biblique," several "Memoires de mathématiques
transcendantes," etc. As a teacher of transcendental
 mathematics at Montpellier he had as pupil M. Auguste
Comte, the head of the "École positiviste," who, in spite
of the profound diversity of their opinions, regarded it as
a duty to dedicate to him in 1856 his treatise, "Sur la
Synthèse subjective," in testimony of admiration and of
gratitude.]

and when, in 1814, he was asked to quit Montpellier, to abandon

his habits, his tastes, and his friends, for the chair of the
professorship of divinity at Montauban, where he was to fulfill the
functions of "Doyen," he sacrificed without hesitation the enjoyment
of his life to his religious vocation, and applied himself with
unceasing energy to the warlike activity of a Christian professor,
until the day when, overcome by fatigue and sickness, he accorded
to himself the melancholy satisfaction of returning to Montpellier, in
order to die near the tomb of a beloved daughter, who had long
aided him in his labors.

The destinies of Protestantism in France have, to a singular degree,

been at once varied and uniform, confused and simple. After having
in the sixteenth century valiantly disputed the victory, it was
vanquished, decimated, expelled. But it resisted, and survived not
only its defeat, but the gradual process of its enfeeblement and its
expulsion. In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries the French Protestants lost the protection of the laws,
their secure sanctuaries, their great chiefs, their great divines, their
great writers; but they preserved nevertheless their faith and their
religious honor. In the times that ensued their successors remained
faithful to the belief and the customs of their fathers; even
persecuted and condemned to death, having their property
confiscated, or become tenants of prisons and laborers in the
galleys, they found in their very sufferings a resource to confirm
them in the principles of Protestant piety. Theological controversies
died away from among them, leaving behind them the
fundamentals of Christianity—living and guiding principles.
Among the higher and wealthier classes, the philosophical ideas of
the eighteenth century made also their way; the great liberal
movement filled the Protestant section of the nation with joy, and
commanded its sympathy without detaching it from its religious
habits and traditions. In its members faith had ceased to be
erudite; the popular Protestant sentiment had been always
profoundly biblical and evangelical. Freer and more fortunately
situated than their fathers, the French Protestants now anxiously
desired to remain, as they had been, Christians; and when, in
1790, Rabaut Saint-Etienne, who succeeded the Abbé de
Montesquieu as President of the Constituent Assembly, wrote to his
aged father, the Pastor Paul Rabaut, "The President of the National
Assembly is at your feet," he manifested to the humble and zealous
preacher in the assemblies of the desert, the pride at once of a
politician, the piety of a son, and the fidelity of a Protestant.

M. Daniel Encontre was, at the commencement of the nineteenth

century, the faithful representative of this traditionally religious
character of French Protestantism; just as M. Samuel Vincent was
the well-meaning and sincere introducer to it of the science and
criticism of the Germans. The former corresponded more closely to
the pious and national spirit of Protestant France of the olden
times; the latter to the tendencies, at once novel and indefinitely
latitudinarian, of a foreign philosophy and a foreign erudition.
Doubtless, neither measured the range of the religious crisis of
which they were themselves the symptoms; neither foresaw that
within the bosom of Protestantism that crisis was to be marked by
an avowed struggle between Rationalism in its progress and
Christianity in its reaction.

This crisis began to manifest itself at Geneva. The mocking

skepticism of Voltaire, the rhetorical deism of Rousseau, proclaimed
at its gates, had deeply undermined the faith of Christ in the very
city of Calvin. It was not merely some of the Calvinistic doctrines of
the sixteenth century that the pastors of Geneva doubted or
denied, but it was also the fundamental articles of Christianity; they
abandoned not only the Dogmas of predestination and salvation by
faith alone, but the dogmas of original sin, and of the divinity of
Jesus Christ. In 1810 according to some, as far back as 1802
according to others, symptoms of an evangelical reaction showed
themselves at Geneva among the students in theology, some of
whom afterward became distinguished pastors or writers. It was
not long before MM. Gaussen, Malan, Gonthier, Bost, Merle
d'Aubigné, displayed their orthodox fervor and their ability. In 1816
a pious Scot, Mr. Robert Haldane, previously an intrepid sailor, who
had only quitted his calling to devote himself entirely to the service
of his faith, went to Geneva, and contracted with the young
Methodists of that city relations of the greatest intimacy and
activity. They had meetings; they discussed, they preached, they
prayed, they wrote. Mr. Haldane could hardly express himself in
French; having his English Bible continually at hand, he turned over
its pages incessantly, pointed out to his friends the passages that
he regarded as decisive, invited them to read them aloud from their
French Bible, and then commented upon them in a manner that
always commanded their favorable attention, the conviction of the
commentator had such moving and persuasive power. [Footnote
20]

[Footnote 20: Genève religieuse au XIX siècle: par le

Baron de Goltz; traduit de l'allemand par C. Malan: 8vo.,
pp. 137-149. Genève et Paris. 1862.]

In 1816 and 1817 the evangelical reaction made rapid progress,

and the body of Genevese pastors resolved to combat it by the
voice of authority. They found, however, no better method of doing
so than by insisting upon what, twelve years later, even M. Samuel
Vincent did not scruple to recommend; they prescribed silence even
whilst they proclaimed liberty. "Without"—these are their words
—"giving any judgment upon the questions really involved, and
without controlling in any respect the liberty of opinions," they
imposed a solemn engagement both upon students demanding to
be consecrated to the sacred ministry, and upon ministers
candidates for pastoral functions in the Church of Geneva. It was
conceived as follows: "As long as we reside and preach in the
churches of the Canton of Geneva, we promise to abstain from
establishing, either in entire discourses or in parts of discourses
directed to this object, our opinion—first, of the manner in which
the divine nature was incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ;
secondly, of original sin; thirdly, of the mode in which grace
operates, or grace is efficient; fourthly, of predestination. We
promise also not to combat, in any public discourse, the opinion of
any pastors or ministers touching these subjects." [Footnote 21]

[Footnote 21: Genève religieuse au XIX siècle: par le

Baron de Goltz; p. 153.]

It is difficult to understand how men ever could have flattered

themselves with the hope of re-establishing peace in the Church by
the employment of so sorry an expedient. Liberty, that has rent
asunder such heavy chains, does not permit itself to be confined by
so flimsy a net. The immediate effect of the regulation of the
Genevese pastors was an outburst of discontent. The more violent
Methodists, MM. Malan and Bost at their head, proclaimed aloud
their separation from the established Church; the more moderate,
among others, MM. Gaussen and Merle d'Aubigné, persisted in
remaining, by right of their ministry, in its bosom, holding
themselves responsible representatives there of the doctrines of
the Reformation, which, in fact, they did continue to preach and to
teach. The body of pastors at first used great forbearance toward
them, and respected their liberty; and when the populace, irritated
at the agitation caused in families by the Dissenters, and offended
by the austerity of their precepts, made hostile demonstrations
toward them, the Council of Geneva had the wisdom and fairness
to use measures of repression; but, soon becoming weary of this
painful duty, the Council formally forbade, without its express
permission, any book of religious controversy to be printed at
Geneva. The body of pastors soon pronounced as vehement a
condemnation of the moderate Methodists as of the ultra
Dissenters. The moderate Methodists then in their turn resorted to
energetic measures in support of their cause: they founded an
evangelical society and a school of theology; devoted the one to
propagate the zeal and the other to teach the principles of the
Christian reaction; and fifteen years after the commencement of
the struggle, the chiefs of the party which had proclaimed that the
free divergence of individual belief in the bosom of the Church was
"the great fact of our epoch, and the great step that the
Reformation had in our days to make"—these chiefs, being the
body of pastors, the Consistory, and the Council of State at Geneva,
suspended M. Gaussen from his functions of pastor in the parish of
Satigny for having taken part in the organization of an independent
form of worship, and of a school of independent theology; "a
proceeding," they said, "incompatible with the peace of the Church,
and to be regarded as an act of insubordination, tending to bring
ecclesiastical authority into discredit." [Footnote 22]

[Footnote 22: Genève religieuse au XIX siècle: par le

Baron de Goltz; pp. 379-384.]

Such religious ferment in the primitive home of the French

Reformation, and at the very gates of France, could not fail to
exercise a powerful influence upon the French Protestant Church.
On quitting Geneva in 1817, Mr. Robert Haldane proceeded to
Montauban, where he formed friendships with some of the
Professors of the Faculty, and among others with M. Daniel
Encontre. He published there also a work in French, which his
friends hastened to circulate. It was styled "Emmanuel: vues
Scripturaires sur Jésus-Christ." In 1818, a society formed in
England, named the "Continental Society," specially devoted itself to
the purpose of seconding on the Continent the progress of this
Christian reaction. An English dissenter, Mr. Mark Wilks, pastor of
the American community formed at Paris, was the most efficient
agent of the societies which had this object in view. "It might be
said of Mr. Wilks," wrote lately the Pastor Juillerat, "that he might
have governed an empire, his character was so energetic, his mind
so active and enterprising. He brought me aid of every description:
money was required, he had money; pamphlets and books were
wanted, no one was better provided; no one understood better the
details pertaining to the printing and publication of papers." Several
Protestant journals and magazines, "La Voix de la Religion
Chrétienne au XIX siècle," "Les Archives du Christianisme au XIX
siècle," "Les Mélanges de Religion, de Morale, et de Critique
Sacrée," "L'Evangeliste," "La Revue Protestante," "Le Semeur," etc.,
etc., were at this epoch successively founded and carried in
different directions throughout the scattered Protestant Church,
from its central organization, the fervor which had there been
kindled. Genuine zeal for religion is not satisfied by action from a
distance, or by action upon unknown persons, or by indirect means,
as by books and by journals: it demands direct oral communication
from man to man—the union of men's souls in common prayer.
Certain young pastors who had at first shared in the evangelical
movement at Geneva, MM. Neff, Pyt, Bost, Gonthier, scattered
themselves over France, some assuming functions as local pastors,
others as traveling missionaries, attracting to their proximity groups
of zealous Protestants, animating the lukewarm, and erecting in
every place where they made any stay little centers of Christianity,
which radiated to the neighboring country around. Distinct
associations, some officially recognized by the State, others having
no public character, [Footnote 23] gave to the labors of isolated
individuals the publicity, the unity, the permanence which they
required; and a special organization (colportage biblique) which at
its commencement numbered only seven, but a few years
afterward had sixty agents, all of them, although obscure
individuals, as zealous as their patrons were zealous, caused the
Holy Scriptures and religious tracts to penetrate into parts of France
hopelessly inaccessible to any other method of communication and
of instruction.

[Footnote 23: La Société biblique, la Société pour

l'encouragement de l'instruction primaire parmi les
protestants, la Société évangélique de France, la Société
 des traités religieuse, la Société des missions
protestantes, la Société centrale pour les intérêts
protestants, la Société d'évangelisation, etc.]

To a movement so earnest and so general, although propagated by

a small number of persons in the heart of a population itself
forming but a small minority in the nation at large, obstacles would
inevitably occur. They were encountered on all hands and of all
kinds, religious and political—from the administration, from popular
prejudices, from the distrust of the Government, from the hostility
of the Roman Catholic clergy, from differences of opinion on
theological points among Protestants themselves, from the amour
propre of individuals, and the perplexed or timorous ideas of
subalterns in authority. The activity of the Protestant societies
created uneasiness in bishops and priests, who strove not merely to
counteract their influence, but to interfere with their liberty of
action. Mayors of towns, judges of the peace, sometimes too,
magistrates and administrators of more elevated rank, lent their aid
to these exceptionable proceedings. Hence arose suspicions,
complaints, and struggles which retarded the new-born impulse of
awakening Christianity. But the earnest perseverance of its patrons,
the general wisdom of the supreme Government, and the authority,
growing more and more each day, of the principles of justice and of
liberty, gradually surmounted all these obstacles. It was the
Restoration that recognized the chief Protestant societies and gave
them the sanction of the law. Under the Government of 1830 they
used their rights with more confidence and fewer hinderances. The
equitable intentions of King Louis Philippe and of his counselors
upon religious matters could not be doubtful, whatever their
caution not to cause uneasiness or wound the susceptibilities of the
Roman Catholics. The Protestants now believed it to be no longer
necessary to look to foreign support. Formed at Paris in 1833, the
Evangelical Society of France experienced a momentary impulse of
national jealousy, the result of which was some coldness in its
relations with the Continental Society of London; but as soon as the
latter perceived that its direct interference was rather an
embarrassment than a necessity to the Christian reaction in France,
it withdrew its agency without withholding its sympathy, and
handed over to the Evangelical Society of France all the "stations"
and religious charities which had up to that time been founded by
its exertions.

The awakening of Christianity among the Protestants of France had

now produced such results that it mattered little who the patrons of
the movement might be; it had assumed its true character, and was
drawing its strength from the fountain of truth. In times of religious
incredulity and of religious indifference, and even in the transitional
times which immediately ensue, it is the error of many, and even of
men who respect and support religion, to consider it in the light of
a great political institution—a salutary system of moral police,
however necessary to society, indebted for its merits and its
prerogatives rather to its practical utility than to its intrinsic truth.
Grave error, misconceiving both the nature and the origin of
religion, and calculated to deprive it both of its empire and its
dignity! Utility men hold as of great account, but it is only truth
that commands unconditional surrender. Utility enjoins prudence
and forbearance; truth alone inspires feelings of confidingness and
devotion. A religion having no other guarantee for its influence and
its endurance than its social utility would be very near its ruin. Men
have need of, nay, they thirst for truth in their relations with God,
even more than in their relations with one another; the
spontaneous prayer, adoration, obedience, suppose faith. It was in
the very name of the verity of the Christian religion, of that verity
manifested in its history by the word and even by the presence of
God, that the awakening of Christians was accomplished among us.
The laborers in this great work felt the faith of Christianity, and
they diffused it; had they spoken only of the social utility of
Christianity, they would never have made the conquest of a single
human soul.

At first sight one is tempted to attribute this success to energy of

faith on the part of these laborers in the cause, to the active and
devoted perseverance of their zeal. Again a mistake! Not that
human merit was without its share in the results; but even where
the faith was thus propagated, the share that that faith itself had in
the result was infinitely greater, from its own proper and inherent
virtue, than any share of men. Incredulity and indifferentism may
diffuse themselves and pretend to dominate; they leave unsolved
the problems that lie in the depth of man's soul: they do not rid
him of his perplexities, of instinct or of reflection, as to the world's
creation and man's creation, the origin of good and evil, providence
and fate, human liberty and human responsibility, man's immortality
and his future state. Instead of the denials and the doubts that had
been thrown over these unescapable questions, those who applied
themselves fully to rouse awakened Christianity, recalled the human
soul to the memory of positive solutions of these questions;
solutions in accordance with the traditions of their native land, in
accordance with their habits as members of families, and in
harmony with the recollections of early childhood; solutions often
contested, never refuted; always recurring in the lapse of ages, and
century after century! It was from the intrinsic and permanent
value of the doctrines which they were preaching, and not from
themselves, that the laborers in the work derived their force and
their credit.

They had another principle of force as well; a force born and

developed in the bosom of the Christian religion, and in that alone;
they had the passionate desire to save human souls. Men are not,
they never have been, struck as they ought to have been struck
with the beauty of this passion, or with its novelty in the moral
history of the world, or with the part that it has played among
Christian nations. Before the era of Christianity, in times of Asiatic
and European antiquity, pagans and philosophers busied themselves
about the destiny of men after the close of their earthly life, and
with curiosity, too, did they sound the obscurity; but the ardent
solicitude for the eternal welfare of human souls, the never-
wearying labor to prepare human souls for eternity—to set them
even during this existence in intimate relations with God, and to
prepare them to undergo God's judgments;—we have in all this a
fact essentially Christian, one of the sublimest characteristics of
Christianity, and one of the most striking marks of its divine origin.
God constantly in relation with mankind and with every man, God
present during the actual life of every man, and God the arbiter of
his future destiny; the immortality of each human soul, and the
connection between his actual life and his future destiny; the
immense value of each human soul in the eyes of God, and the
immense import to the soul of the future that awaits it: these are
the convictions and the affirmations all implied in the one passion
alluded to, the passion for the salvation of men's souls, which was
the whole life of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which passed by his
example and by his precepts into the life of his primitive disciples,
and which, amid the diversities of age, people, manners, opinions,
has remained the characteristic feature and the inspiring breath of
the genius of Christianity; breath which animated the men who in
our days labored, and with success, to revive Christian faith among
the Protestants of France! Their zeal was employed in a very
circumscribed sphere; beyond it their names were unknown, and
unknown they have remained. What spectators, what readers, what
public knew at that time, or know even at this moment, what
manner of men they were or what their deeds—those men who
called themselves Neff, Bost, Pyt, Gonthier, Audebez, Cook, Wilks,
Haldane? But who, I would ask, in the time of Tacitus and of Pliny,
knew what manner of men they were, and what the deeds of Peter,
Paul, John, Matthew, Philip—the unknown disciples of the Master,
unknown himself, who had overcome the world? Notoriety is not
essential to influence; and in the sphere of the soul, as in the order
of nature, fountains are not the less abundant because their springs
are hidden in obscurity. The Christian missionaries of our time did
not trouble themselves to lessen that obscurity. To literary celebrity
they had no pretension, nor did they seek the triumph of any
political idea, of any specific system of ecclesiastical organization, of
any favorite plan in which their personal vanity was interested: the
salvation of human souls was their only passion, and their only
object. They looked upon themselves as humble servants
commissioned to remind men of promises which they had forgotten
—of promises of salvation by faith in Jesus. "The stir of the
reaction," one of themselves has said, "bore impressed upon it the
character of youth, or even of childhood. The humblest pastor on
his circuit became a missionary; his transit was regarded almost like
that of a meteor. On the instant an assembly was convoked, it
numbered twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred, two hundred persons,
collected to listen joyfully, as if it were a great novelty or miracle,
to that Gospel which we know by heart;—alas! which we know by
heart far more than we have it in the heart!" [Footnote 24]

[Footnote 24: Mémoires pouvant servir à l'histoire du

réveil religieux des églises protestantes de la Suisse et
de la France, par A. Bost, (1854,) t. 1, p. 240.]

Who could mistake, on hearing such sentiments and such language,

the really Christian character of the reaction?

Never-ending weakness of man's nature, and inevitable

imperfection of man's work, even when man is walking in the ways
of God! In the midst of awakening Christianity, and of this fervent
return to the faith of the Gospel, reappeared some of the ancient
pretensions of theology, and among others the pretension to
penetrate the decrees of God and to define the terms of man's
salvation.

In February, 1818, the pious and orthodox "Doyen" of the

Protestant Faculty of Montauban, M. Daniel Encontre, rendering an
account of the work of Mr. Robert Haldane, (Emmanuel, ou vues
Scripturaires sur Jésus-Christ,) which had just appeared, hastened,
after having justly commended it, to add: "The concluding pages of
the 'Emmanuel' express sentiments which Evangelical Christians are
far from sharing. The author lays down the principle, that all men
who do not believe in the perfect equality of the Son and of the
Father, are enemies alike of both Father and Son; that they
deny, and blaspheme against both, and cannot avoid eternal death.
He regards the forbearance we show to them as infinitely criminal,
and seems even inclined to condemn all who have not the courage
to condemn them. As for me, I venture to believe that it is the duty
of a Christian to work out his own salvation without allowing
himself to pronounce upon the salvation of others. Judge not,
that ye be not judged, says He whom we all acknowledge as our
Master; and St. Paul adds, 'Who art thou that condemnest
another man's servant?' I seize this opportunity to declare to all
men desirous to hear it, that I believe firmly in the divinity of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and that I adopt in every respect the Nicæan
Creed. I dare to affirm besides, that these sentiments are actually
those of all the members of our Faculty, as they have always been
those of our Churches. It seems to me that persons who know not
Jesus Christ as 'God above all things, blessed eternally,' are much
to be pitied, and want the greatest of all consolations. This error
appears the more dangerous, because it is generally followed by
other errors; for the truths which are the objects of faith are so
connected and riveted together, that it is impossible to discard one
without shaking or overturning all the others. These truths form
together a majestic edifice, to which all its parts are absolutely
necessary, and which falls in ruins if a breach be made anywhere;
and particularly, if the first stone removed be the keystone of the
corner. But what would become of us all, if the erring, even when
they err in good faith, had no hope of access to the throne of
grace? Men who, as I do, feel how much they need God's mercy,
and man's indulgence, feel little disposition to be severe toward
others." [Footnote 25]

[Footnote 25: Archives du Christianisme aux XIX e siècle,

t. 1, pp. 63-66.]

In holding this language, M. Encontre was not merely performing,

on his own account, an act of humility and of Christian charity; he
was touching upon one of the supreme questions which, in our
days, are occasioning a crisis in Christendom; and he was indicating
its true and its sole solution. Like all passions, (the best are not
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebooknice.com