Chapter I: Preface

The following chapters are the outcome of an attempt to set before a large Sunday evening congregation--composed for the most part of working men and women--the teaching of our Lord on certain great selected themes. The reader will know, therefore, what to look for in these pages. If he be a trained Biblical scholar he need go no further, for he will find nothing here with which he is not already thoroughly familiar. On the other hand, the book will not be wholly without value even to some of my brother-ministers if it serve to convince them that a man may preach freely on the greatest themes of the gospel, and yet be sure that the common people will hear him gladly, if only he will state his message at once seriously and simply, and with the glow that comes of personal conviction. Indeed, one may well doubt if there is any other kind of preaching that they really care for.

My indebtedness to other workers in the same field is manifold. As far as possible detailed acknowledgement is made in the footnotes. Wendt's _Teaching of Jesus_ and Beyschlag's _New Testament Theology_ have been always at my elbow, though not nearly in such continual use as Stevens' _Theology of the New Testament_, a work of which it is impossible to speak too highly. Brace's _Kingdom of God_, Stalker's _Christology of Jesus_, Harnack's _What is Christianity?_ Horton's _Teaching of Jesus_, Watson's _Mind of the Master_, Selby's _Ministry of the Lord Jesus_, and Robertson's _Our Lord's Teaching_ (a truly marvellous sixpenny worth), have all been laid under contribution, not the less freely because I have been compelled to dissent from some of their conclusions. Like many another busy minister, I am a daily debtor to Dr. Hastings and his great _Dictionary of the Bible_. And, finally, I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of expressing once more my unceasing obligations to the Rev. Professor James Denney, of Glasgow. Now that Dr. Dale has gone from us, there is no one to whom we may more confidently look for a reasonable evangelical theology which can be both verified and preached.

It only remains to add that in these pages critical questions are for the most part ignored, not because the pressure of the problems which they create is unfelt, but because as yet they have no place among the certainties which are the sole business of the preacher when he passes from his study to his pulpit.

GEORGE JACKSON.

EDINBURGH, 1903.

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CONTENTS

I

INTRODUCTORY

Luke xxiv. 19. "_A prophet mighty in word before God and all
the people._"

John iii. 2. "_A teacher come from God._"

II

CONCERNING GOD

John xvii. 11. "_Holy Father._"

III

CONCERNING HIMSELF

Matthew xvi. 15. "_Who say ye that I am?_"

IV

CONCERNING HIS OWN DEATH

Mark x. 45. "_The Son of Man came ... to give His life a
ransom for many._"

V

CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT

John xiv. 16. "_I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever, even the
Spirit of truth._"

John xvi. 7. "_It is expedient for you that I go away: for if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I
go away, I will send Him unto you._"

VI

CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Matthew vi. 10. "_Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in
heaven, so on earth._"

VII

CONCERNING MAN

Luke xv. 10. "_There is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth._"

VIII

CONCERNING SIN

Luke xi. 2, 4. "_When ye pray, say,... Forgive us our sins._"

IX

CONCERNING RIGHTEOUSNESS

Matthew vi. 33. "_Seek ye first ... His righteousness._"

X

CONCERNING PRAYER

Matthew vii. 9-11. "_What man is there of you, who, if his son
shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he
shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good
things to them that ask Him?_"

XI

CONCERNING THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES

Matthew xviii. 21, 22. "_Then came Peter, and said to Him,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive
him? until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto
thee, until seven times; but, until seventy times seven._"

XII

CONCERNING CARE

Matthew vi. 25, 31, 34. "_Be not anxious for your life ... nor
yet for your body. ... Be not anxious, saying, What shall we
eat? or, What shall we drink? ... Be not anxious for the
morrow._"

XIII

CONCERNING MONEY

Luke xviii. 24, 25. "_How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to
enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God._"

XIV

CONCERNING THE SECOND ADVENT

Matthew xxiv. 30, 36. "_They shall see the Son of Man coming
on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.... Of that
day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father only._"

XV

CONCERNING THE JUDGMENT

Matthew xxv. 31-33. "_When the Son of Man shall come in His
glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the
throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all the
nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as the
shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and He shall set
the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left._"

XVI

CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE

Matthew vi. 20. "_Where neither moth nor rust doth consume,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal._"

Mark ix. 48. "_Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched._"

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INTRODUCTORY

"O Lord and Master of us all!
Whate'er our name or sign,
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call,
We test our lives by Thine.

We faintly hear, we dimly see,
In differing phrase we pray;
But, dim or clear, we own in Thee
The Light, the Truth, the Way."
WHITTIER.

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