History, Prophecy, and the Gospel

THE main character of this book will be obvious to every reader. It is not meant to supplant the usual lesson helps, but to supplement them. The expositions purposely avoid all specially fine exegesis, only presenting, so to speak, the gross anatomy of the passages. Good teachers are aware that this is quite as important as the more minute work, and much less likely to be well set forth in those discussions of the lessons which are accessible to all. By such a treatment we have succeeded in keeping up throughout a strong homiletical interest along with the exegetical. It is hoped that the volume will do something to stimulate among Baptists the habit of expository preaching. It certainly contains a number of sermons which may not inappropriately be taken as models of this. With the numerous amenities of a minister’s lot goes this hardship, that he can rarely hear his brethren preach, particularly those resident at a distance from him. The opportunity of reading one another’s sermons furnishes us a pleasant though partial solace for this. Baptists are to be congratulated upon the evidence offered by these sermons that piety, soundness of mind, knowledge of Scripture, with reverence for and ability to expound the same, are so widely disseminated in the denomination. We have sought to make the matter edifying and helpful, not only to ministers and Sunday-school workers, but to general readers as well. The Editor confidently believes that the résumé herein given of Old Testament history between Solomon and the Captivity is to be matched in correctness and vivacity nowhere in the whole literature of the subject. The preachers for the second half cultivate a less recondite but equally important field, producing an abundant harvest of the richest spiritual food. May God accompany with his favor these efforts to make known his blessed Truth!