INTRODUCTORY. For many years these chapters had no special interest to me; but I have never ceased to be thankful that I was early led to read the Word of God in regular course: it was through this habit that these chapters first became specially precious to me. I was travelling on a missionary tour in the province of Cheh-kiang, and had to pass the night in a very wicked town. All the inns were dreadful places; and the people seemed to have... more...

CHAPTER I. “How happy a king were I, if I had many more such workmen and workwomen in my kingdom!  Their art and ability is excellent.  Let them know I will not forget them.  God’s blessing on their hearts, and painful hands.” Such were the words and opinions of King Charles I., when speaking of the happy and industrious family whose life and labours at Little Gidding are described in the following pages, a... more...

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SAINTS AND FAITHFUL 'The saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus.'—Eph. i. 1. That is Paul's way of describing a church. There were plenty of very imperfect Christians in the community at Ephesus and in the other Asiatic churches to which this letter went. As we know, there were heretics amongst them, and many others to whom the designation of 'holy' seemed inapplicable. But Paul classes them all under one category,... more...

FOREWORD. The first volumes of the "American Luther" we selected for publication were his best commentaries, then eight volumes of his Gospel and Epistle sermons and one volume of his best catechetical writings. These rich evangelical works introduced us to the real Luther, not the polemical, but the Gospel Luther. They contain the leaven of the faith, life and spirit of Protestantism. We now return to his spiritual commentaries on the Bible... more...

Isaiah is the principal prophetical figure in the first period of canonical prophetism, i.e., the Assyrian period, just as Jeremiah is in the second, i.e., the Babylonian. With Isaiah are connected in the kingdom of Judah: Joel, Obadiah, and Micah; in the kingdom of Israel: Hosea, Amos, and Jonah. The name "Isaiah" signifies the "Salvation of the Lord." In this name we have the key-note of his prophecies, just as the name Jeremiah: "The Lord... more...

In the Messianic prophecies contained in Genesis we cannot fail to perceive a remarkable progress in clearness and definiteness. The first Messianic prediction, which was uttered immediately after the fall of Adam, is also the most indefinite. Opposed to the awful threatening there stands the consolatory promise, that the dominion of sin, and of the evil arising from sin, shall not last for ever, but that the seed of the woman shall, at some... more...

The Gospel of Matthew 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac; Isaac became the father of Jacob; Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers; Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar; and Perez became the father of Hezron; Hezron became the father of Ram; Ram became the father of Amminadab; and Amminadab the father of Nahshon; and Nahshon the... more...

ADDRESS I.Early History of Revision. As there now seem to be sufficient grounds for thinking that ere long the Revised Version of Holy Scripture will obtain a wider circulation and more general use than has hitherto been accorded to it, it seems desirable that the whole subject of the Revised Version, and its use in the public services of the Church, should at last be brought formally before the clergy and laity, not only of this province, but... more...

GRACE AND HOLINESS. “Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”—1 Thess. iii. 11-13.   There are few more... more...