Excerpt
PREFACE.
The following Discourses are presented to the public in book form, agreeable to the request of numerous friends. I have selected twenty from one hundred and thirty which I have given to my own congregation during the past three years. I have tried to have them lean one against another, to the end that the argument might be continuous and somewhat complete. The reader will remember, however, that the vast subject of which they treat, cannot be fairly and completely presented in such a volume as this. Also, it should be borne in mind that the language, style, and structure, are sermonic. Pulpit literature, in these things, is peculiar and distinctively characteristic.
When I first entered the ministry, I made up my mind that I would try and thoroughly understand the Scriptures. I soon found that a large portion was of a prophetic nature. I set to work according to the usual method, but to my sorrow I soon discovered that the method and rules in general use for Scripture exegesis, among what they called orthodox authors, were very defective and unsatisfactory. The fact was forced upon me that the true method, or key of interpretation, was not in use. I was always persuaded that the Bible was a unit, and that the principles contained in such a unit were beautifully related; and because of such a faith, I wondered more and more as I grew older why we had not a better key of interpretation. Men spiritualised at random, without any kind of rule, except their own fancy. In this manner they expounded the material history of the Old Testament. The whole arrangement was a Babel.
I had faintly discerned that the Scriptures made a distinction between the House of Israel and the House of Judah, and that the prophecies belonging to one could not, in fairness, be applied to the other; and that some prophecies applied to both. It always seemed strange to me, that the people which God said He had chosen for Himself, should not be known. The Jews were always known, but where was “Israel, His inheritance?” Again, I could see no point in the Lord swearing so positively about David’s seed and throne lasting to the end of time. Taking them in a typical sense, they were about the poorest types that could have been selected, because of the shortness of their existence, according to the general mode of interpretation. Just at this point of my experience I came across a book, entitled “Our Israelitish Origin,” by the late John Wilson, the reading of which confirmed me in my convictions, and aided me to a better knowledge of the good Book of Providence.
After some twenty years of experience, I began to teach the principles of interpretation embodied in these discourses. Some three years ago I began to give a series of sermons on the Ten Lost Tribes. I soon found my own congregation, as well as the public, were interested and profited with the same, as was manifest from the large and constant attendance thereon. By personal interviews and letters, I have been gratified to learn that many have been savingly and truly converted to God through these Discourses. Especially has this been the case with those who were infidel in faith and action towards God and His Word. I have received hundreds of letters thanking me that the key of interpretation presented had made the Bible an interesting and easily understood book. The interest created gave rise to numerous requests for copies of my sermons. The notice by the public press now and again intensified the interest and increased the demand. To meet this desire I made arrangements with the editor and proprietor of a weekly paper called the Champion to publish my evening Discourses. At once the arrangement was found to be profitable to him, agreeable to me and admirably suited to the public. So for more than a year the Champion has been my faithful messenger on this line, and will continue to be. It is a weekly paper, published at 132, Nassau Street, New York; price one dollar per year. I am not personally interested more than this. With its politics and other matter I have nothing to do; but for the sermonic matter I hold myself responsible. I feel free to express my pleasure in the wonderful increase of its circulation. I am glad it goes all over the States, the Dominion of Canada, and is in goodly demand in Great Britain.
After I had been preaching on this subject for some time, I made, fortunately, the acquaintance of a name-sake of mine, Mr....