1 BY HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK Association Press NEW YORK: 124 EAST 28TH STREET (RECAP) 5761 COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF The Bible Text used in this volume is taken from the American IV. THE MASTER'S LOYALTY TO HIS CAUSE... V. THE MASTER'S POWER OF ENDURANCE. INTRODUCTION This book is not a life of the Master nor a study of his teaching. It is an endeavor to understand and appreciate the quality of his character. The significant events of his life are considered, but only for the sake of looking through them into the spirit of the personality who was active there. The principal emphases of his teaching are noted, but only for the sake of understanding the quality of the one from whom the teaching came. Neither is the book an attempted contribution to the theology of the Church about Jesus. It is an endeavor, rather, to get back behind the thoughts of the centuries about him, and to see the Man Christ Jesus himself as he lives in the pages of the gospels. Such an attempt has its advantages and disadvantages. Many puzzling questions which concern the chronology of Jesus' life and the exact import of certain of his teachings, do not greatly trouble the student of his character. The broad outlines of his personality are clear and cannot be obscured by details of interpretation. Even deeper problems which concern the dates and composition of the gospels do not present a serious difficulty, for the fundamental qualities and attitudes of our Lord are to be traced in all the gospels, and this book has endeavored to confine itself to these elemental matters. Upon the other hand, an appreciation of the Master's character, as of any other character, is necessarily subjective. It inevitably is colored by the mind in which the appreciation is made. This is true even within the gospels, for it is easy to distinguish the aspects of the Master's life and quality which each of the evangelists has stressed. Nevertheless, a sincere endeavor to appreciate the spirit and character of Jesus Christ cannot be without value to those who follow it with independent thought and reverent heart, and to such this book is offered. Each study is divided into two sections: Daily Readings, and Comment for the Week. This arrangement of the book |