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LONDON.

SWIFT & CO., REGENT PRESS, 55, KING STREET,

REGENT STREET, W

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.

"NEVER man spake like this Man" must be the confession of all to whom the Words of our Divine MASTER are made known. To contemplate them in themselves, apart from the circumstances of time or place, as words which shall outlast heaven and earth, and "never pass away,"-to place them as a Divine whole before our mind and conscience-may be a means of ineffaceably reflecting on us "the Truth as it is in JESUS."

It is the object of, these pages thus to collect in one view the personal teachings of HIM Whose name is "the Word" of GOD; to help men to "learn of HIM."

Such collections, apart from all narrative, seem to

have been made in the first days of our Religion, that men might "remember the Words of the LORD Jesus." Such were the λογοὶ πιστοί and the ἐντολαὶ Κυρίου of the first century. (1 Cor. xiv. 37.) Not only does Eusebius mention works of this kind by Papias and Hegesippus, but the method and arrangement which we find on examination to pervade at least St. Matthew's Gospel and St. John's, would suggest that the Words of CHRIST, recorded by each, and inserted in their narrative of events, were taken from traditional Sinynoeis, of which we know there were many, (St. Luke i. 1,)-the story not unfrequently following the line of the Teaching.

Every Discourse, and indeed every Aphorism of our LORD, found in St. Matthew and St. John, will in the following pages be placed in the Evangelists' own order. No word will be omitted; except of course fragmentary expressions connected with miracles, or such parts of short dialogue as would be incomplete without the connexion.

Those Sacred Words which are exclusively reported

by St. Mark and St. Luke will be given by themselves -with as little repetition as possible of the Sayings mentioned in the other Evangelists.

As to the Translation; it seemed right, on most grounds, to retain on the whole the Authorized Version; but it was necessary to change some words and phrases here and there, unless the risk were to be incurred of very distinctly putting forth as "Words of CHRIST" Some which were not His. In making any such changes of the familiar English in St. Matthew, the text of the Vatican has generally been translated. As to St. John, the carefully revised version of Drs. Moberly, Barrow and Alford, Mr. Humphrey and the Bishop of Gloucester has been adhered to in almost every instance.

The Oracular introduction of so many of our LORD'S sayings, "AMEN, AMEN," has been retained, with the feeling that it was significantly used to mark in a special way the declarations so introduced-to express which, the common "Verily, verily," is certainly inadequate ; as well as inconsistent with the importance attached

to it by the Apostle of Patmos, who gives "the AMEN," the "Faithful and True WITNESS," as the Name claimed expressly by our LORD for Himself.

The subjoined Analyses of the subjects of the Discourses in St. Matthew and St. John, in their own order, may illustrate the Unity of the Divine Teaching, in a form that may make the whole more casy of reference to those who use this Divine Collection either as a book of Instruction in schools, or of Edification for themselves.

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