PREFACE. A NEW Edition having been called for of two works which I published some time ago, entitled, "The Divine Treatment of Sin," and "The Divine Mystery of Peace," it has struck me that they might be combined in one volume. The subjects are closely related, the key-thought of both is the same, and the Sermons on Peace seem to form a fitting sequel to those in which I have endeavoured to unfold, as far as I understand it, the Divine method in dealing with the sin of mankind. My readers will see that I treat the earlier chapters in the Book of Genesis as historical. I have not qualified in the present Edition what I wrote on the subject some years ago. At the same time much light is being thrown year by year on the true value and bearing of these ancient records. I thankfully accept such light whencesoever it may come; being sure that it is ultimately from the Supreme fountain, and that it will guide in the direction which we are all bound to pursue. But I have not entered on the discussion of these points, because my argument does not stand on the literal historical truth of the account which the Bible gives us of the origines of the human race. Whatever may be proved to be the fact as to the outer history, the inner history I hold to be true to the heart's core, and part of the revelation of God. Nothing which I have heard or read has changed my views of the essential truth of this record, as the history of man's spiritual development. Thus sin is born and grows. A Paradise, a Fall, a discovery of the hard conditions of life to the sinner, lit by a promise, a hope, that God would share them, and make them ministers of Redemption, must lie, it seems to me, at the foundations of human history. It has been remarked by not unkindly critics, that I have magnified unduly the burden of life, and have set forth too strongly its hard conditions, that I might present against this dark background the brightness of the Redeemer's work. I cannot hold the criticism to be a just one. It would be hard, I think, to state too strongly the pressure of the burden, as we gather it from the history and the literature of all peoples, in all stages of culture, and all ages of the world. I have thought over the subject carefully in the light of the able criticism to which I have referred, and I find myself unable to modify my views. In the present Edition nothing has been changed but the mode of expression; I have condensed somewhat, but that is all. In all essential points the discourses are the same as in the first Edition, and they are sent forth as before in the hope that they may afford even a little light to some who are striving to penetrate the mystery of the way of God in the Redemption of the human soul. THE CRESCENT, CLAPHAM, June 1st, 1869. |