INTRODUCTORY, Our purpose in these few brief essays is to treat of Christ Jesus and his religion, as presented to us in the New Testament. The form that such a series will take, must depend largely upon the aim of the writer. He may have in view the removal of the objections of unbelievers; and this will necessarily govern him. in the selection and arrangement of his material. Or, he may desire to show the nature, methods and conditions of the salvation that Jesus brought; and this will lead to a very different selection and arrangement. Neither of these is the object of the present essays. We design rather to inquire what the Christ was to his people, and how the Christ-life revealed itself, in its various phases, in and through them. We write especially for the benefit of Christians-to lead them, if possible, into a fuller understanding and better ap. preciation of "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord," and a complete realization, in their own hearts and lives, of Christ as "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 253 |