PREFACE. N these pages I offer to the public some thoughts which I have already offered to my own congregation, on what seems to me the problem of problems-the relation which sin sustains to the Divine plan of human development. The course of thought which is here rather sketched than wrought out, may possibly seem to clash in some degree with the tenets of the theological school which has long ruled in the domain of Evangelical Nonconformity. But I am not without hope that the thoughts developed in these pages will receive a candid and kindly consideration, inasmuch as I am firmly persuaded that their tendency is not to confound, but to confirm and establish, all that our hearts cleave to as the essence of the Gospel. If I claim for the work of Christ an older as well as a wider relation to man than the formularies of our faith seem to recognize, I believe that I am vindicating a truth on which those formularies themselves are built, and which lends to them their weight and influence with men. I am happy, too, in the conviction that the number is rapidly increasing in our churches, of those to whom the statement of this older and wider relation of the redeeming love and purpose of God in Christ will appear to be " against the truth, but for the truth" of the Gospel ; and who may find here convictions about Divine things which have long haunted their minds brought out to fuller expression, and connected with the great purpose of redemption—which I here treat as the very groundwork of man's life and history. not Happily, too, it is more easy to speak freely and to be judged Christianly, when treating, however imperfectly, yet with honest and reverent heart, of these high matters, than it was when I published the "Divine Life in Man," four years ago. J. BALDWIN BROWN. ATKINSON PLACE, BRIXTON, February, 1864. CONTENTS. "And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust PAGE "He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, I have perverted Sermon vi.—The Penitent's Gospel............... "He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall Sermon vii.-She loved much: She had much .......... "And, behold a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for Sermon viii.-The Sin that hath never For PAGE 93 114 135 giveness ...... 155 "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damna- Sermon ir.-On Restoring a Sinner ........... 178 "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, Sermon x.—And yet there is Room ...... "Come, for all things are now ready." "And yet there is room." Luke xiv. 17, 22. 206 |