Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... The faith of thoughtful men has been assailed and threatened by ugly doubts and questionings about God and God's goodness, and the recognition of this truth has answered their doubts and questionings, and kept them to their Christian moorings, and so saved them from drifting out upon the troubled sea of unbelief. To such it has seemed little short of a fresh revelation from God. And yet it is no new truth. It is no modern addition to the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an old truth; just as old as the Gospel itself. It is so much a part of that Gospel, that, were it shown to be otherwise, for many that Gospel would cease to be a Gospel at all. It is no hazy speculation engendered by the gentler spirit and more sympathetic character of this twentieth century. It dates from an epoch which is the starting-point of all that makes us in spirit and character better than our forefathers. It is a truth which lies crystallized in the words of our Lord and His Apostles, and it was grasped by the Fathers of the early Eastern Church. But it has been lost sight of, or nearly so, by the Western Church for centuries. This truth has its roots in the eternal principles of love, compassion and mercy, and it can only appeal to the minds of men who are under the sway of those principles. It has been lost sight of, because men have lacked the moral disposition necessary for its perception. Apostolic men perceived it, because the Apostolic Church was permeated with the spirit of love and mercy. The Church of later ages failed to perceive it, for the reason that her history has been stained by deeds of cruelty and bloodshed, and disfigured by narrowness and intolerance. The mental atmosphere of men so unloving as to sanction the Inquisition, ...