King's Business - 1915/12

in the Gospels

By Thomas Barnard, M. A. One of a Series of Lectures delivered at Oxford University

Note—One of the very great books of the nineteenth century was The Progress of Doctrine in the New T estam ent,„by Dr. Thomas Dehany Barnard, M. A. It con­ tained eight lectures preached before the University of Oxford, being the “Bampton L ectures” of 1864. H itherto this book has existed only in large and expensive form. It has recently been republished by P ick erin g ,& Inglis in a neat fifty-cent volume, in good type, well bound. The book can be secured at the Bible In stitu te Book Room, No. 558 South Hope Street, or of alm osf any book seller. ''W e give below a portion of the chapter on “The Gospels.” We hope the reading of this will lead our readers to secure the entire book and carefully study it. It is one of the books almost indis­ pensable for a m inister or Christian worker.

to learn the great lesson of the manifesta­ tion of Christ; and here, as in most other subjects, the Order of fact is not the order of knowledge. In thè order of fact-the glory of the divine nature precedes the circumstances of the earthly manifesta­ tions, but in the order of knowledge the reverse is true. Events occurring in time, a place in human history, and the external aspect o,f a life must supply the antece­ dent' conditions for the higher disclosure^. Thus the triple Gospels, which educate us among scenes of earth, prepare uS for that which follows. Our minds are led along that very

8 jJUR reflections hitherto have ¡5® turned upon the relation B )SSW - which the Gospel collection ---- n ” ' bears to ’ the whole New _ ___Testament, and we . have looked at it as the beginning of a course of doctrine extending through the books which follow. It Is now further to be noted that, its own separate work is itself fulfilled on an apparent plan of progressive development which i's constituted by the relative characters Of the Gospels viewed in the Order which they, have habitually assumed. 1. The collection is divided into two parts by a line of demarcation perceptible to every eye and .recognized in every age; the first three Gospels forming the one part, and the fourth Gospel the other. The former naturally precedes, and in its ef­ fect prepares us for the latter. We are

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