“The need of a more adequate exegetical-homiletical treatment of the ancient gospel and epistle selections has long been felt. The manager of the Lutheran Book Concern has commissioned the writer of these lines to meet this need.
“Add… the rejection of the sacramental element in the Reformed churches, and their bald worship will be sufficiently accounted for. They do not believe in the real, active presence of the Savior in His Church.
“The design of the Savior is, to show the difference between true and false religion… There is a true and a false worship of God, there are hopes which have, and there are hopes that have not a true foundation, and for us it is all important to know what will sustain us in the hour of need…
“The Church needs to restudy, to re-accept, to reaffirm, to re-experience justification by faith. This is fundamental.
“Has not a large part of the Protestant Church practically lost this Reformation doctrine?
Joseph Hocking (1860-1937), was a Cornish novelist and United Methodist Free Church minister. Like the American Presbyterian minister Edward Roe, Hocking’s novels combine rich characters with gripping stories. Joseph Hocking published more than 101 books and was greatly respected as a fiction writer.
“Skepticism as to the personality of the great Adversary of souls is not confined to unbelievers and rationalists. In sending out a third edition of this work, the writer desires to call the attention of Christians to a doctrine once universally received in the Church, and which is still a protest against the Sadduceeism of our age…
“The prophecies of the great apostasy… cannot be expounded and applied without giving offense and raising opposition. The word of God is a sword — the sword of the Spirit, — and swords are designed for conflict.
“So thorough has become the importance of the Individual, that the supremacy of law over royal power is now an established rule in England, and every individual has the right to resist an illegal act against his person or property, by whomsoever attempted.
“…if the character of a religious system can be ascertained by the rites which it imposes, and the practices which it sanctions, I should not hesitate to pronounce the mythology of Hinduism to be cruel and obscene.
Timothy East’s practical book is intended to, “disturb the false peace of the criminally indifferent… impart consolation to the conscientiously fearful, (and to) excite to higher degrees of gratitude the comparatively few, who know that they are safe for eternity.
Many people have opinions about Martin Luther, but few have actually read his words. This small volume includes what church scholars Henry Wace and C. A. Buchheim consider Luther’s three primary works.
“Luther taught that every true believer is a spiritual priest, is as near to the great Head of the Church as any official priest can be, and is equally entitled to the promise and gift of the Holy Ghost.
“Professor Jacobs is an exceptionally sympathetic and competent biographer… (He) has availed himself of all the latest sources of information, and done the needful work of selection and condensation with excellent judgment and skill.
“We can only estimate correctly the Reformation, when we rightly understand the state of things in the Church which called for it. If it was not necessary, it ought not to have taken place.
“God has His own way of saving humanity and that His way of salvation is clearly marked out in His Word. Of this [The Reformed Christians] are sadly ignorant. It has not been explained to them.
“Unbelieving and unrighteous men do hate the old Church doctrines. Why? Because these old teachings as to sin, guilt, retribution, the fact and need of a divine-human vicarious atonement the need of sovereign grace, the need of the divinely instituted means and all that these fundamental teachings imply – these teachings are unwelcome to the reason of the natural man.
“If any clergyman needs a spiritual guide, let him choose Scriver. He is the preacher for preachers, full of consolation and encouragement to the well-meaning, but a storm of hail to the faithless and slothful pastor.
“Lutheranism clings to God’s Written Word. Her motto is the Word of God, the whole Word of God, and nothing but the Word of God, not as a prescriptive letter, but as the power of God unto salvation.
“The Life of Dr. Passavant should have been given to the Church at least a decade ago… Such lives are lived for others. They are not over when those who lived them are gone, but being dead they yet speak.
“The first thing that Dixie could remember was of being cuddled up to some one who was soft and comfortable and gave her sweet warm milk to drink. Somehow, she knew that this was her mother, and that her mother would feed her when she was hungry and keep her warm and take care of her and not let anything hurt her.