HIS Book is the Testament, or Covenant, of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The first four books are called Gospels. In them we find set forth the earthly life of Him "who was made flesh, and dwelt among men." On the shores of the great Mediterranean Sea, eastward, was a country, in the times of King David and his son Solomon, bearing the leading part in the history of Asia. In the beginning of the Christian Era, this land was a Roman Province, and ranked among the lowliest and least influential of the peoples of the earth. Its boundaries were of sea, and mountain, and desert, and the people dwelt alone.

      Here, in a land holy to the descendants of the Patriarch Abraham, and the gift of God to His chosen people, the Prince of David's house made his appearance, passed a brief and persecuted life, suffered a malefactor's death, and was buried among the great. Every possible testimony proclaims that He was "very God and very man."

      In these Gospels we have an exact counterpart of the essential truth of the Old Testament--the great Redeemer, His Kingdom, and Salvation. The Prophecies predicted His advent long before it came. The Promises were fulfilled in Him. Types and Shadows in the Economy of Moses all pointed to Him. Without the Messiah of the Hebrews, as shown forth in the Saviour of the Christians, the Old Testament is without any theme or divine subject.

      This Personage is the Emanuel of History, and is alone as such. He entered the royal family of David, when it had fallen from its ancient renown and wealth and become reduced to poverty and obscurity. His conception in the body of the virgin Princess Mary was miraculous. His birth in Bethlehem of Juda was the voicing of Prophecy. His character has fulfilled all the varieties of learned hypothesis and the possibilities of theory. His miracles were those of Deity unveiled. His doctrine was with authority, and commanded mental homage with a majesty peculiarly its own. His People, the descendants of Israel, met Him at His coming among them with ingratitude and repaid His benefactions with contumely, and when His life was given unto them in sacrifice, they loaded His memory [v] with contempt and ignominy, while His beloved disciples were pursued unto death with all the bitterness of relentless hatred and violence. His death was the "laying down" of life. His resurrection was the taking of it "again" with power. He lived to bless, died to save, arose to justify, and ever liveth at the right hand of God to accomplish the grand 'purposes of Intercession until His Kingdom shall be established. History, Poetry, Oratory, Science, and Philosophy have explored the depths, recorded the incidents, verified the similitudes, sung the illustrious acts, unfolded the matchless energies, and revealed the mysteries contained in His vast nomenclature.

      This Being is, therefore, in Himself, the "glad tidings of great joy unto all the people" designed, in the Eternal Councils of God, for the family of man. In the due progress of temporal Histories, He is to gather out of the kindreds of the Earth a "Seed to serve Him." To influence our lives, to establish our faith, to save our souls, we behold His living among men, in a dark and superstitious age and people, and, after His departure to Heaven, His reproduced life in His Disciples, in a series of deeds at once illustrious and benevolent, whose like the world has 'never beheld elsewhere. His blessed Salvation has achieved, in the persons and career of men of like passions with ourselves, as laid before us in the Acts of the Apostles, during more than thirty years, the most signal triumphs; while these Teachers of the Truth were engaged in preaching the Gospel, and in planting Churches, which soon decked an area of nearly a million and a half of square miles, with active, evangelized families and individuals gathered into organized bodies from all classes and conditions of men.

      Also, in the Epistles, by the hands of several of the Apostles, but chiefly by the hand of Paul, we see how Christ was preached, in the needful culture, discipline, and establishment of the Christian Churches, so planted and gathered, in lands far distant from each other and quite diverse in languages, manners, and customs; constituting the sole theme of discourse--though a perpetual stone of stumbling to the Jew, and a theme of folly to the polished Greek. And, finally, this Saviour is fully apocalypsed in the Prophetic visions of John the Divine, showing how His Kingdom and Disciples must be treated among men, down to the consummation of all things. What is most remarkable of all, this Saviour is to be found in the Christian System, during all the eras of time, laid away here and in the holy books, as their Substantive Truth, the intellectual and spiritual sustenance of the Redeemed, and everywhere provoking antagonism, yet triumphing over all. [vi]

[AINT v-vi]