God's truth as it is. They want it so opened and explained as to meet the daily experience of the christian life.The inward and the outward conflicts--the deep affliction, the heavy cross, all of which demand an experimental unfolding of the doctrines and truths of the Bible. And there is a sweetness and preciousness in Divine truth thus exhibited, which controversy tends much to impair. The father of the inductive philosophy, truly and beautifully remarks, "As those wines which flow from the first treading out of the grapes, are sweeter and better than those forced out of the press, which gives the roughness of the husk and of the stone; so are those doctrines best and wholesomest which flow from a gentle crush of the Scriptures, and are not wrung into controversies."* To meet in some degree this demand, has been the humble attempt of the author. How far he has proved successful, the experienced believer must decide. He has commenced with the doctrine of the Atonement of Christ, it being the central truth of the Bible, on which all others are based, and around which they all entwine. The second volume in the series will embrace "EXPERIMENTAL AND PRACTICAL VIEWS OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, and will appear, should the author's life and health be preserved, early in the ensuing autumn. Should the Lord, in a solitary instance, condescend to bless the perusal of this work, let all the praise and the glory redound to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Triune Jehovah, to whom it alone belongs. O. W. BROOKLYN, N. Y. April, 1838. * Bacon. |