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. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...evil men then living on earth, or, as it would seem, above all the wicked souls which from the beginning of the world had cursed it by their lives, he thought of himself as the chief. Yet he was but a Jew, with only the Old Testament to enlighten his conscience and touch his heart He knew about the personal spirit of evil, the enemy of God and of his own soul, and he knew that he had consented to the temptation of the adversary in the very presence of his Maker and his Lord. But a Christian understands much more than this concerning the malice of sin. He knows that his offences were so many blows at the love of God which had come in the Person of Jesus Christ to seek him out and to save him. Our Lord may justly complain of each one of us: "Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My Bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me." Not for our condemnation, however, does He by the lips of the psalmist speak this tender reproach. He desires to awaken in us life-long penitence, that so He may insure our eternal salvation. This thought has been quite wonderfully expressed for us by a modern poet: "Once, staggering blindly on the brink of hell, Above the everlasting fire-flood's awful roar, God threw His heart before my feet, And, stumbling o'er that obstacle divine, I into Heaven fell." But St Luke has something still more wonderful to tell us about habitual penitence. He relates that when our Lord rode into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, the multitude cried out: "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest" Through the Messiah, man is reconciled to God, and this brings to Heaven itself greater glory and a deeper peace. Shall I not, then, ...