Excerpt from The Kingdom and Reign of the Messiah: His Subjects, Precepts, and Government; With Preliminary Remarks on the Bible, Its Author, Dispensations, and Other Kingdoms We have not taken our pen at this time to apologize for what we have here written, but because we have not been able to write and present it to the reader in a manner more satisfactory to ourself. Seven or eight years ago we took the Bible with the single object of collating a Book of Precepts for the use of man. all men, everywhere, in every condition and circumstance of life. We had not proceeded far before our plan was enlarged, so as to comprehend every subject treated of in that wonderful book: and it was not until we had collated and arranged, under appropriate heads, about 16,000 verses of the Old and New Testaments, that we met with similar works of other men, which, to a good degree, seemed to meet the exigency demanded, except in regard to the subject of "The Great Law Book," herein presented; "The Words op Christ," just published, "The Great Statute Book: Divine Precepts and Judgments, for the Government of Man, with Revealed Commentaries upon them," which is being prepared. When commencing this Great Work we contemplated only one volume; but, in our estimation, it has arisen to infinite upon infinite, infinite upon infinite. Instead of exhausting the subjects, or saying half we wished to say, not half we have written, have we yet had time or strength to present, for public inspection. Even in this volume, in many cases, thoughts have been presented as given, (not by superhuman revelation, but in the way of God's appointment: "if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not,") and often repeated, from want of health, and competent help to condense and arrange them more systematically. But if the work possesses no other merit, it unquestionably has this, thought upon thought, and not unfrequently new, it is said, and line upon line, imitating in this particular the sacred writers of our Bible. With pen and paper before us, to consider these important and sublime subjects; and, when on our knees we sought from God the needful aid, we pledged him, if He would give us his aid and guide our pen, it should follow his directions wherever it might lead us. But little did we think of writing such a book as the present one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.