scourses are presented to the public in book form,
agreeable to the request of numerous friends. I have selected twenty
from one hundred and thirty which I have given to my own congregation
during the past three years. I have tried to have them lean one against
another, to the end that the argument might be continuous and somewhat
complete. The reader will remember, however, that the vast subject of
which they treat, cannot be fairly and completely presented in such a
volume as this. Also, it should be borne in mind that the language,
style, and structure, are sermonic. Pulpit literature, in these things,
is peculiar and distinctively characteristic.

When I first entered the ministry, I made up my mind that I would try and
thoroughly understand the Scriptures. I soon found that a large portion
was of a prophetic nature. I set to work according to the usual method,
but to my sorrow I soon discovered that the method and rules in general
use for Scripture exegesis, among what they called orthodox authors, were
very defective and unsatisfactory. The fact was forced upon me that the
true method, or key of interpretation, was not in use. I was always
persuaded that the Bible was a unit, and that the principles contained in
such a unit were beautifully related; and because of such a faith, I
wondered more and more as I grew older why we had not a better key of
interpretation. Men spiritualised at random, without any kind of rule,
except their own fancy. In this manner they expounded the material
history of the Old Testament. The whole arrangement was a Babel.

I had faintly discerned that the Scriptures made a distinction between
the House of Israel and the House of Judah, and that the prophecies
belonging to one could not, in fairness, be applied to the other; and
that some prophecies applied to both. It always seemed strange to me,
that the people which God said He had chosen for Himself, should not be
known. The Jews were always known, but where was "Israel, His
inheritance?" Again, I could see no point in the Lord swearing so
positively about David's seed and throne lasting to the end of time.
Taking them in a typical sense, they were about the poorest types that
could have been selected, because of the shortness of their existence,
according to the general mode of interpretation. Just at this point of
my experience I came across a book, entitled "Our Israelitish Origin," by
the late John Wilson, the readi