PREFACE.

THE following Lectures were for the most part preached at St. James's, Piccadilly, in 1881, at the invitation of the Rector, the Rev. Prebendary Kempe; but they have been enlarged and supplemented from Sermons since preached at Lincoln's Inn, and before the University of Oxford. The design of the author was to exhibit the real character and results of modern criticism in respect to the authenticity of the Gospels, and, at the same time, to illustrate the credibility and spiritual significance of the main facts in the Evangelical narratives. Accordingly, after showing in the first two Lectures that the critical enquiries of the last fifty years have failed to establish any objections against the traditional authorship of the four Gospels, he has considered the witness of the Evangelists to the main truths respecting our Lord which are recited in the Creed, and in that summary of the Gospel which St. Peter proclaimed to Cornelius. The Lectures thus treat in succession of our Lord's birth; of the name of

JESUS as signifying the purpose of the Gospel; of our Lord's Ministry of power and mercy; of His atoning Death; of His Resurrection; of His Ascension and future return to judgment; and of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Within the limits determined by the nature of such a series of Lectures, the author has endeavoured to show how the various considerations thus reviewed confirm one another, and combine to support the faith of the Church in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May 1883.