03.00.2. FOREWORD.

FOREWORD.

Memory takes me back across the years to an evening when I sat in our home on the farm at the feet of an itinerant preacher, and listened to his words of counsel. The family reading for the evening (there was always family reading) was John 21:1-25. After the reading the visitor conversed on the ambiguity of the question, "Lovest thou me more than these?" I was but a country lad, and had had few opportunities of hearing expositions of Scripture passages, and I listened eagerly to the preacher as he expounded this passage. The incident made an indelible impression on my mind, and helped to create an interest in the rich veins of truth that the Scriptures present for our study. This is a peculiarity of the Word of God--that its richest treasures do not all lie on the surface, to be discovered and appropriated by any casual passer-by. The ambiguity of some passages, which to the objector is an occasion for criticism, is to the devout reader a source of ever-increasing interest. "God hath yet more light and truth to break from his holy word." A diligent study of the Scriptures results in ever-increasing discoveries of the inexhaustible sources of instruction the book contains. In the following studies A. B. Main, M.A., has brought to his readers the results of wide re-search and clear thinking. Principal Main’s long experience as an instructor in the courses in the New Testament at the College of the Bible have prepared him to an unusual degree to become an expositor of the Word, and the pen of a ready writer has enabled him clearly to express the results of his investigations. The studies are a unique addition to our literature of Bible exposition. They will be of value in Bible Classes and other meetings where the Scriptures are studied, and will be appreciated by individuals who love to search the deep things of God.

T. H. Scambler.