Ruble. Selections) Eng., Eir. (18741)

NÁHBION;

2

Drs. H. 7 5.1. Shatticck,
Boston,

Transferred, Dec. 1919, to

ANDOVER ARVARD

THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY

CAMBRIDGE, Mase.

H46,654

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by

SAMUEL W. BAILEY,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

HIS book is a growth of years. Unique in the

have long been highly prized, at home and at school, by those speaking in another. Avowedly a book of books, it aims to make the chief things of the "Book of books" more widely, pleasingly, and thoroughly known.

In these chapters are arranged passages amounting to about one-fourth part of all the language of the Bible, and many of the choicest gems from about three hundred and fifty of the poets of Christendom. Those things in the sacred volume which are most read and valued have been marshalled, chiefly in the order of time, thus showing its unity and scope. Partly with this end in view, and in part for the sake of variety, the selections from the book of Job immediately follow those from Genesis, though it is most likely that patriarch lived between the dispersion from Babel and the call of Abraham. Some freedom, justifiable it is believed, has been exercised in arranging the selected Psalms and Proverbs. To show the relations between the Old Testament and the New, several of the acknowledged Messianic prophecies, belonging to a period of more than three thousand years, have been gathered in chapters to signalize the transition from the one to the other. The life and works of the Saviour have been set forth sometimes in the language of one evangelist, and