00. PREFACE – The Temptation of Christ
THE substance of this volume was delivered in the ordinary course of my ministry to the church and congregation to whom I have ventured to dedicate it. That it retains traces of its original character, I am fully aware ; but as this series is entitled "The Household Library of Exposition," and is intended rather for family reading than for the discussion of any of the great critical or theological questions connected with Scripture, I have not cared to remove altogether from the book that practical colouring which is appropriate to most sermons. At the same time I trust that this attempt to expound the Temptation of Christ, in its relation both to Himself, and to our own temptations, will not altogether fail of the character of an "exposition" properly so called.
It is impossible to study, for any length of time, any part of the life or words of the Lord Jesus Christ, without being painfully conscious how far short of their infinite meaning all our thoughts and words ever fall ; and no one can feel this, in regard to the present volume, more keenly than myself. If, however, this little book brings any of its readers nearer to Him of Whom it chiefly speaks ; if it enables them to feel more deeply the reality of His humanity, and the greatness of the sacrifice and of the struggle He undertook in the redemption of the world ; if it helps any soul "sore beset of sin" to fight more courageously "the good fight of the faith," and to rely more trustfully on the sympathy and help of Him, Who "in that He Himself suffered being tempted, is able to succour them that are tempted," I shall be thankful that, with whatsoever imperfections, I have been permitted to publish it.
It only remains to say that the quotations from the New Testament are all taken from the Revised Version -- a version which, in spite of some defects in rhythm, and occasionally a too minute scrupulosity of scholarship, I regard as the most precious, because the most faithful, translation of the Book of Life yet given to the English speaking nations of the world.
GEORGE S. BARRETT.
NORWICH, May 1883.