00.3 Foreward

FOREWORD By Donald Grey Barnhouse, D.D. The first Gospel is the doorway to the whole of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit has undoubtedly placed it where it is in the order of the books. It is safe to say that whosoever understands the Gospel according to Matthew will be a fair distance along the road to an understanding of all the New Testament. The misunderstanding of the Gospel of Matthew has been responsible for many a shipwreck. When it is the wreck of a Tolstoi who, enamoured with the great utterances of the Sermon on the Mount, devoted the remainder of his life to an impossible attempt to force this discourse onto the pattern of an unregenerate world, it is sad enough. But when theologians and ministers forsake God’s plan for the present age and improvise a plan of their own devising, attempting to build a Kingdom where God is calling out a Church, the result is disastrous to the whole body of Christendom.

There have been many commentaries on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. Some of them are mere paraphrases of the recognized translation without throwing any light on the meaning of the passages. There are some which start out with false premises of misunderstanding and move forward logically to conclusions that are confusion. There are some which are satisfactory on the main points of the Gospel but which turn a neat path around many of the real difficulties. There are, of course, volumes which cover the ground in large compass and in much detail and with a great degree of satisfaction.

What we have not seen in the course of our reading is a study that makes no claim to great erudition, no pretense to a detailed analysis, but without verbosity goes to the heart of every great passage, gives a clear silhouette of all the peaks of the first Gospel, covers none of them with fog, and descends into enough of the valleys to give the casual layman, the busy Sunday School teacher, the beginner in Bible study, a competent grasp of the Gospel. We believe that in large measure this book by Mr. English fills this particular need.

D. G. B. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.