This is a 698-page book about the details of the life of Christ on Earth published in 1862 and a revised in 1891. Dr. Solomon Andrews said: “This book was [first] published in 1862. That it has continued in request for so many years, shows at least that it meets a want not otherwise adequately met. It has seemed to me, therefore, little less than a duty carefully to revise it, and to make it, so far as I am able to do, more worthy of the favor it has received. In this revision the character of the book has not been changed. It deals with the life of the Lord on the earth in its chronological, topographical, and historical relations only…In regard to reference to other books and writers, a few words may be said. The grounds on which they are made are these: To enable the reader to verify the statements of his author; to furnish him the means of further pursuing his inquiries; to show by enumeration of names where the weight of authority lies; and incidentally to indicate if any writer of importance has been neglected. We may err here either on the side of excess or defect; perhaps many will think I have erred in the former way. But those who know how much time is wasted in hunting for passages where references are scanty, will pardon me…Again, after so many years, and with a deeper sense of its truth, I say: “How poor and unworthy of Him, the external aspects of whose earthly life I have endeavored in some point to portray, my labors are none can feel more deeply than myself. I can only pray that His blessing—the blessing that changed the water into wine—may go with this book, and make it, in some measure, useful to His children.”” [my addition in brackets, HDW]
As publisher of this revision, which was originally released in 1891, we would make this comment: the full realization of the corruption of manuscripts by critical scholars such as Westcott and Hort was just taking root. However, the historical, topographical, and chronological particulars presented by this author is invaluable to serious students of God’s Words. Therefore, we are reprinting it because of its usefulness. One learns in life that one needs “to take the meat and leave the bones.” H. D. Williams, M.D., Ph.D., President, The Old Paths Publications, Inc. aka TOP Publications.
