Gleanings from the Book of Life, by Henry Law

Law Gleanings from the Book of Life

Inattention to the 'semblance of religion' is not the failing of the present day. The Church and its affairs occupy large space in thoughts and writings and discourse. While luxury, love of pleasure, the pride of life and selfishness in all its multiple forms, as rank weeds, overrun the surface of society, they choke not lively interest in spiritual concerns. Notwithstanding the chilling blasts of infidelity, and the enervating malaria of superstition, zeal for 'forms of devotion' conspicuously holds its ground. This is no new conviction to the writer of the following pages. Long experience and extensive observation have often awakened the sorrowful lament, that, amid much laudable exertion in the cause of religion, the only remedy for sin is miserably neglected, and well-meaning men expend their energies in sowing chaff. He has heard many complaints of ministerial defect, but few acknowledgments that the main fault is pulpit shortcoming. He sees, that "Christ is All" in the scheme of Redemption, and therefore should be all in the messages of His ambassadors. Hence in former days he humbly strove to exhibit Christ as All in the pages of the Pentateuch. He concludes this work by selecting scattered passages to show that the same truth pervades the sacred volume.