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PREFACE

'HEN Wendt's exhaustive work, Lehre Jesu, appeared, it was evident that a new startingpoint for theological reconstruction had been given to the world. It was a matter of regret that so magnificent a work should be marred by certain presuppositions which belong to the Ritschlian School. Beyschlag in his New Testament Theology offered some minor criticisms of Wendt's work, but did not unfortunately alter that defect, which was the most serious blot on the Lehre Jesu, the attempt to explain away one of the most indubitable elements of the teaching of Jesus, the fact of His pre-existence.

I felt it my duty to give to my own Church the main results of these two invaluable books, especially in the hope that I might remove the great defect, while passing on the splendid spoil which these scholars had carried away from the study of years.

I have now thrown the substance of eighteen sermons on the subject into the present form. The homiletic-though not the didactic-setting has been laid aside, in order to save time and space With the utmost conciseness I have endeavoured

to sketch the teaching of Jesus as it has been presented to us by the labours of such authorities as Wendt and Beyschlag.

I cannot anticipate a large number of readers, for it is the unhappy delusion of the Church that it knows the teaching of Jesus. Possibly, if I were to give the book a true but sensational title, "The Revolution of Theology," the Church would pay attention to it. On the other hand, men of the world have small interest in the teaching of Jesus because they have not marked the distinction between it and the teaching of the Church. the Church" has been the cry of centuries. They have done so. "Hear Him" is, I would fain hope,

"Hear

HAMPSTEAD, September 1895.

ROBERT F. HORTON.