Four Minute Essays and Why I am a Christian.

YOU will find between these covers all the ecclesiastical writings of early Christian authorities that are known to exist, and yet were omitted from the authorized New Testament. They are published here as a matter of record. Whether they are canonical or not, at least these writings are of very great antiquity. Origins are noted in paragraphs at the front of each book. This will enable the reader to form his own conclusions as to the genuineness of the writings. These writings are a vivid picture of the minds of men in the post-Apostolic period of the Church. Discount the statements from the historical viewpoint as you will-there remains in these gospels and epistles an earnestness of purpose, and zeal to express a message, similar to that of our authorized Bible. An interesting question naturally arises as to why these writings were cast out in the selection of the material that has come down to us in the authorized version. The compilation of the Bible was not an act of any definite occurrence. It was a matter complicated and abstruse. It was an evolution at the hands of Churchmen of various beliefs and purposes. In the formulation of early church doctrines there was dissension, personal jealousy, intolerance, persecution, bigotry. That out of this welter should have arisen the Bible, with its fine inspiration, would seem to present a plausible basis for belief in its Divine origin. But who can deny that under such vicious and human circumstances much writing of as pure purpose and as profound sincerity as other that is included in the authorized Bible, must have been omitted? The story of the first council of Nice, when Arius was commanded by the Bishop of Alexandria to quit his beliefs or be declared a heretic, and his writings were ordered destroyed, is eloquent of many things that happened. Good men were engaged on both sides of the ecclesiastical controversies.

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1929. Crane writes: To me religion is life. It is the essence of my valuation of life and my relation to the great forces of life. Hence it is a matter to be studied, a matter to grow with my growth. It is not like a chunk of granite; it is like a vigorous tree which constantly puts forth new buds and branches and beareth his fruit in his season. It is for this reason that I should like this book to be taken as being not controversial, but simply a humble effort to state the case as it seems to me. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.