This book sets out as forcibly and exactly as possible the religious
belief of the writer. That belief is not orthodox Christianity; it
is not, indeed, Christianity at all; its core nevertheless is a
profound belief in a personal and intimate God. There is nothing in
its statements that need shock or offend anyone who is prepared for
the expression of a faith different from and perhaps in several
particulars opposed to his own. The writer will be found to be
sympathetic with all sincere religious feeling. Nevertheless it is
well to prepare the prospective reader for statements that may jar
harshly against deeply rooted mental habits.

CONTENTS
PREFACE
1. THE COSMOGONY OF MODERN RELIGION
2. HERESIES; OR THE THINGS THAT GOD IS NOT
3. THE LIKENESS OF GOD
4. THE RELIGION OF ATHEISTS
5. THE INVISIBLE KING
6. MODERN IDEAS OF SIN AND DAMNATION
7. THE IDEA OF A CHURCH
THE ENVOY

Sku: godtheinvisibleking

When, five years ago, an important station in the University of
Cambridge awaited your Lordship’s disposal, you were pleased to offer it
to me. The circumstances under which this offer was made demand a public
acknowledgment. I had never seen your Lordship; I possessed no
connection which could possibly recommend me to your favour; I was known
to you only by my endeavour, in common with many others, to discharge my
duty as a tutor in the University; and by some very imperfect, but
certainly well-intended, and, as you thought, useful publications since.
In an age by no means wanting in examples of honourable patronage,
although this deserve not to be mentioned in respect of the object of
your Lordship’s choice, it is inferior to none in the purity and
disinterestedness of the motives which suggested it.

Sku: evidenceofchristianity

When, five years ago, an important station in the University of
Cambridge awaited your Lordship’s disposal, you were pleased to offer it
to me. The circumstances under which this offer was made demand a public
acknowledgment. I had never seen your Lordship; I possessed no
connection which could possibly recommend me to your favour; I was known
to you only by my endeavour, in common with many others, to discharge my
duty as a tutor in the University; and by some very imperfect, but
certainly well-intended, and, as you thought, useful publications since.
In an age by no means wanting in examples of honourable patronage,
although this deserve not to be mentioned in respect of the object of
your Lordship’s choice, it is inferior to none in the purity and
disinterestedness of the motives which suggested it.

Sku: evidenceofchristianity

The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God. The Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the s sun every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong. The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God.

Sku: thedeeperchristianlife

WHEN Mohammad established Islâm in Arabia he insisted that he was not proclaiming a new religion, for he believed that all the prophets who preceded him had brought the same message. From time to time God had sent prophets and had revealed His will in sacred books; but men were rebellious, and so it was necessary for Him periodically to send a new prophet to lead them back to the truth. Mohammad had no sense of any gradual development in the knowledge of God, for he held that a knowledge of the true religion had been given to man from the beginning. The reason why God needed to send prophets with fresh revelations was because men had fallen away from the truth and required to be called back to it. Thus men like Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and himself had all the same task set before them, and none of them was essentially different from any other. God might authorise one to abrogate certain practices which had been commanded by a predecessor, but in essential matters they were all engaged in the same task, which was to proclaim the unity of God and summon men to worship Him alone.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 7
CHAPTER
I. PASSAGES FROM THE KORÂN 17
II. TRADITIONAL STORIES 29
III. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SAYINGS 42
IV. ASCETIC SAYINGS 63
V. SAYINGS OF GOD TO JESUS 78
VI. MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 81
VII. STORIES CONNECTED WITH JESUS 95

Sku: christinislam

This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the
Appetite-Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and
broke some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was
found by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the
nearest habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed
farm-houses, with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning
little porch under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored
flowers and cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room,
separated from the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the
front yard rose stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the
manure-pile. That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring
that sort of mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables
a man to travel all day in one sentence without changing cars.

Sku: christianscience

I found God as a boy, so for years 50 of then almost I have been walking in the light of God understanding fellowship with Him and listening to His Voice.
I want to call to your attention some of the things the Christian enjoys that others miss.
A dear man received an injury that caused hi death in a motor accident not far from Beaverton The day after this man was killed, I was visiting some friends in Beaverton and they told me of his I jury. After our visit, my wife and I were driving into the city. As we were coming up one of the highway a Voice said, “Pull onto the left of the road an stop.”
Don’t you know that Voice, Christian heart? That Voice is so common that I never even spoke of it to my wife.

Sku: adventuresingod

I am sure there is many a heart that says: “Ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much!” Someone says: “Oh, I have passed through so much trial and suffering, and there is so much of the self-life still remaining, and I dare not face the entire giving of it up, because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony.” Alas! alas! that God’s children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts. Oh, I come to you with a message, fearful and anxious one. God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: “It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure”? And that is what we should seek for — to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you.

Sku: absolutesurrender

IT IS to you who have heard and hearkened to the call, “Come unto me,” that this new invitation comes, “Abide in me.” The message comes from the same loving Saviour. You doubtless have never repented having come at His call. You experienced that His word was truth; all His promises He fulfilled; He made you partakers of the blessings and the joy of His love. Was not His welcome most hearty, His pardon full and free, His love most sweet and precious? You more than once, at your first coming to Him, had reason to say, “The half was not told me.”
And yet you have had to complain of disappointment: as time went on, your expectations were not realized. The blessings you once enjoyed were lost; the love and joy of your first meeting with your Saviour, instead of deepening, have become faint and feeble. And often you have wondered what the reason could be, that with such a Saviour, so mighty and so loving, your experience of salvation should not have been a fuller one.

Sku: abideinchrist

1 On the third day, God planted the garden in the east
of the earth, on the border of the world eastward, beyond
which, towards the sun-rising, one finds nothing but water,
that encompasses the whole world, and reaches to the
borders of heaven.
2 And to the north of the garden there is a sea of
water, clear and pure to the taste, unlike anything else;
so that, through the clearness thereof, one may look into
the depths of the earth.
3 And when a man washes himself in it, he becomes
clean of the cleanness thereof, and white of its whiteness
– even if he were dark.
4 And God created that sea of his own good pleasure,
for He knew what would come of the man He would make; so
that after he had left the garden, on account of his
transgression, men should be born in the earth. Among them
are righteous ones who will die, whose souls God would
raise at the last day; when all of them will return to
their flesh, bathe in the water of that sea, and repent of
their sins.

Sku: thefirstbookofadamandeve