I have a supreme disregard for literary fame. I do not shrink from being called a _compiler_ or even a _plagiarist_. There is absolutely very little of real _originality_ in the world. I could have followed the course of many writers and _absorbed or assimilated_, and thus seemingly made my own what they had written; but I have chosen to quote freely, and so have substantially given the words of many authors of repute, and at the same time saved myself the labor of a re-coining, which does not, after all, deceive the intelligent reader. The books from which I largely quote are mainly voluminous and very expensive, and some of them are out of print. I am indebted to the learned foot-notes of Evan Powell Meredith in his prize essay on _The Prophet of Nazareth_ for several things, and must not fail to acknowledge my obligations to certain living authors for valuable assistance, and especially to my friend Dr. Alexander Wilder, who prepared at my request the substance of Chapter X., _The Drama of the Gospels_, and who, in my judgment, has few superiors in classical and Oriental literature. I sympathize with those persons who will complain-ingly exclaim, “You have taken away my Saviour, and I know not where you have laid him.” But suppose that we do not _need a Saviour_ in the evangelical sense? Suppose that man has not _fallen_, but that the race has been _rising_ these many centuries; and that while we have mainly to save ourselves, all the good and great men of all ages have aided us in the work of salvation by what they have said and done and suffered, so that instead of one savior we really have had many saviors. I think that this view is more reasonable and consoling than the commercial device of what is called the “scheme of redemption,” besides having scientific facts to sustain it. I have preserved on the title-page some of my college degrees, to indicate my professional studies of theology and law, and not from motives of pedantry. R. B. WESTBROOK. 1707 Oxford Street, Philadelphia. SKELETON KEYS TO SACERDOTAL SECRETS CHAPTER I. THE WHOLE TRUTH _“For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness, shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear, in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”—Luke 12: 2, 3._