THE TEACHING OF JESUS BY THE REV. GEORGE JACKSON, B.A. "_Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son._"--2 JOHN IX (R.V.). 1903 * * * * * TO MY CHILDREN DORA, KENNETH, BASIL, ARNOLD MY WISEST TEACHERS IN THE THINGS OF GOD * * * * * PREFACE The following chapters are the outcome of an attempt to set before a large Sunday evening congregation--composed for the most part of working men and women--the teaching of our Lord on certain great selected themes. The reader will know, therefore, what to look for in these pages. If he be a trained Biblical scholar he need go no further, for he will find nothing here with which he is not already thoroughly familiar. On the other hand, the book will not be wholly without value even to some of my brother-ministers if it serve to convince them that a man may preach freely on the greatest themes of the gospel, and yet be sure that the common people will hear him gladly, if only he will state his message at once seriously and simply, and with the glow that comes of personal conviction. Indeed, one may well doubt if there is any other kind of preaching that they really care for. My indebtedness to other workers in the same field is manifold. As far as possible detailed acknowledgement is made in the footnotes. Wendt's _Teaching of Jesus_ and Beyschlag's _New Testament Theology_ have been always at my elbow, though not nearly in such continual use as Stevens' _Theology of the New Testament_, a work of which it is impossible to speak too highly. Brace's _Kingdom of God_, Stalker's _Christology of Jesus_, Harnack's _What is Christianity?_ Horton's _Teaching of Jesus_, Watson's _Mind of the Master_, Selby's _Ministry of the Lord Jesus_, and Robertson's _Our Lord's Teaching_ (a truly marvellous sixpenny worth), have all been laid under contribution, not the less freely because I have been compelled to dissent from some of their conclusions. Like many another busy minister, I am a daily debtor to Dr. Hastings and his great _Dictionary of the Bible_. And, finally, I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of expressing once more my unceasing obligations to the Rev. Professor James Denney, of Glasgow. Now that Dr. Dale has gone from us, there is no one to whom we may more confidently look for a reasonable evangelical theology which can be both verified and preached. It only remains to add that in these pages critical questions are for the most part ignored, not because the pressure of the problems which they create is unfelt, but because as yet they have no place among the certainties which are the sole business of the preacher when he passes from his study to his pulpit. GEORGE JACKSON. EDINBURGH, 1903. * * * * * CONTENTS I