Historic Mauchline: Archaeology and Development

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ...among their successors. But a decline is manifest even here. Clement lacks the prophetic fire of James; Ignatius is fervid and lovable, but his intellectual grip is feebler and his spiritual insight less discerning than that of the New Testament writers; and the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles reveals the process of the purer teaching of the perfect law of liberty changing into a legalistic standard. The best explanation of this is that none of these writers came into direct touch with Jesus Christ and the creative agencies which were at work in the circle of His immediate disciples. The personal glow is lessening because the Jesus of history is represented now by but few of those who knew Him. "If I live yet, it is for good, more love Through me to men: be nought but ashes here That keep awhile my semblance, who was John--Still, when they scatter, there is left on earth No one alive who knew (consider this.)--Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands That which was from the first, the Word of Life., How willit be when none more saith I saw?"--B. Browning. A Death in the Desert. The consciousness of the New Testament revelation is expressed in Gal. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:8, 9; 1 Thess. 4:15; John 1:14; 1 John 1:1-4; Rev. 22:18, 19. 3. The quality of the Christian Fathers of the second, third and fourth centuries seems to be purer than that of the sub-apostolic age, but they all profess to be merely interpreters of the New Testament, and not even secondary sources of revelation. The canonical Scriptures are like an oasis in the wilderness. Suddenly the traveler comes upon them after having wandered through tracts of barrenness, and in the centuries that follow the green spots of spiritual genius are spread along the water courses...