PREFACE.

feeling stone tablets, but in living
tablets of the heart; And this they
were, not so much through the preaching
of the Gospeloriginal: "Evangeliums"; refers to the message or "good news" of the New Testament. or through the words
that they spoke, as through their
works and actions, which preached
even better and louder.

Some imagine that
Christianity original: "Christendom" has never flourished more
than now; and yet it is clear that it
had never fallen further. They wish
to pretend that in former times
it was only in its infancy, and that
it has presently reached its manly
age. But let us rather say that it
has approached its final old age, and
has lost its first greenness so much
that it is very near to witheredness
and total corruption.

Certainly, there seems to be nothing
left but the final death, and to be
buried. Would that it were so fortunate
that it remained in the grave with
LazarusA figure in the New Testament (John 11) whom Jesus raised from the dead after four days; used here as a metaphor for a quick spiritual rebirth. for only three days,
and rose again at the voice of
Christoriginal: "Christi"! At least the Old and the New
TestamentThe two main divisions of the Christian Bible.
promise a great renewal,
and a kind of perfection, which in the last of