The first part of this work is a collation of all that is said, and just
what is said, in each of the four Gospels, regarding the more important
incidents of Jesus' life. Every statement in the text, it is thought, is
accurate, free from personal coloring or sectarian bias, and may be
verified from the passages cited. After examining various lives of
Jesus, harmonies of the Gospels, etc., there seemed to be need of such a
work, which would furnish simply the facts, and leave the reader to form
his own conclusions.
Certain notes are appended in elucidation of or comment on the text, and
these may be taken for what they are worth. Their underlying idea is,
that the true greatness of Jesus lay in His being a human Teacher and
not a Divine Redeemer, and therefore the supernatural parts of the
Gospel story are not of vital importance.
The King James version has been used, since that has been the Bible of
English-speaking peoples up to the present century, and their
conceptions of Jesus have been formed from it, and not from the revised
version. The differences between the two versions are probably not
material to any matter herein discussed.
The second part is an attempt to point out, and comment on, the many and
wide divergences that have grown up between the preachings of Jesus and
the practices of His professed followers. Its object is not to criticise
the short-comings of Christianity, but to bring home to the people of
the United States a realization of the practical effect which these
divergences have had, and are now having, on political and economic
questions of high import to the present and future welfare of mankind.