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. 1860 edition. Excerpt: ... Coloss. m. 11. "Christ is all" Eeadek, "What do you think of these words? They are short words and soon spoken; but they contain great things. These three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If your heart can really go along with them, it is well with your soul: if not, you may be sure you have yet much to learn. Let me try to set before you in what sense "Christ is all;" and let me ask you, as you read, to judge yourself honestly, that you may not make shipwreck in the judgment of the last day. I. First then, I would have you know, Christ is all in all the counsels of God concerning man. There was a time when this earth had no being. Solid as the mountains look, --boundless as the sea appears, --they once did not exist. And man, with all the high thoughts he now has of himself, was a creature unknown. And where was Christ then? Even then Christ was "with God, was God, and was equal with God." (John i. 1; Phil. ii. 6.) Even then He was the beloved Son of the Father: "Thou lovedst, me," He says, before the foundation of the world;" "I had glory with thee before the world began." (John xvii. 5, 24.) Even then He was the Saviour "foreordained before the foundation of the world," (1 Peter i. 20.) and believers were "chosen in him." (Ephes. i.4.) There came a time when this earth was created. Sun, moon, and stars, --sea, land, and all their inhabitants, were called into being, and made out of nothing. And last of all, man was formed out of the dust of the ground. And where was Christ then? Hear what the Scripture says: "All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John i. 3.) "By him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth." (Colos. i. 16.) "And thou Lord in the...