181084 JAN 22 1914 CD ·B22 Το My Friend, HENRY C. BISPHAM, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, THIS VOLUME IS Affectionately Dedicated. A FOREWORD THIS book is put forth as a companion volume to The Great Sinners of the Bible, being studies on the other side of the shield from those contained in that volume. The sermons were preached in the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland, Ohio, on the Sunday evenings of the last half of the year nineteen hundred and the opening months of the year nineteen hundred and one. My purpose in preaching them was to win the people to the Christian life by showing the divine power to save men from their sins and to build them up in righteous character as it is illustrated in these old Bible stories. They were not intended to be critical studies, but were an honest, straightforward attempt to translate the human story into the language of to-day, depending on the Holy Spirit to impress the message of the narrative upon the hearts and minds of the people, and their effect has more than ever convinced me that the use of the old Bible stories in this way is a kind of preaching which will attract multitudes of men and women who have come to believe that sermons are dull and unprofitable. There is an 5 |