Jesus the Christ (B. H. Carroll) [bhcChrist] 1.0

Concerning Our Lord and Saviour, and Touching upon the Mountain-peaks of His Ministry, His earthly..

TO DR. J. T. HARRINGTON the beloved physician, who knew and loved B. H. Carroll, and who has done more kindly deeds, in more generous ways, than any doctor I ever knew, and who knows the meaning of love to God and of a lofty and loyal friendship, this book is most lovingly dedicated by THE EDITOR.

In this volume of B. H. Carroll's lofty utterances, the great preacher, scholar, theologian, Bible interpreter, Kingdom builder and Christian leader lives again. His vibrant messages thrill with pungency and penetration in the sermons contained in this book. Read them all, and then read them all again. You will thank God and take courage as you sit at the feet of the man who, I verily believe, was the greatest preacher and expositor of the Bible since the Apostle Paul.

The present volume of sermons is the twentieth Carroll book I have been privileged to give to the world. The first was Sermons, a volume of thirty discourses, and this was followed by Baptists and Their Doctrines, Evangelistic Sermons, The River of Life, Inspiration of the Bible and The Day of the Lord. Contemporaneous with the issuance of these books of sermons, there began to appear The Interpretation of the English Bible, consisting of thirteen volumes. Strangely enough, the first volume of this Interpretation to appear was Revelation, which was followed by Genesis, and on through a golden galaxy of the most luminous discussions of the English Bible known to me.

I am yet hoping for the appearance of the twelve additional books of Doctor Carroll's sermons, the manuscript of which I now have in hand. If we can complete the Carroll library and add an Index volume, it will be the greatest and most helpful compendium of thoughtful and edifying discussions of the Word of God ever produced by one man.

In the fifteen sermons found in this book, the great author discusses the vitalities of the Christian faith and the verities of the life and mission of Jesus the Christ. I have, of course, not read all the sermons of the great preachers of the world, but I can confidently say that in my reading I have found no discussions of our Saviour quite comparable to the sermons found in this volume.

It is proper to say that these sermons were not preached as a series, but that some of them were delivered to Doctor Carroll's congregation in Waco, where for thirty years he was pastor of the First Baptist Church, and others were preached at various points throughout the country on special occasions.

The crowning work of B. H. Carroll's life was his founding of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas, of which he was first president and teacher of the English Bible. He was president of this great institution when he passed into rest, and while his Interpretation of the English Bible and other printed works, including the present volume, were monumental, it may be that his greatest monument was this Fort Worth School of the Prophets.

Professor J. W. Crowder, of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, compiled these sermons, and his order of their arrangement in the volume has been preserved. In much of the work I have done in compiling and editing other Carroll sermon books, Professor Crowder has been of great assistance to me.

Through the kindness of the American Baptist Publication Society, the publishers of Sermons, a book to which reference has already been made, I am privileged to reproduce here "My Infidelity and What Became of It" and "A Sermon to Preachers," together with a portrait of the author. All the readers of the present volume will join me in voicing grateful thanks to the Publication Society for their gracious courtesy.

Dallas, Texas.

J. B. CRANFILL.